Vietnam - April 25 Hue

Day 7 - Hue, Motor Bike tour and Christie's Birthday

Today in Nam I woke up fairly early because I had planned to go for a run with Christie. Since it had been a week without any exercise apart from running up and down stairs my body was starting to feel it. So I met Christie in the foyer of the hotel wished her a happy birthday and we set off on our run. We decided to run along the Perfume River in a straight line to minimise the chances of getting lost. Our run ended up being just over 4 kilometres which wasn't that long so we finished with a five minute ab workout in the hotel (5 minute ab workout on the iPhone. I know both my brothers Dave and Andrew loved doing it).

After working out we had breakfast at our hotel which had a fantastic variety. My breakfast consisted of pancakes with banana and honey and yoghurt with fresh passion fruit (the yoghurt in Vietnam was really nice). I also took the opportunity to try some Vietnamese Dragon Fruit. Dragon Fruit when peeled is white with black seeds and to be honest doesn't have much flavour.

From breakfast we all met in the foyer ready for the optional motor bike tour around Hue. Everyone in the group had decided to do this tour since Vu said it was one of the best activities and only cost about USD $20 for half a day (including lunch). At the front of the hotel we all got paired up with a different rider, because of numbers Vu was also a rider so Lauren got to pair up with him.

Sitting on the back of the bike took some getting used to, especially when the driver is crossing some of the roads in Hue (I found closing my eyes and praying didn't really help). As we got out of the town and into the country side I found myself relaxing a bit and enjoying the ride. Our first stop was a small village where we would visit a museum, market and get a drink. The museum wasn't really what I was expecting, it was a one room building with different items scattered in the room. If we weren't with a local we definitely wouldn't have realised what this building was. It was great having Vu in the museum because he showed us the purpose of all the items. Most of the stuff in the museums was equipment that the farmers use in Vietnam to grow rice and different crops.

Group outside the walls of the tomb

After our short stop at the village we made our way to the tomb of King Dong Kahanh. The tomb like lots of places in Vietnam had suffered pretty badly from the bombing during the war. The tomb itself is a large area that is surrounded by a massive stone wall. Inside the stone wall is a large garden and somewhere in that garden is the grave of the King. The people who dug the grave for the king were apparently killed after digging the hole so that the location of the grave stayed a secret. Unfortunately the tomb is locked and tourists aren't allowed in but we could see the wall and some buildings around.

From the temple we then made a stop at a shop which made incense sticks and then onto a monastery where we would enjoy a vegetarian lunch. Unbeknownst to us the lunch that we were about to experience would be the best lunch of the whole Intrepid tour. The lunch had a large variety of food but my favourite was the prawn crackers with some type of topping (kinda like a salsa but different).

After a massive lunch which we didn't end up finishing it was time to get back on the bikes. Our next stop was an arena in Hue where the King used to battle Elephants  against Tigers. Most times the elephant won the battle because it would crush the tiger with it's feet. The arena was a little bit smaller than the MCG... well alot smaller. Pretty much it was a stone wall that covered a small patch of ground. Inside the arena we did get to see the area where the tigers were kept and on the wall you could see claw marks from the tigers. After the arena we took a boat ride to a temple then finally back on our bikes who took us back to our hotel.

Vu had mentioned that Hue was great for glasses shopping so anyone that wanted glasses he would show us a good shop. Dave, George, Morag, Christie and I decided that we would check this shop out to see what was in stock. Once inside the glasses store we noticed pretty quick that the glasses for guys looked like they had been made in the 80's. It was an easy decision to then get the boys (George, Dave and myself) and do a self tour of Hue. Armed with the map that Vu had provided we started exploring the city.

Our destination was any place that sold beer or coffee. First stop on the map was a bar Vu had marked called "Brown Eyes". Once we arrive we noticed the sign said "5pm until the last one passes out"... Damn it was only 4:45. We walked in the bar anyway but the owner insisted we come back later because he didn't have hot girls to serve us yet. So we kept walking and found a coffee shop just down the corner. After a beer and coffee (we couldn't decide which one to have) we went back to the hotel.

Whilst waiting for time to depart for dinner we decided another round of "Last Card" was in order. So George, Taylor came into Dave and my room and the competition started. During the games Taylor was talking about some of the nicknames his friends gave him for example Taylortrash. David then suggested that a good nickname would be Swifty. George and I found it funny but it was officially going to be Taylor's nickname once Taylor said "I hope that nickname doesn't stick".

For dinner Vu took us to a restaurant in town which was the worst place of the whole tour (we had the best lunch and worst dinner on the same day). The meals were small and all came out at very different times. Vu had organised however a cake to celebrate Christies birthday, after singing happy Birthday multiple times we left the restaurant and headed to "Brown Eyes" (again) to have some drinks.

