"The 'Nam"

In the 'Nam...People still want my money, and although the rich are richer, the poor are still poor. For some reason it only really hit me today when I was walking back from having had dinner to my guesthouse, and from down this side road, a man came walking on all fours. I suppose its because Vietnam has "wealthy" parts, which Cambodia was completely lacking, so its more of a shock when you're walking down a normal street and someone that has been disabled by whatever - maybe "Agent Orange" or maybe some "natural" birth defect - suddenly pops up, and you're reminded that these people still exist and still don't get the care that we would expect them to receive in a western country.

My favourite part has been a boat trip around Halong Bay in the north of Vietnam - I went on a tour with about 15 other travellers, and we sailed on a "junk" around the bay, which is dotted all over with 1,600 islands - the "karst" scenery that I missed in Thailand - it's here too! Really nice and peaceful trip - no one beeping horns, no motorbikes, no loudspeaker blasting out the news across the city at 6am!! The news that a typhoon was coming our way didn't really worry us, but the tour guides and police decided we should leave a bit earlier than planned to be on the safe side, however we didn't even get a spot of rain. We visited an "amazing cave" (as our guide unnecessarily bigged it up to us), where we were shown the usual animals that creative imaginations had conjured up in the shapes of the stalagmites/tites. There were a couple that were unmistakable though - a "lucky" turtle (why aren't these things ever unlucky?!) which we all ceremoniously patted on the head for good luck and health.

We stopped off at a floating fishing village to buy some crabs and shrimp for dinner, and slept on the boat the first night. After 6pm we were allowed to jump off the top of the junk - maybe about 7 or 8 metres above the water - and it was dark by then - I managed to get the guts up to do it, and it was brilliant! V. scarey though. The second day we had a 3-hour trek on Cat Ba island - hard work! - lots of trees everywhere, but no animals apart from the odd goat, and virtually no birds which seemed strange for such an undeveloped area. Our guide was keen to get the guys in a footie match (only guys - girls play football??? Impossible!! Craaaazzzy!) on the beach. He was keen for there to be a bet, but fortunately it was only to buy a beer for each member of the winning team. The previous night he'd had a $30 bet on some match, and the next night, he bet on the ManU vs Newcastle Utd match $40 - big money for someone who earns $80 a month! But we could see people in the bar we watched the match in making bets throughout the night - gambling is a popular hobby in Vietnam it seems! Our guide told us that people even end up betting their motorbikes - worth maybe $200-400!! So much when they earn so little!