Backpacking

Found a mini-hotel in the Old Quarter north of the lake. Its $8, nothing special and typically above a tourist office. So, a new city, a new map. We walked for hours last night desperately looking for a bite to eat. We didn't want street food, we wanted a restuarant or a bar cause we really needed a beer. Its quite a difficult city, restuarants close early and bars are hard to find. There is plenty of street food on offer, long donut things, giant steamed buns, mini sausages and random rubberly chicken parts being charred over a flame, and even a kabab man! Mmmm kebab man.....

The Old Quarter is very conjested. There are shops just 2 meters wide that have been selling the same produce for 5 generations. Apparently the taxes where so high for shop front that they cut their shops in half. the smaller the width of the shop the smaller the tax. They call them tube houses, they can sometimes be one block deep.

After trekking the city for a beer and a small bite to eat we settled on a small plastic chair place next to the flower markets. No menu and no english and with no Vietnamese and alot of pointing we were served little clams in a lemongrass ginger stock. We were given little side dishes of shrimp salt, fresh chilli, ginger and garlic and tiny limes with the tops cut off. Didn't know we were supposed to squirt the lime into the other spices to make a quick sauce. The chef was quick to show us, everything had to be right. They armed us with plastic gloves, the same ones you use to dye your hair with, and we went mad peeling our bbq'd prawns.

Hanoi is the easiest city to get lost in making it the hardest city to find your way around. Its bloody frustrating, thats what it is! Every street changes its name on every corner, one long street could change its name 5 times and to make thing harder all the street names start with Hung! So, we spent the rest of the night getting lost around the streets before heading home. We found a steamed bun lady, she puts quail eggs inside, thats the shit, but we probably wont remember where she is. Most streets have their own merchandice themes, a shoe street, a jewellery street, a toy street and even a kareoke street. We tried looking for bars recommended in the Roughguide. Cant believe some of their recomendations! Crappy, festy bars where I wouldn't let my dog eat. One was right on the outskirts of town next to the smoggy highway. Yeah, kick back on the balcony and suck in all those fumes!

Its Friday night and the markets are on, I was lucky enough to find a pair of Amarni sunglasses. I tried to barter them down, the guy says "But they're Amarni"......I got them for $4 US. There were heaps of little pokemon type things and jewellery, it was mainly a tourist market and we became bored.

We found a bar overlooking the lake where we had a couple Vodkas. We asked some random guy where there was somewhere good to go for a drink. He turned out to be the owner (opps) anyway, he told to go to 'Salace' nightclub which opens at 1.30 but its a bit of a trip across town, but everyone goes there. It was still only 11.30. I dont know what happened between 11.30 and 1.30 but the next thing I know we are at Solace dancing to OK music put on by a crap DJ. Solace turned out to be a boat moored on the river and has that same tacky feel about it like the pubs on the Thames except for the endless hordes of stag nights. The Vodka was expensive but it was free to get in. I dont know how we survived that long, we were having a great time....5am and we are fanging along on the back of a moto through the desolate city back to our hotel room.

We are in a crusty pub with bad smelly pipes playing more pool. The Huda beer is better than Tiger canned which tastes like ashtrays. I think Huda is the same as Festival or maybe its the same company. BGI is like drinking tea, light beer and pee all in the same glass, not that I have ever drunk pee, but if you have too, and its mixed with tea and light beer, thats what it would probably taste like. BGI beer.

I had to cut my hair with the nail clippers before I came out. I wanted a fringe and it seemed like too much of a hassel to find a hairdressers and try to painfully express to them in my best sigh language exactly what I wanted. So instead, I cut my own fringe with the nail clippers and it was very frustrating but I did a really good job at it. The problem is now, I really dont think I suit a fringe at all, and wish it was the way it was before I had tried to cut it off.

Been seeing a few rats running around late at night. Apparently April is peek month for rat harvesting in the Mekong Delta, when some 2 tonnes of rodants are delievered to Urban centers like Ho Chi Minh City every day. I didn't know about this until I read it in a local magazine at the pub today. I am completely shocked! But its not at all uncommon, in fact, rat meat is almost available in every local restaurant in Siagon and the reccommendation is for it to be cooked in coconut milk. Gee... what have I really been eating all this time???

