London, first impressions, July

We arrived into London on 13 July. Since it was summer, we expected mild, or perhaps even warm, temperatures. However, having been swanning around in temperatures upwards of 35 degrees Celsius, the 15 degrees we stepped out into was a definite shock to the system. We spent the first few weeks staying with my brother and his wife, who both thought we were ridiculous for bundling up in our winter coats, jeans, and gloves. In all fairness though, when I skyped family back in NZ (where it was mid-winter), it was actually 15 degrees over there too.

The tube ride in from the airport was fascinating for us newbies. With our big backpacks during rush hour, we must’ve annoyed a few commuters. It was so strange seeing so many people in suits, and all staying completely silent throughout the journey. In our SE Asia backpacking clothes, we definitely stuck out like sore thumbs, especially alongside people in what seemed like incredibly trendy clothing. Trying not to stare, we also looked out the windows, and all the brick houses we passed looked so pretty and quaint.

At the time, my brother and his wife were living in Finsbury Park/Hackney in North London. As the last leg of our journey was spent in bustling Bangkok, the streets in their neighbourhood seemed so quiet.

I remember wondering what an ‘off-license’ was – I just thought there were all these liquor shops everywhere. For those not in the know, it’s actually like a corner store/dairy/four square; the place where you pick up your milk, bread, etc.

Another surprise was just how multicultural London is. Just jump on a bus and you’re bound to hear a multitude of different languages and see a multitude of different ethnicities. At times, coming from New Zealand just seems so downright boring in comparison. Although NZ is quite multicultural, the mix is quite different.

 Aside from being cold and discovering new wondrous things like oversized notes that won’t fit in a standard wallet, we spent the first few weeks in London flat hunting, attempting to get bank accounts, national insurance numbers, and in my case, job hunting.

Kylie had enjoyed unemployment so much that he didn’t fancy going back to work straight away, and so he took a much more relaxed approach.

Looking for a flat is not an easy task in London, particularly when you’re new to the city, and have no idea what different parts of the city are like, and how much to expect to pay.

I heard recently of someone who advertised a room to rent and within the first 24 hours, they had received 150 emails. The demand is simply so high that getting a room is extremely competitive.

It didn’t take us too long to sort out a place however. We are now living in Brockley, in South East London. We share a terraced house with four others; an Australian and an Italian girl, and another couple, he a Londoner, and she Indian.

Home sweet home

Chapel in Brockley Cemetry, near to our flat

Many had told me that although it’s cold in the UK, the houses are actually insulated and aren’t damp – something we’d lived with in many flats back in Wellington. Unfortunately, this did not turn out to be the case for our humble abode. I’m told that after the war and the damage it caused, there was a need to erect housing quickly and cheaply, and so terraced houses came to be. Corners were cut and small matters like insulation were clearly not high on the priority list. Our lovely landlady also seems to be a fan of ‘repairing’ things in an interesting fashion, but that’s another story for another time.

Koh Tao, sometime in July

We arrived into Koh Tao somewhat worse for wear after a long night bus and ferry ride from Bangkok. The package we booked in Bangkok included several nights’ accommodation and the PADI Open Water diving course at Coral Grand Divers, one of many dive operators on the island.

Later that same day, we started our Open Water course. I think we were pretty close to dozing off as we watched a video covering some of the theory.  We were then given our own course books, and dive tables, and prescribed a few chapters to read that evening.

The whole course was four days long, involving much more theory than I had anticipated. On the practical side, we started off with two practice dives in the swimming pool, before moving to the Ocean, and completing four dives at various dive locations off the island. To complete the course, we needed to pass both a theory test and have completed all the necessary skills during our dives. Naturally, we passed with flying colours J, although were quite tired after all that – the course is quite compacted, a lot of information to cover in such a short space of time.

Kylie seemed to take like a fish to water with the practical skills, while I took a little longer to get the hang of things. Removing my mask and holding it, before replacing I found quite tough, as my natural instinct was to breath in through my nose, meaning I would then take on water; but I got there in the end.

Our instructor, Coco, was really fantastic. She was very thorough, super friendly, patient, and you could tell she was really passionate about diving and conservation of the marine environment.

