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Published: August 19th 2009
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Hanoi - Vietnam - Typhoon Introduces Monsoon
It might not show so well on a photo but it was raining very hard...two days of typhoon induced rain was more than enough. The day after the day-trip to Hoa Lu and Tam Coc, the typhoon finally arrived in Hanoi. Not a big blustery wind that picked up houses and dropped them on witches an such...but just rain...LOTS of Rain. It would come literally without warning. You could be walking down the street and one drop..then two...then a million times a million drops. The vendors that sold plastic coverings and coats sales immediately went through the roof. I bought one and still have it though I haven't had to use it since...a nice souvenir. What to do in a typhoon-created monsoon..well...sit around and watch...be amazed at the amount of rain...wait for it to stop...plan the rest of your trip for when it stops. I did all of those. I sat with Trung, the manager of the Red Dragon and we sipped green tea and talked about where I wanted to go in Vietnam. When the rains stopped or eased, I went up the street to eat, never straying far from the hotel just in case it was raining on the way back. I found a cool little bar on the Hang Bé ( name is so distant now ) across from the Kangaroo Bar.
Hanoi - Vietnam - The City Never Resting
On the way out of town, the city was buzzing as usual...I had grown to quite like Hanoi...even with it's warts. It was ideal for people watching and vendors left you alone if you were eating or drinking but you became fair game on the street. The monsoons not only washed away the dirt and grime but most of the peddlers also. By the time I got back to the hotel, Trung had my itinerary committed to paper and all I had to do was okay it. I would leave the next day on the evening bus for Hué, on the way to Hoi An...an apparently quaint beach resort town. The next day, and this is the kind of friend Trung turned into, he took me on his motorbike to a bank that charged no commission on travelers cheques exchanged to US dollars. All packed up, a man appears at the door and it's...' let's go '. I had to chase the guy because the minibus had pulled away at the behest of the police...he waited for us at the next corner. Not so far but in the heat and humidity, it was too far, as far as I was concerned. We picked up a bunch more people to capacity and drove to an obscure street to meet the bus that
Hanoi - Vietnam - Parting Night Shots
Hanoi is a bright, lively city after dark...maybe it's the thousands and thousands of motorbike and shop lights that makes it seem so vibrant. would take us to Hué. Many people milled about, waiting to get assigned. I met up with two Swiss German girls with whom I had talked for awhile at my people-watching bar on the Hang Bé...it's a small world after all. The bus company name is Hung Thanh Travel...remember this...it is important if you take this trip. Once we were designated to the buses ( there was another waiting also ) and tickets given, we boarded. It was not your typical bus and I had never seen one before. It had beds instead of seats...a very cool concept, I thought. I picked an upper bunk at the side near mid-bus. There were three rows of beds, two levels high...the beds in the middle actually had a space where you could stretch further out...had I seen that earlier, I might have taken the middle row as I ended up in a semi-fetal position because the beds on the sides were not the longest. The Swiss German girls were in the middle row, a couple of beds down...the bus was all tourists of the backpacking genre but the bus was not quite full. We left for Hué in the early evening. I
Hanoi - Vietnam - Leaving the City
Leaving Hanoi was tougher than I thought. I wish I could stay in each place for two or three weeks, that is how to get to know something. I hope to return. have no idea how the bus driver and the attendant knew...but they stopped along the way and started picking up locals. They did not issue tickets and the money went straight into their pockets. Before long, the locals had filled all the empty beds...but it didn't stop there. Soon they were sleeping in the aisles...and later the bus stopped just to pick up cargo...I saw about thirty crates of live chicks put on board and other boxes. At one of these stops, an unsuspecting ' normal ' passenger stepped out for a smoke and was soundly rebuffed by the sidekick and sent back on board. There was the giveaway. This was a sideline for these guys...don't know if the bus company knew about it but I let the travel agent know later and told him quite plainly, everything. My sleep was very restless...and when I would roll over and look around, one of the locals on a top bed in the middle row would be staring at me. Needless to say, I wrapped my small bag tightly onto my wrist and slept on top of it...along with my cameras, money and passport. It was a terrible night for me...but proved
Hué - Vietnam - The Imperial Palace on the way Into the City
A view of the Imperial Palace driving into Hué. The end of a bad night on the road. much worse for the Swiss German girls. After we were unceremoniously dumped off at a travel agents office in Hué, it turns out that one of them had her bag stolen, along with her passport and all her money. They had just arrived from Europe a few days before. The bus had departed so quickly that by the time she realized what had happened, it was gone...along with an Irish girl's backpack. The local travel agent rushed the one girl to the bus company stop but by then they had ' cleaned ' the bus and said there was ' no sign ' of any bags left on board...yes, I am sure there wouldn't be...and their efficiency level had suddenly leaped to the point where the bus was cleaned up within minutes. The Irish girl got her backpack but I never saw the Swiss German girls again and they were scheduled to go along to Hoi An with a few of us on a later bus. To the local travel agent's credit, he took the girls to the police to see what could be done. This is why I said...' remember the bus company's name ' Hung Thanh Travel...if you
Hué - Vietnam - The Fortress on the Way Into the City
Another site on the drive in. Hué is a very scenic city. Later, I would regret not having the time to stay longer. On my to do and stay list for the next visit...heard many good things about Hué. have to use them...relate this story to them and ask them point blank if it is policy to fill the bus with locals and live cargo at seedy night time stops. If it is...find another company to ride with...there are many of them. I found that a nice bus with ordinary reclining seats is much more comfortable anyhow. Your quality of sleep is much better...and the likelihood of having your stuff ripped off is much, much less under those circumstances. But I had a few hours to kill in Hué. I would do what I could to forget the ugly bus ride.
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