Huey and the News

Hue is a strange town - the old capital of Vietnam. It was bombed heavily in the American war and there are great holes and lakes in the middle of a street where the bombs fell. A guy that we met lost his father in the war and took us on a tour to see the main sites.

He also showed us old US bunkers and tanks and after an hour or so opened up and we talked about how all people - Vietnamese or English (for example) have so much in common. We have the same needs - to be loved, to provide for our families etc. We agreed that more cultures should meet like this so none of us assumes we are better than any other.

The city is surrounded by a wall built in ancient times (don't ask us when as the Vietnamese haven't cottoned on the concept of information signs etc.) There is a huge Citadel and many temples and pagodas around. Starting to get a bit 'templed out' though now.

To learn a bit about the American war we took a tour to the DMZ - de-militarized zone which was anything but. It was designed to be a safe haven in the middle of the country where no fighting was allowed, but became the location for some of the most brutal fighting of the 10 year war.

Walking down the tunnels that the Vietnamese had dug was a sobering experience. Villagers lived in these for years, terrified that a bomb would drop on them. It was so claustrophic and descended for four floors. Seventeen babies were born down there and the rooms that families lived in where 6' by 4'. Amazing.

Apparently about 10,000 US and Vietnamese soldiers were killed at Khe Sanh. Today it is just a coffee plantation, but in it's day was the Americans biggest base and the site of their biggest defeat prior to the Tet Offensive. Strange to stand in such a peaceful place where so much terror and blood was spilt in the name of... I don't know what.

Kenh Ga, Tam Coc and Ninh Binh

Our experience of hiring a motorbike so far has been fraught with danger, so in our normal adventurous spirit we hired a bike for 2 days to go to Kenh Ga and Tam Coc near the town of Ninh Binh.

Tam Coc is described as Halong Bay in the rice paddies and it certainly lived up to this reputation with amazing limestone cliffs popping up in the miles and miles of rice paddies. We hired a lady to take us down the river in a small boat which she rowed with her feet. The river wound past the limestone cliffs and through three caves. Absolutely beautiful.

Kenh Ga was a bit more low key. After running out of petrol in the middle of a rice field, a young guy hopped on his push bike and cycled a km to get us some petrol and we were soon on our way again. An older man greeted us at the river and hurried us onto his boat ($8 - a bit pricey we thought, but too tired to care at this point). We sailed through a floating village and arrived at a small community with a catholic church and little else. Sam got mosquito repellent in her eye half way round and it was soooo hot, but certainly a good experience.

Ninh Binh itself is un-accustomed to travellers and hadn't even got a cafe/restaurant. After many strange stares we were accepted with open arms when a local offered to buy us beers at a local bar. After a couple of hours we staggered back to our hotel and slept all afternoon in our gorgeous ensuite hotel room ($15 a night).

The hill tribes of North Vietnam

We are sitting in an internet cafe up in the hills far north of Hanoi on the Chinese border. There are local tribes people waiting outside for us to come out so they can try and sell us something. Our favourite is a little girl called Lee - she is 7. We speak a bit of the language now which helps to dissuade them. There are hundreds of motorbikes passing by beeping their horns and people are shouting as it is market day and the town is heaving.

Yesterday we hired a motorbike (!) and drove to a little minority village further up in the hills. We had a puncture half way up and 2 minutes after praying, a man came up beside us and took us back to his garage and only charged us $1.40 to fix it. We arrived at a village called Ta Phin who are Red Doa people, where a storm of 50 women rushed up to us. We had a coke and chatted for a while and when we came to leave all 50 of them pushed their wares on us. "You buy from me!" "NO, you buy from ME!" 50 of them all around us. We got away with 2 bags and a horrendous purse, climbed onto the bike and literally drove through them all to escape with our lives!!! Very stressful at the time, but certainly an experience... Having a rest day today. :)

We are stopping in a hotel/restaurant owned by the Samaritans - a christian organisation who train minority young people in the hotel/restaurant business. It is a safe, calm haven for us in a world of madness. I think it is the noise that is most stressful here - never ending. It starts with the Voice of Vietnam blaring at 6.30 every morning and is constant.

We are really enjoying it tho'. Going on a tour tomorrow to see some more local tribes before returning to Hanoi to head south.

Good morning Vietnam!

Quing Zow! (Hello!)

After the initial, inevitable culture shock of entering our first Asian country, we have settle in to life in Hanoi very well. The city is a crazy mix of weaving traffic, beeping horns, hawkers hassling you to buy their tourist tat and the most amazingly colourful and varied shops, restaurants and pagodas.

At first the city was a little overwhelming, but we have just returned from 3 days in Halong Bay and it doesn't seem so bad now. We have been to Ho Chi Minh's burial tomb, (but he is being touched up in China at the mo), to a water puppet performance and to the many markets and shops scattered throughout the city.

Andy Castro has returned to China now after spending 5 days with us. Halong Bay was possibly even more stunning than New Zealand. We were back in (those damn) kayaks again cruising through the stunning scenery of Halong and Cat Ba Island. It was great to see Andy again after 18 months.


It is hot here (as you would imagine in summer), but we are heading off to the hills (of Sapa) in a few days time so hopefully it will be a lot cooler there. We are living in luxury for $30 a day and that includes everything - accommodation, food, travel and Bai Hoi (local beer - 8 glasses for $1!). Getting to grips with the local language too. Andy in fact nearly got us into a Bai Hoi drinking contest with 4 local men while practicing his Vietnamese! Linguists......