We headed out for a slap-up dinner of crispy Peking Duck during our visit to Beijing and it turned out to be as much about the ‘show’ as the food and taste.

>> Read all the tasty details of our Peking Duck meal

Peking Duck - Delicious!

We recounted the story of our special peking duck meal in Beijing as a guest post over on fellow travel blogger Marc Wiens’ site.

>> Read all the tasty details of our Peking Duck meal

Marc blogs as he travels round the world with a strong focus on food. We recommend you check out his site via the above link!

A warrior in armour

Terracotta Warriors of Xi’an, China

It was raining non-stop for two days when we arrived in Xian, so we were happy to be in the undercover buildings housing the Terracotta Warriors for a day. We took the public bus from the main bus station in Xian, which snakes out through the city suburbs before dropping you a good 10 minute walk away from the tourist entrance.

The warriors were positioned in order of military status

There are thought to be over 8000 warriors in total and you get to see their exquisite detail at close range in the glass cabinets. On display are all forms of warriors complete with armoury and weapons, standing in combat poses. There is also a bronze chariot and horses, which you have to push your way through the hordes of tourists to catch a glimpse of.

You can see the exquisite detail at close range in several glass cabinets

Pick a Pit

The site is split into 3 pits and it is advised to see the pits in reverse order so that you save the most spectacular until last. We didn’t. There were very few signposts pointing the way for you and no signs in front of any of the buildings, so we were unsure which pit was which. We picked a building and went in. It was Pit 1 (the one you’re supposed to save for last).

Pit 1 is enclosed in a huge aircraft-hanger type building. It’s enormous. After cutting our way through the hundreds of other tourists – all blindly herding along in their tour groups, not caring or minding for anyone else along the way – we were treated with the spectacular view of hundreds of terracotta soldiers standing to attention, facing eastwards.

Row upon row of Terracotta Warriors in the air-craft hanger of Pit 1

The warriors stand, facing east, protecting the Emperor's tomb

Life-size horses accompany the soldiers

The darker and less excavated Pits 2 & 3 provide an insight into what the site must have looked like before the warriors were uncovered. The warriors here are mostly damaged, some headless, but others still have their original colour, giving a glimpse of how resplendent the warriors would have looked when they were built centuries ago.

Headless statues in Pit 3

The City

Xian is a massive, contemporary city but with its ancient roots still firmly in place. The impressive city walls are 12 metres high and 14 km in circumference, encircling the hectic and vibrant centre. A ride on a bicycle on top of the walls is a must-do – you can pick up and drop off the bikes at each of the four sides of the wall but if you’re fit enough you should make it all the way round! They helpfully rent out the bikes to you with just enough time to rush around. The views are great and you really see the enormity of the whole city and the clash of modern vs historic.

The 13m high city walls

Cycling the ancient wall with the modern city in the distance

More things to do in Xian

• Other great sites in Xian are the Bell Tower and the Drum Tower, built during the Ming dynasty, standing in the heart of the city centre. Years ago, the bell from the Bell Tower would be struck at dawn to signify the beginning of a new day and the drum in the Drum Tower would be struck at sunset, for the end of the day. Both buildings are very impressive and house a collection of ancient bells and drums spanning several dynasties.


The view from the Bell Tower of the Drum Tower standing in the rainy distance



Musicians perform with traditional Chinese instruments in the Bell Tower

• There are several impressive market areas in Xian, including the Muslim Quarter, which is a maze of small lanes and alleyways, all full of an array of Chinese souvenirs – it’s fairly touristy, but you still feel the gifts are authentic and well made. We stocked up on chop-stick sets in pretty wooden cases and beautiful silk table runners.
• We also bought some paintings on Art Street and some delicious dim-sum (20 pieces for about £1!) in the Muslim Quarter. It’s lovely to wander around the different areas and soak up the atmosphere even if you’re not looking to buy anything.
• There are also a huge number of modern, gigantic malls which house all the usual designer names you would expect in a shopping centre anywhere in the world.

Bustling vibrant Xi'an city

Xian summary

Given that the terracotta warriors – one of the most popular tourist attractions in China – is near Xi’an it is still not that simple for a tourist to visit. Hardly any shop keeper, restaurant waitress, bus driver, market stall owner or hotel staff can speak English. It makes being understood difficult. However, we still had an amazing time there enjoying all the contemporary conveniences and ancient spectacles on offer.

We found the country to have staggering natural beauty and wildlife which wowed us and kept our cameras buzzing.

• Firstly, we headed to Melbourne, the Red Centre to check out Uluru (Ayers Rock), before driving up the west coast and on to the tropical Darwin.

  Click the picture below to see more photos from West Australia, Darwin, Red Centre and Melbourne:
  

• Secondly, we went diving on the Great Barrier Reef off Cairns before hiring a campervan and following the coast all the way south down to Syndey, where we chilled on Bondi beach for a few days.

  Click the picture below to see more photos from the east coast of Australia:
  

The wall climbs up steep mountainous peaks where you need both hands and feet to climb up the large stone blocks. It slopes up and down, weaves in long curves, with some parts in total disrepair while others have freshly relaid bricks. Every few hundred metres there are large towers, which would house the troops stationed there. Today they each house someone offering you an over-priced can of coke!

It almost seems unbelievable when visiting the Great Wall, the magnificance of it, the human endeavor that built it.

