Return to Thailand: Machine guns and water pistols

We arrived in Bangkok on the morning of the 10th of April. We had originally planned to stay on Khao San Road for another night, before heading to Chiang Mai the following day. However, due to Songkran (Thai New Year) seats on transport fill up fast, so we decided to go the bus station and either book ahead or just get out the city. Later, we were very glad we hadn't hung around - the riots spread to Khao San and several tourists were injured. Reading Andrew Marshall's Twitter account of it the next day in the Bangkok Post was rather scary... http://twitter.com/Journotopia?max_id=12694232174&page=7&twttr=true

Even our bus journey was not without event, although slightly more low-key than grenade explosions it has to be said. Faithful readers might remember our stay in Lampang the first time we were in Thailand - it was so nice we decided to stopover again for a night. At around 8pm the bus pulled to a standstill and everyone disembarked. We didn't recognize the bus station. Dave asked the driver hesitantly, "Lampang?" "Yeah, yeah" we were told. But the signs said Kamphaeng Phet... After several more questions and recourse to our map, it emerged that our pronunciation of Lampang sounds rather like Kamphaeng to a Thai ear... As we worked this out, the empty bus pulled away. The town was so small there were no tuk-tuk drivers waiting, and the people selling tickets only spoke enough english to inform us that every bus going north was full. Queries of whether we could book bus tickets for the following day were met with uncomprehending stares. Eventually, we resorted to running up to each bus that stopped and trying to find out from the driver whether they were going north, and whether they had any seats. The first five were full - the sixth was too, but the driver, after some deliberation, said we could travel the six hour journey in his luggage hold...The height of comfort it wasn't, but we got there eventually, and gained some insight into the experiences of illegal immigrants furthermore!

Songkran in Chiang Mai was a really great experience. The atmosphere was akin to that of a festival, and it was impossible to be there and not be an active participant. The celebrations take the form of the throwing of water, which symbolises washing away the old year. For several days, Thai people and foreigners alike line the streets of the city with buckets and water guns, spraying cars, trucks, motorbikes and pedestrians. It all takes place at the hottest time of the year, so being completely drenched in ice-cold water several times a day feels amazing!

Buddha images are paraded through the city and people line the streets to pour containers of frgranced water over them, as a blessing. We spent much of Songkran at bars or cafes on the street, attacking passers-by and drivers with our water guns, and being soaked ourselves by the teenagers who drive round and round in pick-up trucks with huge buckets filled with rapidly melting blocks of ice. Part of what made it such a good experience was the interaction with locals which sadly is sometimes lacking from our travels. The feel-good atmosphere made the week's events in Bangkok and the very real danger we could have been in seem even more surreal....

The popular night bazaar in Chiang Mai was extended for the period of the festival, and so good was the street food on offer that we ate there every night, on little red plastic chairs under guttering lanterns. We tried chicken mataba, (a cross between roti and a vegetable pasty) sushi, pad thai, curried noodle soup, paprika chicken, fried chicken, spring rolls, rice sausages, handmade crisps and chips. (Not all on the same night!) Again, the atmosphere was great and the food incredibly cheap.

Chiang Mai is famous for its cooking courses, so we signed up for a fairly posh looking one, run by a very personable tv chef. The whole experience was a lot of fun, although we both felt there was a lot of hand-holding. This did however speed up the whole process - I've never made beans on toast that quickly, let alone yellow curry! To the right - a version of pad thai, with long flat noodles and pork. The brownish colour of the noodles comes from soy sauce, which they were soaked in before cooking.

 Yellow curry, with chicken and potatoes. This recipe is amazing - I have a copy of it (and all the others), so go ahead and ask! This is great served with a bit of vinegar with sugar and chopped chillis and garlic in it.

  Chicken with cashew nuts.

 Steamed fish in banana leaf. Some of the others on the course found the kaffir lime leaves in this a bit strong, but I really liked it. Perhaps my version was just better! We combined the fish and herbs with rice powder - I don't know if this is available in the UK, or if it would work with couscous instead, or even normal rice? Hmm.

 Spicy prawn salad. ( We also made bananas in coconut milk as a dessert, but it wasn't my kind of thing at all so no pictures!)




On the last day of Songkran, April 15th, we took the night bus back to Bangkok, to get an onward connection to the islands.

