tour2

As this was my last day in Hong Kong and I was not leaving the hotel till 6ish I took my time and packed my bags then checked out at 12 noon and then just went to look for a copy of the 'Lonely Liar' for Australia (but the prices were horrendous) I just spent the rest of the day walking the various market areas and parks on the peninsular and then back to9 the Hotel to get my bag and take the coach back to the Airport. Gutted at the Airport, I had planned to get a small bottle of Whisky but Australia (and the USA) have banned ALL carry-on liquids more than 100ml – including duty free's (luckily you can buy it on arrival at Brisbane) Free Wifi again at Hong Kong airport, why not in rip-off-Britain? The flight was good and considering it was over 9 hours, following an evening meal I slipped into a deep sleep and woke only for breakfast on the plane about 2 hours before we landed.

I had seen lots of interesting things out and about yesterday not least was effectively a huge electrical and electronics street market near to where I had bought my radio. I went back up there with the intention of trying to find a small MP3 player for when I will be driving later. I ended up buying a Multimedia player which seems to play anything including video and lasts for over 8 hours on a charge ideal for a flight and putting in a car when the local radio is not worth listening to! I went back down to the water front in the early evening to watch the Light show which is put on every night. Standing on the Avenue Of Stars you can see across the water to Hong Kong Island, music is played through speakers behind you and the sky-scrapers on the opposite bank are lit in sequence to the music along with lasers and spotlights sweeping the straits between. After the show I headed back to the Hotel and mis read a sign and ended up at the Tsim Sha Tsui EAST MTR station, and as I had alre...

Up at 6am for a taxi to the airport at 7:30am and it was coming down stair-rods. I got to Hanoi airport no problems and checked in and then went to find some way to 'waste' my Vietnamese Dong I had left. What I had left wasn't worth changing, amazingly I found a shop selling Lofthouse's Fisherman's Friend's – in Vietnam, packed in Malaysia, made in Fleetwood! They were just what I needed to clear the cold symptoms for the flight. The flight was only a couple of hours an left around lunch time but with the time difference I arrived early evening in Hong Kong and getting through Customs ok this time I found the Shuttle bus to the Hotel and waited for it at the arrivals hall. The Coach was really posh only 3 seats across and all leather and wood seating. Once I checked in to the hotel I took a walk out to the local shopping are which was about 5mins walk from the hotel. The temperature was a little cooler than Hanoi but at least it wasn't raining. The streets...

I didn't rush to get up (The hotel Concierge had told me most shops don't open till around 10/11am) but I set out with a plan to find the Hong Kong Scout HQ and take a trip on the Star Ferry, find where the electronics shops were. I walked out from the Hotel and onto Nathan Road which is the Main road which runs through the main shopping districts on the Kowloon Penisular and walked the couple of km's down to the Scout HQ. It was huge, it comprises a full 4* hotel (which it owns) and the Scout Shop is on the 11th floor then the HQ offices are above that. The lobby is dwarfed by a huge painting of B-P which is flanked by various flags. Taking the express lift to the 11th floor it opens out into a huge shop selling every thing a Scout could want from uniform to activity wear and equipment. There is also a large museum which charts the history of Scouting in Hong Kong. I bought a shirt and some badges form the shop and then set of to see the rest of the city area. Out side t...

This is where my cold really came out and we were up early to go and do some sight seeing. I made getting up and going to KOTO a local version of Jamie Oliver's Fifteen which means Know One Teach One. The place had been set up by an Australian chef about 20 years ago to help street kids and is now very much renowned in Hanoi. The food was great and the buffet spread went from local Vietnamese through Continental breads and cakes to full English. However after the Breakfast we were due to go and see Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum which would have meant walking in silence for about an hour in and out of heavy rain. My cold was now taking a good hold and I didn't fancy making it worse for the flight the next day so I opted out and Hahn had the Driver drop me back at the hotel. I slept through most of the day only waking around 4ish when the laundry man banged on my door despite the Do Not Disturb sign on the door. I felt a lot better now so joined the rest of the group to go out fo...

