Vietnam: Hanoi - Monday 14th April

We managed to stay up until about 10pm last night and woke up this morning at 8am so had a good nights sleep. Our plan for the morning was to do a self guided walking tour around the Old Quarter that I found on the internet. It was a massive sensory overload - the noise, the traffic, the people, the smells - everything happening at once! But it was really interesting to see people going about their everyday business and, in some streets, we were the only westerners around.

Typical street scene in Hanoi

Fruit & veg stall

As you walked along the streets you would see people preparing food out on the pavement, they would have little fires and fryers going and people would be sitting on stools eating their lunch - some of the food looked lovely, and others were like 'what are they eating!'.

People eating crab at one of the street restaurants

We saw a number of temples and pagodas on our walk - one of the most scenic was the Ngoc Son Pagoda which was in the middle of the lake.

View of red bridge over to the Pagoda

Outside the temple at the pagoda

All the walking around was making us hungry, and after seeing and smelling all the lovely food around us we went to one of the local restaurants that sell Bun Bo Nam Bo - which is a dish of noodles topped off with stir fried beef which has been marinated and then fried in garlic and lemongrass with a ladle of tasty broth poured over it - it was delicious! We wanted an 'eating with the locals' experience without sitting on the street and this place was just right.

Lunch - and it only cost £1.50 per bowl!

Peter tucking in!

After lunch we went to Hoa Lo prison - also known as the 'Hanoi Hilton' - which was used by the French colonists in Vietnam for political prisoners, and later by North Vietnam for prisoners of war during the Vietnam War.

Peter has just realised I have the key to the cell!

By this time we had been walking around for 5 hours and we were beginning to flag so we made our way back to the hotel for a rest. Although the weather is hot and humid it is bearable at the moment - I think it helps that there has been thick grey cloud (or it may be smog!) over us so we don't have the sun beating down and making us hotter.

This evening I had booked us on a street food tour - there was 6 of us in the group, we were with an Australian couple and a Colombian couple, along with two guides. The first stop we tried Banh Xeo, which is a crispy pancake with pork, shrimp and garnished with herbs - very tasty. The 2nd stop looked very familiar......it was the same place we went for lunch! Lucky we liked it the first time - this time we shared a bowl! We went to several other places and tried a number of different things including sugarcane juice (delish!), Cha cha la vong (grilled fish), bun cha (noodles and pork - very nice) and a tropical fruit salad with condensed milk whilst sitting on a street corner!

Banh Xeo pancake - yum!

Eating fruit salad on a street corner!

To finish off the evening we all had egg coffee which is a lot nicer than it sounds! It was a really enjoyable evening and it was nice to sit and chat to the others in our group (especially as the Australian man looks like a young George Clooney - see above picture!). The choice of drinks throughout the evening was either beer or beer so guess what, I had beer - Peter couldn't believe it but actually it tasted quite nice!

Egg coffee - tasty!

 

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Vietnam: Hanoi - Sunday 13th April

After a long journey - and 24 hours from when we got up on Saturday morning - we finally arrived at our hotel in Hanoi.

The journey went smoothly but it was so boring - there is only so much watching movies, reading and playing games on your IPad that you can do and then you just want to get off the plane! We didn't get any sleep on the flight to Singapore and, because it was the equivalent of midnight back home, we then walked around Singapore airport like zombies for two hours! We did fall asleep/pass out on the flight to Hanoi but only for a couple of hours so we will be glad for our beds tonight!

Hanoi, based in the north, is the capital of Vietnam, and also its second largest city. We are staying in the Old Quarter, which is a maze of small streets dating back to the 13th century, which has a real busy, chaotic feeling to it. We have been given a room at the top of the hotel, on the 8th floor, but you can still hear the busyness of the city, with all the scooters and cars honking away!

Our hotel room

View from our window

Once we had checked in we went searching for lunch as it had just gone 2pm. We wanted to try somewhere the locals go to, and luckily I had done some research as many of the restaurants look a bit rough and ready, but we ended up going to a cafe that was really busy with both locals and tourists. We shared Bun Cha (the dish with the noodles and pork patties that you dip into a sauce), fried rice and spring rolls and it was all very nice - we couldn't eat it all as there was so much - and along with our drinks it only come to about £6!

