Eat, Party, Love.

Good Morning, Vietnam.

Vietnam has been high on my travel list for quite some time now and I have been counting down the days until I could finally venture my way into this phenomenal country. From the moment I arrived I knew it wouldn’t let me down. Culturally rich in heritage, traditions and history it has been a marvel every step of the way. We flew from KL direct to Hanoi, planning to start our journey in the heavily Communist North and work our way down to the oppressed but secretly liberal South. 

Although we expected cooler weather, neither of us were prepared for the freezing nights of the North. Hanoi was not too bad, but we enlisted ourselves in a 3 night, 2 day trek to Sa Pa - a village even more North, almost bordering China. Luckily I bought a sweater and a huge scarf that doubled as a blanket at Zara in KL. These were probably the best buys of the trip thus far. I also had to get a second pair of pants to wear over my leggings. It was really freezing. Unfortunately, while I thought I was invincible and was yet to get sick, I did eventually fall victim to some nasty food poisoning. The timing couldn’t have been better… the food we had for dinner on our last night in KL did not sit well at all and it hit me the next morning during our travel time. Just as the plane ascended and the Fasten Seat Belt sign was switched on, there it was. Sophia and I were separated and no one could help me. I quickly reached for the Air Sick Paper bag, just in time. Lucky for me, there was a lovely Vietnamese girl sitting to my left who took it as her solemn duty to take care of me during this plane ride. She took her jumper and held it over me and then her scarf to make sure I was warm enough. She held my hair back and patted me on the back. At no point did she turn away or was she even slightly disgusted. She was just selflessly helping me. Afterwards I thanked her endlessly for her kindness and compassion. She said, “No worries. We are friends now” while smiling and with her arm around my back. I thought to myself, if this is Vietnamese culture then I can’t wait to be apart of that, at least temporarily.

I was still feeling a little under the weather so the first two days were write offs, we just walked around the city a little, exploring avenues of the Old Quarter. The communist mentality is very visible, with propaganda posters for sale everywhere. There is a certain harshness in the air, almost a depression. The people seem somewhat stressed, yet there is hardly any homelessness - something I find fascinating, that a country still developing and so poor can have so few homeless people in its city streets, a facet of Beijing also. 

On the second day we booked a 3 night, 2 day trekking tour to Sa Pa, a town in North Western Vietnam, almost bordering China - famous for its Rice terraces. Lucky for me I felt a lot better by the time evening came. So we hopped on an overnight train, which was an experience in itself. My experience with overnight trains isn’t too extensive. I’ve just taken a few in Italy across country, which were great. I’ve heard terrible things about the trains in China, so I wasn’t sure what to expect here. But these trains were really great. They were right on the track so as we walked up I sort of felt like I was walking into a 1940s Russian Soviet Film. Where’s Eisenstein? 

We got the soft sleeper, and it was actually really comfy! Great sleep. We arrived at about 6am and were transferred to a local hotel where we showered, had breakfast and rented gumboots for the trek. We heard it was going to be quite muddy and could only do the hike in either real hiking boots or gumboots. It was so strange to see how quickly we had left civilisation and entered this small town where the locals had their own attire. Apparently in Sa Pa there are several minority tribes which all speak their own languages and dress in their own traditional costume. On this trek we got to meet 2 different tribes - the H’mong tribe and the Red Dzay people. As we first entered Sa Pa, several H’mong ladies saw us through the bus window and waved, chasing the bus down the street, seeming fascinated by our Western faces. Perhaps they don’t get too many tourists here? Not completely true.

The actual hike was amazing. The first section was about 10km, and several H’mong ladies came with us, helping us through some of the more difficult roads. Apparently the deal is that they help you along the hike, and when you reach the next village they try to sell you something in exchange for their help. It’s currently winter in the North, apparent in the veil of mist that shrouds the mountainous fields. We stopped for lunch after 10km then hiked another 6km to get to the next village, where we slept the night in a homestay. The homestay was a wooden house (more of a shack, if you will) that belonged to a local family. There was no insulation. The house was made of a material thinner than most woods, but thicker than bamboo. The windows and doors were open. As previously mentioned it was quite cold, so when night fell the temperatures reached about 5-7 degrees Celsius I would assume. We had a great little group of 8. Mainly Australians. We played games of UNO and other card games. Then came the glorious time to home made rice wine with the family. This did not sit well with me, or one of the other girls. After 2 shots I stood my ground and refused more drinks, already regretting the 2nd shot. The boys finished 2 and a half bottles. Australians…..