Hahn had us up early this morning for the 4.5 hour drive to Ha Long Bay. Up so early that we had to wait for the bread to arrive for breakfast (on a moped) and ended up leaving 30mins late. The along the way we stopped at a cafe where they had huge jars of liquor with whole cobra snakes in and one allegedly had a Bear's 'best bit's' in it – very strange. Later we stopped at a roadside stop to have mini pineapples which you ate like a lolly, fresh coconut milk straight from the nut, and also fresh groundnuts (peanuts); so fresh you had to brush the soil off the shell. There were about 15 stalls doing the same along the road and as soon as the bus slowed loads of women came running out of the stall's each vying for business, for some reason we stopped at the one with the very pretty young lady whom Hanh seemed to be on very good terms with, hmm. Eventually we got to the port and boarded the Junk that was going to take us out into the bay. I had no idea what to expect...

he bus picked us up at the port and we drove on first to see a ceramics centre and then to a Arts centre for disabled people. We checked into the hotel mid afternoon and some of us walked out for a coffee, the place Hanh suggested was strange in that you had to leave your shoes at the door and reclined at low tables on cushions scattered around. Strangely there were also two girls fast asleep under a load of cushions in the corner and we have no idea why. In the evening we first took a cyclo tour around the city. Each one seats or rather lounges one person in the front and the driver (cyclist) sits behind. This was an excellent way to see the sights and sound of the evening town, especially now that we were used to Vietnamese traffic. We eventually stopped in the centre of the Town and went in to see the Water Puppet show. This is different to string puppets in that the puppets move about on and in a large pool of water. They are controlled by rods and cables by operators who also stan...

We drove out in the morning to see Hoa Lu which at one time was another Capital of Vietnam but lost it's hold on the people as it had a tendency to flood in the rainy season (so they moved it to Hanoi) The building and temples still exist but strangely there is a lot of 21st Century construction going on around the old buildings to make it 'more authentic' (hmm tourist trap?) The location was amazing though, all around the land is flat then these huge limestone monoliths climb vertically up to the sky giving a strange boxing in feeling. You can understand why it was chosen as a site for a capital, no one could get close without being potted entering one of the narrow entrances, on the other hand getting out was awkward when the floods came! We moved on getting to the Cuc Phong National Park for about lunch time. Only to be told we were 3 minutes late for access to the park (we think it closes for lunch but we're not really sure) so we parked up and went to check in to ...

Early Bus again today to Hue. This town has a large Citadel and we took a tour of part of it, poor Hahn was doing his usual tour guide thing, which was excellent but I think we were all a little jaded after the long bus ride up to Hue. The town had once been the Capital of Vietnam (which is funny because most of the towns we have stopped at seem to have been the Capital at some time in history!) It took us all a while to understand what the 'flat' pole was until we realised that we were looking at the 'flagpole' out side the Citadel on a large mound. It was huge and the flag flying from it massive. Inside the Citadel we went for a wander around some of the building that were still standing after many years of fighting and fed the fish; huge coy carp in a pond that went into a mass frenzy when you tipped a bag of fish food into the lake. Our evening meal here was a 'dress-up do' where we we all put on traditional costumes of the Kings and Queens, the food was ok...

Today we did the usual up at the crack of dawn to get the train from Hue to Ninh Binh. The Vietnamese trains are narrower than Indian ones but of a similar standard to Indian ones but you cant open the doors whilst on the go. (In fact the attendants actually padlock them shut whilst on the go – which was a bit unnerving when Hahn insisted on showing us where the emergency hammers were to break the windows - just in case!) 9 hours later, a few card games, long chats and a couple of pot noodles we rolled in to Ninh Binh and piled into a car and a tranny van minibus to the hotel for tea and bed. We had tea at the hotel and a quick drink at the hotel bar then off to bed so we could get off in the morning.

