Vietnam

Another crazy Asian country. We arrived into Hanoi in the afternoon with no idea where we were. The bus didn't stop at a bus station but on some street miles away from the city centre. We had a fun filled few hours trying to adjust to the manicness that is Hanoi while figuring out how to get a taxi without being completely ripped off. We did consider walking the 7 km with our bags instead but as Niamh is incapable of walking five yards without tipping her trolley over, then kicking it (it gets very embarrassing), fixing it and then repeating the process, we decided a taxi would be best on this occasion! In the end we deduced where we were on the map and walked round corner away from the hawker taxis to hail a hopefully more legitimate taxi on the next street, just after we stopped quickly for a cold drink. Cool down, put some ice on Niamh's bruised toes (from the kicking). We hailed a taxi and after repeatedly making sure he turned on the  metre we proceeded to name every street we went down so he knew we knew where we were! We were not incredibly annoying, I swear!

Hanoi is so busy. There is no differentiation from footpath to road. Basically the footpath is for stalls and parking their countless mopeds and motorbikes. The people everywhere are trying to sell you things, normally at extortionate prices. We had someone come up to us and put a basket of fruit on my shoulder for a photo. We said no and tried to walk away but she was not giving up that easy and wouldn't take the fruit back. We explained we didn't have a camera and our phones are too crap to have cameras on them and she relented. 

There are so many motorbikes in Hanoi. Crossing the road is a true skill which I think we have started to master. You have to walk slowish but at a steady speed and ignore the traffic coming at you. They swerve at the last minute but just like to keep you on your toes before that. If you did get hit it wouldn't be just the weight of a motorbike and driver, but also potentially their entire family, a wardrobe, a fridge or whatever ridiculous stuff they have literally piled up on it. The music of constant beeping provides a nice calming background noise. Actually, it's not calming, it's relentless and annoying but that's just how they roll. It's a cool place but a day or two is enough. However, the hostel we are staying at, Little Hanoi Hostel, is great, the staff are brilliant, especially Tony. 

Emmet had his second interesting hair cut at a tree barbers. I kid you not!

We went on a tour for two nights to Halong Bay which was pretty spectacular. We got a bus to Halong City and boarded a boat which was going to bring us around for the day. The people on the boat were sound. There was an Irish couple on board, it was nice to hear an Irish accent for a couple of days. We all chilled out on the top deck while sailing around beautiful limestone karsts. The first stop was a cave which was huge. It was lit up in tacky neon lights but was still brilliant. They pointed out different shapes in the rocks, like one they said was a big finger pointing, we all said it looked like a big something else, but whatever.

We then went to Titop island and climbed a load of steps up to the top to see some really great views of the bay and then went for a swim in the sea.

After we went kayaking.  We were crap. The guide told us to get in the kayak and turn left then kayak around this giant rock. We had problem turning and went straight into a floating village and then straight into the rock we were meant to go around. We kind of started to get the hang of it after a while but still lagged behind the rest of the group. Kayaking is not our strong point!

The food on the trip was amazing. Every lunch and dinner, plates of food would be put in the middle of the table for everyone to tuck into. Some of the veg was cut into the shape of birds or even insects! After dinner the crew played some cheesy dance music for us, disco lights included. 

In the evening we watched the Netherlands vs Denmark in the Euros. There was a Dutch couple on board. There was lots of shouting at the TV due to the result. 

The following day we went to the Cat Ba island and checked into a nice hotel and went back out on the boat to an island called monkey island, for obvious reasons. It was funny watching them climb down robbing people's food. Apparently they like to rob sunglasses and bags too! A monkey's got to accessorise you know. We chilled out on the beach and went for a swim too. We went for a drink in the evening with some of the other people on the tour. We got free shots of rice wine with our beer, which helped us sleep until 1.45 in the morning when Ireland were playing Croatia. There was no budging Niamh, so there was a lot of whisper shouting done at the tv, terrible result for the lads unfortunately. Come on the boys in green!!!!

We organised a trip to Sapa afterwards, which is in the very North of the country. We got a night train to a nearby town. We shared our cabin with some cochroaches, which wasn't on the catalog. There was meant to be someone waiting for us at the train station. Unfortunately there wasn't and everyone we had travelled on the train with was sent off on a bus without us. The bus drove off but had to return to pick up other people a little while later with everyone still on it. It turns out there was a mix up with names and we were meant of be on the bus after all. Lucky it had to come back or we would have been sitting there for a while. It was all sorted in the end but we had a fun two hours worrying what was going on! We were not happy campers. 

