Ha Long Bay and seeing Hanoi properly

“Hey, it’s time to get up”. When you’ve had a 17km walk the day before and a night on a sleeper train, it’s really not what you want to hear at 4am. The next thing I knew Teddy was rousing us all from our sleep and not receiving any sort of gratitude. It was still dark outside, which to me is always a sign that you’re awake too early. After a taxi took us back to the centre of Hanoi we had a brief look around to see if any hotels would allow us to check in for the next night. It was 5 in the morning, we weren’t successful. We found a café by the lake that allowed us to sit on their terrace before opening time. All around the lake were Vietnamese doing their early morning Tai Chi or Yoga (something along those lines) sessions. The city slowly came to life as we sat there, and we worked out how cunning this café owner really was by allowing us to sit there before opening hours. It slowly filled up with backpackers who had obviously been on the same train as us with the same worn look, all of us willing to pay more than usual for a decent breakfast. I couldn’t complain, it was a great setting to start the day with the view of the lake one way and the city waking up the other way.

After an omelette and some coffee we looked about finding a hotel. The research Andreas and I undertook two days earlier was not in vain as we checked into one of the hotels we looked around then. It had a very reasonable price and single beds for all of us (none of us particularly enjoy sharing). The air conditioning in one of the rooms was rubbish but that was the only real problem. After showering and getting changed we didn’t have much time to rest, we had to go back to our travel agent’s office to catch our minibus to Halong Bay. One of the biggest disappointments with night travel is that you can’t watch the country go past and learn a great deal about the natives’ lives that way. No such problems with this bus journey and despite everything I had no real problems staying awake for the majority of the journey. Vietnam’s stunning countryside was not restricted to Sapa. On the flat side you could see paddy fields stretching on for miles on one side with palm trees growing by the side of the road. In the other direction you could see the mountains against the horizon. I sat there happily watching it all go by along with all the small Vietnamese towns by the main road going by. After a brief break at a very touristy point clearly recognized as the stop off point between Hanoi and Halong Bay, which sold the sort of things we bought in Sapa for over twice the price, we arrived in Halong City about four hours after leaving Hanoi.

We were only a day cruise so we swiftly met our tour guide and were shown onto our boat with only three other guests apart from us. Halong Bay is Vietnam’s top tourist spot, with numerous islands and caves easy enough to explore by boat. We sat on the top deck as we set sail, and looked out at all the mountainous islands rising out of the sea. However as we drove towards this sight, we noticed that all the tour boats seemed to be driving towards the same place. It seemed inevitable that we would follow them and ignore the various other routes that could have potentially been open. After an hour of or so we stopped off at a fishing village for lunch. These villages float on the water, people can spend their entire lives on them without setting foot on dry land. We had a delicious lunch with loads of different seafood, from shrimp to squid to more normal fish. After this we had the chance to go in kayaks and explore for ourselves a bit.

All the things that I’ve said about people from Sapa can’t be said about people from Halong Bay. Our tour guide was unhelpful and unfriendly and nobody from the fishing village ever had more than a business attitude towards us. We were shown our kayaks and handed our oars which were rotting away on the inside. Around where we kayaked the water was very dirty in some places, and one of the caves we kayaked through had graffiti on the inside. The surrounding scenery was incredible and I can’t imagine what sort of person comes out to places such of these to ruin it in that way. Judging by what had been written I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the offender had been English, which would make me feel so proud…..The reality is that none of this could ruin where we were, I’ve never been anywhere quite like Halong Bay before. We were sat in quiet waters as massive islands in different shapes rose all around us. As we were kayaking about Teddy’s oar snapped in half simply because he took a stroke in the water and they tried to charge us for it. Our tour guide didn’t even try and stand up to the villagers on our behalf, so Teddy gave them 50,000 Dong and they left us in peace. At the same time Peter got an allergic reaction on his face something, probably to do with the water, before the boat took off again towards two of Halong Bay’s biggest caves.

