France: Loire Valley

Mel & I caught the train (with difficulty, thanks to rail strikes) into the country for a couple of days; stayed the first night in Tours and the second in Blois. The old quarter in Tours was really pretty with narrow alleys & looming buildings (the ones with the beams on the outside... I don´t know the name of the architecture!) and the town of Blois was nice but we were staying in the outskirts in a housing estate type hostel... we were happy to get out of there! Note to selves yet again, book more than a day in advance! We keep saying that, then putting it off.

We saw the Chateau de Chambord while we were here, which was set up as a hunting lodge but has a ridiculous 77 staircases and 282 fireplaces! It has the clever double-helix staircase which may or may not have been inspired by Da Vinci.
We also had lots of fun in the Magic House of Houdin (the magician who Houdini named himself after.) There were mirrors and optical illusions to play with, a magic show to watch and some original props of Houdin. He was a clock-maker, inventor, illusionist and then magician, and all of this is set up in his old mansion in the middle of Blois.

France: Paris

Arrived at Charles de Gaulle in 10 degrees celcius which was a massive shock after Vietnam! Found my way through the RER and metros to a hostel in Montmartre and as you´re locked out of the rooms before 5pm I just wandered around the streets, freezing, ate a Nutella crepe and listened to a harp busker at Sacre Coeur. I loved Montmartre, it looked like a movie set with quaint chocolatiers, fromageries, boulangeries... red flowers in window boxes etc. Everything was so pretty, but it stunk! Paris is officially smellier than Saigon- people must be very liberal about where they can relieve themselves.

That evening as I dazedly wondered what to do before Mel arrived, she appeared in the doorway (about 15 hours earlier than I expected her... wow stuffed that up!) Anyway it was a perfect surprise and we headed out for French food and wine at a brasserie where all the chairs face the street for people watching. It was so cold we were rugged up in jeans, jumpers, and scarves! Secretly I was a bit happy because I had been lugging this cold weather gear around the whole of Asia without even having to look at it!

For the rest of the 5 days we had in Paris we found fun bars in Montmartre, walked around streets and touristy things, became experts at the metro (it´s so efficient, loved waiting max 2 mins for a train) and made some friends at hostels. There are way too many Aussies and Americans travelling right now! We loved Pere Lachaise cemetery which is so old and grand and gothic, some families had crypts which look like grandfather clocks but are like mini churches with ornate iron doors and stained glass windows in the back, others had crumbling graves covered in ivy.. and everything in between. Oscar Wilde´s grave covered in kisses is there, and lots of other famous people.

Stumbled across the summer solstice music festival in Montmartre which was a massive street party; different genres of bands and djs playing on every corner, food and drink sold on the curbs, dancing all over the roads.
We also explored the Latin Quarter and had fun buying picnic supplies for the Jardin des plantes, although there were so many ´no sitting on the grass´nazis we had to content ourselves with a picnic on a bench.
Made some Australian and American friends and hung out with them for a couple of nights, watched the Aus-Serbia game with them and then headed up the Eiffel Tower. It was good doing that towards the end because we could recognise all the major monuments from above and really get Paris in perspective!

The transition to Euros is killing me though, coming from Vietnam where we could have a nice double room with private bathroom, air con, wifi, tv, and fridge for $5 each- to Paris where it´s 28 Euros for a dorm (on weekend) with nothing but a bed!!

Our last night in Paris Mel and I couch surfed with a French girl called Laurie who was sweet, she was really into the World Cup and helped us organise getting to Barcelona! We needed some time away from the hostel crowds and it was great to talk to a native when it´s not in a transaction. In fact it was so fun I think I might head back to France after the UK... I´m really enjoying speaking the language.

PS The weather turned great after the first 2 days.

Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh City

Or "Saigon" because that´s what the locals still call it!

Scott and I had a couple of days in Saigon together before I left for Paris and the boys came to meet him. It was a few weeks ago now but my impressions were of wide busy streets lined with tall trees, big parks in the middle of city blocks, and not so much chaos as Hanoi. Well the traffic and power lines were just as crazy, but the streets were easier to walk along and there wasn´t as much street food cooking (mostly just glass cabinets of baguettes, and coffee.)

