After a brief recovery in Kathmandu, I flew to Hong Kong to meet my cousin for our sleeper bus into South China. I'll never forget this journey as I had the worst case of food poisoning ever and the bus driver flew over the highways like a lunatic. Anyhow, I survived and arrived at my uncles house looking like death. I then spent a week recovering and stuffing my face to power up for our Vietnamese adventure.
We entered North Vietnam from the North border and our adventure started instantly. The events so far have certainly been very interesting. Lets just say that my cousin has a pretty solid reputation for being a mild mannered person; I have never seen her 'don't-f'ck-with-me' side let alone so many times in a week. But pretty much every day so far, our patience has been tested as we continuously found ourselves being overcharged for most things. There have been scenes of shouting, finger wagging, fists being banged on tables as we challenged our bumped up food, hotel and taxi bills. We've sharpened up now so we are ready for war if necessary; my cousin is the good cop and I'm the bad (naturally). One incident made us chuckle though, we were at Ha Long Bay (stunning place with beautiful natural scenery of limestone rocks jutting out of the calm emerald sea) in a floating fish restaurant and decided to order a fish dish. When it was served, a fish head and its tail was staring up at us from the plate. They had only gone and removed the middle of the fish (presumably to sell it again) and thought we would be stupid enough not to notice! And so a big barny ensued as we rolled up our sleeves to prepare for a show down.
Aside from having to be on guard most days, we've done plenty so far including a day trek through Cat Ba Island (just off of Ha Long Bay) which we had thought would be a stroll in the park that turned out to be a day of rock climbing as we were literally on all fours trying to climb up and down the slippery rocks of the limestone rock faces. No exaggeration, but this was one mighty death trap. It was worth it in the end just for the stunning boat trip through the floating village.
I'm also loving the divine Vietnamese food. We look for the grubbiest street kitchens with the sticky tables and perch on the tiny plastic chairs because we know that we will be served delicious hot bowls of beef noodles, crab meat spring rolls, grilled pork, clams, jelly drinks and all. Unfortunately for this, I'll be leaving Vietnam three dress sizes bigger. This is a big fat boo, especially since I'm surrounded by so many gorgeous Vietnamese women with their slim and petite frames who seem to be all so glamourously dressed (or in strange contrast walking around in their pyjamas). It's great watching them elegantly zip around on the scooters in their 5 inch heels like they have just stepped out of a salon.
I'm now in Hue in Central Vietnam and we'll be moving onto Hoi An to check out some islands and for me to hire a motorcycle so I can zip around town too. After that I'll be bidding my cousin farewell to make my way into Cambodia.
