Kelly and Clare Go Travelling!

When we were waiting for the Overnight sleeper bus, we were walked to the main road where we had to wait. The Main road was also a three lane duel carriageway and rammed full of mopeds, motorbikes, bicycles, cars, buses and coaches! Its was completely insane! We had barely experience the driving in Vietnam yet, so knew that we had an experience coming up!

We weren't really sure what to expect, so when the bus turned up we thought " yeah ok its not that bad, doesnt look like it will blow up".

Inside the bus are two layers of seats! One on the floor, the others are about shoulder height when you stand up! The seats recline, have seat belts, air con and even a reading light for when it gets really dark. It stops regularly at service's so that people can get snacks and use the toilet (however if its me, you wont use the toilet for 12 hours because the smell makes you sick in your mouth and I would rather wet myself that have to do that). The journey down to Hue was not to bad. Clare described it like being on the Harry Potter Bus which it did actually feel like! The driving was insane and I was sat right over the engine so I could hear it roaring over my headphones!! And the driver keeps beeping his horn, and its like a fog horn!! But suprisingly I actually managed to sleep through!

We arrived at Hue around 9am, but couldnt check in until 11am, but we had booked a queen size dorm bed each so that we could get a decent nights sleep, and were in a twelve bed dorm but it was definately more chilled out than Hanoi Backpackers! No wee-ing next to the bed or anything which was a bonus!

We were proactive, rented bicycles in an attempt to head to the beach but when we nearly cycled onto a Duel Carriage way we headed back and found that it was 40km away!! So probably a good job we didn't go! We went to the Citadel and walked around a bit, but it was really hot so we go in a cyclo for two and had a tour of the citadel and surrounding markets before being dropped back at the hostel. We found some amazing trousers made from Vietnamese silk and they are so comfy, its like wearing PJS. But unfortunately we both burnt a bit which wasn't so grand. After a little nap we had dinner downstairs in the cafe and started drinking Passionfruit leg openers in happy so they were buy one get on free. We started playing drinking games and were quickly joined by some of the people we had met on the Ha Long Bay trip. We all ended up in a club called Brown Eyes, drinking buckets of Vodka Red Bull and dancing like crazy people with the locals! Was a rather eventful night!
The next day we lazed around and didn't do much. Some other people we met at Ha Long Bay arrived and we ended up going back to Brown Eyes that night with one of the girls who was TOTALLY wild and lovely! This was also a very good night, but I made a little vomcano in the night and felt disgusting when I was woken by Clare going "Its five to eight" (we had to be downstairs at 8am) so I shot out of bed and shoved a load of stuff into my bag, not with care. The boy on the bunk above me asked if I had his T-shirt on the bunk, but being hung over in a rush and very tired I just shouted "I havent got time to look" and ran out the door! Slept all the way on the bus and felt so much better afterwards! Arriving in Hoi An was nice... so was the suprise I had in my rucksack

