Vietnam

So I'm back and alive, with only a slight case of food poisoning (damn Vietnamese hamburgers!) Ho Chi Minh was crazy when we first got there (on our second anniversary as it so happened). Our driver told us there were 7,000,000 people living in Ho Chi Minh, and 6,000,000 scooters.



When you try navigating the roads, it's very easy to believe. The fun part comes when you try to cross the road. There are no red lights in large portions of the city, so the scooters all just weave around each other and any pedestrians that may be in the way, or even the random car. You just have to walk out into the street and slowly make your way across looking out for the drivers going straight and looking to the right or left. We ended up in De Tham which is basically the Vietnamese version of Khaosan Road without the prostitutes and grunge. We spent a couple of days wandering around looking at things on bicycle taxis before heading to Mui Ne on a bus.



Our bus driver was very enamored of his horn. The following is an incomplete list of things he hoked at repeatedly over the four hour trip:
1. I'm turning
2. I'm going over a bridge
3. I'm going around a corner
4. I'm going to pass you
5. I'm passing you
6. I just passed you
7. I'm driving like an asshole
8. I'm driving straight not doing anything
9. I just drove over a small child on a moped
10. I just want to be me
This was all exacerbated by the fact that the horn button was broken and the driver had to prod a loose wire into a hole in the steering wheel in morse code fashion to make it work. This was bad enough, but every now and then he would drop it and release a massive blast that shook my molars.

Mui Ne was a nice beach strip with lots of windsurfing and kitesurfing, but no young people. It was full of old Russian and German couples, and a few young girls trying to find a rich old man. The beach was nice and relaxing though, which was exactly what I needed. There was also plenty of fresh seafood and Pho to go around to please even the pickiest of eaters.

After a few days in Mui Ne, we headed to Nha Trang on a thankfully horn-free bus. Nha Trang had a nice beach and we took a cool boat trip out to four of the outlying islands which included a floating bar, which was the ships captain grabbing a case of wine and jumping on a life preserver in the water while everyone floated around drinking the Vietnamese wine. If anyone ever offers you this substance, do yourself a favour and politely decline. Nha Trang also had awesome waves for jumping in which I haven't been able to do for quite some time.

Our last stop in Vietnam was Hanoi. We wanted to go to Halong Bay, but the weather was cold and foggy, which would make a two day sea trip miserable in our summer clothes. We caught the train at 4:30am on Tuesday, and it was scheduled to arrive in Hanoi at 12:00pm. The sign neglected to mention however that it would be 12:00pm THE NEXT DAY! So after a lovely 31 hour train ride we arrived in Hanoi just in time for Tet, but it was about 13 degrees, which was really cold for us since it had been 30 the day before. We did the whole Tet thing that night and decided to high-tail it out of Vietnam as quickly as possible. Hanoi was also deserted for the holiday, which I had not anticipated. I thought it would be a big party. WRONG! Everyone closed up shop and went to the country to see their family. That being said, Hanoi is a pretty city, and while chilly, we did have a good time looking around and not being bothered by beggars and Xe Om drivers. We finally left Vietnam having travelled by plane, boat, bus, taxi, xe om and cyclo and headed By Plane once more for Siem Reap in the hopes of warmer weather.