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Published: February 8th 2007
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Junk...
One of the nicer boats in the fleet passes us. For some reason the boats are actually called junk. The Company has split, for good or for evil I do not know. Jason, James and Trevor went off to Laos on what should have been a horrible bus ride while our two brief female companions Erin, and Koren took off to Beijing. Two good ol Canadian kids Graham and R.J. were the last to leave Hanoi, and after taking them to finish a rack of ribs - at the end of which the manager gave us all a free beer - they took off for Laos. Unfortunately due to sheer lazyness and an unwillingness to pay extra money I had to stay in Hanoi for an extra five days whilst my China visa was being processed.
I cannot honestly say how I've managed to spend over a week in a city that I do not really like and that with each passing day I begin to dislike even more. I guess there were a couple celebrations and hang overs to be had and there were also some errands to run. Yes believe it or not there are errands that one has to do while traveling: getting cds made, going to the post office, getting money changed and finding pirated
Fireworks!
Unfortunately I paid a 1 dollar fee to be able to take pictures so I had to upload something! copies of the Lonely Planet are some of the most important. And since I've done nothing since leaving Uganda these simple tasks that should only take half a day end up taking at least two.
In the end I did manage to get to a water puppet show that is internationally renowned with the girls and the boys from Alberta and while I have no idea what exactly it entailed before I entered or after it was done, I did leave impressed. If nothing else the dragon puppets that spat out water and blew flame at each other were really awesome and left the firework smell that reminds me so much of halloween up at Lucile in the air for the entire show. In all seriousness I did have respect for the puppet masters who train for something like three years before they perform and whose careers are short because of the illnesses they contract from standing in the water for such long periods of time.
Rather than spend all of my time in Hanoi city I decided to go out on a two day Halong Bay tour. We had heard both good and bad reports of the
"You buy something!?"
These ladies would paddle 100s of meters to meet up with the boats that passed them by. tours, and given the so-so weather and despite the rave reviews from RJ and Graham, I did not have high expectations. Halong Bay which is about 200 kms north of Hanoi holds some 1000 islands that when seen from the air, form the shape of a dragon. This dragon as myth would have it protected Vietnam against the Chinese. The area was quite something to behold. We cruised around on a boat similar to those used by the Westernesse on their trip to middle-earth and passed through and around hundreds of tiny islands from 10 to 500 m long and from 10m to 50m in height. It resembled a downtown core but instead of high rises and concrete there are high limestone cliffs covered with greenery seemingly floating on the turquoise green water.
After visiting the Deep on one of the islands, where stalagmites and stalagtites were in large abundance, we were allowed to take two-man kayaks out on our own to explore some of the surrounding area. Through hand getsures, grunts and pointing my Korean roommate who snores worse than anyone else I've ever heard and I set out going around and even into the middle of some
The Deep.
I waited for dwarves and even orcs but all I got were other tourists. of the surrounding islands. We were dwarfed by the huge cliffs, passed sparkling clam shells, or sea shells or something like that, and went around fishing boats and fishing villages: three or four tiny shacks floating on wood and emtpy barrels in the middle of nowhere with their nets just off from where the families live. The women from these fishing 'villages' would paddle out to our boats in order to try and sell the tourists oreos, pringles, and booze; it was obvious that through years of experience they knew what we like. When we were both finally tired he said home in a questioning tone, I agreed and we set out. A little tired, and actually sweating I decided to take a dip in what everyone else on the boat considered frigid waters of 12 to 15 degrees. It was cold and gave the boys a little shock but it wasn't that bad. The only other person to come in was also from the North-west and so knew the actual meaning of cold waters.
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Jamez
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Lang the Loner!
Hey buddy! Glad to hear you got to go to Ha Long bay - it looks great. We had quite a nice ride actually from Hanoi, nothing near as bad as RJ and Graham. 3 days spent river tubing made us feel great/washed up so now we're in Luang Prabang. Talk to u soon man!