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Published: August 15th 2010
Another 20 hour combined trip of normal sitting bus to Hue and then an overnight sleeper bus got us to Hanoi, this time in relative comfort and safety (at least compared to the hell that was the journey from Nha Trang to Hoi An). Our first bus from Hoi An to Hue was only half full so I could get a window seat and watch the coastline unravel below me as we climbed twisting roads clinging to the cliffs and mountains on this stretch of the journey. It was extremely picturesque, just a shame we missed the very best of it by cutting through massive tunnels in the mountains. We stopped in Hue long enough for a Laughing Cow baguette, and again later for a bowl of Pho (delicious staple out here, it's only noodle soup, but really good). The latter gave me awful heartburn so I didn't get too much sleep that night, at least I couldn't blame it on knees and elbows in my face this time. I woke at dawn to another spectacular view of limestone cliffs jutting out from the misty rice paddies as we passed Ninh Binh.
Hanoi proved to be rather sedate
Hanoi Cathedral
European architecture, definitely Asia wiring and transport!after the rest of Vietnam. We'd heard horror stories about the traffic but it's certainly not as bad as Saigon - or even Dalat - although it would seem scarily crazy if you'd just got off a plane from Europe! We got totally lost in the old town, a maze of roads and alleys that all look the same but all sell different things. For example, there is the bag alley, shoe road, beer corner, pho lane etc etc. I went on a search for a pork bun one evening and after an hour of going around in circles gave up and had a packet of fake Oreos for my dinner as I couldn't for the life of me find the street where I'd seen at least 4 pork bun sellers earlier in the day!
After three days here I began to get my bearings and managed to discover
and refind a place that did really good fruit shakes for 30p, the cheapest yet I think in Asia. Wednesday was the last day of travelling with Jacqui after 5 weeks together. We had a nice day wandering around the shops, I swear Jacs has completed her Christmas shopping out
here! I treated myself to another new bag - a girl really can't have too many handbags, I suppose it makes up for the fact I'm travelling with just one pair of shoes!
In the afternoon we went to the Water Puppet Theatre. Apparently it's an old traditional Vietnamese entertainment going back hundreds of years. Basically it's pantomime but with glitzy wooden puppets thrashing around in a pond. There was even the whole “it's behind you” thing when they recreated hunting for frogs and fishing. It is quite entertaining though in a big kid sort of way, and very impressive how they coordinate and move the puppets. The music was not so amazing, lots of wailing type singing and discordant beating of a drum. But for US$2 it's a decent way to spend an hour out of the muggy Hanoi afternoon heat anyway.
For our final supper we found a nice little restaurant that did a cheapo set menu. On an impulse I decided to finally be brave and try Dalat wine (not dodgy snake wine thankfully but the Vietnamese attempt at a half decent bottle of red plonk). Why had we not tried this earlier? It was
actually pretty good, on a par with a £5 bottle from Tesco that's been open for a day or two, which out here is divine! We followed this with another trip to Beer Corner, a few cafes spilling plastic chairs out onto the pavement (and as the night wears on and it gets busier, further out into the road). Here they serve glasses of draught beer for 14p - and again it's perfectly potable!! We toasted surviving Vietnam and imagined how expensive the next drink we had together would be when we meet up in London one day! Then the police came along and told everyone to get out of the road so we drained our glasses and headed back to the hotel to pack.
While Hanoi is a pleasant enough place, it's still a big bustling city in the end so we made a swift exit after one night and jumped on an organised tour to Halong Bay. Having heard more nightmare tales about scams and unseaworthy vessels we had done quite a bit of research as to which company to go with for our tour and settled on Vega Travel, who were pretty good value,
Our Junk
Well actually the sister of our junk but it's hard to take a photo of your boat when you're on it! even if our tour guide was a little bit creepy! We were driven out to Halong harbour and transferred to a junk, a traditional Vietnamese sailing boat. Fortunately our boat was far from a heap of junk, probably the most luxurious place I've stayed in Asia!
For the next three days we were plied with huge meals and I stuffed my face as I can't leave food to go to waste when I've already paid for it! It was a good job then that our trip had lots of activities scheduled. We spent a lot of our time climbing lots of steps in hot and humid conditions and then jumping off the top deck of the junk into the water to cool off. Our boat took us to Surprising Cave, which I have to say was not that surprising or spectacular, I mean they don't even have a witch like Wookey Hole does. They do have a turtle rock that everyone rubs the head of for good luck, it was so worn down though I thought it looked more like a cowpat than a turtle! On our second day we climbed Ti Top Island at 7am for 'morning exercises'
Suprising Cave
Suprisingly similar to many other caves I've seen! Although quite big... and a fantastic view across Halong Bay, it gave a much better perspective of just how huge the bay is and that there are thousands of islands littering the sea here. Then we visited Monkey Island and climbed even more steps until an ant invasion turned me back.
In between climbing steps and swimming we did quite a bit of kayaking - my new favourite sport! We paddled around in the dead calm waters of Halong Bay, passing through tunnels into shady lagoons inside the limestone islands and checking out deserted beaches. We also visited floating fishing villages where they farm shellfish and live in shacks on bamboo rafts out in the bay. Being the competitive English girls we started races and water fights, which were great fun until we had to raise the white flag because Jacs had walloped me in the head with her oar!
Our first night was spent on the boat out in the bay, which was wonderfully peaceful (apart from the karaoke from a neighbouring boat). The second night we opted to stay on Cat Ba Island, the largest and only inhabited island in the bay. This was a bit of a dissapointment,
the town was just like any other Vietnamese town but more expensive and touristy because it's on an island. The best things about it were: we could eat Pho rather than a six course meal for dinner, ice cream, massive buffet breakfast at our 3* hotel, and stealing all the miniture toiletries from the hotel. On our last day we pootled back to Halong harbour, enjoying the views and chillaxing up on top deck one last time before heading back to the thunderstorms and mayhem of Hanoi.
Now I'm at Hanoi airport using the two hour check in time for blog catch up and trying to drown out the Korean soap opera on the TV. My god it's over dramatic: in half an hour I swear 3 people have died, 15 people have cried uncontrollably, every character has had at least two opportunities to stare intently and mysteriously into the screen while the music crescendos, and one girl had a full two minutes of gasping and dramatising the fact she scratched her finger on some broken glass!
Soon I'll be in a teeny prop plane puttering across the wooded hills to Luang Prabang, I can't wait to
get to laid back Laos after the hard work of Vietnam. I'm sure in part it has been brought upon myself by travelling too quickly through the country, but I can't help thinking I've missed out on a lot more than just a few sights in Vietnam, a feeling I've not had from travelling for less time in other larger countries. I've struggled to connect in anyway with the people here, finding far too many of them downright rude in comparison with all the other countries I've travelled to. It's hard to explain, so many other people rave about Vietnam and yet it's just not done it for me unfortunately. I'm still glad I've been here though and experienced it for myself.
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