Taken from the entrance tower at the Jinshanling section of the wall

Watch your footing, it's a long way down!

We visited it from Beijing and there are a few tours to pick from, basically close by or far away: Badaling or Jinshanling. We picked Jinshanling, the far away option with a very early coach pick-up and late drop off. A long day but if you’re going to visit one of the most incredible man-made wonders on Earth you might as well get up a bit early to see the best of it.

The reason we picked Jinshanling was because we wanted to escape the tourist crowds and it’s the quieter option. Even the brochure photos of Badaling are over-flowing with people on the wall.

The views are worth every step!

The coach had around 25 people on it and took 3 hours to drive out to Jinshanling. Once there you can either walk up the steep slope to the wall (this part of the wall is literally on the top of a mountain range) or take a cable car (at extra cost). You then have 3 hours to walk along the wall as far as you like – or rather up to a certain tower that is the end of the tourist section – and back again. Walking at our own pace meant the crowds thinned out and we had large sections of wall to ourselves. It was one of the best hikes we’ve ever experienced.

The towers in the wall are clearly visible stretching off into the distance

Inside one of the towers with it's internal staircase

Seeing the wall snake into the distance for mile upon mile you realise what an amazing achievement it was to build such a mammoth and imposing structure. It was built, re-built and added to over 2,000 years, up to the 16th century. Goodness knows how many people lost their lives in the super-human effort to complete it.

Some sections are a tough climb, steep and uneven

Another long climb ahead...

It was such a fantastic day working up a sweat trekking along The Great Wall that we would say it’s worth coming to Beijing just to experience it.

A renovated section of the wall, restored to its former glory

As it turned out our visas were genuine (or at least accepted!) and the speed and efficiency of entry into the country was astounding. There was no queue in the modern and airy immigration hall. It took under a minute to be stamped in. They even have a little electronic display asking you for feedback on how they’re doing. I gave them 5 out of 5.

So, into Beijing. Beijing is a massive, sprawling mega-city housing almost 20 million people. After the easy streets of South East Asia it’s a big difference: there is universal use of Chinese script and virtually no one speaks English. We found it much more difficult to travel than South East Asia.

First Problem: Leaving the Airport

We were advised to print out the hotel name in Chinese script to give to the taxi driver at the airport (they can’t read the western alphabet names). Apparently for the 2010 Olympic Games the Beijing taxi drivers were asked to learn 15 different English phrases to help tourists. We certainly found no sign that they knew any.

We found the taxi stand and our turn arrived. A taxi pulled up and the lady driver jumped out and started arguing vehemently with the airport staff and waving her hands everywhere. Basically, she did not want to take us – thanks! Welcome to China!

So we jumped into the next one, with a driver who seemed more open to the idea of ferrying tourists from the airport into the city. Crazy concept for a taxi driver! He didn’t speak a word of English. We handed over the hotel name in Chinese script and away we went through the sprawling city. The taxi driver stopped several times to ask for directions but we got there eventually.

Cheap Accommodation in Beijing

We firstly stayed at the Jade Youth Hostel which was tucked down a hutong (alleyway) in a fairly residential area, but very close to core tourist attractions and a walk away from the big shopping district. The location was fine but without many food options near by, it felt a little cut-off. Maybe that’s just something we immediately missed about Hanoi? The guy at the front desk barely spoke English and couldn’t offer us a city map (or anything in fact, he was quite enthusiastic but of little actual use) but on the first night he managed to point us towards a restaurant…just.

We then moved on to Beijing Forbidden City Hostel because Jade Youth Hostel would only let us stay on the rack rate basis, rather than the rate we’d secured online (massively discounted). Jade is simply not worth the money on a rack rate basis, only stay there if you get a good online deal.

Beijing Forbidden City Hostel was better with a good vibe and cosier ambience. Cheap food, useful tour desk and a bedroom with a giant, red, heart-shaped bed. Very romantic!

The hutongs

The maze-like hutongs, a warren of tiny streets and alleyways wedged between the major highways, provide a welcome balance from the grid-like 4, 6 or even 8 lane highways through the vast city. They provide a hint of the traditions of the nation, of the real Chinese going about their business. We enjoyed a stroll through some of them, weaving through the maze and then ending up (roughly!) where we thought we’d be!

Beijing City Sights

• Tiananmen Square
  The world’s 3rd largest square and a must-see, if only to check out the Tiananmen Gate (aka Gate of Heavenly Peace), which displays the iconic picture of Mao Zedong above the huge archway. The archway leads in to the Imperial City and the Forbidden City at its heart. Also check out the security forces ready to pounce – apparently someone threw eggs at the picture and served 17 years in jail!
  

  Tiananmen Square

  

  The Gate of Heavenly Peace, which faces onto Tiananment Square. Go through the gate and you arrive at the Forbidden City

• The Imperial City & the Forbidden City
  The Imperial City is the old Beijing city centre for the Ming and Qing dynasties. Within the Imperial City is the complex of palaces and administrative buildings used by the Emperors, known as the Forbidden City. Forbidden because no one could enter or leave without the Emperor’s permission.

  The Forbidden City is a never-ending series of courtyards and palaces that stretch as far as the eye can see, or rather as far as you can walk before your legs give up. Well-maintained and colourful gardens surround palaces of varying sizes, but predominantly displaying the same architectural style. High-walled walkways that stretch for hundreds of metres link up the different courtyards.

