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hanoi is a bloody cool city. with half the population of saigon, its much more relaxed but really buzzy at the same time. countless little alley ways with little shops, pattisseries and bars. we spent the day wondering around and going to museums (i'v seen more bloody museums than iv eaten bowls of rice on this trip, so am very much over them). we have come up with a good trick though which we discovered while here. if you go to the museum within half an hour of it closing, not only do you not have to pay, but you are forced to do a whirlwind tour of the museum, meaning you dont feel bad for not studying every last god damn ancient artifact in the joint, and you are still able to walk away feeling a little bit cultured for at least having gone in the first place! brilliant!
we headed to halong bay the following morning on a tour with 14 others. it is by far the most amazing thing iv seen on this trip. it is not surprisingly a world heritage sight. bloody beautiful water with over 3,000 islands and loads of caves to explore. we
spent the day drinking beers on the top deck, did some caving and kayaking and had a bbq seafood lunch and dinner. in the evening ruairi and i got drunk on local vodka with a cool couple from sydney, stan and shelley. they had brought the vodka, and ruairi and shelley had to pass the vodka out the bedroom window up to us on the top deck so as to avoid a $5 surcharge on outside booze. things we do to save a buck. shelley's a nurse who specialises in male sexual issues (shes referrs to herself as the dick docter). ruairi asked her all sorts of weird and wonderful questions, and divulged lots of facts about himself over a glass or 2 of vodka (needless to say he was a little quiet over breakfast). we stayed overnight on the boat. ruairi thought rats were running over the bed. i told him it was probably rice vodka hallucinations, but i reckon it was definately rats. kitchen filled with food, old boat and water....
the following day we did a 2.5 hour trek up a mountain. i did it in my flip flops, but managed to came down in one
piece. i started mucking around by pulling the branches of the trees so that water would come down on ruairi, but then a 'serious trekker' behind him informed me that leeches could fall on us. i made a face but stopped immediately. we then went to monkey island which i was looking forward to as i was told was home to a rare breed of monkey that has a fancy hairdo (the kind you would get at tony & guy), but no. it was your regular jo blo grey monkey, the same kind that you get in bali that try and rob you and eat you'r throat (hehe mary). we went out later for a few happy hour cocktails then stayed at a hotel and returned by boat the following day.
we spent a day and night in hanoi, then began our 20hr bus trip to laos.
larry
oh, if you wanna see ruairis blog, just go to 'bloggers' on this page and hes the first under 'ru'.
cant promise ittl be entertaining but its more detailed, hehe.
leave me a comment too please! i really enjoy getting them! yes, this is the plea of a
desperate woman...
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genie
non-member comment
hmm
I am so jealous! Not about the rats though.. Sitting at work. Have a good time. Cheers