Hanoi and Halong Bay

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Ha Noi and Halong Bay

The ride from the airport in the bus took us across a modern bridge into the heart of the city and after travelling for an hour we arrived at the Old Quarter where our hotel was situated. The streets here are quite narrow with every shop operating as a street stall other than the hotels that dotted the road side where the millions of motor bikes, and mostly taxis zipped up and down causing on the surface what looks like traffic mayhem. The people, cars, bikes and taxis all seem to compete for road space with people mostly winning. Especially when the guide just walks out on to the busy and large roundabout near a water tower in the centre of the Old Quarter, without even hesitating and stands there and waits for us to catch up to him. When you think he must surely be hit by a vehicle you realise everyone can see him and they are going around him and then we can relax as that is what they are doing for us and we begin to familiarise ourselves with the expected pattern of behaviour for crossing roads and blending with the traffic.

After a jaunt around this part of town we went to a Vietnamese restaurant for a splendid lunch followed by an ice-cream from one of the street stalls further down the road. At this time I had noticed the bags street so Darra and I went back there so that I could purchase a bag that would hold up to 7kg of “stuff” for me to use on the flight home. I had to haggle for the bag but eventually got them to reduce the price from $20 to $11.00 and off we went negotiating the traffic on our way back to the hotel.

On the way there I stopped to suss out other trips as I was not sure after having changed the tickets that I wanted to be in Hanoi for 8 days and managed to get a trip to Sapa for four days for $168.00 that included the first class on the train and a nice hotel on the last night as well as one night at the hotel in Hanoi and all meals provided. I will be trekking up here and also having a homestay with the local people. I hear that there is a school up there who is always looking for volunteer teachers so will look into this whilst there. The train ride will be 12 hours there and 12 hours back.

We had tickets to visit the Puppet Show Vietnam style. It is a 1000 year old tradition of the most authentic expression of traditional music, art and water puppetry. We saw themes on rural life, fire breathing dragons, fishing experiences and love stories. At the end of the show they lifted the bamboo net up to reveal the six puppeteer’s standing in waist deep water who manipulated the many puppets from behind this screen. It is a very skilful performance not only by the puppeteers but also the traditionally singers and especially the musicians. One instrument was a ty ba which is a plucking instrument made of wood with four strings and a long neck. The performance lasted 50 minutes and was well worth the $10.00 it cost to go to the show.

The next morning we headed off at 7.30am after being ready down stairs a half hour earlier due to a mix up in the times. We had breakfast at a restaurant in another part of town that caters to the training of young people for possible positions in restaurants ranging from waiters to cooks. It was a buffet and we could eat what we wanted.

From here we headed east to Halong Bay that was a journey of approximately 4 hours. There was a lot of traffic on the road and this slowed us down even though it was Sunday. We passed through many local towns and I noted that the towns were nowhere near as poor as we had seen in Cambodia. The special sheer cliffs that sit like broken teeth in the ocean make up the uniqueness of Halong Bay and they were visible for up to an hour before we arrived. As we got closer to Halong Bay the urban areas got more and more modern in the distance and many hotels and restaurants along the way were viewed with a suspension bridge connecting an outer populated island with many high rise buildings seen on it.

When we arrived at Halong Bay we first noted that it was full of tourists waiting around for things to happen. For some reason with Intrepid we rarely have to wait very long for anything and sure enough within about 10 minutes we had been organised and set off to our boat. That was so cool as the weather was very hot like 33 degrees but it felt like 40 degrees and we constantly looked for shade.

The boat we are on was No 22 and it has everything on it for our group of 12 plus 4 crew. There is a captain, deputy captain, a barman and a cook and they did us proud especially with the meals. Our cabins had everything in them but the most important was the air conditioning which we couldn’t have done without. The cabins were as bit as many of the hotel rooms we have stayed in. The presentation was faultless other than the fact that the door had to be locked to shut it.

After boating for an hour we came to a very populated cove where there were caves and amazing views. The staircase and trail was one way so that made it very enjoyable as you did not have to consider people coming towards you. From outside the caves were not even visible but as we stepped into them they were awesome. I tried to capture the effects of the rock formations and the bizarre shaped stalagmites and stalactite’s and occasionally got people in them to give some perspective to the size of them. It was worth playing around with the camera settings to get these pictures.

