SE Asia 2007 - Vietnam - Hanoi & Halong Bay

---

Day 1: Mon 25 June - VIETNAM - Hanoi

After getting a lift into Sydney airport I had arrived just before 9am for my 10am flight to Bangkok for my 2nd biggest overseas trip to date. After so much travelling around airports in Europe the previous year I was sick of waiting around after checking in, so I was surprised to arrive with no line up and to be informed that the whole flight had already checked in. I was also given no choice of seat on a fully booked and almost fully checked-in flight so I was given an unwanted aisle seat. I already had the feeling that I was late, but when I got through passport control and arrived at the gate the plane still hadn’t been boarded. I still had another half hour wait until everyone was allowed to board and we left about an hour late. This concerned me a little as I only had 1½ hours until my connecting flight at Bangkok. I had enough movies and TV shows to watch on the in-flight video-on-demand service to stop me from worrying on my 9-hour flight.
On arrival at Bangkok there was a Thai Air hostess standing with my name on a handheld whiteboard. I thought this was unusual and asked her what was wrong, and she said I was going to be taken by motorised cart to reach my connecting flight in time because of my first flight being late. Now this was service! All the normal people had to walk all the way down the terminal walkways and I was being driven past hundreds of people like a VIP. It certainly made me feel special, and I was giggling at the fact I was getting treated so well and better than the walkers I was passing. On arrival at the end of the walkway, another Thai Air hostess escorted directly me to the gate! All the passengers were at the gate already and the plane boarded only 15 minutes later, so I guess I was lucky that Thai Air were there to escort me to the next flight.
My 2nd flight for the day, heading to Hanoi, was only half full so I had choice of seat and room to stretch out. This flight was to take just over an hour to arrive, and this one left on time. At Hanoi airport there were short lines at passport control and the passport officer only spent 30 seconds inspecting and stamping my passport, so I was outside in very quick time. I had arranged for my hotel to pick me up for an extra US$10. A young Vietnamese guy had my name on a board spelt wrong, but at least he got enough of my name correct to make me realise he was waiting to meet me. He picked me up in his brand new 4-door Toyota and by now it was after 7pm and already dark outside. There were two lanes each on both sides of the road, but no-one seemed to be keeping to their lanes. We shared the road with dozens of relatively slow moving motorbikes and the occasional truck, and with my driver being a bit of a speed demon he just honked his horn at every motorbike in front of him and they moved over to the right lane while our car scooted up the left lane. For a 20-minute stretch of road my driver must have honked his horn at least a hundred times! It was quite funny at the start and I had to stop myself from giggling but then I got used to it.
We eventually reached the city streets, the roads became smaller and more congested, but we still didn’t arrive at the hotel for another 20 minutes. My driver turned into a narrow yet busy street dropping me right in front of my hotel. The guy at the hotel’s reception was quite happy to see me and give me the basics about the hotel. Instead of the standard room I paid an extra US$20 for the most expensive room up on the 5th level away from the street noise. If I hadn’t paid the extra money I could’ve been on the ground floor unable to sleep from the noise as there seemed to be motorbikes whizzing past every hour of the day and night! There was an ANZ ATM across the road from my hotel. It was quite unusual to see an Australian bank’s ATM in Vietnam. One thing I found out before arriving was that I could not exchange any money for Vietnamese Dong before I got to the country, I could only exchange it or get it out of an ATM inside the country or at the border. So I took out what I figured would be a reasonable amount while not really knowing how much Dong I would spend each day, and wandered back to the hotel. I was also told that US dollars were accepted as currency so I exchanged some of those back in Sydney, so I could be prepared for whatever purchases came towards me.
With the time difference it was close to midnight back in Australia yet closer to 9pm Vietnam time so after being awake for so long I wasn’t game enough to check out the surrounding shops on the streets below so I watched as many English-language channels as I could until I fell asleep.

Day 2: Tue 26 June - Hanoi

Before leaving Australia I had printed out a list off the Lonely Planet website with 15 things to do in Hanoi along with a map of how to get to most of the places listed. So with a free day in Hanoi I had a personal mission to tick off as many of those 15 things as I could in one day. My first stop was Hanoi’s most popular attraction, the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum.
