Da Lat

You could say this place was just like merry ol England.... same same but different well in so much as it was raining most of the time at about 3500ft above the rest of Vietnam it was a lot cooler and wetter. I even had to walk around with my fleece on in the evenings. I went on an EasyRider tour for 1 day, and came accross this really big buddah and realy angry sky, for only 2 years old he's suffering a little from dry skin, check out those cracks. Just the otherside of the car park at the temple, was the elephan waterfall. One of the stops was a silk factory, the girls start working here at 18 years old, with a starting salary of $100 per month. They put the silk worm in it's coccoon in really hot water (not boiling) to kill it, the girls then take the worm out, put it in a seperate basket (they are sold at market later) then attach part of the silk coccoon to the spindle thingy to start the whole silk making proccess. See the clip these were described as state of the art weaving machines from china (maybe they were about 50+ years ago. Either way it's a chuffing noisy job. The dragon strangley enough was at the Dragon Pagoda, and the girl tending the crops takes 5 mins to answer a text message.

Hoi An

A very big tourist town, with more tailors than pubs in your average English town. But no picture of them, try a google search for 'Tailors in Hoi An' and see what turns up. As ever I walked round the extremities town and came across a bung of kids who all had at least one thing in common: check out the necklace the kid in the pic is wearing if you need a hint. Used bullets seemed to be accessory of choice.

I also came across drying racks, of which there must have been at least 30 lined up in the street. Details of two different temples I visited, one from outside one from inside, can't remember who the blue man is but he seems to be straining a lot, and for those of you who like doorways arches this is for you.

One the way back from the dive's that I did the weather turned a little with some heavy seas and rain that felt like pins being fired at you, which was all over in an hour, the pic of the island and wave was taken about 30mins before we got hit by the storm.

Hue

The Level of touts in this place is huge so much so that you have to laugh, otherwise you'd end up hitting someone, which would end up loads of badness. Anyway once you get past them trying to take your rucksac off your back to put in the the back of their cab or strapped to a motorbike Hue is a really nice town.

There was two of us that went on a motorbike tour for the day, we came accross a ceromony which is the pic with the monks in it. Its a shame this connection is so slow otherwise I'd upload a video clip with chanting, it's very hypnotic.

The big dragon was at the far end of one of the mausuleums we visited which had an emperor entombed. The picture of the car used to belong to a monk who protested against the government reigime in the 1960's. He drove himself to the government building and burnt himself alive. The picture on the rear wall is a photo taken that day.

Sapa

You can do treks gallore form almost any hotel, cafe even internet cafe's and resturants, but from the information I have most of the agencies give the local tribe people a raw deal, in terms of how much money they get. So I went with a suggestion from www.travelfish.org .I got speaking to a local H'Mong woman in the market who offered to be my guide for a day, which was great as there was only me, Very knowledgable about her customs and the land she worked on with great english. H'Mong women get married between 15 and 18 on average, at 20+ many H'Mong men consider them to old. There is a picture of my guide who is 27 and has 4 children. She also cooked lunch for the family which I was invited to. You can also see her youngest son playing in a pile of corn cobs, when would eventually end up feeding the families pigs, chickens etc.

In the morning we went around the market getting food for lunch which is when I took the pic of the dog, mind you it had seen better days. Sapa is famous for tiered rice paddy's which are abundent around the area.....

Halong Bay

These are the pics you have been waiting for..... I can sense it. As one of the most famous tourist attractions in Vietnam, I was really looking forward to this one, and it did not disapoint, the weather was as good as it could have been, hot and sunny with a slight breeze, after the first hour or so on the boat I had about a hundred photos of the limestone karsks, they are just stunning and made even more so with a glorious sunset. The pic with me in it is in front of monkey island on the third day of the cruise when we did a bit of kayaking, after which we went swimming, which was toasty warm. Mind you we did the same on the boat the preivious morning at about 06:30 for 15 mins when the crew stopped us, becuase of jelly fish, the longest of which was 1.5m.... proper badness in the stingy sense. Oh the vid is quite cool as well.

Hanoi

Good morning Vietnam, you had to expect that.... Hanoi is a fab city the old quarter is a hive of activity. Motor bikes as far as the eye can see. So crossing the street makes for some great entertainment. If you waited for the traffic to stop then you would be there for ever and a day. The pics show a typical street vender transporting her goods. Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum and a classic view of Comunism meets Capitalism. An American fighter from the Vietnam war in the military museum, I'll let you come to your own conclusions regarding this little gem of a picture.

Muang Khua

This is the place that I tried to cross into Vietnam, but was denied by water, there had been so much rain the land slides had blocked the road, and the but that goes to the border had not been seen for 3 days, or the day I arrived or the day after that. So I had to turn tail and mack my way back down south.... arse.

Anyway the picture taken is from where the bus should have been going from had it been there, this town is 70k from the border with Vietnam, so I have had to double back quite a long way. The bridge is in the town where I stayed, and is kinda falling to bits slowly, mind you motorbikes still use it despite some really big holes appearing in it.

For those of you I have not told yet I have been using www.travelfish.org as the uber guide to my travels so far, it's like a Lonely Planet but better by at least the number of stars I mentioned earlier.

The other images are from the boat trip I took to get to this town, kids running down the beach as far and as fast as they could waving frantically, a small fishing boat with it's days catch, and one of many small village at the top of the river bank, it's easy to see that the river is the life blood for people in this region, a much slower pace of life, harder in many ways, but happier and healthier in many many more.......