The mindblowingly mindless schedule of the border-crossing train had us up at 2300 for the to leave China, and then up again at 0100 to enter Vietnam! Each time we had to take all our things off the train, sit with the mozzies in immigration while they messed around with passports, before putting everything back on the train. We finally said Good Morning Vietnam (sorry, can't help ourselves) at 5.30am. What a farce.
That said, the trains themselves were comfortable, clean and on time. We were whisked to Guangzhou East at terrific speed from whence we had negotiated the superb local tube to the other Guangzhou station. Big mistake (another you're not in Japan any more moment), as we realised our train wasn't going for hours and there was essentially no food or drinks - that jazz you sort out before. At least we could get cup ramen for the train, which turned out to be a riot of food. After a long clunky night of no sleep we squelched in our own sweat through Nanning around every place we could find air con until it was time to return to the station and board the T871 to Hanoi. We saw some interesting snapshots of Chinese life - some very civilised, but others reflected the worst of China. 6000 years of culture has culminated in defecating in public, as was written in our Hong Kong magazine.
Anyway, back to Hanoi. 5am and our man is asking 200k for a taxi. When we will learn to write down the important information before we arrive? What is a dong worth? We have no idea - is it $10 or $100 that he's going for? We thankfully find it to be the former but also that our guesthouse was well closed. So we watched the city come to life and the sun rise over the Koan Lake, sititng on our backpacks. Romantic though it was, it felt much better once we'd washed two days of grime off us. Feeling human once more, we escaped to the museum of ethnology on a local bus which drew gasps of astonishment. Museum OK, but the outside examples of traditional architecture were truly stunning.
Across the park was some sort of ruckus, so we crashed it and found a local fair and a water puppetry show. No doubt technically worse than the tourist shows in the old quarter, this was enlivened by the audience - it was for the local people and they were loving it. It was absoloutely enchanting, despite not nderstanding much - not so fond of the water squirting dragons though!
Museums were hit and miss accross the board - the Ho Chi Minh museum was the only one that was blanket good. The Old Quarter was somewhat overrated, a real false area reflecting little of Vietnam. We weren't really knocked out by Hanoi's sights, it's more of a place to live than to visit.
So it was that we booked ourselves out and headed into Halong Bay on a $50 toure and Cat Ba visit. The bay was spectacular, the company and organisers not. Still, when one's life comprises jumping off boats to swim in green bays and exploring caves, it can't be too bad. We eschewed the so-so food of the tour once on Cat Ba and ate instead on a floating restaurant offshore. It was magical, really, if somewhat rough - toilets emptied directly into the sea below. The food was fantastic. After getting off the island we dumped the tour and jumped on a local bus to Ninh Binh, south of Hanoi. We were picked up by the fatherly Xuan (while driving "I hit this dog, we have food!"), who took us for a ride the next day to the Cuc Phuong National Park. It was wonderful, hundreds of butterflies fluttering by everywhere. We were also pleased to note that both the Zoological Society of London and Bristol Zoo helped the park's Primate Conservation Centre. We then headed to the Tam Coc area to be really taken for a ride through the rice paddies and caves. It was stunning, especially in the final light of the day, but the hard sell left a sour taste.
The night bus to Hue was Hell on Earth! Whoever thought this bus up should be shot. Emma slept relatively well, but Oli struggled to get 4, let alone 40 winks through no curtains, no pillows, no space and THAT INCESSANT BLOODY HORN! It was a 'sleeper bus', with two layers of 'beds' instead of seats. The beds were too small and not totally flat, and there wasn't then space to sit up, leaving the passengers to be shaken around in their fairly uncomfortable positions for the 10 hour trip.
Once in Hue, we settled in a cafe (Mr Cu's) and scouted guesthouses. The Green Bamboo was OK, so we took it and headed to the Citadel. We had a fantastic meal with the deaf-mute Mr Lac, who had two ventures next to him ripping off his name and menu, and all claiming to be recommended by the Lonely Planet. No copyright rules here! We enjoyed the citadels and the food in Hue a lot, but two days was enough and were lucky to be there at the same time as a biannual local festival. The evening show was a bit average (girls parading in traditional dress) apart from the fireworks, and seeing artwork all over the city and tourist attractions was wonderful.
On we went then, this time to Hoi An. It's described as a Disneyland representation of old 'Nam, which is fair. It's tine and faithfully restored. Much like Bath, the accursed hellhole of South West England, it's period-only in the centre. We were there primarily for the clothes and hooked up some tailored gear including the wine-coloured trousers you seee on Emma and the black Vietnam shirt on Oli. The highlight of Hoi An was however, well outside the Old City and in the sea. We dove for the first time with Cham Island Divers, a fantastic operation run by a multi-national group of charismatic characters. Emma took to it like a duck to water (or a fish to the sea?), and after a little panic, so did Oli. It was other worldly and has changed our plans for the holiday. We started excitedly evaluating places to take a PADI course. The primary place in Nam is Nha Trang, so there we headed, mindful of the clock ticking...
