Hello Ladies.........Market

Breakfast was again a strange strawberry-based macaroon, a few sour cream & onion Pringles and a cup of black coffee. Just what you need to get the day going. So once we had polished it off and made ourselves presentable we left Chungking Mansions to visit he markets that lay up north.

The infamous Chungking Mansions 

The main road through the area, Nathan Road, is almost like The Strip in Las Vegas, as there are just people everywhere, and most of them are trying to sell you a suit or some such tat. It was a fair hike to get to the Ladies Market too, which was our first item on the agenda. And before you ask, it is just a name, it isn’t for women only. It was pretty good too, and nothing like the madness of Xuan Dong in Hanoi! There was (just about!) space to squeeze between the stalls and people were kind and polite…reasonably. Most of the market sellers were nice and friendly if you were interested in their stuff, but if you walked away they sometimes got quite vocal with you as if they expected you to buy whatever it was just because you had had a conversation with them. Overall though it was a good experience and we managed to get some good stuff, although James was unsuccessful in negotiating for the coat he wanted, but we would have another chance to get that as we weren’t leaving HK until Friday.

The Ladies Market

As we left the Ladies Market we wandered through another, but lesser, market nearby, but we kept our wallets firmly in our pockets this time. Near to that market was the Goldfish Market, and well, we just had to go and check that out! So we found it just round the corner, and it was more of a “fish avenue” as opposed to a goldfish market. Shop after shop of fish and other pets, unfortunately with some of them being kept in less-than desirable conditions. The best ones were the ones with the cats in though, they were absolutely adorable. But a bit out of our price range at £700 each.

I'm sorry, I don't have £700 to spare... 

As we left we took a route through a fish market, just to see what delights lay within. Well, there was pretty much anything you care to guess, and even an escaped eel, until the natty fishmonger managed to scoop it back up into his net with a flick of his wrist.

Just WHAT is in that bag...?

We had seen on the map that there was a rather large park near to the hotel so we took a stroll through on our way back to the hotel. It was pretty nice, with an aviary by the entrance housing some parrots and other exotic birds. But we weren’t allowed to disturb them mind, not unless we wanted to pay HK$1,000. There was a rather good open-air swimming pool, save for the fact that it was empty…of people and water. A couple of fountains and a big warning sign about mosquitos completed the journey and we were out and heading back towards Chungking Mansions.

I got a little bit jealous of this guys camera...

For the evening we spent a long time walking the streets of Hong Kong trying to find somewhere to eat. We had heard of a place called Mr Wongs where you could pay HK$50 and get all the food and drink you could eat, but we couldn’t find it. Or we could, but it looked very dodgy, so we moved on. There were a lot of gun shops in the area too, so I’m not sure how good an area it was. In the end we essentially re-traced our steps from our trip round the markets earlier that day, and we found a small diner that was serving reasonably cheap fodder, so we took a table for two. It was OK, but pretty functional as it had got quite late, so we just paid the tab and left the place, thankfully without getting drinks spilled on us like the couple on the table next to us.

Chungking Express

Ok, so for such a teeny tiny room the bed was actually quite comfortable and I slept like a log for the first time in a long while. Maybe it was because of the epic journey from Hanoi, but no matter, we were up and raring to go. Well, not quite “raring” as we had no breakfast included in the price of the room – and to be honest, I don’t think I would have eaten it if they had provided something.

Our first order of the day was to head back to the train station and book tickets on the train from Hong Kong to Shanghai. We certainly didn’t want to have a repeat of the Nanning-Guangzhou episode! It didn’t take long to book the tickets so we then made our way down to the harbour again, to have a good look at the place in the daylight. We walked along the Avenue Of Stars again, but his time it was much less crowded so we could actually see who the stars were for. We wanted to find Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee for starters, and any others would be a bonus. As we trundled along the harbour we noticed people trying to take our picture without us noticing…but we noticed alright. It got to the point whereby a couple of old oriental geezers wanted their picture taken with us, to which we obliged, naturally. Then, as they left, a younger couple of girls asked for the same thing. We duly posed for the second round of pictures, no problem. And then a further group wanted their photo taken with us; it was like we were proper celebrities and I half expected them to be asking us for autographs next!

Bruce Leeeeeeeee! 

