Hue

We arrived in Hue by private taxi at around 6pm and were dropped off at the entrance to the pedestrian street our hotel was on.  The hotel was called.... It was clean, the staff were helpful and breakfast was included. Also unlimited free tea and Vietnamese coffee! Very nice!  The weather was terrible,  rainy and grey and had been all day,  but we were pleased that 2 of the restaurants from lonely planet and two other highly recommended restaurants were on our street.  Because of this we never ventured far for food! It turns out that Hue really does have some amazing food, with lots of things very different to the rest of Vietnam. 

We arrives at 6pm put our bags in the hotel and showered. We ventured to the end of the road for an Indian called Ganesh Indian. The smell as we walked past was irresistible.. So we gave in and had some delicious curries with all the trimmings. I had the black Bean makhani and it was delicious. We were comparing it to some of the food we had eaten from India and it was very tasty and we wouldn't hesitate to go back. 

The next morning we got up and had our breakfast, an Op La Banh Mi.(Fried egg sandwich) then headed out for a walk to the old Citadel. It was a short walk from the hotel and there are lots of ancient buildings and artefacts in the grounds. The grounds were huge and it took us over 2 hours walking around and reading about the different buildings. This was interesting bur challenging, there were no maps, and very little information in English, so we were trying to piece things together. This might be an activity worth spending on a guide. But after our extravagant day the day before we settled for doing the homework ourselves! We bought a combined ticked that also included 3 other places in Hue, the tomb sites of the emperors which are a recommended visit. It saved us money, costing 360,000 per person for all 4 sites 

(Citadel - Minh Mang Tomb - Khai Dinh Tomb - Tu Duc) 
After finishing at the Citadel we went to the restaurant recommended by our hotel, which was also highly rated on tripadvisor; Hanh Restaurant for Vietnamese food, we went and got a set menu of all the local delicacies. After this we meandered round the streets to a cafe/gift shop called 'healing the wounded heart'  whose profits help for expensive heart operations for children from poor families. That night still full from our large lunch we popped over the road to Family Home Restaurant which was also another great place for local food, we had rice and veg soup and spring rolls. 

Our last full day was spent on a boat and bus tour of Hue including all the famous tombs and pagodas. Building large tombs was a right of the emperors of Vietnam I the past and there was great variety in styles from the earlier ones to the latter ones. Our tour guides knowledge at times was questionable, but he was nice and chatty and for $8 a person, we weren't to worried. 

For our final night we headed to.....  Where we had another set menu of delicious local foods and even treated ourselves to some local steamed banana cake afterwards!

The next morning we departed on a scooter on a ride over Ha Van Pass to Hoi An. This is available all over Hue, as it was the route ridden by Top Gear in the Vietnam special. 

Nha trang

We broke up the journey from Hoi An to Ho Chi Minh city with a 2 night stay in Nha Trang. Its a beach town, with not a lot else, they are famous for good seafood.

We arrived on the night bus around 6 am and wandered to find our hotel, the hotel room wasn't ready for us, so we went and had breakfast and a few coffees at the café next door.

We had chosen a stop here for a few days on the beach and some sunshine. Also we were meeting up with a friend from one who was on a tour of South East Asia. We had coffee on the beach, went o lunch and then back to the beach to sit down for the last hour before our friend needed to get to her night train.

The next day was a absolute beach day, we bought the sunbed for the day, and sat reading books.

The next morning we checked out, went for one last walk along the beach before our 12.30 bus to Da Lat.

Ninh Binh - Halong bay on Land

Travel

Getting to Ninh Binh was relatively easy,  we took bus no.8 out of the centre of Hanoi,  which takes you to the larger bus station at Giap Baht, from here there were many buses to Ninh Binh.  One pulled up, we got on with our bags and were on our way for only 65,000 vnd.  2 hours later we were at Ninh Binh station.

We were collected by our hotel in a 60 year old Jeep called a Uaut!  The man collecting us spoke no English but seemed very pleasant,  although an element of trust was involved as he took us off the main road down unmade roads for a few kilometres.