In the middle of the night I found myself using every bit of strength in my being to get up off the floor, out of bed and go downstairs to the bathroom. This was not the most glamorous moment in my life. Getting sick (for the second time in 36 hours) in the middle of nowhere isn’t the easiest task. Luckily I had everything I needed.

It was incredible to see how these people live. A lot of the women in these tribes have taught themselves sentences in English, just from spending time with tourists. In essence they are farmers. I guess their husbands farm rice and other local produce. We also visited a few primary schools in some of the small villages. It was one of the most interesting experienced I’ve ever had. 

Halong

Another essential, while in the North is the infamous Ha Long Bay - one of the wonders of the natural world, or at least freshly added to the list, and an UNESCO World Heritage Site. Not apting for the Hanoi Backpackers (an Australian run party hostel) tour we decided to go for a quick day tour, with our Canadian friends we met in Boracay. While we heard the Hanoi Backpackers tour was amazing, we knew that it was just a massive booze cruise, and was also pretty pricey. I thought it would probably be best for my recovery if I didn’t go on a 3 day bender. The bay was misty as all hell and you couldn’t really see much, but I guess we knew that when we signed up. It was still spectacular, but quite similar to other Asian island destinations - such as El Nido, and Phi Phi Island.

Happy Hour in Hoi An

Finally we made our way to Hoi An - a lovely little town somewhere in the centre of Vietnam. This town is absolutely amazing. It oozes French Colonial charm and is supremely European in its style and its character. This town has so much personality you can’t help but fall in love with it. First off it’s so different to the enclosed, loud bustle of Hanoi. There is actual silence in Hoi An - a much appreciated facet when traveling, especially in Asia. 

Everything about this town is charming. The buildings have these wooden shutters, that make you feel like you’re in a small French village. There is also a river in the middle of the town, with palm trees and a promenade on each side. It sort of resembles a Vietnamese Venice. There are wooden boats all along the river, with elderly Vietnamese men and women offering boat rides. There is one small foot bridge that connects both sides of the river, with lovely open air and outdoor cafes and double story restaurants that fill the promenade on each side. Also, the food here was ridiculous. 

We met some girls from Melbourne on our first day in Hanoi that gave us some recommendations for Hoi An. They told us to go to a small canteen run by a woman named “Mrs. Loan” which turned out to be some of the best Vietnamese food I’ve ever had in my life. Dirt cheap too. We ended up having dinner there, every - single - night. She made the specialty dishes of Hoi An, the “White Rose” and “Cao Lao” as well as “Fried Wantons” which aren’t the regular wantons you’re thinking of. They were a large triangle crisp, with a piece of chicken in the middle. Then on top was a selection of cut vegetables in this amazing marinate and a piece of duck on top. So, so amazing. All the dishes were incredible and about $1-$1.50 per dish. Crazy, right?

Hoi An is also known as “Tailor Town” because you can get pretty much anything made here. Clothes, shoes, bags - you name it. You show them a photo, they can make it, in 12 hours or less. Sophia read that originally there were something like 70 tailors in the town, but now business is really difficult because there are over 620 tailors. If you ever go, make sure you go to “Yaly Couture”. Unfortunately for us we didn’t actually find the place until our last few hours in town. We heard of it but couldn’t locate it. You pay a little more but you get what you pay for. The quality is superb - trust me, my mum’s a tailor. They have sample dresses in the window though so I tried 2 of them on, just for funsies and lucky for me, they fit absolutely perfectly down to the T! So I YOLO’d and I bought them both. 

You could spend ages here, it’s just so incredible. Also, the best Banh Mi (Vietnamese Rolls) ever. Ooooouuu! And Vietnamese Coffee. I’ve had a few so far but the one we had on the street today was just incredible. And it was only 50 cents. You really can’t get better than that!

Every night along the river little girls and elderly women sell lanterns with candles for you to let go on the river. So the river is full of floating lanterns. It’s really just beautiful - I don’t think photos could do it justice. And every hour is Happy Hour! When they try to sell you something they say it’s “Happy Hour”. Indeed it is, every hour is Happy Hour in Hoi An.

:)

Near death experiences & Mark’s antics.

I don’t even know where to begin writing this so I guess I’ll just pick up where I left off..

Since El Nido we’ve been to Cebu City and Boracay in the Philippines. Sophia and I parted ways with the rest of the crew and have been in Kuala Lumpur for the past few days.

