Australia: Cities, beaches and farming!

I was recently granted my second year Working Holiday visa after a two month wait. Generally visa applications of this sort have a quick turnaround time, but I was investigated by immigration to prove I did my 88 days regional work, required to legitimately get the second year visa in Australia.

Fortunately for me, I actually completed over the required number of days hard graft, and so I was granted permission to stay for another year. My regional work consisted of a month on a farm near Woolgoolga working for food and accommodation and then two months on a notable peach farm in Araluen called Wisbey’s Orchards. Both farms are in New South Wales and emotionally tested me more than anything in my life!

There were ups and then there were severe downs. At the first farm I stayed in a half built house with an outdoor kitchen and showers. It was built with the intention of housing backpackers who would work on the farm and has the potential to be great fun, but when I arrived it was winter and there were only seven of us so I didn’t have much fun. The second farm also allowed us to live on the farm where 20 or so backpackers shared two cabins. There was an outside area to entertain ourselves and a fire around which we played many a game of Never Ever and Truth or Dare.

Fruit picking is probably one of the most boring things you can do – well for me anyway – but we entertained ourselves with question games and generally talking nonsense. We had some fun and interesting experiences there, which will stay with me for life, just like the memory of the stench of dead wombat! In fact the first time I drove a car in a year I accidentally ran over and killed a wombat. It was pitch black and it came out of nowhere ok!

I became great friends with many of the backpackers at Wisbey’s but by the end of my stint and once I knew I had my required number of days, I was eager to leave and return to civilisation, which was back to Sydney.

I say back to Sydney because that’s where my Australian adventure began in March 2014. I lived there for five months in total and saw many people come and go. Some were passing through, some stayed for a few months and some wanted to settle and make a life for themselves. At that point in my life I didn’t really know what I wanted and just stuck around until I fancied a change, which came about at the end of July.

My friend form home arrived the previous month and then we set off to go and work at Splendour in the Grass festival in Byron Bay. We saw loads of bands here but I prefer UK festivals because the music stopped at 2am which is too early for me and with it being winter, night time was arctic! The sun shone every day and you could run around in shorts but as soon as the sun went, you’d be piling on three jumpers, coats and scarves. My friend and I would wrap up in our sleeping bags and spoon each other in our tent just to keep warm. If you fancy going to this festival I’d definitely recommend staying at a hostel in Byron and just getting the bus in unless you like freezing your cods off.

After the festival we went back to Byron, stayed at the Arts Factory, met up with some friends and travelled as far as Noosa with them. We had the funniest time ever, particularly at Bush Camp with our 20 or so boxes of goon. All the other tourists were there to kayak the Everglades. We drank all day and night and the next day only made it 100 metres up the river in our boats before floating back to camp to eat and feel hungover. We laughed from the time we arrived to the time we left and I have no regrets about not kayaking which was the only thing to do.

By this point my friend and I had to make our way up to Cairns to meet up with my cousin and two friends who I hadn’t seen for nine months. While I was slumming it in a hostel my friends had fantastic apartment overlooking Cairns promenade which we spent most of our time at.

In Cairns we visited the Esplanade and went on a waterfall and rainforest day trip where we saw the location of Peter Andre’s Mysterious Girl video and where they filmed that Herbal Essences advert in which she flicks her hair back in the water. Due to this, there are in fact at least 10 people trying to recreate this moment at any given time.

It was after our visit to Cairns that we began our farm work as mentioned. Once it was complete and I’d headed back to Sydney I stayed there for all of Christmas and New Year. We cooked out own Christmas dinner which was delicious and come New Year we just drank and watched the fireworks over the harbour.

Soon after, we visited Melbourne intending to work and live there but once we arrived I just wasn’t feeling it. It wasn’t that I disliked Melbourne but I was fed up of working. It was called a Working Holiday visa after all, so we decided to do the East Coast. Starting in Cairns we made our way down visiting Airlie Beach, the Whitsundays, the Castaway trip, Fraser Island, Noosa, Byron Bay and then back to Sydney again.

The highlights were definitely the Castaway trip and Byron Bay. Castaway saw about 15 of us dropped off on a little island with only ourselves and one supervisor to entertain us. We spent two nights here but I could have easily done a couple more, despite there not being any showers. Byron Bay was fun because we met some great people while staying at the Arts Factory again. Byron is such as cool little beach town and the Arts Factory just sums it all up for me. You’ll know what I mean if you go there. We also had a brilliant time there because Australia Day fell during that period. The events of that day/night will stay with me forever but unfortunately I won’t disclose what went down haha. What happens in Byron stays in Byron!

It was then back to Sydney to find a job which is where I have been ever since. Summer has been great here but it’s starting to get a little colder now as winter sets in. Also literally all of my friends have either left or are planning to leave the city or Australia in general, which is why I am now off to Cambodia for a few weeks.

When I come back to Australia I plan to go to Melbourne this time and live there properly. There are some great festivals I want to go to such as Earthcore and Rainbow Serpent. Plus I’ve always wanted to be there for the Melbourne Cup.

Once my visa is up who knows what I’ll do. Ideally I’d like to do South America but the beauty of travelling is you don’t know what’s going to happen and who you’re going to meet, so in the wise words of one of my friends I’ll just play it by ear!