We arrived at our hotel and we were greeted by some exceptional staff, they took care of us from start to finish, helped us hire a motorbike and gave us maps and directions. We stayed at a hotel called Nguyen Shack in Bamboo huts. The restaurant at the hotel cooked fantastic Vietnamese food, we ate here for breakfast and dinner for 3 days and it was some of the best food we have had in Vietnam! The hotel also tries to help the local community by teaching the local children English, we lent a hand trying to talk to the children, although most were very shy some really enjoyed it, and the hotel staff teaching were great with the kids which was nice to see.

The area surrounding Ninh Binh is known as Halong Bay on land, and they have lots of huge Limestone cliffs and rising up from the rice paddies! We spent most of our time riding around and checking out the ancient capital as well as looking at little temples hidden behind cliffs or cut into caves.  The weather was pretty grey but the scenery more than made up for this.  Our hotel was lovely, the area was stunning...so overall a nice 2 night stay.

A temple hidden between two limestone cliffs!

Our secluded bamboo shacks hidden behind the cliffs!

The stunning scenery around Ninh Binh

Halong Bay, Sensational Scenery when the skies are clear

Halong Bay

In every tour agency, in every street in Hanoi, you will find some place trying to sell you a Halong bay tour. We went to A Travelmate...the place that booked us our Sapa bus and had given us lots of information about Hanoi during our stay there. We went for a 1 night 2 day tour in Halong bay (although in reality its barely 24hrs). Being on a budget we went for a nice boat but with no extra frills. All of the tours are basically the same but the main difference is the boat you end up on. Ours was with APT travel and was supposed to the the golden dragon Junk boat which cost us $95pp. However, on arrival in Halong bay we were upgraded to their mid-range boat which had a free cabin... (which we had been offered at $145 but decided not to go for) so we were pretty happy!

So to get to Halong Bay you take a 4 hour bus with a halfway stop to some crappy crafts place that sells rubbish overpriced coffee. You are all crammed into buses/minivans and there are lots taking the same journey from Hanoi.

So on arrival in Halong Bay you await to board your ship(which again takes time) we were taken by a smaller boat to our ship which was offshore.

As mentioned before the boat we ended up staying on was the Viet beauty by ATP tours. It wasn't too bad, we got a nice double room.

Obviously the one thing we have no control over is the weather and on arrival in Halong bay there was a terrible fog. You could barely see 2 metres in front of yourself let alone any of the infamous rock formations in the sea! 

After a speedy hot shower we settled down to lunch which was actually delicious. We were given the run down on the activities for the next 2 days and told to return to that area in 15 mins if we wanted to go the the beach and do some kayaking. This wasn't quite as expected although not through fault of the tour but because of the poor weather.  We tried to make the most of it and enjoyed kayaking around the immediate islands following the tour guide as he showed us some of the rocks.

Back on the beach we chilled out for a bit and a big group of people played volleyball and after a little time enjoying the beach and chatting with others, we were taken back to the boat for a shower and dinner. The food was pretty good, and we were able to try squid fishing off the side of the boat, as well as being taught to make Spring rolls. We also had the option of Karaoke, but most on the boat decided to pass on this, we retired off to our cabin for a nice comfy sleep on very still seas. 

The next morning we were greeted by a relatively bland breakfast of toast, eggs, and jam. Then it was time to set sail to the Pearl farm where you are shown how pearls are created. Obviously this then leads you into a shop selling the Pearls they are farming. They did show us how they collect the pearls from the Oyster and we were lucky enough to find one even though they only get a return of about 30% of what they farm, and even less are of a saleable standard. 

Back to the boat for lunch and a few last photos from the top deck before our bus takes us back to Hanoi.  

Our boat for Halong Bay the "Viet Beauty"

A pearl found in an Oyster at the Pearl Farm

The View from the top deck of Halong Bay

Nature creating a perfect frame for the photo

The bays can have a lot of Junk Boats sailing around, but still stunning