  

  The grand design, the ornate decorations, the huge tourist crowds, the Forbidden City in Beijing has it all!

  The red and gold fanned roofs, displaying the classic Chinese architecture, are surrounded by pristine white-stone squares and framed by luscious green gardens – you can see why this winning formula was replicated time and time again.

  There are various displays of artefacts from the Qing & Ming dynasties – some dating around 400 years old (although some of the signage was a little bit vague: ‘Piece dated between 1650-1850‘!).

  

  One of the palaces at the Forbidden City, set amongst courtyards and trees

  You have to push your way to the front to peer in through the windows to see the exhibits – the thousands of Chinese on bus trips, moving around like herds of sheep with little regard for others, did get a little tiresome to be honest. We hired an audio guide which was very helpful but the amount of information given was overwhelming – our brains felt slightly fried by our 20th palace!

• The Summer Palace
  The Summer Palace, another UNESCO World Heritage Site, was used as a peaceful and serene city getaway for the Emperors and it still retains its tranquil charm, despite the thousands of visitors. The grounds are vast with Kunming Lake in the centre and several palaces, pavilions and temples dotted around the undulating hills. It’s a welcome break from the urban centre and nice to escape the crowds and just get lost wandering along the paths, surrounded by nature.


One of the pavilions within the pretty grounds of the Summer Palace, Beijing



The marble 'boat' at the Summer Palace, seated in Kunming Lake

• Temple of Heaven
  Another UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Temple of Heaven is a collection of temples alongside the actual Temple of Heaven, set within pleasant parklands and gardens. We hired the audio guide again. All very clever as it’s GPS activated – i.e. it knows where you are standing and hence what to talk to you about. Or it’s meant to work like that…our ones went a bit haywire and told us all about one temple while standing in front of another.

  The Temple of Heaven was slightly underwhelming. It’s a long way from Beijing central (we walked…we definitely recommend a taxi instead). The main temple is very old and photogenic, but lacks something special, hard to put your finger on…we ended up enjoying the parkland more. Overall though, worth a visit if you have time.

  

  The Temple of Heaven, Beijing

  

  Rose garden in the park around the Temple of Heaven

• The Great Wall
  Along with the above sites, The Great Wall of China is probably the reason you come to Beijing. It doesn’t disappoint and is worth all the effort to get there – to actually walk along the wall on top of a mountain range. There are parts of the wall only a hour or two drive away. Our visit to the wall is covered in a separate post.

From the palaces of Beijing, to the Terracotta army near Xi’an and the pandas of Chengdu, there are plenty of wow moments.

Oh, and don’t forget to check out the Great Wall of China, probably the star attraction.

Click the picture below to see more photos of China!

Compared with South East Asia, we found Malaysia to be more expensive and more exploitative of tourists, in terms of a more developed tourist infrastructure and economy. However there was still enough to keep our cameras clicking away, from the charm of Georgetown to the stunning sky bridge of Langkawi.

Singapore was also an excellent experience, with a world class zoo, shiny skyscrapers near to white-washed colonial-era homes, and the opulence of Raffles Hotel.

Click the picture below to see more photos of Malaysia & Singapore!

Budgeting – A Good Idea?

It was no surprise. We’d traveled on budget by carefully monitoring our spending along the way. The last thing we wanted when facing up to reality back home was a nasty surprise in our bank balance.

This article goes through the 5-step process we followed to stay within budget for our gap year travels, and assumes you’ve decided having budget is a good idea…even if you’re not sure exactly where you may end up or how long you may stay there.

Your money will go a long way at 4,000 Islands, Laos.

Travel Round The World Within Budget: The 5 Principles

Here are the 5 basic principles we followed when it came to planning and controlling our budget, both before we set off and while we were on the road.

Before you go
• 1) Do personalised research
  Read a few travel blogs and you’ll quickly come across a ‘Cost of a RTW trip’ type of post, full of numbers and costs of things – see example screenshot below. These are a great guideline but may be misleading.
  - A 20 something will travel differently to a 30 something
  - Countries may suffer disasters which affect the strength of the local tourist economy, prices change
  - A backpacker, flashpacker, or tourist will travel differently. Which are you?
  - Do you have specific interests that will incur high costs?
  - Numbers you find may be out of date and exchange rates will have changed too

  We collated a few price estimates from various sources and found some middle ground. We read blogs from travelers who seemed similar to us. We also went on hostelbookers.com and other similar services (airlines, trains) and found what it costs for a hotel in Phnom Penh, for a train from Hanoi to Hue, for a campervan in Australia etc etc.



• 2) Choose the right tool for the job
  We used a spreadsheet as it’s the only way to organise numbers in electronic format properly. You could get by with a pencil and paper if that’s more your style…but a Google doc can never be lost or stolen.
• 3) Structure your budget
  You can break out a budget by place (region, country), by time (day, week, month), by category (food, drink, travel, etc.). There are lots of ways to do it…and depending on how much time you want to invest in updating it the choice is yours. Imagine updating a spreadsheet like the one pictured for each day of your travels…we couldn’t face that.

  Simple is best. We went for a total daily spend per person per region.

