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Published: September 25th 2006
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Ok the beautiful Halong Bay UNESCO world heritage site is spectacular. However the tour fiasco may soon turn tourists off coming to the area and what a shame that will be. For anyone reading this who may be considering booking a tour of the bay do not book with Thong Nhat 3 Hotel in Bai Chay (Ha Long). More about that later!
We last joined you half frozen in Dalat with bags full of dirty washing! We are sad to say that our clothes have only just gone to the laundry today and we have been dirty manky backpackers for the past 3/4 days. We blew the budget (again!) to fly from Saigon to Hai Phong in the North East of the country (Vietnams 3rd biggest city and virtually unvisited by backpackers). The flight with Vietnam airlines was a dream (despite only making it to the airport 50 mins before departure in complete contrast to the 14 hours early we were for our Air India flight in Mumbai (it seems we have some work to do on timing!). We arrived in Hai Phong and met a taxi man and a few hotel touts who guided us very successfully to a
really nice cheap hotel. We only spent 18 hours in the city so didn't see much and spent the majority of our time foraging for food. Since entering Vietnam we have become far more adventurous about what we eat and even though in less touristy areas next to no English is spoken we normally succeed in getting a bowl of nutricious veg noodle soup (Pho Rau) however in Hai Phong this was not to be. After walking and stretching off the two hour flight on a leisurely stroll we settled on a road side eatery and Ed ventured over to the owner with our card of veggie delights written in Vietnamesse. He came back very pleased with his efforts and two Hanoi beers arrived without delay...followed promptly with two bowls of noodles containing every possible meat available...somehow Ed's no meat in Vietnamesse turned into all meat! This wouldn't usually bother me...just eat the noodles and leave the rest but undoubtedly there was mouse and dog mixed up in these noodles (A notion which is still bothering Ed and has him borderline Veggie too). The next day was no better after many efforts to get the ever more elusive bowl of
veggie noodles we gave up and went to a cafe where we ordered something which looked like pizza for breakfast and ended up with chips and chilli sauce? Ed is off ordering duty unless we have English menus. These days are always the most fun, whenever we find ourselves in an area with little English we meet someone great who will do all in their power to help us for no benefit to themselves. A really sweet fruit seller helped us book bus tickets, find the right bus and entertained us on until it was time to go that morning!
So on to Halong City...we arrived and all looked promising, once again we found a really nice hotel room for a ridiculously cheap price and we successfully ordered our noodle soup for lunch which was delicious. Then the bubble burst...a guy in our hotel gave us the low down on the tour to view the bay. We searched in vain for other operators to compare deals and so in the end decided to go with him. We arose bright and early the next day to beautiful sunshine and after pottering around the town we joined the rest of our
group on board the boat or junk (as they like to call them). The plan for the next two days was to view the beautiful caves (grottos) and peaks of the bay, swim, lounge around on deck and kayak...or at least this was what we were sold. What we got was trip to a cave lit up by hideous flourescent lighting and destroyed by massive concreted walkways for viewing (renamed the Disney Land of caves by some of our group), we then paid extra to jump onboard a smaller boat and go through a small opening into a lake surrounded by rock (truly spectacular and well worth the extra dosh) and the rest of the time we sat on board, drank overpriced beer, ate lukewarm food and swam. The kayaking we were told was not included for us just for the rest of the group (despite having paid well over the average price...we were well and truly done!). The attitude of the staff on board was appalling and they were totally incapable of commanding the boat. Right here ended the rant! On the positive side we met some really nice people; Nikki from South Dakotta (Hi, I hope you have
reached Sapa safely) and Leigh and Eddie an Israeli couple, for once we managed to get past the so where have you been?, where are you going? travel talk and learnt about the people behind.
So we vow this is our last organised tour and from now on we go it alone...more adventures from Edam in Hanoi.
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