Ho Chi Minh was Vietnam’s leader during and after World War II and was credited with giving the country its identity, as well as giving Vietnamese people a hero to follow. As I was to find out, everywhere you turn in Vietnam it’s easy to find a photo or image of Ho Chi Minh on display somewhere, so it was obvious how proud the Vietnamese people are of him. So it was only natural that the people wanted to immoralise him after he died. So the way they did this was by embalming his body and sticking it in a glass case for everyone to see, even though Ho Chi Minh himself asked to be buried. I was excited to see this as I’d never seen an embalmed dead body before and it felt like quite the novelty. By looking at the map it didn’t seem to be too far to walk from my hotel in the Old Quarter to the Mausoleum, as I wasn’t too keen on catching a lift on the back of a motorbike. How wrong I was. It started off as a pleasant walk, but the 35-degree heat got to me after about an hour’s walking and it was tiring me out. Luckily I passed several shops selling bottles of water for only 5000 Vietnamese dong, or about 50c Australian. Crossing the road was a fair effort as well. Every road had a constant stream of motorbikes passing by making it almost impossible to get a clear crossing of any road. At first I had to stick to one side of the road, but eventually I had no choice but to cross and the first time I did this I stood for a good 10 minutes waiting for a break in the traffic. Then I saw an old lady walk straight across the road without even looking to see where the traffic was coming from, and the bikes just rode right around her! It was quite remarkable to see. It was then that I realised the only way to cross the road was to walk straight out into incoming traffic. Feeling a bit worried about getting run over I ventured out, and I made it across safely and surprisingly easily! I was proud of myself for doing something that the locals are used to doing every day, but it’s something I wasn’t used to back at home so it was a bit of a thrill to actually do it.
I felt the hotel at 9am and I arrived at the Mausoleum at 10:30am. The building itself was large but quite unspectacular from the outside. I had to check my camera into a small office, and then I could retrieve it at a different small office at the exit of the Mausoleum. I thought this was unusual but for some reason I trusted them with my $400 camera as everyone else was doing it. On the other side of the small office was a huge line stretching over several streets, so I got on the end of the line not expecting to get inside very soon. Luckily the line was moving surprisingly fast and there were more times when I was shuffling forward rather than standing still. I also met an American girl to have a chat with to pass the time while waiting to get inside.
While being over 30 degrees outside the inside of the Mausoleum was about 15 degrees if not colder, so it was a pleasant change from the heat. Groups of people could only enter in 2 lines and were instructed by armed guards to keep moving at a slow but steady pace. It was quite dark inside and the walls were lined with cold tiles, and the guards were instructing people to keep quiet, probably in respect to the body inside. Eventually I reached the tiny room holding Ho Chi Minh himself in a glass case. It was very surreal seeing a dead body just lying there on display as if it was more of a tourist attraction than a respectful resting place. Everyone was instructed to keep moving along but I was able to see Ho Chi Minh from 3 sides of the rectangular glass case for a good minute or two. I came out the other side back into the heat and the bright sun, and I went over to collect my camera which was thankfully still waiting for me unharmed.
Entry to the Mausoleum was free, but entry to Ho Chi Minh’s living quarters and surrounding garden and lake was not, which I saw as a bit topsy turvy. Still, the entry fee was equal to only 1 US dollar. Hundreds of Vietnamese people were wandering around, absolutely enthralled by anything to do with their beloved leader. I was a bit disinterested and confused over the excitement of it all, but I took photos nonetheless.
Next stop was a museum devoted to Uncle Ho, as he was affectionately called. If only the Vietnamese realised the humour of the English translation. Inside I experienced more cool air conditioning, photos of Ho Chi Minh with various people both famous people and common people, posters and other propaganda about the man himself, and several other things associated with him. The quality of the material rivalled any museum I’d seen before, so it was obvious that Vietnam were sparing no expense to glorify their hero. Again I wasn’t overwhelmed by the experience but it was interesting at least.
I came outside into the heat and saw the One Pillar Pagoda, another popular Hanoi attraction, but was disappointed in how small it was. There were people burning incense around it so there was obviously some meaning to it for some people. I had seen enough of the Ho Chi Minh complex though and took a rest and a water drinking break before deciding on my next move. To be honest the heat was getting to me and I was very sweaty and not in the mood for any further sightseeing at that point, so I opted to head back to the hotel. Seeing I wasn’t Vietnamese or getting onto a tour bus, I was a prime target for any local trying to take me for a ride somewhere for a fee. A few guys on motorbikes were hassling me for what seemed like forever. I took a different turn away from them but they followed me practically begging me to come with them and wouldn’t leave me alone, but I was having none of it. It annoyed and disturbed me a fair bit, so I had to walk back to the museum to escape them all. I had a quick rest and took a different direction back to the hotel past the embassies where no tourists are expected to go and therefore no people trying to get someone on their bike. It was rather pleasant to be honest as the embassies were flanked by large shady trees and not as many cars as the busier streets.
After a long walk and a few more looks at my trusty map, I was satisfied I had escaped the motorbike touts without spending any extra money, but I was very sweaty and tired by now, so I did something I rarely do and had my second shower in the space of 4 hours, at 12pm. It was very refreshing and I was able to recover along with the cool air conditioning in my luxury room. After that I headed downstairs to find a quick cheap meal close by. I didn’t have to walk far to find many restaurants. Barely 2 minutes’ walk away I was sitting down in a place ordering myself a plate of beef noodles and pineapple shake, with no ice as I was told that the water used in south east Asian countries can have parasites in them that can upset the stomach and bowels. The door to the kitchen was wide open so I could see the ‘chef’ preparing my meal. I saw him cut off a piece of beef, inspect it for a few seconds as if there was something wrong with it, then put it back in with the rest of the chopped meat. I started questioning my decision to eat here. Luckily the meal came out alright and tasted reasonably good, apart from the sauce which tasted like watered down tomato sauce. Still, it was my first real Vietnamese meal and it was pretty tasty, and the whole meal only set me back $2!