  - $50 per day in SE Asia
  - $100 per day in Australasia
  - Other places where we were spending less time (Fiji, US, Singapore, China etc) would just have to fit into either of these broad categories

  These figures where based on the information gleaned from point 1 and the fact we wanted to be able to spend money on doing cool things as/when they cropped up, so we over-estimated slightly to give ourselves some flexibility.

  Being realistic on your spending will help – we met a Canadian girl in Laos who sat in the hostel all day and could barely afford to eat. That doesn’t sound like too much fun.

  That was our budget done, a figure each day clearly in mind.



We headed off on a boat trip to the Similan Islands, Thailand. Well worth it.

While you’re on the road

• 4) Record your actual spend
  An important point when thinking about the budget structure is how you’ll actually populate it with data. How do you know what you’ve spent? We used CaxtonFX cards for cash withdrawals when on the road, rather than our normal bank cash card. Caxton FX give you a superior exchange rate and reduced withdrawal fees – we used them in every country we went to without issue. Plus, you are able to export a spreadsheet of your activity with them, so getting the spend into the budget spreadsheet was simple.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  After a little spreadsheet formatting, we could see by month exactly how much either of us had withdrawn (and also check our card hadn’t been compromised).

  We also used a credit card for one-off items and for this card we manually documented use of the credit card. Bit of a pain but only a few minutes work per month as cash generally rules. You’ll need some spreadsheet magic to organise things and present it the way you want it laid out.

  We were staying for long periods (5-6 months) in each region so we summarised spend by month. i.e.

  
  
  
  
  We also took notes on the big items so we knew why a certain month exceeded budget.

  Remember when accessing spend to always use your home currency figures (i.e. your bank account) rather than the local currency for where you are. (The above are our spend in GBP.) Spending $50 cash in Vietnam will cost you more than $50, by the time you’ve added in withdrawal fees, any conversion rates etc.

• 5) Self-control
  Having a daily budget in mind every day (see point 3) means if you’re in a country for a long period (i.e. a month) you can balance your spend across the whole period. For instance you can go crazy one day, well over budget, but know that in the following days you need to make up the shortfall. This gives you a good structure: enjoy yourself travelling but keep things balanced.

You Win

We always aimed to beat our daily budget which we achieved for the majority of our travels…but still ended up (marginally) over budget at the end. Why?

Because unexpected things come along you want to do, and going with the flow is one of the joys of travel.

Vang Vieng, Laos.

View Vietnam Itinerary in a larger map

• South Vietnam
  Ho Chi Minh, previously known as Saigon, was our starting point. It proved a hectic, thriving city with plenty to explore and some top tourist sights and smells. The day trips to the Vietnam war Cu Chi tunnels and the Mekong Delta was a mixed bag but worth taking a look.

  We boarded the bus and headed up the coast to the beach town of Mui Ne, where we loved the red and white sand dunes, the beach and a special B&B we stumbled upon.

  Next stop up the coast is the premier beach resort in Vietnam: Nha Trang. We weren’t sure whether to visit or not, and some people advised us not to bother, so it was a nice surprise when we found some ancient towers, a nice beach, and a few other things to do.



The Mekong Delta, near Ho Chi Minh

• North Vietnam
  The wow factor of Vietnam really kicks in from this point. First up was Hoi An. It’s where you can get clothes tailored on the cheap (we picked up a suit, two coats, shirts, and pair of leather boots). The town is a delight: small cobbled streets through crumbling colonial buildings, with a pretty river flowing alongside.

  From Hoi An we climbed aboard a motorcycle and headed off for our Easyrider Vietnam adventure. Getting off the beaten tourist track, meeting real locals and exploring the depths of the country really made this a tremendously special few days.

  We finished our bike tour in the old capital city of Hue and quite liked the ancient buildings but otherwise couldn’t really connect with the city.

  Another long bus journey finally got us into the northern city of Hanoi. We really liked Hanoi itself, with it’s traditional shopping streets and alleys.

  We used Hanoi as the base for visits to the breathtaking natural beauty of Halong Bay and the equally breathtaking man-made beauty of Sapa. Here the ethnic minority hill tribes have cut thousands of rice terraces into the mountain, with water systems that bring the mud to life and enable the green rice shoots to thrive.

The gorgeous Halong Bay, near Hanoi

It serves as the base for visiting the essential natural wonders at Halong Bay and also the well-worth-it rice terraces and hill tribes of Sapa.

For us it was sadly the last stop in Vietnam, having travelled up from Ho Chi Minh. The not-so-far-away Hoi An is also another reason you have to come to this amazing part of the world. What are you waiting for?

Like shopping? Come prepared!

It’s a shopper’s paradise with countless markets to be explored (where you can barely squeeze between overflowing stalls) – typically aimed at the locals rather than tourists, indeed the whole city vibrates with an authentic Asian buzz. There is a mix of Eastern and Western, but we think Eastern dominates.

Classic Asian streets and alleys dominate the maze-like city centre, with shops spilling out on the pavement – the pavements are blocked and the road is a death trap with scooters whizzing millimetres past you. It’s a genuine thrill. You have to go with the flow to enjoy it, leave your western worries somewhere else.

Fish Oil Alley

Each street is named after the traditional product or service that was sold there – hence sunglasses street, fish oil alley, rice road. Well…sort of…things like that, times 100. It’s wonderful to just wonder around and work it out yourself what that street’s speciality is.