Monkey time in Malaysia and Borneo

I didn’t know what to expect when I visited Malaysia but it wasn’t as amazing as I’d hoped. I mean there wasn’t much to fault but it felt a slightly boring at times, but maybe that’s because we were used to meeting people in smaller backpacker places rather than going to cosmopolitan cities like Kuala Lumpur.

I started in Langkawi which was ok and mainly full of package tourists and those keen to take advantage of the island’s tax free goods. There was the beach to entertain yourself with but apart from that we only went to an aquarium, as there didn’t seem that much to do there. From Langkawi I made my way onto Kuala Lumpur where I had a return flight to Sri Lanka to see my family but I’ll let you know what happened there in another post and keep this one purely about Malaysia.

After Sri Lanka I stayed in Kuala Lumpur for a week, spending most of it on my own. I was meant to meet some friends who were running behind me but they decided to visit a few more places beforehand. As I was alone I checked into Reggae Mansion because it was described as the liveliest of hostels and I thought I’d have more of a chance of meeting people there. Consequently Reggae Mansion was probably the best hostel I have stayed in throughout my travels to date. Rather than bunk beds you sleep in a kind of pod with a large mattress and your own plug, light, mirror and cupboard. However, it is the simple curtain you can pull across to make your pod private that I was most impressed with. Privacy is one of the things you take for granted at home but when staying in hostels it’s a luxury.

After staying in the 24 bed dorm I met quite a few people but I chose to take advantage of Reggae Mansion’s Seven Wonders Tour as you always meet people on tours. This paid off as I met some nice people, despite the aforementioned seven wonders not really being all that wonderful. The Batu Caves were decent but the closed tin factory, where all we got to do was pose for photos next to a giant tin mug wasn’t that fantastic.

With the new friends I made, that evening we went to Sky Bar at Traders Hotel, to take in the amazing views of the Petronas Towers. The following evening we went out again with what felt like the United Nations. We had the English, Kiwis, Finnish, Swedes and El Salvadors (not too sure what you call them) partying till the early hours. Those who by day were nursery school teachers, by night were having foot sex and swigging from a bottle of vodka on the street whilst playing never ever. The hostel said our group were too noisy so after the rooftop bar closed we were moved to the courtyard, then onto the street outside the hostel and then onto a car park next door. At this point we thought heading back to our pods was probably the best option. On the way back we tried to get security to let us watch a film in the hostel’s cinema room but oddly they declined and escorted everyone back to their correct dorm, which they are actually really strict about.

I can’t remember whether it was before or after the drunken United Nations night that we went on a day trip to Malacca. You take the bus from somewhere in Kuala Lumpur for two hours to Malacca which is the strangest town I’ve been to. One minute it looks like a rundown British seaside town and the next a Spanish ciudad (this is probably due to the amount of European countries who have tried to claim ownership of Malacca over the years). There are huge dragon type lizards in the river and butch men ferrying people around on iridescent Hello Kitty or the Smurfs bicycle chair things. We were there for four hours and I’d say that was more than enough.

Soon after my friends arrived and we spent some time shopping. The shopping centre in the Petronas Towers is like walking into London’s Westfield albeit a bit cheaper. I got some Converse for half the price as at home and splurged on some tops, dresses and leggings.

After two days we flew onto Kuching in Borneo but we had picked a bad time to go. It was Chinese New Year and near enough everything was closed for three days of our five day trip there. On the fourth day we managed to get to Semenggoh Nature Reserve to see the infamous orang-utans. We were lucky to see a mother and child orang-utans but as it was fruit season apparently not that many can be spotted because they don’t need feeding. It was amazing seeing them up close and I still can’t get used to how human-like monkeys are. I can watch them for hours, seeing how they move like us, have limbs like us, cradle their children like us, express emotion like us. They’re beautiful creatures and I was happy to have seen them before my eyes.

The day after we went to Bako National Park which was stunning. Here we got to see some macaques monkeys who are really entertaining. Fortunately we also saw some proboscis monkeys who are endangered and are only found in Borneo. These are shyer than the lively macaques despite the males having the oddest protruding nose.

We walked one of the trails through the park and ended up at a secluded beach surrounded by rock faces. You can spend the night staying in Bako National Park and had we known this earlier we’d have taken advantage of this as it was beautiful and full of monkeys.

The following day we took our return fight back to Kuala Lumpur and then straight onto Bali.

Thai islands during the festive period

Since we left Vietnam so much has happened but I haven’t kept many of you updated. We skipped Cambodia as we wanted to go back to Thailand for Christmas and New Year, although since then we have heard nothing but good things about the place, particularly Koh Rong and its beautiful white sandy beaches.

Departing from Hanoi we flew to Koh Samui and spent the Christmas period there. We had a really fun night at Ark Bar on Christmas Eve and managed to have a decent Christmas dinner the following day. It was weird watching my family open their presents over FaceTime while I was in the lobby of our hotel, nevertheless it felt like I was there even though they had to hold each present up to someones iPhone so I could see what they all got. I was also a spectator to them opening up a package I’d sent them from Hoi An, full of some Vietnamese souvenirs.

I looked forward to leaving Koh Samui as although we had a good time, it was full of package tourists and too many Essex wide-boys for my liking. I missed the backpacker scene and couldn’t wait to get to Koh Phangan for New Year and the Full Moon Party.