Once in Brown Eyes Dave and I found out after we bought the first round of drinks that it was "Buy 1 get 1 free" for the first drink only (if you order through a waitress and not at the bar). So after foolishly buying a Hue beer as the first drink we convinced the waitress we didn't get the "buy 1 get 1 free" and we started hitting the cocktails. After a few cocktails Dave and I kept doing rounds, the rule was that you had to buy the other person a drink but it was a drink of your choice. I expected Dave to buy Southern Comfort but instead he bought us both a Jim Beam and coke. So we ended up on bourbon for the rest of the night, Dave ordering Jim Beam and me ordering Jack when it was my round.

The interesting thing about Vietnam is you buy the shot of bourbon then you pay extra for the coke. Most times the waitress understood this but once I had to spend 5 minutes explaining to the waitress that I wanted coke added to the straight Jack Daniels she had bought out. This was made harder by the language barrier and the fact I was a little bit tipsy so I'm sure my english wasn't the best. During the night Dave also noticed that they had cigars on the menu and they were only 80,000 dong (roughly $4), so we decided in our drunken state that cigars would be a great idea.

Once midnight hit we realised that suddenly it wasn't Christie's birthday anymore.... luckily we stil had a reason to celebrate because it was Morag's birthday. So after a few shots ordered for both birthday girls we continued drinking and dancing.

At some stage during the night it was decided as a group that it was probably time to go home, so we all ended up stumbling back to our hotel. It had been a long and fantastic day in Hue, the next day we had a bus ride to Hoi An.

Vietnam - April 24 Hue

Day 6 - Hue, "I think you guys are right about the water"

Today in Nam I woke up to the gentle rocking of the train, well not really all through the night I kept waking up whenever the train driver would put on the breaks (which was quite often). We were getting closer to our destination so it was time to clean up our room and pack our bags. Our room was really clean since we hadn't partied in it the night before, the girls room on the other hand was a mess. The floor was similar to a nightclub floor with your feet sticking to the ground for a few seconds every step. I really wouldn't want to be the person who was staying in the cabin after us.

Whilst waiting in our cabin Taylor had mentioned that he had drunk the water from the hot tap on the train. Dave, George and myself all said that it probably wasn't a smart move because that would be local water but Taylor disagreed. His logic was because it was from the hot tap the water had already been boiled, anyway Taylor wasn't worried because he had tablets for "that" so he may as well use them. Taylor then left the cabin to ponder his dilemma whilst the rest of us packed up.

About 20 minutes later Taylor came back into our cabin a little pale. Standing in the doorway with his fly undone and holding a bottle of water he calmly said to us "I think you guys are right about the water". Suddenly George, David and I burst into fits of laughter which went on for about 5 minutes. Eventually some of the girls came into our cabin to see what we were laughing at and obviously being nicer people than us they assisted Taylor with medication.

After Taylor's stomach settled a bit we decided to pass the remaining minutes we should play cards. George suggested we play "Last Card" which is very similar to Uno but with a deck of cards. The rules of the game is: Each player is dealt 7 cards, and the top card on the deck is turned face up. Players take in turns to put either the same suit or same number down and the first person with no cards wins. When a player is down to their last card they must declare "Last Card" otherwise they get a 2 card penalty. The fun comes in with some cards being worth different things which are:

• Ace: Player can change it to the suit of their choosing
• 2: Next player has to draw two, if they have a 2 they can place it down so the following player has to draw 4 (max draw 8 cards)
• 5: Next player has to draw five or can put down a five (max draw 20 cards)
• 10: Skip the next player
• Jack: Reverse the direction

It was soon to become a card game that we played regularly between the guys. 

Once the train stopped we hoped off, got onto a bus to our hotel, checked in and went and got some breakfast. After breakfast we had a tour planned of the Citadel with Vu, so we walked from the hotel over the perfume river to the Citadel (Imperial City). The imperial city is a walled fortress which used to be the capital of Vietnam, during the war the citadel was mostly flattened by the bombing with only a few buildings remaining. The Vietnamese government and UNESCO are in the process of reconstructing the Citadel.

Through the gates of the Citadel we saw elephants, horses and a pond full of fish. Vu purchased some food from a vendor and dropped the food in the water. Suddenly hundreds of gold fish had quickly swam over and were practically begging for more food. It was crazy, I have never seen so many fish practically jumping out of the water for food.

We spent the next couple of hours walking around the citadel which was really large before making our way back to the hotel.

