It actually felt cold when I stepped off the plane in Hanoi last night! I kinda missed the tropical heat. I did notice it was there to a lesser extent in HCMC when I had to change planes there so maybe a weekend there is in order soon. This next term I am woring 3 day weeks so I'm going to make the most of having time off to see some of the country. If I can find some cheap flights to HCMC I'll head there to have a look around as it looks like its a bit different to Hanoi.
I got the bus to mny new house yesterday. This was no end of fun to dea with at the airport. The taxi mafia were waiting to ambush me as soon as I cleared customs, and once I'd finally shaken them off I went out of the airport to get the bus there were heaps more waiting to try and rip me off. Itwasn't clear where the local buses went from so I headed towards the otehr buses figuring they must all go from the same place. There more people tried to hustle me onto various shuttle buses but I managed to shake them off by telling them that I was heading to Kim Ma. Pretty much all the shuttles went to Long Bien and the Old Quarter and I guess they asumes I would be heading there as thats where the majority of tourists go. I tried to ask some of them where the normal buses went from but thy told me "no bus. Take this one then taxi." It seemed unlikely to me that the buses wouldn't be running but I went back in to get some impartial info from someone who wasn't trying to get me to use their bus or taxi and established that the buses were infact running. She told me to go past the shuttle buses and fnd the bus there but there wer no signs or bus stops for local buses. I did spot some people lurking under a bridge thing across the road and eventually established that this was where the local city buses went from after finding one of the passengers who understood what I was trying to ask about the bus. I guess they don't want tourists to get the local bus for just VND5000 when they can fleece them for so much more with taxis and shuttles!
Last night I had to switch my aircon over to heat - after nearly teo weeks of fans and aircon tog et through the night without melting this was very strange - but its still not been particularly cold today. I went for lunch with my new housemate Zoe and it was eaten on midget plastic chairs by the side of the road and it was wa
I'm waiting for the city to come back to life after Tet and for the shops to all open again so I can go and get myself sorted with some bedding. Right now I am using my sleeping bag liner as I have no sheets. Thankfully I have a pillow and a duvet but I need to get linen but nowhere is open at the moment. I might venture out tomorrow and see if any of the places in the old quarter are open but they may well be closed until Monday.
Right now I'm sorting through my photos. I didn't realise quite how many I'd taken! Once I've sorted them I'll stick some up in various places but right now here are a couple of my favourites:
This is the mosque in Brunei. We went for dinner in the evening then headed to the mosque and got there as the sun was setting. This made the cky a cool colour alongside all the different colours of the mosque.
It also looks pretty cool changed into black and white!
A monkey!!!
Petronas Towers at night
2 comments:
Awesome photos! That sucks about the taxis though, and how there is someone ready to swindle you at every corner! I guess it makes sense with Vietnam being a poor country and lots of tourists coming through, though. I'm just glad you know what you're doing!
Ya I'm wise to a lot of the scams now and know how to dodge them! I'm sure I still get ripped off on occasions though - most of the time I don't even notice as whatever I'm paying still seems like a bargain to me!
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