hanoi and halong bay
Travel Location: Ha-Noi,Vietnam
we arrived in hanoi weary after our long bus journey from dien bien phu. it was dark, damp and the bus station smelt of wee. but we hopped in our taxi and were soon at our hotel.
we did not have high hopes for hanoi as i have decided i don’t like big cities much and everyone we met in laos told us vietnam was horrible, especially the northern vietnamese who are out to rob you blind, apparently. it turned out that we quite liked the place. i wouldn’t go as far as to say i loved it or would jump at the chance to go back but i would not put people off going. the traffic was a bit of a handful after the quiet street of laos but once we got used to just walking across the road and ignoring the motorbikes it was much easier. and although there was more hassle from tour agents/cab drivers/shop keepers than in laos it’s not so bad, they don’t chase you down the street or anything.
i felt like i was 6 years old and back at the top of the death slide at bowood park
we spent most of our time lazing around in patisseries, a wonderful legacy from the french and watching old ladies do strange exercises by the lake but did manage to fit in a few sights. best was a visit to see Uncle Ho’s preserved body at his mausoleum. it was all deadly serious and quite surreal, he looked very small and had bright orange skin, but that could have been the lights. we also went to the temple of literature – a pagoda dedicated to Confucius where the trainee mandarins lived back in the day. exam results going back hundreds of years or written on giant stone tablets, which are themselves on the back of turtles that look a lot like sea lions – it just needs some elements and we could be in discworld. we also splashed out and went to a fancy french restaurant for lunch. i had duck and lychees in a red wine jus. i thought wow this sauce is really nice and wondered why and then it came to me that i haven’t had any wine (in a glass or on a plate) since we left oz. thanks again to the french.
whilst in hanoi we booked a tour to ha long bay.
*********only read this bit if you are interested in booking a tour – irrelevant to all you lovely friends and family that just want to see what we are up to!*
we spent ages deciding what sort of tour to go on. there are hundreds of stories on the internet about agencies that rip you off. initially we were going to make our own way to cat ba island and book a place on a boat from there. we found what looked like a good company (who had lots of good reviews on the interweb) called cat ba ventures, but unfortunately no-one else had booked a trip with them so it was just too expensive. but for those of you who are richer than us they offered us a boat to ourselves, where we could chooses where to go, when to swim etc for 220 dollars. but then you have to pay to get to the island etc.. anyway we ended up booking on the fantasea boat – through their office not an agent, it was $58 for 2days/1 night. food was okay – not amazing. boat was very nice, bed comfy and cabin roomy, but our cabin was at the back so could we hear the generator all night. comfy sun beds on the upper deck, karaoke if you wanted (we didn’t), kayaks and no random extra day trippers cluttering the p[lace up! overall tour was good fun, but not sure if it was worth the xtra money – some places offered the same length tour for $25.8*********************
hello again. ha long bay is and area of karst scenery in the sea just north of hanoi. it was beautiful and the hundreds of tour boats that are all done up to look like old fashioned junks make your photos even prettier. from teh photos you can see it was very hazy in halong bay and we thought maybe even smoggy, although it is a long way from the city. when we got back we saw a program on bbc world about the “big brown asian cloud” apparently this cloud stretches all the way from india to beijing. it is getting thicker and bigger and you can see it on satellite photos. the professor man being interviewed said he would think twice about bringing up children in hong kong because of it. so there you go, blame the romantic mist shrouded karst on all the people in india and china cooking on wood burning stoves.
anyway, back to the trip. we stopped at an impressive cave but no photos as i left the camera on the boat, pictures of caves are always rubbish anyway. also went kayaking in the heaviest, least maneuverable boats i have ever been in. and the paddles seemed to be made out of scaffolding poles. me and the boy had the usual arguments about steering – we really should have kayak each next time – but didn’t fall in and gave our arms a good workout. we also jumped off the top deck of the boat into the sea. it was quite scary looking down – maybe a 6m drop – i felt like i was 6 years old and back at the top of the death slide at bowood park, but this time it only took 5 minutes to pluck up the courage not 30. and i should add that i was the first person in our tour group to do it. after lunch on the boat we got back on our bus to hanoi, via the same souvenir “rest” stop that we stopped at on he way. don’t buy anything here – the same stuff is for sale in hanoi shops for much less. we wandered around hanoi for a little while, ate as much pizza as we could for 3 pounds and then hopped on a train to ninh binh – about three hours away.