For dinner we had an optional group dinner which was a Royal Banquet. As part of the Royal Banquet we were required to pick a King and a Queen and dress up in traditionally clothing. We decided the fairest way to decide the King and the Queen would be to draw names from a hat. The females were first so they all drew names, if you drew the piece of paper with the word "Queen" on it then you were the Queen. So after a few happy shouts from the girls that didn't have Queen written we all heard a shriek from Morag. So the Queen was decided it was going to be Morag.

Next up was the drawing of the King, Vu went round and David, Allen, George, Taylor and myself drew a piece of paper. I unfolded my paper and it was thankfully blank then I heard someone yell "Crap!!". I looked up to see David jumping around more than he usually does. There we had it David and Morag were going to be our King and Queen for the night.

At the restaurant we put on different costumes and then paraded from the front, through other people dining and into our own private dining area where there was a traditional band playing music. The King and Queen were seated at the head of the table and us plebs got to sit down at the lower table. After kneeling before my King I took a seat at the lower table.

The food that then followed for the next couple of hours was fantastic. The one thing we had noticed during our short stay in Vietnam is they love presentation. Lots of food we had eaten was nicely decorated and the food this night was no exception

Spring Rolls and some type of meat.
The decorations were made from real food

Prawns

Um to be honest I forget what this food is but it was tasty

After dinner we had the choice to go our or back to our hotel. Since most of us were still exhausted from our massive night on the train we opted to go back to the hotel. Once back at the hotel we found out that there was a free pool table on the top floor of the hotel. So Dave, Morag, George, Vu and myself went up and played a few games of pool. Unfortunately Dave and my magical run we had experienced in Hanoi disappeared and we lost every game to George and Vu. At least we (I) always managed to sink at least one ball so there was no pants down.

After embarrassing ourselves in pool we went to bed ready for the motorcycle tour we had booked the following day. 

Vietnam - April 23 Hanoi to Hue

Day 5 - Halong Bay, Hanoi & Hue. Drunken first class train ride and Vietnamese Wine


Today in Nam we woke up quite early to try and get a glimpse of the sunrise. Once I opened my eyes I discovered two concerning things:
1. It was already light outside which means we may have missed the sunrise
2. My throat was sore which is usually the beginning signs of a cold. 


There was no time to panic about the cold since the sun wasn't waiting. I quickly had a shower, grabbed my camera and raced to the top deck where I was expecting to find everyone else admiring the beautiful sights. Once I reached the top deck I was surprised to find I was the first one awake and in fact the sun hadn't risen over the limestone cliffs. 


Shortly I was joined on the deck by David then Christie and then the rest of the group. Because of the pollution the sunrise was a little disappointing but we still managed to get a few good shots. After breakfast we set sail again, our destination would take us past a fishing village, to a cave then finally back to the docks. 


Once we got to the cave we all made our way onto the small ferry that was attached to our boat and the crew drove us to the land. Taking the ferry to the land was a lot easier than trying to take the boat. This was because the docks at the cave were worst than a shopping center car park around Christmas

Chaos as boats are trying to dock

After admiring the skills of the captains of the boats we, and about 400 other tourists made our way into the caves. The cave was a lot larger than I thought it would be and was lit with different coloured lights. Vu our tour leader gave us some information on the caves but I really just spent the entire time trying to get some good shots on my camera. That was made pretty hard by the fact we had limited light in the caves, I didn't have a tripod or steady hands. But after Sam and I shared some tips I managed to get a few acceptable shots. After walking through the caves for probably just under and hour we made our way back outside and back onto our Ferry. Once aboard our boat we set sail again this time to the docks for our bus ride back to Hanoi, via a Peal factory (which was very boring for the guys) and lunch.

We got some some awesome Beef Noodles for lunch at a Vietnamese fast food place. They also sold lollies and chocolates so David stocked up on some m&m's. Once we reached Hanoi Dave and myself decided to get dropped off at the supermarket so we could get some food for the impending train ride to Hue. When we found the supermarket we got stopped by the security guard because bag's weren't allowed in the supermarket. Instead we had to leave it with a guard out the front who gave us a number and put our bags in a basket. We nervously left our bags with the guard and entered the supermarket. 

Our shopping list consisted of only the finest foods that we would need for a 12 hour train trip: Wine, Vodka, Chips, Chocolate, Water and nuts. At the wine aisle we were spoilt for choice, obviously we had to go a local wine but which one? We had narrowed it down to an option of either a 40,000 wine or a 100,000 wine ($2 compared to $5). Not wanting to be drinking rocket fuel we opted for the expensive one. Suddenly that is where our next dilemma came up, none of the wines were screw tops only corks. So after racing up and down the aisles we eventually found a cheap corkscrew and bought that as well. 

