Blogs from Halong Bay, Quang Ninh, Northeast, Vietnam, Asia

We arrived in Hanoi after a gruelling 23 hours of travel time. We left Vancouver at 10 am and arrived in Hanoi at 11:05 pm but the time we spent on planes and sitting in Tokyo airport amounted to the 23 hours! Yikes! We slept well that night and got accustomed to the new time zone quickly. In 3 short days we tried to capture the highlights of Hanoi; the Ethnology Museum, Tran Quoc Pagoda in West Lake, the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and Museum, the One Pillar Pagoda, and the Temple of Literature. Unfortunately we missed seeing the Hoa Lo Prison (Hanoi Hilton). The Ethnology Museum captured the history and ethnic background (54 recognized distinct ethnic groups in Vietnam) of this lovely country. The people we met were all so friendly and helpful. It was ... read more

We’re leaving Hanoi today, but it is not “goodbye” yet as we will be back again in a few days. We do love the independent travel, but it is something less to worry about when there is a transfer car waiting for us again to take us to the next location, Halong Bay. Like the car from the airport, there is both a guide and a driver, just for the two of us. Apparently, also (and this must have been lost in translation), they will wait there for us for three days to take us back to Hanoi. It took a while to get out of Hanoi, taking on all the mopeds. Despite the chaos, however, we have not seen a single accident since we have been here, although there were a few times people were ... read more

One archipelago and one place which isn't but still sort of looks like one There are plenty of interesting places in northern Vietnam worth visiting. We are now going to write about two we went to on this trip, namely Halong Bay and Trang An sometimes known under the name Tam Coc. We start with Halong Bay. Halong Bay We think the name of this place doesn't describe it very well. A better name would be "Halong Archipelago". If you look at a map there is a bay there, so the name it has now isn't wrong, but what you see when you are actually there is a lot of islands and that is an archipelago to us. Halong Bay is a beauty spot and that to enjoy that is what people go there. The islands ... read more

We woke up on another gorgeous day in a warm dorm and headed to our bus that was picking us up to go to Ha Long City. The bus was pretty uncomfortable and we arrived 4 hours later. The boat itself to take us out was running late which isn't out of the norm in asia, but there were loads of huffy puffy people who didn't seem to grasp that in this country people can't be rushed! Soon enough our taxi boat moored up and we zoomed out into the bay. MY WORD WHAT A PLACE. There were limestone mountains everywhere you looked, some were small, some were massive and we soon joined the now not so huffy puffy people taking pictures. We were then rushed off onto another bigger boat where we had planned to ... read more

Spedzilismy dwie noce w Hanoi, wedrowalismy po uliczkach miasta - glownie starej czesci, gdzie sie zatrzymalismy. Motorynka zjechalismy troche wiecej, rzucajac okiem na Mauzoleum i park,ogrod botaniczny, wiezienie Hoa Lo, przejechalismy sie na druga strone rzeki, szwedalismy sie po kafejkach i kosztowalismy lokalnego browaru i lokalnych dla regionu przysmakow. Jednym z ciekawych lokalnych rarytasow byla Egg Coffee, kawa z jajkiem. Na poczatku sama nazwa mnie troche odrzucila i bylam ciekawa jakto - kawa z jajem? Po skosztowaniu nagle pamiec przywrocila mi smak z dziecinstwa - kogiel mogiel :-) Nie wiem jak robia to kawe ale bardzo przypomina ten zapomniany rarytas, polecam skosztowac. Po szwedaniu sie po miescie, wybralismy sie na 2 dniowy rejs po Ha Long Bay, przepiekna zatoka pokryta prawie 2 tysiacami malutkich wysepek - skalnych wapiennych formacji, ktore zostaly wpisane do UNESC... read more