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Published: February 14th 2011
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OK so its been awhile so a bit to catch up on!
So on our last day in Hanoi we went to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum where the body of Ho Chi Minh or Uncle Ho is kept. We rocked up and the line to get in was massive just hundreds and hundreds of people all coming to pay their respects to Uncle Ho. The line moved quickly much to our relief and in no time we were inside and walking around the glass sarcophagus containing his body, there are many sceptics that believe its not him and that Madamme Tussaud has the contrct but either way we could not tell , what is a man that died in 1969 meant to look like anyway???
The next day we started our 3 day tour to Halong Bay. Halong Bay is 165km from Hanoi and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Halong Bay means descending dragon bay and the Vietnamese believe that this is the site where the dragon that came to help them defeat the Chinese went back into the ocean. The bay is made up of 2000 limestone islands that jut out of the sea. Words and
pictures do not do this place justice, it is one of the most amazing places I have seen and Jono and I were both awed at its beauty. We cruised about 17km in the bay on the junk then we went to check out a cave on one of the islands. After the cave we went kayaking, there were 3 boys from Israel and one of them ended up falling in which was a bit of a laugh.
We were quite impressed with the junk and our room was great, we were in our room getting changed when all of a sudden a lady in a boat selling food and beverages rows up to the window to try sell us suff so even out on the sea they are still trying to sell things , you really have to give them an A for effort !
The next morning we said goodbye to the people on the single night tour and then boarded another smaller boat to cruise deeper into the bay. Aftter cruising for awhile we docked on one of the islands. We then took a bicycle tour into the island to a remote village called Viet Hai.
This was awesome and probably our highlight of the trip (other then seeing the bay). After the bicycle trip we boarded the boat again and cruised to Monkey Island. We were told not to feed the monkeys or go near them then as soon as we got off the boat our guide starts throwing watermelon on the ground so they all come running up to us. One of them tried to take our camera out of the backpack and when I grabbed it it was bearing its teeth at me, I just dont think that monkeys and me agree.
After Monkey island we cruised on the boat again to Cat Ba Island, it is the largest island in Halong Bay. We were pretty knackered after the long day so we had a nap then went for a walk around the town. It was a shame that we only had 1 night there as there were a lot of activities and things to check out if you had more time. We were picked up at 7.45am to head back to the boat to start our journey back to Hanoi, we pretty much spent the whole day travelling back to Hanoi.
The next day we had a flight booked with Jetstar to Danang. I had an impulse to check my email and lucky I did as our 4pm flight had been cancelled and we had been rebooked to the 10.30am flight instead. We woke early to pack and head to the airport, after finally finding the correct place to check in we were welcomed with a nasty suprise, our 10.30am flight was delayed until 8.40pm!!!! After sussing out our options we were able to refund the Jetstar flight and rebook onto a 12pm flight with Vietnam Airlines. This seemed really dodgy as it was so easy to do and it only cost an extra $20 each and everyone that was on our original flight was changing, it was hard not to think that maybe this was a jack up!
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Tracy Curtin
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This Looks Awesome...
Your photos are great and this is awesome being able to read what you have been up to. Cheers xoxoxoxo Your Curtin Fam