We then went on a hike which was brilliant. The views were amazing. It is a beautiful place. The group we went with were sound, we had great craic with them. The one annoyance was constantly being hassled by locals to buy handicrafts. There were a group of women waiting outside the hotel and they followed us for the whole three hour hike to our lunch spot. They were actually good craic so we bought a small bag from one lady we were chatting to the most. Then other people started asking us to buy from them. After lunch a whole new group of women showed up who informed us we also had to buy from them because they were from a different village. They followed us for the rest of the hike. It started to get annoying then. For the rest of the three days we were followed everywhere we went by people selling the same stuff. The most frustrating thing about it was the fact that young girls, some as young as four or five were sent over to sell things. The poor kids should be out playing, enjoying their summer holidays, not selling to tourists. We told the children that we would not buy from them because we thought they were too young to be working. It probably won't make any difference, but hopefully they will say it to the parents.

We stayed with a family the first night in a home stay. It was more of guesthouse than a home stay but the family were lovely and we had a great time. During and after dinner we were given shots of happy water, which is a rice wine. We started playing a great drinking game where you have to balance cards on a beer bottle. It was so much fun. The rest of the people on the tour and the guide were sound. We went to the pub for a drink afterwards but got kicked out for being too loud...oops. The guide was hilarious and really loud and giggled like a girl, much like Jimmy, a six foot something American guy we were hanging out with. It was funny. 

The next day we managed to hike after all the rice wine to a waterfall higher up in the mountains. We done well! We have to stop drinking before hikes! We went paddling in the river which was refreshing and stood under the waterfall. It was brilliant, really great experience.

That night the rest of the group headed back to Hanoi, while we stayed another night. The final night was a bit boring without everyone and the power kept going due to a storm. The hike the next day was not as good as the previous ones. It was to another village but basically went through endless stall selling the same stuff we had been looking at. In hindsight two days would have been enough. The fact the rest of the group had gone and we were a little lonely didn't help either! We got some great shots though. Phototastic! 

We then spent one more day in Hanoi. We went to a really good coffee place hidden behind a silk shop with views out over Hoam lake. I got a yogurt coffee which was delicious. I never even heard of one before. Then we got Bia Hoi which is a really cheap fresh beer. About twenty cent. Boo yeah! Bia Hoivin lots of beers!

We hopped on a night bus to Hue which was an interesting experience. The beds are so small. We are not tall and had trouble fitting in, fair play to anyone over six foot who manages to get a nights sleep! The roads are not particularly good either. Everytime the bus goes over a pothole you end up going flying into the air. And the driver loves to sound the horn very frequently. But it got us to Hue in one piece, so all is grand. 

Hue was a good place to chill out in after the hustle and bustle of Hanoi. The hotel picked us up on motorbikes, which we manged to fit our rucksacks on- the Vietnamese have skills in stacking. We spent a day wandering about the citadel. It was similar to a lot of old complexes we have seen but was a grand way to pass a few hours. It was my birthday (Niamh) so we went to a nice veggie restaurant and then bought a cake...it was delicious. We had been threatening to buy a whole cake for ourselves since China, so when the excuse to do finally arose!

Thats all for now...

Link to more pictures

China

We spent three days in Beijing in a hutong in the north of the city. It was fantastic. The place we stayed in was beautiful and had loads of fresh flowers outside and a roof garden where we enjoyed many cups of tea. We went to the forbidden city, the summer palace, the drum and bell tower and a tea ceremony. 

 

 

 

And of course climbed the great wall which was amazing. Unfortunanately we were unlucky with weather though. It was extremely foggy. We trekked out to a remote part of the wall for the views and only saw trees that were less than five foot in front of us! On top of this, the walk was a little more difficult than we had anticipated. Myself and Emmet didn't even have jumpers with us. So we went as far as we could and then just had a beer instead. Ah well, we will just have to go back another time! 

We met a German fella Timo on the train from Mongolia and spent the few days in Beijing with him. The Chinese people loved his blonde hair, we didn't get a look in!  In the evening time we went to ghost street which was full of restaurants and lit up with latterns or hung around on our own street which was really trendy an has loads of bars, cafes and restaurants or went to the night market where you get such delicacies as sheeps penis. We tried scorpians - crunchy!

The observant among you may have noticed Emmets new haircut. He asked for a trim and left with a shaved head. I will never forget the moment the razor was dragged across the top of his head! I think I might leave getting my hair cut until an english speaking country.