We took the boat across and checked into @Beach Bed and Bar in Ban Tai which was a perfect choice as it wasn’t as busy as Had Rin where the full moon party is and the beach was more scenic. Koh Phangan is essentially consistent partying during the full moon and new year period and in the week we spent there, we went to a jungle party, Had Rin, the full moon party, Eden and Guy’s Bar and a beach party with the DJ Goldie. My favourite place of all was Eden and Guy’s Bar which is round a cove from Had Rin beach. It’s only accessible by boat (or a really long drive) but the party we went to after the full moon was AMAZING. The boat there was absolutely hilarious as we were sprayed with water from the choppy seas. I felt like I was a refugee seeking a safe place in some far away land!

After Koh Phangan we followed the conveyor belt of people heading to Koh Tao. We made the error of not booking any accommodation so once we arrived and saw that everywhere was fully booked we spent a good few hours sitting in restaurants planning whether to stay up all night and get the first boat back the following morning or check into a £200 a night resort. Fortunately we met some girls also planning their own escape routes who told us about a hotel who would let upto eight girls sleep on the floor in a room which we could only have from 10pm. But even more fortunate than this was my friend overhearing an American girl checking out a day early and the hotel not giving her her money back. She let us have her huge room for a quarter of the price for the night!

Koh Tao is well known for diving and when we arrived I didn’t have any intention of doing it, but after seeing how much it was to do the Open Water course (around £200) I thought I might as well give it a go. It turned out to be one of, if not the best thing I’ve done travelling. I did my course with Big Blue and met a really fun bunch of people but the diving itself was so different to anything I’ve ever experienced and I was awestruck at seeing the world 18 metres below sea level. Even though I didn’t do much partying in Koh Tao I had such an amazing time there and it’s really beautiful if you manage to drag yourself away from Long Beach over to Had Nang Yuan as the viewpoint was spectacular.

After leaving the islands I went on to Malaysia on a nighttime slow boat, where a woman woke up screaming because cockroaches were running over her. Unlike so many backpackers I’m not a fan of pills to get me through the long journeys but if I hadn’t had taken a valium on that trip, which made the journey feel like two hours rather than its actual seven, I think I’d have jumped overboard. It was one of the longest journeys from Koh Tao to Langkawi in Malaysia, about 22 hours in total which i’ll fill you in on in my next post.

Shooting AK47s in Ho Chi Minh and visiting Phu Quoc island

After Mui Ne we board a coach this time to Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon (whatever you want to call it). We were only here for a few hours as we had booked onto a sleeper bus that evening to go to Phu Quoc island just off the southwestern coast of Vietnam.

Our first impressions of HCMC were good as we spotted department stores, a Chanel shop and a Dominos Pizza. Despite travelling allowing us to experience a variety of cultures, I will admit it felt quite nice visiting a few proper shops and browsing all the good quality lotions and potions on offer, so I treated myself to some new headphones and a mascara.

We took a walk around HCMC and had some Pho which I was still not bored of. We also managed to make it back in one piece to the travel agents we booked Phu Quoc with, as the roads are pretty treacherous. Well at first I thought they were treacherous but once you get your head around crossing an extremely busy road with no traffic lights, you soon get used to it.

The trip to a Phu Quoc had been sold to us as a a sleeper bus from 9pm until 6am to the port and then a boat at 8am until 10:30am to the island. The true experience was a sleeper bus which departed at 9pm but arrived in the middle of nowhere at 4am with a load of random men waiting outside the bus, trying to get you into their taxi to the pier. We boarded a minivan with everyone else to the ferry ticket office, which didn’t open until 7:30am. So we sat around for 3.5 hours outside the office in some tea shop a local woman opened up for us. Of course we had to buy something from her shop but we didn’t expect her to make the nicest coffee ever and I don’t even drink coffee.

When the ticket office opened we got our tickets and walked round to the pier where we waited some more. Travelling has made me really good at waiting. It’s a skill I feel I have acquired and mastered somewhat. Literally just sitting there twiddling your thumbs.

We knocked back some travel sickness tablets and slept the 2.5 hour boat ride. Upon arrival it was pouring with rain so we boarded a minivan to some bungalows the driver recommended on Long Beach, which is the main resort on Phu Quoc. The first day was spent sleeping – well to be honest we spent a lot of the four days we had there sleeping. It was our most teetotal time so far and we went to bed about half 10 every night. We wanted to save some money as we had the Christmas and new year period coming up and we also felt we weren’t missing out on much by not going out.

We spent most days at Long Beach but one day we thought it would be a good idea to hire mopeds and drive to Sao Beach, which is meant to be one of the most beautiful on the island. I have never driven a moped before so looked on reluctantly as my friend who had, awkwardly try to turn the thing around. We were intending to rent the mopeds off the bungalow owner but she was worriedly watching as we tried to figure out how to turn it on, so she decided for our own safety we should take a taxi instead. Thank god we did because the road to Sao beach was bumpy and even in a car we were bouncing all over the place.

When we arrived at the beach it was beautiful, if not a bit windy. Due to the wind we didn’t feel the heat and once again fell asleep. Later we took another taxi back and slept some more.

The day after we were at the beach by 9am until sunset and I caught a really good tan. I also caught sunstroke and spent the evening cradling myself in our room which had since been infested with wasps. As you lay there you could hear them in the roof and the problem got so bad we had to change rooms.

