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Published: October 31st 2010
Oct 27 Hanoi
This morning was good bye to all our friends as we left them at the hotel. It was a two hour flight to here, and then another half hour to get our visas and through customs. You wouldn’t believe the place we are staying in. At 18 dollars a night, we are on the 3rd floor, no elevator. The room is about 8x12 with a bathroom/shower combination. It has a king size bed in it, a fridge, closet, dresser between the foot of the bed and the wall, and a desk. All small which leaves just enough room to move about. But the kids running the show seem really nice and are probably a bit surprised to have us here.
Early to bed and off on a city tour tomorrow. The room may be inexpensive, but the tours will make up the difference.
I have to add, while China was all city, Vietnam is just like the pictures. Flying in we saw rice paddies everywhere. Driving in from the airport we passed the farmers with the buffalo in the fields, the usual bike/scooter chaos, even a wagon being pulled be a horse. Amazing place.
Oct 28
Hanoi
Beijing has nothing on Hanoi! We booked into a city tour this morning and saw all the typical stuff….Ho Chin Ming’s mausoleum and home; pagodas, temples and such. That was most of our day. That was easy enough. Tonight Darrel and I, after getting directions from our hotel, had to set out for dinner on our own. Sound easy? Try walking along streets that use the sidewalk for parking motor scooters; and for cooking and eating dinner; not to mention to sell things. Now add as many horns as you can imagine and double the amount. Of course these horns are attached to swarms and swarms of scooters, with an occasional car thrown into the mix. And remember, there are no road rules. Now in order to get to our restaurant we had to cross these streets, several times. So, we did as the locals do…step into the fray and using a steady pace made our way across. We actually did pretty good, I only got one gentle bump through all our crossings. Can’t wait to get back out there tomorrow.
Oct 29 Hanoi
Set out on our own today to explore the old section of Hanoi,
which happens to be right outside our hotel. Started with a tour map and then of course, we got lost. This simply meant wandering a bit farther then planned. Went back to our hotel mid afternoon (and have to admit, we slept). The evening was out again for dinner and another walk around the small lake near us, Small Pagoda Lake, so called because of the small pagoda in the centre of it. We did this walk last night too. The walkway around it is all lit up, as are the streets. It is really pretty. Also, both last night and tonight there have been live performances of singing, dancing, and acrobatics. Hanoi is celebrating its 1000th birthday this year which is probably why all the celebrations.
Oct 30 Ha Long Bay
We left the hotel at 8am this morning and joined a group of 12 other people for a long 4 hour trip to Ha Long Bay. Once there we boarded our boat and got our room for the night. We then headed out into the bay to a cave, Surprising Cave, is what I think it is called. This is another lime stone cave, similar to
the one in Guilin but not as big. These caves are well worth seeing as they are quite spectacular. After the cave visit we hopped into 2 seat kayaks for an hours paddle around the bay, past a fishing village, caves, and boats. In fact, this area has literally a flotilla of boats. We all left the dock at the same time and all arrived at this bay with cave at around the same time. We had to wait our turn before we could dock. The after a dinner of every kind of sea food you could wish for…..it was a karaoke evening (no, we did not sing) and then off to bed. I was a little disappointed with Ha Long Bay. It is so crowded and so close to the city that it has lost its charm.
Oct 31 Ha Long Bay? Ca Ba Island
Okay, I take back what I said about Ha Long Bay. This morning was a beautiful, sunny day and best of all, all the day trip boats have left. There were only around 30 boats with us to start the day. Then all those that were one night trips left also, leaving
just 3 or 4 boats that were on a 2 night, 3 day excursion. After breakfast we cruised through a stunningly beautiful area which I hope my pictures do justice. Besides the scenery we saw a number of true fishing village where the people live on bamboo floats.
Just before noon we stopped at a natural reserve area and rode some rickety bicycles for about 45 minutes up to a small village of about 300 people where we checked out their ‘tourist’ accommodations.(thatched roof dormitory). On the way here we stopped to check out some insects…the stick bugs that look like twigs, plus some other creature. Also saw ant (termite?) nests up in the trees. It feels like we are in an episode of Discovery Channel.
After returning to the boat we headed to a small island called Monkey Island. It had a nice beach a supposedly some monkeys. Getting onto the beach was something else. First the small boat we were on drove up to the beach, then the gang plank was dropped. It was a board with cross slats to walk down and a bamboo pole, being held be crew members, to hang on to.
So after the
island Darrel and I were dropped off at a pretty little resort on Ca Ba Island. It is probably a lively place in the right season of the year, but is very quite right now. In fact, as I type this we are sitting on our balcony, on the 5th floor, enjoying the view.
Life sure is tough.
Tomorrow we head back to Hanoi and then we are off to Sapa on the night train.
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drussell
Don Russell
Hello
Janise and Darrel - It's good to hear from you and to know that all is well. It looks like you're having a wonderful time. Fall is definitely here and the leaves are almost all gone off the trees now. The weather is as usual....rain with sunny periods. You probably don't miss that. Keep in touch. We love to hear about your travels. Don and Glenda