Forget culture... VinPearl rocks!

I should be embarrassed, but I'm not.

I've watched the sun rise at the Taj Mahal (you know the story), I've sat down with thousands of Sikhs eating dinner at their holiest site, I've climbed a Himalayan peak and got lost in a bay of two thousand Limestone Karsts. It's been quite the trip so far.

But the best day?  Vinpearl. Vietnam's premier amusement/water/entertainment park. I barely slept the night before in anticipation, dragging Sarah out of bed at 7am, flagging down a taxi and into the cable car queue to the Island all for 8am. Opening time!

100% unexcited. Miserable. Want to go home.

The cable car over to the island was great fun - 3.3km long with beautiful views. I also got into a very animated chat with the granny in our carriage who was complaining in Vietnamese about having her peanuts confiscated by the guards (I think that's what she said). I animatedly got angry about losing my Oreo's to the guards. Hilarity ensued. Then she wanted to know my weight in case the big Western giant made the cable snap. Cheeky mare.

Heading out to VinPearl island

A little bit nervous about spending the day with me
(and maybe going on slides and rollercoasters!)

We make it to the other side, I grab Sarah's hand and we run through the shops, boulevards, empty fairground and into the epic waterpark. It's got big slides, steep slides, bumpy slides, racing slides, ring slides, dark slides and big, massive ring slides. Brilliant. 

Then we noticed how quiet it was.

Very quiet!

The waterpark didn't open until 10am... Sarah was less than impressed by this! We went back to the park gates and couldn't get out! Somehow we'd managed to sneak in and the gates had been locked again behind us! SO, we enjoyed the beach and I ran around the slides plotting my route for what to go on first. I felt like Michael Jackson with his own personal themepark. Similarities stop there.

How much fun?!

Loads of fun!

Big slide into this, then you spin round and round before
you fall out the bottom

The Tsunami - Sarah chickened out when we did this
So I went down on a big two seater on my own. A bit flappy.

So we had to sit and wait here until 10am... hard life!

Tick tock tick tock... eventually my watch shows 10am, so I run to the locker room and chuck my bags in. I keep the ice cream money my Mum gave me in my neck purse.

Or is it from the locker lady?

I found an inner tube (and Sarah) and we choose the biggest slide to go on first. Sarah's terrified, but I convince her to get involved. 

The park staff aren't quite as excited as me... but after 15 minutes they start showing up, then the next FOUR hours are filled with us going up and down and up and down. Loved it. Sarah's normally scared of stuff like this, but she did most of them. Not all, but most. I did all of them. Too many times. 

This is as busy as it got!

Evidence that Sarah's now a tough guy!

A very happy me

Sarah looking very proud of herself!

Somehow I managed to get tired of the water park by about 3pm (yep - we spent 7 hours in there). So we moved on to the funfair... Rollercoasters, waltzers, swinging chairs. Then on to the amusement arcade for an hour or 2, with far too many ski runs, car races, air hockey, rodeo bull riding and me peeling Sarah away from her new addiction to a shooting game, Time Crisis 4. Scary stuff watching her play that...

Then on to the huge bobsleigh run that they've built up the mountain side (no photos, sorry!) Before heading back out to catch a cable car back at about 7pm.

But not before one more time on the rollercoaster though. With no-one else on it, I sat in the front seat and was allowed to keep going round and round until someone else queued up!

A really great day (Sarah loved it a lot too, but I've written this blog!) A huge thanks to Sarah's workfriends  and Alex & Suz for this present - a very different day to anything else we've done this trip and really enjoyable.

Snorkelling!

First of all - a big thank you to everyone at my (now ex) work and Alex and Suzanne for our watery presents. We spent the first on snorkelling and the second on a water park (more on that day of fun to follow soon).

Unfortunately, we had a little camera malfunction on our snorkelling day (the battery ran out before we took any photos), which means we are having to do the unthinkable and steal a few photos from the web to bring this post to life!

The beautiful Cham Islands
(no credit for the photo unfortunately)

We had a fantastic day with Cham Islands Diving who picked us up early for our one hour boat trip from the coast out to the islands. For me, the boat trip was definitely not a highlight of the day as it was incredibly rocky, meaning I spent the entire trip lying down!

However, the day soon improved when we anchored beside an uninhabited island and jumped off fully geared up in wet suits and snorkelling masks. We saw SO many fish and some amazing coral, both at this spot, and the second spot we were taken to for some more snorkelling an hour and half later. We could see (and dive down) to the ocean floor 10m below, which was teeming with incredible shapes and colours of fishies.

Here's a few of the fishes we saw:

We never knew starfish come in blue!

Saw lots of these black spiky sea urchins, a foot across!

And we even spotted a little nemo!

The day out also included a delicious lunch on a beautifully quiet beach on one of the larger islands and some more snorkelling from the shore before heading back to the mainland - a nausea free journey thanks to the tablet I was donated!

All in all a beautiful day - seeing some amazing sea life - thank you!!

Chilling in Hoi An

Whilst Hoi An was a place for motorcycle and shopping adventures, we also made sure we saw a bit more of the town than just the shops and motorbike rental place!

We came to Hoi An on the train from Hue - a beautiful journey taking in similar scenery to Matt's motorbike journey.

Platform at Hue - although 'platform' doesn't really describe it!