Halong Bay

We spent our last two days in Vietnam on a trip to Halong Bay, with one night spent sleeping on a junk in the bay. There were just six of us on the trip, half the usual number, which definitely improved the experience. The others were a British mother and daughter and a couple from Hawaii, who were very nonchalant about all the kayaking and beach parts of the trip. The trip was one of the more expensive things we've done while travelling, but although you can get bargain-basement prices for expeditions to Halong it was worth paying a bit more as our boat was lovely and the food was great.

 The weather was pretty misty on our first day there, but we felt lucky as the weather can be much worse at this time of year. The haze made the whole trip feel more romantic, and it was great to just sit on the sun deck and gaze out at the limestone islands. It was not hard to imagine a pirate ship suddenly appearing out of the gloom, or hidden treasure buried on one of the forested crags.

We visited the largest cave in the bay, which is also Vietnam 's second biggest. It really was quite impressive, although also crammed full of tourists.

Indeed, Halong Bay is very big business, and perhaps in danger of being spoiled if the number of boats allowed into the bay is not regulated. It is also evidently very popular with families - we saw lots of people there with young children.

We spent a couple of hours kayaking around the islands later that afternoon - it was just as well we'd done it in Laos as no instruction was given! The sea was extremely calm and we didn't capsize at all. We kayaked into a bay entirely enclosed by cliffs at one point, and accessible only through a cave.

The food on the boat was Vietnamese, served buffet style, with a massive variety of dishes to choose between. At each of our meals there was usually one vegetable dish, often cabbage cooked with ginger, one squid dish,  a chicken or pork stir fry, a snake-head fish cooked in a tomato sauce and tiger prawns. There was often also a gelatinous soup to start with, which neither of us liked much. Dessert was fresh fruit.

After dinner we played cards with the others on the trip, although conversation was a bit stilted at times.

On the second day of the trip, we climbed up a steep set of steps to the top of the highest limestone island, for panoramic views of the bay. It was just seven am, so there were no other tourists there and the bay was still.

We cruised back into harbour by way of a different route, and arrived back in Hanoi about four pm. The next morning we flew to Bangkok, arriving just a few hours before the riots escalated into violence...

Hanoi

Our first morning in Hanoi found us involved in an unpleasant confrontation with the hotel manager in the slightly seedy place we had ended up staying at the night before, when everywhere else in the vicinity was either full or $30 a night. On checking out, the manager added VAT twice to our bill and then used a ridiculous exchange rate to covert it to dong, despite the fact that having being burned this way before we had checked they used the legit exchange rate the previous night. He then quickly became aggressive and insulted us personally when we questioned these extra charges. While this experience was definitely the exception rather than the rule, we did unfortunately find it necessary to be more wary of scams in Vietnam than in other countries we've travelled through.

However! We moved  to a hotel elsewhere in the Old Quarter, where the staff were lovely and extremely helpful. The Old Quarter is a chaotic area in the centre of Hanoi where relics of Vietnam's colonial past sit alongside a bustling, developing city which feels very foreign. Leafy green trees shadow women carving dorian fruit on the kerb, motorbikes weave in between cyclos carrying gawping tourists and a huge grey medieval-looking cathedral looms near the pagoda on the lake. The Old Quarter is even harder to walk around than Phnom Penh, as the pavements are chock-a-block with parked bikes and stalls, and the city is coated in a layer of mud due to the frequent rain showers.

We had quite a few days in Hanoi, and spent most of them sight-seeing in a fairly leisurely fashion. One day we got a cyclo (itself a hair-raising experience) to the Temple of Literature, which was used as a university 1000 years ago. The temple was a lot of fun to explore, with each pagoda seeming to yield more spectacular shrines or stunning gardens beyond. Afterwards we walked through the city to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. We found walking much easier beyond the busy Old Quarter and ended up seeing a lot of the city this way. Due to our usual bad planning, we arrived at Ho Chi's final resting place after it had closed for the day, so admired it from the outside instead. It is a very imposing and slightly grim structure, close by the Royal palace and gardens. These all looked a bit of place, as if transplanted from another city, due to the contrast with Hanoi's extremely narrow buildings. We spent part of another day exploring the lake at the heart of the Old Quarter. It is a bright emerald green, and boasts a couple of pretty temples on tiny islands, reached by a graceful bridge. At night these are lit to spectacular effect, and the whole area is lovely to stroll through. Other activities in Hanoi included a visit to the market near the lake, where you can buy anything as long as you don't care if it's fake, and a trip to the cinema for 3D Alice in Wonderland. (4 pounds each!)