From the supermarket we were relieved that the security hadn't stolen our bags so we caught a cab back to our hotel. At the hotel we bumped into some people who were keen to get some food from Koto (a restaurant which hires disadvantaged youths). We had a quick drink and cake from Koto then boarded our bus on route to the train station. On the bus Vu split us into 3 groups of 4 people for the cabins on the train. The groups ended up being: Group #1 (Guys): David, George, Taylor and myself, Group #2 (Girls): Morag, Christie, Lauren and Sam, Group #3: Jenny, Allen, Wendy & Lizzy. Vu had to share a cabin with strangers since all our cabins were full.

Me, Taylor, David and George

When we got to our train and in the cabins we noticed that on the platform you could buy more drinks and food. David thought we had enough drinks but I disagreed, we had wine and half a bottle of rice Vodka but no beer. Everyone knows that there's nothin' so lonesome, so dull or so drear than a train with no beer. So Taylor and I quickly jumped off the train and bought 2 Hanoi beers. Back on board the train we started drinking and before to long the first beer was finished. At this stage we were zero minutes into the journey since the train hadn't started moving. So quickly back off the train I ran to get some more drinks. 

Before we knew it we had all ventured and grouped into the girls cabin. In the cabin Vu was pouring extremely strong Vodka and OJ's. So I decided that it was time David and myself opened our expensive bottle of Vietnamese red. I managed to get the cork out of the red wine without breaking it so we were off to a flying start. After pouring equal shares into a plastic cup which I think are just as good as Riedel wine glasses we could finally try the local wine. Dave and I cautiously took our first sip of the red ready to savour the flavours. Since doing a wine course in Australia I feel I'm pretty good with picking the flavours. The first one that hit me with this red was cigarettes and sherbet. The cigarette taste wasn't like the nice tobacco flavours that you normally get in wines it tasted like an ash tray. In regards to the sherbet, it wasn't that this wine tasted like sherbet it was the fact that as soon as it hit you tongue it started bubbling which I'm pretty sure wine isn't meant to do. Every sip I took I kept imagining I was drinking a potion that a witch had brewed in a cauldron.

Luckily not long after our first mouthful one of the train staff members came to our door selling beers. Because the wine didn't live up to expectation we quickly ordered some more beers to wash away the bubbling sensation on our tongue. So we spent the rest of the night drinking, listening and singing to music and visiting the other cabins around us. At some stage I recall leaving the girls nightclub cabin and crashing out on my bed.

Vietnam - April 22 Halong Bay

Day 4 - Halong Bay, "Around the world" and "Long Island Ice Trees"

Today in Nam we made our journey out of the hustle and bustle of Hanoi to the picturesque scenes of Halong Bay. Halong bay is a world heritage site which contains 3,000 limestone islands, overnight we would be sleeping on a floating junk and enjoying the scenery.

Our group met in the hotel lobby with a days worth of clothes and shampoo (Vu emphasized that we shouldn't forget shampoo) in a backpack. The hotel was going to mind the rest of our luggage as we were coming back to Hanoi after Halong Bay. On the way our first stop was to stop at a place called Blue Dragon to enjoy some breakfast.

Blue Dragon is a foundation that reaches out to kids in crisis within Vietnam ww.streetkidsinvietnam.com/. Once we arrived we were given some background information on Blue Dragon and met with some of the people that either worked or stayed there. We then enjoyed breakfast consisting of fruit and pastries. The breakfast was delicious (Dulushus for George), the Vietnamese really know how to do good pastries. Apparently this is because of the French influence on Vietnam.

From Blue Dragon we got back onto the bus and again made our way to Halong Bay. During the bus ride Vu kindly gave us some Vietnamese lessons where we learnt all the important phrases from "Hello, Goodbye, Too expensive, Hot white coffee (which Dave used a few times), Wine, Cocktails, beer and 1 through to 100". It was an enjoyable lesson made even funnier by Allan struggling with pronunciation and David, George and I creating different dares when it was their time to answer (i.e. trying to say "69 how much"). After a short break at a textiles center we finally made it to Halong Bay, our 5 hours of driving was complete.

Our initial impression of Halong Bay wasn't the gorgeous scenery that you see in pictures. This was because about 10 minutes before we arrived the heavens decided that sunshine wasn't a good choice, torrential rain was a good choice. We all raced out of the bus and into a sheltered area near all the ferries which took you to your boat (aka. floating junk). After about 15 minutes the rain eased up and we boarded the ferry to the boat where we would be spending the next 24 hours.

