It's your money I'm after baby

Please can you pledge a small donation to Cliff's fundraising for the first Brighton Marathon on 18th April. He'll be flying back to the UK from Hong Kong especially for the event and has been in hard training for the last 3 months.

His donations page is here and it's for a great cause (we think so):

Thanks so much :)

Hue, Vietnam

On 30th March, after only one night in Hoi An, which was a shame; comfortable hotel and friendly people, we headed to Hue (pronounced 'whey'). Yummi at our Hoi An hotel had phoned ahead and booked us a lovely room for $25. We took the four hour bus in the morning (it was a sleeper bus for some reason) but we got three seats on the top at the back and it was pretty comfortable. We were sharing the back row with two French girls who were moaning that they hadn't been told it was a sleeper. I didn't see the problem, you could stretch out and get the good views.

The driver did keep stopping though, mainly for toilet breaks but conveniently at a pearl shop or restaurant when all we wanted was to get to our destination. We did stop at the Marble Mountains though just outside Denang. We took the opportunity to climb up inside, take a look at all the statues and a good view from the top. Liam bought a moon marble (like a huge marble or crystal ball).

When we arrived in Hue, someone from the hotel was there to pick us up from the bus stop, but as soon as we got back to the hotel, Cliff realised he'd left his new hat (a grey military hat with a red star, that he bought in HCMC) on the bus. So whilst Liam and I went up to our huge room, the guy from the hotel took Cliff back to the travel office. They tracked down the bus driver and Cliff and his hat were finally reunited by a man on a scooter who brought it back for him. A happy ending.

Other than for the Battle of Hue during the Vietnam War and the Hue Massacre, the city is now known for it's historical monuments - and is another UNESCO heritage site. But at this stage, we have started to pass on trying to see everything and concentrated more on exploring Hue on foot.

We had good afternoon coffee and cakes at La Boulangerie Francaise, a bakery that trains young Vietnamese. Excellent coffee and chocolate tarts. Liam finally decided to have a haircut and Cliff joined him by having a shave and his ears cleaned.

Cliff completed another training run, along the Huong river. On our second evening we headed back to the travel office to catch our final night bus (and the final bus of Vietnam) to Hanoi - about 700km (435 miles) away. This time we had booked seats/beds in the main part of the bus (avoiding the back) and whilst they were pretty comfortable, I had cold air blasting me in the neck. It was a long night.

Nha Trang and Hoi An, Vietnam

We left Da Lat for Nha Trang on 28th March. We'd decided that we weren't going to stay in Nha Trang, but take the night sleeper bus onto Hoi An that same night.

Nha Trang is the beach capital of Vietnam. It's famed for many offshore islands and for diving. We found a bar called Crazy Kim's to rest and have some food after our four hour bus ride and we played a couple of games of pool. The owners have built a school at the back of the bar for street kids. After a good Italian meal (you need a break from rice and noodles) we boarded the night bus. We had only managed to book two seats together so Cliff was on the top deck and Liam and I on the bottom. It was stuffy, hot and the man next to me kept poking me with his elbow and knee. Not a comfortable journey.

We arrived in Hoi An the next morning about 6am, so we had breakfast in a cafe near the place we were dropped and managed to find a room at a hotel, the Hai Au. This turned out to be a little jewel. The staff were amazing friendly, we were looked after really well by Yummi (above in pink), it was close to town and had a pool. Good breakfast too.

Hoi An Old Town is a Unesco World Heritage Site, so we paid for tickets which entitled us to visit some of the heritage sites. We wandered around the lovely old town and the market. We visited the Japanese Covered Bridge (constructed 1593), the Phung Hung Old House, the Museum of History and Culture and the Huoc Kien Assembly Hall and temple that had some hanging incense coils that people attach prayers to.

And yes, we were approached by the young lady offering to take us to her 'auntie's' tailor shop - straight out of the warnings from the guide books. We politely decined. We did buy some really good ginger and roasted peanuts from another smiling lady though.

It was the full moon festival that evening and we saw a stall engaging in some pot smashing, a traditional game. Some clay pots are hung up and the player is blindfolded (in this case, wearing bamboo masks) and he/she has to smash the pot with a big stick. Easy you'd think but not with the crowd shouting and cymbals and drums being played very loudly. We all had a go, I think they felt sorry for us because they actually gave Liam a prize (a silk lantern) because whilst we came close, we didn't actually smash a pot.

Da Lat, Vietnam

Da Lat is up in the Central Highlands (at 1500m) and is lovely and cool. Cliff was able to do a good training run here (24 miles) away from all the heat and humidity. It's also a popular honeymoon destination for the Vietnamese. There's a huge lake which was unfortunately drained and being cleaned when we were there (although there were a couple of sunken- in- the- mud JCBs) . We were only up here for a couple of nights but had found a great hotel; huge clean room, hot showers, a great owner and good breakfasts.