  Restaurants in Hanoi we found a bit more expensive than we were accustomed to, although Dave loved the bakeries on every street corner selling doughnuts, croissants and pain au chocolat. We had some very good pho in Hanoi, and on one night visited a restaurant called Nem and Nem which sold only spring rolls. Another memorable meal was duck 'Hanoi style' - it was chargrilled and cooked with ginger and lemongrass. I'm sure in London the same meal would have cost eight times as much. We couldn't resist seeking out Indian food in Hanoi again as well, which was very nice although nowhere so far has beaten the Indian meal we had in Bangkok so long ago!

Next: Halong Bay!

Hue and Ninh Binh - less culture and more Jenga, please

 01/04/10 - 04/04/10

Hue was an interesting place to visit, but its built-up city centre was a slight let-down after the postcard-perfect appearance of Hoi An. On our first full day in the city we visited the Citadel - the Emperor's palace, built in the 19th C. It is dominated by a massive Vietnamese flag and surrounded by whizzing motorbikes, which look surreal against the backdrop of its ancient walls and moat. The interior is a combination of the grandiose, the sublime and the derelict - chaotic building work alongside stunning pagodas, crumbling ruins beside ponds covered in lotus flowers, tiled plazas, purple columns, peaceful gardens and exhibitions of Ming china.

Somehow the entire day was consumed by the walk there and back and wandering in the gardens, and at some point we came to the decision to boycott the (expensive) trip to Hue's royal tombs we had planned to do the next day. There are really only so many beautiful ancient ruins you can gaze at before deciding that real backpackers absorb the true essence of the city by osmosis, while drinking in a cafe. Or something... We also impulsively decided to get the dreaded night bus to Ninh Binh the next day. (3rd of April)

The rest of Hue passed in a succession of bars and restaurants, where we had an extended games tournament. We competed in the fields of pool, draughts, chess, dominoes and finally, Jenga. The progression from games of skill to those of luck was far from accidental, but rather designed in a futile attempt to reverse my fortunes. During the course of Games Day we encountered a lovely young Vietnamese waiter, who was fascinated by the elaborate cover of my journal. (A present from Emma H!) It has an old-school, days-of-Empire world map on the front and back, and he was completely nonplussed by the fact Vietnam appeared only as part of 'French Indochina'. This led to an awkward conversation in which I tried to explain that this was not in fact the everyday map we use in Britain, but an ironic nod to the past....I'm not sure how well that came across...



The night bus was, if possible, even less comfortable and more stressful than the one to Hoi An, as we had to ensure we woke up at 4am for the brief stop in Ninh Binh before the bus drove on to Hanoi. We disembarked in the pitch black, on a drizzly motorway. One solitary hotel owner was there to greet us, and lead us down a muddy track to his comfortable rooms where we crashed for a few hours. Later that day (4th April), we breakfasted on noodle soup before renting bikes and heading along Highway One to Tam Coc.

Tam Coc is often described as Halong Bay on the rice paddies. It is, apparently, the way now that Halong was hundreds of years ago. It is less impressive than its more famous counterpart, but still  a pretty magical place to visit. The journey on a long-tail boat through the site takes about two hours, and involves travelling through several eerie caves. The scenery is spectacular, and the mist on the day we were there only made the whole experience even more other-worldly. Unfortunately, the pressure from locals to buy souvenirs or give tips is quite insistent, but we resisted and didn't let it detract from the day.

We were back at our hotel by late afternoon, and as Ninh Binh itself was less than spectacular, we made the snap decision to take the local bus to Hanoi that night. It was a dark and stormy night when we arrived, and as a result we ended up in a hotel where the manager was intent on cheating us out of as much money as possible. Details of our thrilling escape to follow!

