Hanoi's unique highway code ...

In our original plan for mid-July we'd have been heading through Tibet into Nepal to begin trekking the 21-day Annapurna Circuit ...

For a whole heap of reasons (Mel's trauma on Mt. Fuji featuring highly) we'd decided to visit Nepal on a future trip, rather than during the summer monsoon. With the benefit of hindsight this was inspired decision making - 750,000 people have just been displaced in Nepal's worst flooding in living memory. Needless to say, this might have disprupted our plans a little ...

So, enter Vietnam. No gradual change in culture here as you cross the land border - everything is completely different. Buildings, clothes, even down to the style of motorcyle riding. Here in the countryside it's always "bandit style" with just your eyes visible above a full-face bandana - slightly unnerving until you get used to the fact that each overtaking maneouver isn't the opening move in a hijack.

Then we arrived in Hanoi, surely one of the very best examples of chaotic SE Asia you'll find. It's almost impossible to imagine the number of mopeds here - apparently the official figure is around 2m - in a city of around 3.5m people. The really impressive thing is how they seem to move around the city in swarms - and when one swarm meets another, they somehow just manage to pass right through one another. It must be seen to be beleived.

There are a few new skills you need to learn in order to get about here - all of which go against the natural instincts acquired living in a western society.

1. Ignore all calls of "motorbike", "moto", "cyclo", "lychee" or "hat" - these are all things you will be offered several times a minute. Therefore any eye contact, never mind a simple "no thank-you" to each offer will just result in a doubling of your journey time.
2. Using the "imaginary" pavement. In theory there is a real one, but in practice that's where people park their mopeds. The imaginary one is the first 75cm of clear road. The mopeds screaming past at 30-40 mph will avoid you - but only if you beleive in it's existence.
3. Use of the "imaginary" zebra crossing. It doesn't really matter if you find a real one, even with a green man, they work exactly the same as the imaginary ones as the traffic doesn't stop anyway. Just face the oncoming traffic, beleive in the imaginary crossing and confidently walk across at a constant pace - the traffic will just move around you. If you lose confidence and stop or change your pace the traffic will somehow lose it's ability to avoid you.

Once these skills were mastered, we found Hanoi's Old Quarter a very pleasant place to spend a few days - incredibly cheap shopping, great food with the added novetly of vegetables (a little scarce in Chinese restaurant dishes), and our cultural activity of the week, the very wierd Vietnamese Water Puppet Theater.

Once again we proved that luck can be a better servant than informed planning - our visit to Hanoi conincided with the Quarter Final of the Asia Cup, the game between Australia and Japan being billed as the game of the tournament.

Armed with a ticket procured on the black market I headed out to the brand new "My Dinh" National Stadium in the scorching late afternoon heat. The journey in itself was almost as memorable as the game - my taxi had no less than 7 different horns, all of which the driver seemed intent on wearing out in order to cut a path through the sea of scooters during the 40 minute journey.

The game itself was pretty entertaining and at 1-1 following extra time it went to penalties. I think the writing was on the wall when a rather unfit looking Harry Kewell missed the opening penalty for Australia, and so Japan made it through to the semi-finals.

Back in town we went for one last meal of "roll-your-own" rice paper spring rolls filled with caramel beef and fresh herbs, all washed down with 640ml bottles of ice-cold Tiger Beer for just $1 ... rather predicatably, we think Hanoi rocks!

You can see the photos from Hanoi here

Beware of the dog ...

"No problem. I haven't had hotpot for quite a while ..."

Innocent enough words in their own right. But when overheard as a response to a request for dog-sitting a small labrador puppy, they brought the realisation we'd entered dog eating country.

Of course in this instance the young lady at the cafe in Yangshuo was only joking, but we knew we'd have to order our meals increasingly carefully as we headed toward the border and into Vietnam.

Last stop in China was a quick 36 hours in Nanning to arrange our Vietnam visas. With its palm lined boulevards, Nanning rather put me in mind of the Florida I know from watching Miami Vice as a youngster. Except for one notable difference - a whole street dedicated to cuisine of the canine variety. We steered well clear.

