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Published: June 24th 2010
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We take a flight from Hoi An (actually have to travel to Da Nang first, only a short taxi ride) to Hanoi, same letters in the name but the contrast in places could not be more different. This is the capital and we are back in the hustle and bustle straight away.
We arrive at the airport and immediately we are faced with the age old problem of getting ripped by taxi . The first "information" desk tell us we should pay $30 for the ride to town, the next tells us $17 we agree then he ups it to $20 (taxes). Shenton then walks outside and agrees $15 with a taxi driver. This has to be literally written in stone made absolutley clear as they will try and up the price as soon as you arrive at your destination. I think this is quite cheap as he then proceeds to drive at breakneck speed, the airpoprt is around 40 mins outside of the city and time is obviously a factor in the driver securing the best price for himself. He thinks the constant honking of his horn should make the traffic part for him. I am unsure how we
Cyclo ride
its so hot and we end up buying so much at the market that we have to get a ride back to the hotel. manage to arrive safely but we do.
The hotel we found on trip advisor is full but the person on reception takes us to another hotel around the corner, this one also seems ok but they tell us there is no breakfast included yet in the restaurant they say free breakfast for all guests, a wee bit strange so we question it and minutes later the lady from the original hotel comes to see us and tells us they will give us breakfast for free and have a room for us to move to tomorrow. So we only stay one night at the renedevous hotel and then check into the liberty hotel where the staff could not be more friendly. Every time we come back to the hotel, hot from the scorching heat outside, they bring us free drinks and really can't be more helpful.
We book our trip for Halong Bay and after a day exploring Hanoi, the lake and the markets we are off. Halong Bay is amazing, it is a world heritage site and consists of around 2000 islands in an area of about 1500 square kms. Each island rises from the water as if
it has been pulled up from the sea bed with a pair of tweezers. We cruise around on the junk in and around these small natural wonders.
Our boat only has 8 cabins and in fact there are only 8 people on our crusie so it is very peacful and realxing sailing around. In the afternoon we explore the 'amazing' cave which was discovered by the French (or the Chinese much earlier??) in the early 1900's, these caves are spectacular and very cool inside providing a welcome relief to the souring temperatures outside. The caves are very large and open and in the wet season crystal clear rain water gathers into huge lakes, but the rains haven't arrived yet now so there is not much water around.
Next stop is for some kayaking where the views of the islands become better as we get really close to them and even kayak through a tunnel into a small enclosed area surrounded by islands. This is super peaceful and Shenton jumps in here for a bit of a swim. Back to the boat for more swimming and after dinner Shenton fishes off the back of the boat and catches a
couple of squid while I lay on the upper deck watching the lights from the other boats sparkle in the night, illuminating the islands as the boat drifts slowly round and round. It is very romantic (apart from the fact that Shenton is fishing for squid :-))
Shenton gets up at 1am to watch the England match (he made sure there was a TV on the boat before he agreed to this trip!), the TV cuts off just when Engalnd score, which he is not too happy about, but he said the game was dire, what he saw of it, and the huge electrical storm that blew in and cut out all TV reception was far more interesting. Somehow I slept through the whole storm the only one on the boat who did.
Next day we are up early for breakfast and another swim before cruising slowly back to shore, we have a lovely lunch in a restaurant overlooking the bay and then are back in Hanoi, with the honking horns of the bikes, by late afternoon.
We hire a motorbike the next day and spend a crazy day trying to pick our way in and out
of the traffic. Shenton says it is like marrio carts I can't tell as I spend most of the time squeezing Shentons waist in horror at approaching cars, bikes, motorbikes, vans and buses that are coming at us from all directions, while also trying to read the map. We get a bit lost after our tour round the city and end up driving round for ages trying to find the hotel, not the most relaxing way to spend the day but certainly an interesting experience.
On our last morning in the city we decide to go for a massage, our Dutch friend whose bar we have been going to recommends one which is a bit out of the city but he assures us this is a great massage. We take a taxi and after a search round the back of an acupuncture hospital, we have been dropped off at, we find the place. This is not a tourist place and nothing written is in English, and no one seems to speak English. The place is full of people, we are told my massage will be 140,000 and Shentons is 300,000 ( US$8 and US$17) we are not sure why
the price is different but we are taken off our seperate ways. I am taken into an area where there are lots of Vientnamese women. I am told to take off all my clothes then taken to a room to have a shower, after this I am asked to get into a barrel with what looks like cold tea in it. The room is set out with three sets of barrels and jacuzzis, as i am stewing two more women enter and get into their barrels. Next a jacuzzi is fiilled up and I am pointed towards it. I lay here for a while and I am brought some ginger tea. After a few minutes I am told to go into the steam room which is filled with herbs and amazingly hot. After a cold shower I am taken to another room and then the massage starts. This room is filled with about 10 beds and there are other women being pulled and prodded all around me. The massage is amazing and really is the best massage I have ever had in my life. The lady does things I have never experienced before in a massage and she covers my
face with cucumber slices and at the end a hot compress is used to scrub me and then I am wrapped in hot towels. I am finished about 15 minutes before Shenton and I find out why his was more expensive, somehow he got the VIP treatment and had a private room with his own barrel, jacuzzi, shower/steam room for his massage which was essentially the same as mine apart from he also got a hard scrub down by a man, before his massage. Read into that what you wish, Atty for sure will have something to say about it !!
This is the best way to spend a couple of hours in Hanoi, as long as you are not prudish, so now fully relaxed we are looking forward to leaving the city and relaxing in Laos.
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