Something is a bit odd...

We have been out walking around since 11am and we are still dry - no sweat, are we acclimatising? I fear not - 78% humidity but I think only about 26 degrees here - positively chilly. Then there is the air con which here, rather than simply making the temperature bearable instead turns every building into a freezer!
I don't know - just no pleasing some people is there. Ah well, I'll just dig out a jumper then!
So why the late start - 11 am for goodness sake - we lost half a day....
Yes well, we saved up our laundry as we didn't have time left in Hanoi to do it. Unfortunately the laundry here is priced per item instead of per kilo. This is not good. So the sink and the shower were put to good use. Of course we then had to clean the shower and the sink and ourselves! We may not be perfectly clean but at least the clothes don't smell so bad (we hope).
After laundry morning we set off. Quick stop at bakery for breakfast - total cost 90p and very yummy! Then along Jordan road and down Nathan road to the star ferry terminal to work out things for tomorrow. Wandered around shops for a bit. Found some gadget shops so Martyn could research! Realised we were in what must have been Kowloons Knightsbridge given the number of posh shops! Quick trip to Avenue of the Stars for the view of Hong Kong island skyline and then back to Temple Street night Market for dinner.

Phew. More tomorrow when we head to Hong Kong island - of course we have only done half the laundry so it might be a late start again !

Tam Biet Viet Nam

Well, after a quick walking tour route of the Temple of Literature (oldest university in Vietnam), the One Pillar Pagoda (big swizz - the one pillar is now made of concrete!), a view of Ho Chi Minh mausoleum (not going in on principle - they supposedly love this guy, he wanted to be cremated and they pickled him!) and the presidential palace we treated ourselves to another crumble for lunch so we could sit in the cafe and sort the rest of our Vietnam photos. All organised now and ready to load up if we ever get the time/bandwidth!

And now we are sat in the plane awaiting the 'next bit' again!

On reflection we rather like Viet Nam. Ours is not a Vietnam of beaches, conical hats and highway one cities. Ours is a lush, fertile Vietnam, a verdant, vibrant green land growing a multitude of crops; a place of waterfalls and lakes, of mountains, limestone and hard work. A country of backroads and alley ways, of noise and flavour, of miniature plastic chairs on street corners. A fiercely independent nation of battlers. Of bikes (motorised or not) and boats. Of 'bo hai bee zoooh', of 'haallooooh' shouts and high fives. A place of history and lessons. Ours is a Viet Nam of memories. So goodbye for now to the land of the soaring dragons and the people of the south but I think we might be back!

Ooops, take off.. Next bit!

And the rain came tumbling down

But fortunately not until we had finished our trek and were in the car on the way back to Hanoi!
Awoke to the sound of gibbons again - ace - but it was 4am so i went back to sleep! This time we were not in the national park but were staying in the house of a White Thai family. Sheet of foam on bamboo floor is surprisingly comfy. No fan but we had air con - we took down the bamboo screening from the window holes. Didn't make any difference though. Actually we both slept quite well. I think because we were looking on the bright side and were just grateful we were sleeping on something reasonably solid and not hanging in a dodgy hammock in Borneo!!! They were good times too though!

Still up early - ish for our trek so we could do most of it in the cool. I thought this might mean 4am but apparently 8am is cool - 34 degrees is cool!!!!! Beautiful walk over some mountains, through a bit of jungle through more clouds of butterflies and on to where we were having lunch. Martyn was glad it was dry, some of the path was quite narrow with a drop on one side and a bit of mud. He had Mount Elgon flashbacks!!! (if this means nothing to you then ask us when we are back!)
Again didn't get hot enough on walk (ha ha) so after 20 min rest we got on bike for an hours tootle around. Very nice.

Quick vietnamese lesson using childrens vocab posters for animals, vegetables, trees, fruit and insects (my pronuciation of mosquito is better than martyns) then lunch and drive back to Hanoi through thunder, lightening and rain of monsoonal proportions! Driver did very well to keep the engine going through the floods!

Have failed in attempt to do no more laundry before return home - have had to seal up clothes from last 5 days in order to be able to sleep in hotel room tonight - whiffy!! Apologies in advance to laundry service in Hong Kong but that will definately be the last lot!!!
So we leave tomorrow - will no doubt manage last Vietnam blog from the airport but no idea what will happen in Hong kong or China so we will wait and see. Even if we can't post them we'll still type them all in and then upload them later or something. Not signing off yet though - just warning that there may not be many more posts!

Kays day

Started with being woken by the sound of gibbons calling. I love that noise, even when it's almost still dark! We spent the night in Cuc Phuong National Park.

Went back to sleep again having found blanket for feet - air con very effective = cold me!!!!
Up for breakfast and then a half hr drive to a two hr walk through the jungle. Butterflies everywhere and especially a lovely deep blue / indigo one we have never seen before. Huge swathes of butterflies flutterbying by. Stunning!
Walked up a large hill (many steps) to a one thousand year old tree and then back down other side of hill (many more steps).

Lunch in national park headquarters followed by a visit to the Endangered Primate Research Centre. Lots of langur monkeys rescued from poachers and as pets, they try wherever possible to reintegrate them back into the wild so we were only really allowed to see the ones that can't be released for some reason.