We continued our wander and looked out across the water to Hong Kong Island, where we would be heading shortly. But only after another couple of girls wanted their picture taken with us. So with that done we bought two tickets for the ferry across the water to Central on the other side. James had done some research and found out that there was an escalator that ran from the top of the residential area up in the hills all the way down to the CBD at the bottom, but that it only went down until 10:20am and after then it only went up for the rest of the day. Well, this was looking promising for an interesting little visit so we managed to find the “start” amongst the concrete playground that was Hong Kong Island and jumped on. It was exciting! After about 60 seconds the escalator finished and we had to walk to the next stage of the escalator. And then again a few metres down the line. So it wasn’t one full escalator after all, and it was a bit of a disappointment, but still worthwhile as something to do as we got to see the streets and back streets.

Going uuuuuuuuup!

As we got to the top we realised that we would need to get back to the bottom again, but there was no escalator heading that way. So we had to march along the leafy roads to find a path down to the main road. It was nice to get away from the hustle and bustle and mix up the grey concrete of the city with the green canopies of the forest in between.

Hong Kong through the trees

We made it down to the road and found the tram station where we would be getting a tram (obviously) from the west side to the east side of the island as Wikitravel had said it was a good little journey. It took ages for the right tram to arrive and when it did we sat up top and watched the world go by from up high. It also took a long time to get from A to B (about 80 minutes) so by the time we had finished we were ready for dinner. But we had to get back to Chungking Mansions first.

Zooming through Hong Kong Island

We jumped on the tube and happily it coincided with rush hour, so we were literally forced into the carriages to go under the water (rather than the ferry back) for just one stop. After freshening up at the hotel we managed to find the Taj Mahal Restaurant within Chungking Mansions, something that we weren’t massively keen on if we were honest, but it was close, it was late, and Tripadvisor said that it was really good. We also ran into a guy whilst waiting for the lift who gave us a 10% off card, but only after James had initially waved him away claiming we weren’t interested. The Taj Mahal was OK, and maybe a little over-priced for what we actually got, but it had filled a hole and that was OK by us. The evening was spent watching the movie Chungking Express (told you we’d end up watching it) and to be fair I don’t recommend you rushing down to your local Blockbuster to rent a copy for yourself.

Hong Pong

It had been a dreadful night. Constant shuffling, rejigging and leg wars hadn’t given us much sleep, but at least the train was arriving in Guangzhou and we had completed stage 3 of our Never-ending Journey. The state of the carriage in the middle of the night was amazing, with people sprawled out wherever they could find a spot. Seeds and other miscellaneous rubbish littered the aisle and there was luggage, sacks and prams wherever possible. In addition to that we had not been able to shower for two days. Nice.

Best sleep ever...

As we got off the train in Guangzhou we noticed we were greeted by an old friend who we hadn’t had the company of in quite some time. Cold. We were still dressed in just shorts and t-shirt but everyone else was warmly wrapped-up. It was just after 6 in the morning and the sun wasn’t quite up so we shivered our way out of the train station and began looking for a taxi. We would need to cross the city from the main station to Guangzhou East station to get the connecting train to Hong Kong. We marched through the throng of people trying to get us into their taxi, but we are now wise to their game and to go hunting around for the proper professionals who won’t rip us off something chronic. It wasn’t obvious where we could find one but after following the rest of the crowd out of the station we found a taxi rank and waited in line. Our go-to-guy on any kind of travel in Asia has been The Man In Seat 61 and true to form he came up with another corker. The taxi fare should be about 30RMB to change stations, and sure enough it came in at 29RMB. This guy knows his stuff!

Made it!!! 

We searched around the train station for the ticket booth and when we found one that was open she advised us to go upstairs and wait til 7:30am when they would open. That gave us enough time to get upstairs, find the booths, save a spot in the queue and go freshen up. With tickets bought for the 9:00am train (the 8:30am one was full) we waited in the waiting area and tried valiantly to stay awake til we were called for our train. We had to go through the usual security checks to get through but there were no problems (even with my bag of white powder still lurking in my luggage).

The time came when we were allowed to board the train to Hong Kong… so very nearly there that we could almost taste it! If that makes sense. So we took our seats and were sat with the group of Russians that had been with us in the queue for the tickets. As we relaxed into our comfortable chairs and sipped the complimentary bottle of water we noticed a smell that occasionally wafted around us. Body odour. Now it was true that we hadn’t showered in two days, and had slept in our clothes for both nights, but we had freshened up. We shouldn’t have been kicking out a pong like that. It seemed to be coming from the Russians, but they looked like they were a family with a few roubles in their pocket so I doubted it were them. As the train arrived in Hong Kong I found the source of the smell. A big African guy with a thousand bags under each arm, who must have been sitting in the vicinity of us on the train. Phew! The smell wasn’t us, but we sure as heck weren’t smelling of roses!