Near death experiences

We decided to include Cebu as part of the journey because we’d heard of the incredible Kawasan Waterfalls and thought it would be worthwhile to stop by. The falls were nice. They were about a 2 and a half hour van drive away from our accommodation in Cebu City. We couldn’t find any in Mactan Island and suffered the consequences. Cebu City is a place where dreams go to die. But first the falls - 

After we jumped in, splashed around and had our fun David said something about canyoning. All of a sudden there were Filipino’s everywhere convincing us to take part in this so called canyoning activity because it was “a lot of fun” and “a great experience”. Let me tell you, David and Noemie and lovers of all things nature so they HAD to do it. I was hesitant and said no because it seemed as though no one could explain clearly to me exactly what this was and what it involved. My understanding of the word “canyoning” was that it was some sort of backwards rock climbing/sliding that you do in safe, developed countries with harnesses etc. Some of my friends went canyoning in Switzerland, so I thought maybe they’re just slapping this word onto something that they think they can profit from and surely enough I was right - although my initial instinct didn’t allow me to not suffer from this ridiculous experience.

I also didn’t want to spend more time than necessary here as we were paying the van driver by the hour. The filipinos told us that it would only take about 1 hour. So seeing as everyone else wanted to do it so badly I did too.

What was this so called canyoning you ask?

Something that involved about 4 hours of naked, shoeless, insect/reptile surrounding jungle trekking. Where was the fun? Where was it? No seriously. I’m actually asking you now. For 2 hours we hiked through unchartered jungle, through sharp jagged rocks, through rivers and past one million mosquitos. I have so many cuts and bruises on my legs I’m wondering if they’ll ever be the same again. After the first hour and a half I asked the Filipino’s “how long now? you said we would be there in 5 minutes, that was 30 minutes ago”. “Oh another hour” they said. You can only imagine the expression on my face.

It was raining. It was muddy. I was falling over the rocks, even in the river. The current was quite strong and no one seemed to be enjoying themselves. Everyone needed to have one Filipino to sort of hold their hand as they went along (which sort of tells you something).

When we finally got to the point where we were supposed to be doing the canyoning it was starting to get dark and the girls were starting to get scared. We just wanted to get out of there. I don’t know if I’ve ever wanted to be snugged up in my warm bed, with a cup of Earl Grey tea and my family more than I did in that moment. It took so much energy and determination just to make it past those first 2 hours I genuinely didn’t know if I was capable of making it back. We were pretty terrified. I looked up at the rocky point where you were supposed to jump or do whatever it is you were supposed to do and I just said “Nah uh”.

David went up first, of course and went for it. Then Adrian followed by he slipped and just came back down. After Mark saw Adrian slip and nearly fall he pretty much said “No thanks” and came back down as well. On the way back my mind was just completely focused on the path and nothing else. I held on to things that made me smile and happy to get me through the fact that I was cold, wet, cut, bleeding a bit on my leg and just blatantly scared. I didn’t talk to anyone. I didn’t stop. In fact, I was the first one back. I just went as fast as I could with the Filipino’s who led the way. I didn’t wait for anyone and I didn’t look back. I wondered for a while why I paid 300 pesos for this dreadful experience. 

When we finally got back to our accommodation in Cebu City we all went out for dinner. Everyone wanted to check out the clubs in town but Sophia & I just wanted to go to bed. So we left after the meal and went to sleep, setting out alarm for 9.30 the next morning or so.

We shared a room with Mark and Vince, so when I casually rolled over and woke up a few times in the night and noticed they still weren’t back at 6, 7.30 and again at 8.30am I was a little concerned. There aren’t any clubs in Cebu City. If I didn’t make this clear, I’ll state it again - it’s a place where dreams go to die. It’s a dirty, dirty hole. A sad, sad place where beggars are plentiful, everything is dirty and strippers and prostitutes fill the streets. Everyone looks miserable. The strippers aren’t pretty. They look like they’ve been taking their clothes off since they were 9 years old. Their pimps are even more terrifying. 

When the alarm woke us up at 9.30 and the bed next to us was still empty we were wondering what they could be doing.

At 10.45am Vince walks through the door, drunk as hell and says with his incredibly broken french accent, “Have you seen Mark?”

He proceeds to look around the room.

“Ohhhhhhh nooooooo. I luuustt herrmm (I lost him).”

He starts pulling his hair out with his hands, looking confused.

“I ah, take massage now. I’m back at 12.”

OKAY?

We get a message from Mark at 12.35 asking us the address of the pensione. We replied and about 2 minutes later he walks through the door without shoes, a top, with a cut on his leg and a bruise on his arm.

“What happened?”

He shakes his head, puts his sleeping mask on and says “I need to sleep”.

He lays down and does not talk to us.