The next day we took the boat back to the mainland heading for HCMC again. We had forgotten to take our travel sickness tablets an hour before the boat so took them as we were boarding. This was the biggest mistake of my travels to date. The journey was the rockiest boat trip I’ve ever been on. We crashed into waves and were thrown all round the place. Myself and my two friends had our heads between our legs with one sick bag to go round. We had never felt so ill before and I sat there thinking shall I throw myself overboard or is there some rescue helicopter you can call for situations like this. If you wanted to torture your worst enemy I’d stick them on that boat for all eternity! Just as I thought I couldn’t take anymore the travel sickness tablet kicked in. Our stomachs began to settle much to the delight of the solitary man sitting in our row, who had been anxiously watching us as we squirmed in our seats.

Once we were brought to safety (dry land) we then took our final sleeper bus to HCMC. I felt a bit sad about this. Even to this day I have fond memories of the sleeper buses and wish they would introduce them on mass in every country. Upon arrival in HCMC we bid farewell to the bus and checked into Saigon Backpackers hostel where I had the squeakiest bed in the world. Even when I simply breathed the bed shook and squeaked.

The next day we booked onto an excursion to see the tunnels used by the Vietcong in the Vietnam war. I managed to stand in the look out spot of the tunnels but as I’m slightly claustrophobic I didn’t walk through the tunnels. I waited at the end like a wuss for my much braver friend to appear. On this excursion we also fired an AK47 which was loud but fun.

We spent another evening traipsing round the city and I managed to get two new books (The Quiet American and Shantaram). I also had my final Pho which I still fantasise about eating. I miss coriander so much.

We were due to leave HCMC for Thailand to spend Christmas and new year on Koh Samui and Koh Phangan so the following morning we caught our flight back into Thailand for some solid partying.

Sand dunes and ostriches in Mui Ne

After Nha Trang it was on to the sleeper bus to Mui Ne. We only spent a couple of nights here which felt like enough. The area is popular for kitesurfing, which we didn’t do, however we signed up for an excursion one day that took us to the infamous Mui Ne sand dunes.

On the day of the trip we were picked up in a safari jeep and began with a visit to the Fairy Stream. This is a very long steam you follow with a disappointing waterfall at the end. There were some nice views on the way but all in all we weren’t too impressed with it. However our mood was brightened when one of our crew decided to take advantage of the ostrich racing on offer which has got to be the most hilarious thing I have witnessed since I began travelling. The first ostrich he rode sprinted round the pitch as fast as possible while my friend hung on for dear life. The second ostrich he rode took it in its stride and very slowly paced the pitch as though he didn’t realise he had a six foot man clinging onto his back. The ostriches are fitted with a saddle and are much stronger than I had anticipated.

After this hilarity we piled back in the jeep while the driver pumped out some Vietnamese techno and raced other jeeps. You couldn’t help nodding your head to the beat and jeering other vehicles when we overtook them – this was much more fun than the stream but not as fun as ostrich riding.

Then we went to a dockyard to look at some fishing boats. There were lots of boats I’ll give them that, but besides that there was not much else going on. I think the driver thought he was going to get at least half an hours break in while we looked at boats because his mate was perched in the back seat of the jeep smoking a fag. But after five minutes we were bored and clambered back in, much to the disappointment of the driver. Then we were back listening to the thumping techno and racing jeeps.

Things started to get more interesting as we finally made it to the white sand dunes. My friend Caroline and I rented a quad bike and raced around the dunes but a local boy jumped on the back. He began telling us where to drive and asking if he could drive for us which was really annoying so we kicked him off and then managed to get stuck in the sand. We tried in vain to get the quad out of the ditch but we couldn’t even move it and if I’m honest I kept thinking of that time Ozzy Osbourne newly killed himself in a quad bike accident, so I decided to get one of the workers to help us out instead.

The worker moved the quad out the ditch but as soon as we got back on we got stuck again, so we asked him to move it again. We then got stuck again and another two times after that. He looked like he as going to explode when we asked him a final time to rescue us. Fortunately we could actually manoeuvre the thing but by this time they were chasing us all to bring them back, so we quickly whizzed over to the lake for some photos, but after being shouted at again to return the quad we did as we were told.

Then it was back on the party jeep to the red sand dunes. There were no quads here but you could hire sleds which are easier said than done. I managed to sled down the dunes a few times but it’s hard work getting back up them so after my sixth or seventh attempt I called it a day and sat around taking in the approaching sunset. We got some cheesy pictures of our group facing the sun and pointing as if we were intrepid travellers and after we we’re bored of this we headed back to the hotel.

That evening we went out for some seafood which is in abundance in Mui Ne. Live fish and crustaceans were paraded outside restaurants but I couldn’t bring myself to pick which one should be my dinner so opted for some already dead shrimp instead. The food here was delicious, however there was a power cut towards the end of our meal so we sat there in the darkness for 10 minutes or so listening to the sea, which was quite therapeutic.

The following day we were due to leave for Ho Chi Minh and then onto Phu Quoc island.

Doing very little in Nha Trang

After Hoi An the next place we visited was a lot less cultured than anywhere we’d been to in Vietnam so far. I can’t say there is much to write home about regarding Nha Trang. It’s mainly a package tour resort; it’s clientele mostly Russians wearing really dodgy clothes.

