Vietnam - Hoi An - My Son Temples

This is a must for any visitor in the area... Its been dubbed the Angkor Wat of Vietnam... The bike ride to this place using a hand drawn map, was well worth the adventure, & we proved that any idiots can visit it by themselves without jumping on a tour bus...

The Local residents...

Vietnam - Hoi An

The name got confusing with the nations capital but this Tailor Town or rather this Historic Jewel, beautiful as it may, is were wet dreams are made of as well as nightmares for those in the know.... Almost every store was a tailors. The quality of the fabric and craftsmen ship of what i witnessed, were not really to my taste... Think those immigrant friendly clothes stores that every town has, but no one apart from them step inside... Really shinny silver plastic looking suits, or that horrendous pin stripe from back in the 90's.To be honest I didn't have the time to or patience to start looking for a suitable sewing sweat shop to do my bidding... Especially since their best products were on display and 90% of them brought up a little sick in my mouth!

  Bunk beds in the Bus...

 

 UNESCO - Town...

But i don't want to be responsible to shatter anyone's hopes & dreams so...
Each to their own. As they say!

Vietnam - Halong Bay - Experience

You'd herd for the story - You get what you pay for? That's not strictly true when it comes to traveling & especially the phrase "Don't Believe the Hype!" if the recommendation is from the Lonely Planet Book that is.... As they have a tendency to be ridiculously over priced.... and bare a lack of authenticity - i.e. You'll never find that "in with the locals experience" that most people desire, when they take a year out of their lives to experience different cultures...
Apart from this one occasion!

So we found a Tour agent called HAPPY TOURS to take us on a 3 day 2 night tour of Halong Bay a UNESCO world heritage site for $45.00. in comparison to the Lonely Planet recommendation of Backpackers Hostel which cost approximately $150.00

In no way did anyone come off that boat Happy, in fact people left in tears!! Guests were being treated terribly, there was no schedule, we had to waited around for hours when the guide told us we'd be picked up in 5 minutes...
Sorry for the bitch but, I could go on and on.... The entire experience, was unfortunately shite! Ruined by the company and their misleading ways...
However on  more positive note we met some really nice people...

 The Real Waterworld...

The Childeren of the Bay...

 20 pence each...

The Fresh Seafood - Was just Sublime....

But in short - NEVER use a company called HAPPY TOURS for anything in Vietnam!!!

Vietnam - Hanoi - Pilgrimage to the Purfume Pogoda

The cliffs of Huong Tich Mountain, are located about 60km outside of the Capital & have Buddhist shrines built within them - Many Buddhist practitioners from Vietnam must complete this Pilgrimage to these Holy cliffs, at at least once in their life time...  So we did, although neither of us are Buddhists... 

I'm pretty sure can you eat these Bugs...

You can defiantly drink this Organic cocktail...