Harrow Saigon!

3rd - 7th June - Ho Chi Minh City

Following our sedate couple of days in Mui Ne we were all engines running for a productive few days in Vietnam's capital city, the artist formerly known as Saigon, now officially known as Ho Chi Minh City, named after the main man himself. From Mui Ne, myself, Dai, Zara and our new travelling friends - Chaz, Adam and Melody got a bus dropping us into the centre of Saigon mid-afternoon. As is par for the course upon leaving any "tourist" bus, we were immediately accosted by numerous salesmen, professioning their accommodation's attributes above all others! We followed the least shady looking of them all, and within minutes I was climbing the 102 stairs (I had a 17 kilo rucksack on my back, EVERY STEP WAS NOTED!) to my non-AC room, shared with Chaz in the backpacker district of Pham Ngu Lao in District 1. Trust me, luxury, it was not.

Saigon, although the only other Vietnamese city we'd visited since Hanoi - couldn't be more different. Whereas Hanoi is incredibly hectic and riddled with motos everywhere, Saigon is physically a lot bigger than Hanoi and feels a lot more cosmopolitan. The streets and roads are wider, there are more cars than there are in Hanoi and the buildings and shops/hotels etc feel a lot more western. There's also a lot to do in Saigon. One of the big, and I almost hesitate to use the word "attractions" that we were all interested in going to was the site of the Cu Chi Tunnels, we also wanted to visit the War Remnants Museum which had been highly recommended by pretty much everyone who had visited Saigon and I also wanted to try some Vietnamese cooking before leaving the country so we had a busy few days ahead!

We spent our first day in Saigon just walking around the city to get a feel for the place and we booked our place on a cooking class for a few days time. That evening we chilled with a few local beers - aptly named "Saigon Beer", and unsurprisingly at this stage, bumped into a few familiar faces in the backpacker area.

The following day we headed off to the notorious Cu Chi Tunnels. If you haven't heard of them before or aren't quite sure what they are, The Cu Chi Tunnels are an underground network of tunnels that were used by the Viet Cong against the Americans during the war in the 60s. These underground tunnels were used as a means to travel around unidentified, a way to transport arms / people / food etc. and also as a general hiding place for the Vietnamese people.

When we arrived at the site of the tunnels themselves, about an hour or so outside the city centre, we were shown an informative video, which was heavily one-sided to say the least against the "nasty Americans". It was quite hilarious to be honest! Let's just say there was no attempt to be impartial made :) Following the informative video, we were met by a local guide who would bring us around the site.

Firstly he showed us some samples of the booby traps that the Viet Cong used to trap/injure American soldiers. Some of these looked PAINFUL:

Imagine this covered in leaves, and you walk over it...

BAM! You fall on spikes



He explained that the more you moved when trapped in this the more it tore your sides. Lovely.

Yep, long story short, you didn't want to get trapped by any of these bad boys. On the site they also had reconstructed hospital scenes, and cooking scenes - to show you how the Vietnamese would have lived their lives in the tunnels. It was seriously impressive to see how they had built these tunnels - the skill involved was unbelieveable. 

A standard hidden entrance into the tunnels

Dai squeezing in...they weren't built for Westerners! 

Now before taking this tour, a few people had mentioned that you get the chance to shoot some guns, and what do ya know - it wasn't just a myth! There we were strolling along our tour, when our guide pointed us in the direction of where you might like to "shoot some guns". Hell who was I to say no to an offer like that. Not growing up in a gun-totin' country like America, I'd never held a gun in my hands in my life, so this was quite exciting! You could choose from a selection of guns, and well given my vast lack of experience, I went with the first one I recognised - only an AK-47! No doing things by halves with me...and surprise surprise, I loved it:

That be my gun y'all

SHOOTIN A MUH'FUCKIN AK47!

I'm not gonna lie, it was such a kick and so much fun. So much so that I didn't stop there. Yep no sooner had we shot our rounds of bullets, than me and Dai were looking at each other going "hell, lets shoot some more!!!". And this time we upgraded to a M16 MACHINE GUN! You really have to love Asia! These pics say it all:

Can't believe I'm being allowed to shoot an M16 Machine gun.

This shit is fun!

The remnants

After our little trip to Gunsville Tenessee, myself and Dai calmed ourselves down and rejoined the rest of the people in our tour for the final part - where you get to walk through a section of the Cu Chi tunnels themselves. Now as much as we were looking forward to this - in case the sweaty face above didn't tell ya - it was crazy hot and humid, so going into a tiny underground tunnel was not only a little claustrophobic, it also made you sweat like crazy. For this reason we only walked through a small section of the tunnels, and as quickly as possible so only have these few photos to give you an idea of how small and tight it was down there:

Dai at the entrance to the tunnel



Zara walking ahead of me - you had to bend over completely to fit

I was VERY glad to get out to some fresh air!

