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Halong Bay...
...as seen from the observation post on Titop Island...one of my favourite pics...Well, we made it to our last destination, Hanoi (well Hanoi and Halong Bay, lumping them into one post...). With only three days left on the trip this was unfortunately going to be a fairly brief stop...
We arrived early afternoon and checked into our hotel, the Blue Paradise in the Old Quarter (as recommended by the agent at the Green Field in Hoi An...not sure if there was a sale on brightly coloured paint in Vietnam but it sure made the places easy to find...again probably from Space as well...). Anyway, dumped our packs and headed out to get our bearings...first impression of Hanoi was that the people seemed a little more reserved than the folks in the south...there wasn't the hard sell at most of the shops, which was kind of a nice change, but also not as much of the interaction which can be a lot of fun.
Again we only had a short time here; we were off on our Halong Bay overnight adventure in the morning but still managed to squeeze in some cool things. After a pint and a stroll we picked up some tickets for the Water Puppet show which came highly
recommended and didn't disappoint. Very cool; the puppetry was fantastic and the accompanying band was excellent, really wish they had been selling cd's of the music...about a nine-piece band, all traditional instruments, very fun... Left the theatre and continued our walkabout, and after checking out a few different places to eat we stumbled upon people sitting on these little plastic stools on the sidewalk with what appeared to be individual barbeques in front of them, had to check that out! After chatting it over with one of the waiters we settled into a couple of vacant stools and awaited this mystery meal...the pints came and soon after this contraption that was more of a skillet surrounded by a high, metal tube and containing a candle type thing underneath...it was then lit and left to heat up, whereupon the platter of raw meat and veggies arrived and after pouring a bit of olive oil (I think) onto the now sizzling hot platter we started tossing the meat and veggies on to cook 'em up, fantastic! Excellent meal, with a ringside seat to cars, scooters and pedestrians walking by within feet and inches from us (and watching the less-than-legal scooter parking dudes
hustling around when the cops drove by, priceless!).
The following day our shuttle arrived to take us off to Halong City, launch point for the junk tour on Halong Bay. Man, the harbour was crazy! There were hundreds of junks of various sizes scattered all over the bay and huddled along the main docks...and even though it was low season, it was still chaotic with the boats unloading from the previous day's tours and reloading for the next ones...can't imagine what this scene looks like during the high season...haha...
Found our junk and were warmly welcomed aboard, beautiful. Turns out we were leaving with only one other tourist on board, a Brit named Kieran (sp?)...seemed a little odd having this entire boat to ourselves but I certainly wasn't complaining! We signed in and were shown to our cabin; we had elected to splurge a bit and got a suite, fantastic! Big comfy bed, funky decor (bamboo walls) and large ensuite...aaahhhh... Then it was up to the top deck to watch our departure from the harbour, again absolute mayhem...the majority of the boats seem to be on the same schedule, so it was pretty funny watching them all scrambling
out of the harbour at the same time. Some good pics and then it was down to the dining room for lunch; fresh seafood! Four meals were included on this trip; lunch, dinner, breakfast and lunch the following day, with seafood being the predominant theme...and no meal disappointed...mmmm! Fresh crab was served first, and plate after plate of all sorts of goodies just kept coming until we were all ready to explode...this would be the ritual at every meal, and the fact that Karen and Kieran were not big seafood lovers meant more for me!
Settled into some deck chairs and watched the islands float by... Halong Bay was designated a World Heritage site in 1994, and is certainly deserving of the title. It consists of over 3000 limestone islands rising out of the emerald sea of the Gulf of Tonkin, a beautiful site even on a cloudy day (we unfortunately did not have any sun, which would have brought out the greenness of the water, but again still amazing...). After stopping for a while at a beach and taking in some fantastic views from an observation post we were joined by an Australian couple, Brad and Gill (sp?)
before settling into our spot in a bay for the remainder of the day and night. Great gang on board, we were to share our meals and many laughs together (as well as a few pints...haha...), really fun meeting them...
As we were now planted for the day, the option of kayaking came available and off we went to explore some cool caves not far from the ship. It had been a while since I had done anything of the sort, so certainly found some muscles I hadn't used in a while but a lot of fun nonetheless...we paddled around for about an hour, going through this great cave that opened up into a hidden lagoon, before making our way back to the boat (and thankfully they had raised the sails on the ship that had the name of the boat on it, because the dozen or so boats in the bay all looked the same...). Dinner was again a parade of fresh seafood (fish caught that day by the staff apparently) and the evening was spent swapping travel stories and laughs...
The next day was an early one; a quick breaky before making our way to these
Street eats!
Our curbside "bbq", tasty and very fun...haha...gotta love the hustle and bustle going by... (KC) fantastic caves. A guide had gotten on the boat with Brad and Gill named Ha, and after we docked at the base of the caves we (along with a bazillion other people) made our way in to do some exploring...beautiful! The caves were enormous in spots, and Ha did a great job explaining their history; when they were discovered and how they were formed...and although it still took over an hour to get through them it would have been nice to have had more time to sit and enjoy the caves at a slower pace but unfortunately our itinerary and the hordes of people didn't allow it.
Then it was back on the boat and a leisurely cruise back to Halong City, where we all jumped into our waiting van for the shuttle back to Hanoi...we said our goodbyes at the various drop points and with it being our last night in Hanoi Karen and I were up for a big blowout...yess!
Started with a reservation mix-up but they moved us down to the Indochina II hotel around the corner so it all worked out. Had a bite to eat off the main roundabout and then it was
into a cab and heading to the Seventeen Saloon, a bizarre cowboy themed bar with live music! Was hoping for some good ol' honky tonk Hanoi style but the band that eventually took the stage played a fun mix of classic rock staples, and they rocked...haha...settled up our severely overpriced beer tab and then headed back into the old quarter to a Brit place called Le Pub (which boasted "Quebec Poutine" on the appetizer board, the kitchen was closed at this point otherwise the curiosity in me would have ordered it...very funny!). It was last call and after getting some directions to the "after hours" district we finally found the street with the shut in bars and were ushered into a cool little place with a pool table and classic rock... Very fun, the owners were a couple who were very friendly and even partook in some of the games (played Jenga with one of them, and he totally took me to town...haha..). Played some pool, told some lies and then as we left we realized we had no idea where we were! Stumbled around Hanoi at 2am, something I'm sure the guidebooks don't recommend to do anywhere, and with
the help of the lone local or two we encountered we finally made it back to the hotel...
Our last day was a lazy one; our flight didn't leave until almost midnight so decided to just relax in our room until checkout time...rest of the day was spent strolling around for last minute souvenirs, checking out the Ngoc Son Temple on Hoan Kiem Lake, searching for another market that was of course closed when we arrived (a major theme of this trip...lol) and then our last meal and pints before heading to the airport...
Hanoi was a great town, but the highlight to me was the junk trip in Halong Bay...all in all a fantastic adventure, sorry to see it all end!
(Some photos copyright of Karen C., denoted by (KC)...used with kind permission)
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