After Cliff's training around the lake, we had hired some Easy Riders (motorbike guides) to take us out on our only full day. Hiep, Sao and Danh were great; experienced bikers so we felt safe at all times, even in the mad Da Lat traffic. We were ridden out first to the Dragon Pagoda, where they had an incredible many-handed Buddha statue .

In the gardens they also had some statues of the Monkey King and his sidekicks Tripitaka, Pigsy and Sandy the Water Monster. The characters are from classic Chinese literature, Journey to the West, popularised by the cult TV series. We are big fans. Then it was onto the many flower and vegetable farms. Fruit and veg is exported from here to the rest of Vietnam.

We went onto a coffee plantation, which Cliff particularly enjoyed and the Elephant Waterfall (we climbed right down to the base of it) . Whilst having a coffee at the top, Hiep had an argument with the owner of one of the two restaurant owners in the village because she was upset that he didn't bring tourists to her place. Well, I say an argument, she shouted at him a lot.

We travelled onto a silkworm factory, a mushroom farm and a rice wine distillery in the back of someone's house. They had a genuine Vietnamese pot bellied pig in their garden, along with a multitude of other animals. We found out that property is sold by the width and not the length so that explains the really narrow houses that stretch way back from the roads. Hiep was also telling us about education and healthcare in Vietnam - they have to pay for both. He has two children in elementary school which costs the equivilent of £70 per month each.

We also visited the Linh An temple with an amazingly huge happy Buddha.

On the way back into town we went to the Crazy House, a Gaudi-esque building that you can stay in, although I found it a bit creepy. Liam liked it and would have stayed.

Mui Ne, Vietnam

On 24th March we headed out from Ho Chi Minh on the bus to Mui Ne, a small seaside town about a four hour ride away. We had a rest stop on the way and bought fruit and snacks. An elderly Chinese man was laughing his head off and taking photos at the toilets where customers are expected to remove their own shoes and put on the sandals provided to use the facilities. We've got used to it, and I try not to think about all the skin diseases we might catch from sharing sandals with complete strangers! Most of the time it makes for spotlessly clean toilets though.

Unusually, we hadn't booked any accommodation in Mui Ne, but as we were arriving about lunchtime, we didn't think there was much of a risk of having to camp on the beach. We went into the nearest resort when the bus stopped (which happened to be owned by the bus company) and got a room in their guest house across the street, $30 a night cheaper than staying in the resort and we could still use their pool and have access to the beach (what there was of a beach, from water's edge to wall was about a metre).

We spent two nights in Mui Ne, which is renowned for kite surfing. We didn't do any kite surfing, we were out of season but Liam did buy a kite out at the Red Sand Dunes which we're still carrying along.

The wi-fi at the resort wasn't working one day and when I went to reception to report the problem I got shrugged at and told 'yes it is a problem' and when I suggested that maybe they could re-set it by turning it off and on again - she just laughed. We're getting used to the giggling. And the non-smiling staff at the resort. We tried to make them smile, we really did. One day I nipped back to the room to get something and found the door wide open, turns out it was the cleaner, vacuuming the room next door, but using the electrical socket in our room, leaving the door (which opened onto the public pathway) wide open with all our belongings in there and letting all the mosquitos in. Great.

On the second day we took a ride out to the White Sand Dunes and hired a couple of sledges from one of the small boys (they were more sheets of plastic really) and used them to ride down the Dunes. Cliff and Liam managed it many more times than I did (once) as I'd managed to come slightly unprepared, wearing a dress. Click here to see the video of the sledging . A couple of the older boys from the village followed us up to the top and 'helped' to push us down and then expected a tip for their trouble. Cliff gave them 50,000 dong, this is about £1.70 (about what you'd pay for lunch in Vietnam, so not a mean tip by any stretch). But they asked for more, which is a general trend here. We said we didn't have any more change, which was true.

Liam did a bit of kiting at the Red Sand Dunes and then it was onto the fishermen's village to see the catch being brought into shore.

The fishermen use small rounded bamboo basket boats which seem to hold at least four men as far as we could see. They appear to stem back to the time that France governed Vietnam. The French levied taxes on many things, including boats. Many poor villagers could not pay the tax imposed on their small boats so they invented a new type of boat called 'thuyen thung' to evade the tax because the thung (round basket) was not considered a boat.

