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Published: November 19th 2007
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The Ha Long Crew Looking a Bit Like The New Cast for "Home & Away"
Me, Karolina (Germany), Cat (Scotland), Venessa (Canada), Eilidh (Scotland), Holly (Canada), Andy Murray (Scotland) and Katelyn (America)
I arrived into Hanoi, in North Vietnam, at 9pm and took a moto to my hotel which turned out to be all booked up. On agreeing a price with the moto driver, I was surprised to hear him turn around half way through the journey and quote a different price altogether, 20,000 Dong more expensive. Not much in terms of value but nevertheless, a total ‘Chancer’ if ever there was one! Anyway, I put him straight but it turned out to be a recurring episode here in Hanoi. I suppose some tourists just say ‘OK’ in fear of being driven to some dodgy place in the favellas to be X'ed out, erased, robbed or something but I wasn’t having any of it and he didnt really persist once I told him to “F’ing well get on with it.”
So much as I’ve taken to Vietnam’s countryside, manic city life and indeed the incredibly warm and friendly people, there have been so many instances of folk trying to rip me off in the cities, presumably working from the assumption that all tourists a.) are rich (which isnt true) and the more annoying b.) tourists don’t know the prices are so I’ll charge whatever I want and see what happens. I’ve had some drivers though, who have charged a fair price and I tip these guys for their honesty and thank them with gratitude. It’s a gripe I’ve chatted to with other travellers and I’m by no means alone, with women in particular frequently getting raw deals here. At least in Edinburgh, where the fare sits at 2.50 before you even move, you know your getting ripped off up front… That night, I met up with Carmen and Luke who I'd met in Hue' for dinner and drinks at the Kangaroo Cafe. It was great to see them again before they continued with their epic trek towards Laos and we too had a theraputic mumble together on the rip-off merchants of Hanoi.
Anyway, to more positive tales of the orient… After finding a place to stay in Hanoi’s intense and hectic Old Quarter district for a couple of nights, it was off to the incredible Ha Long Bay. I got picked up from the hotel by a minibus full of strange faces, other tourists who had also signed up for some fun in the bay. As I plunked myself
into the last seat at the back, I got talking to friendly Venessa from Canada and her travel mates, Karolina from Germany and Holly, also from Canada. It was cool to break up the journey blethering away and by the end of the few days at Halong Bay, everyone on the minibus knew everyone else and it was a cracking time with a great bunch of folks. There were even three Scots there, a real rarity for me on this trip. Better still, I spent most of the days convincing myself the Scottish dude (Fraser - aye right then!) was Andy Murray, the tennis player - a complete dead wringer!
The minibus dropped us at the port where the 11 of us (mixed nationalities) boarded our junk. From there, we sailed into the bay towards some caves (I forget their names) before some eager candidates jumped into the blue and went kayaking. I refrained and sat with my feet up over the deck, watching the sun slowly disappear between a couple of little islets with a nice cold bottle of local beer. That night, we stayed on the junk out in the bay and thankfully - unlike the Canadian
lasses - Mario (my American/Philipino) roommate and I didn’t have the misfortune of having cockroaches in our cabin.
That night, I decided to extend my stay in the Bay to 2 nights so the next day, we went on to Cat Ba Island together, where we went for a morning hike to the top of the hills for awesome panoramic views of the island and its skyscraping peaks. On the way, we passed some locals in a village skinning a dog, which evoked a good deal of shock amongst our party. We knew it went on in Vietnam but to see it was another thing altogether…
After the hike, we dropped our bags off and had lunch at our hotel before sailing out to Monkey Island. We had a nervous laughter moment when our junk slammed into another junk near to the beach with everyone running in from the deck shouting ‘we’re going to hit them!’ For a split second, everyones faces went serious, folk clung to each other and we waited for the imminent collision. It was a big bang alright and I was happy to get into a kayak with Andy Murray and head to the
beach just in case the junk listed over right there and sank.
On the island, the monkeys came out to play and see what goodies they could steal from the unwitting tourists on the beach - check the snap of the cheeky chimp munching out a can of Pringles crisps! Andy Murray and I kayaked across to another little deserted island and back and then I went for a quick dook in the sea before heading back to Cat Ba island for a night on the town.
That night was a real scream out drinking, starting off with a trip to the local karaoke bar. (No I wasn’t singing!) Then we went onwards to another bar where me and American Katelyn formed a formidable double act on the pool table, swiftly dismissing some very competitive English gents and then putting some dudes from Iceland to the sword. It was a right laugh to win given how steam-boats we were and we continued on for some nightcaps at a street bar, the only place open once everywhere else had closed at 11pm.
The evenings excesses were realised the next morning when Mario woke me up at 7.15 to
say it was breakfast time. On the minibus to the port to catch our junk, the Hotel telephoned our tourguide Mr Dao to say I had forgotten my passport and to my embarrasment, I had. Not only that, but I also still had the room key in my pocket plus an outstanding bar bill - woops. The hotel sent a guy round to the port in a moto with my passport where I exchanged the key and after a short delay to my crewmates, we set sail back to Hanoi. I later found out that Cat (the Scots girl from Troon) had done exactly the same thing when she got on her junk later on that afternoon, which made me feel a little better that I wasnt the only one who doofed up with the difficult task of checking out of a hotel properly...
That evening, when we arrived back in Hanoi, I plodded onwards, taking a night train North, to a tiny town called Sapa, up in the mountains by the Chinese border…
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karolina
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excuse me... do you have the copyright for the "vietnam 2007" picture???