Load of junk

Spent the last 24 hours in Ha Long bay which is one if the most beautiful places I've ever seen. If you're a Top Gear fan it's where they turned their mopeds into motorboats. Lots of limestone islands sticking out of the ground. And I mean LOTS. 2000 I think. To be honest I can't really remember as we've had so much info imparted in the last two days I'm getting confused. Suffice to say there's a lot. And we cruised through them in a wooden junk. All I could think of was Roger Moore in those 70s Bond movies which always seemed to involve a fight on a junk at some point.

No fights today though. Just warm sunshine and plenty of seafood. Actually this is causing some confusion. The prawn allergic (me) and the three vegetarians are being kept apart from the rest at meal times. It's like being on the kids table at Christmas. Supposedly it's to prevent confusion but seeing as they still bring meat spring rolls and fried pork to the table I'd suggest it's not working. Ok for me though. Except they also brought prawns. I'll assume its the language barrier.

Getting there yesterday was an experience in itself. The drivers are totally suicidal yet there appear to be no crashes and very few dented cars. That might be more due to the 50 kph speed-limit though which explained the 4 hours to do 140 kms. I'm also amazed that these Vietnamese drivers can turn a two lane road into five lanes. That is some awesome filtering going on right there.

We passed some huge factories (Foxconn was one so expect your next iProduct to be Vietnamese) and went through a coal mining town, the streets of which were black, along with the people, buildings and cows. I'm guessing they don't hand out many "accident free days" t-shirts here judging by the thongs all the workers were wearing.

So now we are just waiting to get on the train for the 12 hour trip to Hue. I've never been on a train that long. Even with British Rail's help and leaves on the line. Apparently the food on board is not really safe so we have stocked up with stuff for breakfast. Unfortunately the only place nearby is a 7-eleven clone so it looks like kit-kats, crisps and biscuits for brekkie.

I've discovered two more fascinating facts today. Firstly that the music of Sigur Ròs matches the passing Vietnamese countryside perfectly.

Secondly Top Gear was on the tv in Vietnamese last night. You can't escape Jeremy Clarkeson anywhere in the world.