Flew choppers in Da Nang

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Well every 10 month trip is bound to have some minor setbacks, and the boys experienced one in Hanoi this past week. The flight from Vientiene to Hanoi on the Laos national airline was exactly what would you would expect from Laos, an international airport smaller then most small town hockey rinks and ridiculously translated airline magazines. For example, a direct quote; "The Laos capital was built on a pile of wild dog excretement. What did the excretement look like? Nobody knows." Can't make that stuff up. After landing in Hanoi the boys dodged the usual airport taxi scams and checked into a hostel in the old quarter and decided to do the usual backpacker thing by eating duck liver in red wine and grape sauce and complaining how hard travelling is. Life is tough in southeast asia.

Hanoi isn't really a tourist town but they managed to make it to the French Quarter and around the many lakes in the city. A highlight was the Hanoi Hilton prison where many Vietnamese and later American prisoners were held (including John McCain). After two days in the city the boys booked a three day, two night cruise through Halong Bay, staying one night on a boat and the second on the companies private island. Again, traveling is tough. Dave and Jord got to the travel agency bright and early the next morning ready to leave, only to hear that there was a typhoon in the area and all trips were cancelled. They then proceded to do the only sensible thing and head straight to the bars with drink specials. One silver lining of all tours being cancelled was that the bars were full of people who were in the same boat (pun intended) so at least there were people to talk to.

The next morning they again made the walk to Ocean Tours only to hear that all trips to Halong Bay were cancelled and that they had got up at 7 with hangovers for nothing. Back to the pub. With the motto third times a charm in their heads, Dave and Jord gave it one last chance and finally got the news they were looking for, the tour was a go. Sixteen people loaded on the bus for the three hour trip to the ocean, and after introductions the boys were happy that the group seemed pretty solid and quickly made friends an aussie couple. This story wouldn't be that sad if everything went according to plan however, and after two hours of driving the guide informed everyone that the storms were picking up and the tour had again been cancelled. Just to tease us though, the bus continued to the coast so we could at least have lunch at a restaurant. After eating and driving 10 minutes back to Hanoi the guide got another call and explained to everyone that the weather was clearing up and the tour was back on. We turned around and loaded onto the boat just as the thunderclouds rolled in. This boat took them around the many islands in the bay and to a cave that you could walk through, but sure enough the dreaded cell phone rang once more to tell us that we in fact couldn't sleep on the boat and were heading back to Hanoi that night. What a day. At least the compnay refunded most of the money so the boys are now millionaires in Vietnamese dong. Yes, thats what the currency is called here and no, the jokes never get old. After three nights more then they planned, Dave and Jord managed to make it onto an overnight train to Danang, 700 km down the coast from Hanoi. Danang isn't really a tourist town, so after taking pictures by the city sign for all the Corb Lund enthusiasts out there they're planning on heading to Hoi an to see what they can get up to there. Till then.

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