Hanoi

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I went to Hanoi with Chris just for a few days. The trip didn't get off to a good start. We hadn't booked a hotel before we left as we decided just to turn up and look when we got there. We got a taxi from outside the airport. There were a number of different companies all madly calling us over. We went to the first one which had a sign saying USD$10 for a ride. On reflection I think we should have gone for the company that said airport taxi on them. Anyway the ride was about 40 minutes and we ask him to drop us off at the WIN hotel in the Old Quarter. He basically couldn't find it and drove around the lake a couple of times. He got us what we thought was close enough so we decided to get out. We proceeded to give him USD$10 however he wanted USD$10 from both of us. We knew he was trying to rip us off but unfortunately we had our bags locked in the boot and he was refusing to give them back to us. After about 10 minutes, and some raised voices and a few f words being thrown about (mainly by me), he relented and gave us our bags and accepted $10 only. Welcome to Hanoi.

We were going to go to the Win Hotel as I saw some good reviews on the Internet. We walked for a bit and couldn't find it, so decided to stay at the Lucky 2 hotel. USD$30 for a reasonably large room. Ok place but a bit old and worn down for my taste.

It was evening so we went out and got something to eat and then went for a drink. We ended up at a bar called the Funky Monkey.

On a side note bars in Hanoi have a strict curfew to close at midnight. The police come by all the pubs to ensure they actually close. However some of the pubs reopen after the police leave. They have a "lock in" where they pretend they are closed by covering windows and locking the door etc. Talking to a couple of guys at the Funky Monkey, who said they were in another bar the previous night when it closed. After the police left you could come back in but you had to climb a hand made ladder and climb through a window to get into the pub.

Anyway back to the Funky Monkey. We went in and sat at the bar. A couple of girls were sitting next to me and almost immediately struck up a conversation with us. They seemed pretty friendly...perhaps a little too friendly in fact. I suspected that they may be working girls although it wasn't beyond the realm of possibility that they were just normal friendly local girls. One of them asked me if Chris and myself worked together. I said yes and decided to test the waters. I innocently asked them if they also worked together. They said yes, and that they cut hair. I breathed a huge sigh of relief, they were just a couple of hairdressers out for a few drinks. However my breath was cut short when they said "we also do massage". Hmmm. Anyway they asked if we would like a massage and I declined. A bit later on, we said goodbye to the "hairdressers" and walked back to the hotel. However when we got there the girls rode up together on a motorbike. We were shocked to say the least and quickly walked inside the hotel. As we waited for the elevator we saw the two girls follow us into the hotel. Luckily there was a door separating the elevators and the reception area which we quickly closed and locked.

The next day we decided to go to an island called Cat Ba. We had to travel to a town called Hai Phong which is about 100km east of Hanoi. We hired a driver which cost USD$60. We intended to get a hydrofoil to Cat Ba. However the taxi driver was unable to find the correct pier and despite asking a number of locals we were still unable to find it. One thing we learnt during this trip is that Vietnamese have no idea what a hydrofoil is. In the end we managed to get another boat to take us to Cat Ba.

Cat Ba was a pleasant change from Hanoi. A more laid back feel which reminded me of Phnom Penh. Quite a picturisque town surrounded by limestone hills overlooking Halong Bay.

At dinner that night, there were a bunch of local men drinking something from a glass jar. They would get quite vocal as they would all stand, shout Mot, Hai, Ba (1,2,3), and then proceed to drink a shot of this drink. We asked the waitress what they were drinking and she told us it was Vietnamese wine. Chris went over to look at the glass jar as there appeared to be something in there. We couldn't really make out what it was, looked like some kind of internal organ. Anyway the guys invited us to have a few shots with them. Not the most pleasant drink I've ever had.

The next morning we saw how they make Vietnamese wine. There were a couple of stalls by the side of the road, which had live birds, geckos, scorpians, etc. The lady would catch a number of animals, kill them on the spot and shove them into the glass jar. Once she had the level of disgustedness just right she would then pour the alcohol in, and seal it. We decided to stick with beer from that point on.

We hired a private boat to take us to Halong City to the north for USD$70. Not bad value considering it took 2 guys and over 4 hours to get there. They also provided a very decent lunch which they cooked on the boat for us. We did have the option of getting a tourist boat but they left about 7.30 in the morning. This way we were able to leave at a more reasonable 10am in the morning.

Halong Bay is filled with many small islands, isolated beaches, and rocky limestone formations jutting out high from the sea. I can certainly think of worse things to be doing than cruising in a private boat on Halong Bay.

Upon arriving in Halong City we decided to stay the night and get a bus back to Hanoi the following day.

The next morning we took a taxi to Mien Tay bus station which is 4km from where we were. The driver could not speak much English and we explained we needed to get the bus to go to Hanoi. Driving along and it seemed a long 4km. When he started looking for music CD's to play the alarm bells started ringing. Yes he was trying to drive us all the way to Hanoi.

Anyway we did arrive at the station and proceeded to go to the ticket counter. I had one guy walking with me talking Vietnamese to my left, and a woman talking Vietnamese to me on the right. I had this problem all the way through the trip as the locals all thought I was one of them. I talked to the woman at the counter and asked for a ticket to Hanoi. She seemed to understand me and started writing out the ticket. I turned to the guy on my left who wouldn't shut up, and shook my head at him and tried to motion that I did not understand him. This caused all sorts of commotion, both the man and woman started shouting and the women behind the counter started cancelling my ticket. I quickly had to tell her I still wanted the ticket while trying to brush away the other two.

Anyway the man and woman ushered us into the bus and it was packed. They kept motioning to us to get in but we were trying to tell them we'd wait for the next one. Well the guy practically dragged me in and the old saying, "there's always room for one more" seemed to be etched in the Vietnamese psyche. For the first hour of the trip I was wishing we had let that taxi driver take us all the way to Hanoi. I was sitting on an uncomfortable fold down seat which was bad enough, but a few minutes into the trip, the lady ticket collector made her way to the back by climbing over a few people and proceeded to squeeze herself into the seat with me. To make things worse, the bus had a guy standing by the door. The guy would open the doors and scream at any person who was casually standing by the side of the road. We joked that he was saying "you want to go to Hanoi, plenty of room". However we found that this was exactly what he was saying. Just as we thought we couldn't fit anyone else, they would stop and let another person in. I was thinking this was a slow 3 and a half hour bus journey to hell. However after an hour or two, some people got off and I was able to get into a normal seat by the window which made the trip not want to kill myself anymore.

We eventually arrived in Hanoi and made our way to Dong Xuan market. Quite a big indoor market, which is 3 stories. I was surprised that the shop owners didn't harass us. In Ho-Chi Minh they are always trying to stop you to buy something. Here we were free just to look around. We both bought North Face full size backpacks for USD$25...an absolute bargain.

Anyway after sorting out Chris' train ticket down south we stopped at a roadside stall selling, you guessed it, Bia Hoi. Beer here was only 3000 Dong (SGD$0.30). No wonder I drew interest from the locals when I pulled out and proceeded to count the 1,5000,000 Dong I owed Chris. I know this is normally a pretty stupid thing to do, but I figured, hey I'm not the one that will be carrying around 1.5 million Dong, Chris will be. If anyone's getting mugged, it's him.

During the 45 minute taxi ride to the airport, I had time to reflect that it's not a good idea to drink a dozen beers just beforeforehand, with a taxi driver that doesn't understand the word toilet.

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Photos

Birds in cages
The bird in the top centre has about 10 minutes to live.

Stuffing the bird in the jar
mmm...who's hungry?