After my earlier hassles with some of the locals, I felt a bit more confident knowing how to handle the people here and felt comfortable walking around the streets in the area my hotel was in, named the Old Quarter. It was a zig zag of narrow streets all cluttered in with each other, all containing similar shops selling food, drinks, books, clothing, and then bizarre things like puppets and tombstones and indescribable fruits and strange smelling meat. It was weird and wonderful and fascinating all at the same time. I also saw many more Westerners walking the streets than Vietnamese people. It seemed like the only Vietnamese there were selling something or transporting something they were going to sell later.
After wandering around the shops I decided to walk into one place selling t-shirts to pick up a bargain. I found a nice green surf shirt that seemed to be of good quality. The lady quoted the price as 135000 Dong, which is around AU$12-$15. Without even remembering that this is the type of country where bartering is expected, I paid the full price and walked out. It wasn’t until later on in the day that I realised I should’ve talked the price down, although it’s not like the shirt cost me a lot of money anyway, and I did like it.
I headed back to my hotel room for a bit more of a relax before getting ready for some dinner. I took my list of things to do in Hanoi, and on top of the list of restaurants to visit was one called Cha Ca La Vong which was so popular that the street had been named after it. So I figured it was worth a look. I got to the place and had to walk up these narrow, steep, creaky wooden steps to the tables on the top floor. The place was absolutely packed with Westerners, and even a few locals surprisingly. I sat down at the only spare table, and a lady with her two boys walked in not too long after I sat down, so I offered them the remaining seats at my table. The menu came out and in English said something along the lines of “No need to order, only one dish on menu, fried fish, 75000 Dong”. It was quite bizarre, but I’d seen so many unusual things already today so I figured I’d go with the flow, not that I had much choice. The lady and her two sons were from Queensland and were in Hanoi visiting her husband who was working there, and they were pretty nice to talk to, good company after being alone for most of the day. We ordered drinks then not long after that our drinks came and a waitress placed a tripod on our table with a gas burner underneath it. After a few short minutes out came a metal pan full of fried fish with a sauce so intoxicating I couldn’t wait to taste it, accompanied by green vegetables and herbs and noodles and chillis all in separate little bowls. Even though it was still cheap to me, the meal was expensive by Vietnamese standards, and it was totally worth the money. I could see why this place was so popular. The food was quickly vanishing from the pan shared by the four of us, and then out came a second pan with just as much fish as the first one! It was a great surprise, and that fish didn’t last too long either. It was all very satisfying, the food, the company, the atmosphere of the place.
I parted ways with the lady and her kids, and I walked back towards the hotel looking for a bar. I found a 4-way street corner not too far from the restaurant packed with Westerners sitting on each corner in little chairs drinking glasses of beer and I pondered how strange this was. Then I saw a sign saying "Bia Hoi 2000 Dong", then I thought is beer actually being served for 2000 Dong a glass? How can this be happening? So I just had to sit down and join in. 2000 Dong is the equivalent of about 15 cents! I wondered if there was something wrong with the beer, but after my first taste it seemed fine. I sat on an available chair and was surrounded by the voices of Aussies, English, Kiwis, Irish, and Americans. It was a great atmosphere and everyone was in a good mood, although it's not hard to do with a big group who are all drinking cheap beer. Within seconds of receiving my beer I was chatting to someone and eventually others in the group. After a few beers they all went to leave to go have a meal, so I was by myself for a while sipping my 15-cent beer until a Swedish couple sat down. They were quiet at first only talking to each other in their native tongue, but eventually they brought out the English and started talking to me. It felt great sitting there watching people and traffic go by, from motorbikes to street vendors to two-passenger carriages connected to bicycles called cyclos, a lady selling dried fish in a basket with a pot of hot coals which she stopped to sell to someone by cooking the fish right in front of us on top of the coals, and even a close collision between two bikes. It was excitement central and I didn't want to leave, but eventually I got tired and figured I would head off to bed after a highly satisfying day.

