being back on earth

Yes, i am officially back on earth. Back in Sydney, back in my room, back on my computer and most importantly back on my bed!!! Lurveeeeeee my bed..
Anyways, the past three weeks have been rather mad and with the incredible lack of sleep, plus jumping between time zones, i am KNACKERED!

My holidays started with a two day trip to the Hunter Valley with some of my most special friends. I really love the Hunter as it is such a lovely picturesque escape from the city life - big open skies free of apartment blocks and skyscrapers, fresh breezy air and very friendly locals. Good wine, good friends. What more can i ask for?

Two days later i was off to Vietnam for a 2 week holiday with my pal Jasmine. From Saigon to Hanoi to Hoi An to Hue, then back to Saigon, Jasmine and i jetted around with our backpacks, mosquito repellant, sunscreen and caps like true travellers. To cover such a lot of country we flew to the major cities then took taxis/coaches/boats everywhere. I must say, we must have been sitting on our bums the majority of the trip but I quickly learnt to take power naps on all sorts of transportations. We were actually looking forward to some walking or trekking to give our lazy legs some exercise - my Adidas sneakers were my best friend :) After waking up at 6.30am nearly every morning to go on tours and catch planes, I got pretty tired and had to take power naps every chance i could. The other thing we mastered was also crossing the road. With the 13 million people in the country, the traffic is always bad and dodging traffic is a skill you need to learn fast or you just cant get anywhere. The trick was to cross and just keep walking but keeping an eye on cars and busses. The bikes just go around you :)

The highlights:
- Hoi An - a beautiful town along a river filled with nice locals, clothes-making shops and the Palm Garden 5 star Resort :P Famous for its one-day tailoring, Jasmine and i perused the countless shops where you can choose a style of clothing (dress, jackets, pants you name it), pick a material, get measured up and made in one day. Too good to be true? Yes and no. Most of the clothes/shoes we made required alterations at least once so you definitely need a few days there just in case. Materials were quite extensive and the workmanship was not too bad either. Oh and of course it was quite cheap. Woollen coats ~ $50, Dresses ~ $25, Work pants ~ $15, Leather boots ~ $60. The streets were also lined with tourist souvenir shops (actually Vietnam is made up of predominantly tourist souvenir shops :P) full of lacquerware, handmade lanterns, local paintings and cafes. The Palm Garden Resort was gorgeous!!! Although we didn't splurge on a room with a ocean view, we still enjoyed the luxurious resort with their great staff, huge beautiful swimming pools, jetskis on the beach and of course the Qi Shisheido Day Spa!!!! We went there so many times they started recognising us! When you get greeted "Good evening Miss Wong, Welcome back" you know you've spent way too much there :)

- My Son - 1 hour from Hoi An town were the ancient ruins of My Son. Fascinatingly beautiful, these ruins are the last of the Hindu-inspired temples of the Cham Dynasty that were not destroyed by US bombings during the war. A gorgeous tranquil place full of history and for super camera shots.

- Mekong Delta - Although we missed out on the floating markets, our tour took us to My Pho which was loads of fun to see. Visiting some islands in the area we got to walk through small villages lined with tropical fruit trees (jackfruit, longans, rambutans, coconuts, bananas, dragonfruit), taste honey straight from a hive with non-stinging bees still attached, hold a 2 metre long python, sample snake wine and rice wine (40% alcohol!!!!) and ride on sampan powered swiftly by two small vietnamese ladies.

- Cuchi Tunnels - These long underground tunnels were built by the Vietcong to hide from the Americans during the day while they planned booby traps and attacks for the night. A startling reminder of the violent Vietnam war it was a very interesting to slide into these tiny tunnels and experience a sample of the heat and cramped conditions. Crawling through a short section in pure darkness was rather frightening and after a few "hello... hello?? lights please???? anyone???" the grinning guard crawled in with a torch behind us. We were also given the opportunity to shoot guns at a shooting range which was the most violent and crazy experience i've ever had. Firing a AK-47 rifle is not my idea of fun, but it had to be done and i dont regret doing it, but i never want to do it again. The recoil was a little unnerving, but the sound was deafening. It is just terrifying to think how it would have been like in the jungles during war with multiple guns firing at the same time.

- Hue - Along the banks of the Perfume river lie countless palaces, tombs and pagodas. The Citadel and Minh Mang tomb were the highlights in Hue. The royal Citadel is a huge complex that houses a city which is apparently a replica of the Forbidden city in Beijing. Surrounded my a moat, it is a true fortress with long defensive walls and multiple gates housing the Purple forbidden city where the kings and royals lived. Sadly, it wasnt really purple and had been demolished in the past but the grounds and the Emperor's reading room were gorgeous!!! Minh Mang tomb was in the southern part of the Perfume river, an hour or so ride by boat. When we got there it was breathtakingly beautiful and luckily for us was also very peaceful with very few other tourists around. It was all so romantic with the crisp, fresh air and light morning drizzle.

- Halong Bay - 3.5 hours east of Hanoi was the Bay of the Descending Dragon. With clear calm waters and thousands of limestone islands we sailed for a few hours around in a comfy junk boat, stopped to see the local water houses, floating fruit sellers as well as a pit stop at some crystalline caves. It would have been a lot more tranquil except unfortunately we had chosen to travel on a Vietnamese public holidays so there were literally a hundred boats on the water packed with not only foreign tourist but locals as well. But i still enjoyed the day floating around admiring the view and lazing in the sun.

- Food and drink - Although most of our meals were cheap and nasty, we had one very special meal at the Red Bridge restaurant in Hoi An. Being a weeknight we had the place to ourselves and the staff were so kind and the food was superb!!! Best meal of the trip and the most expensive ( Aus $25 !!). Needless to say, Jasmine and i stuffed ourselves silly. I also enjoyed countless Vietnamese coffees with condense milk as well as several mango/avocado fruit shakes. Other foods we ate included Beef Pho, Hu Tieu, Cao Lao, Cha ca and lots of roll-your-own fresh spring rolls. Oh and Jasmine had a craving for french fries so we found a ex-pat cafe and chowed-down on french fries and pizza - very vietnamese :P.

The lowlights:
- Honking - Probably the most annoying thing about Vietnam was the incessant honking by the millions of vehicles not only the road but on the water. The majority of people ride motorbikes, the rest of the traffic consists of cars, trucks, cyclos and busses. It is perfectly normal to honk your horn and according to our travel guide was necessary for everyones safety. Honking ones horn meant 'i am behind you and want to overtake' or 'i am behind you, get out of my way'. Even the boats honked...well more like blew their AIR HORN!!! No peace whatsoever.

- Getting ripped off - Being a developing country which lately has been very tourist oriented, the locals are consistently trying to rip off us rich foreigners whatever way they can. Although other asian countries do the same, for some reason it really ticked us off in Vietnam. Whether it be taxi drivers, fake taxi drivers, cyclo drivers or boat drivers, they all try to rip you off. Although we started to get very good at haggling, we were still ripped off a couple of times and there wasnt much we could do about it. Vietnam is also overrun by souvenir shops everywhere. Selling everything from lacquerware, clothes, shoes, paintings, jewellery, lanterns they love hiking up the prices then argue they way down. We managed to score some good deals there... or so we think :P

All in all it was a good trip but i did miss home and my bed a lot. Thanks to my partner in crime Jasmine who was a superb travelling buddy. Also thanks to our bible, the Lonely Planet for countless tips and background reading. Pics to come....