When Hoi Chi Minh met Martin Luther King..

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Day Six in Hanoi and I'm feeling like I've seen as much of the loud, bustling city as you can. The roads are crazy and crossing the them simply entails closing your eyes, crossing your fingers and steping out into the omcoming traffic. So far this has been sucessful and the motorcyclists just weave around you- the key being walking slowly and not paniking.

Yesterday we left our hotel at 7.30am to head for Halong Bay. We had a few stops along the way, the first being at the Blue Dragon Institute for breakfast with some of the children the charity supports. The kids were great and we got taught some very important Vietnemese "Oi Choi Oi dat qua!!" which is "OMG! thats exensive!" - the perfect phrase! (Watch me try to intergrate OCO into english slang... and fail!)

Our next stop was a shopping centre(ish) allegedally supporting the disabled people who make the clothes and beaded bags. Although the sewing area did resemble a sweat-shop floor with a big sign saying "No Picture..." perhaps I'm being over synical.

Our tour leader Hi is a brilliant tour guide. He's always got a story to tell and being in his early 20's is full of brovado and corny jokes. Almost everyone in Hanoi has a motorbike and the reliable brand that everyone wants is a Honda Two... Hi said that with 5 million people in Vietnam, theres 3 million motorbikes! He then goes on to say that Martin Luther King visited Vietnam at the height of his campaign and met Ho Chi Minh (wandering around Hanoi of course!)
The pair get talking and MLK, wanting to promote himself, says "I have a dream" to which, Ho Chi Minh replies "I have a Dream Two" !
You can imagine us all on the bus, slighly open mouthed, waiting in silence for the rest of the story about the day that MLK came to Hanoi...poor Hi had to explain that it was a joke ("dream too; Dream Two, yeah you get it?!")
Hi continues to take the piss out of us by picking the perfect moments of cultural story telling to slip in a load of crap that we believe until it all gets a bit ridiculas...!

At mid-day we arrived at the Habour and boarded the boat that would take us to Halong Bay. We all rushed to get our swimmimg cozi's on and lathered up with sumcream, just in time for lunch! We pulled into Halong Bay in the afternoon sunshine, lounging about on the top of the boat. The scenery was incredible with clear blue skies and the karst mountains rising out of the sea. Armed with all our digital cameras a bad picture was impossible to take. ( I have failed once again to get any pictures up...sorry!)

After feeling a bit cooked by the sun, we went to visit "The Amazing Cave" (and why is it called "The Amazing Cave"...? Yes, thats right children, because its Amazing) and took pictures of the phallic stalagmites like purile school boys.
Then we went sea kayaking in two man kayaks which needed more co-ordination than any of us were prepared for! Me and my partner Sally got it down in the end and beasted it over to a beach on Ti Top island- named after a russian astronaught to help relations between Russia and Vietnam. Ti Top island has 493 steps to climb up to the top of its karst mountain where the views of the bay were well worth the effort to get to the top! Back down on the beach we played piggy in the middle with Hi, who got more excitable and slightly violent as the game went on!
A bit more kayaking later, and an invite from Sally to visit her in Melbourne to party! (score!) we were back at dusk for some jumping-off-the-boat pictures.
Dinner, a game of Poker and Bed. The perfect end to one of the best days so far!

Today we travelled back to Hanoi to get ready for our overnight train to Hue. We stopped by an ice cream parlour that was supposed to be all you can eat ice cream for 50,000 dong!! (just over $3) but the guide book that told us that lie was out of date and the cafe must have stopped doing it for all the fat westeners that were eating them out of ice cream!!
It didn't stop us ordering a far bit of ice cream though! ("we're on holiday, why not?" - the excuse for eveything!)

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Comments

[Sam Lea]

"The Amazing Cave". LOL. Have you already uploaded any pictures, or am I just crap at using this site? Similarly, "50,000" Dong. LOL.