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Published: November 16th 2009
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Shy waitress
She served up a fine cup o'joe, tho'! I had left an entry incomplete in a previous submssion and will try to make things right. I have included pictures of Luang Prabang as well as pictures from Hanoi, and Halong Bay in this entry. Ok, here we go.......I got a ride via tuk-tuk to the airport in Luang Prabang and off to Hanoi. On the plane I met a fellow traveler (Pamela) who was from Germany-many, many more Europeans traveling than Americans. She was 25 and had been traveling solo, too. At the Hanoi Airport Tourist Information desk following our confession that we did not have a place rearranged yet - that is fairly common for me, and her - we were told about a hotel that was reasonably priced, near the French Quarter and conviently located close to many of the other attractions. It was twenty five dollars a night, a real bargain compared to the same thing back home. It is fair to assume that the person 'pushing' the room is getting a kick back of some sorts from the hotel or the taxi driver or some combination thereof - that is business as usual in SE Asia. We talked it over and decided if it was
Free breakfast
Sometimes you really crave coffee, toast with butter and jam not what we had been told, after a nights stay we could simply move on to another place. This is always a good way to handle entering an new city when you have not prearranged/reserved a place for the night. As to the ride from the airport to the hotel, when you are going to ride a taxi/bus (mini van) it is always good to have an idea as to what it will cost so that you don't get ripped off. (You can find this information out by asking other travelers or locals in the airport.) It doesn't matter that it may be a difference of a dollar or two - you don't want to encourage'' people to be dishonest and take advantage of tourists. We decided to take a mini-van into town - these are smaller versions of an American van - everything is bigger in the USA - and we waited as this guy stuffed 17 of us, not including himself, into the vehicle. There was a problem, however. The back doors were not closed because the driver was to lazy to try to rearrange the luggage, and diesel fumes came into the cabin. There was a Vietnamese
woman in the van and she spoke English. I commented that it was very unsafe and that we should try to close the door-or leave and consequently risk being stranded on the freeway waiting for a taxi. Van = 0; Taxi = 1. Well, we got into town and arrived at the hotel-it was very nice; a free breakfast, a/c, flat screen, in room computer use, western style bathroom-it was well worth it. After sleeping in guest houses with shared bathrooms, fans for cooling, this was palatial. The next morning after a nice complimentary breakfast, Pamela and I hit the streets. Map in hands we worked at negotiating the streets-it wasn't that confusing, but enough that we got lost, and continued to until the very last day there (well, me more than her!). The names were in English, but the street names changed on a road travelling in the same direction, or after a bit of a dog leg and we were constantly getting turned around. We visited the lake in the city, Hoan Kiem, purchased some essentials like a SIM card, ate some home grown Pho (the omnipresent soup staple which is pronounced 'fuh', visited a smallish street market
It was damn hot
But thats why there are airconditioned Mini Marts which offered silk material, counterfit sunglasses watches, back packs-you name it--but they do a hell of job making it as close to the real McCoy as possible. As to other tourists, there are other recognizable white tourists, and for some reason we don't smile or even acknowlege each other. Maybe because...I don't know-hell, everybody speaks English. So that is, and continues to be, a part of traveling for me. We had heard about a water puppet show that was rumored to be quite a show. We bought tickets for the next day. We visited a restaurant called Highway 4 where we ordered oxtail soup, rice paper - fresh, not deep fried - egg rolls of catfish, some ever present rice, and a local beer-delicious. The next morning we hit the streets-and didn't get home until 1100 pm. We were up early to see the older population exercising around the lake, found a great little coffee shop which was entered through a small walkway--maybe 2.5 feet wide; it took us past people preparing food - these people center so much of their lives aroud food - cooking diner for their families, other shops, a hibachi cooking meat, - it even seemed
we were walking through someones living room - up several flights of stairs-and, voila. We had a great view of the area at night. 'Later, we attended the water puppet show-traditional Vietnamese singing with a pool of water onto which a screen hung, under the temple. The puppeteers manipulated the puppets using multiple bamboo pokes-some making the mouth move, others causing the puppets to flip-it was quite extrodinary.
Many of the hotels and travel agents offer tours with overnight stays in Halong Bay which is east of Hanoi. For one hundred thirty nine dollars I got: my own room on the boat which had a/c, a very nice bathroom, and a queen sized bed, six to seven course meals, a movie, squid fishing, taichi, massage, drinks (extra), a tour through an extremely large cave, kyaking, and more! I have included pictures of the boat, as well as the scenery-I have to stop writing now-I have been in this Internet Shop in Vientiane for way too long.
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