Vietnam recap

Well, two months down, and so much more has happened. Vietnam has been pivotal in my travels, I know that already. It has shown me so many different things, offered me so many different experiences and left me with a deep sense of loss at having to leave. 

Again the people I have met have made this part of the trip and some of the things I've seen wil never be describable to people back home.

So my highlights of each place:

HANOI - 28th July - 31st July and 02nd August - 04th August

Top 5 moments:

- Meeting Dutch chaps, Matthijs, Jordy and Sèbastien.

- The Old Quarter.

- The Water Puppet show.

- Hoa Lo Prison.

- The street food.

SAPA - 01st August - 02nd August

Top 5 moments:

- The Sapa Squad.

- The trekking through rice fields and villages.

- Being conned out of 400,000 VND.

- Za, our tour guide.

- The epic games of Mafia at the home stay.

HALONG BAY - 04th August - 06th August

Top 5 moments:

- Sitting up all night with the stars, waiting for sunrise.

- Kayaking.

- Cat Ba Island.

- Swimming at night.

- Monkey Island.

PHONG NHA - 07th August

Top 5 moments:

- Riding a motorcycle for the first time.

- Zip lining and caving.

- Meeting Danish double, Anne and Julie.

- Easy Tiger.

- The landscape.

HUÈ - 08th August - 09th August

Top 5 moments:

- The Indian restaurant.

- Playing Jenga in a nightclub.

- Banana pancakes!

- Hiring motorcycles for the ride to Hoi An.

- Julie and Anne crashing the bike within 30 seconds of leaving the hire place.

HOI AN - 09th August - 15th August

Top moments (there's more than five because there were too many to pick from):

- Suits - selecting, fitting and buying.

- Falling down the stairs in Why Not club.

- Cargo - the best desserts in town.

- Spraying Sèbastien with the bidet hose.

- Convincing Sèbastien to stay on with us all the way to the end.

- Losing the bike lock and having to saw it off.

- Meeting Mr Xè.

- Watching Dayana eat crab and explain why she's never seen any Disney movies.

- Playing the Green and Black / CB game with Julie.

NHA TRANG - 16th August

Top 5 moments:

- Funky Monkey boat trip.

- Snorkelling with fish and sea snakes.

- Karaoke.

- Vegetarian dinner place.

- The poached regs at breakfast - finally, someone who can cook an egg well!

DALAT - 17th August - 19th August

Top 5 moments:

- Canyoning.

- The Crazy House.

- The bed bug terror.

- Winning with Julie at pool against Sèbastien, Jordy and Anne.

- The Bee Bar

MUI NE - 19th August - 20th August

Top 5 moments:

- Duning and quad biking.

- The beachside hostel.

- The live music bar.

- The relaxation.

- The food.

HO CHI MINH / SAIGON - 21st August - 23rd August

Top 5 moments:

- Cu Chi War Tunnels.

- Walking Tour.

- War Museum.

- AB Tower sky bar.

- Last drink with the Crazy Gang.

Vietnam was something really special, I'll never be able to go anywhere without remembering it. A special thanks to everyone I met this time around, and a extra special thanks to Jordy, Sèbastien, Anne Banana and Lady Julie - you guys made this for me!

Special notes:

Matthijs - You are a down to earth guy, my friend. It was great meeting you in Hanoi and Hoi An and I'm glad we had some good talks over beers. I hope to see you in England one day or perhaps when I come to The Netherlands. All the best.

Dayana - Thanks for the banter and for entertaining me when you ate crab. If I still know you in a year, and you still haven't watched a Disney Movie, I'm going to send you every Disney Classic to watch. I swear! Good luck in London and stay away from Budapest!

To the members of my crazy gang:

Jordy - What a guy! Your organisational skills, diplomacy and general zest for life is something that made you easy to be around.

I want to give you a big thanks for pushing me to do all that crazy crap, like kayaking around giant islands in Halong Bay, zip lining, cave swimming and motorbiking in Huè and all the way to Hoi An, getting me to buy ANOTHER suit from Mr Xè, abseiling off huge rocks and especially for telling me not to be a pussy and giving me the motivation to do the 11 metre cliff dive! 

Thank you buddy and I look forward to visiting you in The Netherlands and for you to come to Old Trafford to watch a United game with me!

Sèbastien - What's happening Ricki? Watching you go from being conservative in every respect to a maverick with a cavalier attitude in just under four weeks has been a pleasure.

We may have done the Rush Hour impressions to death, but we ruled them. Thanks for being my wing man on the joke front, for giving me a good run for my money at pool, for sharing my indulgence of food at all times of the day and especially for singing 'Don't Stop 'Till You Get Enough' with me at Karaoke. I'll never forget that.

Equally, thanks for staying with the group in Hoi An. It wouldn't have been the same without you if you'd left, and sorry for sending your food back to waste time and for orchestrating you missing your flight. I did it for the gang.

As with Jordy, I'll see you in The Netherlands and when you come over to England for the game . . . And Johnson, what panties you wearing man?

Anne Banana - Ah, what an angel. Your happy demeanour and fun style of living just made it impossible for me to dislike anything about you. 

I'm always going to remember wrapping you in a white towel and cradling you just because we all wanted to see your baby face in that scenario and your giggling in the night when I was trying to go to sleep. Talking to you was so easy and I'm glad we had the chance to travel the majority of Vietnam together, seeing some crazy stuff and both of us learning how to ride bikes. You rocked it.

One thing I'll also never forget is your ability to steal my things. In our time together, you took precisely three towels, two door keys and a bar of my soap. It was lucky I was aware really.