All in all, we all really enjoyed our visit to the Cu Chi Tunnels - it was really well explained and laid out and the our guide was really informative and was included in the price of your entrance ticket. Would definitely recommend going to visit them if you're ever in Saigon.

Another recommendation for Saigon, whether you have an interest in history or not would have to be the War Remnants Museum. This was probably the best museum I've visited in all my time in Asia. It's located near the Reunification Palace in the centre of Saigon city.

The museum was really informative about the war in Vietnam in the 60s. The best part about it, and why our visit there was so moving is that you're informed mostly through photographs taken by photographers that were in the country at the time. Some of it is particularly harrowing, as some of the images are the last pictures of people moments before they were brutally murdered. People could argue that the museum is heavily biased towards the Northern Vietnamese  / Viet Cong cause and completely anti-American, which I suppose is to be expected, but  the atrocities that occured during the war and the lasting effects of the likes of Agent Orange on the Vietnamese people was horrific.  I found the museum really moving and informative and once you take in all the information with an open mind, there is a lot to be gotten out of a visit there.



Kelly, Me, Melody, Chaz (at the back), Adam in front, Dai, Zara and Hinke

Here's a picture of the gang of us in front of a fighter jet used in the war, outside The War Remnants Musuem. We bumped into Kelly from Canada AGAIN in Saigon, it's like we were all following each other! Also, Dai and Zara met Hinke who they had met in Laos earlier on their travels!

To finish our days and time in Vietnam on a somewhat lighter note, myself, Dai and Zara decided to give a Vietnamese cooking course a go. I did a little research and found that there was a highly recommended "Saigon Cooking Class" - name does what it says on the tin! The course included a visit to the local market early in the morning to buy the ingredients needed for the course. This was quite the experience - lets just say we saw a few things here you wouldn't see in your local Tesco:

Yep, these are TAILS...tasty eh?

Can you hear me??

And some more normal ingredients:

Someone's got crabs!

Country Fresh.

So after managing not to barf at the more "exotic" items on display in the food market, we were introduced to some fruit, vegetables, herbs etc that we hadn't ever cooked before and headed back to the restaurant we would prepare (and EAT!) these three courses:

First up were Spring Rolls. Now I've eaten many a psring roll in my time, courtesy of ole Jade Dragon or whatever they're calling it these days in Drumcondra, but never had I ever attempted to make them. And what do ya know they're quite easy!  We made ours with pork and shrimp and they were delish:

Mixing the ingredients

Pre-Frying...I know, they ain't the prettiest!

The finished article eaten wrapped in herbs and lettuce -NYOM!

Our next course would be a mixed salad with chicken served in a banana flower. Now, seeing as our bananas only come in the fruit shop / supermarket with a "chiqita" sticker stuck on them, I never even knew that fresh banana plants have a flower. Here's what that looks like:

I have since seen these flowers on banana trees in the wild - the outer leaves of the flower were quiet large, as you can see - so we would use these to serve our salad in. I won't bore you with the chopping and mixing, here's the finished article:

Here's one I made earlier - and yes I even made the chilli flower garnish!

Finally, we would make Pho Bo - or Vietnamese beef soup. Pho is a traditional Vietnamese soup with noodles served pretty much everywhere! You'll see the signs for Pho Bo, soup with beef, or Pho Ga, Soup with chicken on every street in every little town. It is eaten at any time of the day and it's delicious, so I was really looking forward to finding out how to make this traditional dish. Long story short - the broth takes about FIFTEEN HOURS to make from scratch, so suffice to say it's not one I'll be cracking out after a long days work, any time soon. Luckily for us, the broth used as the base of the soup had been made by our chef, so we just had to add the other ingredients to cook the soup. Et voila:

Now you see it:

Now you don't!

All in all it was a brilliant morning's cooking and I really enjoyed it. It was great to simply cook - having not prepared a meal for myself since I'd left Dublin! I would recommend a cooking course to anyone visiting a country with it's own distinctive cuisine. It gives you a chance not only to see how some local dishes are made but also to learn about ingredients that we don't have at home from locals themselves. It was a great way to end our Vietnamese experience!

Me and Chef!

Next stop...Cambodia, with a couple of stops along the way :)

Harrow Mui Ne

30th May - 2nd June - Mui Ne, Vietnam

Well at the end of the last post I mentioned what a wonderful vibrant place Nha Trang is...and we, shall we say "fully explored" its vibrancy! We met so many old friends and made so many new ones in Nha Trang that we spent a lot of time socialising together. Unfortunately, one of theese more social nights happened to fall the night before we had to be up at 6.30am to get a bus to our next destination, Mui Ne at 7am. The night before our journey Dai, Zara and I went to the local haunt, to see some of our friends for the last time. At about 10pm, Dai who isn't really a big drinker, went to me and Zara that he was going to head home - we had just bought a round in so we said, no bother, 11pm at the latest we'd head back. Yeah, famous last words... what do ya know, more people arrive, the 2 for 1 drinks keep going, next thing you know where sitting around at 5am with some guy talking about bloody aliens existing, when me and Zara looked at each other and decided "yep, this is our call to go home!!" So with just over an hour before we had to get up for our bus, we got home! Oh lordy, to say that bus journey to Mui Ne was painful...would not be an understatement! I think Dai was ready to disown us as well when he saw the shape of us getting onto the bus! Ha ha ha!