xx

Attempting to leave captain hostel after a heavy night out probably wasnt the brightest idea in the world but hey we managed it eventually! The woman on the reception didnt know what a toilet was and didnt seem to understand the urgency when we couldnt wait around for her to find out!! After a lot of discussion about the new hostel the staff wrote down what the road and hostel were called and gave it too the taxi driver who turned out to be the same one that had dropped us home the night previous! And turned up at Rock and Wood.... and it was amazing! So much nicer than the Captain and we liked the location more! It was close to subway stations and local shops which on the first day there we managed to by some amazing trousers from (clare got spotty and i got flowery)! They were the best thing we had seen in ages! The hostel had stopped serving food so we went to a local street stall where the man sold all kinds of filled bread and spring onion pancakes and it was nice! Shame there was no garlic bread with cheese though
There were already two people in our six bed dorm but we never met them, and a man called Richard rocked up the same day as us. He was hanging too so we all napped for a good couple of hours! The air con in that room was the most amazing we have had so far! It was like the arctic! We got talking to Richard later that night and he recommended a big bus tour to us as a good way to see Shanghai so that night we organised to head over to the depot tomorrow morning with him. We had an early night, after a couple of drinks in the bar and chatting to a few people, since we were planning to get up around 9am.
Headed on the subway to the Big bus tour which started in Peoples Square and it was ridiculously humid that day! We were glad to be sat down with the wind in our faces seeing the sights rather than attempting to get buses or walking around and ending up sweaty and lost. Not a good look! We saw Mc Donalds, KFC, American Apparrell and lots of designer shops. We went round on the bus about one and a half times and ended up getting off ouside some of the shops and having a look, try some clothes on and see if there was anything nice for us! Ended up going to Waga's for lunch which in china is an italian bistro/restaurant/cafe. The food was immense and we had a glass of wine too. We booked ourselves on the Big Bus tour of the the bund river later that night and walked from where we had been shopping to the bund, which was a little farther than we had anticipated and we were tired and sweaty once we had finished, then we had to hang around for the tour guide to sort out the boat trip, which turned out the be one of the most boring hours of my life!! Got some nice photos of the skyline but thats about it! Richard bough some weird little skate things that you strap to your heel and use, they were in bright pink and cost about $2. We decided that we would use them later when we had a few drinks in the bar, even though we had attempted to use them on the boat, which i could see ending in man overboard but they were too hard to use. It also rained for most of the time we were on the rivertour. That night we drank in the bar along with some people we had started talking too! We recruited them for going out and ended up drinking vodka in the dorm, playing cards prior to leaving. Dom tooks us to a club on the fifth floor of what looked like an office building and it was a a crazy trance night at a club called M2 and hell it was wild!! Left there about 4am, and headed to a restaurant where I ate literally the best food i've ever had! No Kebab or battered sausage will ever be enough again!! Richard left a day or so later and our new room mates were three irish girls (Emur, Ruth and Sue) and a canadian man (Jay) all of whom were an absolute giggle! That night was pretty crazy, ended up playing beer pong which is a bad thing to play if you have rubbish throwing abilities, but it does however mean you get drunk cheapily as you end up drinking the other teams beer when you lose! And we thought that playing a bit of music in our room about 2am would be harmless but it turned into a loud almost dorm party!
We had some complaints made and the next day when we went through reception they asked us (very nicelyl) if we would mind not doing that again! We didnt get up until 2pm, and we all trundered off in search of western food that would be stodgy, and found a papa john!!! Massive SCORE!! Best pizza! We had an early night that night as we had planned to go to the safari park over by Pudong airport the next day.
The search for the safari park initially sounded easy but certainly was not! We got the subway all the way to Pudong Airport, and were then getting a taxi, only we hadnt written it down in Chinese what we were looking for so we had to find someone to help us do that, then we had to find taxi's to take us who didnt want at first but we got in them and sat in them until they did. Me, Jay and Clare were in a taxi together and jay was giving what he thought was the english commentary of the discussion/arguement that the taxi drivers were having. It was really funny, mainly because his british accent was one that sounded like something from Mary poppins! But we eventually found it after being drove around in circles listening to celine dion "my heart will go on" and elton john "can you feel the love tonight". The drive around safari park was terrible because you were on a massive coach full of people and couldnt really see a thing, but the rest of it was brilliant. We saw the ostriches and one of them was doing a mating dance (or what we thought was a mating dance) so Clare started filming it, however we then realised that it was actually mating with one of the females and Clare stopped as it became clear she was them filming some kind of animal porn!! It was probably one of the most vile things i've seen in a while because the male just climbed of with it all hanging out and dripping everywhere and the female got up and could barely walk!! It was hilerious and vile! The Chinese people who were there were looking at our reaction more than the animals! We also saw monkeys, tigers, ligers, sloth bears (clares favourite, it begged for pringles on its hind legs), giant pandas, lesser pandas, anteaters etc. It was really fun. But so tiring walking around in the humidity!
When we got back it was about 7pm, and we all showered and went for a meal at this really fancy restaurant, where the food was lovely but there service was TERRIBLE!! The waiter was totally rude to clare when we asked about plain noodles because she didnt eat meat! He scoffed at her!! We were both fuming after that!! Clare went home after dinner and we all headed to kareoke bars and a couple of clubs! Got in about 7am maybe?! Clare had gone back and drank in the bar with some other people at the hostel and had a good night from what she said.
The next day was again a papa johns pizza at 4pm and then drinks in the bar with Jay and Danny a lad from scotland who was really nice and clare had spoke to the night previous and we all got drunk, they tought us how to shoot pool, watched Due date and just generally chill and had a laugh! Felt more normal than other things had, like we were all just hanging out.

The last couple of days in the Shanghai were rather no descript, we attempted to go to Chinese restaurant one night that turned out not great because they AGAIN didnt get the concept of vegetarian and we had only chinese to guess what to order by! Was interesting but left us hungry! We ended up buying lots of snacks from the familymart and munching on them.

