Step 4. Vietnam (from 18^th to 30^th )

Vietnam is composed by 80 millions of people for 330 000km² (Laos is 15 times less populated for 230 000km²). Although we are in Asia and they speak vietnamese they are using the same alphabet than us (more or less, but compare to the other languages overthere!). Hanoi is the capitale with less than 4 millions people and 2.5 millions of motorcycle (that’s why traffic there is packed!!!!). As a former French colony you can find some baguettes as well and also some specialties like dog meat...

It was my turn to be sick...so we didn’t do a lot the 1^st day. Afterwards we hung around the old quarter. I loved it...I love Hanoi. It’s a beautiful city, very crowed, polluted, messy and it is dangerous to cross streets but streets are so nice, and even if people jump on you to sell something they stay nice even if you don’t buy anything, architecture is nice, I don’t know I just felt good there. It’s funny because all shops in a street sell the same things, so you can find the “shoes street”,”souvenirs street”, “repair motorcycle street”, “gravestones street”...

We decided to do a 3 days trip to Halong bay (we thought it should be THE tremendous place while our trip). So we spent days around a beatutiful limestone landscape, did some kayak, did a small trek on Cat Ba Island (the biggest Island), sleept on a boat, sailed between rocks...I loved it too. Awesome!

Back to Hanoi we took a plane to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). We spent 2 days in HCMC and I really don’t like it. It is not as nice as Hanoi but as polluted and crowed as it is.

We were there for Christmas Eve and it is funny to see how they celebrate a such important fest in Europe. For us, it is not a Family thing...everyone is in the street, throwing away shaving cream and other stuffs, children are dressed up in Santa Claus, angel or even elk. It was quite –very- difficult to be far away of my family but I appreciate to see something else as well.

We decided not to go in Cambodia, because doing so many things in such few time is quite tiring, and you can never stay in a place and really enjoy it. Instead we wanted to spend more days in Vietnam as we liked it and then took a plan to Bangkok and spent our last days at Ko Phi Phi...I was very keen on this idea, but flight ticket was freaking expensive (194 US$ for one way!!!), so.....we forgot this plan and decided to take the open bus from HCMC to go back to Hanoi (NO???and yes!!!!we did that!!!) as it allowed us to still visit Vietnam by stoping where we wanted and flight tickets from Hanoi to Bangkok were half the price.

So we did a lot of bus travel, by night, by day (more than 30 h).

We stopped 2 days at Nha Trang, an attractive coastal town. We had a lot of fun there: we rent a motorcycle and I drove it ( just for remind: I don’t have my driving license :-) ), and of course we had an accident while I drove:someone tried to overdrive inner me at a roundabout (??? Do you understand what I mean?? Anyway just to say I wasn’t the only responsable:-) ). Fortunatly I am not a crazy driver and I didn’t drive fast (that’s why maybe the guy tried to overdrive me!!!)...Oh btw I didn’t tell you...the guy who tried to overdrive me was on bicycle (Yes, he was!!!shame on me :-( ). Anyway, we also did island hopping, snorkeling (Matthieu tried but he was quite stressed), sunbathing:nice

Afterwards we went to Hoi An for 2 days, a great city, small less traffic I loved it as well. This place is also the place for tailored suit and we did it, one each. The first day they took your mesuration and the next day you come for a try and they make changes...So fast and so well it’s incredible.

Finaly we reached Hanoi and took a plane to Bangkok...we needed times to order our luggages: it was almost end of the trip, so we had a lot of Christmas gifts.