Anyhwoo, we arrived into Mui Ne, shortly after lunch. Mui Ne, is another coastal town near the south of Vietnam. That was the real advantage of travelling the coast of Vietnam - no matter where we stopped, we were usually beside the beach. A total blessing with the hot weather - we always had a pleasant sea breeze! We had initially planned to stay just one night in Mui Ne as we were limited on time now in Vietnam as our visas were only for one month, so we would have to leave by the 8th June and still had Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City/ HCMC as it's officially called today) and the Mekong Delta to visit before then. But after our somewhat labourious journey, we decided two nights in Mui Ne would be required. Also, spending two nights with this at your back door wasn't too much of a sacrifice:

Unsurprisingly, we didn't have much on our schedule for Mui Ne. We stayed in a quieter part of the town in a resort with rooms and a pool, and backing directly onto this beach. Also, after the good times in Nha Trang, we decided a couple of days R'n'R was definitely in order.

That afternoon after settling into my own room (room to myself...hello - LUXURY!), I decided a little down time by the pool was in order. As I meandered towards the pool - everything I was doing on that day was in a lazy fashion, I spotted a familiar face in the pool. This British guy called Chaz that was in my dorm in the Hanoi Backpackers Hostel. And I know, it's getting ridiculous at how many people I knew that I kept bumping into! Chaz was travelling with another British couple - Adam and Melody, and I had chatted to them in Hanoi about Halong Bay. When they went, a couple of days after my notorious Halong Bay tour, there had been a massive storm and their boat had to turn back. Anywhoo, it turned out that they were following the same route as Zara, Dai and I - quelle surprise!

That evening I hung out our hotel with Chaz, Melody and Adam whilst Zara and Dai got some alone time from me and went to a nice Italian for what Dai described as *cue Welsh accent* "the best bloody steak I've ever had". We decided the following day we would be a little more productive and booked ourselves on a "Dune Jeep Tour". I had done a Dune Buggy tour in Dubai before and that was amazing. You drove into the desert in a 4x4 Jeep, they let down the air in the tyres and drove into the massive dunes, sending the sand surfing over the Jeep in massive waves. It was really thrilling, so I was well up for another dune experience!

This one, well...not quite the same! It all started out well, myself Zara and Dai were picked up at our "hotel", for the want of a better word, in a 4 x 4 Jeep - however the first thing I noticed was it was one of those open jeeps - you know the ones where there are no side panels - you just kinda jump in the back seat from the front? So yep, I was wondering how the hell we were going to drive into massive sand dunes, without well, DROWNING in sand?! To be honest we didn't really "research" our trip all that thoroughly - but it definitely had somethin with Sand Dunes in the title! Anywhoo, we had signed up now so off we went and just waited to see where we would end up.

Our driver introduced himself and told us that firstly we would visit "Fairy Walk". Now this wasn't some gay fashion runway, rather a stream of water that ran downwards that you could walk through, and the stream floor was a dark redish sand colour. He dropped us off at Fairy Walk, pointed us in the general direction of which we were to go and told us to meet him back at the Jeep in an hour. So whilst our guide kicked back with a bottle of Coke with his fellow Jeep drivers, we followed the other bewildered travellers along the path to "Fairy Walk". We began walking up stream, not sure what to expect. I was thinking oh maybe there's a supposed fairy fort or something at the end. I kept walking along, letting Zara and Dai go ahead. Now don't get me wrong it was a pleasant walk - but hell it just led nowhere!!! After walking for about a half hour - I bumped into Chaz, Adam and Melody who had also decided to do a dune tour, and asked them if they knew what the hell we were supposed to be here for! They too hadn't a breeze, so I decided, feck this, turned around and walked back to the Jeep, followed shortly by Zara and Dai who confirmed, that yes, there was sweet fuck all at the end of the stream! Well this was turning out to be a delightful day...

Dai exhibiting the thrill we all felt at Fairy Walk.