The War Remnants museum (or Museum of American War Crimes) was full-on with graphic photos and replicas and even foetuses in jars showing the effects of Agent Orange on unborn babies. There was a temporary exhibit there as well showing photos of people who are still living with the dehibilitating effects of the defoliants on their children´s bodies, who are now grown up.
The other exhibits in there were great too, photos from journalists who had been killed in action, anti war propaganda from around the world (including Melbourne) etc.

I also went on a half day trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels which was incredible learning about the conditions the VC lived in, the tiny claustrophobic tunnels and terrible booby traps they set up for the Americans and South Vietnamese. Our guide fought for 8 years in the South vietnamese army against the communists so had an interesting viewpoint on it all. We had a chance to squeeze into the original tiny entrance holes, and most people couldn´t even get their hips through. We could also crawl 100 metres or so through a tunnel which had been widened for tourists, but even so you had to walk with knees bent, back scraping against the roof, it was so awful I took the first exit to get out of there! He explained that in the original size tunnels, the soldiers had to shuffle in the "squat" position for hours on end, carrying guns. Try it- your knees will give out in one minute!

I found the Hotel Continental one afternoon which was fun, imagining Graham Greene living there as he wrote The Quiet American!
We ate more pho, explored the Ben Tham markets and night markets, and saw Sex & The City at the movies... the film was terrible (in my opinion the TV show is so much better :D) but the audience reactions made it worthwhile.. the Vietnamese had to read subtitles so got the jokes about 20 seconds after the Westerners, and boy did they love it! I´ve never heard so much delayed laughter, and then them all trying to repeat the jokes in English straight after.

Leaving Saigon was kinda hard; for one I´ve never gone to an airport by myself to hop on a plane to a continent where no-one is waiting for me, and for two it was realising I won´t see Scott until October! But it all went smoothly, and the Qatar flight was absolute luxury compared to Air Asia, I got so many freebies I ran out of room in the seat pocket for them all! (blankets, pillows, comfort kits, free food & drink, my own tv screen...!)

Vietnam: Mui Ne

Mui Ne is a tiny fishing town about halfway between Nha Trang and Ho Chi Min City, and it's famous for its windy beaches and therefore popular with windsurfers and kitesurfers! Nadeane wanted to see it on the way to Saigon and Scott wasn't bothered with it so I went with her for a day, then bussed back to Nha Trang overnight. First off, the whole town stunk of dry fish. We got a cheap room ($5) to put our bags in and then got a scooter ($4) and drove round finding the tourist sites of 'Fairy Stream' and 'Red dunes'. The stream was fun, for a stream, and we were followed by some awkward male teens who finally mustered up the courage to say 'hello where you from' and then practically ran off giggling at their bravery!

The dunes were cool, just massive stretches of fine red sand made into an industry by little kids selling rides on toboggans down the hills! 'Wanna slide? Wanna slide? Maybe later? Ok come to me when you slide later.' Had some fun playing in the sand and taking yoga photos of N before heading back to our dirty little bungalow to wait for the 1.30am bus back to NT for me, 2.30am bus to HCMC for her. It was sad to say goodbye, I hadn't expected to make such a close friendship so quickly, but she's offered to host me at her new place in LA (she's moving from Canada) when I get there in September, so I already can't wait for that!

Vietnam: Nha Trang

As soon as we arrived in Nha Trang at 6am, Scott claimed "I love Nha Trang." The sky was blue, the beach was sparkling, and it had a slightly Gold Coast feel to it, minus most of the skyscrapers.

It was much busier than Hoi An, but not nearly as crazy as Hanoi, so we got scooters and explored the main beach strip and the streets behind our hotel and feel like we know it really well by now (I think we've been here for a whole week?!) I may struggle to get Scott to leave!

Our adventures here included...

Nadeane and I had a ladies night out as all the boys slept off their sunburn, and checked out the bars as she pretended to be Aussie (and failed miserably when she had never heard of vegemite... noooorr :P)

We scootered around some great ocean road-type scenery to find a path through a village to a waterfall to jump into (I think all travellers are obsessed with jumping off things!)

Went across a cable-car thing over the ocean to an island called 'Vinpearl' which is owned by a resort with a private beach and amusement park! So went on the waterslides and a really lame '4D cinema' ride, the boys played some arcade games, we ate icecream and came home.