That hour or so was enough to convince me that Halong Bay can’t be done in a day and probably can’t be done on a tight budget. Some companies have special access to more deserted areas which haven’t been spoiled by tourism so much, and likewise a longer tour can allow you to get further away from Halong City, the hub of all these problems. My mood was lifted quickly enough as we got moving again, there seemed to be less tour boats about and I never tired of the natural scenery. It was very relaxing sitting on top of the boat watching all sorts of rocks and islands pass by and the incidents were becoming forgotten. The caves we visited were worth seeing too, no sign of graffiti this time. The first one had all of its best features lit up in different colours, with all different shapes having been formed over thousands of years. People had put in a few fountains too to add to the effect and generally tried to make a natural phenomenon look even better. Needless to say they failed. They didn’t make the same mistake with the second cave, which was left in almost exactly the same state nature left it in with the exception of a few bridges and paths making it all more accessible. It was great walking through it looking at all the different shapes and sizes rocks could make given a few million years.

After our trip to the caves it was a quick journey back to the harbour before heading back to Hanoi on the minibus. Halong Bay had blown me away with some of its natural beauty, but tourism had spoiled it to an extent and I was probably ten years too late in visiting it. Upon our return to Hanoi at around 10pm we found that the streets around where we were staying had become even more insane than usual. In many parts of Asia there is a mid-Autumn festival that takes place at the start of October, apparently just for the sake of having a holiday. On the Friday when we got back from Halong Bay it was the eve of this and there were loads of street stalls about selling masks, wigs, horns and other similar things in preparation for the Saturday. There was already an air of excitement around the city with people coming out into the centre to soak up the atmosphere. Perhaps we would have done the same, but we’d woken up at 4am that morning before being rushed to Halong Bay and back. Instead relaxation was the order of the night, finding a very nice rooftop restaurant next to our hotel. After enjoying a relaxed time we went back, played a couple of rounds of cards before going to bed around 12 and having a blissful sleep.

We woke up at a normal time the next day, and were finished getting up and eating breakfast by about 10.30, giving us plenty of time to see as much as Hanoi as we could. Unfortunately Teddy had managed to break all his contact lenses and we had to spend a long time in what was probably Hanoi’s only western shopping centre to sort it out. It was the discovery that glasses could be made so much cheaper than they ever could in the U.S. that slowed us down; we were waiting about an hour or so for them to be finished. I took up the opportunity of a free eye test to pass the time - turned out I didn’t need glasses. Once Teddy had his vision back we headed towards Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum. Unfortunately Uncle Ho’s body is currently with the Russians or somebody so that he’s maintained in a sufficient state for the rest of the year. This happens on an annual basis, I’m not sure what they do to him. In fact it seemed like nearly everything around this area of the city was closed off. The presidential palace was guarded, we didn’t get to see Ho Chi Minh’s house on stilts (he was too humble for the palace it seems) and the majority of the area was strictly for eyes only, and nobody was by any means allowed to enter inside. It was still good walking down the streets next to all these impressive buildings and taking a look at our grand surroundings - with pieces of architecture and grandeur which weren’t really replicated anywhere else throughout Hanoi. We still had our photo taken outside the Mausoleum and saw Hanoi’s finest district and there’s no real disappointment about not being able to look at a dead body.

After that we stumbled into one of Hanoi’s biggest parks - by chance more than anything else. It was a lovely picturesque place, with loads of lakes and ponds to walk past and all the paths lined with trees and greenery. It was also absolutely packed with newly weds getting photos taken on their big day. We thought they were models at first as they all looked perfect and they seemed to be lacking the rest of their wedding party. Based upon this assumption Andreas asked one if he could have his photo taken with her and she obliged. What better photo day to have on your wedding day than one with a complete stranger who is dressed in a Liverpool shirt. We asked some locals and apparently it was a lucky day to get married based upon the date and it was a very nice day outside so the park was the perfect place to have photos taken. There were literally photo shoots every ten metres.

