Vietnam - Han Oi and Halong Bay

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Han Oi and Halong Bay

Sinapore airport was jazzed up like something out of Vegas. The airport is amazing and probably one of the best attractions of Singapore itself! The shopping is amazing, there are restaurants, bars, free internet where ever you look and even random films being played in the departure lounge. Rumor has it there is a swimming pool there as well! One flight to Ho Chi Minh city to an airport with two cafes.... and that's it...

We managed to located a locke room and decided that we had just about enough time to grab a cab and see one of the many temples in Ho Chi Minh before we had to get on our flight to Han Oi. It was a bit ambitious. A watchful taxi driver pounced upon us and offered to take us where ever we wanted for a small fortune. We managed to haggle the price down - but not by much. Tired and weary we jumped in the cab and were waltzed through the masses of motorbikes and traffic. It was chaos. Worse that Egypt or China or the M25 for that matter. After half an hour of driving around we were still not there, our driver was either lost or going the very scenic route. We showed him a map pointed to the temple and repeated its name a couple of times. Eventually we got there.. whether it was the temple we wanted we were not sure. None the less our driver said he would wait for an hour for us so that we could look around.
The temple was gorgeous. It was very old, when you walked in you could feel the history and culture seeping out of the walls. Insense was everywhere. It looks as though worshipers held insense when they preyed, they bowed a number or time to different god and then deposited a single insense stick in front of each god. The room was hazy and light burst in from the windows in the roof creating a strobe lighting affect across the room.
An old man with a massive hairy mole spoke to me and invited me to take pictures. It made me feel a lot better about being in the temple. I didn't want to intrude. I was however a bit concerned about the hair coming out of this man's face as it was white blonde - it looked like highlights to me....

Back in the taxi we head back to the airport - which took half the time of course. It amazes me how the cars do not crash in Ho Chi Minh. There are just so many people on the roads. All vehicles weave around each other, do not seem to stick to their sides of the road and do not seem to have any restrictions on the number of people that are allowed to fit on a moped... As Kirsty would say.. "Health and Safety..."

We flew to Han Oi and fortunately had arranged to be picked up by our hotel. I did not have the strength for more discussions about cost. Our drive to the hotel was also eventful. It started to rain - and I mean rain. Flooded roads that would normally cause a massive tail back in London were just being driven straight through. People were stopping their motorbikes in the middle of the road just so that they could get out some waterproofs. The classic moment was however when a bus in front of our car broke down. All the passengers got out and stood in the middle of the road and all the cars behind the bus simply crossed over to the other side of the road. Dodged the cars coming towards them and just carried on down the road... Simple.
Our hotel was nothing short of amazing. We had a massive rooms with wooden floors, a fridge freezer, a TV with Sky and a computer with free internet. Not to mentions a massive bed and a massive clean bathroom. I danced around the room like a child for a bit and then sat down ordered room service and watched the Liverpool v Chelsea game. I was in heaven.. And we won.

We booked a load of trips through the hotel and so the very next day we were off up and on our way to Halong Bay. I must have been getting used to all the traveling as some how despite the chaotic driving and mini bus packed with every man and his dog I slept for the bulk of the way. We drove through a lot of country side and saw a lot of people working the fields. There were many people sitting on stalls just waiting for someone to stop and buy some fruit from them.

At Halong Bay we were taken to our boat and shown our rooms. A far cry from the boat that I slept on in Australia - I had a cabin with my own en-suite! Beautiful. Our lunch was a banquet of meat, fish rice and a token bowl of chips. The boat set off down the bay, we crept down the river which was surrounded by large calm mountains. We made a stop at a cave and took a walk through to see all the limestone formations that had occurred as a result of weathering over the years. The site had recently been granted a World Heritage status. The shapes formed by the limescale were thought to have resembled different animals and had been softly lit in different colours.
The sun set on the bay which was as close to perfect as you could get. As our boat slipped down the lake we watched the sun set behind the mountains. Kirsty and I sat on the deck and celebrated our trip with a couple of drinks. As night approached we were treated to yet another banquet meal (so much for loosing weight in Asia) and we watched all the tiny lights from other cruise boats dot the river.

The next morning we embarked upon some Kayaking through the bay so that we could go and explore a couple of caves. By the end of the excersion we were knackered but quite accomplished at turning around. Though admittedly we did have one episode where we crashed into a rock - a learning curve.
The boat took us through the "floating village" and small boats filled with fruit came up to our ship, little children tried to sell us pineapples and the like. I felt very bad for them and bought a whole orchard. I then ran up to the top deck to sunbathe and try to eat some of the food that I had bought.

On the way back to the Han Oi we made a quick stop off for the loo. Big mistake. They were rancid. Flies and mossies everywhere, they all seemed to be attracted to toilet water - which would be ok if you could just jump in and out. But no... I had to go and get myself stuck in the loo.. Not only was I eaten alive but I came close to fainting from the smell. Fortunately all the fruit that I had bought earlier gave me enough strength to break the door open and free myself. Note to self - never go to the toilet...

Back at our palace of a hotel Kirsty and I (covered in knat bite cream) went out for dinner. We found that we were on main road for food and drinks which was awesome. The streets were filled with people, some locals were just sitting on the floor cooking sweet potatoes and trying to sell them. A lot of bars were simple stalls with plastic chairs in the road. It all had a pretty special atmosphere to it. We ate some traditional food and found a little bar to head into. It had loads of cushions and had a very red feel to it. Bob Marley music and more insense. Two cocktails later and we were in the mood to explore some more. We chatted to a number of people who had come over and were living in Vietnam, I was really intregued though the general consensus was that it was an amazing experience but that it wore you down a bit.
We chatted to a group of lads from Canada and ended up doing a lot of shots. One of the lads claimed to be a bar man and so took charge of mixing various cocktails. I was not so convinced. After many "cocktails" later Kirsty and I decided to drag ourselves back to our hotel. We wandered down the road and saw that the lights of the hotel were switched off. Two guys who worked in the hotel were asleep in the Lobby on a mattress. I banged on the door and woke them up. Sang them a few songs and asked them to let us into the hotel. None of this I remembered the next morning....

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