Good Morning Vietnam (1st October)

This post of the blog covers the period from when we landed in Vietnam till the end of our time in Hanoi. To pitch a rather tenuous Lord of The Rings theme, it felt we had made our first baby steps outside the Shire and tentatively entered to into the Prancing Pony in Bree; I know I felt rather like an ickle Hobbit trying to get a beer from men when trying to cross the road; but more about that later.

We landed early morning of Wednesday 1st October and, after forty-five minutes fighting the visa processing system, were reunited with our bags and found the minibus to journey into the Hanoi Old Town. I am actually quite relieved to have spent two years in Dubai, as whilst the visa process at the Hanoi Arrivals was illogical, it was light years ahead of any government process in the Middle East. 

Basically, you had to second guess the process, which consisted of submitting completed visa application form(s) and passport(s) at a counter hidden round the backside of the visa processing department and wait for it to be processed inside. At some point afterwards, with no seeming adherence to first come first served, you were called to present yourself at the front counter. It is quite funny that there are people that I have been friends with for over thirty years and I am not one hundred percent sure of their middle names, but I know the full names of complete strangers, as they were announced to much smirking and sniggering all round. My regal sounding middle names definitely was in the top quartile of tittering decibel levels...

With the appropriate amount of U.S. Dollars paid, our passports were handed back, which on closer inspection showed that a whole one page was taken up with our new Vietnam visa sticker. This reaffirmed my opinion that I was right to get a new passport, as I only had eight pages left in my old one even though it was only two years old, and I had already used up two pages in my new one entering our first country.

So, once we located the right minibus and had waited the eternity for it to fill up, we were on our way into central Hanoi. It is amazing that all round the world the drives from the airports into their host cities are remarkably similar: haulage, car hire and distribution companies near the airport; utilities next; then the dodgy parts of town;  and a few business areas and Universities before reaching the touristy bits. 

Whilst similar to most routes into city, it was actually an interesting drive, primarily as this is my first time in South East Asia. Secondly because I was sitting next to an American graduate who seemed genuinely impressed that I had heard of the company she was starting her graduate job with after her trip, a small company called Accenture! Finally it was an interesting drive due in no small part to the fact that the driver lost interest in customer service the longer we got into trip and successive drop-offs. He started out dropping people off at the doors of their hotel/hostel. By our stop he was reduced to pointing up a reasonably main road saying that it would be five minutes that way...

Our hotel (Old Town Hotel Hanoi) was excellent and comes highly recommended by us, for both the standard of the rooms and also the excellent location. After a quick shower and change of clothes we were out exploring what Hanoi had to offer. Anyone that has been to Hanoi will testify that it is a magic place. A mixture of large green spaces, vast centrally located lakes, bustling streets and an array of spectacular architecture. We took in Hoin Kiem Lake and the outsides of the Opera House, Revolution Museum and  Women Museum before entering the Hanoi Prison Museum; which was extremely interesting. 

This was the place that Vietnamese activists against French rule, as well as American pilots captured during the Vietnam War, were incarcerated. There was even a picture of previous US Presidential Candidate John McCain taken during his captivity in the prison. It also contained artefacts, pictures and narratives of wider Vietnamese history so, all in all, it was a suitable place to dip the toe in the water to the history and culture of the country.

After some street food for lunch (I will leave that to Becs' blog on foods of the world for details - I will include her blog address in a future post) we then took in the Temple of Literature and the Flag Tower to end the afternoon wander about. The Flag Tower is similar in importance to Hanoi as Trafalgar Square is to London, as it seems like the place that people gather on important national events. 

Unfortunately the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and other buildings around the Botanical Gardens were closed in preparation for Vietnam' Independence Festivities on the tenth of October, but it was still a successful day sight seeing. We are also extremely excited to experience the 60th anniversary of independence when we are in Ho Chi Min the day before we leave Vietnam for Cambodia.

As we knew after two days at Ha Long Bay we were proceeding by train to Hue, we went to the train station to purchase our sleeper tickets. At this point I should mention the other thing that any visitor to Hanoi will remember about the place; crossing the roads. Quite simply they are an experience in themselves. Standing like Lemmings on the edge of the edge of the abyss, with no sign of traffic rules, we followed the lead of locals and slowly edged across the road, becoming isolated islands with traffic flowing around us like the currents of the city's Red River. 

Very quickly we managed spot the gaps and learn the two vital rules of crossing: 1) never stop; and 2) keep at a constant pace. Despite the chaos we never saw any accident in Hanoi. The traffic only proceeds at 15-20 MPH and all drivers seem to have respect for pedestrians.

With a few main roads crossed we managed to present ourselves at the ticket office at the train station. We tried every pronunciation of Hue: "Hue", "Huey", "Hey", "Hoe", "Hoey" etc. As a Londoner I really appreciated the devious almost slapstick humour of the residence of Hanoi as the lady at the ticket office just let us continue on regardLess whilst chuckling through her teeth and then using the first of our iterations before producing our tickets.

The next substantive post will cover the period of the 2nd and 3rd of October when we were in Ha Long Bay and on the train to Hue but my next post will be on some history of Vietnam. 

