Hanoi, Halong Bay and Cat Ba Island

Hello or should I say Xin Chào. Yes we've finally become a little less ignorant and learned some of the language! So since I've written a blog we have been on a short flight from Bangkok to Hanoi, Vietnam. We stayed in Hanoi for more than enough time really because as I said in the Kathmandu blog, my wallet was stolen so my parents were sending my bank card to the UK embassey in Hanoi for me to pick up. But to be fair as cities go Hanoi was a pretty cool place to be waiting around. Not least because the beer was 10 freaking pence, awesome! They have someting here called 'Bia Hoi' (which translates to Draught Beer I believe) bars. And in Hanoi there is a certain place in the Old Quarter called the Bia Hoi corner. This lovely place has a intersection of traffic running through it and has about 5 or 6 bia hoi bars all selling their beer for 10p. Its really cool there and not just because its so cheap but as I said there is busy traffic going on, ladies selling things from pineapples to doughnuts to lighers with knives hid in them, so you can just sit back have a beer and watch the world go by. The other thing thing I really likes abou the Bia Hoi corner was that there was a really good mix of locals and tourists. So sometimes it was nice to chill and chat to some travellers about their experiences and stuff and other times it was really fun to try and talk to some of the locals there. Infact there was one night we went there and this old man started talking to me an laughing and we embraced with many high fives and pats on the back without either of us actually knowing what the hell the other was saying. A bit later though a Vietnamese guy came and translated a few things, it turned out this guy was a 75 year old who would come here everynight, legend. He also wanted to beer my beers but I said that I was ok, hope he wasn't offended. One day we decided to have a bit of an all day sesh at the Bia Hoi corner and the rules were that we couldnt leave the junction for food or anything all day, which was cool though because we had ladies trying to sell us food all the time, not the mention the awesome kebab stand!Fun day and met loads of people as they came and went all day.

But Hanoi isnt all about cheep beer, its also about an awesome water park, YA! So one day Jay and I got a taxi over to the water park...but there was noone there. At first I was a bit dissapointed but it turned out to be awesome. It was like we were two celebrities who rented the whole water park out, no Q's for us hotshots! Thats was a good day. Good slides, wave machine, diving board jacuzzi and later people did finally come so that was cool too.

We were told by other travellers that we have met that Hanoi has crazy traffic. This is true but I feel that India really prepared us for this so it wasnt much of a problem crossing the road as it would have been if we had come straight here from England. The moto bikes are everywhere like crazy annoying flys. But now we just walk across and they generally go around you, yes there have been some close calls but it was always cool in the end. I love one of the pictures I've got, the idea for it kind of went down like this: We were having a beer at a place aptly named 'Legends Beer' which is overlooking the main square where the traffic is at its craziest, so I say to Jay 'hey I've got an idea, why dont't I go and stand in the middle of all that crazy traffic and you stay here and take a picture'. Ofcourse Jay agreed and then we switched. Maybe a stupid idea but it sure is a good pic ha!

When finally the Uk embassy e-mailed to say they had my bank card I picked it up and we bought our bus ticket for the next day to go to Halong Bay. So obviously the next day we went the massive bus station all confused and this guy told us our ticket was no good and we had to get a new one. So i'm thinking, 'oh goodie another scam', but thankfully this lady told him to piss off (i presume) or something in vietnamese and she got us on the bus. After about 4 hours we stopped in the middle of nowhere and everyone turned and looked at us as if to say 'foreigners get off here guys' so did...all confused again. Then after haggling with these moto bike guys for a while, we got on a bike each and they took us into town. We stayed one night in Halong city and the next day we got on a boat in which we did a tour of Halong bay, slept on the boat for one night then they dropped us off on Cat Ba Island.

The boat was one of the best things we've done so far I'd say. Halong Bay is amazing, there are thousands of little uninhabited islands everywhere, it was like a different plant. I was half expecting to see a dinosaur and therefore me and Jay were humming the jurasic park tune alot...maybe the pics will make more sense but it was an incredible lanscape and something i had never witness anything like before. At one point we stopped off at some amazing caves, it looked so unreall like something from a hollywood set, got some good pics of that I think. After going round all the islands and caves we had a party on the roof of the boat and luckily Jay and I smuggled some rice wine on there along a with a few beers they sold at a high price. It was great though and again we met alot of interesting people from around the world. Especially a woman named Marica, a Dutch woman from Amsterdam who thought I was much older than I am mwhahaha! In the morning (really freaking early) everyone got up to do a bit of kayaking, we were all really tired but it was till pretty cool. After breakfast Jay and I got off the boat at Cat Ba island and after bveing ripped off by moto bikes guys we got on their bikes because it was the only way to town, bastards! We got to town and went to to first hotel we saw because we were tired and lazy. But after a power nap we went out and found a room for half the price...it was not exactly a convential hotel, it was more like a room upstairs above a beauty salon, that had its perks too though haha. Plus it had a tv and balcony all for $5USD, good times. There's is quite alot you can do on Cat Ba island I think, trekking, cycling but we really didn't fancy that as the last three places we had been had all been big capital cities so all we wanted to do was go to the beach...so thats all we did do lol! Amazing beaches though, best we've been to so far. Plus the island had Bia Hoi bars too, although these beers were 13p which i was appalled at ha! We did go on a night out on the second to last night there which was pretty good. In one place I ordered some vodka, it was like 3 shots for 15p, as i'm sure can understand I could not resist this. After drinking it with the aid of a beer Jay came across this massive bottle full if liquid and dead snakes and asked the waiter what the hell it was. It turns out that that 'liquid' with the 23 dead snakes in was what I had just drunk!!!Thanks waiter man for telling me after! Wasnt all bad though, got a good pic of the stuff, look out for it. But he assured that the next morning I would be big and strong as a result...and what do you know? I woke up the next morning like popeye after spinage ha!The rest of that night was cool too. Met a couple Canadian girls that we went to the beach the next day with and also a cool guy from new zealand and also an Italian guy. And i'm not going to lie to you...that italian dude had a damn sexy voice ha, but he was cool aswell, finally someone who we could talk footy with.

So today we got a ferry and then a boat back to Hanoi, which is where I am now and tomorrow we catch the 10 hour train to Sapa in north westerrn Vietnam. So thats all for now. Speak to you soon. x

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