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...