I heard that direct flights from Moscow to Nha Trang had recently been implemented which answers why there are so many here. I mentioned this to a friend, who visited Nha Trang a couple of years ago and she said this wasn’t the case when she was here.

There are two things which stick out in my mind in my time spent in Vietnam and that’s the day I spent £20 – yes £20 – at a beach bar called the Sailing Club and the time we went to the water park Vinpearl.

Sailing Club is a plush bar along the beach with a great decor and delicious food and cocktails. With the £20 I got a tasty Caesar salad, two cocktails and a glass of wine. Although £20 is a pittance when you consider how much things are back home, when travelling its a bit out the ordinary to be daytime drinking in posher resorts. Nevertheless it’s nice to have a little treat every now and again.

We’d heard about Vinpearl through friends who had been before and you can see its ‘Hollywood’ style sign when looking out to sea on Nha Trang beach. Vinpearl is situated on an island accessible by a cable car. Once you pay the entry fee of about £15 you have free reign over using the water park, man-made beach, arcades, rides, aquarium and watching dancing dog shows, which sadly we managed to miss.

After handing over our entry ticket we took the cable car over to Vinpearl island, which provided a scenic view if you aren’t afraid of heights. On arrival we decided to head straight to the water park, where annoyingly rides are only open at certain times of the day. The rides were fun but the wave machine was better, as I discovered a part of the pool where the waves were the strongest and highest. My friend Caroline was cracking up as I tried to manoeuvre my rubber ring round this wavy part but kept falling off and going under. A few other people cottoned onto the ‘best wave’ and it became a bit of a fight to get the top spot. But enough about the wave machine as I’m sure you’ve all seen one before!

Afterwards we had a bit of a wait until the family flume was open so we headed to the man-made beach to chill. We chilled a bit too much and all of us fell asleep and missed the flume, which had closed by that point. As we’d done most of the other rides we decided to dress and go to aquarium instead.

We had to walk to another part of Vinpearl for this. While walking we discussed Vinpearl which had started playing Christmas songs, as it was during the festive period when we went there. The place was pretty quiet and we thought it had an air of the Truman Show about it. It was like a weird Vietnamese Disneyland, but fun nonetheless.

The aquarium was surprisingly impressive as we saw an array of fish, sharks and turtles. Some really big fish looked miserable (not sure if fish have feelings, but they looked sad) as they swam back and forth in a small tank. We also watched a man in diving gear feeding a giant turtle and were mesmerised by these tiny sharks earnestly swimming round and round their circular tank.

After leaving the aquarium it was onto the theme park style rides which made us feel sick and dizzy rather than thrilled. These also had different opening times so it was a mad race to get round as many as we could before they closed. After about four rides we all had motion sickness so went to the arcade games and then got the cable car back again.

That night we went for dinner at Yen’s which had been commended to us by the staff at Mojzo Inn where we had been staying. The staff have a canny knack of remembering every guests name, which brings a welcoming feel to the hostel. They go out of their way to help you and make your stay as comfortable as possible meaning the place had a great vibe and brightness to it, despite there being no natural light in the rooms!

We went for a drink a few times but drinks are cheap and strong and after the partying we had been doing recently I couldn’t really stomach it anymore so we didn’t go to many of the bars in Nha Trang very often. Other than that there isn’t much else to say about Nha Trang so I’ll leave it like that.

Buffalo riding and more in Hoi An

I’d heard a lot of positive things about Hoi An, so was excited to visit here. We stayed at The Sunflower hostel which was ok but the rooms were all white like a hospital, or an asylum, so it wasn’t a great place to relax in. The lack of natural light also encouraged you to go out and not stay in the hostel for too long, unlike the brilliant Hanoi Backpackers we stayed at in Hanoi, which we didn’t seem to leave for two days!

The first evening we went out for dinner, went home to change and then went out to Why Not? bar. We’d heard that for 100,000 Dong (£3), it was all you can drink all night, so we made haste to get to the bar. Outside the hotel there are moped taxis waiting to take you for free to the bar so we caught one and ordered our vodka and cokes. There was pretty much a quarter of a bottle of Hanoi Vodka (the local spirit) in each jug they gave you and after one drink we were well on our way. I think I had about two maybe three drinks here and then it was onto the second club, whereby this point I couldn’t face another vodka so got another moped back to the hostel. This time it wasn’t free so we had to haggle the fare.

The next day – feeling a bit ropey – I got myself up and dressed along with my friend Heidi and we decided to do some cultural activities in town. We left the rest of our gang in the darkened bedroom to try and get over their hangovers from hell. Apparently they didn’t surface until 3pm, which proves the strength of the drinks in Why Not? bar.

Heidi and I walked into the town and bought a museum pass which entitled you to entry to five cultural sites in the area. The first we visited was the Assembly Hall of the Fujian Chinese Congregation – a bit of a mouthful. Despite its name it wasn’t really an assembly hall as such; more of temple with a pretty garden area to sit in. There were Buddha statues inside and burning incense which you could donate and light.

We then went to an arts and crafts museum and it’s was here we learned how silk is made. First the silk worm cocoons are boiled until they produce raw silk, which actually has quite a rough texture. It’s then boiled some more. The more times the silk is boiled the softer the fabric and therefore the more expensive it becomes. We also learned that you can tell if silk is real by burning it. If it smells like singed hair then it is real but if it smells plasticy then it’s fake.

