A Blast of Wind in your Ear

I’m now way behind so over the next day or so updates are going to have to come out quicker…sorry about that..

Leaving Hanoi was difficult..our hostel made it into a 24 hour party and after being starved of people to go out and play with, we probably over extended ourselves..still its been magic..we are meeting people from everywhere..but I have to say the Canudians are by far and away the most chilled out and fun..it’s actually refreshing to hear people that actually like where they are from (despite of the fact that its -25 or so there now)…due to the downturn in Ireland and the UK there isn’t really that much you can say to people to encourage them that it’s a place worth going to..sad but at unfortunately at this time true…next would be the australians…they just want to party the whole time…and their don’t give a damn about anything attitude is appealing…

Anyways Hanoi to Hoi’an was the first flight we have taken since leaving home..it was cheaper than taking the train to fly so off we went..we flew into Da Nang and grabbed a taxi from there to Hoi’an. Luckily people we met in Hanoi were there before us and sorted out rooms for us to crash in…this has been one of the best things so far in the trip…the people that we have met in Hanoi that are ahead of us book us into rooms in the next place and we do the same for those following..i guess it’s a kind of pay-it-forward system that so far has worked well..also it means that wherever we go, the crew gets reunited for a short period before moving on again. We’ve travelling in convoy down through Vietnam having so much fun…it has now meant that it has most definitely surpassed Mongolia as the place I most want to go back to..

For those that don’t know about it, Hoi’an is regarded as having some of the best tailors in all of South East Asia and the number of tailor shops in the place lay testament to that. Almost everyone we met was getting suits, shoes, dresses & throws for the beach, you name it made..if you could describe it or show a picture representing it then they could make it..its a crazy process..you walk in…flip through GQ magazine or something like that, pick out a style you like (everyone picking the James Bond suit out of Quantum of Solace), then you select the material..probably the most painful part…you get 6 lads getting suits and each wondering if this colour suits me??? should I get a wide or narrow pin-stripe or just go for a solid colour? what colour shirts and suit lining to get? Should I get the trousers lined and what kind of cuffs to get??…I was expecting one of them to ask me if their ass looked big in the trousers they got made…next was the fittings…some were perfect…others went back what felt like a hundred times in an effort to get each little detail perfect..sitting outside a bar near the tailors with someone coming along every hour to bring a lad back for another fitting became a common occurrence over the next two days..

Hoi’an is only a small place (pop 80K or so) and was not as crazy as anywhere else.. you could walk most places but as Scooters were only 4 dollars a day..with none of us ever being on a motorbike or any kind before it was an educating experience..whilst I am in the Jeremy Clarkson school of thought when it comes to motorbikes (burn them, burn them and burn them again!!!!) Vietnam couldn’t function without them, but I tell you what…it’s the best fun you can have with your clothes on..when in traffic your heart is pounding at an extraordinary rate..cruising along a quiet road by the beach is the most relaxing..they use the horn here to notify the person in from that you are coming up on their left side and they are to keep going straight..when you look at it from the pavement the constant sounding of horns is extremely annoying…when on a bike in the middle of a tiny street with hundreds of bikes around you it’s a godsend…the only rule of the road observed here is that you have to wear a helmet (100 dollars fine if you are caught without)..unfortunately for me, with the Vietnamese being tiny, my helmet was like a thimble on top of my head..completely useless..photos will be uploaded when I get somewhere with a decent internet connection…we spun to the beach a couple of times and on our last day went on a big burn to Da Nang (35 KM) away….everyone loved the bikes…we were lucky and had no serious accidents…I broke the gear lever off…and it only cost me 4 dollars to have it replaced…one person who shall not be named (Canadian girl Jaime) rented a bike outside the hotel, started it and went straight across the street and smashed into a freshly painted set of picnic tables..just missing a telegraph pole..thankfully the only damage done was a few scratches to her and the bike and 2 destroyed tables…and paint on her clothes which distressed her the most. I would love to say that her confidence was dented but no she wanted back on straight away…her husband though had different ideas and thankfully for once a man won an argument with a woman and she rode pillion on the back of his bike..

While on the bikes we went spinning out into the country for a test run…some people think that Ireland is green…but the green of the paddy fields is intense..its hard to describe but its such a strong bright consistent shade of green…it looks weird…the rest of the country is as you can imagine rocky, covered in trees, brown and burned by the hot, hot sun..

After we gave back the bikes we did see something horrifying..two locals crashed head-on…one was knocked cold and had blood streaming down the side of his face..the other was quite obviously concussed and when trying to stand collapsed in a crumpled heap…this happened in the middle of a busy intersection and the locals jumped in to clear it away…after a few seconds it was obvious t what the guy that was knocked cold was in an extremely bad way…the panic in the locals was clearly evident when they saw that he was completely limp and unresponsive..they grabbed him in the roughest way I have ever seen an injured person treated and he was put over the shoulder of another guy who jumped on the back of a scooter and raced away to the hospital…from the noise of the accident, (the most horrible and gut-wrenching screech of tires following by huge crashing noise) and the state the guy was in after, I can’t imagine he made it.. all ideas of renting bikes further along in the trip were immediately scrapped. We had 2 great days on them and other than paint on clothes and a few bruises everyone was fine…

the time to leave Hoi’an arrived and we were getting a sleeper bus to Nha Trang where we were going to celebrate the Lunar new year (it’s a beach town)…this was possibly the most intimate journey I have ever had in my life (and not in a good way)…because we were not assigned seats, when we bought the tickets, John, Jonny and I were assigned the back row..5 beds across the back of the bus…I was at the window, John beside me and Jonny next to him with two Chinese girls in the other two places…shoulders touching shoulders, knees touching knees..with no space to move..the beds were also built for the Vietnamese..only 5 and a half foot or so long..needless to say sleep did not come easy and most definitely did not linger…we arrived in Nha Trang wrecked…but that story is for the next update..

hope all is well…god bless

talk soon
hughie
www.hughie.eu