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Pink Devil
Nothing like speeding along a road on a pink scooterSorry for the delay in blogs. I have been quite busy lately and/or too tired to do any writing, but i plan to make up for that in the coming days. Here are the latest blog entires. The more resent ones will be posted as soon as they are done. Thank you all for your patience.
Day 3
Our last day in Laos was not boring. Even though we had a plane early in the afternoon, we still managed to have a great time. We went up early in the morning and ate a nice breakfast. After this, our rented scooters arrived and we set forth on a great journey. A journey to the waterfalls of Kuang Si, located some 25k away from Luang Prabang. Off we went in thrilling speed on our very chic and very pink scooters. And boy did they pack a punch. At some of the streches, at least the ones that were somewhat even, we did around 80km/h which feels like a lot more when you are dodging lorries, vans and other scooters driving a rather unconventional way that involves utilising the whole road as a lane. A terrific experience indeed!
After a good hour
Waterfall!
Its a waterfall stupid! or so, we arrived at Kuang Si. We parked our speedmachines of pink death and headed towards the protected area. We discovered that the place also doubled as a bear-sanctuary and had a whole lot of them in a fenced in area. As we continued on the humidity grew with every step, ensuring us that we were near our destination. We were not dissappointed, as the waterfall area was beautiful, with small ponds flowing with nice cool water down the mountain. We decided that we needed to earn the now very tempting bath ahead of us, and instead headed for the top. Up until now the place had been fairly accessible, but this changed rather abruptly when we headed further up. Slippery stones, flowing water and steep climbs tried to deter us from reaching the top, but we persisted and arrived rather sweaty and mudcovered, but happy. The worst was yet to come, as we now had to go down the same way again. If a road seems slippery going up, its damn near twice as slippery going down. But we managed and arrived safetly in time for a wonderful dip in the natural pool. It was well worth it
Relaxing
A nice spot to take a bath all. At the bottom we got ourself a drink and headed back with our pink devils, arriving as planned with no problems of any kind. It was definetly a fantastic trip!
We were picked up by our guide and headed to the small airport. Everything went fine, with no check-in problems and we landed after an hour or so flight, in Hanoi Airport. Boy were we in for a change of pace I only have experienced once before.
Hanoi is the polar opposite of Luang Prabang. That is the easiest way to describe it all. With 6 million! people living in one city, its bound to be a bit crowded, but this was insane. Scooters going everywere in amazing numbers, in-between numerous cars, pedestrians and bicycle-taxis creating a chaos of epic porportions. How it all works is a wonder I’m still trying to figure out, but it is somewhere along the theory that if everybody drives crazy, it can work. Woe that person who tries to drive somewhat sane here or, god forbid, adhere to common driving laws, he will be in for a short life. Another thing one discovers about Hanoi is the noise. It is everywhere and everyone
Yogi Bear
Don't feed him. Seriously! does their best to contribute their part of it, with drivers of every vehicle more or less keeping the hand on the horn. This takes some getting used to after LP were everyone is laidback and the place is “quiet”. A most interesting change.
We soon arrived at the hotel, and sadly discovered that this place was dodgy at best. But we were only going to sleep here so no worries right? I will return to this subject later, and explain why we were so wrong in this.
We headed out to explore Hanoi a bit before being picked up. We went through the Old Quarter with the 36 streets, each of them with a different kind of shops or professions residing within. We went to the hotel and decided to get something to eat there. This was a crucial mistake that would reveal itself at a later point. the staff was very friendly and we took our orders for some springrolls, which we thought would be quick enough to make and eat before we had to go again. They were not, as they failed to arrive before we had to go, so we left from there hungry. But it
HCM Mausoleum
Such a big place for such a humble man. was not a propblem, we just asked them to save them for later. We now set our course towards the center of Hanoi, to enjoy a special show. A show with puppets in water, descibing the life of farmers and the way of rural areas in Vietnam. It sounds special and rather odd, and so it was but also fun, in a show involving livemusic, singers, wooden dolls in a stage with water and a temple. Throw all this together and add fire (seriously), and you will have the show. Although I understand no vietnamese, it was still very easy to follow the story of the villagers life, who apperantly live in water and do syncroniced dances at every opportunity.
