Ha Noi 15 - 21 Febuary

Country - Viet Nam
City - Ha noi
Est. Population (Ha noi) - 6,232,940 (2007)
Currency - Vietnamese Dong (VND)
1 VND = 0.00004599 EUR
1 EUR = 21,743.7 VND (at the time of writing)

When I got to Ha noi I took a cab to the hotel I was booked to stay in. Quite a reasonable place to stay and the original plan was to stay for about 3-4 nights and then move onwards to the south. However, clearly this plan didn't actually happen whilst at Ha noi. In terms of traffic, the place is crazy but there was alot of banter there. Scooters is the preferred mode of transport and walking across the street can be very interesting! They tend to just change course whilst you walk. If you don't start walking you might not make it to the other side.

After I checked in the hotel I went and got some food and decided to go check out Hoan Kiem - the "lake of the restored or returned sword". The lake is quite large and takes about 20mins to walk around. It is also located in the centre of Ha noi so it is easy to remember as a good landmark. According to the legend, emperor Le Loi handed a magic sword called Heaven's Will - the sword that brought him victory in his revolt against the Chinese Ming Dynasty back to the Golden Turtle God (Kim Qui) in the lake. Tortoise tower can be seen on a small island on the lake.

After that I took a nap and then went to the Irish bar recommended by a friend at PricewaterhouseCoppers before I left. Manchester United were playing Derby in the FA Cup at so I wanted to figure out where I would go later for drinks. Firstly I went to get some noodles on a street corner. Always want to sample the local food. 15,000 VND for delicious noodles so I was understandly happy with that! ad a few drinks with a decent English dude before he had to depart to meet friends elsewhere and then started chatting to two Swedish girls. Conveniently for me, Emma and Emma. We hooked up with a dude from the States (Jess) and played some doubles pool which was a laugh.

Strange thing about bars in Ha Noi is officially they are suppose to close at midnight. So at midnight the police came in to usher everyone out of the bar. The barman - Brendan from Mayo - knew a few other bars to go to so we went off there for more of the same. The night ended a little bizarrely as there was some argument about Brendan not paying is tab, didn't really affect me so much.

The breakfast at the hotel was great! Large slice of watermelon, bread, fried eggs and coffee all of which was included within the 87,000 VND price per day! I had agreed to meet the Swedish girls at 11h00 outside Finnegans so I went there after breakfast and they were true to their word. We went for a walk around Hoam Kiem lake but we were all tired so we didn't venture far. Ha Noi is a big city but not much on the city seeing front. I wasn't that bothered going to museums which I realise was a mistake. Oh well. There would be alot more culture to be had later in the trip.

We ended up sitting near the lake and having some drinks at mid-day! Great thing about travelling is you can do whatever you want really. After a while the girls wanted to go catch some shut eye so I wandered back to Finnegans, inevitably. There I met three Cork guys travelling. Great banter out of these lads and we hung out for the rest of the day. Unknown to me at the time, I would roll with these guys for the next two weeks.

Ha Noi is not a city with an unbelievable amount of sight seeing to do, as previously mentioned. I had intended to leave the city on Tuesday 17th February but ended up staying on with the guys as the banter was mighty. Most evening we would vendez-vous at Finnegans and stay there until the police kicked everyone out at midnight. Then we would hop on scooters to one of the underground bars. A favourite was a bar called Wanted. It was so funny at times. The bar staff kept scouts for any police activity. When this happened the music got turned down and we all had to keep hush hush.

When we got the all clear we all cheered and the tunes were blasted out once more. I met so many people over these few days of beer and banter. One night I was chatting to two German guys living in Singapore working as engineers. So now I have a contact there for when I arrive! Nice..The Cork lads and myself agreed we would get the open bus ticket which allows you to travel around Viet Nam after you have choosen where you want to go. We decided on Hue, Hoi An, Nha Trang and Ho Chi Mhin.

One night we went to a bar called Seventeen Saloon. Girls dancing on stage - with clothes on might I add - busy and great fun. We were there about half an hour and enjoying the atmosphere when some dumbass let off pepper spray. We all had to leave the premises immediately. This pepper spray was tearing on your eyes. Not pleasant at all and we ended up back at Finnegans, our little haven.

