Blogs from Northeast, Vietnam, Asia - page 28

Finally left the Elizabeth Hotel. I guess it was okay but I was on the fifth floor with no lift or porter so it was a drag - and nothing worked quite right - one day no towels, the next no electricity, no internet most of the time. A lot of people stayed for a night and moved on. The trip to Ha Long bay took 4 hours in a reasonable bus but the roads are terrible in places and the maximum speed on the highway is 50kms an hour. At Ha Long we loaded all our gear onto a tender but when we got to our junk - it really was junk. Then followed a big drama between the tour operator and a Finnish/Russian couple and a Spanish couple who were not happy being ... read more

Today we started by hopping onto a minibus to travel from Hanoi to Hao Long to get aboard a junk on Hao Long bay. The trip on the bus was a bit rough as we were in the very back and the roads were quite bumpy so by the time we got there, Ted at least was ready to get out and never look back. After a bit of queuing in the parking lot things got sorted out and our guide 'Mike' led us to the tender for a ride to the junk. The harbor was absolutely crammed with junks. Supposedly according to the lonely planet guidebook there are 150 of them taking tourists around. Our book was published in 2003 though and now there is probably over 1000. At one stop that was not too ... read more

With a very dry mouth and a bit of a sore head I had a quick shower before heading downstairs to pack a smaller bag for my trip. Aruna was already waiting and watched giggling as I fought with my bag trying to get shorts from underneath all the items I seemed to have amassed. Once packed, I stored my main bag with the hostel and grabbed breakfast with the crowd of people who had appeared in the reception area. There were free noodles and bread rolls available or you could pay for hot food. Being time conscious I ordered bacon and eggs to slide into a bread roll incase our ride turned up early...hopeful as ever. We were picked up just after nine in an already packed bus for our transfer to Halong bay. Sadly ... read more

Sunday 3rd April 2011 A poor breakfast of one small bread roll and jam plus cheese. A relaxing day today spent visiting Bac Ha's Sunday market which is frequented by many ethnic tribes including Tay, Nung, Dao, Flower H'Mong, Gaiy and Phu La. The market was massive with 100s of people wearing their ethnic costumes. Ther must have been towards 1000 stalls selling everything. Clothes. gifts, hardware, food, new wooden ploughs, new wooden donkey saddles, horses, oxen, pigs, dogs hens etc etc. I bought one or two souvenir type gifts for my granddaughters, often with much persuasion from ethnic hawkers and much bargaining. I was even offered a haircut but declined. At the market there were many stalls selling food, again very ethnic in origin, containing goodness knows what and smelling vile! Lots of the stalls ... read more

Thursday 31st March 2011 Ha Giang to Eco Village 48m 75k A bit warmer today, but overcast, so no leg warmers but had long sleeved top over shirt for morning. We rode 30 k mostly alongside river and managed to keep in a peleton for most of the way until tea break, a no mean feat for 24 riders of varying ability. I stopped to film a lady shaving a root of some sort, which was left to dry at the roadside on sheets. She implied it was good for the stomach. We climbed half way up a big hill before lunch and tehn completed it after lunch before 10k descent to our hotel. On the way down we saw some road repairs being done by boiling barrels of tar with timber underneath before spraying it ... read more