After walking about the park we found a little street stall right next to it and saw that they were selling what the Lonely Planet claims is the cheapest beer in the world. It was quite watery but it was very good for about 25p. We also had the chance to try eating dog. This had been one of my ambitions prior to the trip so I wasn’t going to let it pass me by. The meat itself tasted okay - a bit like beef. The problem was that there really wasn’t much of it; it was largely a plate full of fat and bones. There was also the tail sliced up which distinctly lacked taste and had a strange slightly crunchy texture. I didn’t eat anywhere near enough to call it a lunch, but it’s something to add to the list of disgusting foods tried. Just like snake, I doubt I’ll be trying it again. Next up I need to find some place serving cockroaches or some other insects. I believe Mainland China can be quite useful for that.

Following my snack on (un)Lucky we headed towards the Ho Chi Minh museum, which was more a “We hate the French imperialists”/”Check out how amazing Vietnam is”/modern art museum. A very strange mix. It had pictures of diplomatic meetings with the west in the last ten years and pictures like that, which is a really boring thing to put in a museum. However it was clear that Vietnam has progressed in a lot of ways in the past fifteen years or so and they’re very proud of it. Apparently they’re still trying to progress based upon Ho Chi Minh’s writings and manifesto, he really appears to have a massive cult of personality. Following the museum we had a look for the One Pillar Pagoda and found it after ten minutes or so. Met by the same reaction from everybody - “That’s it?”

We had just one thing left on our day’s tourist itenary - the Temple of Literature. It’s one of Vietnam’s biggest and oldest Confucianism temples, which also acted as the country’s first ever university. There were lovely grounds and brilliantly colourful pieces of architecture. As usual I saw plenty of statues carved out of gold or sometimes stone. Wherever you go in the world religious buildings are some the best to look around.

Dead on our feet but pleased to have seen so much of Hanoi we decided to try and find some nice gourmet Vietnamese food back in the Old Town. Unfortunately the first place we tried was fully booked due to The mid Autumn Festival. The second place we tried no longer existed, which was actually quite funny. However it was already 6pm and all we’d had since breakfast was a few pieces of dog. A painful search around the Old Town (which by the way was by now absolutely insane because of the festival) finally ended with a very touristy place serving western and Vietnamese food. I had a lovely culturally enriching burger….still no regrets now. After Lucky I needed something I was more familiar with.

All that remained was to truly soak up the atmosphere of the Mid Autumn Festival. The best way was to do a lap of the lake that was buzzing with activity. There were an infinite number of bikes on the road and even more civilians walking around making as much noise as possible. They were all wearing the masks and wigs they had bought the night before, along with their balloons and other things you buy at a festival. Loads were walking about blowing their horns as loud as possible or screaming and cheering. There seemed to be no centre to it all or any real point, people were just having a good time with their friends. There were areas where people were sitting down and relaxing too but we were happier walking about with the excited crowds and having our photos taken with dressed up Vietnamese people. After buying ice creams and sitting watching everything go by for a while we headed back to the our hotel and ended up watching Man Utd v Sunderland on the T.V., pretty much the last thing we did in Vietnam. The next morning our taxi picked us up bright and at 5am and took us to the airport and we had a very simple, comfortable and easy journey back compared to the journey there.

It’s unlikely I’ll ever have the chance to return to Vietnam and if I do I’ll be going to the south. However Hanoi and Sapa had truly captivated me, partly down to natural charm and beauty. However it will generally be more memorable for the people who never made us feel unwelcome in their country at any time. They were all just so naturally kind, polite and thankful for the slightest sale or favour. Hopefully this won change as more and more tourists eye up Vietnam. I can’t quite say the same about the people in Halong Bay but it’s a truly extraordinary place just to look at. If anybody ever has the chance to visit South East Asia I’d advise that going to full moon parties and getting wasted in Thailand surely can’t match up to what Vietnam can offer. We didn’t even have the chance to visit one of their numerous top notch beaches, or the up and coming city of Saigon in the south. We didn’t have the chance to see the ancient towns of Hue and Hoi An with their supposedly incredible heritage and architecture to match either, but we still saw enough to recognize Vietnam as an awesome country which appears to be getting over a torrid 20th Century in style. 6 days was never going to be enough.

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Part of trip: Hong Kong year abroad

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