Our lunch - loads of food!

After lunch, we walked down to Hoan Kiem lake in the middle of the city. Because it was Sunday afternoon all the locals were out sitting by the lake it was a lovely atmosphere just walking around, taking pictures and taking in our surroundings. The lake was like a sanctuary against the hustle and bustle of the streets - we didn't want to do anything too strenuous in our zonked out, jet lagged state so this was a great introduction to the city.

The street our hotel is on

The crazy traffic!

The serene lake

Now where did I leave my bike?

This evening we went to the night market - it was really busy and, although there wasn't anything we fancied buying, there was a really good atmosphere - there was a great mixture of people - young and old, locals and tourists. We weren't very hungry in the evening so we went to a bar that overlooked the lake - you will be shocked to know that neither of us had an alcoholic drink - I blame it on the jet lag!!!

Very busy at the market

A makeshift fruit stall at the night market

 

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We're going to Vietnam!

Our long awaited trip to Vietnam is finally here! My first thoughts of going to Vietnam were when I was recovering from surgery last September and I have been planning ever since! For this trip, rather than using a travel agent I have booked everything myself, from all the flights, the hotels, the car journeys and tours as it is cheaper and gives you more freedom to do and stay where you want, but it also means we are on our own if anything goes wrong (Peter will NEVER let me forget it if it does!) but I am sure it will all be fine!

We first fly to Singapore, which is a 13 hour flight, with a 2 hour stopover before we get on to our next flight for a 3.5 hour flight to Hanoi in the north of Vietnam.

The long flight to Singapore

Nearly there!

Our itinerary is as follows:

Hanoi - 13th - 16th April

Halong Bay - 16th - 17th April (overnight stay on a Junk boat!)

Hoi An - 18th - 21st April

Hue - 21st - 23rd April

Ho Chi Minh City - 23rd - 25th April

 

And no, it wasn't the plan to only go to places that begin with H - it just happened that way!

And so the adventure begins!

 

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Reykjavik - 12 February 2014

Our final morning in Iceland as we fly out at 3:30pm and are being picked up from the hotel at noon. We wanted to make the most of our time here so we left the hotel at 9am for a look down the shopping street and old town. We thought we would do the shops first as it was still dark (sunrise is about 9:30am at this time of year) but most of them didn't open until 10am so we mostly window shopped.

We then walked down to the old town but there wasn't much too see - we walked past their parliament building and along a pretty frozen lake before stopping for coffee, and then made our way back to the hotel to finish packing before our pick up.

Square in the old town

A very strange statue (and a strange man talking to it!)

People were walking on this lake!

We have really enjoyed our time in Iceland - we have found the people helpful and friendly, the food delicious and scenery amazing. Reykajvik is a small, compact city which you can walk around quite easily - it would have been nice to have had an extra half day to go to some of the museums but we pretty much did everything that we wanted to do.

 

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Reykjavik - 11 February 2014

Today we had a bit of a lie-in as we weren't getting picked up until 10:30 for our trip to the Blue Lagoon which is Iceland's most popular visitor attraction. The Blue Lagoon is like a giant bath that holds six million litres of geothermal seawater from 2000 metres beneath the earth's surface. By the time it reaches the lagoon, the mineral-rich milky, aqua blue waters simmers at temperatures between 37 and 39°C - oh lovely!

It was a 40 min drive from Reykjavik and, once we turned off the main road we drove through lava fields to get to the Blue Lagoon. From a distance we could see steam bellowing out of the geothermal power plant next door which feeds the water in to the lagoon so we knew we were nearly there.

