I'm lovin it....

Vietnam countryside on the way to Hoi An

Pausing briefly in Singapore for an eye-wateringly expensive Gin Sling in Raffles Hotel (nice, but never again), we flew north to Hanoi, our gateway to Vietnam. Sporting a budget-busting new camera, we were now ready to capture the sights, if not the smells, of Asia in perfect clarity. See if you notice the difference on the blog.

Hanoi swarms with life, a teeming mass of mopeds and cacophonous noise; crossing the road relies on blind faith that the bikes will swerve round you and, amazingly, they do. From our excellent hotel in the middle of the old quarter, we visited Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum; a classic communist-era experience, there is a dress code required to file past a dead body, and God help you if you don’t keep your hands respectfully by your sides at all times.

People in Vietnam seem to be too proud to ask for hand-outs, so have come up with a million different ways of making a few Dong. Despite looking typically suave in his trademark ‘mandals’, J had his shoes forcibly wrestled off his feet by a guy wanting to fix and polish them for a small sum. Once the job was complete, a complex series of negotiations began. J started haggling at 20p and the man started at £20, finally settling on about £3, which satisfyingly left both parties with a feeling of rancour and mistrust.

Thankfully the Ryder finances have now been taken off life support after the excesses of Australia and New Zealand. It is still possible to get a perfectly decent glass of beer here for under 10p, a haircut for 85p (judge the quality by J’s photos) and a full meal for two for £3. For everything else there is the redundancy fund…. 

Leaving Hanoi, we took a two day cruise in Halong Bay, in the north east corner of Vietnam. Staying on an Indonesian junk, we pootled around the bay of stunning limestone rock formations, visiting huge caves and paddling round the floating villages on kayaks. The following morning we had a quick cooking class on the boat and now know how to make the perfect spring roll, which doesn’t involve a phone call and a credit card.

Halong Bay

An overnight train journey took us to Hue, the old imperial capital. Hard as it is to believe, in our sleeper carriage of four people, we were the young fit ones and were duly allocated the top bunks. Looking at our friendly, if generously proportioned Dutch companions, this was a relief – it would have been a nervous night sleeping in a bunk underneath them. We spent two days wandering round the temples and pagodas of the citadel and took a boat trip to the royal tombs. We also discovered the joy of motorbike taxis – it seems to be a national sport in Vietnam to cram as many people as possible on to a bike, but it’s also a cheap way to get round town, if a little hair-raising.

Royal tombs at Hue

Next up was Hoi An, a very pretty town, and a bit more laid-back, relatively speaking. There’s a great beach five kilometres away through the paddy fields, a good excuse to act like a local and rent a moped for some crazy riding around town. Hoi An is also renowned for its tailors; taking advantage of this, J had a suit made for the job he doesn’t have and C – in what must have been a rush of blood to the head – had some trousers made that conjure up images not of stylish summer sophisticates, but Ronald McDonald.

Japenese bridge in Hoi An

We are now in Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City to give it its official name. Crossing the road here is even more of a challenge than Hanoi – more cars, even more mopeds, and more westernized than its northern counterpart. The reminders of the war are more obvious here in the number of museums and captured US tanks and you realise, despite the problems and poverty that still exist, how far this country has come in the last three decades.

Highlight: sitting in a tucked away little restaurant in Hoi An, eating the best spring rolls known to man and drinking the local brew, watching the locals speed by on bikes and scooters, and knowing that the whole evening would cost less than a pint in the Ancient Mariner.

Lowlight: not sure if its the language barrier, or due to her towering size compared to the tiny vietnamese women, but the local street hawkers, keen to make a sale, keep trying to attract C's attention by saying 'here sir, you buy something...' 

Most perilous load on one scooter: a toss-up between 15 feet of corrugated plastic rolled up in a giant tube and three live pigs in wicker baskets.



Enjoying the ride