Day 3: Wed 27 June - Hanoi

I slept in a bit today knowing my day wouldn’t be as strenuous as the one before. Still, I had a bit of a walk ahead of me, but nothing as huge as yesterday. My first destination was a place known as the Hanoi Museum of Fine Arts. It only took me 20 minutes or so to get there this time compared to my hour and a half walk yesterday. The outside of the building didn’t look very exciting but the moment I walked in I was overwhelmed with ancient artefacts and I wondered how something like this could be so well kept in such a poor country. I saw old wooden and stone statues and monuments carved so intricately that they would’ve taken months to produce and it was remarkable how unbelievably well crafted they were for their time. I saw some artefacts dating back 1000 years! Words can’t describe what I was seeing before me. The difference between what I saw here and similar things I had seen in the British Museum was that these artefacts were free standing and not even encased in glass. I had enough respect not to touch anything, which was the same for the only two other visitors to the museum. I didn’t know if it was disrespectful or not to take photos so I figured I’d better not. The next part of the museum had some paintings from various eras from 200 years ago up to the current decade, not as spectacular but still refreshing to see when I would’ve expected to see an art gallery of a high quality such as this in Europe rather than south east Asia. Other areas of the museum included pottery, crockery, vases, authentic coloured clothing worn by indigenous Vietnamese people, and pieces of art other than paintings. It was an hour well spent there.
Just over the road was a place called Van Mieu, or the Temple of Literature. From the outside it was hard to see what was inside as it was surrounded by high stone walls. Walking around the outside of the wall to get to the entrance took me around 10 minutes so this place was surprisingly large. Out the front were several tour groups, tour buses, and locals trying to sell all sorts of rubbish and motorbike rides. Walking inside the front gate I was rewarded with lush green gardens and trees, and directly in front of me was a colourful wooden structure with a slanted roof which was perfectly symmetrical straight down the middle. As I reached the wooden hut I walked through and found a large plaque describing the purpose and history of Van Mieu. The plaque told me it was Vietnam’s first university which produced some of the country’s most important leaders and scholars up until the 18th century, and it was over 900 years old! I’d say some restoration work would’ve had to be done as the wooden huts were still in very good condition. As I walked further on there were several of them linked by a path dissecting and linking each hut as I walked down it. I came across a large rectangular meeting area between two huts, and got to climb the steps to the next level of one of them to see a view over all the huts as well as Buddhist shrines of worship inside and other plaques describing the people who had studied there over time. I had my photo taken in front of a large drum that was as big as a gong and spent some time sitting in a garden just relaxing and taking in the atmosphere in a place free from the noise of constant traffic and hassling from locals I had already experienced in Hanoi.
Eventually I moved on and headed back towards my hotel to find some lunch in the Old Quarter. After lunch I headed back up to my room for a bit of a relax in an air conditioned room and was surprised to find someone already in it. A Scottish guy named Liam was there whom I found out was part of my tour group. What was a bit of a shock to both of us was that the hotel staff had put us into a room to sleep in with only a queen bed and not two singles. I assumed we would’ve been moved before the tour started but it didn’t seem to be the case. Liam wasn’t very impressed, so he went downstairs only to be told there were no other rooms available to move into. Feeling frustrated with the whole situation, Liam went out for a walk on his own. So I let him go and decided to do a bit more wandering myself.
I wandered a couple of streets south of the hotel and reached what the map described to be Hoen Kiem Lake. It was basically a large oval-shaped lake surrounded by a walkway and several streets and shops. It was rather pleasant however as it was dotted with overhanging trees and benches to sit and relax on, and almost a complete lack of people trying to sell things. I reached the other end of the lake to find several electronic stores selling cameras and accessories, and since I couldn’t find my memory card for my camera I decided to shop around for a good deal on one. I ended up scoring with appeared to be an authentic brand name card for a very reasonable price, and even paid on credit card without any hassle or overcharging.
Satisfied with my purchase, I walked further down towards the next attraction on my list, known as the Hanoi Hilton, which was a disused prison for several prisoners of the Vietnam War and World War II amongst other things. It was made of stone and felt rather dark and gloomy inside. I saw the confined spaces people used to live in, photos of people who stayed there and were executed, and even prisoners’ heads that had been decapitated by guillotine and left on display in baskets as a deterrant to other people. One of the head’s photos had been taken with its eyes still open! It was quite freaky. I even saw a tight sewerage hole which some prisoners had climbed into to escape, with some actually being successful. The tight space was so small that I couldn’t imagine how a normal person could squeeze into it, but I guess it goes to show when a person is in certain situations they do what they have to do.
Outside the prison entrance I was only hassled by two locals for a ride on their motorbikes, and by now I was used to it so they had no chance in attracting my attention. I walked back towards the lake and the hotel with some time to kill before meeting with my tour members later that evening, so I ticked off another attraction on my list and bought a ticket to the famous Water Puppet Theatre. For around US$2 I got to sit in an air conditioned theatre for an hour to watch some very well trained puppeteers with very colourful wooden puppets showing the lives of Vietnamese villagers and farmers as well as different animals and dragons, and even a few fireworks. It was very entertaining. I found out later that a lot of the puppeteers die fairly young of water borne diseases from the water they perform in as the water is never changed or chlorinated or disinfected, so bacteria were allowed to thrive there, which was a bit sad to hear that this happened to people so talented.