On our last day, the resort restaurant staff upset us again by taking over an hour to serve us lunch when they knew we were getting the bus to De Lat at one o'clock. We sound like the hotel guests from hell, but we're really not hard to please. Honest. I chatted to an American guy on the morning we were leaving and he was saying how grouchy the hotel staff were here too (all these demanding westerners I expect ;) He works as cabin crew so knows a bit about customer service. He said he been up the road to a resort about to open and had stressed to the owner about the important of some smiling service :)

There wasn't really much there in Mui Ne, so we were quite pleased to be getting on our way. Although on the way out to the bus, an English guy who had just arrived said 'Oh you're not taking the bus up to Da Lat are you?' We were. Apparently the journey down the mountain can be a bit hairy, no worries we thought, we're going up!

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

On 21st March, Lucky collected us from the hotel for the final time and dropped us to the airport, about a 30 minute trip. After we'd argued at length with the lady at the departure tax desk ($25 each!) that Liam's 23rd August date of birth meant that he is 11 and not 12 so we should pay the reduced rate for him, we made it through to departures. I picked up a journal in the duty free shop for Cliff for his birthday the next day and we were soon on the flight to Saigon - or Ho Chi Minh City as it's now officially known. We'd sorted our visas online from Bangkok so it was just a matter of handing over some more dollars and a photo each to be let into Vietnam.

We headed straight to the hotel where there was a mix up with the suite I'd booked as a treat for Cliff's birthday, with them wanting us to pay for an extra bed. When there wasn't an extra bed. And on top of that they tried to charge us for breakfast for Liam, when they had clearly stated under 12's were free, and then said oh no, it's under 11's that eat free (when they'd looked at his passport). Well, it might seem a small thing but I'd had about enough of people trying to squeeze a bit more money out of us. Westerners are considered rich (and they certainly are that by local standards) and are rightly or wrongly considered fair game for overcharging. And this wasn't a private hotel but a large chain. But the stark truth is that that neither of us have a job waiting for us back in the UK and if we are going to manage to complete this trip within our budget, we have to watch every riel, dong and dollar. Staying in some cheap places (our minimum standards are that they have to be safe and clean) means that we can splash out a little now and then for special places and occasions.

Anyway, the suite was lovely and they even sent some flowers up the next day for Cliff, to wish him a happy birthday. Free of charge. There was a small pool on the roof which Liam enjoyed and was great for cooling off after another hot day in the city.

As we had a short time here and wanted to see as much as we could, we found a travel agency and booked a full day trip for our second day. The morning was spent at the Cu Chi Tunnels which the Vietcong dug to hide in and fight from during the Vietnam War. Liam and Cliff tried one of the ground entrances out for size - I wouldn't have got my hips down there :) Later we crawled down a length of a widened tunnel and it was difficult to understand how the Vietcong would have spent sometimes weeks underground, in these dark and tiny tunnels. The video we watched there was quite informative but I would not have wanted to be an American sitting there; balanced and non-partisan the commentary was not!

In the afternoon we headed to the military museum, where they had some captured US tanks and planes, a quite vivid display of the (ongoing) effects of Agent Orange and a really good exhibition about the photographers who covered the conflict.

Our next stop was the Reunification Palace, the presidential palace and the site of the official handover of power during the Fall of Saigon in 1975. The tanks that crashed through the gates are still here. The building itself it pretty swanky, having been re-built in a modern style after having been bombed in 1962. Although the president didn't have a swimming pool (I asked and was told he didn't have time to swim; he was too busy running the country), he did have a nice cinema. And a bomb shelter. Our last stops were the Notre Dame Cathedral, a smaller version of the one in Paris and the impressive Gothic post office building opposite - designed and constructed by Gustave Eiffel. Inside is a large portrait of 'Uncle Ho' - Ho Chi Minh; Communist revolutionary and statesman.
Ho Chi Minh City (re-named from Saigon in Uncle Ho's honour in 1976) has a population of 8 million people and it's reckoned 6 million motorbikes. The traffic is unbelivable and we have learned to just cross roads the Vietnamese way - walk steadily, in a straight line, don't run and the bikes will swerve around you. The good thing is that you don't see any road rage. Although Liam and I did witness a bit of a stand off between two moped drivers who were both trying to use the same bit of the pavement (clearly because the road was full), in the dark, without the use of lights.

We had three nights here before heading off on our Vietnam adventure. We'd booked an open bus/coach ticket that would take us in a fairly northerly direction to Mui Ne, Da Lat, Nha Trang, Hoi An, Hue and into the capital Hanoi. A total of 1145 kms (711 miles) in a straight line, although we were taking a couple of detours. It would be a bit of a whistle stop tour because we were flying out of Hanoi on 5 May for Beijing and we'd arrived in Vietnam about a week later than we'd originally planned, after our extra trip to Bangkok and having taken our time in Cambodia.

Happy Birthday Cliff!!!

Liam and I would like to wish Cliff a very happy 40th birthday. So far we have managed to have a late breakfast, had baths and showers and watched four episodes of Star Trek (original series). And it's not yet 2pm. Perfect.