Blogs from Northeast, Vietnam, Asia - page 34

While still at home surfing the net, I came across a group called Hanoi Kids and booked a day with them. What this is, is a sponsored group of university students who wish to practice their english skills with native english speakers, in return for the practice, they spend the day with you, showing you the sights and the hidden side of Hanoi. A win - win situation for all. Our gal, Ngoc, is very knowledgeable and speaks excellent English. With her, we toured the Ho Chi Minh complex, the Temple of Literature, Hoa Lan prison(where the POW's were kept during the war) and One Pillar Pagoda. The tour of the prison was a real eye opener, and a totally different perspective than what we know of the war. She took us to a traditional Vietnamese ... read more

Well, we waited for a break in the weather and it didn't happen. Instead we were subjected to flash floods and soggy feet. We'd heard along the travellers grape vine that there had been trouble with some coaches being washed off the roads and landslides making the roads and rail tracks impassable. So, weighing up everything we decided to catch a flight to Hanoi and miss out middle Vietnam. We weren’t able to fly for a few days as there was a problem with the road to the airport. It wasn't until the next day, where our driver picked us up half an hour early, that we saw what had actually happened. The right hand side of the road had suffered from severe damage caused by rocks, mud and vegetation falling from the steep cliffs the ... read more

Having come to the end of our travels with our Intrepid companions, it was time to set off on some more adventures of our own. Any trip to northern Vietnam requires at least an overnight stay on a "junk" in Halong Bay. We decided to book a 2 night/3 day cruise on Jewel of the Bay. Halong Bay, in the Gulf of Tonkin, includes some 1,600 islands and islets, forming a spectacular seascape of limestone pillars. Because of their precipitous nature, most of the islands are uninhabited and unaffected by a human presence. The site's outstanding scenic beauty is complemented by its great biological interest. Several of the islands are hollow, with enormous caves. Hang Dau Go (Wooden stakes Cave) is the largest grotto in the Halong area. French tourists visited in the late 19th century, ... read more

For Carla's birthday we took a 3 day trip to Halong Bay (2000 ish unique islands created from a dragons tail which crashed into the sea thousands of years ago, or so the story goes) it was one of our most anticipated trips of the journey and it was epic. The first day we sailed through the amazing islands, visited a huge cave, then moored up for the evening and jumped from our 3 storey high boat in to the sea (Jim from the top Carla from lower deck). After an amazing seafood dinner the karaoke commenced. To begin with most people weren't keen on singing, however after several cans of Dutch courage there was no stopping everyone. It was an incredibly fun evening, but also an incredibly drunken one. The next day, officially Carla's birthday, ... read more

3 Days 2 Nights on Halong Bay with Bai Tu Long Junks We used the following company for our tour of Halong Bay we were very impressed with their service and highly recommend there services. We staggered out of bed and into a minibus for the three hour drive to the harbour at Halong city. Our bright friendly guide was somewhat disappointed at our lacklustre attempts to be chatty until we explained we'd been drinking homebrew all night, at which point he smiled knowingly and left us alone!!! The journey was over pretty quickly and we arrived at the harbour none the worse for wear. In front of us must have been at least 200 boats of all different shapes sizes and ages. From five star luxury to rat-infested, we waited anxiously to see which one ... read more