Traveling around Vietnam

After 4 wonderful weeks in Thailand, we jumped on a plane to Hanoi, Vietnam. The first experience here was some nice men offering to take us into town with a taxi for a really good price. But a moment later a policeofficer started walking towards us. Then the nice men ran the other way. So i guess we were glad we didn't go with their taxi...

The next thing we noticed in Hanoi was the weather. After one month in constant sunshine and around 36 degrees we were a bit surpriced to discover fog, rain and 23 degrees in Hanoi.

The trafic in this Hanoi is horrible!

The motorbikes are everywere both on sidewalks and in the most narrow alleys. They are constanly honking and don't stop for anything or anyone. In Vietnam they drive on the right side of the road, like we do at home, but even though they're supposed to keep to the right, they just drive whereever they can fit their bike.

This is the temple of litterature. It's a quiet garden and a great escape from the rest of the noisy city. It has many big pools with fish and turtles. A lot of big thinkers has graduated here.

Look at this little cutiepie :)

After a few days in Hanoi we had seen a lot of buisy people aggressivly wanting to sell us everything and anything, narrow streets, too many motorbikes honking and a lot of rain so we decided to take the over-night bus to Hoi An.

This smal town is in the middle of Vienam. And the busride lasted for about 16 hours! The bus acctually had seats where an avrage Vienamese could sit or almost lie down. But still the seats were very narrow, so when we tried to find a comfortable position we were afraid to fall down on the people lying underneath us.

Hoi An

After arriving Hoi An the weather had improved. Its much warmer and sunier here than in Hanoi.

Hoi An is a plesant little town with good food and smiling people. The houses are like most we have seen in Vietnam small franch-inspired colonial houses. But there is also alot of really old buildings, dating back many hundred years.

The town is full of small shops, vendours, art galleries and tailors

Jorgen with a smiling Vienamese

This is a dragon in the midle of the canal in Hoi An

On the 16.th of march we diceded to give ourselves a treat: Three days at a fancy Spa Resort. It's the first time this jurney that we've booked in to a really nice hotel so we weren't feeling so bad about it. It had a big pool (with no people), nice rooms with fresh fruit, a great breakfast buffay, tasting of lokal food samples everyday from 5 to 6 and the service was great!

The next day we booked 2 hours of spa treatment. This was a strange experiance. First we were coverd with something they called Tamarin, sugar and honey porridge, was wrapped up in towels and left to dry up for half an hour. Then, after desperatly trying to remove the porridge in a shower we were sent back to our rooms. And now a new treatment was ready. This time it was (surprise surprise) another bowl of porridge. Now we were buttered up in oatmeal. It was quite sticky and even harder to remove than the first one. In the end we had sweedish and thai massages (much nicer than the porridge part).

Jorgen in his newest creation. Traditoinal Ao Daw Jorgen style.

Beeing in Hoi An we are now the proud new owners of: 2 new dresses, 1 pair of shoes, 2 traditional asian suits, 1 shirt and 2 winter coats. Exellent :)

"My Son" temples nearby Hoi An

Now we have been in Hoi An for 6 days, and are planning to head for Na Trang tomorrow.

Please keep updating us with news and comments from home:) We miss you.

So long