Once on board we were all very impressed with the boat, "floating junk" had painted a bad picture in our heads but this boat had about 8 double rooms, a bar, a television and music system, tables for meals and a top deck with lounge chairs. I haven't seen the Titanic but I'm pretty sure this boat would put it to shame. We were told at this stage by Vu that we had to wait in the bay because the coast guard had issued a Typhoon warning and no boats are allowed to leave. An hour of waiting and checking out the boat the coast guard finally gave the all clear that we could depart.

We then sat down to enjoy lunch which consisted of lots of different courses from seafood, chicken, vegetables, spring rolls. We could also have anything from the bar and the staff would just add it to our tab which we would pay for later. That worked for us, beers were only about 40,000 which was more expensive than the mainland but still only $2. Finally after feasting on way to much food we made our way onto the top of the boat to enjoy more drinks and the sites. Dave and me stuck to beers but a few of the girls got into some cocktails. Lauren especially liked the Long Island Ice Teas which after a few started getting pronounced "Long Island Iced Trees". Whilst on the top deck we had some stall owners trying to get us to buy some of their products from their floating stall (a small boat full of food and drinks). They were very persistent with constant "You Buy?" questions coming up to us.

Lady selling stuff out of her boat

Taylor, George, Morag, Me and Allan

Later that day we had the optional activity of hiring Kayaks and checking out the bay. That was definitely something I was interested in doing and apparently so was the 11 other people on the tour. We all got into our Kayaks which could sit two people, Dave was in my Kayak. We spent the next hour or so paddling around Halong Bay and taking every opportunity to splash the other people in our group. Before long it got really dark so we started heading back to our boat.

Once at the boat we quickly dumped the Kayaks with the owners then the guys (David, George, Taylor and myself) jumped in the water for a swim. Taylor headed out of the water and before long he came plummeting from the second floor of the boat then we all wanted to give it a go. George was first, then when myself and David finally worked out how to get back onto the boat we were jumping. Somewhere along the line Taylor thought George had jumped off the roof so not to be beaten he was on the top deck jumping off. That was made pretty difficult since the roof slopes outwards so you have to jump about a meter out to avoid hitting the boat. Taylor did a great job and managed to clear the boat without hitting it. After about 3 more jumps off the boat we were all pretty exhausted so we went inside to get ready for dinner.

Dinner consisted again of a buffet with different types of dishes, the highlight for dinner was getting Taylor and Christie to eat the fish eye ball. For those who haven't tried a fish eye ball it's very small and has no flavour. I equate it to trying to eat one of the polystyrene balls you put in a bean bag. After dinner it was time for more drinks on the back of the boat. Taylor decided to order a cocktail called "Around the World", this cocktail was the same price as the others and came with no mixers just 5 different shots of alcohol.... bargain. After a  few drinks we headed to bed ready for the next day.

Vietnam - April 21 Hanoi

Day 3 - Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and "Pool Shark"

Today in Nam we had a day to explore Hanoi, The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum followed by an optional Vietnamese massage. After breakfast and coming clean to the people who we had forgotten names (Sorry Lauren and Sam) we made our way onto the streets with Vu our leader.

It was really good having a local directing us because we learnt a few things about Vietnam. Firstly all of us struggled to cross the road at different points but Vu had these secret powers. His secret, walk and put up your hand signalling for the bikes, cars or scooters to stop. Surprisingly it worked, it was like he was a Jedi and was using "the force" to hold the traffic at bay.

Secondly we saw a 3 story house being constructed near our hotel. Since things seem so cheap in Vietnam we all argued the price of the house but most of us thought it would be no more than USD 200,000. Well we were all very very wrong, apparently the building would cost about USD 2 million (yes million as in six zeros)

After a brief tour of Hanoi we made it to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. The Mausoleum is a large memorial devoted to the Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh. Once we got to the Mausoleum there were 2 queues. The long one and the short one, well to us it was obvious which one to line up in so we jumped in the shortest queue. After the security checkpoint and whilst waiting for everyone a heated discussion broke out between our tour leader and the security (in fairness a lot of Vietnamese sounds heated to our untrained western ears but I'm sure it's not).

A few minutes of debating followed with us finally being forced to go back outside the security checkpoint and line up in the long line.... Bummer. The long line which really wasn't that long took us about 10 minutes to get back through the security checkpoint. At least whilst waiting we were entertained by a real life version of Medical Emergency - Vietnam. A person had collapsed whilst in line and he had about 4 people working on him.