Flying out of Hue today, flying to Hanoi. Thank god we are not travelling on one of those horrible buses again. Our flight has been delayed, so now we are sitting in a French bakery passing time. We went back to the same restaurant for dinner again last night, we just had to try the deep-fried eel, deep-fried with butter sauce. Sam ate around it avoiding the bones and I just crunched into it, its just like eating prawn tails. I liked the eel. I cant say I noticed any distinct flavour, but thats probably because it was deep-fried and probably because I've only eaten it once. They do the best fried rice there. We ordered some more to take-away and went back to our hotel room to drink Hanoi Vodka with 7-up and watch movies.

I cant say I like Hue all to much. The rain might not help. The clothes are overpriced, restaurants minimal and there are not to many places to drink and when you do find one, its like drinking in my nans kitchen (no offense nan) Overall, its quite an ugly place, not very touristy with not much to do.

Tiger beer and coconut nuts.

After countless failed attemps from the local moto drivers offering me a ride across town and after my innumerable rejections that I really dont need one, they just dont seem to get the point and it simply just does my head in.

I try over and over again to convince them that I can walk. That my legs work ok, in fact, I want to walk. I tell them over and over that my hotel is just around the corner and that I am not illiterate, I can read maps just fine. I´ve tried different languages, pretending I dont speak English, putting on a very thick and very bad German accent. I´ve tried ingoring them, staring competitions, and saying no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, over and over again like Bart Simpson, no matter what they say I just answer them with 'no'. I´ve tried walking into them, sign language and sometimes I even bite my lip and just get on the back of the bike and pay the man some money just so they will leave me the hell alone! (aaaahhhh!!!)
.....But, there is some good news, dont dispair my fellow travellers, as I am about to past on my proven tried and tested best method of ridding you of these tourists sharks.....
Give them a mouthfull of totally incomprehensible gibberish and flap your hands around like a nutter. They tend to back away nevervously and look at you sideways too scared to look you in the eye, you can even get them to start avoiding you if you stay in one place for one enough. You never know, you might have fun doing it.

Today I was not feeling to well though due to lastnights evens I had no energy to use my primo tactics. So today I decided to venture outside in disguise. I pulled on long pants, slipped into a long sleeve jacket and pulled the hood right up over my face and I tucked my 'yellow' hair right in behind my ears. On went the big sunnies and off I went confident, knowing my cover would be a success.....

"Lady, where you go?", "Cheap, cheap", "You go now", "How much you pay?" "Lady, lady!" "Where you from?, Ah, Australia, G'day mate!"

They followed me for the whole block, then when I finally lost'em, more came. I just wanna be invisable, just for one day please!

Almost home..... "Lady, where you go?", "Cheap, cheap", "You go now"

"JUST PISS OFF AND LEAVE ME ALONE"

........I couldn't help it, it just came out...

"Alright, thats all you had to say..."

(aahhhhh!)

After travelling for 14 hours on a very very shit bus we are not in the mood for bartering. $9 is fine, we are staying in a cute little guesthouse close to the old quarter in Hoi An.

Its stinking hot and I´m still on my quest to find the pork steamed bum man, I love those things. I´ve been looking for him since Cambodia. I see little flashes of him every now and then. He rides past playing his pixie music when I have no money on me, or I see him through the window when I'm trapped inside a bus or he is within reaching distance when I am stuffed full of noodles.

Hoi An is a beautiful little town, especially at night, the whole town lights up with lanterns of all different colours over looking the river. Most people go to Hoi An to have clothes and shoes taylor made for a miniscule prices and the skinny little streets are just littered with taylors, one after the other.

We had dinner at a cute little restaurant along the river. Sam ordered the most beautiful duck soup, probably the best soup we have ever tasted. Lots of garlic, broken down rice, duck stock, onion and corriander. I had squid in claypot, they love their claypots over here. So do I.

In Hoi An they have their own traditional local dishes such as 'White rose', its shrimp and pork steamed in rice paper folded into a rose shape then lightly sprinkled with chives and fried shallots and sits in a sweet vinegary sauce. Mmmm

Wish I could add lot more photos but I've used my month quota!

We loved Nha Trang, it was perfect, we finally had Sam's hair saved off and spent the most of our time lazing at the Lousianna resort soaking up the sun and drinking their fantastic home brewed quality beers.

The highlight in Nha Trang was deffinately the snorkelling, seeing all the little Nemos, it wasn´t even cold, and you just have to visit the mudbaths and spend a few hours there being pampered in a completely bizzare way.

Shell soaking in the mud bath.

Sam being sprayed by high pressure natural spring water.