Now the
updates are coming thick and fast.
From
Judith yesterday:
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| Hue - Forbidden City. www.all-free-photos.com |
We just
arrived in Hue. We're skipping a couple places in Vietnam so we're not so
rushed. 14.5 hour train ride, so exhausted, lol. Goodnight.
Then this
morning from Judith:
Hi
Everybody!
Well we
arrived in Hanoi on the 24th. It was a huge change from Laos. The first thing
we experienced after getting off the bus was essentially being accosted by taxi
drivers. There was a swarm of them and they all come up and start asking you
things and telling you things and following you and won't let you go. We teamed
up with a bunch of other tourists and got a minivan taxi at a decent price ($2
each), unfortunately it dropped us off with about a 10 minute walk from our
hostel. Not such a bad walk, one would think, except that it was our first
exposure to Hanoi traffic. Crossing a road in Hanoi was terrifying.
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| Hanoi scooters |
About 70%
of the traffic is scooters, and there are no stop signs or traffic lights, and
pedestrians are secondary to motorized vehicles. We managed, and by the end of
our stay there we actually got the hang of it. The trick is to cross the road
one half at a time instead of trying to find a break in traffic on both sides
at the same time. There were a couple other differences we noticed. No stray
dogs in Hanoi, but lots of rubbish on the street. All the small side streets in
Laos were the red rusty coloured dirt roads, in Vietnam its all cement.
Unfortunately no good bad English advertisements for Marks photos.
We
decided to do 2 day trips and use Hanoi as our base. The first day we went to
Tam Coc. Tam Coc is beautiful. You travel down the river in a small boat in
between karst mountains and through 3 caves. The rowers rowed with their feet!
Both oars at the same time or one at a time (looked similar to riding a
bicycle). We also rode bikes for a few kilometres in the area.
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| Thien Cung Cave |
The next
day we left for Hue on our first south east Asian train. It was a 14.5 hour
ride, filled with rice cakes, not sitting together, and screaming and jumping
children.
We really
like our hotel here, and we both much prefer the city compared to Hanoi. Its a
lot less busy, cleaner, and crossing roads is a lot safer. Restaurant, bars,
cafes, and convenience stores are also a lot more to our liking. Side note,
there are no grocery stores that we've seen anywhere in out travels, only mini
marts and convenience stores.
Today we
checked out the imperial city, which was pretty neat. The heat was crazy
though, in the direct sun it was 45 degrees easily. No heat exhaustion yet
though, yay! We also checked out local eats/drinks, and the night market (I
bought a cute $2.5 shoulder purse). We had a huge delicious meal that we would
have paid about $70 before tax and tip for in Canada, and only paid $20 tax and
tip included here. Our beers came out to 75 cents each.
We are
off tomorrow to Hoi An, which we are really excited about. We hear there is a
really nice beach and they are also known for custom made suits, dresses, and
shoes!
Hope
everyone is well.
Judith
and Mark
Posted today on FaceBook by Mark:
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| Didn't get a shot of this one in time because I was on a bus driving by. Luckily the Internet has my back. |