Once the patient was carried into a makeshift ambulance (a mini van) we got through to the courtyard (again). Now we were all pretty excited because we didn't really know what to expect. So we looked around expecting to see clowns, magicians, acrobats or something cool but all we could see was another really long line. Hoping it wasn't a line to the complaints department we all lined up. So slowly this lined moved until we got to a large building that said "Ho - Chi - Minh" on it. Apparently this is what we were lining up for, whilst walking into the Mausoleum we passed four guards out the front. I wondered what they needed four guards for but I soon realised their jobs. Guard number one was in charge of signalling to us to be quiet, Guard number two was in charge of ensuring we didn't have our hands in our pockets, Guard number 3 was in charge on ensuring we took our sunglasses off and Guard number 4 was in charge of making sure our hats were off. Surely a sign to tell people the rules would be more effective.

When we got inside we walked up a staircase and into a larger room. I'm ashamed to admit I had no clue what was in this building. I knew it was a mausoleum so I was expecting pictures of Ho Chi Minh and some information about him, wow was I about to get a shock.......

We made our way into a large square room with four people guarding a glass box in the center. Once I had a better looked I realised that it wasn't a glass box but in fact a glass coffin with the preserved body of Ho Chi Minh in it. Even then I had my doubts to whether this was a creation from Madame Tussauds or a real body. After exiting the building we met up with Vu who explained it was the preserved body of Ho Chi Minh and gave us some information on the Ho Chi Minhs life. After the visit we decided to visit the Hanoi market for a bit of shopping so in a taxi we jumped.

The market was full of people selling all sorts of things from food, textiles, watches, sunglasses, backpacks, clothes. Taylor (aka Swifty, the nickname which he hadn't yet been granted) decided that he wanted a pocket watch so it was time to try his bargaining techniques. Taylor managed to bargain the girl down to 110,000 but she wouldn't go to the price he wanted. So he used the risky tactic of walking away in hope that the stall owner would change her mind. The problem came when after about 5 steps we realised she wouldn't change her mind. Damn if we went back now the bargaining power was lost.

After admitting defeat and walking away we bumped into other members of our tour group. In that group was George who as a car salesman back home was a fantastic bargainer. So we gave George the task of trying to get the lady to under 100,000 for the pocket watch. George walked over to the stall and after a few minutes he had the stall owner agreeing to 100,000 for the watch. It wasn't as low as Swifty wanted but it was still only $5 AUD.

After purchasing the watch Taylor, David, Christie, Lizzie and myself headed back to the hotel to get some Pho for lunch. During lunch we got to know Christie, Taylor and Lizzie better. David was labelled the uneducated one out of our family from Lizzie since I had a university degree and he worked for a television network. We were indeed getting to know the group a lot better ;-). After meeting Vu at the hotel we made our way to the Vietnamese massage place. We all didn't know what to expect we were just hoping it wasn't going to be similar to George, Mogs and Loz's Thai massage experience the day before (The massage place they attended believed in giving customers the happy ending)

Once at the massage place we were split between girls and guys. After getting changed into a pair of shorts we were provided with our first experience was to sit in a wine barrel full of water and some other oils. Whilst sitting one of the staff came over and gave us some ginger tea to drink. It was slightly concerning that he laughed madly when we took the tea like he had poisoned it but we drank it anyway. We were then motioned to another room to sit in a bath tub of hot water. After 5 minutes of soaking in the hot water the 3 of us made our way into what I thought was a sauna.

It soon turned out that it wasn't a sauna but a gas chamber, sorry I think steam room is the correct term. Dave, Taylor and myself sat in the room with our feet in buckets of water whilst heaps of steam rose into the room. Before long it was impossible to see Taylor who was sitting only about 60cm away. The room was incredibly hot and I had images in my head that we would be trapped. After quickly getting David to ensure the door wasn't locked we sat and waited for the staff to tell us to get out. Eventually after what seemed like an eternity we got directed into another room which was in fact a sauna.

We sat in the sauna for a few minutes and to make it a bit more intense I added a little bit of water to the coals. It was bearable until the creepy staff member came in and decided that nearly emptying the bucket on the coals was a better idea. He gave one of his evil laughs and departed the sauna whilst we were struggling inside to live. Once we were done losing a few kilos in sweat we exited the sauna and got under a cool shower to get our body temperature back to a normal state.

After changing shorts and trying to dry off the sweat we all got allocated to a room with a masseuse and a massage bed. Since I was sweating more than Josef Fritzel no MTV Cribs my masseuse took one look at me handed me towel and walked out of the room. After drying myself quite a few times we were finally ready to begin the relaxing massage.

The massage wasn't to bad but definitely not relaxing like I though they were meant to be. I laughed a few times when she was massaging the side of my stomach (stupid ticklish parts) and when she repeatedly kept trying to ask me a question but her lack of English and my lack of Vietnamese meant we couldn't communicate. After the massage I met the rest of the group downstairs to debrief and enjoy some Vietnamese porridge before heading back to the hotel.