We did get to walk past the fence of the 'semi wild' area though and, just as the gibbons in the cages went a bit mad as it was lunchtime, a gorgeous female gibbon swung by and sat in a tree watching us. Wow. Probably the closest we'll ever get to a wild one! Oh oh ohhh the funky gibbon!!!!

Then onto the Turtle Conservation Centre (same sort of thing as the primates but for turtles - obviously!). My favourite - soft shell turtle from China (I think) it has a cute little snout!
Car journey along very bumpy roads to Muong Khen for a walk and then on to Mai Chau where we are staying the night in a local house. Yummy dinner whilst sat on bamboo floor watching Vietnamese 'who wants to be a millionaire' quite surreal. (120,000,000 dong being the top prize - $6000 to you and me - puts things in perspective)

Now lying very still trying to sleep whilst the sweat drips off us! No air con tonight so at least i wont get cold.
Personally I'm still recovering from removing the very large and exceedingly heavy BLANKETS kindly laid out for us on our piece of floor. I ask you - 36 degrees, so humid you sit still and sweat and the lovely people are giving us blankets to sleep in...... They are all wrapped up in them. I'm dripping in sweat having just pushed them to one side!!!!! Martyn went for a shower, walked from the shower to our room and wondered why he had bothered with the shower!

And then there were two....

We started with five on our tour two days ago, then we went up to nine on the boat. Five people left after the boat to go back to Hanoi so we were down to four. Today Claire and Sarah left for Hanoi so it is just Martyn and I now for the next two days and it's my bit coming up!

Today was a kind of intermediary day in between our two choices! Despite this it was a great day.
Started at 8 with breakfast, then a one hour walk around the valley of sunshine - not kidding with the name either, at nine thirty in the morning it was 35 degrees. Phew it was another hot one! Stunning walk amongst limestone karsts and paddy fields.
For some reason we decided that we weren't hot enough after our walk so we drove to another village and did a 1.5 hour cycle ride. I have to say though this was possibly the most beautiful bike ride on the planet. Absolutely stunning and well worth the bucket of sweat we each emitted!

Then lunch and another short drive to our boat ride along a river, in bits of shadow from the karsts (please is there more shade?) - we 'borrowed' our drivers umbrella to get some shade on the boat. Visited a temple and a pagoda and were rowed through 6 caves (nice and cool - please are there more caves?)
Found ice cream on return - never eaten ice cream so fast , it melted before we'd got the wrapper off so it was more a sort of 'slush cream' but it was cold.
Thank goodness, one hour in car with air con - the relief. Had bag of crisps and Martyn had a pineapple jelly kindly donated by Julie our exceptionally tiny guide.

Ready for my day tomorrow - just waiting for dinner then sleep - have air con tonight but not tomorrow night so we're making the most of it!

Martyns choice day two

Up at 730 for breakfast - noodle soup again - yummy. Seriously considering noodles for breakfast when home - very filling. Not sure I'll be able to cope with cooking it though!
Short cycle ride to lovely wooden temple and then cycled to our first proper Vietnamese beach which was lovely and empty apart from us. Had a paddle, got caught out by wave so got wet trousers but that didn't make any difference as it is so humid our clothes were wet this morning when we put them on.

Back on the bikes to cycle the back roads to the harbour to get back on the boat. Cruise back through Bai Tu Long bay past more stunning scenery. Great lunch on boat - fried squid, beef and garlic chips - wow.
Followed by 6 hour drive to the location of our next days activity. We've seen the limestone karsts in the sea so now we've come to see 'Ha Long bay on land' we are at Tam Coc in Ninh Binh province.
It was almost dark when we arrived but there was just enough light for Martyn to run and take even more photos. No doubt we will see more tomorrow!

Goat, pineapple and bitter banana rice pancakes for dinner with rice and beef and pineapple - and the most dangerous rice wine we've ever tasted - swear it was almost pure alcohol, didn't manage to say 'no thanks' in time ( well we did but the compromise was that we would only get a 'lil bit'). Sipped just enough to cover taste buds and boy did it burn - very rough stuff!

Oh and we've found a gecko that says 'geck- oh' again - hes just outside our room (which is very nice - we think the bathroom is about the size of our whole room in Hanoi!)

Fancy meeting you here

We said to Clare and Sarah. We met them yesterday over lunch as they asked who we had booked our trip with. We told them and they booked on the same one so we met up again this morning! Hope it's not rubbish - we feel kind of responsible now!

Anyway, we had three things we wanted to do and only really time (and money) for two so we picked one each! Today was the first of Martyns days. Well not really true - I changed his mind a bit but he says he is very pleased I did. His choice was Ha Long Bay - for the classic picture of the limestone islands (karats) and a go on a junk. We negotiated and instead headed to Bai Tu Long Bay which is virtually exactly the same scenery but has about 50 tourist boats that mostly Vietnamese use as opposed to the 600 boats that Western tourists use of Ha Long bay.

5 hr drive to get here, best trip lunch yet on boat, kayaking around limestone islands, making our own spring rolls for dinner (we are experts now!), stunning scenery and way too many photos later it's time for bed so we can be ready for tomorrow. Whatever that may bring as we explore the land of 'the children of the dragon' some more - Ha Long means mother dragon and Bai Tu Long means 'dragon children'

Oh and have discovered that in vietnamese my name means tree. It's spelt cay but pronounced the same!