Tale of Two Tourist Spots: Nha Trang and Hoi An

We visited the beach resort of Nha Trang during a period of unseasonable downpours. The sky was grey, the sea was choppy, and it was all very reminiscent of the British seaside. We did very little in town, spending most of our time gazing out at the rainswept palm trees from a posh cafe/microbrewery/pool resort. There was something a bit forlorn and romantic about Nha Trang in the rain - the shore was devoid of tourists most of the time, and the streets were quiet. Perhaps due to the weather then, we both enjoyed our brief stay there.

Our next stop was Hoi An, by way of the night bus. This was not a particularly pleasant experience, but we arrived unscathed. (The four English guys we met going to Phu Quoc reappeared on the same bus. They had been disappointed in Phu Quoc, due to the lack of nightlife.)

Hoi An is a picturesque little town, with a large concentration of tourists. It has been compared to a museum due to the many well-preserved buildings and historical sites scattered around the old town. We visited several of these but found much of the charm of Hoi An was just in exploring the attractive streets. It really is a lovely place, with lanterns strung between colonial-style buildings and quaint shops and restaurants tucked down tiny winding alley-ways. Unfortunately, these factors also make it a magnet for visitors, and the town is thronged with foreigners.

Another of Hoi An's attractions is its status as THE place in Vietnam to get clothes tailor made. There are tailors lining every street, and the type of clothing you can buy is limited only by your imagination. Dave ended up buying a tailor-made suit, shirt and jacket, all of which we shipped back to the UK. It should arrive about the same time we get back from South America! I...do not respond well to the hard-sell, and after going in planning to maybe spend $60 dollars on a suit jacket and matching skirt ended up leaving with nothing after they tried to get me to spend $120 dollars instead! It was probably for the best as I realised later on I hopefully will have more of a need for jeans than suits in my chosen career. I did come away from Hoi An with a new dress, which I'm wearing now rather than sending home so pictures will follow.

Hoi An is also well known for its cuisine, and we tried lots of lovely regional specialties here. Among them were 'white rose' wontons (dumplings filled with shrimp and pork), wonton soup, and cau lao. We loved the latter in particular - it is grilled slices of pork served with fresh greens, beansprouts, soy sauce and doughy flat noodles. Delicious! We also loved the not-so-Vietnamese crab club sandwiches served at a Parisian style deli near the river front. Hoi An was a lovely and relaxing place to spend a few days, although it did feel slightly less Vietnames than some of the other towns we've been to. Our next stop, Hue, was a bit of a contrast - just as much history but less old-world charm unfortunately....

The Highlands (Vietnam has them too!)

Our next stop was a town called Dalat, a town high in the mountains, with a climate all of its own. It felt more like parts of Europe than like Asia, with colourful colonial-style buldings and densely forested mountains shrouded in mist. On our way there, we saw an unseasonable tropical storm, complete with lashing rain and thunder. It was the first time we had seen rain in over two months. We met a lovely German girl called Lena on the bus - she spoke perfect English and was travelling solo through most of Vietnam.

In Dalat we all ended up staying at the same guesthouse then having dinner together in the cafe below, which could have been the set of a movie about interrailing across Europe - it was smoke-filled and at any one time had representatives from most countries in Western Europe drinking beer or the excellent Vietnamese filter coffee. We arranged to do a trek the following day, along with Lena and two Canadian women who spoke mostly French.

The trek was around 16km in total, through forested countryside and jungle scrub. We passed several coffee plantations and also saw mangoes, lemongrass, potatoes, ginger, bananas and chillis growing. Along the way we had to walk across three suspension bridges over rivers, which grew progressively more decrepit as the trek went on, until the final one had gaps we had to leap across and  a railing detached from the bridge itself.
Parts of the trek were so steep that they were almost vertical, but the lunch of baguettes and fresh fruit on a mountaintop was worth it. The next day however, I had pains in places where I hadn't known muscles even existed. (Hips?) We climbed up and down three peaks, the highest of which was 1700m, and ended up at a pretty waterfall called Tiger Falls. The rickety bridge is just visible above the waterfall in the photo below.

We met Lena later that night for dinner - I had sauteed chicken with lemongrass and chilli and Dave had minced beef wrapped in something we think was a banana leaf. Afterwards we all returned to our hotel cafe for strawberry wine. (Dalat is where most wine and coffee made in Vietnam comes from.) The next day we all went our separate ways, and Dave and I ended up spending a rainy couple of days at the beach resort of Nha  Trang.