After the big old fat rain

We left Ha Long Bay on Sunday and arrived in Hoi An via Hue yesterday. Its been an interesting few days...

Electric Shock #1 Parts A, B, C and D
The showers on our island retreat in Cat Ba were interesting in that every time you touched the tap, you got an electric shock. Shock part A was the discovery shock, at first I thought I'd just twinged my elbow, but then shock part B proved that it was more than that. Shock C was for fun and shock D for pleasure... After that we thought it wise not to have anymore showers.

Electric Shock #2
After we got back to Hanoi from our trip we went to our hotel to dry off. We had a nice relaxing evening and an early night. When I used the switch on the cord to turn out the light there was this almighty blinding flash. The cord fell apart in my hands and I was left holding what remained. Thankfully I didn't receive any current, but my finger was covered in black soot.

The Great Escape
Picture a 1940's bridge in Germany, with a couple of German soldiers each armed with a bayonet, stabbing at a farmers hay truck checking for escaped POWs. That what it must of been like for the Cockroach hiding in Kate's Vermichelli. With each stab of her chop stick, he must have been sweating more and more until it just got too much and had to make a break for it. Dispite the shock of the situation for us, I managed to capture the roach in my chopsticks to show to the waitress. Kate has come along way from standing on a chair, screaming at the sight of the little buggers running round our room in Australia. She received a new serving of Vermin-chelli and carried on eating.

The night bus for little people
14 hours on the night bus was easier for Kate, hard for Tim. The bus is made up with about 40 bunk beds, each with the head of one person, resting over the legs of the one behind. The concept is fine, but the designers must have used the height of the average local man when deciding how much room to give. Kate as a result had loads, I on the other hand had none. Add to this the fact that Vietnam doesn't have roads, and that the bus driver needs to beep his horn constantly to prevent him from running people over. The best bit was when the bus drive started praying at the front of the bus for a safe journey, that really made me feel comfortable.

Hue, tally ho, Barf Barf!
When we arrived at Hue, I felt really rough, so we had an hour or so sleep before heading off to see the sights. As the day went on I began to feel worse and worse, until eventually, just after we went to bed in our shared dorm room at 8pm, I started to be ill from both ends. This went on every hour all night, much to the delight of me and the poor sods I was sharing a room with. The next day, Kate looked after me whilst we decided if I could make the 3 hour bus journey to Hoi An as planned. I plugged myself up on Imodium and we made a dash for the bus. In the end all was fine, we arrived in Hio An without trouble and a very nice place it is indeed.

All this makes Vietnam sound like a place worth missing, but it just adds to the fun. Vietnam is really nice, the people are lovely for the most part and it's extremely pretty. Looking out the bus as we drove through the country side was so interesting, with School kids dancing in the playground, water buffelo wandering in the rice fields, a chicken legging it across the road, little temples outside the villages to honour the village founder, miltary graveyards from the Vietnam war, tiny shops selling everything from sugar canes and fruit to car parts, all of the them held together with Bamboo, a shop selling coffins in all sizes (big and, unfortunately, very small)...

Its an amazing place and really worth a visit.