One morning I woke up sick as a dog with a cold/fluey thing and so spent a couple of days dragging myself from bed to beach and back (the annoying thing about Vietnam in low season is that they shut off the power every second day from 6.30am til 5.30pm so there's no aircon, fans, tv, or even electric cooking appliances in most restaurants) so I couldn't just stay in the room all day sleeping, it was too hot! And the beach is really windy, so if you don't like being whipped by sand, we did things like scootering to markets and getting massages/ pedicures... can't complain I guess!

Scott refused to acknowledge that Nha Trang might be souring on us when our scooter was taken back by the owner, it was suddenly missing a mirror, and the same day someone tried to sell his passport back to him... But no money lost, and he still loves Nha Trang! (I think its the food.)

It was here our fellowship was broken... Drew pushed onto Mui Ne after only 2 days, Matt caught a plane back to Hanoi, and Nadeane and I went on a girls day trip to Mui Ne before she left for HCMC.

Vietnam: Hoi An

Hoi An was a really pretty town: the tall skinny houses were all faded pastel colours like yellow, orange, pink, green and blue with the paint peeling and cracked. There were silk lanterns and frangipanis hanging off the balconies, and it was really quiet; especially at night when we felt like we were in a ghost town.

Drew caught up with us here so the five of us spent our days scootering around town, checking on measurements at our 'Kimmy' tailor, eating and going to the beach. The three boys got some crazy shorts made (wait til you see Scott's!) with different coloured pockets and legs and buttons.. and Nadeane got some nice silk shorts and blazers. I refrained due to limited pack space and budget, but it was fun just watching them choose their designs and materials!

One night we started chatting to a group of Vietnamese people around our age on the beach and they invited us to sit on their mat, eat their chili squid and sip whatever they were drinking with them. Seeing as our working vocabulary of Vietnamese consists of 'xin chao' for hello and 'cam on' for thankyou, and all they could say was 'I kiss you, because I luuurve you' (I don't know where they learnt it but they all thought it was hilarious and giggled everytime they said it) it was an interesting night and so nice to be included with some locals.

From Hoi An we jumped on the sleeper bus 12 hours to Nha Trang. I read 'The Sorrow of War' on this journey and it was perfect, rumbling along the highway at night, stopping for pho, and thinking about the Vietnam war. The book is written from the view of a young North Vietnamese soldier, whose entire life was ruined by the war even though he was on the 'winning' side.

Vietnam: Halong Bay & Hanoi again

We knew that we had booked the cheapest available Halong Bay tour and didn't expect luxury... but all the photos the agent showed us of accomodation and food and promises of aircon and optional extras still sounded great so the four of us (Matt from Adelaide, Nadeane from Canada, and us) headed off in a bus for a 3 day package tour (and learnt that we never want to do a package tour again!)

The bay itself is incredible- 1,600 islands jutting out of the ocean all around you, but we were treated at worst with contempt and at best like sheep! Nadeane had 3 million dong and a bottle of vodka (as well as her gluten free snacks) stolen while we were on the boat, our itinerary was very shady and changed without notice so we missed out on things, our hotel on Cat Ba island had no electricity for hours overnight and also had cockroaches, the crew on the boat hated us and tried to make us go to sleep at 8pm (then woke us up very early for 40 minutes of scummy kayaking in a part of the bay which had dirty toilet paper and floaters in the water) our cabin next to the engine filled up with petrol fumes overnight, and the lowest point had to be when a group of 7 of us were ditched on a dock with no tour guide, no instructions of which boat to get on and no idea where our passports had gotten to!

It was quite disappointing that the crew weren't happy and proud to show off such a beautiful place, they could have told us things about it and described what we were looking at or even told us the name of the cave we shuffled through with a million other tourists, but instead they lounged in the eating area of the boat, watching Vietnamese TV and glaring at us.

But despite all this we still had a fun time; made friends with some cool US guys, (see their take on the Halong experience here: nicoandmateoshappyendings.blogspot.com) loved jumping off the top deck of the boat into the sea, and played hilarious card games with the group on the boat who were American, Russian, British, Finnish, Canadian and Australian, and even had a midnight jump off the top deck for which we got screamed at by the captain!



