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Published: January 12th 2009
I'm in heaven. Although I should probably keep my fingers crossed as I say this.
Before we left for Halong Bay (more about that in a minute) our hotel told us that when we returned we would be staying at their sister hotel as they were fully booked and that we could have the room at the same rate. So here we are back from our trip and wonder upon wonders we have free internet in our room. Mind you it keeps booting me out of the site so am trying to input as much as I can as fast as I can.
I know we have only been here a few days but I want to talk a little about our impressions of the country and the people. The Vietnamese people are kind, polite and respectful. They are also hard working. Unlike some other countries where you see groups of men hanging around all day doing nothing in particular, in Vietnam everyone is busy in one way or another and if they are not doing something, then they are eating! No big fancy gardens here, all productive land is put to good use. Any plants they have are
in pots which are easy to look after. No wasting valuable water on lush lawns that is for sure.
Yes, a lot of the buildings and homes look tired and worn, but they work hard at keeping everything as tidy as possible and you see very little garbage floating around. Now if they could just do something about their driving........ Everything is a work in progress here.
Interestingly although there are quite a few young backpackers around there are also a lot of more mature (50 plus) independent travelers here and quite a few Americans both younger and older.
Mind you, when we reached Halong Bay yesterday afternoon, we could have sworn that every traveller in Vietnam was there on the dock either coming from or going on a junk - what a zoo. I don't know how they kept everybody straight, but they did. And this is the winter, their off season. We were lucky with the weather because although it was cold at least it was sunny and clear.
Apparently during the summer months there are over 400 junks of various sizes from budget to deluxe plying these waters - all belching their fumes
into this beautiful bay.
We thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. There were only 4 other people on our junk; a British/Swiss couple and a Danish couple and everyone got on well. It was nice to be on a smaller. more intimate boat. The seafood was delicious and plentiful and the views were stunning. It was definitely worth the visit and I am sure the last two days will become one of the highlights of our trip. One night really didn't do it justice and I would recommend to anyone who can afford it that they go for two nights because then you go further afield and further from the other junks.
Well I had better go and start getting organized for our trip to Sapa, where we will be visiting some of the hill tribes. The only thing is we understand it is extremely cold up there at the moment and we are debating whether or not to buy warm cheap jackets or whether we should just suck it up and suffer, Supposedly they had snow yesterday - I'm not sure we want to deal with any more snow right now. Never mind, we will soon be in
the sunny south - then I can start complaining about the humidity.
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mike and Joyce
non-member comment
You complain!
Di............you complain. really? I say go for it and buy the jackets! Then complain when it gets hot OR you could give them to some poor needy soul.