Then just as we we're getting ready to leave for Hanoi, I receive this rather concerning email from the hotel we'd booked;

Hi again,

I just checked your website - really nice job! Since you're interested in "special" foods, I'll be sure to get some recommendations ready for you while you're here. Dog is off the menu, I take it? I suppose cat will be too? Still, there's always crocodile, scorpion, or even duck embryos. Vietnam, as you probably already now, does have many "special" foods, so I hope you'll get the chance to try them all.

Best of luck planning your trip!
Ginger


I am officially getting worried.

Over the moon in Yangshuo ...

After a madcap 8-day dash through China we arrived in Yangshuo, Guangxi Province where we planned to stay put for a few days and relax a little ...

The view (right) from the top of Moon Hill will do more to describe the amazing scenery of this region than I could ever hope to put into words. The huge limestone karsts jutting out from the otherwise flat landscape cover hundreds of square kilometers ... simply otherworldly. You can check out all the photos here.

As beautiful as the surrounding landscape is, Yangshuo itself came as something of an initial dissapointment. Somehow what was once a sleepy backpacker hangout has become the Benidorm of SW China - complete with the Chinese version of Europop booming out from every bar along the main street to lure in the growing numbers of domestic tourists.

Thankfully though it's still very much Chinese and over the course of a few days its charms grew on us - full of quirky and entertaining locals, plus traditional massages that would teach Robert Mugabe's hit squad a thing or two about torture techniques.

We spent the week here mountain biking, trekking, bamboo rafting and taking boat trips up and down the river. But thanks to the 37 degree heat every day, we mostly spent our time evenings enjoying ice-cold Tsing Tao beer in Lulu's airconditioned bar.

I have only one piece of advice if you ever come here. Never, ever play the drinking dice game with Lulu ...

If enough people are interested I'll post the rules (or what I could recall the following morning) here for you - just add a comment to let me know.

Hunting (the) Giant Panda ...

We'd picked a good time to visit Chengdu as one of the Panda's had twins the week beforehand.

This is always something of a national event in China - but we had no idea until we arrived. The baby Panda we saw was in an incubator, meaning no photogrpahy was allowed - however if you imagine a slightly balding mole you'll have the general idea.

You have to arrive early in the morning to catch the Panda's awake. Once they've had their morning feed of freshly cut bamboo, they just sleep the rest of the day. Just after his feed this chap had a sudden burst of energy and seemed to delight in entertaining the watching crowd.



Chengdu was probably the nicest of the cities we visited in China, with it's palm lined streets and the tackiest building of the trip so far ...

Catch all the photos by clicking here.

Going potty in Xian ...

Predicatable I know, but it was the best title I could think of ...

Maybe if it hadn't rained non-stop for the 3 days we were there ... we'd have found the time to scale Xian's city walls. Impressive as they are, what's contained within is just another example of China's rush to build high-rise apartment blocks, and glitzy shopping malls no-one seems to be able to afford to shop in.

Slightly different accomadation experience here - we stayed in a "hostel" we'd pre-booked over the internet from Pingyao. It actually turned out to be more like a homestay with Todd and his girlfriend Mei on the 5th floor of a brand new apartment block. Not exactly what we'd had in mind, but they made us very welcome. Good job too, as the rain kept us confined to barracks - almost to the point of cabin fever.

Of course we couldn't come to Xian without making the obligatory trip out to see the Terracotta Warriors - every bit as impressive as they promised. If anyone is coming here - there is absolutely no need to take a 30 quid tour to get there, we just took the local bus from the train station for 40p to make the 1 hour journey.

On the way out a perfect example of Chinglish ... well, I sort of know what they mean ...

Mel has covered the Chinglish phenomenon more comprehensively on her blog here.

Lastly - in China almost everyone has an "English" name they use with foreigners for ease of pronunciation. In Xian we had the pleasure of meeting a Chinese guy from Hainan (off their South coast) who'd picked the name Pigeon. We didn't really like to say so, but surely if you have the opportunity to choose a name for yourself ...