I got back to the hotel with a bit of time to spare before my tour meeting. I met some people in the lobby who were chatty and friendly and they said they were having a tour meeting soon, so I assumed I would be with them also. However I later found out they were on an Intrepid tour and not on my Budget Expeditions tour. I also saw large groups of young girls congregating around the lobby for other Intrepid tour meetings, and I wondered why I couldn’t be on one of those tours! I realised the advantage of booking a tour months in advance as all the Intrepid tours I was looking at were booked out by the time I tried to book one.
I met my tour group not long after who were small in number and very quiet and reserved. I was a bit disappointed to be honest, not in the people that were with me, but that there weren’t as many people in our group as the Intrepid groups. My group consisted of a Polish couple Katarzyna and Leszek, Liam the Scotsman, 2 girls from Washington DC named Julia and Amber, myself, and an Aussie guy Darren who was turning up a few days later. Our tour leader Tranh, who wanted to be known as Jackie Chan, gave us a rundown on the tour, we got to know each other a bit, Jackie Chan took our US$480 local payment for the whole tour from each of us in one hit which instantly made him a rich man by Vietnamese standards, and the 7 of us decided to go off together for a meal.
Our little group went to a restaurant called Little Hanoi, which sounded tacky but actually had surprisingly good food. I got to find out a little about my tour mates also, for example the Polish couple had just spent a few years working in Sydney and were on their way back to Poland. Afterwards a few of us sat at one of the street corners that served 2000-Dong beer for a little while, only had 2 or 3 beers, then went back to the hotel. I actually didn’t stay awake for much longer after that, which was probably a good thing as we had a reasonably early start tomorrow for our first travelling day on our tour.

Day 4: Thu 28 June - Halong Bay

This morning we were off to what Jackie Chan described as the best part of our whole tour, which sounded great for the next couple of days but also a bit disappointing that everything after that would be downhill. We had a minibus waiting for us directly outside the hotel door, but I had to clear my room bill before we left. I had made some phone calls last night which I needed to pay for, and the previous night I had made some phone calls but I had already paid for them. The staff member at reception pulled out a list of all the calls I’d made, including the ones I’d already paid for, and insisted I pay for all of them. I told him I’d already paid for the earlier phone calls, but he didn’t believe me. I thought he was joking, but the guy was dead serious. I couldn’t believe my ears! I literally had to produce the receipt from the day before to prove that I had actually paid for the earlier phone calls so that I wouldn’t get charged twice for the same phone calls! Little did I know it wouldn’t be the last time someone in Vietnam would try to rip me off.
The bus from the hotel took us through the Old Quarter of Hanoi out to the highway and out on a country road to the east coast. We quickly came to realise that the only major road rules on Vietnamese roads were if you're moving faster than the vehicle or motorbike in front of you then honk your horn several times and they'll move to the left hand side to let you pass, get to your destination as fast as you can without getting pulled over for speeding by corrupt cops, pay the tolls at tollways, and if there's even the slimmest of chances that you can squeeze between vehicles or bikes on the road (whether or not a vehicle is coming towards you from the other direction) then go for it. We started laughing at the ridiculous overuse of the horn by our driver, but we all got used to it after a while as it was happening every time we came close to anyone on the road. Another thing we noticed is that if you own a motorbike and you can fit something on the back without it falling off then do it. We saw people carrying fruit and vegetables, live chickens, dead pigs, a whole family of people, even a mattress. It was unbelievable, yet there were no road accidents and nothing fell off the back of anyone's motorbike. Welcome to the third world where anything goes as long as it works.
We stopped after about 1½ hours for a morning tea break at a place that was conveniently selling huge marble statues with the option to buy and have them shipped home, all with accompanying photos of the people who bought them standing next to them, sometimes even with their full name and address listed as if each sale was a trophy of success for these merchants. We also saw a sweatshop full of ladies working on clothing at sewing machines, and several pre-made pieces of clothing hanging all over this warehouse, none of which seemed appealing to our group but I'm sure they get sales from some people. I was happy just to buy a bottle of water and some lollies and get out of there.
Thankfully we were back on the road again soon enough, and an hour and a half later we came to the ferry terminal at Halong Bay. There were rows and rows of large wooden boats laying next to each other, some being loaded up with supplies, some sitting there almost abandoned, some with Vietnamese lying about as if they were waiting for something that would never arrive. Jackie Chan led us down to a boat which would take us further out to another boat anchored just off the shore. We literally had to climb across to the other boat with our bags and try to get across without falling in the gap between the boats. The boat staff did seem somewhat concerned about our safety in this matter though.