Determined to not give up on the tour just yet, we jumped back in our 4x4 ready to head to our next destination which we were told was THE DUNES. Hoooraaah! We drove for about an hour before reaching them, and they looked pretty good. We soon realised that the Jeep itself would be going nowhere near the dunes, as we saw lots of quadbikes racing over and around the dunes with people squealing with delight as they zipped along. Our guide pointed us in the direction of the quadbikes. We asked was the price included - and of course it wasn't. Unfortunately, it seems for every good value tour you go on, like the boat tour in Nha Trang, there is an equally bad value tour - i.e. THIS one. I can't remember the price to hire a quad bike exactly, but it was definitely expensive. And after paying for the tour we decided it wasn't within our budgets to pay it. Instead - we took up the offer of a Dune Slide from some local enterprising kids - i.e. a piece of plastic with a bit of rope that you could slide down the dunes on!

Of course in order to slide down the dunes, we had to firstly climb to the top. Funnily enough this was quite hot and sweaty, bearing in mind we were in the desert in afternoon heat - but on we trudged! We finally made it to what was the best peak, and did our best sliding, which admittedly was pretty shit:

Me with my high-tech aero-dynamically designed bit of plastic

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

After our lame attempts at sledding down the dunes, we went back to our Jeep. The guide was a bit disappointed that we didn't hire quadbikes, becauase as is the case on most tours - he would have no doubt gotten commission if we had! We told him flatly, that they were beyond our budget and we continued on! Our next destination, yes, you guessed it folks. More dunes - pretty much exactly the same as the ones we had just visited! We walked through them and watched the local kids slide down them, no surprise they exhibited a lot more skill and finesse than we did! Afterwards we headed back to our Jeep - all duned out!

It was definitely one of the more disappointing tours we'd endeavoured on, however you're gonna have that, and we didnt dwell on it for too long. We headed back to our hotel and began packing up for the next day. After a relaxing couple of days in Mui Ne we were ready to head to our final Vietnamese destination - the capital, Ho Chi Minh City! There we would have a lot to look forward to - the famous Cu Chi tunnels - used by the Vietnamese to outwit the Americans during the war, the War Museum, and a little cooking lesson Vietnamese style! So long Mui Ne...ya can keep your dunes ;)

Harrow Nha Trang

Our journey down the coast of Vietnam would next  take us from Hoi An to Nha Trang - Vietnam's own holiday town. To get there we would have to take a 12 hour overnight bus journey. When myself, Zara and Dai went to the designated bus departure spot, we were once again greeted by some familiar faces - Dane, a Canadian guy who was most notable because he carried a guitar on his back ALONGSIDE his backpack, and also Kelly, the Canadian girl who we had done the Halong Bay tour with and who we bumped into in Hué. We boarded our night bus and found ourselves some sleeper seats. Luckily, this bus wasn't quite as jazzy as the Discobus 2000 that transported us from Hanoi, and for the sake of shaking things up I decided on a sleeper on the bottom deck. Just call me crazy.

After having a quick chat about books with Dane, who was seated in front of me, I decided to hit the hay around 8pm, feeling particularly tired. Popped a Valium and out like a light I went (sidebar: before you all start wondering about this "popping a Valium" thing, and start looking up rehab centres - Valium is available over the counter here all over SE Asia. I will give you a tenner if you ever meet a backpacker without a stash of them. They basically just guarantee when you're taking a night bus on these crazy buses that go at lightening speed and arrive in destinations at the crack of dawn that you will get a good nights sleep. This also means that you don't lose a day when you arrive somewhere because you're unable to do anything due to exhaustion. Just so ye know!!). All of a sudden I was woken up by everyone leaving the bus. I looked over at Dai who was across from me and said "what's the story?!". He goes "We're here, get your shit together". "Ah balls" I was completely in a deep sleep but dozily started getting my stuff together. Just as I was about to stand up and drag myself off the bus I looked over at Dai who's suddenly started breaking his shite laughing "I'm only messin with you, you dope, it's only 10pm". "Ya BOLLOX" I said, all too audibly. Everyone was just getting off the bus at a toilet stop! I gave him a "you win this round Welshie" look and headed quickly back into a deep sleep.

We arrived into Nha Trang at 6am, as expected. We all piled off the bus, armed with our Lonely Planets to try and figure out where the hell we'd been dropped. Zara and Dai decided to head off in search of a private room, but eager to keep costs low I followed Kelly from Canada, who said she had a booking at a hostel with dorms - sounded more my style! We arrived at Backpackers Inn only a few minutes later, luckily it was only a short stroll away but were told we'd have to wait a few hours until our rooms would be ready. We decided there was only one thing for it - breakfast and the beach.

Nha Trang is a beautiful beach resort town, where a lot of Vietnamese come for their holidays. The beach itself is just off the main strip where most of the guesthouses/hotels etc are located, making the town really easy to navigate. After breakfast, and checking into my room (the first ALL-GIRL dorm I'd been in...more on that later), I met Zara and Dai down on the beach. No sooner had we found a spot to absorb as much sun as possible when I heard "howaya Carol!" from behind me. There was Brendan, a Cork guy that was sitting beside me on that notorious night-bus from Hanoi. You really can go nowhere ;) We got chatting and he was traveling alone since then, and only had a few days left. We spent the day chilling on the beach and said sure we'll probably all meet here tomorrow!