Off the train and through more passport control to get into Hong Kong. The African guy was ahead of us in the queue and there was a clear gap between him and the people behind him, with one woman covering her nose with her finger to try and sift out some of the stench. For once it paid to be further back in the line. Once we got through passport control we had made it into Hong Kong, officially. We were in need of some real food after living off crisps, peanuts, cookies and chocolate for two days so we grabbed a Maccy D’s (closest thing to us) and then jumped on the metro to our hotel.

Nom nom nom!

I had read some bad reviews of the Chungking Mansions building before we got there, but, crucially, after we had booked in their for 4 nights. Let me explain: Chungking Mansions lies on the mainland of Hong Kong (across the water from the main “Hong Kong bit”) and houses well over 20 hotels/hostels/guesthouses. It is the most reasonably-priced accommodation in Hong Kong that we could find, and there is even a movie set in the building, called Chungking Express. We will try and watch this whilst staying there. When we arrived we got a massive slap in the face. It was a brutal assault on the senses, with flashing lights, cooking smells, lots of people milling around and no idea of where our hotel actually was. You see, the ground floor is essentially an indoor market, and the building is divided up into blocks with separate elevators to get to the right places/floors. We were in Block D but could only find Block B, on which the Day And Night Hotel was listed so we went on up. It wasn’t there, so we headed down and managed to find Block D among the chaos.

When we arrived we weren’t overly-impressed, but it could have been a lot worse. Our room was the smallest one since the New York YMCA, but at least we had a private bathroom. Which was smaller than a cupboard, and was also the shower too. We made ourselves at home and relaxed, showered and generally recovered from the exertions we had endured since leaving Hanoi. We didn’t make it out of the hotel until just before dinner, so we took a wander down to the harbour to explore and find some food.

Our box room...

When we arrived at the harbour it was a truly amazing sight. A superb panoramic view of the harbour with all the skyscrapers peeping across the water at us in the darkening sky.  We took a walk along the Avenue Of Stars, which is Hong Kongs version of Hollywood Boulevard, and then went searching for some scran. We managed to find a place that seemed economically viable and we settled in for a well-earned meal. I still don’t know why James went for the pig cartilages, but it looked pretty rough to me so I went for the trusty Singapore Noodles. We got some tea with our meal (that we didn’t order, but had to pay for as we drank it) and beer served in metal tankards, which was a nice change. On the walk back home we dodged a multitude of chaps trying to sell us a “genuine copy” of a Rolex/Omega, tailored suits and handbags. Instead, we grabbed a couple more beers from the local 7 Eleven and made our way back to the hotel to try and find another English channel on the telly, but had to make do with the two that we had already found.

Wow!

The Never-ending Journey Part 2

I should probably mention something that I haven’t yet told you. As we were on an overnight train and we were crossing the border from Vietnam into China, we would need to get off the train and go through passport control and security, just like at any other border crossing. This was to take place at 2:00am. Yeah, exactly!

So by the time we had settled in and got off to sleep it was almost time to wake up again! The bang at the door jolted us awake and we fumbled with our belongings and the door before jumping off the train and going into the passport control office. Inside we handed over our documents and waited whilst the guards sifted through them all, checking visas and passport particulars. Once we had been given the all-clear we collected them and clambered back on the train. We would have another hour or so whilst the train trundled through no-mans-land and got the Chinese border. Once we got there we were herded out one coach at a time and through security.

Home sweet home! 

We were all a bit bleary-eyed and half asleep, but I soon woke up when I realised that there were 3 border guards checking through everyones bags, by hand. Everything out and everything checked so it was taking a looooong time to get through. There was nothing illegal in my bag. Well, only a small plastic bag taped closed that contain about half a kilo of white powder. But that was washing powder to do my laundry, nothing else. But would this raise suspicions with the security guards? James had previously dumped his “stash” in Singapore for fear of being held “out back” and potentially body searched, but it was only washing powder…surely one sniff of it would confirm it?

Can I go back to sleep yet?