Our cruise boat was quite nice. Up top we had a covered area for having meals at a large dining table with and a small bar area, an outside deck with an awning and deck chairs to relax on, and down below we had two-person cabins with air conditioning and ensuite with hot water. There were about 5 staff members to look after about 10 of us on board (3 other people joined our group, a couple from Perth and an American teaching English in Ho Chi Minh City), so it seemed like we would be well looked after. The guide on the boat introduced himself as Ter. I'm not sure if that's how he spelled his name but that's how it sounded. He seemed like a nice happy guy and he spoke very good English, so it's obvious he was used to these tours. As we came to find out none of the other staff spoke English so he was the only staff member we spoke with. Ter invited us immediately to sit down for lunch, and he asked if anyone was a vegetarian or couldn't eat seafood. Almost everyone in my group except me put their hand up. It was quite strange that so many would refuse to eat meat on our tour. What I thought was strange was that the Washington DC girls refused to eat meat while in Asia but were quite happy to eat it back home, probably because they couldn't be 100% sure all the meat was free of bacteria and disease. My theory was that if the locals ate it day in day out and survived that I would be fine as well, and also because I had the attitude that I was going to enjoy myself and not let little things get me down because if something bad was going to happen then it was unexpected and I couldn't really prevent it. I had also eaten in Thailand without getting sick and I knew Asian food was very tasty so I didn't want to miss out on anything.
So lunch consisted of one large prawn each, one large crab each, and lots of salad and vegetables, whereas the non-meat eaters were rewarded with salads and tofu moulded into different shapes and brought out as different dishes. It wasn't the best alternative for them, but I guess the boat staff were mostly prepared for meat-based dishes. I didn't mind, my lunch was magnificent. Anyway, we weren't there for the food, we were there for the views and the experience of being out on a beautiful bay.
It was a beautiful warm sunny day, and the breeze off the water was a good compliment to the humid air we were used to back in Hanoi. After lunch I went and stood out on the front of the boat, which had a large carved wooden dragon which I stood next to and posed with for photos. There was nothing but blue water ahead of us, and mounds of rock covered in grass sticking out of the water on both sides of the boat. It was all very picturesque, and no matter how far we travelled the scenery was just as nice if not better as we went along. Words really couldn’t do this place justice, it just has to be visited to really appreciate the beauty of it.
I walked around the boat for a while just standing and staring at the scenery which never seem to become a bore to watch, then when I didn’t feel like standing I went and sat down or laid down on one of the seats or deck chairs on the top deck. I’m usually the type of person who loves to keep active on holiday, but this was an amazing place to just relax and watch the world go by as the boat took us further into the bay. It must’ve been about 3 or 4 hours before we stopped to do something active but it felt like the time had gone by so fast. I could see why we were told this was the most rewarding place to visit on our whole tour.
When we eventuallly did stop, we reached a flight of steps and we headed up to find a cave at the top. Even though the air was cool and humidity was low on the boat, once we got a few metres from the water and started getting some exercise walking up steps the sweat started to flow again really quickly. Although going into the cave was a nice reward as the temperature inside was also a bit cooler. It was a small limestone cave with spectacular formations everywhere we walked. I’ve been to limestone caves in various places in Australia and New Zealand but they never cease to amaze me. We left the cave and headed back down the steps to the boat, and a few minutes further down the bay we stopped again for a short hike up a few steps to give us a spectacular view of the bay below, but even more spectacular was a smaller inlet of the bay hidden between the rocks and the hills that we couldn’t see from down below. After getting back on the boat we found out we would have the chance to go down there later.
We stopped a bit further down and we asked if anyone wanted to go kayaking, and also everyone joined in. At first we had a straight paddle on the bay and down between the rocks on either side with the passage getting slightly more narrow the further we went. Being on the boat was great, but the feeling you get from paddling so close to the water line feels that much better. From there we kayaked underneath the rocks where there was just enough room to paddle without hitting our heads on the rocks above. It was pretty dark in there with the only day light coming from either side of the passage. On the other side we reached the inlet we had seen on our mini hike not so long ago. It felt great to finally be paddling around in it. The water was neither too cold or too warm, it was just right, and the surroundings were beautiful. We paddled around for a while underneath another rock then back again, and in all we spent just over an hour before getting back to the boat with just enough time for a quick swim in the cool waters. It felt great swimming in what felt like a huge swimming pool, but before I had a chance to get too comfortable it was time to move on to the place we’d be docking at for the night.
