Adventures in Vietnam

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In my first two days in Vietnam I enjoyed the company of the Vietnamese Police on two occasions.

First, the bus ride from hell was just that...

*the bus had air conditioning but opted not to turn it on
*the bus was not overbooked but because there were boxes on all of *the seats there were people sitting in the aisle all night it took two hours to get through Vietnamese immigration
*The rear wheel blew and had to be replaced first to a spare and then to a new one (two seperate stops)
*25+ hours in to the ride we get stopped by the police and the bus is taken apart and the boxes searched at which time it is discovered that there were live snakes being smuggled on board. We also saw some turtle shells hidden somewhere and god only knows what else was on there. After an hour of negotiations the poice decided not to accept whatever bribe was being offered, we were all put on an even less comfortable mini-van (yup, all of us from a big bus on one minivan with all our bags) and the bus was confiscated for further searching. We knew there was something up because the bus was staffed by at least 8 guys who were constantly reshifting the boxes and closing the curtains around them.
*We arrived in Hanoi 29 hours after I left my guesthouse in Ventiane.

I spent one lovely day in Hanoi before heading off on a 3 day boat tour of Halong Bay. To begin with the weather here is quite miserable right now although we've been assured it was relatively clear (the pictures look like vancouver on a foggy fall day). The are a million choices when booking the tour and you never really know what you're going to get. The boat was quite nice and lunch on the first day was great. The nine passangers all set out for an hour of kayaking and when we got back one of the couples had over $300 US missing from their room. Turns out the windows have no locking system at all.
The crews was given a chance to return the money but no one stepped forward so the guide (from the company that hired the boat) decided to head into the harbor early and check in with the police. Three hours later the police are on board and we're all desperately wanting our dinner. The police officer was incredably thorough and the crew were all questioned and strip searched (in the middle of the cabin). The theft included Thai Baht, Vietnamese Dong and Amerian Dollars so each of the crew's wallets were checked. None of us thought anything would come of all this but the officer actually discovered that the Dong bills in one guy's wallet matched the serial numbers on the bills remaining in the couple's bag. Crazy. The funny thing is that all of us checked and though we all withdrew money from the ATM none of us had serialized bills accept them. Anyway, they searched the boat, found the money and took the guy to the police station (after he first disappeared for a while hidden somewhere on the boat and they thought he jumped ship). Thankfully one of the americans on board was born here so could translate everything making the situation a lot more managable. Eventually we even got our dinner but cold rice really doesn't taste like much.

The rest of the trip was pretty nice though the service and food were a little below par.

I am stopping in Hanoi for a few hours now before taking the night train north to Sapa for a couple of days. My future looks full of night transportation which makes me a little sad because it really isn't as nice as having a room and a shower.

I have lots of pics but can't upload them here so they'll have to wait....

Hopefully the next entry will be nice and boring.

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