Thankfully there was no problem. Mainly because my bag was packed so tightly, and in a manner that took about 15 minutes of planning and pushing, that the guard had a quick feel around inside and then sent me on my way. I don’t think he could be bothered repacking everything. And nor could I for that matter! So once we were all through security we got back on board the train and went straight back to sleep until it rattled in to Nanning station at half 10 in the morning.

Just arrived in Nanning

We said goodbye to Nina and set about assessing the next steps of our journey. We needed train tickets to Guangzhou. But to get them we needed money. And to get money we needed a Construction Bank of China as they gave the best withdrawl rates. We made base inside the station and I left James with the bags while I set off into the streets of Nanning with Google Maps in my hand and my raincoat in the other. It was a mad dash through the streets as it was much larger than I thought – 6 million people live in Nanning, and I thought it was just a “connection town” between Hong Kong and Vietnam! It was definitely an experience though as hardly anything was written in English (obviously) and I was pretty much the only non-Chinese person I saw on that hour-long run round the streets. I managed to get the required cash and met James back at the station.

Nanning in bloom

We had been prepared for a lack of English in some places, and as our Cantonese wasn’t exactly up to scratch we hoped for the best when we sidled up to the ticket counter. We needed two tickets for the soft sleeper (ideally, but hard sleeper tickets would be acceptable) train to Guangzhou, just outside Hong Kong. We couldn’t book these in advance so we just had to hope that there were some available for us, otherwise the alternative was to get whatever ticket we could and go overnight on a seat, much like on a coach, which we had done a lot in the US and Australia but we had hoped we had left those days behind. When James relayed our requirements to the chap behind the glass and gestured that we wanted “sleeper” (by doing the internationally-recognised symbol for “sleep” by clasping both hands together under his 45-degree-angled head) he shook his head and pointed to the chair-back behind him. Oh dear.

There's nothing in Nanning......apart from the train station

OK, so we didn’t get our first choice, or second for that matter, but we were on the train later that day and that was all that mattered. All we had to do was waste a couple of hours in the meantime, but that was no problem for the Gray boys. I needed to get some supplies in for the journey so I popped my head into a small supermarket nearby. It was certainly an experience. I was reduced to searching for food simply by looking at the pictures on the box, so the items I bought for lunch, dinner and breakfast were a gamble and could have been anything for all I knew. At 5:00pm the gates were opened in Waiting Room 3 and the mad dash for the train began. Even though we already had allotted seats. So we took our time. Coach 10, seats 25 and 26, shouldn’t be a problem.

Oh dear, this could be a loooooong night

There was a BIG problem. As we stepped aboard the train we realised that the seating situation wasn’t 2 x 2 in neat little lines like you would get on a bus, it was vertical-sided, back-to-back seats facing each other over a tiny little table. We would be looking our “bunk-mates” right in the eye as we went to sleep that night. And it got worse. Oh so worse. James’s seat was at the window (via the rota for train seats, as mine was the last one from Bangkok to Chiang Mai) and mine was next to him, which was fine, you might think. But oh no, there was another seat/number next to mine, so I was to be sat in-between James and a little old Chinese lady, with 3 other chaps in front of us, all fighting for leg-room. This was going to be a nightmare. We tried our best to cram our huge backpacks under the seats as everyone on the train had bags, sacks of rice, trolleys, prams, you name it. As we settled in for an uncomfortable night the chap next to the window opposite James got up and wandered off behind us. After a few minutes he returned and collected his bag from the overhead storage. There was a seat free by the window.

I gestured to the guy opposite me that I would like to take the seat by the window, if the other chap wasn’t coming back. Again the language barrier proved troublesome, but it seemed like he didn’t have eyes on it himself so I jumped into it before anyone else (the guy behind who had been eying it up) had the chance. So with a window seat each we passed the time playing cards on the small table (an act that drew a small audience on the train), reading our books, listening to some tunes and trying to get sleep as best we could. One of the problems was that the seats were so vertical that you just couldn’t rest against anything, even the wall or the window, so the best place to get some proper sleep was sprawled out on the table. But as the table was only small we had to take it in un-communicated turns between us, sometimes on there at two at-a-time, which was a scary situation when you woke up and there was a stranger a few inches away from your face who wasn’t there when your eyes closed last.

The shuffler and the peeker

The Never-ending Journey

It was morning and it was time to leave Hanoi, and Vietnam for that matter. We were booked on the overnight train from Hanoi (Gia Lam station in the north east of the city) to Nanning in China. We would then pick up another train from Nanning to Guangzhou and then get a last train to Hong Kong. It was looking like a bit of a mammoth journey, but it was the only option other than flying.

