Hanoi & Halong Bay = Marmite. A Love/Hate Relationship! Personally I'm A Bovril Fan!

---

So blog number thirteen coming up, unlucky for some they say, we disagree! Currently sat in our nice hotel on day number four out of seven on the coast of Cambodia hiding under the roof terrace under cover from the torrential monsoon downpours - It's been raining hard for the past four days. How can clouds possibly hold all this water and stay floating round way up high!? The local lads are playing a game of footy with a few backpackers across the way, minus shirts and shoes there totally drenched but by the sounds of it they all sound like there having a great time, pigs in mud springs to mind!

Apart from watching too many episodes of Bear Grills, Myth Busters, Dog Whisperer, How Do They Do It and other interesting crap on TV we're indulging in a little R&R and enjoying the free pool table and Wii too, using our free time to fully chillax and re-charge before hot-footing it back to Thailand to meet friends.

Anyhoo... Good Morning Vietnam!

We managed to snooze for a fair few hours after checking in at our posh-ish hotel in Hanoi's Old Quarter and ventured out later that afternoon to find a decent meal. Reports of pick-pocketing and theft in the city meant I strapped up my camera to my belt loop just in-case and took just enough Vietnamese Dong for the bare essentials. As usual with our little strolls we always get caught out by the un-expected but a sweet elderly lady swinging her pineapple filled baskets balanced on a bamboo pole was definitely up there with the least of my worries. That was until she forced me to pose for a picture, which I happily obliged as I thought it would make for good viewing. But silly me - nothings free! She bagged up some of her fruit and demanded and extortionate amount of money, we pleasantly refused until she starting chasing us down the street! That would have been a better snap, running in fear of a wrinkly old local throwing pineapples!

We took shelter and bunkered down in a nice air-conditioned cafe, not just from the fruit & doughnut sellers but from the constant buzz and fumes of motorbikes. An estimated two million motorbikes...yes two million bikes are on the road in the city! Swarming sea's of motorbikes run through each tangled web of streets with such ease. No jams, no traffic lights, no stopping & starting just a constant flow of movement like an invisible current in each and every direction ! As you can imagine this makes crossing the roads more of an extreme sporting activity than your average leisurely walk to the shops for your Sunday paper! Having visited neighbouring countries already, we're regularly practising our bike dodging techniques but Hanoi was in a league of it's own - It takes serious skills. Ducking, diving and some pretty big balls! We found the trick was to to quickly glance to ensure no incoming taxi's or buses, if possible shadow a local or close your eyes and just keep walking, ignoring the constant blasting of beeps and horns! Easier said than done but we got pretty good at it before we left, with the mentality being "they'll swerve!" We did however manage to get stranded in peak hour but thankfully a lovely old man held our arms and helped us cross! Bless! The funny thing is, as totally bonkers as it sounds, it kind of works! If only England adopted a drive as fast as the person in front approach while pedestrians play chicken in the road, would deffo be much more fun! Weirdly we never saw a crash here either, which is surprising considering we saw a bike carrying 2 adults, 3 children, the daily shopping and a wardrobe balanced on there heads! That was a joke by the way but it's not too far from reality!

We passed Hoan Kiem Lake, the heart of the Old Quater, which seems to provide a slightly more tranquil spot from the surrounding hustle and bustle. Locals of all ages gather to relax on park benches and the more energetic groups pound the pavements jogging in circles. We continued past in search of other sights and lucky for us we were just in time to purchase afternoon tickets to the water puppetry show. It was surprisingly really fun to watch and listening to the live traditional Vietnamese music cunjours up a real Asian feel.

After deciding to change hotels the next evening as our budget was getting blown apart in our swanky new residence, we worked out a plan to leave after only 2 nights and head to Halong Bay! For us in Hanoi we just felt a little intimidated, especially coming from sleepy Laos. We were surprised to find that only a handful of locals expressed a smile now and then, the majority viewed us as walking ATM's and it was a constant battle fending off street hawkers and possible scam artists. Trying to organise our trip to Halong Bay was easier said than done. With all the horror stories floating round of paying big bucks expecting decent junk boats only to be presented with..well an actual junk! I quickly did some research on the net and found a decent 2 day/ 1 night trip for $99 each. The biggest problem being that I was trying to organise it online via email only the afternoon before we were due to depart whilst also hiking to the train station a million miles away to purchase tickets for an over-night journey the evening we arrived back in Hanoi to Hue further down the coast. To make matters a hundred times more stressfull, my bank had temporarily suspended my account due to suspicious withdrawals and we were left stranded with no money, no mobile and no way to pay for our last minute trip. It took an expensive phone call at our hostel who totally ripped the pants off me, charging £10 for a five minute call to the UK and a manic midnight jog round the streets of Hanoi in the rain to finally sort out.

Everything worked out perfectly in the end and the stress seemingly melted away as we pulled up beside our fancy Junk Boat in Halong Bay. The weather was overcast and grey with a constant drizzle but it didn't put too much of a dampener on the views! It is true that words alone and even pictures don't do this place justice. Islands of limestone cliffs loom mysteriously over calm emarald green waters. Infact 3000 islands to be precise, each covered in thick alpine vegetation dotting the landscape as far as the eye can see. Our Boat was called Posieden and not to blow my own trumpet too much but I reckon I did a pretty good job. It was definatley one of the best we saw amongst hundreds in the bay and once we opened the door to our cabin we were both feeling slightly smug! A little piece of luxery was most certainly welcome and after sampling the yummy delights of our seafood lunch we were more than happy with our posh ass piece of junk!

After checking out one of the huge impressive caves it was time to strap on the life jacket and par-take in a spot of fun in the form of Kayaking. Now anyone that read the Perhentian blog will know that me plus Scott and a kayak is a disaster waiting to happen! Both being quite stubborn and fiery results in tantrums all round! Suprisingly this time, with calm waters, lighter equipment and our boxing gloves lowered we managed to speed about in between the islands, investigating little grotto's and checking out the floating villages close by. We had two crazy old Italian guys on our trip who bravely ventured out on the Kayaks too. They both looked to be in their late 60's, grey haired and well fed like the Super Mario Brothers! Watching them trying to climb out of the boats later after being spotted directly in the path of a large sailing junk was comparable to a comedy Sketch! Sitting down for mealtime with them provided some light entertainment too, Mario would dunk his dry toast in his hot cup of coffee whilst Luigi would happily crunch on whole prawns, heads, legs, poo shoot and all!

I somehow managed to drag myself out of bed super early the next morning hoping to catch the sunrise. I was the only person on board who actually made the effort to get up and past the young workers sleeping off the nights before's karaoke excitement, they love a good ol' sing song! Anyway I clambered up the stairs, up onto the top deck on my lonesome. Watching the beautiful sky changing colour over the calm reflective waters, glorious and tranquil. I like these thinking opportunities, reminds me I'm lucky to be experiencing all these amazing sights in such incredible surroundings. I try and take photographs with my eyes and hope that in the future i'll remember the exact spot and view and look back on these days with warm fuzzy feelings. Perfection.

I climbed back into bed a snoozed for a while until breakfast. Before setting sail back to port we decided to throw on our swim gear, jump off deck and enjoy a brisk splash before waving goodbye to Halong Bay. We had a fab time cruising around, taking in all the stunning scenery, a trip to be remembered for sure.

Time to leave and jump back on the mini-van back to Hanoi for another 4 hour ride. After getting dropped off back in the city we quickly found ourselves a Coffee Shop with free wifi for a few hours to chill out before another long 14hr overnight train down the coast to our next stop in Hue.

---