We came to a little enclosed area around 5pm or 6pm where we assembled again for dinner, which was just as good as the lunch we’d had earlier. The sun was still out but was slowly fading. We watched the sun set with a few beers and a few of us had a bit of chat with each other. Katarzyna and Leszek had taken a professional (and expensive) camera with them for high quality photos to take home, and they got to talking with an American guy named Jake who was on the boat and also owned a professional camera, so the three of them sat and chatted about photography and cameras for a while. Jake was a guy who had come out to Vietnam for a year to teach English, but loved it so much he stayed on and had been in the country for 5 years and even had a Vietnamese fiance. He had a lot of knowledge about the country and told us a few things that we didn’t know and were surprised and fascinated to hear. He said generally the food quality was passable and he’d gotten used to the local water over time, but he was still wary of certain things. I told him my story of the Hanoi hotel staff member trying to rip me off, and he said that was common in Vietnam as that’s just the mentality of the people here but they see it as being acceptable so it’s good to always be aware of the situation around you and not to feel bad about challenging the locals on prices if they don’t feel right. I wasn’t used to having to challenge people on prices, but I learnt as I went along in Vietnam that it was almost common practice. I’m not talking about bartering either, I’m talking about people trying to rip you off on things you’ve already paid for, or things you shouldn’t be paying for. The money doesn’t bother me so much as the exchange rate is so good for Westerners, but it’s the principle of the situation that gets to me and I just refuse to give money to people who are deceptively trying to squeeze it out of me. Still, it was something to think about and I was glad I’d spoken to Jake about the monetary customs in Vietnam. After a good chat and people gradually started to trickle off into their cabins I relaxed a bit longer under the moonlight and went to bed myself.

Day 5: Fri 29 June - Halong Bay, Hanoi

This morning we were woken at a reasonable hour for breakfast. I got a little bit of a sleep in but not much, and by the time I got to the breakfast table everyone else was already there. Breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, spring rolls, coffee, orange juice that tasted very sweet, a selection of fruits, and some weird soft dessert resembling a pancake. I’m sure this wasn’t the usual Vietnamese breakfast but the staff seemed to be trying to make us feel as comfortable as possible, and it was very tasty, and everything was in miniature bite size pieces so I got to have several pieces of everything.
The boat was still slowly moving as we had breakfast, and not long after we finished the boat had taken us to an area where we could get onto a small speed boat to take us to a floating village. It wasn’t your normal speed boat, it wasn’t much more than a series of wooden planks tied together with planks on the side to stop us from falling out and an outboard motor thrown on the back. It was hard to understand how people could live on houses on the water, but it was fascinating to see the village as we approached it. Houses weren’t on stilts but were actually floating on top of the water, and were somewhat connected to the shoreline to stop them from floating around and running into each other. People were going about their daily chores, some were just sitting and relaxing, some were getting boats ready to go fishing, some stared at the strange foreign people on the boat, and some even waved at us. I’d never seen anything like it in my life so it was an exciting cultural experience.
The speed boat took us to a floating heritage centre which looked quite modern and well kept, but I found out on arrival that the Norwegian government supplied the funding for the place after Halong Bay was given UNESCO World Heritage status allowing them to apply for funding grants. After being in Norway only a year ago I was standing on a little piece of Norway again, in a matter of speaking. Inside the heritage centre we saw various photos showing how the people in the floating villages lived, various tools and fishing nets and boats that the people used, a map of the whole of Halong Bay, a bit of history on the people there, and some information on when and how Halong Bay became a World Heritage site. There was a girl sitting outside the door who we found out was from California. Jake asked what she was doing way out here and she said she was studying the culture and the environmental impacts of the bay and was staying out here with the people all by herself. She was quite brave and intrepid to come out here alone to do something like this, but she definitely chose a beautiful place to live and relax in.
Back on the boat and it was time for lunch, just as good as before, then we had some time to slip in a few more photos before we were due to dock back on shore to meet up with our minibus to take us back to Hanoi. I couldn’t believe it was all over when we got back to shore. I could’ve stayed there for at least a few more days just swimming and kayaking and drifting out into nowhere. I only wished we could’ve travelled throughout Vietnam this way instead of by bus or train.
Before we left the shore to get on our Halong Bay boat we were asked to hand in our passports for the night. I came to realise at every accommodation place we stayed at that we had to hand in our passport so I didn't think twice about it. So when we got off the short ferry back onto the shore I half-heartedly said "So I wonder when we get our passports back", and someone said "Didn't you get yours back?" and I said "no, why, did you?" and it was then I found out everyone had been handed back their passports on the boat, except me. We were just about to get back onto the bus to Hanoi and I had been forgotten, so I was very lucky I said something by accident. I asked if I could get back onto the boat to retrieve my passport straight away but Ter said no and he would hand it to the next bus driver going back to Hanoi tomorrow. For a moment I almost insisted I get back on the boat, but I was assured I would have my passport by tomorrow as we had little time for some reason and had to get back on the bus. Of course if my passport hadn't arrived by the time we were due to leave Hanoi I would have to go back to Halong Bay to retrieve it and miss some of the tour, but for some reason this didn't concern me as much as it should have. As long as my tour members were fine with waiting I could've very easily gotten back on the boat and back on shore in no time but I was told everything would be worked out. It was very frustrating to not be in control of that situation. I told my tour mates on the bus back and they were astounded but agreed there wasn't much I could do about it for now.