After completing the course, we also did a few fun dives. It was so great to be able to just chill out and really enjoy the dive, checking out all the amazing sea life, rather than concentrating on the various skills to complete. Some of the most memorable things we saw were; giant grouper, puffer fish, trigger fish, and a stingray.

In between the course and the fun dives, we had taken a few days off from diving and explored the rest of the island on motorbike. As a warning, some of the roads, particularly down to different beaches, were quite rough, but it was definitely worth it.

As with most of the islands, Koh Tao really seems like a place apart from Thailand itself. Towards the end of our stay the island really started to fill up as revelers from the infamous Full Moon Party on nearby Koh Pha Ngan drifted in. The bars and restaurants are therefore set up to cater to this crowd, with predominately western or westernized food being served. That said, we did manage to find a couple of places serving delicious, authentic Thai food.

Bangkok, late June - mid July-ish

From Hanoi we flew down to Bangkok for the last leg of our South East Asia journey. Having visited Bangkok a few years ago and seen some of the key sights, such as the Grand Palace, we took a relaxed attitude towards sightseeing this time round.

We did visit the National Museum however, which was quite good and informative. It’s set in the former grounds of the 18^th Century Wang Na Palace so the buildings themselves are also beautiful. We found the Thai history gallery the most interesting, spending less time on the sections dedicated to King worship.

Having experienced so much more of Asia this time round, Bangkok seemed far less daunting, and much more tame than the first time we visited.

While in Bangkok, we spent a bit of time in some of the massive, beautifully air-conditioned malls. The extravagance of some malls is simply astounding; one we visited had an actual Lamborghini dealership, with three cars on display.

We arranged a trip to the island of Koh Tao to do some diving (see next post), and then returned to Bangkok for a few days before flying out. For our second stint, we again met up with Mike and Torika, and enjoyed spending time shopping and eating together.

Ha Giang – Dong Van 22nd - 24th of June

After our bus ride back from Halong we had told Viet how after Halong bay we didn’t want to do Sapa and be in another of Vietnam’s hotspots for tourism. 

So he recommended another place in the north where western tourists are few and far between, so all four of us decided to take the night bus to Ha Giang in the north of Vietnam.
After the night bus we arrived in the middle of nowhere at 4am looking in our guide books and wishing we had done some pre planning – we weren’t even sure we were in Ha Giang. After some sleepy taxi drivers asking us where we were going we ended up going to a small “resort” on the edge of town.
We must have caught the resort by surprise because they had to make up the rooms for us; once our rooms were ready we had a quick sleep.
Later that morning we hired some motorbikes and went off into town looking for some coffee and local food. We knew that when we visited Dong Van that we would need a permit to be in the area of Meo Vac as it is so close to the border of China, now there isn’t much information about how to get this permit so we spent most of the day riding around town trying to find the tourism office, we never found it. 

Route Ha Giang to Dong Van

Our resort rung a hotel in Dong Van for us and organised a room, and informed us that they would sort out the permit on arrival. As our resort didn’t have a bar we decided to have a poker night, so we rode all around down trying to find cold beer and some food. Turns out cold beer was hard to find, we stopped off for some Banh Mi to take home and the guy said the woman across the road sold beer, she had set up a small footpath bar which locals stopped off at for a beer and some peanuts. We told her we wanted around a dozen beers, so with a quick phone call a guy arrives with a crate of beer and some ice. With our supplies carefully balanced on the bike we headed back for poker night, we didn’t have any chips so we used piles of candy. 

The next day we were given two motorbikes and some dodgy helmets one of which was bashed in, they obviously only wear the helmets as it’s the law, not because it will save your head from being caved in.
We found a route on google maps and headed off, we were not even 5 minutes out of town and we got our first view of the amazing northern country side, we knew that this was going to be a great ride. We rode through open farmlands with rice paddy as far as the eye could see, over mountains (on a 100cc bike this is a very slow process) along rivers in valleys and through small villages.

