02-05 February '04

Hanoi is alive! The ecstasy we felt when arriving in Beijing is now back, after nearly two months of China. We still have to get used to the fact that we're not in China anymore: no more "ni hou's", no more spitting or throwing everything on the floor (back to civilization), prices in dollars and loads of Westerners (too many). We get lost in old Hanoi, limbo in between scooters to cross the streets and roam the alleyways for a cheap cafe. We're back in the dorms again and different noises and different smells come from every corner.

We visited a "traditional" water puppet-show (for tourists only) and it turned out to be the best two dollar show we ever saw: a lot of splashing, excellent music, bright colours and funny!

06-08 February '04

Sapa is very touristy because of the splendid mountain sceneries and trekkings through the numerous minority villages. When we arrived, minority people chased every tourist to sell their tissues and clothes and it was cold and wet. The splendid views were reduced to ten meters because of a thick fog; trekking was difficult due to the rain. As a result, we spent more time getting there and back again: we left the next day. However, we did experience the hard seats in the Vietnamese trains, with a very literal wooden bench interpretation of the class's name!

Back in Hanoi again we waited for better weather conditions to visit the famous karstic North coast of Vietnam. In the mean time we explored the Temple of Literature and the amazing Ho-Chi-Minh Museum.

09-11 February '04

Halong Bay is famous throughout the world for its fairy-like landscapes, and overcrowded with tourists on organized tours. These tours are sold everywhere in Hanoi, where half of the population seems to be a travel agent. All the tours are the same and inflexible, so we were told. We opted for Bai-Tu-Long Bay, just North of Halong, with a similar landscape but without the hordes.

To get there we took a local bus, convinced this would be more adventurous and cheaper than a tour bus. The adventure we got, but about the good price we are not so sure. (Even communism cannot suppress the commercial spirit of the Vietnamese: when a tourist is spotted, dollar signs appear in their eyes!!) Finally, we did not only pay the special foreigners-price (three to ten times the normal fare), but the bus also stopped twenty kilometres before our promised destination. Outraged we blocked the bus, preventing it from returning to Hanoi. After ten minutes of hard negotiation, the bus driver paid us the fair to our destination and the crowd dispersed.

We stayed in Cai Rong, the port on the Van Dong Island. To get from the ferry to the village, we experienced our first motor-taxi-with-backpack-training during a 6-kilometre ride. The next day we chartered the boat of a young fisherman and his family, who showed us a part of the bay with its islands. After that, the weather started to deteriorate again so we headed south towards the sun.

12-14 February '04

In the old capital of Vietnam, the mercury had risen to comfortable temperatures. For the first time during our trip, we walked around in T-shirts, and faced the mosquitos.

Being experienced motor-taxi passengers, we hired two chauffeurs to show us some of the imperial tombs spread around in the Hue area. Some of them were dull, some of them, magnificent. Moreover we saw, lost in the bush, the Royal Arena in which combats of tigers and elephants were held. Someone told us this circus was unique in Asia.

Furthermore we visited Hue's imperial palace, the Vietnamese equivalent of the Forbidden City in Beijing. However, the two are hardly comparable nowadays. The Hue Palace has been military target during both the war of independence and the American war. As a result, not much is left and stretches of wild grassland with a few remains cover a large area within the imperial walls. One building survived and several buildings have been renovated, giving a colourful impression of what it once must have looked like.

14-16 February '04

The peaceful little port of Hoi-An was once a major trade centre in the South China Sea. Merchants from all over the world settled here. Nowadays many of the houses still reflect the origin of their founders: Chinese, Portuguese, Japanese or French. It is difficult not to resist a refreshing drink in one of the many bars next to the port where little boats unload goods directly to the market. It is even more difficult to resist the tailor-made clothes for all occasions imaginable. The next wedding we will attend, we will try to steal the show with our silk outfits!!

15 February '04

The old Cham civilization, that rivalled the Khmer civilization for centuries, built a temple complex in My Son. Unlike other tourists, we did not take the tour bus, but we hired our own "Honda's" for the 40-kilometre trip. It was quite adventurous: the scooter experience was for both of us a "premiere". To make it even more difficult, we were forced to do one third of the trip on the national highway, competing with anything that moves in the range between cows and trucks. But, we managed without problems.

The ruins are set in a jungle environment and we enjoyed this foretaste of the great Temples of Angkor, which are built in a similar style.

17-21 February '04

Finally it was time and weather for a small holiday on the beach!!! For three days, we stayed in a small bungalow resort on the beach in the middle of nowhere. The meals were included which was just as well: there were no other places to go! All we did was lay in the sun (and get burned) swim in the sea and wait to be called for food to be served. Occasionally, in active moods, we might walk for a few hundred meters along the beach. The resort was called paradise and paradise it was indeed!

22-24 February '04

A city that triggers everybody's imagination: Saigon. We walked for hours in the old French quarters where classic colonial architecture mingles with brand-new mirror skyscrapers. A visit to Cholon took us back to China for a day: pharmacies selling a diversity of plants and animals, crowded market places where everything was "made in China".

At night we would calm down in the guesthouse of the lovely "Mr. Minh" who treated all his clients as family.

24-26 February '04

Because our visas were expiring in three days, we finally decided to book a 3-day-tour through the Mekong Delta towards Cambodia, to get the best out of it. It was the first time we booked a tour in Vietnam and also the last time ever. We started with a small group, less than ten people as planned and all looked very promising. However, after half a day we were traded to another tour operator and found ourselves in a herd of fourty-five persons. The guides were rude and non-informative. The schedule had changed so we were continuously wondering what would happen next and who knows what happened with the three star hotels with air-conditioning; we shared our bedroom with things that creep and fly.

Apart form the tour conditions the delta itself was highly appreciated by Cornelia. Wide slow rivers, narrow canals, boats and dikes, the fields as flat as a pancake; it reminded her of home. We visited several floating markets where the customers would know what was available from a stick with fruit and vegetables raised above the boat. From the Sam-mountain we had a splendid view over the delta and we caught our first glimpse of Cambodia.

On the 26^th we took the boat heading north to Phnom Penh.