Review of Vietnam

If I had to choose one word to describe the country I'd probably go for 'mopeds'. There are quite literally millions of them!

There is so much more though, the country itself is beautiful. From the towering rock islands in Ha Long Bay to the bustling city streets of Ho Chi Minh City there is so much to see. I personally think that Hoi An is one of the most beautiful places in the world because of the hundreds of colourful lanterns hanging from old buildings and bridges that light up the streets, it was exactly like a painting of a 'traditional Asian' scene.

I will also remember the horns of cars/buses/mopeds being blown for what seemed like every second of every day in the cities. It was quite intense.

Overall, Vietnam is an amazing country and definitely somewhere everybody should visit if they get a chance.

Next up; China. The last country of the trip.

In The Photo: Here is a small part of a mosaic in Hanoi, the capital city. It is part of the longest ceramic mosaic in the world at over 2 miles from start to finish! Made to celebate the city's 1000th birthday in 2010, our taxi was driving past it for ages!

One Direction Watch {Vietnam}

There's about as many signs of One Direction in Vietnam as there are McDonalds in the country...absolutely none!

Islands In The Bay

I have spent the last couple of days in one of the most beautiful places on earth; Ha Long Bay! It is in the north of Vietnam and is made up of nearly 2,000 different limestone islands that lurch up high out of the water.

It is said that, centuries ago, an ancient dragon came to help the local Vietnamese people when they were being invaded. It crashed into a giant rock and sent boulders the size of islands scattering across the bay. This meant that the invaders couldn't find their way to land and the local people remained safe. That is the traditional story of how the bay was created and sailing amongst the islands was like travelling into a beautiful, pop-up book of the story.

Did You Know?: Ha Long Bay has featured as a location in two James Bond films and was the finish line in the Top Gear Vietnam special.

Jellies

Look at this jellyfish! As I was kayaking around some of the islands on Halong Bay I saw one every few minutes and they were huge. They could deliver quite a sting if you got mixed up in their tentacles but that hasn't stopped people catching them and selling them to China where they are a popular in salads.

Last Dong Day

Today's my last day in Vietnam before flying to China tomorrow morning. That means I will be starting to spend Chinese Yuan instead of Vietnamese Dong, something which should be a lot easier to work out because it's roughly Y10 to £1 instead of a whopping 32,400 Dong to £1 (roughly). I am a lot better at dividing by 10 than I am at dividing by 32,400!

In The Photo: While it's only possible to get 5, 10, 20 and 50 notes at home, here in Vietnam you can carry round a few half a million notes like this! You can even go to a cash machine and withdraw a few million Dong!

Puppet Show

Last night I got to see a Vietnamese water puppet show. The shows originally started centuries ago in the rice paddies of the Mekong Delta and the puppeteers use the water as a stage while they stand behind a bamboo screen.

What I saw last night was exactly the same except it was in a theatre in Hanoi instead of a rice paddy! It was incredibly clever how they used the water and the puppets were very well made. What you can see in the photo is dragon puppet moving around with a bird puppet, it is part of the traditional story of how the people of Vietnam were created. I got to watch a few other Vietnamese stories told on stage too and it was a really interesting evening.

It's Not Like The Garage Down The Road

The latest garages in the world have fancy clean handles, a smattering of special offer advertisments for things like wind-up torches and you can even put your card straight into the pump to pay now. In Vietnam you can fill up at one of these.

Believe it or not this type of petrol pump has been quite a commom sight in both Vietnam and Cambodia and equally common are old, large glass Pepsi or Fanta bottles filled with fuel to take away! I'm not sure it's the safest way to store highly flammable liquids but it seems to do the job in South East Asia.

Tumbling Down

I hope everyone back home enjoyed their Monday off. I ended up having quite an eventful afternoon when the ceiling of our hostel room fell in!!!