When he finally woke up and his memories started flooding back to him we found out that (Mark is gay btw) he hooked up with a black lesbian, picked up a Filipino, jumped on the back of this Filipino’s motorcycle and all of a sudden police were chasing them. So they dodged police, with Mark telling the filipino to go left, or go right. They drove around the entire city and eventually found a room of some sort. Apparently police were still following them so they had to jump out of a window of the 3rd floor of the building (explaining the cut and bruise). Then they dodged the police and fell asleep in the room. Mark woke up and his wallet was gone - so were his shoes?. He was lost, didn’t know where he was or how to get back to the pensione. He couldn’t even remember the name of the pension LOL.

So that’s Mark.

The next day Me and Sophia got lunch around the corner and on our walk back, aside from the usual make Filipino harassment we got a little extra on this fine sunny day. This one guy saw Sophia approaching (she was wearing a dress - lucky for me I was wearing shorts) and he jumped off his motorcycle and laid himself on the ground with his head ready to look up her skirt as she walked past. He was so subtle she didn’t even notice. I  don’t know if I’ve ever been more repulsed by someone’s behaviour.. after that fiasco we didn’t leave the pensione. Lucky for us our flight was the next morning. 

That was Cebu. Lovely.

We couldn’t have been happier to land in Boracay and get out party on!

Some things you really need to know about the Philippines are that you have to pay your airport taxes separately from your tickets at the airport which is super annoying because you have to calculate how much currency you need to keep with you. Also the tax for domestic and international departures is different - something that really screwed me over.

You also have to be extra careful with what you’re eating/drinking etc. A lot of the time it’s just blind luck but nearly all of my friends have gotten sick in the Philippines - more than any other developing country that they’ve visited. So far I’ve been lucky. 

Also, don’t fly with Cebu Pacific. They have to be the worst airline in the world.

Flying with them is like playing Russian Roulette - you just don’t know what’s going to happen.

I’ve never experienced landings like I did in the Philippines. At one point I thought the engine was exploding and we were all just going to go up in flames. I’m not sure about this but someone told me that cebu pacific was black listed in Sweden? Should look into that.

Well Boracay was really nice, a great change of pace from Cebu. However, the water was this weird green colour. At the end of the day you couldn’t see into it, it was just dark and murky which is weird because Boracay is supposed to be one of the top 10 beaches in the world. Apparently there are about 2 months in the year when this happens to the water. December-February is generally not a great time to go to Boracay, but it’s still peak season so still busy.

It was pretty cloudy most of the time and we only really had one nice day while we were there. It’s super touristy. It’s just made for tourism and everything is kind of fake. It’s nice because you know that you can get what you’re looking for i.e. ATM’s or ice cream.. things you wouldn’t be able to access in small Filipino towns etc.

However, the vibe is weird. It’s just this one strip of beach and all along the beach are restaurants, cafe’s etc and all their beach chairs are lined up on the sand.

It’s not cheap but it’s not expensive. It’s probably one of the more expensive destinations in the Philippines due to its popularity..

I heard from some friends that this was the party capital but it wasn’t really. It was no where near as quiet as El Nido, but to be honest that was part of El Nido’s charm. Boracay has maybe 2 main clubs and 10 bars..

If you’ve been to Thailand and experienced Bangla Road or the Full Moon Parties then this is nothing.. 

The boys still managed to find trouble though!

We reserved places for the Ariel’s Point Boat Tour the day of Sophia’s Birthday so of course we all went out for a few drinks the night before. Mark started getting pretty drunk and he didn’t meet us at our hostel at 10.30am like he was supposed to. Marius and Albin came over and said to us, “Have you seen Mark?”

Well seeing as he’s staying with you, in your room - HAVE YOU?

Turns out he hooked up with some Filipino and the guy locked him in his house and wanted to introduce him to his parents! Mark was asking the guy the time, and he was saying it was 9am, when it was really 2pm apparently!

He said he was banging on the door, screaming “Let me out, let me ouuuutttt!” before he eventually escaped at 4 in the afternoon.

These things only happen to Mark. Really.

On the boat tour we met this really cool Canadian couple that have been teaching English in South Korea. They’re going to be in Hanoi the same time as Sophia & I so hopefully we’ll be able to meet up again!

There’s so much more to write about but Mark’s drunken antics just take the cake and dominated this blog post.

It’s now 2 am and I really, really need sleep. 

Flying to Vietnam tomorrow.

Cannot wait!

El Nido - First stop on the road to South East Asia.

So on the 28th of December at 2.20am 6 of us boarded a flight from Hong Kong to ILO in the Philippines for a stop over to Puerto Princesa, capital of the Palawan Island. Following the middle of the night flight we endured a 6 hour van ride from Puerto to El Nido - a town on the Northern tip of the island, supposedly holding some of the most beautiful beaches in the world.