We had plenty of time to waste in the day before getting the train at 9:40pm, but the problem was that because we had been in Hanoi for so long we had pretty much done and seen everything. So the only thing on the agenda was lunch, get some more water and try and find a small supermarket to get some more toiletries that we were running low on. We left the hotel at 12:00pm and took a walk down to a greeny/lakey area on the map. There wasn’t much to see, especially as we needed to pay 4,000 VND to get inside. We did, however, pass by/through an old deserted arcade hall, with all the machines there, a woman in a central kiosk thing, but with no power to any of the machines. And they were all ridiculously old too, like Operation Wolf and Chase HQ. Weird.

A park that we did go into...

According to my Google Maps map there was another lake nearby so we went and chilled out there on a bench for an hour or so. We were getting hungry for our late-lunch by that point so we headed back to our favourite haunt, Gecko, and had another of their cracking toasted baguettes (James had the same one 3 times in a row, so it must have been good!). We played some cards to waste a little more time and supped away on a couple of large Tiger beers which were ridiculously refreshing after the afternoon heat had been raining down on us.

Ummmmm.....a dragon fly

We made our way back to the hotel and ordered a taxi to get us to the Gia Lam station as it certainly wasn’t walkable. But it was rush hour though. The road outside the hotel was always manic at this time of day but we hoped that by the time the taxi arrived it would have cleared out a little bit. It hadn’t. We managed to eke our way through the millions of motorbikes and scooters until we made it to the main road and could get out of first gear. But only into second. Briefly. It was still manic on the main road as hundreds of people tried to get over the bridge to the other part of Hanoi that we never even thought of visiting. While we crawled along the bridge I noticed some terrific lightning flashing in the sky above the city, unlike anything I had seen before. It seemed pretty ominous so I rolled down the window to get a better look and noticed that there was absolutely no thunder whatsoever. Possibly because the lightning was above the city and not making contact with the earth. It was still going when we eventually reached the train station.

Train station Ga Gia Lam

The station was pretty basic, with blue plastic chairs and not much else! As the lightning was still going on, and we had over 2 hours to wait for the train, I wandered outside to take some long-exposure shots of the sky to see if I could bag me a “lightning shot”. What I actually got was a bunch of people looking at me from their doorways thinking that I was up to no good, so I made my way back inside and waited with James.

Lightning!!

As I returned to the waiting room all the power in the street went out. Not good. Considering what James went through in Hoi An with his suit we realised that this couldn’t bode well for the train journey. Even if they were diesel trains there would more than likely be something to delay it, or indeed cancel it altogether. So we sat there in the darkness and waited. It wasn’t long before James got itchy feet and went for a wander to see if he could purchase something with our last remaining Dong. By the time he got back they had got one light working in the office. Then two. But the rest of the street seemed to still be using candles. James returned empty-handed, but soon the power had been restored and we were able to see what we were doing again.

James, taking a picture of me, taking a picture of him...

James went for another sortie whilst I stayed with the bags, and while he was gone a station employee gestured to me to move from our seats as I had told her I was going to Nanning in China. Her English wasn’t great so I couldn’t exactly work out what I was supposed to be doing, but it seemed that I needed to move to another set of seats. As I was struggling with my bag a young girl came over and showed me that there was a different waiting room for Nanning – that’s what the other one was trying to tell me. But as James wasn’t back I had to move everything myself and somehow managed to get all our stuff there in one go (I certainly wasn’t going to leave anything unattended) and waited by the new waiting room for my brothers return.

He showed up (with what seemed to be a locally-produced can of deodorant from a corner shop – it certainly was no Lynx, which is certainly a brand leader in the global deodorants category…) and we took our seats with a Japanese traveller from Tokyo called Yoshi. We sat and chewed the fat as we still had over an hour to go before we could board our train. As we chatted, a Chinese lady across from us joined in/hijacked our conversation and began barking phrases and questions at us in broken English. She seemed nice enough and we responded in a kindly manner, although some of the questions just went way over our heads – especially the one about a German doctor that got a free visa to China…or something like that. As we chatted amongst the four of us a girl also joined in the conversation as she was also heading to Nanning on the same train as us. Her name was Nina and she helped a little with the translating for the Chinese woman to ask us more questions. Oh, I forgot to mention that a few minutes before that there had been a pop and one of the fluorescent lightbulbs in the ceiling had caught on fire. With the lightning, the power-cut and the near-burning-down of the waiting room I couldn’t help but wonder if someone “upstairs” didn’t want us to get on that train…