Hoi An itself is a beautiful old town, with the centre of the town being a UNESCO World Heritage site. Luckily this meant some of the roads didn't have the usual whizzing motorbikes on them.

But no real escape from them!

We spent a relaxing day visiting various historic sites around the town, including the Japanese Covered Bridge.

We're not sure quite what makes it Japanese...

As well as old houses, temples and museums. Here's a few of Matt's shots:

Colourful mural

Spiral incense burner from below

Life size dragon

Beautiful textures and colours

Alongside the tailoring shops, another popular purchase were lamps - you could find them everywhere!

Probably not a good idea for our backpacks!

Spot the traditional Vietnamese hat

We also fitted in a visit to My Son - a collection of Cham temples outside of Hoi An... and definitely a good warm up for Angkor Wat.

One of the better preserved buildings
Unfortunately much of the complex
was bombed during the Vietnam War

Luckily we didn't meet the spider

And at night Hoi An was lovely just to stroll around.. and enjoy the atmosphere!

Street game involving hitting a hanging plant pot with
your eyes shut - pretty tricky

Lovely!

OK, and have a beer or two...

or even 10 - when you can have
that many of these for just £1!

M&S Summer Collection 2012

So you might all be wondering what I was up to while Matt was having a whale of a time on the motorbike. But there is no need to worry that I was moping after my absent husband. Oh no - I was shopping, and what better place to indulge than in Hoi An - the tailoring capital of the world (or at least we thought so!). With over 200 tailoring shops to choose from, offering a huge range of clothes, footwear, bags and more, an extra day on my own to browse was very welcome!

What can we say - we got a bit carried away!

The night before Matt (finally) settled on a winter coat and was measured up by Lei - the loveliest Vietnamese lady we have met. Matt was very chuffed with his purchase when we picked it up that evening. Lei was happy because we were happy (they all say that!)

Not sure it should be worn
with flip flops in future!

Matt also bought a couple of shirts - one sensible white one for work, one CRAZY print one for... we're not sure what. But it was that or a lime green suit.

GORGEOUS!

I splashed out on my shopping day on two tailor made dresses, a pair of tailor made boots and shoes. A very interesting experience with a tracing of my foot being taken, biro marks all up my leg and lots of calf girth measurements taken!

The fashion show in our 'honeymoon' suite (spot the heart in the background) was hilarious. Well, we had fun anyway!

Spotty dress and pixie boots

Close up on the boots

Blue dress - a perfect fit!

Top Gear

After the best part of 3 months together, with only ever 15 minutes chunks of time apart, Sarah and I have had a day apart! Don't worry, the glorious Cope-Broad union is fine - but thought this adventure was safer done on my own!

I took my Compulsory Bike Training back in Norfolk before we left on this slightly epic honeymoon - knowing that at some point we'd need to use mopeds or motorbikes to get us around. Vietnam's roads are very different to the sleepy backwaters of the Norfolk Broads - there are millions of bikes buzzing around in every direction. We've seen a family of 5 crowded onto one bike, baby balanced on the bars. Live pigs being transported on the sides and back of a bike. And a very odd sense of road safety.

But - the roads are amazing, the scenery stunning and Top Gear's Vietnam special was still in my head. I had to get on a bike and explore. If you haven't seen the programme, have a look on YouTube and watch out for the Hai Van pass, part of my day out.

Step 1 - get a bike, £3 a day for hire

Quite nippy, without 4 children  or pigs

Step 2 - consider buying a present to strap onto the back of the bike

Not quite my colour

Step 3 - pick up some dodgy tailoring

A sneak preview of our fashion blog
(in production)

Step 4 - Head out to Hai Van pass, described by Clarkson as one of the most beautiful roads in the world. 

Traffic rule 1 - always give way to bigger things!

What I didn't bet on, was that Danang (Vietnam's 5th largest city) would be quite so busy at rush hour. That was quite an interesting experience. Plus I got lost. But, I made it out eventually by following the Sun!

Step 5 - Kick it into a low gear, and head up to the ancient natural barrier of South and North Vietnam - snaking round hairpin turns and steep inclines. Dead of traffic, thanks to the super new tunnel far below.

The view from the top. Stunning!

American Fortifications

Step 6 - Complete the journey, by heading back down the other side. Then come back to the top again!

Dream roads

Step 7 - Complete your planned day of motoring by 1pm, so explore what the locals consider to be the  best coastal road. Top Gear was wrong, the locals are right.

The most fun road I've ever tackled

Smooth and curvy...

Touring round Monkey Mountain was stunning - the perfected roads were deserted as all the resorts are still being built. Then the building sites end, and the concrete track to the old radar stations begin

Looking back to Danang City

Step 8 - realise it's 8 hours since you've eaten anything, so find somewhere without a single foreigner. After running out of petrol (and buying a litre of green liquid in a coke bottle, which seemed to make the engine work okay) I came across this simple restaurant with 40 buckets of live seafood outside. I settled on 0.5kg of Mussels for £1.50!

The waiters took it in turns to serve
the scary foreigner!

Step 9 - Get reunited with Sarah after a fantastic adventure of a day. I'd highly recommend the North-South (or vice versa!) trip by bike from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi, if this chunk of the journey is anything to go by. Just familiarise yourself with Vietnamese traffic mentality first!

I've smelled better.