I feel I must mentioned that the best Sheppards pie I've ever eaten was at Finnegans. A little bit more pricey compared to the local food at 105,000 VND but worth it. Was brilliantly tasty, especially when you add HP brown sauce :) Of course, being an Irish bar, everything is a little more expensive: during the day a pint was 30,000 VND and the evening price was 35,000 VND. When you convert back to Euro or USD you are thinking that isn't all that bad. However, you need to shrug off conversion here and try to think more about the local prices. Basically, you can find cheaper locally.

One day seemed to blur into the next thereafter so at this point I'm not aiming to recollect all here. Simply put I had a fantastic time in Ha Noi because of the people I met. I even created what I called a "Banter book". I bought a journal while in Taipei to write stories when I was on long buses/trains. However, when I got to Ha Noi the book transformed into a banter book. In essence the book became a nonsensical book for jokes and peoples thoughts. If you wanted to put anything into the book you were free to do so. I have English, Swedish, Norweign, Japanese and Vietnamese in my book! Plenty of great jokes and drawings too!! BANTER

I could write so very much about my time in Ha Noi but time is not on my side and the beach here in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, are calling me. The final day we had our last drinks in Finnegans for the memories et cetera. We even bought the tee shirt: green like an Irish rugby jersey and says on the back: "We got shitfaced at Finnegans". We then went to the Cork lads hotel to wait for our mini bus to take us to the main coach going to Hue - a 12 hour overnight bus ride. Danny came up with the idea to buy some Vodka for the bus so we got two bottles, some coke and some oreos! Ever had woreos before?? One screw off the top of an oreo, deposit some weed, reattach said top and consume! Serious banter on the bus, a little wrecked when we got to Hue though..hehe

Hue posting to follow people...PEACE

Liam O'Connor, travelling hobbit

Nanning/Pingxiang 10 - 15 Feb

****PICS TO FOLLOW***

Country - China
City - Nanning (capital of Guangxi autonomous region in southern China)
Est. Population (Nanning) - 6,480,000 (2006)
Currency - please refer to Beijing post here

After wild partying in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taipei this stop over was much more relaxed. What was required really. Therefore this will be a brief post as nothing out of the ordinary happened.

After flying back to Hong Kong from Taipei got an overnight bus to Nanning with Brenley who teaches English there. She kindly let me stay with her for the few days I was planning to stay in Nanning. HKD 350 for the bus which was reasonable enough. We arrived in Nanning at about 08h00 in the morning and we were so wrecked (can't really sleep on a sleeper bus, too noisy and beds aint that comfortable). Therefore the first day we just chilled out and watched a few movies and had a few quiet beers.

The next day we did a tour of the city on Brenley's e-bike around the city which was great but scary. It was my first time on a scooter in Asia. They drive so crazy. People use their bike horns alot to signal to other drivers of their presence. There seems like there is very little structure to it but somehow it works! Similarly to Ningbo there are very few westerners in Nanning so got plenty of stares again. Was fine, have gotten use to that. Nanning itself is quite beautiful and is known as the green city due to the tropical foliage all around the city.

The food was fantastic! And very reasonable as well - one of the best noodle soups I've ever had costs about only 4.5 RMB. So much good food and after spending time in HK and Taipei it was good to get back to cheaper food. The rest of the time in Nanning was really chillled out. Read some book on the university campus gardens where Brenley works and got some sun. It was really warm, maybe about 32C. We organised my bus from Nanning into Ha noi to leave on Saturday morning (14th) for 150 RMB which wasn't too bad. Left Nanning for Ha noi at 07h30 with an estimated arrival time of 15h30 (takes time to go through border control et cetera).

City - Pingxiang (capital of Guangxi autonomous region in southern China)
Est. Population (Pingxiang) - 100,000 (2005)
Currency - please refer to Beijing post here

The stopover at Pingxiang was not a planned one. When I got the border on my bus described above I never reviewed my Viet namese visa to ensure the visa was effective. So arrived at the Chinese immigration to exit the country. They explained that with my visa only commencing on 15th February I would have to come back the following day. It cost me 30 RMB to get into the city and 128 RMB to stay in a hotel for one night. That left me with only 12 RMB for the day!! Had to put aside another 30 RMB for the following day taxi back to the border.

Despite being low in funds - not wanted to take more RMB out - I managed to relax and even go for a long walk. There were amazing mountains just outside the city so took a walk in the intense sun to take some photos. The next morning I didn't have too many issue getting into Viet Nam and made it to Ha noi by about 15h00 wherein I got a taxi to the hotel I had arranged. No worries. Well post up the Ha noi shortly. Crazy place! Peace.

Liam O'Connor, travelling hobbit