Great Boat Trip

Hi yall,

We just got back to Hanoi from a 2 day 1 night boat trip to Halong Bay. Wow! What a beautiful place (see pics).

The bus trip from Vientiane to Hanoi (24 hrs) was horrendous!
We booked it from a very nice looking travel agency so we thought the service would be quite professional. Boy were we far off. First of all the bus was 1.5 hours late picking us up. Upon entering the bus we realized immediately that something was wrtong. The bus was jam packed with local people and baskets of fruit stacked to the ceiling the back of the bus. To add insult to injury the aircon bus that we were promised had nothing but a few tiny windows that allowed the steamy evening air and an army of hungry mosquitos to enter the bus at will and feast on the handful of tourists (they don't seem to bite the locals very much).
In addition the drivers of the bus did not speak a word of English or any other language with which we could communicate with them, so it was hard to explain our displeasure with the situation.
It got worse: we stopped twice to pick up another couple dozen baskets of fruit that were somehow supposed to be traveling with us to Hanoi.
All of a sudden we were relieved to hear one of the drivers tell us we could change buses. We entered the new bus which had aircon and less fruit on it. Things were looking up. However, after about ten minutes we entered the mountains and the aircon got switched off. Suposedly because it would save gas and give the bus enough power to drive up the, sometimes very steep, mountain roads.
Needless to say it got very hot and stinky in there and there was nothing we couold do about it.
Around 12 midnight we arrived at the border with Vietnam, which was closed untill 7 am so we stopped and tried to sleep (the heat prevented most of that though).
We entered the Laos border crossing at seven and had no trouble getting through, the Vietnam border proved a bit more difficult.
We ended up spending about 5 hours sitting around waiting for god knows who to do god knows what. It was such a waste of time and after that the aircon in the bus was still noit beiong turned on. Oh my Buddha! did we smell bad!
No one was saying anything, eventhough all of us had bought a ticfket for an Aircon bus, so I took it upon myself to get the damn aircon turned on. After the 3rd trip up to the driver they got so annoyed with me that they turned on the aircon. It was followed by a subdeued cheer from the tourists on board.
Finally in Hanoi (after 24 hrs) we now had to deal with the culture shockj of coming to a city that is smellier and noisier than any place we have ever visited in our lives.
After spending 2 days walking around a city with more motorbikes than there are poeple to ride them, we dicided to book a trip to Halong Bay.

What a smart decision. One of the most beautiful places we have ever seen. So pristeen and quiet. We booked a more "expensvie" trip this time and it payed off.
The tourguides were friendly and professional. The rooms and trhe boat were beautiful. The food and the drink was outstanding.
Elinor was a little scared to sleep on the boat and she didn't have the best night's sleep, but the rest of the trip made up for it.
We met some very nice poeple and partied with Australian Rum f(rom Perth duty free). One of the German guys kept Elinor up all night singing "I feel pretty" from the west side story, only to deny that it was him sinign the next day.

We decided to fly to Nha Thrang tomorrow because we're starting to get a little cramped onm time. We want to definatly still see ANgkor Wat in Cambodia and spend some more time on the Thai Islands iof possible.

Well, we hope you enjoy the pics. We sure as hell enjoyeds taking them.

Love yall and miss yall,

Elinor and Ishai

P.S. sory abou the speling I don;t feel like going over it rite now!

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