Hoi An is covered with a thousand coloured lanterns, old ladies sitting by the side of the river with mesmerising faces selling floating candles all creating this beautiful rainbow of colour and mystery….if it wasn’t for the hundreds of tourists it would be truly magical! The food is also utterly incredible…the Banh Mi challenge continued and I can safely say I think we’ve had our lifetimes supply of bread, pork, weird pate and chilli sauce….Vegan February might be required!
We spent a few mornings on An Bang beach, jumping waves, building sandcastles and listening to the fabulously bad New Year Karaoke parties…..reckon even my attempts at stringing together a tune would have a chance of considered being vaguely acceptable here! The build up to Chinese New Year is everywhere and creating a real sense of celebration…
Hoi An gave us a chance to properly unpack, kick back, attempt to get into some kind of routine with the kids schooling – credit to Pads here as I have already been told categorically that my classroom assistant skills have a lot to be desired – so looks like it’s a morning routine of meditation, writing and Joe Wicks for me…..definitely not complaining!….We quite honestly did very little which was exactly what we were aiming for!….
If you ever get the chance to visit Vietnam you will be in for an amazing treat. Once you get through a rather officious immigration process which leaves you in no doubt you’re entering a Communist country the people are incredibly warm (although Gabriel was slightly alarmed when he was carried off to join a Vietnamese family photo session), the colours heartwarmingly vibrant and the food ridiculously delicious..
Africa’s song is her beautiful diversity of religion and worship which became ingrained into our mornings for the last 10 years waking up to the call to prayer or church choirs singing so it took us a while to realise why the mornings felt so quiet in Vietnam until we worked out that it is a predominately atheist country and their wake up call is the endless sound of scooter horns. The city of Hanoi is a gentle balance of French and Chinese influence – for a city of 8 million people there are also 4.5 million scooters – if you thought the Boda Boda’s of Kampala were hectic this is another level of chaos which made walking the streets a slightly unnerving experience.
We immersed ourselves in Hanoi’s eclectic history visiting Uncle Ho’s Mausoleum (although the microphones in the flower beds were slightly alarming), the Temple of Literature and a traditional water puppet show which Evangeline commented was lame, Gabriel fell asleep and when mentioned to Debs that we had been commented it had been the longest hour of her life…realised my love of puppet shows is a bit odd and perhaps not to be shared – it’s clearly borne out a visit to Bethnal Green Toy Museum with Dad…Dad – Evangeline is blaming you entirely!
Having been to Vietnam a few times to visit Debs and Jamie I thought who better to give us a crash course of Vietnamese language, bartering and culture.. Uncle Jamie definitely didn’t disappoint and after practising our pigeon Vietnamese and negotiation skills we hit the night markets….not sure what we missed but Pads went in strong on some sunglass bartering only for us all to be aggressively chased out of the shop by the owner shouting “no money”, I think perhaps we need a second lesson….
I always find the best way to see the heartbeat of a city is in the early hours – a morning run around Hoan Kiem didn’t disappoint…the sight of groups of old ladies practising a form of Tai Chi, stretching and aerobics along to traditional Vietnamese music was mesmerising and the encouragement to join in was too good to turn down…..
Vietnam is famous for its food and coupled with Pads’ love of everything food related this was always going to be a foodie itinerary. We arranged a kid friendly food tour of Hanoi with the fabulous Giang and were blown away by the experience – the Bun Cha was deliciously fresh and full of herbs, the Xoi Xeo sticky rice is proper comfort food, the Bahn Mi ridiculously addictive – we’re already hooked!, the Bahn Ran or Mung Bean Doughnuts were smashed by Gabsey but not the rest of us….brilliant when you have a kid who will eat anything! washed down with Cafe Cheung or Egg coffee which has now become a firm favourite and may even replace my love of Irish Coffee….basically liquid Tiramisu….even better with a splash of rum…All wrapped up with a beautiful Tuk Tuk ride through the French Quarter and Old Town.
Halong Bay and Phong Nha bought the next adventures and a further realisation that double kayaking is not to be entertained if you are in any way related as will only end in divorce, separation, and the need for therapy…..Pads and I had clearly erased our previous joint kayaking experiences from our memory and jumped into the cold waters of Halong Bay full of enthusiasm….what a peaceful 24 hours followed with neither of us speaking to each other apart from the odd mutter of “what part of left didn’t you understand”….