The trip to the airport was really smooth, except for being packed onto the subway like sardines and when we got to the airport we both felt like we should be flying home, but we weren't! We were flying to Vietnam!

We were concerned our transfer request for the hostel wouldnt have been received, so when we sorted the visa out at the airport we were definately relieved when there was a man there with a sign that said "CLARE BAKER" The drive probably took about 45 minutes and it was raning all the way, but it was still exciting! Unfortunately they hadnt got our booking but still had space for us. The beds were particularly comfortable but not as bad as sleeping in a bar!

We booked the Ha Long Bay trip the next day and stayed that night.

HA LONG BAY

We got up early and headed down for breakfast after putting our luggage away. We were with a couple of people that we had spoken to the night before which was good. We loaded onto a little bus to head to Ha Long City, and we had a tour guided who talked us through some of the facts about Ha Long and also discussed Vietnamese customs and driving and various things on the bus before leaving us all to chill out and look at the scenary! It was raining and the driving was CRAZY! Worse that some of the stuff we had seen in China!
We stopped half way long after about an hour and a half at a pottery centre that sold gigantic urns and eagle statues, as well as snacks and drinks. The rest of the journey sort of disappeared into a mixture of brief sleep and staring out of the window. On arriving at the port it had stopped raining but was less humid too which was nice. We had to load onto a little taxi boat that takes you out to the actual "Jolly Roger" as they have named the boat. Everyone sits down and we all have a lovely vietnamese lunch (our chop stick ability is impecable however our ability to use a knife and fork is now diminishing) and we listen to how the three days will be set out and what will happen next, which was room allocation and sailing to the swimming spot. There was a bar on board that was as cheap as the hostel and they sold snacks too, but we didnt need them after stocking up on food at lunch and dinner.
From the swim spot everyone was jumping off the top of the boat, it was really high and a little slippy from all the rain, but eventually I threw myself off the top! It scared the crap out of me but I did it again afterwards! It was fun, but it kinda hurt your body a bit if you catch yourself wrong, and can nearly tear you in half with the wedgie it can give you!! We napped pretty soon after that as had drank some beer and didnt sleep too well the night before as the lads in our dorm had woke us up coming back. When we woke up it was dark! And at first I didnt have a clue where we were! We got up for dinner and then the drinking games started about 9.15pm. Initially started with Roxanne (which of course i was a dab hand at, thanks to all those games before we went out!!) and headed on to ring of fire in teams of probably 20 people on a big table with new rules that were hilerious with things like "sex change" where you swap clothes with someone of the opposite sex and then do all the things the boys have to do, and "shark attack" when you jump on your chair and make a shark fin on top of you head while shouting shark attack at the top of you voice. This all turned into a party on the boat which remained wild until about 4am! Clare stacked it on the wet deck and I slipped and gashed my foot on one of the wooden planks which hurt like hell when i realised why there was blood all over the bathroom floor the next day. The followinf night we stayed on an island that was just a party island with the people from the trip on it, all in bamboo huts and it rained loads over night. During the day we went tubing, where you superman lying down and hold on to handles on a inflatable raft, which then pulls you long and its so hard to hold on! Scary shit... squealled like a little girl, and when my fingers started to slip off I was going "Clare I can't hold on, I'm scared, I'm gonna drown" For those of us that have seen the fat american kid on the rollercoaster on youtube... that was me! I went into panic once I hit the water... it was open water and all sorts of thoughts were racing through my head. We came off the raft before we even left the bay as we sat too far forward on it and ended up nearly drowning then! The boys on the other raft had to get off to unceremoniously shove us back onto ours! Lovely! Ended up having to give up the game cos it was both knackering and in the end just too much to take. At least I can say I tried it and I hate it!! The island was amazing, and the floating villages were also spectacular!

Being back in Hanoi isn't great, a lad that slept in our dorm last night pissed all over the floor infront of our lockers so trying to pack this morning was a nightmare, but atleast all our stuff is now properly clean!! Heading to Hue later today on an overnight bus which should be interesting! Also booked flights from Ho Chi Mihn City (at the bottom of our vietnam tour) to Vientianne in Laos! Excited for a bit of beach and relax time because the citys are just so busy here! And humid, being near the sea to just head in when it gets to hot would be awesome!

Big Love Guys!!

