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Published: August 8th 2007
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Halong Bay
Sitting on the Dock of the bay... Hiya and welcome to our final chapter from Vietnam
On Sunday we packed up our rucksack again and jumped aboard the tourist "fun" bus for 5 hours to Hue. It was gonna be a whistlestop visit as we were running out of time in Vietnam so after checking into our hotel we set out to explore. After a bit of persuassion from a couple of local Cyclo riders we set off on a tour of the town and the ancient citadel. One of them turned out to be an kung fu master ex-buddist monk that was full of stories. At one point he even read our palms. Dan turned very white when he said he was going to tell me how many children I would have and only looked slightly less queezy when he said I'd have just the one. Lucky for him he also said Dan would have one, if not I'd be having words with him about whether there are any illegitimate master whites running around Birmingham.
First thing in the morning we took a cheapo flight up to Hanoi in the North of Vietnam. (We decided that we wouldn't be able to cope with the 14
I like to ride my Bicycle..
Moments later he required an oxygen tent.. hour fun bus journey). Our hotel was in the Old Quarter of the city. This area is made up of a maze of little streets, each just selling one type of thing, for example toys or hardware. This goes back to the communist days when shops selling particular items had to be located together to give each vendor an equal chance. Back home this would save me hours if I was shoe shopping on a saturday afternoon, but would be a bit of a bummer if you ran out of milk and had to trek all across town to get some.
We spent the rest of the day seeing the sights. We jumped in a taxi to go and see Ho Chi Minh"s Mausoleum. It was only after the driver scarpered that we found out that all tourist sites are closed in Hanoi on mondays- you'd have thought the charlatan would have told us wouldn't you? But then, after we thought about it for a while, we decided we didn't actually want to see some dead guy's crusty, mummified body!!!
The next day we took a day trip to Hoa Lu and Tam Coc. Hoa Lu was the
Night Lights in Hue
Close encounters of the Vietnam Kind! capital of Vietnam during the Dinh Dynasty (ie donkey's years ago). It was pretty none descript to be honest and was probably just thrown into the trip to make up the time before the main event after lunch, which was Tam Coc. This was a two hour ride, where we were rowed on a little boat through a river formed in rice paddy fields, surrounded by huge rock formations. They take you through three karst caves which were fantastic. The photos describe it better but this was definately one of the best things we had done in Vietnam so far.
We then set off on a three day/two night tour to Halong Bay. This was trip was on our 'must-do' list before we'd even left home and it really lived up to our expectations. The first morning we boarded a chinese junk sail boat that was gonna be our home for the night. Halong Bay is an area made up of 3000 tiny islands, dotted with beautiful grottos and lagoons. There was a group of 12 of us altogether and we got to have an amazing day sunning bathing on deck, swimming in clear waters, kayaking around the grottos
Tam Coc
Look no hands!! and through a bat filled cave. We jumped off ship for a while to go and see these huge caverns that had been formed by the sea, that inside felt like you were in the set of a space adventure film.
The next morning we docked into Ca Ba island for our second night. On the morning agenda was the choice of a walking trek or bike ride through Ca Ba National Park and, because I'd never had a bike as a child (see previous nasty monkey circus comments - Vietnam Part 1), I decided now wasn't the best time to take up mountain biking. Our walk turned out to be an expedition up a 250m high mini-mountain through forest and over rocks. There were quite a few heart in mouth moments as we clamberred our way up, eventually reaching the peak red faced and panting. But the fun really began on the way down; lets just say a pair of skis and maybe some backside padding would have been handy!!
The afternoon was spent recovering on the beach- sunbathing and kayaking. I am starting to worry that kayaking is Dan's new addiction. After rowing out with him
Cyclo tour (Hue)
The 'Down-Market' version of the Beckhams!! to another beach, I was knackered, so palmed him off onto one of the others from our group to continue his high seas adventure. If he expects me to start kayaking along the canal in Birmingham with him he has got another thing coming.
Today (Friday) we left the island and got back on the board to set off back to the mainland. On route seeing a floating village and swimming off the boat. We are now back in Hanoi for our final night in Vietnam before we fly back in to Bangkok tomorrow.
We are still trying to decided what direction to go in from Bangkok so look forward to the next installment from who knows where.
Love Lucy & Dan xxxxxx
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Shout Outs-
Happy Birthday to the very Glamorous Nicola Beddoes
Happy Fathers Day to Dan's Dad and any other dads who are looking in!
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hannah white
non-member comment
uncle dan and aunty lucy
hi please answer this coment. i hope your having a really good time. iu really miss you two.were are you going to next. can you get me a cople of foren coins whilst your at it. lots of love and hugs from hannah. ps-we all miss you very much.