I was sat on the chair you can see in the photo, just checking my emails and catching up on football news when I suddenly heard something fall over above me. I thought it sounded a bit odd because it sounded like it was really close (Not like when something falls over upstairs in your house and you know there's a fair bit of concrete or rafters between you and the floor above).

After that, I heard a few more things topple over in quick succession just before a pretty ominous cracking sound. I looked up and saw some of the wood decorating the ceiling come apart and things starting to fall through. It must have all happened in just a split second because I leapt from my seat and flung myself onto the bed to get out of the way.

I looked back and saw that where I was sat was covered in shattered glass (Including a now obliterated fish tank and mirror), ceramic tiles, wood and lots of dust. Small shards of glass even covered the far reaches of the room. This certainly woke Nads up from her nap and luckily I only had a very small cut on my arm.

[Apologies for the photo being a bit blurry. There was a lot of dust in the air and it was taken very quickly as the hotel staff had just started to clear up and after we had to move some of the debris to actually get out the room]

The Temple Next Door

This picturesque temple is right next door to where we are staying in Hoi An, in fact it can be seen right outside our bedroom window!

It's an old building dedicated to something called Confucianism (Conn-fyu-shunn-ism). Confucianism isn't technically a religion but it is a set of beliefs that people choose to follow.

It was started around 2500 years ago in China by a man called Confucious. At this time things weren't good in the country and he became a teacher who created a set of rules that people must follow. They included things like respecting your elders, treating other people how you would like to be treated yourself and knowing that if you have made a mistake you must try your hardest to correct it. It was very strict but also incredibly popular and many people still follow these rules today.

Did You Know?: One thing people used to say about Confucious was that if his mat wasn't straight he wouldn't sit on it. This might sound really fussy but it's actually the core of his beliefs that things must be done properly so that they are correct. Think of your writing, if you don't start a sentence with a capital letter and finish it with the correct punctuation is just isn't right and doesn't make proper sense.

War Tunnels

Today I found myself crawling through the Cu Chi Tunnels not far from Ho Chi Minh City. These famous tunnels were used by large numbers of Vietnamese fighters during the country's war against the USA . They run for many kilometres, different tunnels going in different directions but all connected.

You can see how small and cramped these tunnels were for me but they used to be even narrower because they have been widened for tourists! Imagine having to live inside these for days on end, sharing your space with poisonous centipedes and scorpions as well as a whole village worth of people.

Did You Know?: The only time people left these tunnels, even though it got so hot inside, was after dark when there were no US soldiers around. However, if bombing was happening it could be days before anyone went to the surface!

Rush Hour

Cambodia may have had some of the craziest driving of the trip so far but Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam certainly has the busiest roads.

The amount of mopeds in this city is incredible. I have heard a tour guide say that there are around 4,500,000 of them, there are only around 6,500,000 people! They are everywhere!

A Famous Post Office

There can't be too many post offices in the world that are tourist attractions but this one in Ho Chi Minh City certainly is.

Saigon Central Post Office was built when this part of Vietnam was under the control of the French and it was designed by a man called Gustave Eiffel...the same man who designed a certain famous tower in Paris that shares his name!

Because of the fame of his Eiffel Tower creation this post office in the middle of the city now has many, many visitors a day that don't even want to post anything, including me!

Fast Food Update

It has to be said, KFC are one of the best fast food chains out there in the way that their menu changes around the world. Easily one of the easiest places to pop into for some food and not break my fast food rule of not having something on the menu in the UK.

What you can see here, nearest to the camera, is a 'Flava Roast' burger meal, it came with an Asian-style soup as a side! It was a bit like a warm version of the flavoured chicken sandwich fillers you can pick up at the supermarket. The other meal was 'Chicken Strips With Rice'. Out here in Asia it's very common to see rice served with fast food meals. The pudding was a 'Cream Ball' desert, this is basically that whippy style ice cream with some chocolate flavoured cereal at the bottom and a bit of chocolate sauce.

It may not have been award-winning cuisine but it certainly cured my midday hunger. Plus the drinks are served in glasses!