We then went to Pingyao which  was so beautiful. We got our first internal Chinese train to there which consisted of a doorless cabin for 6 people. The lights were turned out at 10 and turned back on again at 6 in the morning along with Chinese pop music. It was good though, we got to chat to Chinese people, which is hard to do in hostels where you only meet other travellers.

Pingyao is an old walled town with loads of little courtyard houses and winding streets. We also walked around the city walls. It was a nice place to chill out for a couple of days and drink Chinese rice wine.

 

I woiuld like some Fries pulls out the rotten child, please.

 

The next stop was Xi'an which didn't feel we got to see all of. We went to the terracotta warriors. The entrance fee was ridiculous so we chanced our arm and told them we were students to get half price tickets. Emmet showed his gym card and I showed my age card. Surprisingly it worked!

It rained and rained in Xi'an. Almost like Ireland. We ended up just chilling out. The one time we did try and go out for a walk we got drowned so soon gave up on that plan. We did find hurls and a sliotar in the hostel though. We also saw a kid crap on the street which we don't have a photo of for obvious reasons. They need poop-a-scoops for people and then they can put it in the Bustbin.

We then headed onto Chengdu to see the pandas. They were great - 'beary' cute! 

We only gave ourselves two days in chengdu but it is a great place an we could have spent more time there. There is a really friendly atmosphere and people are out at all hours dancing in the street. We went to a park one of the days which was packed with people singing, dancing and even doing a cat walk show! There was an aul lad wearing a boxing glove there who wrote us messages on the ground with chalk. The ladies doing the cat walk were taking it very seriously indeed. Unfortunately for them, the aul lad didn't see it that way and pushed me (Emmet) up to do a walk with one of the ladies. We had a bit of a crowd going at this point with a few cheers, so I put one hand on my hip, crossed arms with the "model" and began to strut! Even gave a little twirl at the end and back down the red carpet. Oh yes, they had red carpet out for this.   Anyway, it was a bit of fun and we really enjoyed our time there.

 Next was Dali. A lovely little old town. We went out the first night and got talking to a German couple. There is Germans everywhere, and Dutch. We went for a cycle along the lake outside the old city. It was really nice. We got a bit burnt but that was the only bad part. We went into this small village, of which there were many along the way, but at this point Niamh was getting the food grumps, so it was better for everyone we fed her. You don't want to see her hungry! We found this little shop where there was a lady outside cooking. We got food there, which was been cooked on skewers. Tasty stuff, so we eat there with the locals, much to,their amusement. Then headed back. 

The following day we went for a hike up this mountain to an old temple. There were thousands of steps. Literally thousands! It was really hot and we were wrecked by the time we got up there, but it was worth it. The views of the city were amazing. We had a little picnic and then headed back down.

So then there was the next place which was Guilin. This is where we met up with our Spanish friend, Hegias. Ugly bloke, wouldn't have much luck with the ladies (only joking, he is a handsome Dan). We went out to a cool little bar for a few hours and headed back about 12ish. Myself and Niamh decided we had a few hours in us, so we went back to the pub and sat there with the bar tender called liu liu who was sound. He started giving us shots of Jameson, which was great. We got back some time that night, got about four hours sleep and dragged ourselves up for a big action packed day. Not the best plan we've had since we left Dublin!

We all headed off to see the Dragon Backbone Terraces together. Got two buses out, the second of which was what you kind of imagine in rural China. Many people stood, there was a woman who kept falling asleep against my hip while I hung onto a bar for dear life as we flew around corners while overtaking all sorts of vehicles. There were chickens in a basket on the floor, everyone staring at us, but all smiling and friendly. We got to this village and then hiked to the next one where our hostel was. More steps. Headed off the next morning for a four or five hour hike to see the rice fields. They were amazing, better than you can imagine from pictures. Particularly then end part, where we got spectacular views looking down on them and the village, where we got lunch, just before the food grumps took over again. Ppppphew! It was hit or miss there for a second. Headed back to Guilin then for a well earned shower.
 

 

Our last stop in China was Yangshuo which is lovely. We went for a cycle the first day. We are definitely getting fitter. The second day we went to mud caves with hot springs which were deadly. We also honed in on our bargaining skills and brought the price down from 320 to 90 for both of us. We wandered through caves and then took a dip in a mud bath which was simultaneously wired and fun. Then we chilled out in natural hot springs which were very relaxing except for on the sun burnt areas! 

Link to more pictures.