The Blue Lagoon amongst the lava rocks

I had read that you had to shower naked before you got in because there is no chlorine in the water to keep it clean so you need to be as clean as possible going in - I was relieved to find that there were both individual and communal showers in the changing rooms so I didn't have to bare my bits in front of everyone! Once we had got changed we had to dash in the freezing cold from the changing rooms to the pool but it was so worth it when we got in - it was like a hot bath and the water had a silky feel to it because of the minerals. And believe it or not, there was a bar in the pool so we were supping sparkling wine whilst bathing. We were very lucky again with the weather and we were under blue skies again whilst relaxing in the pool. We spent about an hour in the pool and then had some lunch before coming back to Reykjavik.

Hot like a bath!

Peter doesn't want to get out!

Panoramic view of the Blue Lagoon

Peter and I just had our normal clothes on as we were not expecting to be outside much but the coach company told us that they were dropping us back at their offices and we would need to walk back! It is only about a 10 min walk but it felt pretty cold without our thermal layers, plus no scarf (me) and no gloves (Peter)!

We then had a walk up to the main church in Reykjavik called Hallgrimskirkja. It is quite unique looking and, at 73 meters tall, the largest church in Iceland. We went up to the top of the tower to admire the views, but it was so windy and cold - it took your breath away, so we took some photos and then made our way back down!

The main church in Reykjavik

View down to the Harbour

This evening we went to a rather swish restaurant called The Grill Market ( or Grillmarkadurinn in Icelandic). Although we like to eat what the locals eat we didn't fancy Horse, Puffin or Whale so I went for ribeye steak and Peter had the Meat Gourmet which was beef, duck and lamb - the food was delish and we really enjoyed our dinner, but we already had our eye on dessert as the couple next to us had it and we were literally saying to the waiter we will have what they had - it was a share plate of all their desserts and man alive it was soooo good!

Ribeye steak - with mushroom glaze and curly fries - delish!

Peter's meat gourmet

Yum - what a feast of desserts!

I promise he only had one beer!

 

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Reykjavik - 10 February 2014

Today we were up early to go on the Golden Circle Tour which is a sightseeing tour around Icelands natural phenomena. Click on the map below to view our route.

Golden Circle Route

Our first stop was a geothermal power plant where we learnt how they use Icelands geothermal energy to provide both water and electricity. There was a lot of steam bellowing out everywhere!

Next stop was Skalholt church, the ancient seat of the Icelandic Bishops. The church was lovely inside and had an unusual mosaic behind the alter. We were told a story that many years ago the people did not like the bishop so they put him in a bag and threw him in to the river! Obviously that is the Icelandic way so we had better not upset anyone whilst we are here!

Freezing outside the church!

Mosaic in the church

After the church we went on to Gulfoss (which means Golden waterfall in English). The waterfall is huge and we could hear it as soon as we got out of the coach even though it was quite a walk away. It was an amazing sight but my god it was windy there and really cold!

Gullfoss - partially frozen as it is so cold

I am cold!

We then travelled to the hot springs of Geysir and Strokkur. There were a number of hot springs that we could walk around and watch bubbling and steaming away, but one of them would spout water every 5 mins or so but we were lucky as it went off 3 times in a row - Peter went out on the ice to get some good photos but I was happy to watch from afar standing on a non-icey patch!

Don't stand too close!

Our final stop on the trip was the Pingvellir National Park where tectonic plate boundaries form breathtaking views. The coach dropped us off at one spot and then we walked through the lovely scenery for about a mile to the pick up point. Because we were sheltered by the wall of the tectonic plates it didn't feel as cold because the wind wasn't going right through you!

Beautiful scenery

Walking next to one of tectonic plates

We walked down in to a valley, over a wooden walk way with little bridges over a frozen lake. There were icy patches in some places but nothing I couldn't handle (which is not a lot when it comes to ice!). One poor chap slipped right over and to make matters worse the people all around him went 'ooooh' which of course made it even more obvious!

Walking over the frozen lake - you can see our bus in the distance

View over the frozen lake

It was a long day but was definitely worth it - we really enjoyed the day and the scenery has been amazing - like nothing we have seen anywhere else. We were very lucky with the weather - it has been sunny with blue skies. I must admit it would have been miserable if it had rained all day.

In the evening we went to a lovely Italian for dinner where I had seafood pasta and Peter had carbonara.

 

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