scams and cows penis

Well my time in Dalat was interesting! The night I arrived i was of course immediately hassled by lots of 'Easy Rider' motorbike drivers wanting to take me on a tour of the city. i chattted to an English guy who had taken one that day and said he was good so agreed to take that driver the next day, but also agreed with a 40 year old english guy that we would pair up to make it more fun..

the next day i found out my english friend Mike had his guy for $5 less than mine so after much yelling on the part of my driver and him storming off then coming back grumpily i got the same price. Titi my driver tried telling me that we 'weren't going with Mike' and was insisting i was not going with him but Mike told him he didn't have much of a choice!

We headed on our way and Titi managed to spend the first 30 mins trying to talk me into paying the extra money (have to pay commission to hotel, must buy petrol, other driver doesnt realise this....) and the rest of the day convincing me what a horrible person Mike was! Actually got to be quite funny when he decided we were only spending the day together for one reason and came up with 'Mike old bamboo, you young blade of grass. old bamboo eat young grass' (which was followed by a long laugh at his own hilarity). He even got quite angry when we arrived at our locations first and i insisted we wait for Mike and his driver before going in. Im quite sure that if he wasnt on drugs at that moment he had done a lot in the past because he was quite crazy..

We visited quite a lot on our trip. Went to a coffee plantation, silk worm farm and factory, passionfruit planatation, a beautiful monestary and waterfall, went for a walk through the bush (which was a pine tree plantation that followed the road), went for a yummy local lunch of noodle soup and then went to the 'crazy house' which was created by a vietnamese woman who studied architecture in Moscow. was a really interseting house with hardly a straight line (even the beds werent square), and giraffes coming out of the wall and all sorts...

The next day i was over the cold (even a girl from Quebec was wearing long-johns!) so headed on the bus to Nha Trang. The bus ride was amazingly beautiful and there were quite a few fun people on the bus so when the bus dropped us off at the designated hotel (i swear they dont even have bus stations in Vietnam everyone just pays for you to go to a hotel) we all decided to stay in the same place. that night we wandered along looking for a place to have a late night second-dinner and came across a local place with an enormous menu including such delicacies as pigs feet, porcupine and cows penis! This was too much of an opportunity to pass up so we all agreed to put in 30 cents worth and get a plate of sweet and sour cows penis. Everyone tried a piece and everyone seemed to get different textures, some enjoying it and some not. I thought my piece tasted like bad pork... got a funny video to prove it though!


the next day we agreed to take the hotel boat tour of the Nha Trang islands and went on our way. We visited 4 islands and did much jumping off the boat into the water, as well as a bit of beach lying and 'snorkling' (with masks that leaked..), and a trip to an aquarium. We also had a 'floating bar' which is where one of the boat staff hopped into the water with a big ring with a bucket with the worlds cheapest red wine, plastic glasses and pineapple in the glasses.. and we all got our own ring and swam in the water drinking our free wine and trying not to get too much salt water in the glass while listening to music from the boat. was lots of fun!

That night we all went out for drinks and at the restaurant invented a drinking game which involved someone dance chasing a girl down the street, singing in the middle of the restarant, doing press ups on the street, was a good laugh and even the restaurant staff were laughing along with us. The next morning we all had a relaxing day to make up for the night before so i headed down to the beach and got my legs 'threaded', which is where they use a piece of cotton to remove the hair from your legs (ouch!), then a massage after to make up for it... and a bit of swimming and reading my book.

the next morning Lisa and Luke, an aussie couple and i headed to the local mud spa. It cost a whopping US$5 and we had several hours there. first you showered, then lay in the mud for 15 minutes, then baked in the sun for 10 minutes, then showered that off, lay in a hot spa for 5 minutes and then had the rest of the day to enjoy the normal pools and waterfall (which was like a massage on your back). Was so nice and relaxing and my skin felt so good afterwards! definately recommend doing it if anyone is in Vietnam.

That night feeling way too relaxed we headed on the night bus to Hoi An. After along and uncomfortable sleep we arrived at our hotel in the pouring rain and waited tired and grumpy for our room to come free. finally we were able to get to bed and have a nap before exploring the city in the rain .. which didnt last long before we went back to watch dvd's in our room. the next day we all went out to get some tailor-made clothes, and i got 3 pair of shoes (summer sandles, strappy sandles and work shoes), and a suit and shirt, winter jacket (lined for extra warmth!) a bikini and some other things for presents.. Using the excuse that i find it hard to find good clothes at home that fit! The next day we went to pick up our stuff and none of fitted well! Had to do some quick adjustments and then quicky catch the bus for the night. fortunately most of the adjustments were good so the clothes fit relatively well.

After a beautiful bus ride to Hue we quickly swapped onto our night bus which took us to Hanoi. I thought i would be clever and take up the whole back row with us 3 girls, so we had 5 seats to put our stuff and stretch our legs. unfortunately as the night wore on the bus filled up and we had to move over for a few local men. I was right next to one man who had a cold so spent the night coughing, sniffing and hoiking, and even occasionaly chewing on his hoik!! Was a pretty gross night with not a lot of sleep had, and by the time we arrived in Hanoi at 6am we were all pretty dead. Decided to take a metre taxi hoping that it would be less hassle with having to barter and having them take us to the wrong hotel which they get commission for (which happens often) and our taxi driver tried to charge us NZ$15 for a 5 minute drive! I just looked at him and said he had to be joking (the going rate is 30,000 - 50,000 it turns out) so we gave him 50,000 and told him it was that or nothing. Sometimes you really feel that every person in Vietnam is out to scam you and you just get so tired of it!! but then sometimes people just do the most amazingly kind things and it throws it into perspective...

anyway have been in Hanoi the past few days trying to recover from my bus ride and kick the sore throat and cough i developed since then.. Have explored the city a bit and am heading off to Sapa in the north tonight on a 'hard sleeper bed' on the train (which i am presuming will be a plank of wood.. ) should be a fun night.

Also since I come home in a month i am sending out a message that I will be looking for work when i come back. anyone know of anything please let me know.

If you want to check out my photos look at www.bebo.com/ingridjones

much love to all,
Ingrid