So after some schooling we visited another arts museum but it was boring and pretty much an indoor market. We also went to Tan Ky House that has been in the family of a wealthy merchant for several generations. The house is in an oriental style and has mahogany throughout, displaying the owners wealth. Apparently Hoi An has a lot of Japanese and Chinese influences after many migrated here generations ago.

Afterwards we visited another museum displaying pottery and metal objects and strolled home. On the way I collected some sandals I’d had made from scratch for $10. The lady drew round my foot and then you return the following day to have any alterations made. There are an abundance of tailors in the area and had I been a holidaymaker with a suitcase I’d have had loads of things made, however my backpack was bursting so I had to refrain.

The day after we booked onto the Love of Life Bicycle Tour that started at 8am until 3pm and saw us cycle around Hoi An, taking in some of its sites. We visited a fish factory where local women were squashing bits of fish into a mould. This was then left in the sun for a few days until it dried and was crispy. The factory smelled so bad and we discovered that for half a days work the women were paid less than $1.

We then cycled some more and visited the farming area. I watched a man water his plants using two watering cans attached to a bar that went across his shoulder. As I was watching, he thought it a good idea to hand the job over to me much to everyone’s amusement. We were then told about the variety of herbs that we tasted and had to guess what they were. I recognised coriander which they use in Pho (the Vietnamese national dish I couldn’t stop eating) but we also tasted basil, lemongrass and more.

Afterwards we were taken slightly off-piste to another local farmer who let us take it in turns to ride his prized water buffalo, which was hilarious. There were no reins to hold onto so I had to hold the farmer and balance as best as possible. It was then to the beach, a short boat ride and lunch at a restaurant in t he old town.

We spent about four nights in Hoi An which was enough. It’s a small town but had once been a major port. You can see now how the area is taking advantage of the tourist trail and giving local people a chance of making an additional income. We gave some extra money for the buffalo riding which wasn’t advertised as part of the trip. I also saw the tour guide giving one of the farmers money after we tried their crops. Although the people are going about their daily lives, they are also keen to earn some more money providing services to tourists like ourselves.

So far this was my favourite place in Vietnam. It’s really pretty and chilled but I saw some photos in a museum of Hoi An in the 1950s that showed a derelict town with boarded up buildings. I really hope it doesn’t lose it’s quaintness to become a mass tourist destination like many other places in Asia.

One night in Hue

I’m a really really lazy blogger. We actually left Hanoi nearly a month ago but I’m only just writing about my time there now. I must pick up the pace!

Hanoi Backpackers offered a five stop sleeper bus for £30, so we decided to take up this plan in order to stop at Hue, Hoi An, Nha Trang, Mui Ne and Ho Chi Minh down through Vietnam at a reasonable cost. Although the five stopper sleeper bus saved us money, it did feel a bit like a conveyor belt where you just got on and off at different points. I loved the sleeping aspect of the bus, as despite being a bit on the small size, it was quite cosy. Nevertheless it felt at times that they didn’t want you to sleep at all because they would play random Vietnamese films or TV programmes really loudly. The ubiquitous Vietnamese pop/techno music was also incessant, so earplugs are a necessity.

Our first stop en route was Hue, which was once an important military city. The core of the city is a walled Citadel which we walked to in the late afternoon. However by the time we got there it was closing and as we only had one night in Hue we didn’t manage to go back and walk around the inside. From the outside the architecture looked stunning with what looked like a moat circling the area. The architecture on the walk to the Citadel was also beautiful at times and appeared to be from the French colonial times.

Prior to visiting the Citadel we visited the market to feast on some tasty local cuisine. The market was like a maze and very crowded with stalls everywhere you turned. There was also a woman who must have been landed with a terrible plot because she followed us around for about 10 minutes trying to sell her wares. In the end she vanished, only to appear again another 10 minutes later. Some of the girls I was with were freaking out but I just thought it must be a cultural difference and considered normal in Vietnam to follow people round. As soon as you go into a shop or stall in Vietnam, it feels like they are jumping at you and begging you to buy their stuff. Maybe this is how vendors sell their goods in here or they are quite poor and desperate for you to spend your money. I also noticed that 95% of the time it are only women you see selling goods, whether that’s on the beach, markets or in shops. They are always walking round with their goods, covered head to toe, wearing a facemask and sporting a Non la conical hat. I think they cover up so much because it is quite a conservative country but also because pale skin is seen as beautiful in Asia.

So after being followed we did manage to find the food section in this maze of a market and decided to try some noodles from this stall the locals were crowding round. After the lady served me a portion I was hit with the stench of strong fish. I took a mouthful and the fish was overwhelming and it tasted revolting. The locals were scoffing away but after a few polite spoonfuls I had to give the bowl back and searched for something else to eat.

I came upon another lady who was selling some chicken skewers, however her menu was in Vietnamese so I had to point and guess what I was getting. In fact I pretty much ate what she told me to eat, but had to send back seven of the 10 chicken pieces she ordered me to have! I also tried the local spring rolls dipped in peanut sauce which were delicious.