We became quite the sight in the countryside, as locals would stop whatever work they were doing and stare at us as if we were the first westerners they had seen. We went through some road works and after getting some looks from the workers; Ylan chuckled and told us they had exclaimed, “white people! And look they can ride motorbikes!” After around 7 hours, lots of photo/bum rest stops. 

We had arrived in Dong Van, a small town where the surrounding Hmong people come to the morning market and sell their produce. We booked into our room and went to border control with our passports, after some money changed hands and we filled out a form we received our permit to visit the area.

Ylan had seen signs advertising duck foetus eggs, Jerry decided that we must try them, so we sat down and got a few beers, Ylan dived into the bowl of eggs and gave us a demonstration. The words membrane and juices were mentioned far too often, it turns out there is quite a technique in eating a partially developed duck. I found it wasn’t as bad as I thought, the egg itself was over cooked and the white was chewy but with a dollop of chilli the whole experience wasn’t that bad. We must have looked quite funny with the odd looks on our faces while watching Ylan and our careful approach. 

We headed out and found a hot bowl of noodle soup and went to bed, the next day our bums still a little sore we visited the local market, which was teaming with activity. A sea of colourful Hmong clothing, pigs squealing, people sell rice cakes, veges, meats and of course table after table serving up noodle soup for breakfast to all the hungry locals. 

We sat down among the tables and ordered some soup and just sat there watching the market, not a tourist in sight, no one trying to sell us tacky wares, just people living their normal lives. It was so refreshing being able to just wander and take in the surroundings as we navigated around the market. But we knew that if we wanted to get back to Ha Giang by dark we would need to leave Dong van before 10am, point to point the ride is only 150km but the winding roads and step mountains meant that is took around 6-7 hours, especially with all the bum rest stops and photo ops. 

The we got back to Ha Giang and we would be glad never to see a motorbike again. That night we had to get back to Hanoi as Ylan had to get a flight the next morning. We had found all the buses full and decided to use a local taxi to take us the 7 hours back. We thought “well this will be more comfortable than the bus”, but with 3 of us in the back and 1 in the front of a Toyota corolla we soon decided it wasn’t as comfortable as we thought. We left at around 9pm and finally got into Hanoi at 4am looking like zombies.
We arrived back at our favourite hotel finnegans greeted by Viets younger brother and were given a room and we all flopped on the beds and fell asleep, unfortunately for Ylan she only got an hour sleep or so before having to get up and catch her plane.
Myself Hannah and Jerry went to the supermarket brought some junk food and spent the day in the room watching telly nursing our sore bums.

A trip to remember 

Halong Bay 19th – 21st June

After looking at the dozens of tour operators for Halong Bay cruises, we decided to go with Alova cruises, although more expensive the boats were nicer and they didn’t cram dozens of people into a small space.

On the first day, myself, Hannah, Ylan and Jerry boarded a bus to Halong city, boarded our boat and headed out to the open sea. On arrival at our base we dropped anchor had a great lunch and although the wine bottles were on the tables we were given a complementary juice :(
After lunch we jumped in the kayaks, we went for a paddle around some islands; while the scenery is amazing the amount of rubbish floating on the surface of the water ruined the charm of the area.

Then we took a small boat to what looked like man made beach, where most of the other boats from the harbour had taken their guests, but with a high cost café, expensive deck chairs and pricey volley ball rentals we decided to just sit on the sand and admire the view, you know the view past the dozens of tourists in the water, past the jet skis, and past the rubbish floating about.

After that we had a cooking class, which was making spring rolls (again with the spring roll cooking classes!!). Then shortly after that we had dinner, spring rolls, prawns; crabs the list goes on, a great meal. Although the drinks were very pricey the little Vietnamese women from the surrounding floating villages would row up to the boat and sell cheaper beers, much to the disapproval of the bar staff.

Buy something!?!?

The next day we woke up early and took a small boat to Sung Sot cave, a huge cave that has had a path and some great lighting installed, our guide pointed out many figures that had been spotted in the cave; some obvious and some required a stretch of the imagination. 