Come night time we had an included activity of the Water Puppet Theatre, a group dinner followed by bed or a bar (ummm tough choice). For anyone visiting Vietnam I do not recommend the water puppet theatre, it was a cheap version of the muppets which told a bit about Vietnamese culture and history but I didn't really get it. Luckily it only lasted an hour and before my legs cramped up to bad we were back outside with Vu on our way to a restaurant.

At the restaurant we enjoyed a 7 course meal of all different types of dishes. It was fantastic and a great way to try different Vietnamese foods.

After dinner Vu took us to a bar called 'Funky Monkey' where he said there would be music and a pool table. When at the bar Vu raced upstairs and quickly grabbed a pool queue, when we finally arrived he started exclaiming that he was a "Pool Shark". Obviously Vu didn't realise that you aren't meant to tell your challengers that you are a Pool Shark but none the less David and I challenged Vu and George. This may be the only time I write about us playing pool in Vietnam because I think it's the only time David and I won any games. The scores ended up: David and Paul: 2 vs. George and Vu: 0

David, Mogs and George outside Funky Monkey

Vietnam - April 20 Hanoi

Day 2 - Hanoi, cooking class and the start of our Intrepid Tour

Today in Nam we had a few things planned. First was the morning cooking class we had booked the previous day and then in the afternoon we had our Intrepid group meeting and group dinner. So Dave and I woke up about 6:30 ready for our 7:30 start for the cooking class.

The cooking toup guide picked us up at our hotel and put us in a taxi to meet near the lake in Hanoi. After getting out of the taxi he told us to meet near a tree across the road whilst he got another person doing the class. After waiting for about 3 minutes and watching all the locals do Tai Chi we saw another westerner waiting on another corner. So we approached and asked her if she was doing the cooking class and sure enough she was doing the class as well.

The tour guide then showed up and we walked around the lake whilst he told us bits about Hanoi. We then stopped off for breakfast which was Beef Pho at a local eating joint followed by green tea at a street stall. The interesting thing about the green tea was it doesn't taste that good and the seats we sat in are similar to the seats kindergarden kids sit on at school.

Both Dave and myself became a bit paranoid after we saw the stall owner washing the cups in a tub full of water so we only ended up drinking half the tea.

From there we made our way to the restaurant where we would be doing our cooking class. After  a very brief tour of the markets with the cooking class instructor we were ready to start cooking

The cooking class included lots of chopping up ingredients whilst the chef cooked what we had chopped up. The highlight of the class was definitely the fresh spring rolls we made. The ingredients included noodles, some vegetables (i forget which ones), a shrimp all wrapped in a fresh rice paper sheet. My rolling skills wasn't as good as I would have liked so they came out a bit dodgy. After we finished cooking spring rolls, some really disgusting desert, chopping up fish and chicken we were ready to eat.

The restaurant had cooked the food for us so below is the final masterpieces. We are still not quite sure if this was actually the food we chopped up but it tasted really good

After lunch we continued exploring Hanoi before finally meeting at the hotel for our Intrepid group meeting. At the front of the counter of the hotel there was a list of the people who were on the tour. The list included the following names
"Paul, David, George, Morag, Elizabeth, Wendy, Taylor, Samantha, Lauren, Jenny, Allen, Christie". With my skills of deduction I guessed we had 8 girls in the group and only 4 guys but Dave disagreed. After a brief discussion we determined I thought Taylor was a girl because of Taylor Swift and Dave thought Taylor was a guy because of Taylor Lautner. The competition was on!

The group met in the foyer of the hotel when our tour leader (Vu) arrived and told us that we had a table reserved up stairs on the 8th floor in the restaurant. We all headed to the elevator but it was quite slow, that is where we got our first glimpse at George and his energy.

Dave and myself looked at each other and agreed we would take the stairs, as we said that George comes out of nowhere and says "Steps". He then proceeded to bolt up the stairs, because first impressions count both David and I were on his heels trying to ensure he didn't get to far ahead. After a lightning race the 3 of us reached the restaurant completely out of breathe. I'm disappointed to say George got gold, Dave got Silver and I got Bronze.

At the group meeting everyone was a bit quiet, we went around the room and talked about ourselves. Just the usual stuff of location, hobbies and what we do for a living. Since it was a new group I fought the urge to tell them I was a male escort and told the truth that I work in I.T (ohhh the shame). Dave made a hit by revealing that his one true weakness was kryptonite.... whoops sorry I mean Chocolate. As we got around to one of the guys sitting on the table he revealed his name was "Taylor". Man my day was getting worst Dave had just won a bet.

