And the award goes to Vietnam! Stuck on another 16 hour scam bus( paying for a sleeping bus and ending up in something more of a truck) on my way to Hanoi we eventually stopped at a random restaurant,after a bit of a wait the ordered dish fnally arrived, even looking at it alarm bells rang, but with another 10 hours to go I was pretty hungry. And I have being suffering the past few days for that mistake, which along with the dodgy meal on the boat while snorkelling last week hasn`t added up to a great week.
Since Saigon I have endured a 9 hour trip on a train which was actually entertaining, some local girls trying to teach me the lingo, but to no avail, although the wooden seats were a bit uncomfortable after a few hours. This little expedition got me as far as Nha Trang, which was disappointingly more like Salthill or Surfers , so didn`t hang around too much. My next bus adventure involved another dodgy sleeper bus, where my bunk was on the lower level down the back of the bus where I had the privilage of being squeezed inbetween the bus driver and another random person, with no light or toilet on board, and not enough space to even sit up, another 11 hour coffin experience which landed me in Hoi An.
Hoi An was fine ,a bit touristy and too expennive to linger for a few days. So after the dodgy rice bus experience I find myself in Hanoi. Found a great little hostel with plenty of travellers for info and beers, suspect we ended up eating bbq dog (the local speciality) last night because it certainly wasn`t anything like I tasted before and they were falling over themselves to serve us, we had 5 people hovering around us the whole time along with passing bemused locals.
So getting geared up for China, just for the VISA. Not too sure whats going to happen as I don`t have any tickets out of the country so I`ll have to cross the fingers. Off to Halong Bay for a few days doing a cruise and some local trekking and kayaking. Hopefully my visa awaits on my return.