Yoshi and Jimmy

When the time came to board we filed up and headed for coach 2, as per our ticket. The first ticket guy said coach 2 also, but it was locked. So we followed Nina to coach 3 and eventually got on, but not in the berths that were on the ticket (1 and 2) as we were simply herded into rooms at the whim of the second ticket guy. It worked out for the best though as we ended up in a 4-berth sleeper compartment with Nina and a spare bed. We chatted for a while as it was still reasonably early but we began to flag as the night wore on so we turned in and tried to get some shut-eye as best we could.

Nina.......and my arm

You Can Go Your Own Waaaaaaay

It was time for a “what carcass day” for both of us. This term has been coined from an episode of Red Dwarf when the crew are locked up in quarantine and need a bit of time on their own, or personal space. So we had decided to go off and do our own things for the day. Usually this means plugging in the iPod and having a bit of a 

wander and generally letting the feeling of walking round a city far from home sink in.

James left the hotel around 11:00am and I waited around for a while longer having a laze and trying to find out where the remnants of the B52 bomber that was shot down during the Vietnam War could be found. With no fix on the location I assumed I would be able to find it, although annoyingly it was rather close to where we had been walking on my birthday, by the naff cafés and restaurants that seemingly run out of rice! So I set off and put on a bit of Bruce Springsteen as I strolled through the streets towards the north-west part of the city.

Just another day in Hanoi

I was using the map on my phone to find this B52 place, but as it wasn’t listed on the map I was going to have to use my spidey-senses to find it. I had seen it on Top Gear and knew roughly what the area looked like so I walked towards the large pond shown on the map. No joy. Just a few locals hanging around by the edge of the water, looking a bit shifty. So I walked on to the next pool of water on the map.

The pool without the B52 

No luck there either. I had heard that it was hard to find, but there was apparently a small sign indicating where the B52 wreckage was, but the thing is there were loads of little signs, for restaurants, hotels, builders, etc. I was certainly off the beaten track by this time and the locals didn’t seem to mind me trekking through the tight streets, as there were probably a few tourists trying to find it.

Tiny streets of Hanoi

Another swing-and-a-miss later I only had one more body of water to investigate so I crossed my fingers and pushed on. I don’t there is a phrase “fourth time lucky” but if there was I would certainly use it here. I rounded a corner and there it was, in all its magnificence. Well, not quite. It is essentially just a large piece of wreckage still lying in the pool of water in-between the buildings around it, with no trace of a tourist trap anywhere. Nobody else was there to see it, just the residents that live in the buildings nearby. It was pretty cool, but mainly because I managed to find it after all the wandering round the local streets and other ponds!

Anyone for a B52.....slightly damaged!

It was mid-afternoon and I fancied a stroll in the park, so I made my way down to the Botanical Gardens nearby. It seemed like there was an entrance fee to get in and as we were trying to budget our money so we would have enough for a taxi to the train station I wasn’t sure if I wanted to part with my money. But then again, it was only 2,000 Dong, which is about 6p, so I thought “why not” and entered the gardens.

The doves in the park

It was great just to sit down by the small lake and watch the world go by. There was a group of school/college kids on a trip to the park and some were being quite rowdy so I tried my best to ignore them and just listen to the sounds of the park. After a while one of the guys from the school trip sidled up to me and asked me where I was from. Half an hour later we had discussed a wide range of topics including Unilever (again), Christmas in Hanoi and long coach journeys in America. As it was nearly half 4 I needed to get back so I said goodbye to the guy in the park and set off back towards the Hanoi Eclipse hotel.

Me and.......errr......bench guy! 

It was a long way back, and I didn’t get there til about 5:30pm. The only thing of note that happened along the way was that I walked across a $100 bill that was lying in the gutter. It was pretty grubby, and as it was rush-hour I thought that if it were real then someone would have picked it up long ago. So I continued my walk back but wondered if I had passed up an opportunity to pad out my wallet a bit, but after some internal debate I came to the conclusion that it must be a fake, especially as US dollars aren’t really used much in Vietnam.