Afterwards we went on bicylcle-taxis through the 36 streets to our hotel. It was a very nice experience, with the slow bicykles giving ample time to soak in the city’s atmosphere. We arrived and went straight up to get something to eat, and although the food was rather boring, we were quite hungry at this point so down it went. Afterwards we went straight to bed, or so we had planned, but fate had other plans as our bathroom got
Morning
HCM's morning spot, where fishes are fed. waterdamaged from the ceiling. We then went on a weird tour to find a new room, a had to pick between two identical rooms. Why I have no idea. But now we were finally able to sleep in this hotel that looked like it was a remnant from the early 60’ies and not in a good way mind you.
Day 4
The day started out with a boring breakfast, but we did not mind. We then headed towards the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, smack in the middle of Hanoi.
A very strange place it was, and a very quick visit too. Everyone are lined up in cue and the process takes you through the mausoleum in an ordered and fastpaced manner, with guards making sure that you keep a decent speed. The whole experience from door to door took about 2-3 minutes. Minh himself was rather small and unremarkable making it very astonishing to see the actual person behind the propaganda. After this we went through the old houses and buildings behind the mausoleum were Minh lived and had meetings with his staff during his time as leader. The whole things was very interesting, even though it was “staged”.
My ride!
How we ride in Vietnam Bitches! The next part of our day took us to the first university in Hanoi, which had now been converted to a “temple” where students come to ask for luck before exams and such. The last part of the daytrip was spent in a semi-rural area outside of Hanoi where it was possible to see former farmers and farming areas, slowly beeing converted to city, with unfinished concrete buildings everywhere and almost no tradiotional buildings left.
We were taken for a ride around the village with a horse-drawn wagon which was interesting. We arrived at a templeground to enjoy a traditional show with dance and music. However before we could begin this, our dinner from yesterday decided to come back and smack us in the face. Most unconvenient. But we survived and then witnessed a great show brought on by the locals, who even greeted us and made us honorary guests.
We ended the day by walking around the lake in Hanoi, and experiencing the 36 streets firsthand, before heading home and crashing at the hotel for some hours before night. We weren’t really hungry later on, but we decided to try out a place that Lonely Planet recommended for a
Dance for me!
Traditional vietnamese dancers drink. The place, called Le Pub, was not far from the lake we walked around earlier, and the beer was good. The staff was really friendly and along with some of the other guests we had a really good time, before heading home some hourd later. It had been a great day dispite the stomachproblems that would haunt us for the next days.
Day 5
This day involved a lot of travelling. We went by car to Halong Bay, which took some hours. We arrived around midday at the Halong Harbour and waited for the other guests that were going with us on the cruise. the boat was very nice and we got some nice rooms. As we sailed out towards our destination, we were informed of the days plan. We went to see a large natural cave with enough space inside to house thousans of people. It was a very impressive strukture, and the air inside was for a change, nice and cool. Later we visited one of the floating villages in the area and even got a tour of it in the native boats. We enjoyed a nice swim afterwards and got to participate in at cooking
class aboard the ship while the sun was going down. Later we ate a nice dinner and went to bed. All in all a nice day.
Day 6
In the morning we were taken to an island closeby with a beach. The beach is only accessible during the morning due to the tide, which rises about 2-3 meters as the day goes by. We walked to the top of the island and had a wonderful view of the area from there. Afterwards we went for a swim, and were hereafter transported back to the junk. We packed our baggage and had a nice brunch whilst we were en route back to the harbor. Here we were picked up and driven to the airport in Hanoi. Here my father and I went our sepperat ways as he was going to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat shortly before returning home to Denmark. I, on the other hand, continued on towards Danang and Hoi An. I was met by my future guide Diem in the airport and was dropped of at the magnificent hotel, located right by the old quarter. It was late and I was tired so straight to bed
Nice view
Nothing special I went.
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MsNani
Jang Nani
That's Great! So r u still in Hanoi now? :) I;m stay in Hanoi, and welcome to our country!