It’s a great place to hang out. There are also a few tourist sites, (see below) but mainly we just soaked up the ambience while relaxing on the street with a beer. Indeed, they have Bia Hanoi here which is super-cheap draft beer, often served on a street corner where you sit upon a foot-high plastic stool – a great perch to take in the energy and rhythm of life as it pulses around you.

Tourist sights in Hanoi

- The island – the Ngoc Son Temple situationed on an Island on Hoan Kiem Lake is worth a look for it’s overflowing shrines but also the natural beauty of the trees, lake and views across the water.
- The university – or the Temple of Literature to give it it’s proper name, is a centre of learning and champions education over the years. Set amongst scuptures, ornate gardens and pretty buildings
- Bike taxi…or at least cyclo – other than walking the best way to get in the middle of all-things-Hanoi is to hire a bike taxi or a cyclo and become one of the crazy bikes yourself. Gets the adrenaline pumping but negiotiate hard before setting off.
- Shopping - give yourself extra time in Hanoi to search through the huge shopping potential of the city, there’s so much to see and plenty of amazing things to pick up

Options, options, options

Having come back from an awesome trip at Halong Bay, we genuinely weren’t sure where to go next, after Vietnam. Indonesia, Borneo, Bali? One exciting option was a trip northwards to China to see the sights and attend a wedding of a close friend.

In the end we decided to go for it – why not? Why not pop over the border and attend the Chinese wedding of a close friend? Easier said than done, with a visa, flight, hotel, route, guide book to sort out…in just a few days…but we’d give it a shot.

Impossible?

First we had to sort out the troublesome Chinese visa, which online research led us to believe wouldn’t be possible from Hanoi. But after trekking around a few travel agents in town we found one that said they could do it, for a sensible price.

It should come back a day or so before our Vietnam visa ran out.

Pretty tight.

They seemed organised enough on first impressions so we gambled and handed over our passports, really not confident we’d see them again.

We had to wait a few anxious days to get the passports back so we headed off to Hanoi train station for the journey to Sapa. After a successful trip to Sapa, later that week we were back in Hanoi and nervously came back to the office.

Our passports had been back down to Ho Chi Minh and back up to the north of Vietnam in a matter of days – a huge distance that we knew wasn’t quick to traverse having travelled it. Had they really air-shipped our passports down there for the price we’d paid? We tentatively entered the office and asked about our Chinese visas…and they handed the passports over and there they were.

Sorted!

We gave them a kiss (the visas!) but…were they real? Would we be rejected entry at Beijing airport and thrown in some aweful prison due to a fake visa sticker?

We’d find out soon enough!

Click an image to launch larger pics and photo captions

Cruising on Baby Dragon Bay

The local legend is that a dragon formed the fractured landscape before crashing into the sea. Halong translates as Dragon Bay. Beyond the actual Halong Bay (which is the part nearer to the mainland) is Bai Tu Long Bay – Baby Dragon Bay. This is more of the same awe-inspiring scenery stretching out into the Tonkin Sea, with remote floating villages nestled between the craggy peaks housing communities of fishermen – more on them below.

We wanted to go to Bai Tu Long to get away from the hundreds and hundreds of tourist boats that clutter the main routes and we found just that with a 3 day 2 night trip on the Dragon’s Pearl III – part of the fleet operated by Indochine Junk, an upmarket operator at Halong.

The Boat – two staff per person

The boat has 11 cabins for a maximum occupancy of 22, supported by the 13 onboard staff. We got lucky – for our trip there were just 6 of us, looked after by 11 staff….almost 2 staff per person! The boat is modern (under a year old) with 3 decks:– at ‘sea level’ are most of the smart cabins with a generous double bed and shiny chrome en-suites; the second deck has an outside dining area with the air-con bar lounge inside; the upper deck squeezes in 22 sun-loungers on two levels, beneath sheltering parasols and the junk’s main sail and next to the captain’s quarters. So, accommodation-wise it’s fabulous.

Drinks – just add 10%

The food is all-inclusive in the price you pay along with water rations of a small bottle per person per day and refillable glasses of water at meal times (we boarded weighed down with bottles of water because we didn’t want to pay the ridiculous prices they charge onboard). Alcohol onboard is also pricey – double the price you would pay in a town for a small can of beer; cocktails, spirits and wine all cost the same as an upmarket wine bar in Hanoi. There is no happy hour! All drinks are subject to a further 10% tax on top…if you like a drink, like we do, then the pricey drinks menu did take the shine off things a little. Tea and coffee is included at breakfast but other times of day must be purchased.

Hungry? 9 Courses do?

Anyway, back to the food which is without doubt one of the highlights of the trip – fresh fish from the bay, silver service. Our first lunch consisted of 9 courses – albeit where they count the rice, vedge and fish which constitute the climax of the meal as individual courses. A creamy, light, whipped up soup; then salad; tiger prawns with explosive taste; curious oyster cakes that prove a winner; some beef; succulent fish; fragrant rice; crunchy greens, and then fresh fruit. I think that’s nine! A typical lunch, with dinner following the same format. Breakfast is slightly underwhelming in comparison with the main bulk coming from French toast, washed down with the inviting coffee.