Beautiful Nha Trang beach, kite surfer in the background

The following day, after a few more hours sun worshiping, we decided after talking to a few other backpackers to book a boat tour for the following day. We heard mixed reviews, but seeing as it cost a measly $7, we thought, feck it, if nothin else the price will be worth the time on the boat and the free lunch. Little did we know what we'd let ourselves in for.

The following day, we were picked up to begin this "luxury" tour. We were driven to the boat dock, which was mainly full of Vietnamese tourists...oh god we thought. Was this a very bad idea?! We boarded our boat, and were glad to see that along with us three (me, Dai and Zara) there seemed to be a group of other backpacker guys and two girls I knew from the hostel - Meg and Angela, two Canadian girls that are friends of Kelly's. According to our itinerary, our $7 would get us a stop off at 3 islands, a while to snorkel in the open water, buffet style lunch and "special afternoon entertainment."

However amongst the backpackers there were lots of other holiday makers, including this specimen who planted himself in the seat in front of me:

This yoke had a big Baaaahston (Boston) accent, and kept shouting to his mate beside him "YO, YO MIIIIKE, WHAAADAYA THINK YA GAWWWDA DO TO GET THROWN OFF THA BOAT?". I mean the man was in his late 40s and was easily the most annoying tool I'd encountered so far...and I've met a lot of Canadians (JOKE!). And yes, he referred to himself as "Mad Dog".

Anywhoo, once we got on our way, we tuned out ole Maddog's moronic musings, and tried to make the best of our day. The first stop was at this really busy island, on which there was an aquarium. Luckily we had been warned by fellow backpackers in the hostel not to bother paying into it - that there weren't exactly many fish to see so we just chilled on the boat and waited for our next stop. Luckily, after this first stop the day took a sudden turn for the better! Next we would do some snorkeling. The boat just pulled up in the middle of the sea, and anyone who wanted to go snorkeling was given goggles and a mouth piece. Unsurprisingly, all the Vietnamese holiday-makers (most of which who were 40+), decided to just stay on the boat, but the rest of us were delighted to get another chance to jump into the sea and have a nose around the open waters.

This turned out to be so much fun! There really is nothing like swimming in the sea to lift your mood! We all really enjoyed it. Also alongside our boat, lots of people were parachuting off the back of a speedboat.



That's NOT me I'm afraid

It was cool to watch, but we decided to save our money and leave it to others. After about 45mins snorkelling in the sea, we got back onto the boat and our lunch was laid out for us. Now as I said, this whole day tour cost $7, so we're talking about 5.60 euro, so we weren't exactly expecting Michelin starred food to be served up, and when the first few plates were served up on the boat, we were just plain scared that we would hardly receive any food! But then the plates just kept on coming...I mean there was mountains of rice and noodles, chicken dishes, pork dishes, beef dishes, tofu dishes (btw - tofu is actually delicious in Asia. There are a lot more vegetarians in Asia, either due to economic reasons, as in cannot afford meat, or religious reasons, so there are lots more dishes served with tofu - and have to say, I thoroughly enjoy it!) , mountains of vegetable side dishes and then lots of fresh fruit to have afterwards. After our snorkeling exploits we were all famished and even our backpacker appetites couldn't finish all the food on the table it was amazing!!

The food kept coming...

After lunch, the entertainment began. Now we had no idea what this "entertainment" would be and once again we were surprised! It started out when after the boat crew cleared away lunch they all appeared, with INSTRUMENTS. Now I don't mean bongos and a tambourine! Suddenly, the boat driver was sitting on front of an impromptu drumkit, another had an electric guitar, another a bass guitar and the main guide was on the mic! The final member of the band was "ladyboy" - one of the crew members, obviously not as musically skilled as the others who just shoved two balloons down his top, put on a lady's hat and whacked a tambourine! Holy mother of god, as Miley would say, we were about to have an all out session!

They started out cracking out the tunes - and I don't mean "Asian favourites". We're talking the Eagles, The Killers...one might even say floor fillers! Ha ha ha. We were all having a right laugh. Then we found out we weren't going to get away without doing a little entertaining ourselves! Suddenly the MC himself shouts out "okaaaay, so we have lots of nationalities here with us today...have we got any.... ENGLISH on board?? So "woo wooooooo" go the few English on board - next thing they know, to their demise, they're being dragged up onto the, well we'll call it, the stage, and the band start cracking out The Beatles - Yellow Submarine and they have to sing the song. It was brilliant, I mean nobody had had one drink, but everyone was just in flying form. Next thing the gang of French lads were dragged up - and the band start playing some French song that must be very popular in France, but well I hadn't a breeze what it was, but the French guys were forced to sing it.

Allez les bleus!

