Sunday, November 13, 2011

Vietnam goes for a swimin






Forget Thailand, poor old Vietnam seems to be getting the worst flooding in south east asia.
The first full day in Hue was flooded up to my knees but the second day, after a night of rain was much higher.
The bus I was supposed to catch south was canceled so I booked a flight just minutes before it becoming fully booked.

Monday, November 7, 2011

ha noi



Couple of random pics of the crazy city.


Some pics of the village,
Top: Little kids hunting tourists trying to get them to buy bracelets, everybody said no to them but I wanted one, after I bought one they went around everyone else again one by one until they had all bought at least one bracelet, very skilled and cunning, using there small eyes and pleading voices to pry open the visitors wallet.
Middle: No communist country would be complete without the propaganda style of poster, this one is about family or something I never could get the guide to translate it properly.
Bottom: by the river that runs runs down the whole village, complete with beautiful location, fruit trees, rice fields and local family fishing.

The Village.






For a small amount of money we book a 12 hour sleeper train, a bus and hire a guide to take us over rice fields, mountains and streams 3 hours untill we reach her village where we stay the night with locals of the village. Its not quite what I expected, the village was spread out along a huge valley which went much further than I ever saw and with a total of 400 houses with at least three inhabitents each, the population was huge. They had two schools, shops selling coke, sweets and beer as well as restaurants (in a loose sense of the word) which had a variety of meals. Along with shops selling 'hand made' bags and carvings which I never figured out if was actualy hand made or if this was just somthing said to make me spend my tourist money (which I did not).
Some things where as expected, unmaintained swing bridges and wooden hand made buildings and farm yards as well as the locals choice of cloths (see pic).
but all in all an amazing trip even when the ladys who had walked with us and made freinds with us the whole way to the village suddenly turned into mobile shops wanting to sell us bags, braclets or pillowcases and got affended when I said no.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Good morning Vietnam





Its been on the list of places to visit for a few years and so far it has not disappointed, I have not checked this fact but I was told that ha noi is the densist populated city in the world, Weather this is true or not it does not change the fact that while walking around the city for the first time you would be forgiven for curling up into a little ball and never moving again. as the traffic is an unforgiving swarm of motorbikes, mopeds taxis, bikes, street venders on wheels and little old ladys trying to sell everything from fake ray bans to doughnuts on a stick.
It takes a day to become one with the flowing mess of traffic or motors and humans but once you have figured out the fluidness of the traffic you become one with the grand machine that does not obey traffic lights, road sighns or even pedestrian crossing. The general ruel is if there is space go for it.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Vietnam



(sorry, picture quality still sucks)









what to do on the road? Along with getting lost a few times and ending up in a village with a scooter that would not start and a guy who wore nothing but warn out jean shorts with hair down to his ankles that had not been washed in years, who liked to stare and hold his long weapon looking thing up high while walking in my direction. I also climbed 2000 stares to the top of tiger cave, a buddhist temple in the middle of the forest, where, at the top I was greeted by a 40 foot budder who overlooked amazing views of the country.

On The Road Again.














For the last full day in Thailand it was time to hit the road. I rented a fast old scooter and hit the road, I was not far until I realised that there was no fuel sitting in the tank. Luckily there was a gangster old lady only about 5 Min's down the road who seemed to only sit and wait for red nosed happy tourists with there brand new scooter looking to fill the tank with fuel that was far more expensive than that in the city. But when the fuel station was as cool as this one, who cares about an extra 10 cents a liter.