Tam Biet x

Leaving the Shire (29th and 30th September)

As readers of my previous blog on the MDS race might remember, one of my favourite quotes is one by Nelson Mandella who famously said that, "every journey of a thousand miles always begins with a single step". I very much had this in mind when we left Wales late morning on Monday 29th September to head to Heathrow. 

Despite both my wife and I living reasonable full lives till now, and been living abroad for the last two years, we definitely still had the nagging feelings of self doubt and nervousness that precedes any life changing experience. It was also strange that after spending only the last week back in the UK with both families and friends, it really hit us both hard that we were leaving them again so soon. 

Still, the next six months should be magic and a once in a lifetime experience so, after lunch with an old friend and returning our hire car, we finally checked in for the flight around 5 pm. It is funny that after much debates and rows whilst preparing for the trip, the massive massive relief to finally be checked in meant that we both apologised for being dicks over the last few weeks. We both  did still have that natural fear as to whether we were going to be reunited with our bags in Bangkok but I am sure that paranoia will be with us for the next six months; along with me becoming 'Passport Nazi' who keeps asking Becs where her papers are...

So with our 'phoney war' over we headed to the lounge to start our trip in style. A good tip for travellers and holiday makers is that you can get a ticket to the SkyWorld Lounge for £30 per person, regardless of your airline and class of plane ticket. If you buy through one of the online payment websites, like Quidco etc., you actually get some money back. Besides I reckon most people spend near to £30 in an airport anyway, and it means you get unlimited food and drinks as well as being able sit in comfort, so it is reasonably cash neutral with loads of benefits.

Being in the lounge meant that we were able to indulge in one last bit of luxury, despite the waiter chucking my first glass of Champagne over me and my new love: my brand spanking new iPad. All was forgotten when Becs selflessly managed to tip hers over herself whilst laughing at me being drenched; after I first checked that my baby (the iPad) still worked.

I include our proposed travel itinerary for reference and to provide some context for future blogs:

Flight Heathrow to Bangkok and then stay for one night before flying onto Hanoi. We then work our way down Vietnam, up through Cambodia and Laos, before heading over the border into northern Thailand. We then travel back down Thailand taking in Bangkok properly and some of the islands, before spending some time in Malaysia and then arriving in Kuala Lumpur.

From KL we fly to Tokyo and spend three days there before flying onto Sydney. After 5 days in Syndey staying with friends, we head over to Christchurch and spend six weeks traveling round NZ by Campervan. Our last stop in NZ is Aukland and fly out on 24th December, landing in Rio also on the 24th. We then spend 3 months traveling around South America before flying to USA in beginning of April. 

Finally we land in San Fransisco and then do road trip via San Diego, Napa Valley and LA before flying back to the UK on 10th April, so we can be at my, elderly, sister's 40th birthday party on the 11th; that is if her care home allow her out that night... ;-)

Apologies if the itinerary makes people jealous, but hopefully others will be inspired by this blog to pull the handbrake on the rate-race treadmill and do a similar trip.

Back to the present, or the past... After being spoilt over last few years flying with Virgin and Emirates, especially as we have been either using air miles or treating ourselves to upgrades it was a bit of a shock to the system to fly Air India from London to Bangkok (via a stop in Dehli) and then Air Asia from Bangkok to Hanoi, but I bet now that if asked in six months time I would maybe rank these near the top of the airline list, as we have a few suspect airlines coming up...

I have to give Becs all the credit at this point as she has been the one doing all the planning and preparation for the trip and I only have had to chip in when we have had to make any joint decisions on timings and routes. We managed to save quite a bit of money splitting the flight into three flights and using lower grade airlines.

Still, they were a tad painful flights as my screen for the entertainment system was not working on the first flight, there was only Punjab music and Bollywood films on the second and nothing on the third. Luckily, I could still find some choice music albums on the first and played on my iPad on the second and third.

As we landed in Bangkok at one international airport and flew out of the other, we got a taster of Bangkok life so I am already looking forward to go back there in a few weeks. We even got to meet our first ladyboy; I just didn't expect them to work as a cashier at the local convince store. We stayed at the Thanapa Apartments, which was functional and clean if a little basic but perfect for us as just needed a few hours kip in-between flights.

The next blog will cover 1st - 3rd October: Hanoi and Ha Long Bay. As we will be into our travels properly then it should be less drier than the first substantive post of this blog. 

Also currently the lag between the actual event and posting the blog is about five days at the moment. Now that we have completed Halong Bay and are back in Wi-Zones I hope to be able to complete the next two on our next train ride so I can then write and post a few paragraphs each evening before hitting the hay.

Let the blogging begin

Very quick post to 'start the fans' for the new blog. Bags are packed, babies kissed and hand shook... All that is left to do is load the car and then hit the road to get back to London to see the main man, Phil 'Mendez' Mawdsely and then off to Heathrow to start our big adventure.

Oh, if you do see me on Al Jazera wearing an orange jump suit, the code phrase for knowing I am at gun point is, "Come on you Spurs" as I would never support them jokers... ;-)