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Published: March 13th 2008
Halong Bay is where just about every tourist that comes anywhere near Hanoi goes to spend a couple of days. With nearly 2 000 islands and turquoise water it would look absolutely amazing if there was sunshine, although the shrouding mist does add somethig to it. After checking out a few of the options offered by the numerous travel agents I opted for the three day/two night package from a mid priced almost reputable crowd. Turned out to be a good choice everything they promised was honoured although the lido deck on the boat was a little off the pace. Fortunately my new found travel buddies for this leg ended up making the trip an enjoyable time. It's always good to listen to where other people have been and what they have seen.
The second night of the cruise was spent on Cat Ba Island which is part of a huge national park. It is also home to a couple of big hotels including the nice little three star one overlooking the bay that we stayed at. Usually if something is mentioned in Lonely Planet the price doubles, everyone goes there and it goes downhill. Fortunately this time round the
restaurant recommended turned out to be right on the mark, a little bit of culinary delight that was still hitting well above it's weight for the price. Especially when you pay $10 for a salmon dish that you would pay $30 for at home which when combined with a happy hour that went for 3 hours made for an enjoyable night out for the five of us at the Green Mango.
The other bonus about going to Halong Bay is the three hour drive to get there and back (and some people do it as a day trip). While not being as high up in the rankings as the Egyptians, the Vietnamese are gradually crawling their way up the list. There seems to be a loose set of road rules which work very well, except for that time when the petrol tanker was trying to come through our buses window. Fortunately his brakes worked marginally better then ours so all was good. Although I don't know how all these people on scooters look so calm riding along the four lane highway as trucks and buses come up behind them and sound the horn, cut under or over them while
cutting off the truck behind them.
Ho Chi Minh has his final resting place in Hanoi and no trip here would be complete without going and paying your respects. Contrary to his final wishes for a cremation they decided to get him embalmed and set him up in a mausoleum. It's a nice little place not far from his old home, a little bit chilly though. To keep him looking good they send him on a holiday each year for a couple of months to Russia. Some sceptics may say that it's to put another layer of wax on him, but when you walk into the mausoleum you are very transfixed by how good he is looking, maybe it's the lighting.
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