Our journey out of Sapa was one of the worst so far. We had hard seats instead of soft beds (which we had paid for and only got a measley little refund back) which meant Ryan kipped on the floor, Candi slept on me and I lay head to head with a Vietnamese man on my bag! We laugh about it now , and the way the men opposite Candi and I watched our games of backgammon as if their lives depended on it, and unstealthily took photos of me on their camera phone (Paul W - it was just like the bag photo, flash and everything!). Wearing my pink frilled stripey eye mask probably didn't help!
After seeing the dead man, the Fine Arts Museum and some stomach churning market food (pigs trotters anyone? How about some snouts??) we headed South and stopped first of all in Hue. Here we walked around the Imperial City (chinese style buildings, gardens and courtyards where the emperor and co. used to live), Candi and Ryan went on the DMZ tour and I went on a boat cruise with some Aussie girls. And I may have hijacked a cyclo one night and pedalled Candi and the cyclo boy around the city! Hoi An was our next stop where Candi had some clothes tailor made and we found another hotel with a pool - bliss. Nha Trang followed this - Vietnam's only proper seaside resort which has a lovely beach and lots to see in the city. I climbed a mountain to see a 10m tall Buddha on't top, and visited a man called Long Thanh who showed me around his studio of black and white photgraphy. The pictures were amazing, showing lots of wrinkly old ladies and many different ways of vietnamese life.
I headed to Dalat next leaving Candi and Ryan behind. It was a bit disappointing but the drive there alone made it worth going, it looked just like home! People were farming in their wellies, sheep were taking up the road moving from one place to the next and there were cows absolutely everywhere. They were even playing "She really loves my tractor" in the first cafe I went in! Not a song I know mind you, I'm not that dedicated to the homeland, but appropriate nonetheless!
No comments:
Post a Comment