I though we had had our lot of early starts but alas no... up at 5:30 for a 6am get away Groan! we did get to see the sun rise over the South China Sea, which was nice! We had a log drive again in the bus stopping for a coffee on the way and also at the My Lai Memorial Village. This was a very sobering visit to an area that has been preserved as a memorial to those that were massacred in the Vietnam War when troops were sent in to 'clear out dissident VC fighters, unfortunately whole villages were destroyed and the villagers – men, women and children were killed. It was a very chilling experience and showed us again the horrors of war. We arrived in Hoi An in the late afternoon just as the rain started and after checking in went for an orientation walk around the ancient town. The buildings and architecture managed to survive much of the fighting and wars over the years and is a charming place. However the reason most people (and Top Gear) come to Hoi An is to get clothing. Suits ...

Early start again for the drive to Quy Nhon. The usual Vietnam countryside of paddy field after paddy field, stopping for coffee and lunch along the way. All along this part of the coast were huge sand dunes which hid the view of the coast for much of the drive but the occasional pot hole or bridge kept us awake sat in the back the bus as we bounced along, Hahn had warned us that there was not much to see in this town but we would like the hotel, which turned out to be a large 4* hotel on the beach called 'The Seagull'; the rooms were massive, I had 2 double beds and still had room to swing and elephant never mind a cat, but the restaurant food was typical 4* toned down Vietnamese food for a 'Western pallete'. We didn't eat out as this was the best food we could get in the town according to Hahn. We arrived early and so Jenny and I decided to walk up to the local trading center AKA shopping mall to have a look around it was like a KwikSave mall with a load of inde...

The next morning we had a leisurely rise to go out on a boat trip around the islands firstly stopping to see local village life which mainly consisted of fishing and erm fishing. The local boat here for 'bobbing about' on the water is a coracle made from woven coconut leaves and then sealed with cow manure and then lacquered, normally the men sort of kangaroo them out to their larger boats in the bay but we were taken out to our boat by two local ladies with a paddle each. Once back on our normal boat we motored to the next island about 20 mins further out and took snorkel and masks and jumped into the warm water and swam towards the shore to see the coral around the island. It was amazingly warm in the sea but the water was slightly cloudy so the colours were not brightly vivid like you would expect but it was brilliant all the same. After about 40mins or so we went back to the boat and Richard an I took the challenge from the boat owner to jump in the sea of the room for th...

Early Start for the drive to Na Trang on the coast. At first we headed down a very good but winding road towards Na Trang on the coast. We figured we had done about ¾ of the journey in little less than 2 hours when we stopped a little roadside cafe for a drink. The views were stunning on the way down, constantly changing landscape of plunging cliffs and rocky outcrops in between the trees bushes and paddy fields down in the valleys. On setting off again we realised why the journey was going to take so long, the road deteriorated to nothing more than dirt as for the next 2 hours or so we slowly bounced along on the longest roadworks I've ever seen. The road was being rebuilt but they just ripped up the old surface and we had to pick our way through the diggers, levelers, piles of rubble and all the other traffic on the 'road'. At some points the driver had to stop and either wait for a digger to stop digging and move out of the way or just stop to try and work out the be...

Today we got a new bus that was with us for the next couple of days. The Back seats were loaded with the bags ad we set off for the 9hour drive to Dalat which is high up in the hills. On the way we stopped at a Village workshop where the weave cloth and produced many different kinds of brightly coulored cloths and silks which were then maid into garments. just behind the workshop we walking up to a small village to find the Chicken Monument – a huge stone chicken which was erected to remind the villagers of an ancient love story (which was highly complex and I cant remember it!) So instead we lined up in front of it and did a sort of chicken dance for photo's. A little further up the road we stopped at a Tea and Coffee house which is grown in this area and tried some of the local brew's. The Coffee is drunk here Iced with condensed milk and is very very Sweet and not really to my taste but not bad if you ask for it straight black. The flavoured teas were 'interesting' T...