The evening was a quiet one really. We found a place near the hotel (not Gecko this time) and grabbed a quick bite before heading back and preparing to leave for China. We would need to pack our things and double-check the route through to Hong Kong – it would not be an easy journey and would involve two overnight sleeper trains in a row. Oh joy.

I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here!

Wow…no hangover. Well, no banging headache and no nausea anyway. We could have both done with a bit more kip but as breakfast finished at 9:15am we needed to get up and down to the dining room to make sure we got some grub inside us. The continental breakfast had been replaced by cereal this time, and it was more of a massive fruit salad (of banana and watermelon) with a few cornflakes sprinkled on than a bowl of cereal. Still, it did a good job of soaking up the leftover Larue/Hanoi beer still swishing around in our bellies.

After the revelry the night before we weren’t really up for doing much in the daytime as we had practically written it off before we had even started. So it was lunchtime before we ventured outside, but we had done some more research into our next countries on the list – China, Nepal and India. We were heading north to find the famous Dong Xuan market to see what trinkets and souvenirs we might fancy. The road to get there from our hotel is madness. Not as wide as most of the main roads but it seems like there is just as much traffic trying to squeeze down the bottle-neck to get to and/or from the market.

The Dong Xuan market 

Once there we were greeted by carnage. Well, on the inside anyway. The outside of the market seemed pretty usual with many stalls selling the touristy things like hand-made crafts and sunglasses, but inside it was a different story. Inside there were more stands and stalls per square meter than I have ever seen before. There was barely enough room to walk between them, and most of the time there were locals barging past you anyway, almost knocking us into stacks of shoes, rolls of materials or chopsticks. There wasn’t a huge amount of stuff that we were interested in, although James was on the lookout for some more sunglasses as the $4 ones he got in Siem Reap had sadly broken at one of the arms. While he was picking his next “look” I sidled over to one of the traditional hand-crafted stalls nearby and did a bit of haggling with the woman owner. It seemed like a totally different experience to Thailand, and Cambodia to a degree, as there wasn’t much room for negotiation. In addition to that we only had one person gently ask if we would like to buy something as opposed to Thailand, Cambodia and the rest of Vietnam (other than Hanoi of course) where we were constantly bugged by people selling everything and everything.

Don't drop it!!!

As we left the market we wandered through the streets to the lake and purchased tickets for the infamous Water Puppet show for later that evening. As we were in the area we took a look at the small temple that sits in the Hoan Kiem lake. Before I even got to the bridge I was accosted by 4 oriental tourists who took an interest in me, for some reason! One chap asked about taking a photo, to which I responded “no problem” as we are always being asked to take photos of people at scenic places. But I quickly realised that he wanted a picture OF me, and before I knew it one of the girls was pressed against my side, presumably doing the peace/victory sign. I had no idea why they wanted a picture of little old me, but quick as a flash (no pun intended) they had switched and he jumped next to me for his turn. I duly posed with the guy, shaking his hand for effect, and they left one they had their snaps. Whether they thought I was a celebrity or what I will never know, but it was a good little story to put in this blog.

The Hoan Kiem temple

We had been looking for a place to play “licky-kicky” and had struggled as the area by the lake is pretty crowded, both with locals and tourists alike. We had walked round other parts of the city in an attempt to find a quiet and open spot and we eventually found one, near a few kids hanging around doing some after-school activities. We got the kicky-thing out and began hoofing it around, and as per usual it didn’t take long for some passer-by to join in. He did ask if that would be OK, which is more than most of them do. As we batted it about, he more successfully than we, another joined in and we had a four-way going. I was playing in bare-feet as my flip-flops were not good for licky-kicky. We were playing for a good half hour and by the end of it we all had a rather lovely sweat going so we called time and sat back to guzzle down some much-needed water.

Licky-kicky has seen better days...

The evenings eatery was Gecko, again. Mainly because it was round the corner, cheap and tasty. We hit the Water Puppet show afterwards and it was…an experience. Small wooden puppets dancing around in a pool of water in a theatre-style arena with three women on the side singing, playing instruments and story-telling. It was good to see and I’m glad we paid the extra to get the good seats!

You couldn't see the people during the show...this was the finale 

Later that night I stood out on the balcony and watched the world go by. Well, actually, I didn’t. As there didn’t seem to be any “world” to go “by” as it were. It was nice and quiet, and completely different to the streets usual hustle and bustle. There was even a police/army sergeant ordering someone to sweep up outside their shop. Aaaaaah. 

Hong Quat by night....empty apart from one motorbike...