Hanoi and the end of the Vietnam portion of our trip

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Day 23.

Spend the morning packing with very sad faces, but there is no stopping us now. We pay our bill and grab a taxi to the airport. We have a sneaky Burger King for lunch, our first western food for 3 weeks and we didn't even crave it. Our next stop in Vietnam is Hanoi in the north, we only have 3 days here and are a bit gutted we cannot fit in a 2 day trek too Sapa (Google it) once we get to our hostel right in the centre after another hectic taxi journey, a common theme, we do the drop bag and unpack ritual we have gotten used too by now and talk to the receptionist about which tour we want to do, grab a few leaflets, map and a rough direction of where to head and some local restaurants that sell only 1 local speciality, and we head off for an early evening stroll. So we make our way to the place she has marked spring rolls, we squeeze in amongst the Vietnamese and they bring out the food, it takes a couple of trips but we end up with, grilled pork patties, crab spring rolls, rice noodles and whole gardens worth of herbs and lettuce and sweet broth with pickled veg (according to lonely planet it's called Bun Cha) it's another DIY dish, but with some deft chopstick work and careful picking of the herbs we have another superb meal, who needs Burger King. Suitably stuffed we carry on with our now evening stroll and head over to the centre where there is a large lake, the centre is a mix of Trafalgar Square and Hyde park ands it's bustling with millions of youngsters cruising along on scooters. We pick possibly the worst part to cross, as 10 lanes of traffic merge into 4 and have a romantic walk around the lake. As we near the bottom we can hear music playing and a lot of activity going on so we head over, it's a group of woman (at least 40) doing an exercise group, it's a cross off Zumba step aerobics and dirty dancing without the swayze or any man. So we watch and giggle like children to ourselves for a few mins before we stroll back to the hostel grabbing a bubble tea on the way, managing to walk through a street were everyone was air drying squid, it stunk,and book our trip to Halong bay for Thursday, we opt to pay a little extra for a bigger boat, smaller group and better lunch.



Day 24.

We get up reasonably early ( which is now at about 10) and decide to take a wander around hanoi city, see a few of the cities offerings. So with our trust map we head off towards the centre again and try and find the water puppet theatre, it was highly recommended, and booked tickets for a showing at 6pm. Then we crossed the road to see the temple and pagoda of a local folk hero ( a Vietnamese King Arthur/sword in the stone type) with the mystical sword in unreadable shrine in the middle of the lake, from there we take a short walk to the indoor market, the market sells every item imaginable from rice cookers and fans to fake mulberry hand bags and mobile phones, we have a good look around as Kayley is after a very specific pair of Ray bans, gold frames with pink reflective lenses. A few of them have them but for cheap fakes they are expensive, but we do eventually find the exact pair and they have glass lenses which we manage to haggle for £6, £6=happy wife. We head back towards the centre and still have a couple hours to kill before the water puppets show so we head to the top of the large sharks mouth building (it's official name for some reason) and have a few drinks whilst enjoying the views of the city. As it nears 6 we head to the theatre and find our seats. We are not really sure what to expect but it was quite enjoyable, the puppets were somewhere between punch & Judy too Team America standard, the show itself was a series of small performances highlighting daily life, some were dances of mythical creatures and the final was a tale of the hero that we visited earlier. By the time we had left the theatre it was dark, and a massive thunderstorm had crept up on us, so we shifted along the outside of the streets under shops canopies and made our way to the sharks head building to take shelter and have some food, it took nearly two hours for the storm to pass but we eventually managed to walk back to our hostel without getting too wet.



Day 25.

Today is the day of our trip to Halong bay, it's a long drive about 3 hours but we get picked up at 8, and go around picking up the other tourists and eventually leave the city around 9. We stop half way for 30 mins at a marble store for some reason, they have huge statues and they ship but most people on this trip could not afford the shipping let alone the cost of the statue. We arrive in Halong at 12:15 and get shepherded towards the port and our boat. The boat trundles out of port our lunch is served, the extra cost was worth it for the food alone, we get served up, prawns, stir fries squid and whole fish, crispy tofu, morning glory and watermelon for dessert. I quickly finish my meal as we are approaching the Bay itself and I wanted to get some videos and pictures of the area. Our first stop was at a floating village in the middle of the bay were we would get in kayaks and make our own way around some of the bay and see some lagoons. Kayley and I shared a kayak and she got in the back, once we set off she had designated herself as camera man, which meant I was left to paddle which in the midday sun wasn't easy, but the area made it worthwhile. After an hour of kayaking, avoiding bamboo boats and people not so co-ordinated to manage kayaking it was back on the boat for a fly by drive of the fighting cocks islets, which were supposed to look like two fighting chickens, one deffo looked like a chicken the other looked more like a guinea pig but who were we to ruin their traditions. Our next stop was at a cave of wonders (called monkey caves I believe) which had only been discovered in 1991 by a local fisherman who was chasing a monkey or so the story goes. The cave was formed by thousands of sea erosion and was a delight to behold, the coloured lights that had been put in helped but it would of still been nice. The tour guide was pointing out rock formations that kind of looked like certain animals from the right perspective, same as the fighting cocks I guess. Now we enjoyed a listing cruise back to the harbour, catching a few rays on the sun deck and avoiding the over priced drinks salesman. The 3 hour drive back was a major bore, and we stopped at the same marble shop that we did earlier. We get back to our hotel about half 8 and our first thought was for dinner, so we go to the same beef noodle place went too yesterday (if it ain't broke etc..) and head for bed as we are both shattered.



Day 26.

We have a real lazy morning, in fact we don't even get out of bed till 12, just watching films on HBO. But we muster some energy and eventually leave the hostel, buy some cakes & couple of drinks from the bakery two doors down and take then down to the lake where we sit for an hour or so just watching world to by ( to which we have become completely detached from by this point, it's a good feeling) we eventually decide that we need to do something and check the map for something nearby and make our way to the national history museum, which was divided between two buildings, one covering from around 800ad to 1800 ad with some very traditional statues and agriculturial tools and pieces from the different eras. The other building was mainly recent history starting from the build up to the Vietnam war and the different factors that lead to it, many artifacts from during the war including an unexplored bomb from a plane, different uniforms, propaganda posters and many plant materials manufactured by Vietnam in their post war economic push. Worth a visit as it show cases the Vietnamese resilience. We stop of at a coffe shop for some lime juice slush and an iced Vietnamese coffee (don't know if I've mentioned how good this stuff is, but as far black coffee goes it's the best I've ever had) Now we have really exhausted Hanoi for most it has to offer, and as we only had 3 days here we are gutted we didn't have the opportunity to go to Sapa (Google it) as it is an overnight train ride away so would require at least 3 days on its own, but we are thinking of coming back for few days once we have earnt some money in Australia. So with a whole evening to kill we decide on a visit to the cinema, according to Google it's a 20 min walk, it took at least 40, but we watched 22 jump street ( good film, the Vietnamese loved the part with. Vietnamese Jesus) it was in English. We jumped in a taxi back to our hotel as we still had to pack and had to be up early to get to the airport for our flight to bangkok. Good day hanoi, and thanks Vietnam for such an unexpectedly good time.

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