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Published: August 6th 2007
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Bonzaiiii....
It seems much more sensible doing this in day light and not under the influence... but we won't go there... We've been pretty flat out for the last week, having suits made, relaxing on the beach, taking a boat trip out to Ha Long Bay and Cat Ba Island and watching Water Puppets in Hanoi.
Hoi An was a very nice little city with streets which gradually disappeared into tiny lane ways. We hired bicycles for 10,000 dong a day (less than a dollar) and rode out to Cua Dai Beach. There were more beds like at Nha Trang but we didn't want to spend money to sit down again. We walked further and found a woman with sun beds for no cost - except you had to buy a drink. That was fine with us and we ended up having 2 drinks each and a plate of tasty spring rolls.
We also had clothes made in Hoi An. We each chose a different tailor and were very happy with the results. While I've kept a pair of linen pants and a skirt with me, we'll have to wait until we get home to give the rest of the clothes a wear test (we posted them home from Hanoi). Apart from tailors, there wasn't really much else in Hoi
Tandem Biking on Cat Ba Island
Yes the bike was pink, and yes it had flowers on the spokes... but after a few beers, who cares! :) An but it was quite a relaxing few days - until my tailor had to remake one skirt in an hour before we were picked up by a taxi to head to the train station (mission succesful).
On the train ride to Hanoi, we met a lovely man, Hung, and his wife who were travelling on business. Hung was able to practice his English and we exchanged email addresses with a promise to let him know if we are ever in Dalat (apparently a beautiful town near Nha Trang).
We arrived in Hanoi at 4:30am and wandered to Hoan Kiem Lake, in the centre of the old quarter. Although dawn was only just breaking there was a crowd of people walking clockwise around the lake and doing their exercises. We took the opportunity to sit and take it all in as nothing was open yet anyway. We spent the day booking our trip to Ha Long Bay and our train ticket to China - the train only goes on Tuesday and Friday nights.
Ha Long Bay was awesome!!! We opted for a 3 day, 2 night trip with one night on the boat and one night on
The Ha Long Bay Group
Us with our new travel friends James, Karla and Gonzalo. We were waiting for our boat back to the mainland after a fun 3 days in Ha Long Bay. Cat Ba Island. The co-operative style of running the tours between different companies confused us all as some people took our bus but a different boat or, took our boat but couldn't kayak as they would kayak the next day on a different boat... The trip as a whole, though, was excellent! Day one was spent travelling the 3 hours to Ha Long Bay and then out to where we moored for the night. We kayaked through a short tunnel into a secluded closed off bay where everything echoed around us - or was totally silent. Afterwards we all swam around and most of us jumped off the 3rd storey roof of the boat. Lew and some crazy Kiwi boys also jumped of the top of the captains room (4 storeys!). The Kiwis and Lew also tried some crazy jumps at about midnight after a few beers.
On Cat Ba Island, Lew and I and an English guy, James, were the only 3 (from 16) that got off the boat and made it into the same group going for a bike ride to "Hospital Cave". We could choose either trekking for 6km or riding for 15km. We were all
Beautiful Ha Long Bay
These limestone formations where amazing... pleased with the bike option as it meant we kept a cool breeze going past us and were able to see much more of the country side. We then checked into the Sunflower Three hotel and met 2 other people joining our group. Karla and Gonzalo are on their honeymoon from Mexico and we have been able to grab some great tips off Gonzalo who lived in Spain for 5 years.
The afternoon of day 2 was spent getting out to Monkey Island where Lew and I hiked for over an hour over razor sharp volcanic rock before seeing the monkeys on the main beach we first arrived at. That night, after dinner and a few drinks at the Green Mango Bar, we all got the great idea of hiring tandem bikes. Pretty funny stuff! Luckily no-one crashed but there were some close calls - it really is a lot harder than it looks.
After returning to Hanoi, we met up with our Mexican friends and saw the famous Water Puppet show. First class tickets were sold out so we got second class tickets which turned out to be fold up chairs placed down the aisle in single
Tailor Made Suits
In the sewing capital of Hoi An. They whipped up 2 suits (w/ 4 pants) and 6 business shirts, all tailor made with material choosen by me, in under 2 days.... nice! file. Didn't really make a difference to the show though, which was pretty cool.
Today has turned into an "update the blog day" 'cause it's raining again. We head to China tomorrow night so we just have a short time left in Vietnam to buy some last minute stuff and hang around killing time.
Looking forward to China.
-Holly and Lew.
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Ang
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Time in the sun
Nice to see Lew that that lovely shade of Red has now turn into a nice tan (not) unlike Holly who is starting to tan up. Keep on having fun and we look forward to your blog updates. Who knows, maybe you can have a spin off show from the Leyland brothers (travel all over the country side ask the Usher ask the Usher couple )