Well I knew it was coming, but I was trying to hide down the back of the boat until I heard "now I know we have an Irish girl here somewhere, where is she?"....cue me trying to almost jump off the boat to avoid this! OF COURSE THERE WAS ONLY ONE IRISH PERSON - ME! No chance of me escaping, Dai's there pointing and shouting to where I am, so up I'm dragged! What do ya know, the band start banging out - The Fields of Athenry - I mean you can go nowhere!! How the hell did this shower of Vietnamese guys have a clue about the Fields of Athenry?!!

MC, Me and Ladyboy about to take the mic

So I do as I'm told and join the MC in singing the first verse and the ole chorus - (also it's not quite as "anthemic" when NOBODY else on the boat feckin knows the song!!) then we get to the second verse and I realise...I haven't a clue of the words! Luckily for me - the VIETNAMESE guy does! So off he goes and lashes through the second verse with me making sounds similar to the ones he's making! ha ha ha! And before I know it my stint is over - thankfully! All in all it was a brilliant laugh - mainly because it was so unexpected. Like we all had so much fun singing all these songs we knew, and the few we didn't! It all ended with the band playing Twist and Shout and all of us backpackers going mental dancing on the tables of the boat - stupidly fun afternoon!

Once the music finished we were all told it was time to hit the bar - the floating bar! Just when we thought our day couldn't get any more random - ole Ladyboy himself, jumps off the boat and he's followed by a floating ring which we discover is his "bar" - from there the crew throw him out bottles of pre-mixed drink for us and we're all urged again to jump into the sea and join him at the bar. Well, who were we to argue!?! We followed his lead and into the sea we went! Once again, all the Vietnamese tourists got a great kick out of us crazy westerners. We were all passed out a float and we just bobbed in the sea and were handed out drinks from our barman extraordinaire, Ladyboy. He taught us the Vietnamese equivalent of "cheers" or "slainte" (no fada's on these Thai computers), which was YO HAI BA ZUUUUUH!

Strangest bar I've ever been to!

And we all enjoyed our drinks before boarding our boat to sail back to shore. All in all it was a great day and really good value. Although at first we weren't so sure, it turned out to be fantastic fun, and well worth the $7.


The rest of our time in Nha Trang was mainly spent catching up with people we knew from previous stops - and new friends we met on the boat. We all went out that night to some of Nha Trang's hotspots.

Celebrating OFF the boat!

It's a real holiday-destination town so our days were spent on the beach and chilling in the evening over dinner and drinks with friends. It was a great town, and we were really lucky to catch some fantastic weather. We also went out to some great restaurants - including Lanterns, which I'd really recommend to anyone visiting Nha Trang for some fantastic Vietnamese cuisine to celebrate Meg's birthday. Myself Zara and Dai also met back up with Brendan from Cork and had the best Indian meal at Omar's Restaurant.

Zara, Kelly, Angela, Me and Meg in Lanterns Restaurant

Brendan, Dai, Me and Zara

Also most notably, for me anywhoo, Nha Trang was the first place where I had a room all to myself to sleep in. Now this may sound a bit strange, but after sharing a room with anything up to 12 people over the past few weeks it was such a treat to move into a room on my own for a couple of nights. After spending my first two nights in Nha Trang in a female dorm - I decided to move into Zara and Dai's hotel - aptly named "Nice Hotel" for our last two nights - for the same price $8, I got a double room with en suite, WIFI and wait for it... A TELEVISION all to myself! Frankly, it felt like I'd upgraded to the Ritz Carlton! It was great to have some space to repack my bag, throw out some clothes to make room for my new Hoi An clothes and get a little time to myself!

Also for other female solo travellers take my advice - ALWAYS go for a mixed dorm rather than a female dorm if given the choice! Why? Because girls have a lot of shit - hair stuff, make up, clothes, accessories...everywhere!!! Also, in my experience tend to keep themselves a little bit more to themselves - especially if travelling in packs, aghem, I mean Groups! Guys on the otherhand are much more straightforward - if you go into a dorm and say hi to a fellow roomfellow - ask him if he wants to go for a drink / dinner he'll normally just say "yeah" because he can't be bothered finding somewhere himself - also his backpack will mainly consist of about 3 pairs of shorts, 3 tshirts and a few pairs of flip flops - all of this stuff will also remain IN HIS BAG. So take my advice - mixed dorms all the way ;)

Next stop on the Vietnamese trail...Mui Ne...and I did NOT make that trip easy on myself...

