Hanoi and Halong Bay

We flew into Hanoi from Manila, after niftily sorting out our Visas in 24 hours (rather than the normal 3-5 days), thanks to Callum, and this site.

The weather is definitely better this time, with a lot less rain and 25-35 degree heat, so we spent a few days roaming around Hanoi and booked a trip to Halong Bay again. Unfortunately, this trip was considerably worse than the last one i took 2 1/2 years ago, and i would highly discourage anyone from using Discovery Travel in Hanoi (ok, that bit’s over!). I won’t lay out all the details, but the problems included a large family of rats living in the walls and ceiling of our room on the boat we stayed on, and they were particularly active that night which meant a lot of squeaking and squeeling (from them and from Emma in return) which meant that neither of us got much sleep! However, we made the best of it and had a great time the following night with everyone from our group.

Sapa

The highlight so far has definitely been our trip to Sapa. I didn’t make it there last time, so i was pretty anxious to get there this time. Sapa is a small hill station in the very north-west corner of Vietnam, very close to the Chinese border. Throughout this area in Vietnam, China, Loas, Thailand and across to Burma, there are a huge number of ethnic minorities – many of which are hill tribes. Some of the people we saw are not so different from those we saw in Burma or in southern China while i was there (relatively speaking).

You can see some photos from Sapa by clicking the photo above.

Hue and Hoi An

We stopped off at Hue for a couple of days on our way down the coast of Vietnam. We found a rather nice hotel which had just built a swimming pool (i think we were the first guests in it!), so we shacked up there for a pricey £1.75 per night each! Understandably, we were inclined to stay a little longer than we otherwise would have, however we made it out eventually and last night we arrived at the little town of Hoi An. This will probably be the highlight of the trip for Emma as the streets of Hoi An are lined with over 400 tailors shops which can whip up a custom made suit for around £20 in 24-48 hours. That doesn’t even include the countless other shoe shops and handbag shops – definitely enough to keep a girl busy for a few days.

We were making our way to the longest underground river in the world. By the time we got there – we were met with a hail of rain, crashing waves on the beach and a lot of flooded roads! Turns out that the weather we were faced with was considerably better than the last few days! We later found out that there is at least one typhoon in the area that may be heading towards us!

So…a swift change of plans, back aboard the same bus for the 3 hour return to the city…and think we should check out weather reports and possibly flights out of the country! No point sitting around for two weeks until the rain clears!

After a week in the Philippines’ golden nugget island of Boracay, we decided to leave the beaches behind for a while, and headed off to the remote corner of Palawan.

A 5 minute tricycle, followed by a 10 minute boat, followed by a 6 hour bus, followed by a 20 minute taxi, followed by a 34 hour ferry! saw us landing on the rainy shores of Puerto Princesa!

So far it’s been pretty cool…everyone’s a lot friendlier, the food is great (fantastic meal at the what-seems-to-be-famous Kalui restuarant tonight: seaweed with king prawns and fish soup, followed by whole fried fish in pineapple sauce and fish steaks, finished off with a fruit salad served in a half coconut!), and generally there are less tourists so things are cheaper and we don’t get hassled to constantly buy this, that, this & that etc (you get the picture!).

So…tomorrow we’re off to investigate the longest underground river in the world! Sounds like an adventure!

Panglao Island, Malapascua before it, and Moalboal before that, have all really been pretty much the same. They’re all beach towns, with lots of tourists and lots of restaurants serving a mix of Western and Eastern dishes. Not that we have not been enjoying it, but at the end of the day – we really could’ve been in Spain, France, or anywhere else – as the beach-front tourists town is essentially the same across the world.

However, a chilled out few weeks on the beach has been a great way to start the trip. Getting anxious for a little more adventure…we hired a motorbike for the day, and set off around Panglao Island and Bohol. We visited a cool underground cave which was linked to the sea and had a quick swim (after getting a little bit lost on the way there!).

In the afternoon we were hoping to head to the tarsier sanctuary, the Luboc river and the Chocolate Hills. Unfortunately, the rain came on a bit heavy around 1pm so we ran for shelter in a bus stop for an hour or so until it passed:

We made it to the tarsier sanctuary and saw these cool little dudes:

After that, we had a really nice drive through the country, before arriving at the river, and making our way back. I really felt that the whole day was a completely different experience to the rest of the trip so far. It felt like we were doing something new and seeing things which we wouldn’t normally see.

Sadly i didn’t take any photos of the palm tree rimmed white sand beaches (use your imagination, or Google Malapascua!) . However, i did take a few snaps underwater during some amazing dives! I dived with Thresher sharks which was rather spectacular, and saw some devil rays which was also pretty neat!

I’ve also put a few photos on Flickr, and you can check them out by clicking the photo below.

We arrived safely in Cebu, Philippines last Tuesday and promptly checked into our hotel at 4am. Hoping to get some well-deserved kip after a 40 hour journey, we realised that there appears to be roosters everywhere in this island…and they seem to crow at random times…all day and all night! Someone needs to give these cockerels a watch!

However, we enjoyed the delights of Cebu city for a day, and then jumped on a bus down to Moalboal to check out the seaside life of the island. Moalboal lost it’s beach in a typhoon about 10 years ago, but we still felt the sleepy seaside town that’s popular with divers was worth a look. We were a little disappointed that when we arrived we were the only ones under 40, and Emma was the only female foreigner (there were, however, an abundance of local ladies to go round all the single males if you know what i mean!).

After a few days, the numbers of other tourists picked up a bit, and we enjoyed a week there chilling out by our nice pool!

I also managed to squeeze in a quick dive, the first with my underwater camera! More pics to follow soon so stay tuned! (this one wasn’t taken by me though!).

Today, we’ve arrived back in Cebu, and tomorrow we’re heading up to Malapascua to see how that fares.

A fine example of how useful free WiFi around Hong Kong airport is! Perhaps something that the £6 per hour folks in Gatwick might want to consider!!!

It’s a US territory so has great services, with heaps of Spanish Culture! No more time to write anything….but simply amazing so far.

Our band’s called XS Energy but we’re not wearing costumes so that we can roam around all the other bands to take pictures etc – if we had costumes we would have to stay in our designated areas.

Will upload pics and more details soon – check out facebook for more pictures.

The first is the cover shot for their upcoming ‘Cuisine and Culture’ trip around Asia in 2007, and features as the first photo displayed on the website, and the cover shot on the print version of the brochure.

The second shot is used on the last page of the print brochure.

Feel free to contact me if you would like an electronic copy of the print journal.