Blogs from Northeast, Vietnam, Asia - page 17

I got collected at 8am for the 1 day HaLong Bay tour. Halong bay is a unesco world heritage site, the meaning behind the name is translated to descending dragon bay. The bay is home to thousands of limestone karsts, the 'kissing chickens' feature on one of their currency notes. It took 3.5 hours to get there and we had a real mix of nationalities; Russian, Polish, Malaysian, Vietnamese....a good bunch though. As soon as we boarded we were served lunch, a mix of fish, meat and vegetarian dishes. Really nice. We the. Took a 4 hr tiur round the bay, some of the rock formations are outstanding, it's a truly beautiful place. We stopped at some caves that we're found in the 90's by a fisherman. We arrived back at port late afternoon and then ... read more

Picked up by Paloma Cruise & taken to Halong Bay. Bus was full as some had their trip cancelled the day before due to rough seas? Three & a half hour trip. There was another Aussie named Nigel on tour with us. He talked all the way up with my Vicki - non-stop. Hard to say who is the bigger talker. Vicki didn't help as she continually maintained the conversation. Nigel complained about everything, in particular being ripped off money wise. Mr pessimist. He even bought a brand new Nikon SLR camera, and he was disappointed with it - because he only had a standard lens. It would appear that he lost most of his money through regular visits to the brothels, and his lack of understanding of the currency. A regular aspect of his conversation ... read more

Hola a todos! Recien llegados de Halong Bay…la verdad impactante, es un lugar magnifico. Nos pasaron a buscar al horario pactado en un minibús con el nombre del crucero…la primera impresión fue buena. El guía era un enano vietnamita, que nos recordaba al chinito de “Hang Over”, vestido muy canchero: sombrero de paja, anteojos espejados, chomba ajustada con el cuello levantado. Muy gracioso! Éramos unas 20 personas, mitad asiáticos mitad carapálidas (australianos, españoles, alemanes y un francés). Si bien todos charlamos entre todos, hubo mayor afinidad con los no amarillos. Luego de 3 hs de viaje en minibús, bastante apretaditos por cierto, llegamos a la ciudad de Halong, al puerto precisamente. Todos con gran expectativa para ver cómo era el barco, sobre todo nosotros que luego de un largo regateo habíamos conseguido un muy buen precio, ... read more

Xin chao!! Hanoi was quite a smack in the face of an introduction to Viet Nam for us, but we loved it! Now, after such an onslaught of motorbikes and city noise Viet Nam stunned us to silence once again with Ha Long Bay's unique calm beauty. It is a geological sight of wonder! Over thousands of years limestone karst peaks have been forming and moving out into the sea. According to government statistics there are exactly 1969 peaks in the area (coincidentally the same year that their revered former President Ho Chi Minh died). In actual fact there are over 2000 dotted around this bay. So what did we do when we got here?! How does one marvel at such beauty? One gets on a cruise!! This sounds a little too much like a typically ... read more

Day 16 Teaching week starts Got up at eight, and showered ready for the next move. Today we are moving to Nam Dinh to do our volunteer teaching week. There are six of us in the group: Nadia, Britty, Hannah, Becky mad me. The rest of the group of the original 17 should now have arrived safely at Sapa to start their trekking week. I was thinking about them all last night, wondering how their overnight train journey had gone! I do hope it wasn't too bad for them all. I think some will find it harder than others. We all had breakfast before heading off into the local market to buy a bouquet of flowers for the couple who will be looking after us at the home stay. Without them, there would be no home ... read more