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As alluded to in the previous blog entry, there were a few slight hiccups on the trip from Hong Kong to Hanoi. So, some bellend was late for the plane, leading to us losing our take off spot, ergo a 2 hour delay, followed by us running into a thunder storm over Hanoi, which in turn led us to be diverted to Nanning. Fortunately for us, the airline put everyone up in a hotel for the night, albeit a solid hour away from the airport, which wasn't too much fun at 3am. Picked us up next morning at 10am and away we go. Finally arriving in Hanoi at around 3pm.
Felt sorry for the hotel operators, who turned out to be really great, helpful folks, who had previously spent the whole night waiting for us as we had no way of contacting them. Oops.
Got a taxi into Hanoi with our new pal Andreas who we met during the plane fiasco, first experience of Vietnamese traffic. I think if we hadn't been to the countries we had previously visited, we would all have shat ourselves.
Our hotel for 4 nights was situated in the old quarter of the
city, and it is pretty much where all the travellers stay. The hotel employees had an endless supply of pineapple and tea and coffee which they took great pleasure in offering to you. They sorted us out with a map, train tickets for our onward journey and we booked our tour to Ha Long Bay through them. Rooms were well nice aswell considering it was about £3 a night.
First night, we went to meet Andreas for a few drinks. Turns out, in Vietnam, everyone uses little kids furniture sets and sits outside cafes drinking "Bia Hoi" straight out of a keg in about a half pint glass for the equivalent of 10p a glass. Fair enough most of it tastes like shit, but at that price, who can complain. Also, as far as the eye can see there are scooters everywhere. There is no pavement, it is more like an unofficial car park for motorcycles. You just basically have to keep your head down when you are crossing the road, and rely on the evasion skills of the Vietnamese. Just hope for the best.
1 Drink turned into a few, before you know it we were clubbing,
had our first experience with buckets, turned into a right old night. On the way home, we ran into 3 prostitutes on the back of a bike, obviously being driven around by their pimp looking for business. Was quite a sight.
The next day, bleary-eyed, we went into the centre of the town and for a walk along Hoan Kiem Lake. Rosie ate a dodgy ice cream which sped up the rate of her hangover, which inevitably led to a day in the sickbed. Still, we had only planned on having a relatively quiet day anyway, as the next was Craig's birthday.
We took a venture to the market on the following morning. After all we had heard about the Vietnamese people and their haggling, it was a surprise to find that it wasn't the case in this particular market. One time, I just walked up to a pair of flip flops and said "how much?" and the woman just shouted "No!" at me. Think I swore at her after that, but she deserved it. Managed to pick up a couple of pair of shorts, with the added bonus of some deep pockets to keep the pilfering bastards
away, for £3. Sadly one of these is now extinct after they lived up to their price tag and somehow conspired to lose all the stitching around the crotch area. I would have kept them but I was otherwise advised not to.
We sent Craig home and went out to get him a present; a slice of cake, a birthday hat, and a beach towel with a semi-clad lady on it. I was pushing to get him a watch because if he asks me what the time is ONE MORE TIME I'm gonna thump him.
Got all dolled up and went out for an El Mexicano, which on hindsight probably wasn't the best idea given the sweltering heat. Did a little mini pub crawl, then headed back to the place we were at the last time. Met some Danish lads, got Craig sufficiently drunk (to the point where he fell asleep in the club with his party hat on), then made our way home, dodging the inevitable onslaught of street hookers.
Next day, we went to check out the other side of the town, closer to the river. Safe to say it was all very much the
same, if a little cheaper if that can be believed. The next day we had our trip to Ha Long Bay to look forward to so the general consensus was to have an early night.
The bus picked us up at 8.30am the next day and it took around 4 hours to get there. Got on our boat, the "Fantasea Adventure", very clever, and made our way out into the emerald waters, past huge limestone islands. I think there are something like 990 islands in total. First stop was a cave which our tour guide showed us around, funny guy, then it was off for a spot of kayaking. Stopped at a beach for a while, then made our way to an inlet for the night, where we were allowed to jump off the boat for some swimming. We got 2 sets of lunch, 1 dinner and 1 breakfast on the trip, and the food was absolutely magic. Too much, if anything. We met a nice American couple who we spent the night chatting with, before having to listen to 3 Vietnamese girls murder the karaoke set. They were merciful enough to stop at 10.30pm.
The next day
was a bit of a disappointment as all we did was drop off some passengers who were staying for 2 nights on another island, sail about for a while and then headed back to port at about 12.30. Still, the place on a whole is absolutely beautiful, a World Heritage Site quite rightly and one that I am very glad to have visited.
We got back just in time, around 5pm, in order to get our train to Hue which left at 7pm. Fairly nondescript night, ate some horrendous train food with a meat that tasted like spew, felt dodgy the rest of the night but managed to get some sleep. Arrived the next morning at 8am. Man, Vietnamese trains are bumpy.
Our first day in Hue was almost unbearably hot! Went for a breakfast at a place across from the hotel, before heading across the Perfume River to the Citadel on the other side. Hue used to be the capital of Vietnam you see. Fairly similar to the Forbidden City in Beijing, if not quite on the same scale. Had an elephant though which was definitely a plus point.
I think that evening we just got
our shit together and made more plans for the rest of the trip, we were all fairly tired after not having much sleep on the train, and we needed to get our route through the rest of the country sorted out.
Second day was just a general wander around town, trying local food, checking out pubs and cafes. Went for a nice dinner at a quaint little vietnamese restaraunt before heading to a couple of bars, got to see a repeat of the Champions League Final which was nice seen as I missed it due to travelling.
Called it a night around 11 as we had a train the next morning to Danang, and had heard that it was the best train in the country for sightseeing as it goes right along the coast, so no hangovers were wanted.
Think I will leave it there for now, spent too much time indoors and the sun is sweltering outside.
Stevo xx
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