Qingdao: The remaining days

Following our productive day we decided to have a drink the bar. We ate pizza, and started drinking, but realised that we could by a bottle of smirnoff vodka for 18 pounds (180 Yuan) so we did, and we got four bottles of orange and some ice with it! As you can imagin the humidity and the vodka were not a great mix, and we ended up singing along to a man playing a little acoustic set in the bar, and also having a silent rave in the hallway, after drinking for a while with Mr.Kim ( a lovely Korean man who was also staying in our dorm) and Greg (a french man trying to use his computer on the table next to us who we invited to drink with us!). I think we got to bed around 3am?
The next day we had to check out before 12 to move into another room, which was the next floor up. So we were both totally shattered and hanging, got into our room and it was a private dorm! So we literally slept all day long. Clare woke me up about 5pm. We went to a BBQ restaurant just down the road from the hotel and it was an experience. We took a wild stab in the dark as to what we were ordering as we only had pictures to go by, clare ordered what she thought was mussels but we don't think that is what they actually were. The "pork" was nice, however it could have quite easily been dog and i would not have had a clue! The previous night we had told Mr.Kim that we would go for a drink with him so we did, sat outside the hostel on the tinniest little wooden chairs with a lady that serves beer in a bag straight from the keg! Mr.Kim (who is a painter, poet and novellist and had written numerous travel books) invited us to Korea and to stay with him, saying that his daughter is very open minded... we wonder if he thinks we are lesbians! Had a pretty early night as the train to Shanghai was the following afternoon.

Shanghai: The first glimpse
We attempted to hail a cab to the train station the next morning, having little luck as usual, so ended up walking and getting caught in a massive downpour, so by the time we got to the trainstation we were soaked to the skin and dripping! We were wondering around trying to find the platform for a while, and Clare asked a young Chinese man, who responded with "can I help you my friends?" which was lovely! He showed us to the platform and made sure we got on the train ok! I accidently poked a woman in the eye with my bag strap whilst trying to find our seats, but didn't learn from that mistake and ended up doing it to the person sat behind her too!! The train journey was, again, fine and the second class soft seats were just as good as the first! We did have a massive moment of panic when the train kept telling us we were going to Beijing but it all turned out fine. We got to Shanghai... safe and sound, after a 7hr train journey.
The taxi rank at Shanghai Hong Qiao was a little more organised, and less of a free for all like the one at the airport, and the journey to the hostel was easy. Having driving through Shanghai at night as your first glimpse is pretty awesome because all the sky scrapers are lit up and it looks wonderful. Our hostel on the other hand... not so much. They might have a fancy rooftop bar but it cost an arm and a leg. It may have a fancy reception but you have to wear your shoes in the shower, take your own toilet roll and sleep under a towel on what feels like a plank of wood! The showers were that bad that I made a dirty protest and didnt shower for two days!

Our first day in shanghai was interesting. Our hostel was right by the Bund which is the famous Shanghai skyline. We refused to eat in the hostel because it was so expensive, so we went in the search of food, following the signs for the food quarter, but when we got there.... IT HADNT BEEN BUILT YET! So we were both absolutely starving, had been wondering round, were hot and bothered, so decided to jump on a bus... or three! Ended up in the middle of the suburban Shanghai (if there is such a place) with all the locals staring at us like we are aliens (which we are, if you check the back of the arrival card they give you as you fly into china). We got tempted to buy a scooter which would have cost us about 180 pounds but then we reconsidered after remembering the way people drive here! Its insane... a green man on a pedistrian crossing and a red light mean NOTHING here... especially if your on a moped! and they even drive on the pavement! Eventually gave up, got a taxi and ate at the hostel! We decided to attempt to find some bars later that night so bought vodka from the family mart next door and drank in the room. The hostel staff were very good and wrote the name of a street where there are lots of bars down in Chinese for us so we could give it to the taxi driver. Had no idea where we were going or what kind of place it would be but it was a little alleyway that had restaurants and bars scattered along the sides of it. We went into a bar called Rendezvous and there was a house band singing all the chart hits and everyone was singing and dancing along. We drank strawberry margaritas and danced with a lovely chinese woman who literally just copied how we danced! Met Noel who was orginally from Ghana but was living in America, and he took us to a couple of clubs. It was a pretty good night, but Clare wasn't feelling best and we got back about three. Clare took the role of captain chunder that night. We had cancelled our last night at the Captain hostel because it was really bad! and we were moving to rock and wood the next day.

Which is where we are now!

Big love xx