The bus ride back was just as uneventful as the trip to get there, with another obligatory stop at a place selling things none of us could afford. We got back to our same Hanoi hotel in the early afternoon. This time Liam and I were given a different room with single beds. Liam went off on his own for another walk while I went up to the room to relax. Inside the room was another guy who I got to chatting to, Darren from Tasmania. It felt good to have another Aussie other than myself on this tour. He was nice and laid back, worked on a farm, and had just gotten off a plane from Australia so was still a bit jet lagged. I let him catch up on some sleep and went for a walk myself.
I noticed Jackie Chan hadn't really given us a rundown of what we'd be doing for the rest of our tour, so I figured it would be a good idea to get on the net and print out own itinerary, our optional activities, and some brief information about each place we would be visiting. Little did I know how valuable this information was going to be further down the track as most of our tour guides didn't give us information for things we could do ourselves that didn't involve paying money to the tour guide. At times I found the tour members asking me what we could do in some places instead of the tour guide, and some of them asked me what the tour guide said because they couldn't understand his broken English whereas I could make it out as I was used to talking to Vietnamese people back in Sydney.
As a group we went out to Little Hanoi again to eat seeing it was so exceptional and cheap last time, but we just ordered different meals this time around. Afterwards everyone but Darren went off to bed. Darren joined me at the 2000-Dong beer place for a while before we went to sleep ourselves.

Day 6: Sat 30 June - Hanoi (night train)

Today we had another day to kill in Hanoi before travelling south. I had seen most of the things I wanted to see in Hanoi and was ready to leave, but most of the rest of the tour hadn't seen anything at all, so they all went off in various directions and I slept in. I planned to meet up with some of them later to go to the Ethnology Museum, which I'd read was very well designed and presented, but when they got back from seeing the major attractions most of them needed a rest or a sleep or a bite to eat, so I just went there with Darren.
The Ethnology Museum was about 10 to 15 minutes by taxi away whereas most other attractions were reasonably close to the hotel. I partly wanted to visit this museum because I heard it was so good, and partly because I didn't want to sit around all day doing nothing. On arrival I realised it was the most modern building I had seen so far in all of Hanoi. Inside it looked very professional, showing the clothing and tools and living houses from ethnic groups around the whole South East Asian region. Outside was a large grass area full of actual size houses made of the same raw materials used by people in the past. I stood in front of a few of them and had photos taken, including one that had a roof about 20 metres high! The whole place didn't blow me away, but it was definitely something pleasant to visit and was worth the trip and like most other things it didn't cost very much money.
Getting back to the hotel we had a bit of time to kill before catching our night train down south to our next destination, so I figured I’d use up some time at an internet café. Jackie Chan hadn’t told us much at all about what we’d be doing after leaving Hanoi and I couldn’t remember what was on our itinerary or even what activities we could do at different places, so I made sure I found out as much as I could about where we’d be going at the net café. I didn’t realise how valuable this would be further into the tour as no-one else had really looked at the itinerary in detail and we were pretty much relying on Jackie Chan taking us places, so I wanted to know what we’d be doing so that I wouldn’t miss out on anything, and as we went along there were some people on the tour actually asking me instead of our tour guide what we’d be doing on the tour each day. I felt there was a combination of not being able to understand his broken English (even though I could understand it most of the time) and not trusting him to tell us everything that led to people coming to me for tour information. I actually had to ask Jackie Chan at different times what we’d be doing and when we’d be doing it in certain places. Anyway, I spent a good 3 or 4 hours in that net café and it only set me back 4000 Dong an hour and the connection was fast, so for good quality service it only cost me about $4 for all that time!
We met up again as a tour again and headed back to Little Hanoi for another tasty meal for dinner, although Jackie Chan chose not to join us which I thought was a little unusual. We ordered different things than before, then headed back to the hotel with a bit of time before getting onto a bus to take us to the train station. The place was cluttered with people but we were able to find a few seats for all of us to sit on and relax with our bags while waiting for the train staff to allow us to board. When we finally got on there were no separate seats, they were all enclosed cabins with two sets of bunk beds per cabin. We had a tall window on which to look out at the scenery with a curtain to block out the light when we wanted to sleep, and outside in the aisle were large windows to see everything on the other side. There was a toilet on each end of the carriage, one ‘Western’ toilet which was a normal toilet seat with flush, and one ‘Eastern’ toilet which was basically a hole in the train with room for squatting and a little water gun on the side for washing the waste down. The hole was basically a pipe with a twist in it so that it wasn’t a direct hole straight down, but if I turned my head to the side far enough I could see right down to the tracks underneath. It was another interesting new experience for me.
The train eventually left Hanoi station bound for Hue, and Jackie Chan told us our arrival time the next day and said he would give us enough time in the morning to get ready to leave the train. After a while a train staff member came around giving us little bottles of water and instant noodles in a container for next day’s breakfast, all included in the ticket price. Then we were on our own to entertain ourselves. Everyone pretty much wanted to go to sleep rather than doing anything active or social, so I just listened to some music until I fell asleep myself. The train was a bit rocky, but it was surprisingly easy to get comfortable enough to sleep.

---