On the way home we took a taxi – well if you can call a large wheelchair attached to a bike a taxi then that’s what we got. Swerving through the traffic of mostly mopeds, it was a white-knuckle but hilarious journey back to Hue Backpackers hostel where we were staying.

That evening after dinner I really wanted to get a pedicure, so for the grand total of £3 my feet were cleaned and toenails painted. However I think the salon owner was a bit bored as she decided to brush my hair and French-plait it. I hoped she wouldn’t charge me for this but it was nice to be pampered nonetheless.

After the salon trip we went back to the hostel and had an early night as it was back on the sleeper bus to Hoi An the next morning.

Hanoi and Halong Bay

After taking our flight from Luang Prabang to Hanoi, we collected our baggage and went to an information desk to ask about a taxi. I had heard there can be lots of scams in Vietnam so we decided on a pre-paid taxi into town which was $35USD for two drop offs.

We had heard that Hanoi Backpackers hostel was a great place to stay and when we arrived at the door, the place was heaving. We got there about 9:30pm and the party in the lobby was in full swing. There was a man playing acoustic guitar and the atmosphere was really lively.

After checking in we changed and headed out for the night. The usual plan of action is drinks in the lobby, followed by a flying visit to the club opposite which plays a random mishmash of LOUD dubstep. You are then escorted on a 10/15 minute walk to another club, which means crossing a dual carriageway. The club played more LOUD dubstep and the toilets were worse than Glastonbury’s! It was fun but on the way home I felt vulnerable as Vietnamese on mopeds followed us home and had their eye clearly on my bag. I had heard stories about this sort of thing and quickly put my shirt over my bag and did it up. Luckily we were walking back with men but unfortunately when we were near the hostel my friend was surrounded by the men on mopeds who eventually stole her iPhone. Since then we decided to take out the bare minimum.

Once we had spent a few nights in Hanoi – or rather the hostel – we chose to book up the Hanoi Backpackers Halong Bay and Castaway trip. It was $200USD and we’d heard of cheaper excursions but apparently this one was the party trip, so without haste we booked up and left the following morning.

In the morning 60 of us boarded the coach to Halong City and en route we stopped at the ‘amazing’ Pottery Village. One of the tour guides described it as so, however when we got there, it was just a shop with some food and loads of pottery statues of cherubs. We found it hard to find the ‘amazingness’ in Pottery Village but I must say they did do a delicious mango smoothie.

Then we carried on driving and arrived at the port where we were split into groups to board one of the three boats to take us out into the bay. Before any fun commenced we were briefed on the rules and regulations of the trip which were:
1. No drinking with your right hand or everyone will shout ‘buffalo’ and you will be forced to down the whole drink in one.
2. No saying the words ‘mine’ or ‘ten’ or you’ll have to do 10 press-ups each time.

After taking this all in people started with the drinking games and ‘shotguns’ which is where you pierce a hole in the beer can and then open it and drink the beer in seconds (I managed to not get shotgunned but as i’m right handed I got quite a few bulldogs.

So after we set sail for a few hours we stopped at some limestone rocks to go kayaking. There were a few capsizes but my friend and I consciously managed to not get wet. We also saw some monkeys on the cliff, which supposedly are very rarely sighted. Then it was back to the boat at sunset and drinking games. Dinner was served and the official drinking games commenced.

I’m not too sure of the rules, but the game involved playing cards, clothes swapping between genders, sexy dancing, downing drinks and crawling under the table. I was fortunate enough to only get the latter.

Soon after, the music started and being a bit of a music obsessive, I took it upon me to play DJ for the night – the DJ being someone who plays a variety of songs off of their Spotify playlist! I learned that being DJ is hard work because you can’t really party as you need to change the songs; everyone keeps making requests and moans if you haven’t got it; it’s also really hard pleasing everyone and playing songs they all like. So after a while I gave up and let someone else plug their playlist in. It was tiring work!

That nght after the party finished, everyone slept on their respective boat and was woken at 8am for brekkie. This wasn’t the most appetising breakfast I’d had but due to being slightly hungover it was better than nothing. Then we all moved onto two of the boats and was picked up by a smaller boat to be taken away to the Castaway island.

When the smaller boat arrived it was full of the returnees from the previous Castaway trip, one of whom was standing at the helm with windswept hair and shorts. It was hilarious seeing him as he literally looked like he’d been marooned on some island for a long time. We swapped boats with the returnees and spent the next hour and a half getting burnt and sailing to Castaway.

The island was remote with a small beach, communal area, bedrooms and a shower block. After we had lunch we could participate in the activities on offer such as rock climbing, tubing, kayaking or sitting on the beach getting pissed. I decided to have a go at tubing, which isn’t anything like the tubing I did in one of my other posts. This kind of tubing involved a speedboat, lifejackets and holding on for dear life. It’s a bit like a banana ride but much tougher. Four people hold onto a circle thing while the speedboat drags them round the sea and everyone flies off. After flying off once that was enough for me. You have to wait for the person on the end to fly off until you can incase you slam into them. The guy next to me was linking my arm and wouldn’t let go to fly off. It was agony and eventually i just let go and think he flew off somewhere. Shortly after, I flew off, which was disorientating and I knew that once was enough, so wussed out and got back on the speedboat. I spent the rest of the night with a dead left arm, which meant I got caught out on quite a few buffalos!

