Tasmania & Texas vs Vietnam part 2 Once we got into the city its self the pandemonium only got more intense. There are just bikes every where. Horns beeping constantly. Another thing that surprised me was the amount of high end European cars that were getting around. Porches, Mercs, BMWs. Utter madness. Anna had booked our accommodation through Air b&b and the lady whos house we were staying ins partner was from Brisbane. We were dropped off and meet her. My head was still spinning. After being shown our place we went to her office and she helped us book a overnight trip to Ha Long Bay, a train ticket that we would need to use if we made it to Hoi An in one piece and a place to stay for our final night in Hanoi. We than decided to get our bearings and just wander around. I just couldnt stop looking at the traffic and how it all worked! But work it did, it just seemed to flow. I figured that once you chucked a white boy into the cauldron of chaos things might be somewhat different but we will let the rest of the story simmer away abit. Trying to figure their currency out was another big challenge. Its ridicules. Basically one Australian dollar equals $20,000 dong. So $10 is $200,000! and this is how I tried to figure out what things cost back at home. You could buy a pack of ciggies for anywhere between $1.50 and 4 dollars so I quickly slipped back into my chain smoking ways. The food is equally cheap. I was eating so much when we got there. It was so cheap and smelt so good and tasted even better and there was all kinds of weird new shit for me to try. The strangest things I sampled was frog, pigeon, ox tongue, dog and a heap of other stuff I cant remember. I should have been writing it all down. Tomorrow night Im trying snake. Apparently you pick out what one you want and they kill it in front of you. You than swallow not eat the still beating heart, drink vodka mixed with the blood and wait for the rest of snakey to be cooked and brought out to you. We went out that night walking around the back streets and markets. There are 36 different streets and they are broken down into what they sell. Bags, shoes, gravestones, you name it, theyve got it!! The next day we went out and had a look at the temple of literacy and a old prison the French made for when the Vietnamese were fighting for their freedom which was later turned into a place to hold the captured American troops. We decided to jump on the back of some locals bikes to get to these places and give me abit of a first hand feel of how the lack of road rules worked!! After that we returned to our room to meet up with Narelle (the Brisbane lady) who was taking us for lunch with her partner. I had learnt a few basic words and phrases on the plane ride over and had been putting them to good use on every second local that would look at us!! One particular young bloke looked at us as he was walking passed so I said hello in Vietnamese to him so he stopped to talk with us. He spoke pretty well and gave us his email and phone number. We ended up having coffee and beer with him and his wife later that night. It was lovely. They brought their laptop along and showed us pictures from their wedding and even gave as a little snow ball that you shake for our baby when we finally have one!! We spent the next day walking around just mesmerized by this amazing, grungy city. Later that night we were having a few drinks when two Americans came in to the little bar. We talked with them swapping stories until their German friend arrived. We were loving the cheap drinks so much that when the bar had closed up we went on the hunt for a karaoke place. There is a 12 oclock shut down and it was very close to that time as we were walking around quite merrily. Out of now where a local asked us if we wanted to keep partying and quickly ushered us through a roller door before the cops came passed on their rounds! Inside there was a bar with some local kids that were merrier than us, a older Scottish man with quite a few teeth missing and his lady friend who clearly wasnt with him because of his winning smile and a few other locals. I went up to the DJ to see what I could do about the shit dance music they were playing and he told me he didnt like Americans but loved Australians and I could put on what ever music I wanted off their YouTube. What followed was quite a lot of cheap booze and classic glam hits!! Like our mate Brett Michaels said aint looking for nothin but a good time and it dont get better than this. I chucked on some Acca Dacca because I was having withdrawals and taught the local boys how to play guitar on your leg and dance around like a duck on a hot plate!! We left and somehow managed to find our way home only to be woken up by the alarm a mere hour and a half later. We were off to Ha Long Bay today and I woke still quite drunk!!
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 23:48:22 +0000
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