Shortly after this we put down our anchor and went kayaking. I was paired with Rod as Darra was not keen to kayak today. Rod needed a quick lesson on how to kayak so it felt good doing the teaching and he was an able learner. By the time we were on the home stretch Rob had a good handle on what to do and it made the last bit of the kayaking a pleasant experience. Three of us stayed behind on the boat. At one stage we kayaked with the captain, I think, through a low entrance into a lagoon with this entrance being the only one to exit as well. It was hard to believe that on the other side of the sheer cliff was this so beautiful enclosed expanse of water. It was quite perfect.

Julie decided that it would be fun to play pirates so we splashed each other with our paddles, but as the water was extremely warm it was not something anyone cared to avoid, so that added to the short lived fun. Further exploring took us through another space in the rock to just the other side of it, but it was all enjoyable.

Once back on the boat and already wet, we went swimming off the end. I was a little concerned about the depth but was assured it was at least 5-8 metres deep. Also, as there are so many boats visiting these regions, how clean is the water one must ask? The sharks are not present here for whatever reason with the locals joking that they are vegetarian anyway. So I suppose that was reassuring. LOL

The meals for this trip were provided, and we only had to pay for our drinks. The chef was wasted on this small boat as he was amazing especially with his ability to carve delicate shapes out of the cucumber and carrots he used to decorate the food. There was a wide range of local Vietnamese food fed to us as appetisers and we ate very heartily.

While we ate our tea we listened to music played through my phone to a blutooth speaker that gave amazing clarity. The speaker was smaller than the size of ones fist and we all want one! It seems they are only just hitting the market and this one is made in China.

During the night there was a bit of a storm and the boat rocked a little but nowhere near as much as I would have thought. Still we woke and got up in the morning and all was well and as it should have been and after breakfast we headed back to the dock for our 4 hour return journey back to Hanoi.

We did stop at a ceramic place on the way to Halong Bay and a crafts place on the way back. Each time you get your own private sales assistant, but this is a pain when you have no money, nor any desire to spend any anyway. It feels a little bit that there is an expectation that you spend but there is no room left in my suitcase so this helps to control my likely spending.

After lunch Darra and I went out to buy headphones for our trips home. The earphones on the planes are just too hard to hear through and on my way out here, a man on the plane had his own and he said that worked very well for him as he had noise cancelling. I decided that it would shorten the journey if I could hear the movies, so hopefully it will work. Also Darra had bought a lot of dong and needed to change it from US dollars. Never buy more dong than you need as not even the banks want it and it has no value outside Vietnam. In the end she had to go to a Money Exchange place where they charged her a lot of money to change it back into US dollars. At the ATM’s you can mostly only get about 2,000,000 dong at a time and that is only $100 and the fee is $5.00 all US, so on the one hand it is a pain, but it does stop you from accumulating dong that can’t be spent or exchanged out of the country.

So it was our last night in Hanoi for the group last night. We went to a lovely restaurant for tea near the lake and the meals were beautifully presented. Darra and I had had some lunch at about 4pm so we were not that hungry. Still I had some scallops with a bloody mary sauce and it was the best. After a speech or two we said goodbye to everyone and headed off back to the hotel for our last night’s sleep here. Darra and I will keep in touch and we both loved sharing our rooms and our lives with each other during the last fortnight. It was a bonus of the trip.

I have added a few photos of the mosiacs that are along kilometres of motorway coming into Hanoi. They all appear to tell stories and are colourful and clean. The houses in the background are quite modern and reflect the French influence of the region. I have not talked much about Hani yet so will save that until I am back here and have a chance to explore.

Tonight I travel to Sapa on the train where I will do some trekking for two or three days and staying in a local home for one night before returning to Hanoi for the last four days of my journey. Well I hope my tickets for the trip are bona fide, and will only know that tonight as apparently there are a lot of shams here and I booked locally so we will see.

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Comments

[Jennie]

Photos amazing

[robyn mclean]

Beautiful photos lynnie. Such lovely places you are visiting. By strange coincidence a couple of days after I read all about Cambodia and all the torture that went on there, there was a T.V. program on where the brother of the N.Z er tortured in cambodia went back and retraced his brothers steps and talked to the very people who were doing the torturing.!!! A very emotional documentary. Anyway, take care, thinking of you, lots of love, Robyn McleanXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX