Hue Central Vietnam

To get to Hue (pronounced ‘Hway’) we take an overnight sleeper train from Ninh Binh.  We have the upper two berths in a 4 berth cabin.  Unfortunately, there are two extra small children in ours – JOY!!  To be fair the kids were great and we have a relatively good nights sleep – the toilets however are not so great??  About 13 hours later we arrive in Hue first thing in the morning and greeted by rain – not in the plan!!  A Unesco World Heritage Site, the picturesque city of Hue lies on the Perfume river and was once the imperial capitol of the Nguyen Emperors.  Because of Heu’s central location, very near the border between North & South Vietnam it suffered considerable damage in what the locals describe as the ‘American War’, particularly the Tet Offensive of 1968.  Today, the city is very much a blend of old and new, with the crumbling Citadel Walls and modern sleek Hotels, such as the Midtown Hotel which we were lucky enough to find, this had to be our best value hotel in Vietnam, amazing service!  We have a lazy day exploring the city and Citadel and even find proper coffee at the 5* Best Western Hotel!!  We decide to have a night of luxury and head about an hour South to the Vedana Lagoon Wellness Resort and Spa on the picturesque Tam Giang Lagoon.  We are well and truly spoilt in our Water Bungalow, the bed is absolutely huge and we have a private deck with sunbeds, which we take full advantage of as finally the weather improves!  Each guest has there own bike, so we take them for a spin to explore the nearby fishing village and paddy fields.  We make the most of our stay and have a late checkout. We follow in the footsteps of our forefathers (The Top Gear Boys) and travel further south over the beautiful Hai Van mountain pass into the city of Da Nang And on to Hoi An.

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Ninh Binh Vietnam

We book our trip to Ninh Binh on the Red River Delta, this time bus, boat, bus and bus!  I think we’ve been had as the last bus is a local and not tourist bus.  It waits for an age before leaving and tries to pick up people and packages along the way, we now have an exercise bike on the passenger seat along with a growing pile of luggage!  The driver is so slow, he is averaging about 25mph – welcome to Asia!!
Ninh Binh is a non distinct local town mainly set up for day trips from Hanoi to the nearby national parks.  The morning is a little brighter but still very cold.  We hire a driver to take us to the beautiful Tam Coc (Three Caves) National Park where we are rowed up river through paddy fields, the limestone peaks tower above us.  We are steered through a series of caves and spot 3 different types of Kingfisher along the way.  The rowers have an amazing technique of sitting down and rowing with their feet!!!  We stop at a Chinese Pagoda and witness a ceremony led by a very wise looking bearded monk.  A very memorable trip and well worth braving the cold and the bus journey!!!

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Halong Bay & Cat Ba Island

We have been told by a few fellow travellers that a really great place to see the famous Halong Bay is via the less touristy Cat Ba Island.  So 2 busses, a ferry and another bus and we arrive in Cat Ba town about 4 hours later.  We stay for 3 nights and opt for the seecond day to do our boat trip to Halong Bay as his looks like it will be the best day weather wise.  It turns out to be the brightest out of the three but also the coldest and still very grey –  our boat is no luxury liner!  We may have been lucky as we have spoken to people since who could hardly see a thing when they went out and some overnight trips had to be cancelled!!  When I say it’s cold we are literally wearing most of our clothes – not exactly what we had in mind!!

Hanoi Vietnam

After a short flight from Saigon (Ho Chi Minh) we arrive in Hanoi with a population of close to 7 million.  We head straight for our hotel, The Rising Dragon Palace in Hanoi’s Old Quarter.  We love the Old Quarter, think French colonial meets Old China, add in the hustle and bustle of traditional street trading in the narrow streets and alleyways.  What a buzz, a great place to explore and people watch while sitting at a pavement cafe sipping coffee.  Luckily we can get western style coffee here, lets just say that Vietnamese coffee is an acquired taste and unfortunately one which I’m never likely to acquire in my lifetime!!!  The weather’s supposed to be cooler up North, the first 2 days are really warm and then some drizzle comes in and it gets much cooler – is this a sign of things to come?  We visit a few museums, the best of which is the Womens Museum which had some fascinating stories of how women coped though the wars.

Mekong Delta Vietnam

The border crossing into Vietnam was uneventful if a little slow.  We stopped overnight at 2 towns on the south coast Ha Tien and Rach Gia before moving on to Can Tho in the heart of the Mekong Delta.  The first thing you notice upon arrival into Vietnam is the improvement in the roads, i.e. fully paved and in fairly good repair.  However there appears to be ten times more traffic, with thousands of scooters weaving in and out,  the delta has a population of 20 million.  The roads appear to stretch on for eternity and are lined with houses and stores, it’s like the longest street in the world!  We are also the only westeners travelling on these legs.  There is very little English spoken – hello, goodbye and thank you are not helping much when trying to get from A to B, it all adds to the fun!!
We arrive in Can Tho and stayed at the Hau Giang Hotel, they gave us a lovely welcome and fab service throughout our stay.  We were up before dawn the next morning to visit the floating markets, apparently the biggest in the region.  It was a great experience and the early morning fog added to the atmosphere.  We are here at the end of Tet which is Chinese New Year, which this year happens to be my year – the horse!  The bus journey to Ho Chi Minh was a little chaotic as everyone seemed to be travelling back after the holiday, plus 2 hour delay, plus traffic jams, plus crazy driver – welcome to Vietnam!!!!

Kep Cambodia

Sihanoukville Cambodia

Kampot Cambodia

A couple of hours bus ride from Phnom Penh is the quiet riverside town of Kampot on the South coast of Cambodia.  Kampot is well known for it’s black and green pepper, apparently it’s unique and sought after world wide, it definitely made delicious pepper sauces!  We took a lovely sunset boat ride up river and stayed at a wonderful little guest house called Rikitikitavi, where the service and food were amazing!  We would have loved to have stayed longer, if only they had availability!!

Phnom Penh Cambodia

A six hour dusty bus journey took us from Siem Reap to Cambodia’s capitol Phnom Penh – you have to pronounce the ‘P’ in Phnom, which I’m still struggling with!!!.  Once known as the Pearl of Asia, Phnom Penh was considered one of the loveliest French built cities in Indochina.  Sitting on the banks of the Tonle Sap and Mekong rivers the city now seems to be getting back to it’s former glory after the devastating take over of the country by the Khmer Rouge dictator Pol Pot between 1975 and 1979.  We visited the Killing Fields where much of the Genocide was carried out and S21 a former school that was used as a prison vacility for torture of captives.  Needless to say a pretty harrowing day, but one we felt we needed to witness to get a feel for how far the people have come since.  We also visited a Russian Market and spent a lovely afternoon exploring the Grand Palace.  Our day usually ended at the FCC (Foreign Correspondence Club) for cocktails overlooking the river at sunset – nice!!!