As you can imagine a town that is reachable only by 6 hours in a van isn’t the most populated, developed or touristy area. It’s almost everything you imagine - quiet, secluded, serene and naturally spectacular. The coastline here is something beyond what I’d pictured though.

We all fell asleep in the van and I awoke first, after about 1 or 2 hours to an abundance of green coconut and palm trees forming a virescent jungle that seemed to reach up higher and further beyond my line of vision. That was through the window to my left hand side. Astonished, I turned my head around to peer out through the right side of the van. Gazing out, I saw an endless azure sea glistening underneath the bright sunlight that seemed to light up the water in a way that reflected both its warmth and serenity at the same time. Surrounded by a tropical forest, amidst virtually no civilisation I was both amazed and terrified.

In El Nido, there are no land line phones or ATM’s. Be prepared. 

We finally arrived and found our cottage for the first two nights, situated in a more quiet area about a 10 minute walk from town. The view from our front porch was pretty spectacular. I uploaded a photo yesterday.. On the walk to our cottage I caught a good glimpse of Filipino life in this town. The people build all their own houses, but they’re not quite houses. They’re small rooms made from straw or bamboo or some sort and they look like shacks or huts. When you look at these huts you’re not quite sure how they endure harsher weather conditions but apparently they do. There’s no hot water and electricity and WiFi only runs from 2pm to 6am. The electricity and the internet connections are both weak, as is the water pressure that runs from both the taps and the showers. 

Welcome back to pre modern times. Living simple.

In the town there’s an eye clinic, a dental clinic and a bakery but no supermarket. Barely anything is refrigerated, so forget about buying yoghurt, milk, eggs or poultry. What is up for grabs, however, are snacks - an abundance of crispy, salty, deep fried, baked and hearty snacks. No chocolate. 

On the second evening we took a ‘Sunset Tour’ which we sort of negotiated ourselves. When you have a group of 7 there are enough people to take out your own private boat which is pretty great! So we jetted off at 4.30 and drove around to the other side of the island to see the sunset. The guys driving the boat made us a dinner fresh on the beach and it was incredible! We brought a few bottles of wine with us and just basked in the pink skies and the unusually unique landscape. Instead of just a plain clear flat sea to which the sun falls behind, there are hundreds of mountainous islands creating a rocky silhouette for the sun to vanish into. 

Yesterday we took a boat tour that invited us out into secret beaches and hidden coves among smaller and larger lagoons set amidst large towering rocks. For lunch we pulled our boat up onto a small abandoned beach in the middle of a hundred islands. It was a hidden paradise. The waters were crystal clear blue and the sand was white and clean. In the water were great coral reefs with small fish swimming through and hiding in their caves, peering out at times to catch a glimpse of us diving through and me trying to grab a photo with my underwater camera case! The lunch these Filipinos prepared for us was even better. The pork was BBQ’d fresh on the beach over some rocks and fire they made. It was probably the best pork I’ve ever had in my life. There was also a fresh platter of fruits, fish, squid and rice with some vinaigrette sauce. So great.

Not a bad way to spend your day, not too bad at all.

There’s a great little restaurant right next to our current accommodation, situated in the middle of town right on the beach. It’s called ‘Atmosphere’ and indeed it is exactly that. It’s one of those ‘take your shoes off’ and sit down on the floor on Indian decorated cushions sort of places. The kitchen is constructed so that it’s open and all the aromas waft up into the upstairs balcony that extends out to the sea. You get a great view while you smell what you’re about to eat. Bask it in, it was some of the best food I’ve ever had in my life. Top 50 meals for sure. For what you pay it’s a damn good deal. Everything here is pretty cheap. We ordered heaps of food the other night and a bottle of water each and ended up paying a little under AU$10 each. A main meal on its own is about AU$5-6. It’s a fusion of Vietnamese, Thai, Filipino and Malaysian cuisine.

Today Sophia & I rented a kayak for half a day and paddled out to Cadlao island, the closest island to the mainland El Nido Town. It took us about an hour to get there but maybe an hour and a half to get back because we were fighting against really strong winds and currents. For a little while we thought we weren’t going to make it back and were actually fearing for our lives. There was a period of about 20 minutes where we literally weren’t making any progress because the winds were so strong that all we could do was balance out. We finally made it past the point where the current switch and were so relieved. In the last 15 minutes we just let the tide carry us back because our arms were basically unable to move. Don’t even know how I’m typing this! Haha

Also had a decent massage for 350 pesos, about AU$9 for the hour.

Heading back to Puerto tomorrow afternoon to spend the night, then the next morning on to Cebu!