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Published: February 4th 2012
Kayaking
Picking up some Vietnam wine from a floating villageAfter our near miss flight experience in India we decided we better arrive at the Vientiane airport early so that we would not have any issues and would make our flight to Hanoi, Vietnam. Therefore, we left our hotel with enough time to arrive at the airport about three hours early – which turned out to be completely unnecessary! The Vientiane airport is very small (three gates) and you are not even allowed to check in until two hours before your flight. Thus, we sat around for an hour before we could get our tickets, check our bags, and wait another two hours for the flight. Getting through the airport was probably the easiest I have had in my life and if we would have showed up 10 minutes before the flight we probably could have made it on board! Oh well, better safe than sorry!
We had heard that this time of year is cloudy/foggy and rather cold in Northern Vietnam, as we descended the weather was just as we had read – foggy. Stepping off the plan introduced us to temperatures around 50F. To arrive in Vietnam you either need to have a Visa already in
Ha Long Bay
Looking out from ascent to enter surprising cave. your passport or a letter from the Vietnam government that you are allowed to enter and obtain a Visa on arrival (the Visa on arrival is not available over land crossings). We knew this and had the letter ready when we landed. We quickly made it through immigration and customs with no problems and we were greeted by our hotel’s taxi driver as we exited the airport – perfect!
When we arrived at our hotel, Rising Dragon Hotel, we were greeted by some wonderful staff. We were shown to our room (which was upgraded for free) and we settled in for the evening. In total we stayed at the Rising Dragon for five nights and the entire time the staff were absolutely amazing! They are the epitome of service and I can safely say that they are the nicest staff we have encountered on our round the world trip! It seems like the service industry in Vietnam (outside of retail stores) all provide exceptional service and are very nice. It will be interesting to see if that continues for the rest of our trip in Vietnam as we head South or if it is unique to Hanoi
Tube House
Tall, deep, narrow architecture for stores and houses in Hanoi and the North.
Our first day in Hanoi we investigated trips to Ha Long Bay, which has provisionally been named one of the “New 7 Wonders of Nature.” We started by checking the options that our hotel had and then compared prices with some other tour operators, as it turned out we received the best price through our Hotel, so we booked, and were on our way to Ha Long Bay the next day.
Ha Long Bay is an area of limestone karsts. Essentially the entire area consists of nearly two thousand islands which are predominantly limestone, of which nearly eight hundred of the islands form a “core area” where most people visit. The tours range from single day trips to three day trips, I’m not sure which are most popular but we settled on a two day, one night trip. You sleep on the boat, which are known as “Junk” boats – not to be associated with the work junk – as they are not bad boats.
Our tour started around 8am as we joined a group of about 20 people for a van ride from Hanoi to Ha Long
Galaxy Cruise
Ha Long Bay Boat we cruised and slept in. Bay, arriving around noon. We boarded the boat, operated by Galaxy Cruises, and headed out into the bay. We were immediately shown our room on the boat and fed lunch, which consisted of some seafood accompanied by different dishes of vegetable and fruits. Our room was gorgeous and the as it turned out the shower on the boat was one of the best we have encountered since our travels started. After a few hours of cruising through the islands we arrived at Sung Sot (aka Surprising Cave). Had we not previously visited Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico Sung Sot surely would have been the most impressive cave structure I have seen in my life. Even having seen Carlsbad Caverns the Sung Sot caverns were very impressive and in fact surprising as our guide and the English name suggests. At the caves, you climb up about one hundred meters from the bay to the entrance and then you descend. As you explore you are led into larger and larger caves through narrow walkways until you enter the largest and most impressive cave of the whole structure. I would guess that the largest cave is probably 100 meters by 300 meters and
Dinner
The "flowers" are actually carved vegetables made to look like flowers! consists of some great stalactites and stalagmites. The ceiling was possibly the most fascinating as it is different than other caves I have been – the ceilings are created by the motion of the waves that used to hit the top of the cave. In spots the ceiling is almost like looking at waves of sand that have solidified to become solid rock, but keeping the wave like structure.
After visiting the cave we had the opportunity to spend about an hour kayaking around some of the islands, only three of us on the boat opted for the kayaking option – probably because it was rather cold. The three of us headed over towards a floating village and Amy and I bought a bottle of wine to enjoy on the ship with our dinner. The wine was local (who knew Vietnam made wine)! We brought a corkscrew from some Texas friends on our travels but it was confiscated at a U.S. security checkpoint – stupid rules! We would have had to pay a corking fee to open the bottle on the boat so we had to get inventive on how to open the bottle in our room.
