Cruising aboot Hanoi

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We had a great few days in Hanoi. Its an amazing and vibrant city even if the scooters take over the city and crossing the road becomes a possible suicide trip every time. One of my favourite things was embraciing the street BBQ where you cook your own food on an individual fire and sit on tiny little chairs while scooters and cars speed past you beeping their horns. Lush food and great surroundings.

We booked outselves on a two night/three day cruise in order to see Halong Bay in all its glory. We were skeptical that the boat would not look quite as good as the one on the flyer but were pleasantly surprised to find it looked just as nice. All the rooms were en suite with a shower on the wall and hot! Quite amazing in this part of the world!

We went kayaking on the first day and swam in the warm sea water at a small beach just as the sun was setting. Dinner was a bit of everything, mainly alot of rice and numerous varieties of seafood. We even got a whole fish, eyeballs and everything.

The following morning we set off for some more kayaking to go and see some caves and we were even lucky enough to spot some endangered monkeys. The afternoon was spent jumping off our boat (it took me a while to build up the courage - sharks exist and jellyfish can kill!) and visiting another small beach staying there for a while and then setting off for the boat to eat another meal of rice and plenty seafood.

The scenery around Halong bay was pretty amazing even if it has become very touristy as there were plenty of boats neighbouring ours.

We arrived back to Hanoi on Thurday and stayed one more night there, hanging out at the big lake in the old quarter the next day.

Last night we braved another night bus. This time only a 12 hour one taking us to Hue. I slept like a baby however Craig wasn't so lucky as he had an Isreali guy spooning him most of the journey. Lucky guy!

We arrived in Hue just this morning and you would have thought we had landed right in the middle of Glasgow with all the rain so our plans may change in order to miss the coastal rain or we embrace it? We'll have to fugure that one out.

Right now me and Becks are awaiting our boyfriend delivery service of delicious baguettes but i'm thinking they may have been washed away right into the Perfume river...

Until next time...

Katie and Craig xx

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Comments

[Sue Thomasson]

Wish we were there
Loving your blog Katie. Brings back a lot of great memories. I think we must have gone to the same massage parlour in Chiang Mai (pretty painful). Halong Bay is something special. Looking forward to reading more. Sue x