Harrow Hoi An...and a quick harrow to Hué

21st May - Hué..st of time

We arose bleary eyed at 4.30am on our final morning at the Farmstay where Ben the owner had organised seats for us on a local minibus which would take us to Hué. Hué (pronounced hway) is not somewhere we really had much interest in going to but back in Hanoi we booked Open Bus tickets for our travel throughout the whole of Vietnam. Basically you get a little booklet of tickets that stop off at the main stops that most backpackers stop off at on their route through Vietnam. The tickets we bought had the following stop-offs: Hanoi - Hué - Hoi An - Nha Trang - Mui Ne - Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). Because we decided to go to the Farmstay in Dong Hoi we needed to get ourselves to Hué to get our next bus to Hoi An. We decided we would just stay in Hué for one night before continuing on to Hoi An.

When the minivan picked us and two other guests from the Farmstay it was empty. It was your basic 15 seater minibus. Yeah, 15 seater my hole. By the time we'd picked up the other locals there were us 5 from the farmstay and EIGHTEEN other Vietnamese crammed in - yep 23 people in a 15 seater bus. It was one of the more knee jamming, leg squished journeys of my travels so far! On the bright side it was cheap.

At 10am we peeled ourselves out of the bus and headed to a hostel - Hué Backpackers Hostel - sister hostel to the one where we stayed in Hanoi. This hostel was a lot smaller and we booked ourselves into a room just for the night. We were sitting in the hostel availing of the free breakfast when two people we knew from Hanoi wandered in - Kelly, a Canadian girl who was on our Halong Bay tour, and Martin from Denmark who I went out with on my second night in Hanoi. It was great to see some familiar faces. Myself and Zara were pretty wiped from the trip, but Dai and Martin decided to go and see the only thing there really is to see in Hué, the ancient Citadel. After a couple of hours myself and Zara decided to go and have a look and see if we could find them. We took a stroll in the baking heat (I remembered half way there that in my haste to leave had forgotten suncream) over to the citadel but well, forgive me for sounding uncultured but it was a bit shite. Old ruins housed within the old city walls. Even the ruins themselves were nothing special. We kept an eye out for the boys but couldn't find them so we wandered back to the hostel - stopping for a refreshing cocktail en route!This is actually the only picture I have from Hué which should say a  lot:

Soon after the guys arrived, we headed back to the hostel, had some dinner and hung out on the balcony of our hostel with a few other travellers, playing some of Dai's dance mixes. The next morning we got out of the bustling metropolis that was Hué and hotfooted to our next destination which we were way more excited about - Hoi An!

22nd - 26th May - Hoi An

The bus from Hué only took 4.5 hours so we arrived mid afternoon into Hoi An. As per usual when you disembark a bus we were all accosted by various hotels trying to get you to go with them to their amazing hotel! We hadn't booked anything, but we took a chance and went with one that offered a free taxi there. It was located beside lots of other similar hotels in the backpacker side of town and was cheap so hey that was all of our criteria satisfied so we checked in.

Hoi An is notoriously famous for its tailoring, and it's rare that anyone leaves the city without a heavier rucksack. There are over 400 tailors in the city and they will run you up anything from suits to ball gowns. The best item I heard about was Fletch - one of the Australian girls we hung out with in Hanoi got Pippa Midletons dress from THE wedding made - ha ha ha! Me, well I wasn't going for anything as swish, didn't think the next few months backpacking around south east Asia would call for any silk gowns!

Dai, relieved not to be roped in to shopping hit a bar by the river, and me and Zara excitedly made our way to find a tailor! Well, unsurprisingly in a city with 400 tailors it didn't take long to find one. We had literally stepped out of the restarant where we left Dai, and the owner lady asks us where we're off to, we tell her we're about to go get clothes made and well what do ya know her sister's got a place. OF COURSE SHE HAS. We decided there was no harm in checking it out and this lady was mental! She was this tiny little Vietnamese girl, no more than about 35 and she was so much craic. Me and Zara had rough ideas of what we wanted but she had about 15 photo albums full of everything from jumpsuits, to evening dresses, to trousers, shirts, tops. I mean we were there for hours! We both chose a few different items - me, I went for 4 jumpsuits (couple of casual ones and a few for going out) and I had also brought along a pair of shorts from home, that I wanted to get replicated in different colours. The whole lot came to about $100. Shoppers of the world, get yourself to Hoi An ;) Zara picked a few dresses and got a few tops and shorts made. Everytime we'd stumble across a picture of something we liked, we'd go "ooooh should I maybe" and her answer was always the same "WHY NOT!!". We had such a laugh with her. She took our measurements and told us to call back the next day. I know - you wouldn't get that kind of turnaround at home eh!?

Afterwards we went back to fetch Dai, and well after being left alone in a bar for hours whilst we got our shop on, was a little tipsy! He was there playing cards with two British girls who were also on our tour in Halong Bay - Helen and Kayleigh. Also whilst siting there, we saw another two familiar faces - Silvi and Jill from Canada who we went trekking in Sapa with! We all arranged to go out together that night and made plans to meet up later. I know it sounds crazy, but you would be surprised how often this happens! Most travellers are doing the same countries, and similar routes so you're constantly meeting people who you've met before...more of these to come.