After Halong Bay the four of us stayed in Hanoi again for a bit; I got my nose pierced and ate the best Vietnamese food I've had so far- roll my own spring rolls (rice paper rolls) with caramel beef, all sorts of veges and rice noodles! yummmmmm

That night was our sleeper bus and seeing as today had gone so smoothly it was time for another point for Vietnam in the battle of Vietnam VS Us. It just so happened that I was the last one left in our room (us four were bunking together to save money) packing my pack in the rush to get the bus when my brand new nose stud fell out without me noticing... and I couldn't find it anywhere! We had to run to get the mini bus (me with a big bloody hole in my nose ((not really Mum it was fine)) and Scott had to do an emergency re-piercing in the bumpy packed bus as we stop-started in Hanoi traffic and actually crunched a scooter! What made it more unfortunate for me was I didn't have any cute little earrings to put in, no I had to wear a ridiculous black pearl hanging off my nose like a wart because I didn't want the hole to close over on the overnight bus!


The actual big sleeper bus was an experience, we lay in narrow bunks (top bunk) where the ceiling was so close you can't sit up, and the driver obviously took his lessons from Stan Shunpike! My seatbelt over my bed was broken so on the big bumps I had to grab the edge not to fall into the aisle where a Vietnamese man was sleeping on the floor! Mine was the closest bed to the front door so I had a great view over the driver as he continually texted, smoked and spoke on his phone as he swerved, but amazingly we all had quite a good sleep, and luckily we all fitted into the bunk boxes (if you are tall or wide you've got no chance!)

15 hours later we arrived at Hue, had a 3 hour stopover there, and jumped on another bus to Hoi An where we arrived at 6pm (24 hours after I lost my nose stud!) We stumbled across a nice clean jewelry shop by pure chance tonight, run by an Australian expat, so I was finally able to get rid of the wart and put in a tiny diamond stud yay! But Hoi An is another story...

Vietnam: Hanoi

Scott and I arrived in Hanoi at night-time and had a terrible first impression of it due to combined factors of culture shock and our lack of research and preparation... I hadn't looked up how to get from the airport to the Old Quarter, and all we had was the name of a hotel where our friends were staying but no map or guidebook or address for it! We jumped off the public bus from the airport with no idea and no-one speaking English, and asked directions to Old Quarter where we hoped to find an internet cafe to look up addresses and maps etc... but do you think we could find a single computer with internet?! No-where! Our moods were disintegrating by the minute as we trudged through the packed streets looking for an elusive hotel nobody had heard of, evading all the cyclo, taxi, and hotel touts who wanted to take us other places, soaking in sweat under all our packs, getting nicked by motorbikes on the roads because the paths were packed with Vietnamese people sitting on tiny stools... And everywhere just horns honking and terrible smells and junk being thrust in our faces to buy.

We couldn't catch a break that night as we finally gave in to a lady offering a good price for a hotel room with wifi (so we could contact our friends) but she ended up driving us to another one, which was full, so we were put in a little room behind reception, and then the power went off for ages... and then we went out for food and got given FISH springrolls (and you know how much Scott and I love fish) when we ordered normal ones... it's funny in retrospect but at the time it wasn't!!!

Luckily the next morning we found Matt and Nadeane straight away and suddenly the city changed to being fun! We walked around all day and I took lots of photos, everywhere I looked was an awesome photo op; old ladies in conical hats carrying fruit on a pole over their shoulder, men sitting on tiny chairs on the street smoking pipes and playing some sort of checkers game, little kids playing with little puppies amongst the parked scooters, and so much street food being cooked, stirred, chopped, sprinkled and slurped at every corner.

Matt had been here for a couple of days so knew his way around really well which was great because the little streets were so confusing and copies of the same shops popped up all over the place so it was hard to find landmarks to go by. We walked to a MASSIVE park in the evening where it seems the entire population of Hanoi exercise and play games and socialise at the same time; it was so fun to watch the soccer games, badminton, foot-volleyball, really old skinny men stretching, young built guys working out on outdoor gym equipment, ladies hoola hooping, etc. That night we went to a restaurant and shared a hotpot where you cook your own meat, noodles and veg in a sort of fondue thing which was yum, and then took videos of crossing the main intersection which last night was hell but tonight was exhilarating! The theory is just to walk and let the traffic swerve around you but it's so hard to get into that mindset and not to stop and start when a wall of motorbikes is heading towards you!