Today was an early rise probably because of the water-borne 'Dumper's' going back and forth form 5 am. We had breakfast and got back on the boat which took us back to our coach and then headed back inland towards Saigon. On the way we detoured to go and visit the recreation of a village in the centre of the Chu Chi Tunnels. These were the infamous? tunnels that the Viet Cong used in their resistance of the Americans during the wars. The place has been heavily adapted to meet the 'needs' of tourists however with Hanh's descriptions it really brought to life the resourcefulness of the people here. I would not like to have been a U.S. conscript being required to patrol this almost jungle area. the booby traps alone were fearsome. We were shown the way they managed to live and fight against the enemy. There was also an opportunity to go down into a 'widened' tunnel which ran for about 150 around bends and up and down levels to recreate the way they moved ab...

The usual early morning start and we boarded our bus to the Mekong Delta. We left our main bags at the hotel and just took a day sac as we were to return to the hotel in Saigon the following night. After about 2 hours drive we stopped at a 'Rest Stop' on the road which was defiantly geared to the tourist but had beautiful gardens to the rear. back on the road we drove for about another 1.5 hours and then boarded a boat and gained a local guide LAU??. We were due to spent the night in a home stay lodge on the Delta but first sailed to a small village are to see some of the local 'lifestyle' and industry of the area. First off was a a shack where they make roofing out of palm like fronds then into a rice paper 'factory' where about 15 women sat for 8 hours a day on small stools in front of 2 ring gas burners with woks on, where they deftly produced fine wraps from rice batter. They used a small old tin punched with fine holes to drizzle the batter into the woks in...

We were up and out in a taxi at 8:30am to take in the morning 'city tour'. First stop was the War Remnants Museum. This museum describes the results of many years of war and suppression that the Vietnamese suffered under rule firstly by the colonial French and then later by the American's (The Vietnam War is known here as the American War) The country was divided in half with the North being controlled by the Communist's and ruled from Hanoi whilst the South was ruled from Saigon and the Americans came in after the 2nd World War the initially support the French however most of the fighting was done in the South) The museum has a large collection of photos depicting the war and it atrocities from both local, Japanese and American war reporters as well as collections of the types of armaments and machinery used in the war, some of which was rather brutal. The use of Agent Orange (defoliant chemicals used destroy crops and jungle areas of all plant life was extensive in ...

My first morning in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) I had a nice lie in and just made the inclusive breakfast for 11am, luxury! I went for a walk around the local streets and a park in the middle of a boulevard. The French were here as colonials for many years and the central layout of the city is topically trench in style with ;large wide avenues and boulevards. Wandering a little further out I found a large electronics store and had a browse in there. It was obviously the January sales and the place was packed but the prices seemed a little steep. Going back to the hotel I relaxed in the room and started to upload a load of photo's making full use of the free Fifi. At 6pm I went down to the restaurant to meet the rest of the group for my 3rd Intrepid Tour. Our Tour leader is Hanh and there are only 4 Brits and the rest are Ozzies, also apart from Hanh and myself there is only one other male – Richard. Hanh introduced us to the tour and what to expect and doled out the Intrepid cloth ba...

Up at 8 this morning -almost a lie-in!. As I planned to take public transport back to the Airport the hotel staff suggested I leave at 9am for a 1:30pm flight. I walked out of the hotel and across the road and asked a lady at the bus stop for the best bus to the Metro Station. Luck was with me as she was also going to use the same line as I needed to get to the Airport. So she made sure I got off at the right stop which was about 10 mins form the Hotel. It was still quiet as it was Saturday and not much traffic on the roads. and then we descended down into the fantastic Metro system and boarded the train towards the Airport. The lady left after about 5 stops and and I thanked her for her help. Everyone is very friendly here and I was a bit sad I had only had a short but enjoyable visit. On arriving at the airport I stopped for a coffee and some breakfast as I had got there for 10am and couldn't check in till 11:30 then I went and got a access for the Free Wifi at the Airport. Inter...