Anywhoo we headed back to our hotel to chill and get ready and went back into the Old Quarter to meet up with the guys. Hoi An is basically divided into two parts - the Old Quarter - which is absolutely beautiful and the new part of town where most of the hotels and guesthouses are built and located. Hoi An used to be a big trading port back from the 15th to the 19th Century (thank you wiki) and the Old Quarter is full of small little buildings and pedestrianised streets. I apologise in advance but I don't have any pictures of this...epic fail I know. Anywhoo, back to our night out, in the meantime, Zara and Dai had met two guys they had met in Thailand - Andy and Steve who would also join us. We decided to head to a place called the Sun Bar - one of the guys who hung out with us that night in Hué recommended it so we thought it was as good as any! When we got there it was empty enough but that didn't last long. Most of the bars in Hoi An have a similar layout - big pool table in the middle and a computer beside the bar for you to choose your own music - I was in Heaven! We got the tunes going and the drinks in and we had a great night!

Kayleigh, Helen, Jill, Silvi, X, Zara, X and Me

Dai at the pool table

Me and Zara...I will always look albino beside her!

Remember when I siad that you're constantly meeting people along the way that you've met before...well there we were all having a gay old time in Sun Bar when the door opens in in walk a group of about 6 Canadians (again with the Canadians, I know!) that were ALSO on our Halong Bay tour! Like seriously, this was just getting plain ridiculous now, so we all hung out and had a brill night!

Silvi, Kayleigh, Jill, Me and Zara with the Canadians

The next morning was a little less fun. Instead of being woken by the banging of our heads, we were literally woken by the banging of the walls. It turns out, that "taking a whim" on the accommodation didn't work out so well for us! At 7am in the morning, the room beside ours in our hotel was literally being gutted! They were sledge-hammering the walls down! I kid you not. We were like "WTF is the hammering?!" After about 3 minutes, we realised, despite our best efforts we were not going to be able to sleep through the hotel being fucking gutted, so trouper that he is, Dai threw on some clothes and popped down the road and just got us a room in another hotel. By, 8am we were sound asleep again in a new hotel!

The next day, we decided to hit the beach. There are two beaches in Hoi An - An Bang beach, which is smaller and used by a lot of locals and Cua Dai beach which is larger and busier. You can cycle to both beaches from the town centre so we decided to hire a bike from the hotel for a 20,000 dong (bout €0.80) and hit up the quieter of the two An Bang. Although the day was a little cloudy, it was a nice way to spend the day relaxing. Steve and Andy, Zara and Dai's mates from Thailand also joined us to kick back.

That evening, we went back to this one restaurant that was cheap as chips, right beside the main bridge in Hoi An and very tasty and decided to pop down to the nearby Aussie Bar (ran by a Vietnamese couple naturally ha ha) for a few beverages. Me and Zara hung out with the owners at the bar whilst Dai took on Hoi An's finest at pool. We had a great night, and me and Zara had a great laugh with the owners.

Teaching them how to make baby guinness obv!

Owner making his version!

We had so much craic that at the end of the night, the owner goes to me "don't suppose you want to come work for me tomorrow night?". Work, eh? "What would this entail?" I asked. "You ride around with me on a motorbike and we had out fliers to westerners to come to the bar with drinks promotions. I'll give you ten dollars and you and your friends can drink for free all night afterwards". Well I don't know about you but that seemed like a pretty sweet deal to me! "I'm in" I told him.

The following night, true to my word, went back to the bar and off we went. We went all over the city, it was so much fun spinning around on this motorbike. Any westerners we saw walking along, I would hop off, give them a flyer and tell them they'll get free drink when they get there! Those of you who know me know that chatting to people isn't exactly difficult for me so it was definitely one of the more enjoyable jobs I've had! What do ya know, it's funny how this free drinks thing attracts customers eh! By the time I clocked off at 11pm and arrived back at the bar well it was jammed - and because I'd chatted to everyone that was there, everyone was like "heeeyyyyyy" when I walked in!! Twas brilliant! So I got my $10 and helped myself, Zara and Dai to as much drink as I wanted for the night (did I mention this bar doesn't close til 5am!?). Boss man himself was delighted with me as our bar was definitely the busiest in Hoi An that night, and he tried to convince me to come back and work there when I'm done travelling - he said I'd have a free place to stay and all my meals!!! So that's the future sorted eh ;)

Me on the boss man's bike

Otherwise our time in Hoi An was spent cycling out to the other beach Cua Dai beach and picking up our clothes from the tailors. They all came out brilliantly. Would really recommend Hoi An to others, and pretty much everyone I've met that's been there has really loved it. It's the city that's got everything - it's really small so you can walk all around it, it's got amazing shopping and clothes making, good nightlife and two beautiful beaches...what's not to love!?

Blurry Hoi An Bridge by night