Amy on Galaxy Cruise
On the top deck - would be good for sun bathing if it was warm and sunny! In the end, I used a fork to stick into the cork and try to twist it as I pulled up. The theory was good, the practice not so much…I could not get it to come up. However, as I tried to twist and pull I ended up pushing it in further, which in the end was how I opened the wine – just pushed the cork into the bottle. We enjoyed the wine with a delicious dinner of shrimp, crab, and lots of cooked vegetables – Amy skipping the seafood. I must say, that on the boat you definitely do not go hungry, the food just keeps coming, and the presentation and flavors are wonderful too!
The boat does not travel through the islands at night, which is a great thing as I’m not sure how anyone would navigate through all the islands at night! Thus, we set an anchor and stayed in a bay for the night. I tried my hand at squid fishing for an hour or so, I was unsuccessful – but it was fun to try! The following day we had breakfast and went to the top deck of the boat as
Peep Hole
The view from our peep hole of our room on the ship. we started to head back through the islands to the mainland. The whole time we were in Ha Long Bay it was overcast, which in my opinion did not take away from the bay. I’ve read blogs complaining about going to Ha Long Bay during this time of year, but in my opinion if you are going to let a little weather ruin your travels and experiences then you probably shouldn’t be traveling in the first place. The limestone karsts with the turquoise water make for a picture perfect view anywhere you look around the bay. Anyone traveling to Northern Vietnam should visit Ha Long Bay regardless of the time of year!
Besides our trip to Ha Long Bay we mainly stayed in the Old Quarter of Hanoi spending our days walking around the streets. Hanoi has a unique architecture known as tube houses. Many of the shops and buildings have a store front that is eight to ten feet wide, some are as small as six feet! The buildings are very deep and tall. Apparently this type of building was created due to the tax structure in which taxes are determined by store frontage, therefore, having
Sung Sot
Surprising Cave - pond within the cave. only eight feet along the sidewalk means your tax burden would be less.
The shopping around Hanoi varies from complete luxury (and all of the knock offs) down to the world of cheap plastics. A lot of companies manufacture clothes in Vietnam so it is difficult to tell if the knock off clothing is actually a fake or if it is real and just taken from the local factory and sold on the street. The North Face is everywhere but there are other options as well. Gucci, Versace, Armani, Rolex and the like can be had all over Hanoi’s Old Quarter for pennies on the dollar of what a real article from these companies would cost. It all makes for some interesting walking around.
As I mentioned in the opening of the blog I’m not sure about the service in the retail section in Vietnam yet. We have had some interesting experiences. First, you can buy Chaco’s (which I absolutely love – they are the best sandal in the world). However, they do not have my size Chaco anywhere in Vietnam. When I would walk into a store and ask for a larger size
Cave looking out
The smaller cave we kayaked to. they would essentially look at my feet and laugh and say no. Not that it offends me, but an interesting way to respond and with their tone probably would be considered offensive in the States. While looking at another store Amy went to walk in and they said no “big” sizes. As all of you know, Amy is rather petite and not having her size would be really rare. However, Vietnam women are probably 100 pounds wringing wet at the heaviest and their waists are probably 22 inches at the widest – they would not be able to find small enough clothes in the U.S. In addition to these two experiences we walked into a few stores that the owner would immediately tell us not for sale and ask us to leave. We never did know why, and not that we really cared, but it sure was odd.
Yesterday I heard two “westerners” ask each other what day it was – it got me thinking…I had absolutely no idea what day of the week or the actual date it was. This is the second time in the last week that this happened. As I’m sure many (or
Ha Long Bay
The entire skyline is islands. all) of you can imagine it is an odd feeling. I’ve tried to think back to the last time that I didn’t have to think about the day/date and frankly it was probably when I was really young – probably before my teens. This is probably the only time in my adult life that I will be able to completely disregard what day it is or the date – I’ll have to enjoy it while I can!
Tomorrow we fly to Hoi An (not to be confused with Hanoi J). Hoi An is in the middle of the country, which would have been probably 20 hours by train. We found a flight on Vietnam Airlines that cost us $67 for the two of us, essentially the same as a train. Each month Hoi An has a full moon festival (not to be confused with full moon party) where they turn off all the power, forbid traffic, and light the street with candles. The full moon festival is the main reason we are going tomorrow (full moon) – but since being in Vietnam we have heard the town itself is charming so the festival will only add to
the experience.
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Teesside Travellers
Mel and Howard
Great blog, love the peephole picture! Found your blog by chance as we have just arrived in Hanoi and by coincidence are staying at the Rising Dragon too. Agree with your comments about the staff and looking forward to our Ha Long Bay experience even more now.