Hanoi - Halong Bay - Cat Ba

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Jon flew into Hanoi from Ho Chi Min on Friday 15th January. Luke went out to meet him with the taxi.


Luke had had a little hiccup at the hotel to deal with in the afternoon - while he was at Le Pub, he got a call from Kien saying there were guests who had arrived at the hotel - the very ‘currently being renovated hotel’. Two Australian ladies had booked accommodation with us online, and for some reason the booking was overlooked, and we really weren’t expecting them - so Luke had to come back and smooth things over - which unfortunately didn’t fix things entirely as they still put up a bad rating for our hotel on trip-advisor.

There was also another slight hiccup that afternoon, when he got back from the airport with Jon, the motorbike that we were renting, that lives on the footpath of our Hotel, wasn’t there. Our staff came out and laughed while they told Luke it had been taken away by the police, and he would have to pay a fine to get it back. I think Luke was the only one who didn’t see the funny side.

The moto actually lived at the police station for the next 3 days until we returned from Ha Long Bay.

I met Luke and Jon at Le Pub, on Hang Be street after I’d finished teaching that Friday night, we had a few beers and then met Kristen and Chris at Sawasdee for some Thai and a drop of Red.


Friday night drinks quickly turned into Saturday morning drinks at The Lighthouse. Pip, one of our friends here, met Luke, Jon and I out at a Pub where we decided to try our luck with finding The Lighthouse. Pip and I on her Moto, following Luke and Jon in a taxi. Lighthouse isn’t the easiest place to find, especially after a few cordials, but Pip decided the taxi was going the wrong way, so we took a left where they were going right, and we rode up a very long street till we got to the end, and then we rode all the way back down again. It was such an interesting detour that we took though. It was around 3:30am, and this road was packed full with trucks and motorbikes loaded with fruit and vegetables. All of the people were loading their houses up with fruit - it must be where the trucks from China come in with their goods. We drove past loads of houses that had pineapples from floor to roof, and others potatoes, or bananas, and carrots. Eventually we found the boys at Lighthouse, where we had Birthday shots of vodka for Luke - that Jon shared with the pavement, and later Luke shared with the porcelain express.

Saturday was a very quiet day for all of us. I slept through the time I’d arranged to go get Luke’s birthday cake made, so no cake for his 30th.

On Sunday morning, we had to be up bright and early to get our minibus to Ha Long Bay that Kien had arranged for us. He told us that we were going on the boat with all of the guests from the Drift backpackers, so we were all looking forward to for a bit of a party scene. It didn’t really work out to plan though, we found out when we got home that the big tour with the Drift crew didn’t go out till Monday morning, so we, along with 4 weird Canadian boys were the only people under say 35, and Jon was the only single man on the boat - aside from the 4 weird Canadian boys, and Boris - who when we were sitting on the boat listening to the itinerary, was given the key for the same room as Jon - as they were to be sharing a twin room. A nice surprise for Jon, who didn’t get much sleep that night due to Boris’s snoring.

We spent most of the afternoon on the boat, the meals were great - fresh seafood. Ha Long Bay is so beautiful, the people are fairly comical though - ladies on little row boats, packed full of beers, wine, pringles, chocolate, and nuts - they would row right up underneath the boat calling out to us to buy from them. ‘Cause the drinks were so expensive on the boat, it was actually cheaper to buy from these ladies and pay corkage on the boat. We also went to a Cave, our guide, Andy spoke ok English, but seemed a little stale with his jokes, we couldn’t figure out if it was deliberate that he was wearing Harry Potter glasses, and then we saw another 3 tour guides with the same glasses. At the Cave, we went to a little village on the water, and sat around while the other guests went kayaking.

That rest of the afternoon and night was spent on the boat, ended up getting Luke’s guitar out and having a sing-a-long with the 4 weird stoned Canadians.

So happy that we didn’t have a huge night of drinking - we trekked for 2hrs up a ridiculously steep mountain on Cat Ba Island the next morning. Then we got to our Hotel that we were staying at on Cat Ba, Luke and I went to Monkey Island for the afternoon and Jon hired a moto. The poor 4 weird Canadians had a mishap with hiring motorbikes - 3 of them crashed just around the corner, and so the Vietnamese Men who owned them wanted them to pay huge amounts of money for repairs - which they did.

Monkey Island was such a laugh, the monkeys are so cute. When a new boat of people arrive on the Island, the monkeys come right up to greet you, you really have to hold onto your water bottles / towels and it is just silly if you think to take food there. One girl took a bag of bananas, and a monkey snatched them out of her hand, and stuffed himself silly with them - one in each hand and just smashing them into his mouth, she looked like she was about to cry she was so surprised - not sure what she expected there.

The weird Canadians were pretty much attacked by the Monkeys, hobbling away with their motorbike wounds, then decided it would be smart to throw shells and rocks at the Monkeys so they could run back to where they were sitting and get their towels, and shells they had been collecting - so the Monkeys just ran off with their towels.

After dinner back on Cat Ba Island, we went to a Bar and before Luke asked for a drink, he asked for the Karaoke. So he and Jon spent the night on the microphones, belting out Frank Sinatra, Nirvana, a bit of Britney, and ABBA. There were some guys playing poker who complained about the music, but nothing was done about it - I had stitches from laughing so hard, as did the Bar owner, and Barman. The Bar owner got a little too into it and kind of killed the buzz when he sang a serious Vietnamese song, afterwards we sat and listened to him telling us about his 3 wives, then we called it a night.

We arrived back in Hanoi on Tuesday afternoon - after a very tight, long trip back in the minibus. We spent the next few days just hanging around Hanoi, took Jon for ‘Bun Bo’- traditional Vietnamese lunch, and for traditional Vietnamese ‘Pho Bo’ breakfast, he’d hired a motorbike also, so he got to see a bit more of Hanoi when we were caught up at the Hotel.

Out for dinner one night, there was talk of getting moustaches tattooed on our index fingers, Kristen and I thought it was a great idea also - so we all decided to pen them on for the night, see how they go for laughs, and then all go and get it done properly the next morning. So Luke, Jon, Kristen, Myself and Chris all had tattoos penned onto our index fingers that night - which rubbed off within about 1hr, but the laughs in that hour sealed the deal that we all definitely had to go through with getting the real thing.

Jon sorted out prices the next morning, I sobered up and was thankful that we were expecting guests so I didn’t actually have to say that I’d chickened out, and Kristen all of a sudden didn’t have any money - so of course, it was only the boys who ended up getting them.
They looked really great when they first got them, Luke tried to have a laugh with some workers in the Hotel by holding his finger in the moustache position and smiling - they blankly said ‘so-li, so-li’ and waved their hands in the air thinking Luke was complaining about the smell of the lacquer they were painting onto our new door frame, so he did it again and they blankly said again ‘so-li, so-li, no smoking’, thinking he was offering for them to have a smoke. He hung his head and walked away defeated.

Jon left on the 24th, and we were really busy with the Hotel, so much that we didn’t really realize that it was Australia Day the next day and we missed out on listening to the Hottest 100. We went for dinner at a really great little restaurant just around the corner from our Hotel, The Golden Drum with Kristen and Chris - where we’ll definitely be going back. I can’t actually remember what we ate, but the atmosphere was great - sat out on the balcony, listening to good old tunes eating good food.

It’s still on the cards to buy Luke a Vespa for his 30th, it’s just a much bigger process of buying one than I originally thought., he's enjoying Vespa hunting though.

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Photos

In Hanoi
Me, Luke and Jon

The Lighthouse
Jon, Pip and Luke

Great View
View of Halong from Surprise Cave