Vietnam

We've now been in Vietnam for about 2 weeks. We stayed in the capital city for a few days which was so, so busy and noisy. Everyone was constantly beeping their horns and trying to get you to buy things off them. Crossing roads was mad, you couldn't wait until it was clear because it never was so you just had to walk out into the road kind of making eye contact with the drivers (mostly on bikes and about 8 lanes of them) and they all just drove around you. If any of you have read my sisters blog you'll know that the people on bikes are crazy. There are whole families on one bike, luggage that back home you'd use a truck to transport and even live animals!
We've seen markets full of all sorts of things, lots of them unrecognizable. I found a couple of sweet ginger kittens in one market and stopped to say hello only to have someone try and sell them to me for the equivalent of about 20p. A few times we spotted whole cooked dogs! We also spotted some looking pretty similar that were alive......much nicer.
I've seen two particularly funny dogs since I've been in Asia. The first was in Thailand where there was a really busy road with about four lanes of traffic. A stray dog (of which there are many) walked along the pavement on the other side of the road to us and stopped at a zebra crossing. He waited until it was clear and then stepped down into the road, at which point a bus came around the corner so he moved back onto the pavement. He waited until it was clear again and then crossed on the crossing! The other funny dog I saw was riding on a motorbike with his owner. He had his paws on the handel bars and a pare of sun glasses on!
We've been right up to the very North of Vietnam where we stayed in a village in the mountains. I learnt to ride a moped there which is amazing fun and also just so happened to get shown around a very, very special garden. Forest-like, budding and beautiful is all I'll say!
We also went on a three day boat trip around a place called Ha Long Bay where huge rocks jut out of the sea. We saw floating villages and got to do a bit of canoeing. One night we spent on the boat and the other we spent on an island where the following day we hiked through the jungle up a mountain in the boiling heat. There was actually some proper climbing invovled to get to the top!
We're now in the south of Vietnam after two very long but very cheap and not too nasty bus rides. We stayed a few days in Hoi An which is a lovely little town near the beach full of shops selling paintings, little colourful lantens, hand made ornaments and taylor shops. They also make extremely nice banana and chocolate pancakes there of which I sampled many! We hired a couple of grannie bikes too (you'll know the ones Sarah and Dad) and joined the mayhem on the roads for an afternoon....brilliant fun!

End of South Africa, start of Asia!

Since I last wrote here we’ve gone from South Africa to Singapore to Thailand. Our last week or so in South Africa was really good. We cycled down a mountain, rode an ostrich (a very funny experience) and a camel (also quite funny, think it was really just for children), stroked a cheetah and dived with sharks where we saw one under the water which swam right next to the cage and a couple more from the boat, then had a very rough and cold journey back to land followed by the nicest tomato soup ever! We stayed in Cape Town for a few days where we went on a tour of the Cape Peninsular stopping off at Boulders Beach to see all the penguins – they are the coolest animals! We had a trip to Robben Island and climed Table Mountain. It was so windy and cold at the top but the views were stunning.
We arived in Thailand almost a week ago and managed to get a flight from Bangkok and then a boat to an island called Koh Phanang. We stayed right next to the beach which although rather packed with tourists was beautiful and the weather was so hot we just spent a couple of days on the beach and in the sea. There was a full moon party all along the beach we stayed next to on one of the nughts we were there (our reason for visiting) which was such a fun night. There were bars and DJ’s all along the beach playing different sorts of dance music. Not normally my sort of music but I had the best time and just about managed to dance instead of mosh!
We’re now in Bangkok for a couple of days before flying to Vietnam on Thursday. I have loads of pictures I plan to put on here and my flikr site but for various reasons I’ve not been able to yet, I do hope to soon!