I’d decided we should experience rural Vietnam in as local a way as possible and found a very unique farmstay which was free to stay and you just had to labour in the fields for 5 hours a day to earn your keep…some locals suggested that this might be a bit tough on the kids, although I felt very character building, unfortunately was overruled and so we switched to the fabulous Phong Nha Farmstay….no child labour encouraged. This undiscovered region of Vietnam is unbelievably beautiful, famous for the Phong Nha National Park and some of the longest caves in the world it was the perfect place to unwind for a few days. We took some bikes out into the countryside for the day (after the kayaking experience decided to turn down the offer of a tandem bike…..may have been the shortest travelling trip in history if we had!) and discovered the “Pub with Cold Beer” where the beer was indeed cold and lunch involved catching your own chicken – very farm to table, and then hit the Duck Stop – one of the more bizarre hours of my life involving watching Evangeline get a duck massage (whilst I screamed in the background….my fear of anything that flaps was not conducive to this experience) and Gabriel riding “Donald Trum” the resident Water Buffalo…no words….although we did feel the need to return to the “Pub with Cold Beer” afterwards. We spent a day exploring Paradise Cave and the Dark Cave…truly majestic and meditative experiences, the scale of the caves and the fact that they were only opened to the public from 2012 made you realise what a special experience it was. The kids surprised us yet again with their fearless attitude to adventure and were the first on the 200ft long 50ft high zip lines, first through the tunnels in the caves and first to jump into the ice cold water…..have worked out there is no response to. “Mum, you have to do it, I’m only 6 and can do it, you’re how old…”
Next stop a whole week in Hoi An….
Phong Nha Paradise CaveUncanny likeness to Donald Trump…..The beer was deliciously cold…..The totally bizarre and slightly hysterical Duck Stop….What the duck is this!Uncle Ho….
After some packing disagreements and some UN style negotiation..apparently 6 kaftans and hair straighteners aren’t deemed essential travel necessities by Pads…we managed to zip shut the backpacks….not sure the kids fared too well looking at the end packing result. We headed off to Heathrow on a coach (yes an actual coach) well we did say we’d try new things…I haven’t been on a coach since the Manchester – London Megabus in the late 90’s…slightly different experience this time…
After the 48 hour journey back from Uganda via an unexpected East Africa adventure (would highly recommend Rwanda) the flight to Bangkok was always going to seem rather easy and we weren’t disappointed. We’ve spent a great few days in Bangkok wandering the markets, temples and eating amazing street food which is ridiculously cheap. Gabsey’s vocabulary has generally consisted of “that stinks” or “that’s disgusting”…the only time he’s been quiet is when he saw the Bangcroc street food stall…nothing like a spit roast crocodile to make him lost for words. Evangeline has been seduced by Thai foot massages and the flowers in the temples….incredible to see the Buddhist New Year celebrations.
The hostel which I feared was going to be so close to Khao San Road I was going to have to explain to the kids why the ladies were wearing their underwear outside bars, I was slightly relieved to find it a couple of streets back in a much quieter residential area. A traditional Thai house converted into a very small and charming hostel located on the banks of the canale….idyllic…well unless it’s New Years Eve in Bangkok. We managed to squeeze the kids to stay awake until 11pm with the promise of sparklers only to be woken by the dulcet tones of German Techno pop at 5am by 3 young lads in the room next to us. Amazingly the kids slept through so Pads and I had a big box, little box dance off until they ran out of steam and passed out…
Next stop Vietnam where we’ll spend a few weeks travelling down from Hanoi to HCMC. South East Asia is apparently “all mine”….I thought this meant just booking some accommodation….failed to understand that I needed to book transport too so this may be an interesting few weeks. Backpacks are all repacked although Pads has implemented a strict no backpack sharing policy (always thought sharing was caring) so I’ve already had to sacrifice some clothing…
After an amazing and inspiring 10 years of living and working across this beautiful African continent which has become part of our hearts we are taking a breath to reconnect and create some even more special memories as a family…
The New Year will see us start a six month journey exploring 14 countries, experiencing new cultures and hopefully evolving as a family……if we don’t kill each other on the way!
We’d love to share this journey with you and hopefully a glass of wine or two along the way with those lucky souls that we get to see!
If you have any recommendations of places to stay, things to do or for Pads – places to eat….then share away…
So far we know we’ll be hitting Bangkok for New Year, Vietnam and Cambodia in January, East Coast Australia in February and March will see us exploring gorgeous New Zealand in a Camper Van (with my driving this may be the end of the trip!). Island Hopping around the South Pacific and French Polynesian Islands is the plan for April and May but let’s see where we end up…
Worldwide Wanderers 