Dining in the darkness

The food comes to a memorable climax on the second and final evening when you are whisked away from the comfort of the boat to a cave at the foot of one of the peaks. While you’re busy exploring the depths of the spacious and interesting cave – clearly shaped by the waves of the sea as well as water leaking in and dissolving the limestone – the crew buzz around preparing things and the barbeque that you’re promised beforehand.

As you’re called to sit for dinner you’re presented with a thousand lit candles marking out a path and a heart shape and the words I LOVE YOU spelt-out….all very romantic! The centrepiece is the candle-lit and rose-petal sprinkled table laid out on the pristine white table cloth with polished cutlery and sparkling wine glasses (if only the wine was affordable!). The soundtrack to dinner is the gentle wash of the waves lapping up to the cave entrance. It’s an incredible effect, even with the odd drip of water reminding us we’re in a cave, having dinner! The BBQ’ed fish, chicken, tiger prawns, squid et al are cooked to perfection and all gloriously fresh and flavoursome.

A Special Effect

During dinner they present an eagle the chef has carved out of a watermelon that looks fantastic with feathers fashioned out of little curls of the watermelon’s skin. As we’re admiring the bird, they bring a boat. Not any boat – it’s the Dragon’s Pearl III, a fruit-carved model of our floating home, anchored a few km away. This one is even more intricate with all the details of the real thing – windows, sails, decks. We didn’t eat the boat or the bird and at the end of the evening they seemed to dismantle them ready for the bin…but it was still a special effort that we all appreciated.

Home-brew Whiskey at 10 O’Clock

The other highlight of the trip was the visit to a floating village where the mayor, who governs over the 125 people who live there, welcomed us with a pleasant smokey green tea and then home-brewed whisky from a huge jar that contained ominous floating objects – we were told it was honeycomb. At 10.30 in the morning it wasn’t the easiest drink to knock back but given the chance to buy a bottle I would have done – I enjoyed its subtle warmth with a hint of honey. Upon emptying your cup the mayor instinctively refills it – there’s no stopping him! – until you beg that you’ve had enough! Hic!

Don’t Forget Your Camera

Given all these distractions, the star of the show was still the mind-boggling ever-changing views all around you. Mornings and evenings enhanced the views greatly as the light softened and the colours changed. We enjoyed them from our cabin, from the sun-deck, from the lunch-table – and from kayaks, which enabled us to explore the empty waters. For a couple of backpackers it was an expensive splurge of a trip (we paid $430, excluding the booze bill) but to see something so amazing, to be so far away from the tourist hordes, and to be so well looked after was special. Extraordinarily special.

Click an image to launch larger pics and photo captions

Rice terraces of Sapa

The scenery is special in itself, forget those rice terraces!

The Big Problem

The big problem is quaint, traditional village life plus thousands of tourists does not equal a happy balance. The Hmong and Dao ethnic minorities are mostly more interested in selling stuff to the tourists and getting rewarded for following you around as you set off for a walk – literally as soon as you stroll around town you get latched onto, asked where you’re from, where you’re going etc. They are friendly and pleasant and you really want to help them but the hard sell is kind of the opposite of why you came there in the first place.

The relentless persistance of the local children...some with babies on their backs

The tools of the trade

Welcome to our ‘home’

The home-stays are also some experience, to bed down in a basic property with your host family, share a meal with them, discuss and learn about their culture. We didn’t do a proper home-stay in Sapa (well not exactly, see below) but from what we saw they weren’t particularly proper anyway – only a step behind a hostel in a wooden shack, complete with pool table outside. Nice business to the industrious Vietnamese who managed to strike a balance between authenticity and western comforts to satisfy the backpacker crowd. I guess we’re officially flash-packers.

In one of the poorer village huts, this was the cooking area used to prepare animal feed

Our Luxury Homestay

We stayed at a tiny B&B recommended by some friends we’d met on the road – Sapa Garden Bed and Breakfast, #1 on Trip Advisor! It was a lovely place with pleasant gardens, although it was a fair stomp out of town – around 3km up the hill! It was the home to an elderly Vietnamese couple who spoke no English whatsoever but cooked-up a mean breakfast. It was only us staying there. Just their son spoke English but he lived somewhere else in Sapa! We got by with an occasional phone call to him but mainly big smiles and gestures and by the time we left we were touched by their friendliness and magnificent hospitality. They waved us goodbye cuddling their grandchildren as we climbed into the minibus.

Getting to Sapa

We took the overnight sleeper train from Hanoi to Lao Cai, the nearest town with a station to Sapa. It was a surprisingly decent night’s sleep – we opted for the soft-sleeper cabin with four bunk-beds (as opposed to hard-sleeper with 6 beds per cabin). A pair of friendly Vietnamese guys filled the other two bunks – they were off to some construction work at a town along the way.

The whole valley is used for the rice terraces

Stalemate

Once we stepped off the train, half asleep at 7am in the morning, we were bombarded by the keen locals trying to offer us a lift up the mountain to Sapa. We had pre-booked a pick-up with our accommodation and so stepped into a minivan fairly quickly. Unfortunately, the minivan drivers didn’t know where our accommodation was, so we had a quick tour of the main village of Sapa with them trying to fob us off with a few wrong places before they gave up and turned the engine off. We sat there and stared at each other in stalemate. We’d paid for door-to-door, you take us there please. This happened a couple of times before eventually they sorted it out and took us the 3km back down the mountain to Sapa Garden B&B.

