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Published: April 19th 2008
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North Vietnam
Person Embroidering at our stop on the way to Halong Bay We arrived in Hanoi from Hue after a good flight which took under 1 hour then a bus ride to our Hotel, I am a bit stuffed up with a cold but I think I will live, I went to bed for the afternoon and did not go out for dinner that night, Des went out and got me some cough medicine, He went out for dinner and I stayed home and slept. Then next day we went to the Mausilium to file past Ho Chi Min lying in state, we lined up along with thousands of others, it was very interesting, he looked a bit like a wax figure but they say he is the real thing. Then they went to the HO Chi Min museam, I looked around for a while, but was not up to too much walking around. We then went to a cafe for lunch it was called KoTo it was a teaching place for the underprivilaged and street people and it was very good it was 3 stories high, after that they went to the temple of literature I stayed in the cafe, then back to the hotel for 1 hour rest, and then back
North Vietnam
Transporting 2 live pigs on back of Motor Bike in the bus to the old quarter where we had a 1 hour cyclo ride one person to a Cyclo it was a bit hairy scary some of the time in the busy Hoaoi traffic, but we all survived, we were told to give them a 20,000 dong tip as the ride was already paid for, but most of them wanted more, more, and then more. Then we had a walk around the old quarter which was interesting with lots of shops the part we were in was mostly shoe shops you have never seen so many shoes, Des called it Shoe Heaven. then we went to the Water Puppet show, it was very enjoyable but you would not want to sit in the seats for too long, not very much room.
10 of went back to the hotel as we did not need to eat again, and the rest went to a local restraunt for Dinner. We went back in a taxi, Ting Our guide told the Taxi driver that we would pay 80,000 dong but when we got back to the hotel he wanted 120,000 he kept pointing to the meter, but we were told not to trust
North Vietnam
Our Luxury Junk on Halong Bay them as especially in the eveniing they wind up the meter. We ended up paying 100,000 dong and he was not happy. The next morning we left at 8.30 am for Halong Bay, along the way we stopped at a Embroidery factory that employed only handicaped people they do Embroidery Sewing, and Lacqware, amongst other things, then on to Halong Bag where we boarded a tender to get to our Luxury Junk we had a double bed in our room and and Unsuite, not much room but sufficent, it was very calm on the bay and the Junk was very quiet. We mored in the bay and go the tender to the shore to vist the large cave that involved walking up 285 stairs but it was worth it, the cave was huge and lit up in parts to highlite some shapes that were interesting then back to our boat. Des did not go as he is still not very good with walking up stairs. We had lunch in the dining room and then went up on the roof to rest on the lounges there, the scenery was beautiful with not much mist and the weather was beaufiful. Took lots
North Vietnam
People selling goodies from boats alongside the Junk of photos, We had a lovely dinner on board, and took lovely photo's the Sunset over the water.
Had an early night and slept well on board. the next morning we had breakfast and then sailed to a cave, we got in a small wooden boat to go through the cave and into a large lagoon it was very lovely. We went back to the boat for a while and then had luch at 10.45 am as we had to be off the boat at 11.30 am for our trip back to Hanoi.
Arrived back to Hanoi some of the people on the tour were worried about Des's leg so they droped us off at the international medical centre at 3.15 pm we saw a lovely lady doctor at about 4.15 and she wanted Des to have an Ultra Sound on it, so we had to wait until about 5.30 for the guy to arrive to do it. He said he had a hematoma and would have to have antibiotics and anti inflamatories we did not leave there until after 6pm and were 3,500,000 dong the poorer I think it was about $240 AUD We had to walk to the
North Vietnam
Inside our bedroom on the Junk old quarter to find the others at City View Cafe and after asking lots of people along the way we got there but everyone was gone, and we were not sure we were in the right place, we walked around a bit, and came back and after a while Ting turned up on the back of a motor bike we were so glad to see him then we had another 15 min walk to the restraunt we were having dinner at, Des was exhausted and he needed to sit down. After dinner we went to the train station to catch the overnight train to Sapa.
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