Dublin - The Return

Well to everyones great surprise we arrived home early as a little Valentines Day treat for all our family and friends. With Ro being home for only 10 days before heading back to Sydney there were some busy busy days (filled with job and apartment hunting) and even busier nights - far too much school night drinking went on. Orlas back for a few more weeks to study so hopefully now that Ro's headed off a lot more studying and a lot less drinking will be the result (haha!!). Thanks to everyone for reading the blog, we hope it didn't depress you all and instead made you want to do some travelling and come visit us in Sydney, there will always be a bed, couch or floor for any of you!xxx p.s. if anyone knows of a cheap way to get some 4000 photos developed do let us know!!!!

Bangkok

Thanks to the generosity of Orla's parents we were treated to the luxury of 3 nights in the very fancy Marriott Hotel. The Hotel was really spectacular with amazing furnishings, but have to say the prices for food & drink were a bit of a shock. Normally in Thailand we'd spend between $2/3 each on our dinner, but in the Marriott you wouldn't get a sandwich for less than $6.

Between 11 trips to the tailors , picking up a few things for our families and trying to post the majority of our things to Australia we really didn't have enough time for the touristy things. We visited wat pho which is pretty spectacular, but as were planning on returning in the not too distant future we'll get to see that grand palace!!

Hanoi

Not even worth a blog entry after 14 hours on a crappy night bus with next to no sleep we had to argue with taxis for bout 30 mins in the cold to get a fair price for a taxi to the airport (as we didn't have much money we could only afford $15). Then we sat miserably in the horrible airport for 6 hours waiting for our flight to leave.

Have to say the flight was grand and we were delighted to arrive in Balmy Bangkok.

Hue

Brr...its cold (and rainy) in Hue. Got in late and so had a few beers, a feed and Ro greedily held the pool table in a local bar for the evening! Next morning it was still cold and rainy (thank god we invested in winter coats in Hoi An), so off we set with socks and flip flops (the style) to visit the Citadel. The Citadel is pretty impressive but harder to enjoy while avoiding the puddles of mud and water (and the people looking at us strangely in our socks and flip flops!).

Not much else here so we found some warm coffees (with fresh milk!!) and hot chocolate. Heading to Hanoi on a night bus tonight where it promises to be even colder.

Hoi An

We got a night bus from Nha Thrang to Hoi An which was fine and luckily our hotel let us check in at 6am. Hoi An is a lovely town that feels really authentic and the people are so nice and welcoming. It is also probably the tailoring capital of the world as it seems that half the shops here make clothes, we were warned that it gets addictive. By an amazing stroke of luck we arrived just in time to get our orders in before tet (the New Year festival), Orla got a lovely suit and shirt made in about 2 days, pity her dress didn't turn out as expected (a bad design choice)!! Ro got some trousers and shirts made, we both have to say the tailors were really lovely and they are very cheap compared to Thailand but still seem to maintain a high standard.

The food in Vietnam is great, so we decided to give one of the cooking schools in Hoi An a go. They had different dishes for the half-day & full-day classes so we decided to split up so we could get the most out of it. Orla's class covered starters and garnishes (she now knows how to make a rose out of a tomato skin!) and Ro's prepared mains, the classes were great (were both looking forward to trying out some of the dishes in a normal kitchen).

The Tet festival is based on the Lunar calendar and normally falls somewhere between the end of Jan and Mid-Feb. This year "The year of the Rat" began on Feb 7th and we were in Hoi an for the celebrations. After enjoying a few free cocktails in our hotel we headed to town for the festivities, there was a carnival near the river and a really impressive fireworks display. Nearly everything shuts down for a few days after tet and it was really good to see the Vietnamese be able to relax and enjoy there holiday (most people seem to work from 6am-10pm 6/7 days a week) so they defo deserve one. So "Chuc mung nam moi" (Happy new year).

Next stop Hue.....

Nha Thrang

Nha Thrang is a nice place. The beach is grand but a little dirty and the waves were seriously huge (bigger than Bondi) making it impossible to swim! The place we stayed in was great with a nice roof top terrace.

The snorkelling around here is supposed to be great so we headed out on a snorkelling trip to visit some of the nearby islands. Unfortunately we picked a windy day and so at the first snorkelling stop we spent more time helping/rescuing people from the water (while the staff watched and shouted in vietnamese!!!). Despite the poor snorkelling we had a great time and the lunch buffet served on the boat was fabulous, we were then treated to the "floating bar". This consisted of our guide sitting in a tube with a crate of red wine bottles floating around him. We all jumped off the roof of the boat, were thrown floating rings and then fed free wine until it was all gone. I'm sure the boats insurance company charged a lot for this level of safety!!! It was great fun though! Next island stop allowed Ro time to display his volleyball skills andthen we headed to an aquarium where we got up close and fed some sea turtles.

That night we got in some roof top poker, a few beers and some ipod music - felt like we were at home. We then headed for Hoi An.