Keep those smiles coming and I'll see you in Copenhagen! That's a promise.

Lady Julie - Best until last they say. The way in which you can look like you're going to kill me and then produce this sweet smile is something I'll really miss.

At times I know you were missing home and the people there but without you in the group, I wouldn't have had someone who could attempt to bring my energy levels down (sorry but like all others, you failed, but nice try).

Our bus trips and sleeping arrangements are going to take some time to get used to not having. It was always fun playing the green and black / CB game, doing impressions of your voice and learning Danish with you. I'm practicing still, I swear. I won't miss you pouring water over me, pinching or punching me. Oh, and I definitely won't miss you asking me to repeat everything five times.

I'll miss you Lady, and I'll really miss applying the antiseptic gel to your cut. It was the highlight of my day.

Keep your eyes open - one day, I might just appear in Denmark for surprise piña coladas!

Best of luck to you all, and thanks. You made my Vietnam trip!

Day 54 - Funky Monkey of Nha Trang

The early morning view from the Nha Trang hostel.

Day 54 - 16th August

Arriving in Nha Trang early was never a good thing, but we only had one day there, so we had to make the most of it. We'd done enough relaxing in Hoi An and we're ready for something a bit more active.

My memory of Nha Trang will always be dominated by 'FUNKY MONKEY, FUNKY MONKEY' being yelled at me as I boarded the boat tour for the day with the other four. 

We were told with no beer, came no money, no money, no honey, no honey, no baby. That was enough to convince me not to drink too much. I wasn't prepared for the responsibility of the end product.

After boycotting a fishy (forgive the pun) looking aquarium which drove me to an early beer, we headed out onto the open water for our second stop. We were able to swim and snorkel in the nearby reefs. It was actually pretty cool, as I dived in from the top of the boat with Jordy, Sèbastien and Anne whilst Julie dropped in lady like from the lower deck.

When snorkelling, I saw some great fish and even a number of water snakes. It was so cool just watching them go about their business, seemingly oblivious to our presence above them. Some guy dropped his sunglasses and they were efficiently fished out by one of guides, who dove straight in with a snokel on.

Look at that lot.

Lunch was impressive, with a table filled with seafood, pork, tofu, noodles and of course steamed rice. Afterwards, the hosts had each nation stand up and sing a song from their country with him and his band, The Funky Monkeys. Of course, England's was Wonderwall and me and four others sang our hearts out to get the show on the road. 

A drunk Scottishman wanted to sing his own song, not seeing himself as part of the UK contingent. More for him.

The Funky Monkeys.

When we were finally getting relaxed, the host yelled out 'Happy Hour. Everybody to the water bar.' The bar was a water ring with a guy inside who handed out plastic cups of orange and vodka to everyone floating by on a water ring. It was a crazy fifteen minutes with people bombing and splashing around whilst trying to dunk each other.

And finally, we reached stop three. The beach. Not normally one for sitting in the sun, I was ready to relax after being sleep deprived again. It was a nice relaxing hour before we headed back to shore.

Dinner at a vegetarian restaurant convinced me I needed to try it more often and then a walk around the beach area showed us what Nha Trang had to offer.

The gang.

Before we knew it, we were inside a Karoke booth singing classics. An hour of fun brought a lot of laughter. For Sèbastien and I, our night was complete when we found Don't Stop Until You Get Enough by Michael Jackson. We had been doing Rush Hour 1 & 2 quotes non stop since Halong Bay and now we had the chance to do Chris Tucker's rendition of the song in the Triad club in ahi g Kong. Sadly, it didn't beat the group's version of Smooth Criminal which received a 94% accuracy rating. Shamon!

Another great place but we were off to Dalat in the morning, another early morning start!

Day 53 - Leaving Hoi An and travelling to Nha Trang

The bright lights of Hoi An by night. Such a great place.

Day 53 - 15th August

So a check out rush around by 11am was the highlight of my morning. My lost room key reappeared, I suspected Anne Banana all along and it was in her bed now. Everyone rushing by, frantically trying to get out reminded me of the Macallister in Home Alone on flight day. Within minutes, I was literally left home alone as everyone was out and I was stuffing clothes into my backpack with minutes to spare.

At the reception desk, I had to explain that I now had two keys to my room so technically I hadn't lost it and a reimbursement of my 120,000 VND was due. Five minutes and a pen and paper diagram drawing later, I had the money.

Mr Xe and his team wrapped all seven of our suits and shoes and boxed it up for us to carry. When we asked where he was after he disappeared for a while, he yelled out from the back 'I'm here!' in his funny voice. I'll miss that guy and those girls. They were a good crack. And they also gave me a free pair of shorts as a thank you, so a great bonus. (I did buy them ice creams and a pizza in return.)

We relaxed for the day, taking in Cargo one final time and waiting out until 5:30pm for our night bus. That dreaded journey was our last night bus with Camel Travel so I trying to remain optimistic.

And as if they plan it that way, 5:30pm came and no bus arrived. By 6:15pm, we were herded down the street, me carrying a backpack and a 14 kilo box on my shoulder, whilst trying to keep an eye on a mother and her three kids who were with us and trying to navigate the busy traffic. 

In true Camel Travel fashion, the bus was overbooked. Julie and I were split from the other three and had to go up the back, top bunk where two America guys were. It was hot up there and we passed the time with me teaching Julie geography and telling her a story I had to make up on the spot. She told me about Bubbi Bjørn (Danish for Gummi Bears) and attempted to teach me Danish - it went about as well as England's 2014 World Cup campaign.

Finally, we fell asleep but as per usual I was kept awake by horns, bumps and people snoring.