The Silver Waterfall, near Sapa

Impossibly Cut

The main reason people go to Sapa is for the trekking around the amazing countryside, taking in local villages, stunning mountains and valley and terraced rice-fields that are seemingly impossibly cut into the steep hillside slopes. Many different ethnic minorities have villages in the region and you can choose from various trekking options to take them in. We weren’t really sure what sort of trek we wanted, especially as self-guided is tricky as clearly marked pathways don’t exist. After wandering round town you soon get to find out who offers what – everywhere is fighting to get your money! We opted to go into one of the dozens of tour shops and picked a reasonably-priced full-day guided walking.

Paddy-cam - a close up of the rice

Why don't they make them straight?

Hangers On

The next day we set off with a Vietnamese guide and 6 other tourists – immediately a large number of H’Mong village girls and ladies attached themselves to our group. Our guide said that they were just coming along for the trek back to their village. The local ladies made us flowers and jewellery out of near-by plants and told us about their village. They held our hands when descending a muddy steep section. There is always a slight sense of uneasiness, knowing that this level of guiding wasn’t going to be gratis.

A guiding hand down the mountain

But we happily rambled along taking in the amazing scenery, watching locals plough their rice paddies – some using buffaloes, but mostly tending by hand in the scorching heat. Our guide was knowledgeable and friendly. We stopped for a break somewhere but unfortunately this wasn’t the best experience – lots of small children approached us, trying to sell bracelets and tat. You feel horrible saying No endlessly, but there were so many children that we couldn’t buy something from each of them. We felt this was far from a traditional ethnic village experience; they’re being brought up dependent on tourists.

Backbreaking work for the women in the fields

An apprehensive local girl - Carly's hair scared her off

A cute pet...or maybe a tasty dinner

It got worse at the lunchtime pit stop – our guide told us we were going to stop at a restaurant for lunch but that the ladies were going to head back to their villages. The negotiating started – “I helped you down the mountain, so you must buy something from me.” It’s so hard when, apart from being on a tight budget, we simply don’t want to carry round extra stuff that we don’t want and definitely don’t need. Do you give them a tip even though we’d already paid a hefty fee for the guide? To all of them?

Walking guides - yours free! (purchase necessary)

The Sapa kids take a break from picking fruit

Summary of Sapa

The scenery is stunning and worth making the effort to check out. The villages you can visit along the way are of interest, especially if you want to buy stuff – they’re heavily oriented to serving the huge influx of tourists. So, don’t go to Sapa for the authentic Vietnamese ethnic minority village or Vietnam home-stay. Go for the walks into the dream-like terraced rice fields. And chat to the locals – they’re friendly, but just watch your step.

Sapa - the face-off between hard-working locals and tourist hordes

The outer moat at Hue. Pretty.

The Imperial Citadel (Dai Noi)

The big draw of Hue is the huge, historic walled-city where the Nyugen Dynasty had it’s seat of power for 150 years up to 1945 (when Ho Chi Minh seized power). It’s a sprawling site of palaces, temples, pavilions, gardens, moats etc but was mostly destroyed during various wars, including some American bombing when the Viet Cong seized Hue in the war. So it’s an interesting place, but with only a few really stunning buildings left and just plenty of grassy fields.

Drum on the upper level of the Ngo Mon gate

Time for a reconstruction

You start your visit of the Imperial Citadel by crossing over the murky waters of the huge Perfume River. You then see the outer city walls and moat, with a huge tower proudly flying the Vietnam flag high above. Crossing that moat and through a gate, you then enter a wide open space…and find another moat and stretch of high wall in front of you. A city within a city. (Stay with it, there’s a city within that city too – three cities deep.) You certainly get the impression that the layout is organised and in its pomp this place must have been both highly impressive and a formidable defensive fortress.

Ngo Mon Gate

You enter this inner city via the mammoth Ngo Mon gate having crossed one of the bridges over the pretty inner moat, with lotus pads floating on the surface. Choose the middle bridge and you’re using the one reserved for just the Emperor himself.

The inner moat, the lotus pads and the Ngo Mon gate - the main entrance into the Imperial Citadel.

You look up and are dominated by the U-shaped Ngo Mon gate surrounding you. It’s impressive and gets more so as you climb the steps to ascend up to the top. You can really imagine the Emperors sitting on the balcony, resplendent in their best garb, being entertained by a huge show of military force marching past.

The Ngo Mon gate - dominant and impressive

View from the Ngo Mon gate, where military processions would take place.

Walking back down the steps and in towards the inner buildings, you pass through the first courtyard and into the next building. You feel you are retracing the steps the Emperors would have taken. The next building is the one he receives his highest ranking military officers in. This is the best part, seeing the connection between buildings, imagining the pomp and ceremony of yesteryear, of a different time.

Inside the complex there are just small glimpses of what it must have looked like, just 60 years ago

Forbidden Purple City

The quality of the remaining temples, palaces, gates and walk-ways deteriorate from this point on, although there are still some beautiful buildings, decorations and objects to see as you explore them all. It’s just hard to see how they all relate to each other due to the sheer spread (it’s a hard slog around in the heat to see the main sights), they are all quite disparate. The city within a city within a city is the Forbidden Purple City, which was a palace and gardens reserved for just the Emperor himself…but there’s nothing to see now, it’s fully destroyed. Meh.