After the group meeting we all headed out to have a group dinner to try and get to know each other a bit better. We went to what Vu described as a nice restaurant that cost a bit more, as we walked in the place was amazing. Looking at the menu most meals only cost $6 - $10 so if this was a place that cost more I was going to love Vietnam. During dinner we spoke to some of the group whilst trying to remember all the names of the people in the tour. It's really hard to try and remember 10 names in such a short space of time.

The dinner was pretty quiet, I don't think people wanted to drink to much to ensure they didn't make a bad first impression. After dinner we went back to the hotel where myself and Dave quizzed each other on the names of the tour group and debated if Christie and Wendy was in a relationship. Dave thought they were I didn't think they were, so another bet was on.

Finally we went to sleep ready for an early start in the morning with a tour around Hanoi and the Mausoleum. It was this night both Dave and I realised that the beds where as hard as rocks so we struggled to sleep well. We made a pact that in future we need to get drunk enough in order to sleep quickly on those beds.

Vietnam - April 19 Singapore to Hanoi

Day 1 - Hanoi

Today was day one of what was going to be a fantastic experience of Vietnam. My brother David and myself had both booked to take part in Intrepid's "Scenic Vietnam" trip (http://www.intrepidtravel.com/trips/TVSR) which is 15 day tour from Hanoi all the way down to Ho Chi Minh City. The trip started the next day so today we had to get from Singapore to Hanoi then had a full day to explore.

After only getting 4 hours sleep both Dave and myself got to the airport for our 8am flight from Singapore to Hanoi. Since I now class myself as a local of Singapore we took the MRT to the airport which arrives at terminal 2. From terminal 2 we took the skytrain to terminal 3 where I thought our flight departed from.....

Upon reaching terminal 3 and noticing there was no Tiger Airways flights on the screens we decided to do what every man dreads and asked the information counter for directions. Probably a good thing we did because it turns out Changi Airport has a budget terminal / shed that our flight would be departing from. After a mad rush back to Terminal 2 and to the basement to catch a bus we finally made it to the budget terminal with plenty of time left before our flight.

Since it was David's first trip to Singapore we had a traditional Singapore breakfast of Kaya Toast, eggs and Kopi. For those who don't know Kaya is a spread made with eggs, sugar and coconut milk. To eat the eggs you dip the toast into it (similar to Soldiers). Kopi is the coffee here in Singapore which is coffee with condensed milk.

You can order coffee with evaporated milk (Kopi-C), coffee without milk (Kopi-O) but it can just get all to confusing with the C's and O's. After a great breakfast we got called up ready to board our 3 hour Tiger Airways flight to Hanoi.

We arrived in Hanoi airport and after waiting 30 minutes for them to process my Visa on arrival we were out the door. We straight away got a taxi which the sign said cost 300,000 dong to get into Hanoi (300,000 dong is about $15 AUD). The taxi trip took about an hour to get to our destination where the dodgy taxi driver then demanded a tip. So being the nice guys we are we gave him a 100,000 dong tip ($5 aud) he then proceeded to ask for more. So another 100,000 dong later and we had our luggage from the boot of the taxi and we were at the hotel.

After checking into the hotel we decided to walk around Hanoi to get to know the area. It was then we came face to face with the excitement of crossing the road. For those that have never experienced Vietnam traffic does not really obey the pedestrian crossings. Instead you have to pray to your god, ensure your bladder is drained, close your eyes and slowly walk across the road. Somehow after doing this we managed to get to the other side without being hit by hundreds of scooters.

About 4pm we decided that our breakfast of Kaya Toast wasn't enough so we found a restaurant that sold Beef Pho (Rice noodles with Beef). After the waiter laughing at our order of Beef Pho, Vietnamese Coffee and a beer we had lunch in front of us. The Pho didn't have much flavour and as we found out later you are meant to add chilli to it. The beer however was great and out of Saigon and Hanoi we determined Hanoi was our favourite local beer.

After lunch we hit the town to do a small pub crawl. The first stop was a little cafe that had free Wifi which was probably the only good thing going for it. After waiting 20 minutes for 2 beers I did the fake walkout where I pretended to grab my bag and stand up. That finally got the staff moving to bring us the beers we ordered. Our next stop after that was a bar that served Shisha that Dave had found on a website.

We eventually found this bar with the help of Google Maps on the iPhone. The bar was pretty empty but after examining the menu we ordered beer and Shisha. I was wanting to order a non-alcoholic cocktail but to my suprise the Vietnamese think that Blue Curacao is non-alcoholic

We spent the rest of the night there eventually migrating from beers to bourbons (Dave's idea).