Into Vietnam

After leaving Nanning in China we caught the bus to the Vietnamese border. The border (Friendship pass) is set between gorgeous mountains were you get transported on and off with your bags on a 'golf type trolley' car. The Vietnam border crossing was definately more disorgansied than those in China.
No wonder the Chinese and Vietnamese made this the boundary, as it would be extremely difficult to hike over. I just didn't realise how mountainous most of Vietnam is! It never made it clear to me in Rambo III, chuckle.
Once through the border we continued on the bus down to Hanoi. The journey to Hanoi passed lots of nice and very mountainous countryside. Vietnam is much greener than China, has much more paddy fields (second only to Thialand on the world production of rice - did you know that Mozza) and all the buildings are in a French style and are brightly coloured, tall and narrow. The Vietnamese people are much better off than what we expected as there is a lot more tourism here than in China but they are busying themselves by making new road systems.
Once we reached Hanoi we had a wander through the narrow streets of the Old town where there were so many motorbikes that it was extremely difficult to cross the street. The restaurants in Hanoi (and throughout the rest of Vietnam) all sell Western food (a complete change to China-were it was very difficult to find anything!) After living on a diet of rice, vegetables and fish for the last 3 months, we finally had a tuna baguette for dinner! We had to take it easy though as the food was so different to what we had been used to that we couldn't eat a lot and felt as if we were going to explode!
In Hanoi we went to a Water puppet theatre where you sit inside an indoor theatre and watch puppets dancing in traditional costumes with traditional stories on the water (which is in place of the stage). A local guy walked us around the lake, well tagged along, and told us the whole history of the place which was nice. Although the parting gesture was would we consider kindly donating to his living costs as he was a engineering student ! (well, poor sod, I had to give a little money).
Then we went off on a 3 day trip to Halong Bay (on the coast of the South China sea). Here we sailed for 2 days round the 3000 islands, kayaking, cycling, swimming off the side of the boat and visited some caves. The Aussie group we met were great company and we hope Kiki had not too tiring of a birthday. Hi gang.
I only remembered this place because my mate Brian Simpson told me about it -Hi Bry -I hope you and the wife are fine!
Once we returned to Hanoi we went to visit Ho Chi Minhs Mausoleum where Ho Chi Minh looked rather pasty! We had to queue for 1 hour as it was the school holidays and a Sunday so we spent the time talking to 2 Vietnamese girls who wanted to practise their English. We then spent 2 hours sat under a tree in the grounds rereading our book on Vietnamese history which was very long and complicated, but we got there in the end!

We left Hanoi and caught the overnight bus to Hue (in Central Vietnam). The bus ended up being 2 and a half hours late arriving in Hue as the bus driver was very annoying, picking up local people to make more money for himself. He also spent the whole night beeping his horn very loudly and the toilet was overflowing as it did not flush. Not a nice trip!
Hue is near the former North/South Vietnam border. There is a lot of history there from the Vietnam war. We visited the DMZ (Demilitarised zone) where we went inside the Vinh Moc Tunnels were 300 people and soldiers lived during the war. Inside the tunnels it was very tiny and damp and they went on for ever. We also visited numerous bridges and places were events happened. It really brought it home how much damage Agent orange and Napalm (Saul, could you check the spelling!) did to the people and land. There is still a few people kicking around bearing the scares.
We have even been reading up on Vietnam history and actually can name a few dates! he he.

Hue has an old citadel wall which we decided to ride on bikes to. We managed to make it through the city and across the bridge to the old town with some rather scary crossings at the traffic lights and junctions! However we arrived safely and spent the afternoon wandering around the inside of the citadel.
We also went on a boat ride down the river in our own private boat for 2.50 each! The local woman who owned the boat drove us mad trying to sell us all sorts of weird sovenirs and drinks, even to the point of holding them up to our faces whilst we were trying to enjoy the view (without much success because of her!)
After 6 days in Hue 2 of which we spent never a few feet from the toilet! yuk, I blamed it on the heat (at steady 38 oC for a week). With our fingers crossed and a fresh toilet roll we caught the bus to Hoi An this morning. As we have not left the hotel yet there is nothing to report here as yet!