 Later that day we headed out and took a look at the floating villages and the floating pearl farm. Our last stop for the day was at a small beach where we found a spot of water that didn’t have any rubbish and went for dip, which stopped promptly after a floating poo made its way towards us!
Later that night we made some more spring rolls and had dinner, we had smuggled a bottle of wine on board and sat on the deck in the warm night air talking with other travellers.

Reading back over this post I don’t sound too positive but I feel like it’s a fair review, Halong bay is marketed as a wonder of the natural world and boasts its UNESCO status, and yes the thousands of small islands and green water makes for a great view, but over the years this place has become the number one tourist attraction in Vietnam and I’m sure many years ago Halong bay would be a magical place, but the affects of tourism haven’t been managed well, the rubbish the over crowding, we were told in peak summer time there would be over 40 cruise ships anchored in the small area. Don’t let his put you off the idea visiting I think I was just a little let down due to the hype. 

Hanoi: 17 – 19 June, and a few other days

We arrived into Hanoi early but not so bright and despite everyone’s warnings, still ended up paying an extortionate price for a taxi to our hotel. Luckily the warm welcome we received at our hotel, Finnegan’s Hotel, made us feel much better. Owner Viet, his wife and brother, were all so lovely and helpful. Viet really went out of his way to give us advice on different trips we wanted to do to Halong Bay and the North, and detailed instructions on some fabulous restaurants to visit.

So after a shower and a bit of a rest, we met up with our Canadian friends Ylan and Jerry and headed to Hanoi’s best ‘pho’ (noodle soup) restaurant (another of Viet’s recommendations). The queue went out the door and onto the street. This place is so popular that the neighbouring restaurants have just given up trying to compete; the busy staff could be seen running into neighbouring restaurants with steaming bowls of the delicious soup.

Once refuelled, we set off to explore the city in the stifling heat. We visited the Military History Museum, which was interesting, although rather propaganda-like.

For a late lunch, we were tantalised by the smell of chargrilling pork on the street and sat down to some delicious bun cha, a popular North Vietnamese dish. Bun Cha is served as a broth with fish sauce, sugar and vinegar, with chunks of the grilled pork and a few other veges. Alongside this, you are given a plate of cold rice noodles and the ubiquitous plate of herbs, added as per your preference. You dip the noodles into the broth little by little and slurp up, also tasting the delicious grilled meat as you go. It’s also common to order a side of spring rolls, also dipped in the broth. Writing this is making my mouth water…  

Another taste sensation we tried in Hanoi was ‘egg coffee,’ or cà phê trú’ng. I think this is a Hanoi specialty, although it’s not so well known. We tried ours at Café Giang, which is a family-run Hanoi institution. It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but is a cute, if simple, little café once you make your way down the dark passageway. Basically it’s Vietnamese coffee – so with sweetened condensed milk at the bottom of the cup, followed by strong coffee, (and ice if, like us, you need to cool down), and on the top is a layer of foam made from egg (I think both the yolk and white). To enjoy, you take a spoonful of each of the three layers. The result is amazingly creamy, rich and sweet – I’ve heard it compared to eating tiramisu.

Hanoi is centred around the Hoan Kiem Lake, a popular hangout spot in the evenings, by which time the temperature has dropped enough to be comfortable. Walking around the lake, you encounter young couples canoodling, older people getting their exercise in or performing some bizarre hula-like stretches, families eating ice cream, and others playing badminton. From here, many of Hanoi’s main attractions can be reached on foot, provided you can withstand the heat and humidity.

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum

Other sights we enjoyed in Hanoi included; the One Pillar Pagoda (not impressive at all – looks like a tree hut and about as exciting, although there is some story behind it from memory), the Temple of Literature (a lovely complex set amidst a beautiful park), and the Women’s museum (interesting and very modern). Walking around the old quarter one day, we decided to visit the nearby Opera House. Somehow we managed to mistake the Hilton Opera House for the opera house itself, and found ourselves wandering around the hotel a little confused! To be fair, the hotel was rather grand, and gave the impression it could once have been an opera house, although we did feel rather silly when we realised our mistake.

Using Hanoi as a base, the four of us went on two trips – one to Halong Bay and one to the North – each time returning to Hanoi and comforts of our new favourite hotel and hotel owner.