The walkways and passageways within the Imperial Citadel

One of the minor gates, needs a lick of paint

One of the buildings inside - they were height-restricted so the Emperor himself had the tallest building

Inside one of the temples

Other attractions in Hue

There are one or two other attractions in Hue, including a circuit of tombs to visit and river cruises on the Perfume River. For Western eating and drinking there’s a pleasant little district that bustles with backpacker bars and pizza places. We had a great meal in a little restaurant down a side street, where they seemed to cook the food in small passageway; we later saw a rat run through the seating area – eek! But the food was still really nice!

Oddity after Oddity

One lunchtime we were starving (and hot) and couldn’t find anywhere to eat until we stumbled upon a little old lady’s restaurant – we were her only customers and sat down on the miniature plastic chairs they seem to prefer. She didn’t speak a word of English and the menu was in Vietnamese…she kept bring us oddity after oddity – some edible, but mostly cold, unidentified things individually wrapped in rice paper, including some very strange-looking meats which Carly refused to touch. Eventually we felt compelled to stand up and thank her and pay. No doubt it cost more than it should have done but it was an experience. Time for a pizza.

Summary of Hue

Hue is a big place, with large areas of urban sprawl on both sides of the wide Perfume River, and we found it difficult to really connect with it. There didn’t seem to be a city centre, a heart – ironic given it once had a city within a city within a city! Maybe we missed some of the other things on offer, some more highlights and together with what we saw that would make it a must-see place. Maybe…

What is Easyrider Vietnam?

The term is a generalisation for guided motorcycle tours, typically where you are a pillion passenger on the back of the guide’s motorcycle. In our case I wanted to ride the bike myself, so Carly was my passenger and our guide – Mr Thong, check out his website Easyrider Hoi An – carried our backpacks, strapped to the back of his. We bumped into the charming and easy going Mr Thong on the streets of Hoi An, negotiated a general route, duration and price and the fact I wanted a bike to ride. All no problem and after paying a down-payment (the majority was paid on completion of the trip) we set off a day or two later. Easy.

The Essence of Easyrider tours

The essence of the adventure is the guide taking you away from the main roads, away from the tourist trail and into the local communities and ethnic minorities. We’d been on the road no more than 10 minutes – I was just getting used to the bike – when he turned off down a path and before we knew it we were on a 2 metre wide path going along between paddy fields, full of people working the land (by hand or by buffalo). Mr Thong would stay ahead a sufficient distance so we could see which way to go, but not so close that it felt like we were just following his tracks. Perfect.

Just some of the amazing children we had the pleasure to meet along the way

A Vietnamese Mindset

One of the first places he led us was into a roof-tile factory – well a small kiln, storage area and open space full of women bent over, using feet to push down a slicer into the wet clay to form the square tiles. Mr Thong had a right giggle at an old women slugging away cutting tiles – her usual job was in a restaurant which was temporarily closed and so now she had to do this. It was a glimpse into the day-to-day interaction and humour of the Vietnamese people, who love a good laugh. He thought it hilarious she was actually doing this back-breaking work – which it kind of is if you think about it in a certain way. Different mindset to the Western mind for sure.

Back-breaking work slicing roof tiles with her feet

Sifting rice from the chaff, skillful stuff

Get A Good Guide

After the tiles there was a visit to a peanut oil workshop, numerous paddy fields, a local market, a war memorial, the Cham towers of My Son, local villages, scenic viewpoints, etc etc – all with our guide Mr Thong giving information, history, background and stories along the way, as well as translating for us as we chatted to the local people.

Hanging out with the peanut-oil workshop boys

Hard working, just to put food on the table

The quality of the guide will surely affect your overall experience when embarking on an Easyrider trip – when we were thinking about it in Hoi An before we set off we made sure we chatted away with Mr Thong to test his English, check how we got on and if we thought we could trust him. We recommend him, he made the experience what it was.

Mr Thong posing for the camera, he had no need for a map!

Some of the highlights of Easyrider Vietnam:

- Lunch & dinner in local restaurants, with the guide ordering the best local dishes and paying the locals going-rate. Delicious food.
- Handing out sweets to an ethnic minority community of local children (and some of the adults), in exchange for their big smiles, beautiful faces and time
- Taking an impromptu dip in a waterfall plunge pool hidden by the side of the road
- Learning about the day-to-day lives of some of the poorest communities in Vietnam
- Cruising through wild jungle, mountain passes, down a part of the Ho Chi Minh trail. The scenery was just amazing…
- Getting to know our guide Mr Thong, his family, his life history and his infectious laugh
- Getting behind the scenes of everyday Vietnam
- Not seeing another Western person for the entire trip!

Having a refreshing wash in our own private jungle plunge pool

The access bridge (used by people AND scooters) for a remote village

One of the communial central buildings of a small village

Easyrider Summary

We arrived at our destination – Hue – pleased to take a hot shower, but saying good-bye to the bike, the adventure and Mr Thong was done with sadness. It’d been a fantastic, memorable ride. Easyrider Vietnam? You should do it!

Detail on a war memorial comemorating the battles Vietnam had with the French

One of the impressive but crumbling Cham towers at My Son

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