We watched the sunset and someone started singing over an out of tune acoustic guitar – so spiritual man! Then it was cold showers, dinner and party time again. More drinking games arose which again I can’t remember the rules except it involved playing cards again and pouring rum in your mouth.

While this was all happening there was a bit of a a drunken altercation, which if you couldn’t hear what was going on, it was so funny to watch. One minute people were in each other’s faces, then hugging, then doing press ups and finally wrestling on the floor. To this day I don’t know what it was over but it felt like we were watching a Laurel and Hardy sketch.

That evening when we went back to the bedrooms, a drunken Canadian man who had been pissing people off all night (also one of the hugging/press-up/wrestlers) was in my friend’s bed. We took her stuff out the bed and put it in mine and slept there, only to be woken up by the Canadian being sick in her bed. She was relieved we got her stuff out and the next day he looked extremely delicate.

After breakfast on the third day we all got on the boat to be taken back to the bigger boats where we were the returnees this time. It was then time to sail back to Halong city and go back to the hostel via the ‘amazing’ Pottery Village.

The trip was brilliant, if not a bit club 18-30. If you’re looking for a more refined Halong Bay experience then I’d find another excursion but for those wanting drinking and fun plus a range of activities then I’d go with Hanoi Backpackers.

Laos – Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng

Once we overcame the slow boat we first visited Luang Prabang in Laos. It was a small town with not too much going on, but the place was full of backpackers.

We visited Kuang Si waterfall one day, which was beautiful. The water was turquoise but full of small fish that nibbled at your feet when you got in it. Every few seconds we kept hopping and screeching. There was a rope swing people used to jump in but I was a wuss and didn’t do it. Plus there was a crowd watching by this point and I didn’t want the attention if it all went wrong!

Nighttime entertainment is pretty limited in LP. Everyone goes to Utopia which is a chilled out bar along the river. The music is good and the decor is great with fairy lights and beanbags to sit on. The clientele is backpackers only and the ethos is drinking lots. One drink on the menu is called ‘Poor man’s alcohol and mix’, obviously aimed at penny-pinching travellers. The drink was a concoction of the local vodka and whiskey with a mixer of your choice. The taste was ok, the feeling was pleasant but the aftermath was awful. Trying to pack my rucksack with the shakiest hands in Laos wasn’t my finest moment.

Everywhere in LP shuts at 11:30pm, so with nowhere else to go, everyone piles into the local taxis-truck things, after Utopia, to be transported to the bowling alley. It is open until 3am and is great fun as the local whiskey flows and the most competitive of people bowl. I went here two or three times and that is definitely enough.

Aside from the drunken revelry of LP, we did actually have a few chilled out days. I met two girls who I stayed with for a few days once my friends went to Vang Vieng. We actually went to bed before midnight for once and visited a bookshop to watch a couple of films in the evening. I also spent a day by myself which was nice. Travelling can be intense and you can spend 24/7 with the same people, which isn’t your usual behaviour; people don’t even spend that much time with their spouses or parents!

I went for a walk, bought some jewellery, walked up Phu Si which are steep steps leading to a viewpoint and maybe a temple? Not too sure what the building was but there was a Buddha shrine inside. I also visited the Royal Museum, which showed lots of artefacts from the Laos royal family who I don’t think are in power anymore. On display were also some gifts given to Laos from other countries, including a present from the USA of a spaceship model and the Laos flag, with an engraving to say the flag was taken to space back in the 60s.

I ended up spending five days in LP but you could easily do fewer; I just liked the downtime too much and catching up on laundry and sleep. I got the minivan to Vang Vieng which took 7.5 hours, despite being advertised as 5 hours. This is something I am getting used to in Asia; punctuality is a myth here.

Once I arrived at the hostel in Vang Vieng, as I waited in the lobby, two girls walked along and one said ‘Oh my God.’ I turned round and saw Heidi and Kate; Heidi went to my primary school and Kate my secondary school. This may not sound like much to people reading, but when you are on your own, in a small town, in a little country and two people from up the road walk along, it’s so random! Since then we have been travelling together.

Vang Vieng is famous for one thing, which is tubing. This involves floating down the Mekong River on a rubber ring and getting pulled into the bars to get smashed. This used to be a much bigger event with lots of bars and a larger crowd, however due to the amount of injuries and fatalities, tubing was banned for a short while. It is now back but on a smaller scale with only three bars. Nevertheless it’s still so fun and I’d recommend anyone to do it (anyone younger than 35!).

The second bar was the best, where we played volleyball and shot some hoops while being sprayed with water. At the final bar most people would tube to the end but we decided to get a taxi back as it was getting dark and our friends had made the mistake of doing it in the dark a few days previous. They ended up walking back barefoot through the woods.

The party scene in Vang Vieng is pretty good and every night the bars are full. During the day there are some excursions you can do and Heidi, Kate and myself went caving and kayaked for 13km. Lunch was put on and we also visited Elephant Cave, which is a cave made into a Buddhist temple because inside it some rocks look a bit like an elephant.

When we were due to leave Vang Vieng we had heard horror stories about the coach journey all the way to Hanoi. It takes 30 hours and is supposedly hellish. Heidi and Kate did it and said they felt a little bit traumatised haha!

Abigail and I took the flashpackers way out and flew with Vietnam Airlines. The flight took 40 minutes but we had to make our way back to LP.

Next stop Hanoi!