I've managed to upload a load of photo's to my Flickr site please go take a look .

This was not an early start! (apart from the 8am phone call's!) I left the hotel around 12ish and wandered down into the city centre, which was strangely quiet. Already all the litter and detritus of the previous nights partying had gone and the place was spotless again. I had a coffee at Burger King and took the Metro down to the Waterfront at the Vivo centre which is a huge entertainments centre and the obligatory shopping centre. After wandering around for a while I took the Metro over to near Raffles Hotel and had a wander around it, just as I was about to go in a huge party of people turned up and there seemed to be security everywhere so I only got a view of the outside. A re-plan of things to do was in order and looking on the Map I noticed that only a couple of streets down was the Funan Centre. This is a huge mall dedicated to all things electronic. 5 floors of computers, laptops, cameras, and gadgets. I was like kid in a sweet shop. However the usual Singapore price range...

I'm now in Vietnam, I have no access to Facebook here. If you want to post a comment or reply to my blog please do so directly on the blog at http://inglisway.blogspot.com and not with a FB comment 'cos I won't get it till February!! I'm still on Skype where possible but I'm about 8hrs ahead of the UK. Otherwise email will do - see my Facebook info page for my contact details and say Hello! Cheers Mike PS I'll will update the rest of the Singapore trip soon.

I got up and about for 10ish, a lie in at last! and went out to get some breakfast and a wander around. and I walked through a maze of high-rise buildings until I made my way on to Orchard Street - The Oxford Street of Singapore. This turned out to be the equivalent of The Trafford Centre combined with King Street combined with Bond Street and wend on for about a mile and half on 2 sides of the wide road. Shopping Mall after Shopping mall all seemingly virtually interlinked or if not only about a 40 yard gap to cross a road then in to the next. If your married never ever bring a credit card happy wife here you'll be broke before you get to the 3rd Mall. Walking back down the Main street I found a Metro Station and bought a pass and took the line to China town. I wandered around for a while and then found a restaurant foll of locals so figured it was a good place to eat, and it was, I got a huge bowl of Noodles and green leaves with stewed beef and 2 large beers for about S$15 and i...

I arrived in Singapore in the evening of the 30th. The Qantas flight was good and didn't seem like 5hours. The walk from the gate to Immigration took ages and then I went down to the Baggage Claim and waited and waited and waited. Eventually a supervisor came over as there were 2 of us left at the carousel. She radioed someone and assured us our bags were on the way. Eventually they came through but surprise surprise we both got stopped at Customs. Not sure why they stopped the other passenger but they rescanned my bag and then wanted me to open it. Apparently it was becaus I was carrying a folding camping Knife Fork Spoon Set but it was passed as ok and also because my PackSafe Metal Mesh was folded in the bag and was giving a funny reading. THe lady customs officer was so apologetic about stopping me and even told me the best place to go and see the New Year's Fireworks the next Night. Once past the custom's I went out to the Arrivals hall to work out how to get to the Ho...

The drive to the airport was relatively quiet and there were a few people about however all the cars on the road seemed to have big posters in the widows showing the reason for being out and the drivers were visibly nervous. Our car's had 'Airport Urgent' in big letters posted on the front and back windows. as my flight was not till 1pm and it was now 6am we found a spot outside the Airport entrance to settle down and try and get a few hours rest in. The Airport is covered by a no strike rule and was surrounded by police and security. The other problem with small Indian Airports is that they don't let you enter the airport building unless your flight shows on the board and that only happens when check-in is open. So I had to wait until 11:30 until I could go into the airport – even just to get a drink. Finally I got in the Check-in queue which took for ages with lots of people pushing in at the desk. The big problem was that the flight had been over booked and they were...