Nam - the good the bad and the ugly

Apologies for the delay - turns out Blogger and Vietnam are not great friends.  Here we are all the way up in Hanoi - Ho Chi Minh's almost equally evil twin sister.  (Ho Chi Minh is like Hanoi on speed and without the snake spare ribs.)  Given our obvious dislike for city living in Vietnam we've opted to keep our journey to more rural (aka picturesque) spots up the coast like.  Here's the lowdown.

Mui Ne:  Sleepy kite/wind surfing village about 5 hours north from Saigon (aka about 250 km - kamikaze slalom chicken driving doesn't always get you there faster even if you lean on the horn 85% of the way).  Loved the open roads of the small fishing villages and got our motorcycling legs beneath us.  Biking in the rain (read - rain in Vietnam is knee deep) and watersports were on the agenda.  John took a windsurfing lesson and I stand up paddled the South China sea!  Alas the sleepy nature of this town was too much of an extreme for the buzz of Saigon so we headed north in search of the perfect balance. 

Next stop - Nha Trang: Tested out our scootering amidst the metropolis (moderately more hectic than open highway!) Checked out some temples from the 19th century and hiked up to the Giant Buddha overlooking the city (it's exactly what you would imagine - cool).  The night we were set to leave a giant storm hit town and we would have been flooded in were it not for our superhero shuttle driver who pushed our broken down shuttle through the flood streets (recall - knee deep water).  We had an interesting (bad) experience on the sleeping bus which resulted in us deciding to forfeit our tickets the rest of the way up the coast in favour of the much more comfortable AIRPLANE. 

Sweet sweet Hoi An how we love thee: Picturesque town half way up the coast just inland from the beach this world heritage city has it all.  We both had fun experiences getting clothes tailored (which turned good and not so good).  They're not kidding when they say there's lots of tailors here - we're talkin' hundreds!  Took a Vietnamese cooking class... cycled to the beach.. loved it loved it loved it loved it loved it!

Flight to Hanoi - thoughts on Hanoi - see above.  Got out after 2 nights (the first of which was spent in a lovely little sewage smelling back alley dinge box) to the highlite of our trip so far: Halong Bay.  We can't recommend this stunning place enough.  If only we'd booked a longer tour.  It was great to be on an organized tour for the 2 days with a full itinerary set for us "Ok so now you go kayaking for 45minutes and then you can swim." PERFECT!  Some of the best kayaking we've ever done - talk about scenery!  Oh - and swimming in water that's 29degree's doesn't hurt (Mom you'd LOVE it!) Our junk boat was totally luxified and we hearted it all the way.

Next stop: Sapa in the mountains of Northern Vietnam before we head to Thailand for some beach time with Jenni and Simon and a nice bowl of pad Thai...

Ho Chi Minh - Ho Lee Shit

Well nothing like a little Saigon to wake us up from our Balinese slumber... like a smack in the face this city that never sleeps certainly lives up to it's name! With thousands upon thousands of scooters zig-zagging and swerving up, down and across the city streets, amputeed and disfigured beggars that are a harsh reminder of the war riding in specialized cyclos and sitting on street corners, and a visible abundance of Vietnamese military still present around town there is A LOT to take in!

We're staying in a cute hotel in District 1 where all the buildings (and everything else for that matter) seems to be squished in and built up high.  Lucky for us we are on the 8th floor and get to hike up the 8 flights of stairs to our room everday (which in 30C+ degree weather is more than enough to break a sweat)!  After waiting out the torrential rain over a beer at an expat patio, we spent the day trying to get our bearings in this crazy town.  Dug into our first pho (vietnamese noodle soup) at the Ben Than market amid the bottles of cobra and scorpion infused rice wine!  Christi christened her first public squat toilet experience while John guarded the SLR with his life as he took photo's of everything!

The War Remenants Museum was a must-see but left us feeling rather drained.  Eye opening for certain though there is only so many photos of the casusualties one can stomach.  A trip to check out the Cu Chi tunnels today topped off our historic Ho Chi Minh experience (where Christi had a mild claustrophobic attack down in the tunnel and had to break out one of the escape hatches and John got a serious leg workout from squatting through the midget-sized tunnel network). 

Needing to escape the chaos we are heading north tomomorrow for the sleepy surf town of Mui Ne (pronounced Moi Nay) to check out life in Vietnam outside of Saigon (oh and plus it's the windsurfing capital of Vietnam!)