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Published: July 31st 2011
Yesterday we arrived in Hanoi where the weather isnt as nice as it has been down south, apparantly a typhoon is passing through. After checking into our hotel called The Hanoi Club & Palais Residences which is really nice we headed out into crazy Hanoi. The streets are mental here and can suck you up in a heartbeat, there is just no logic to the place with streets everywhere and shops everywhere.
We firstly went to a travel agency ODC Travel which were great and booked our tour to Halong Bay. We have a 5 hour bus ride tomorrow to get to the bay then we head out on a junk boat where we will stay overnight on the boat then we head to Cat Ba Island and stay at a resort. We are a little bit worried about the weather but it is meant to pass soon so hopefully it clears as it wont be as nice with no sun. We have the option to go kayaking and look at the limestone caves and some fishing.
Once the tour was booked I said to Adam that we have to go watch the famous water puppet show and so
we got our tickets for the 5pm one. We went to quickly go grab a bite to eat and ran into these guys Ross and John that we met at the beach party in Nha Trang. They are staying at the backpackers and invited us to go have some drinks with them after the show. We were still hungover from the night before in Hoi An so there was no way we were going drinking again.
So Adam fell asleep during the puppet show and my legs were really cramped as there was no gap in front of my seat. It was nice to see it from a cutural point of view but wasnt too exciting but am glad we did it. It is very traditional in Vietnam and told a cut little story with the use of water puppets so it was quite clever.
We went and had an iced coffee around 6pm and then both looked at eachother and said well it is Saturday night, we don't have anything planned for Sunday and we are on holidays.....in other words we both talked ourselves into going for a couple of drinks at the backpackers hotel.
Needless
to say we had the best night full of meeting lots of people, many drinks, went to about 4 different bars and didnt get back to the hotel till about 2am. I remember one of our rounds at the backpackers being 65,000 dong for the four of us which is about $3 and we got two vodka red bulls and two bourbons...crazy cheap!!
Today was clearly a rest day for us and we just watched movies and hung at the hotel. I managed to book our train tickets to Sapa as well. So we get back from Halong Bay on the Wednesday and we will leave that night on the train to Sapa. The train will take about 10 hours I think and we have a soft sleeper cabin to ourselves as we didnt want to share with anyone. I booked us onto the Livitrain which is meant to be one of the best ones to travel with, Our tickets cost us $150 each return in a VIP berth.
We have decided not to do a tour in Sapa and just hire motorbikes for the day and cruise around to the different villages ourselves. Sapa is full of
tribal people so will be very interesting to see this place. Once we get back from Sapa we will have 3 nights in Hanoi and then we head home.
Tonight we went to a nice chinese restaurant but wasnt as good as Golden King back home. Mum you would hve loved the chicken sweet corn soup which was the nicest I have had.
It feels like we have been on this holiday for ages and still both having the best time. I look forward to sharing some pics of Halong Bay and Sapa.
Peace
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Jill Jones
non-member comment
Hi
Hi Kimmy and Adam, You lot seem to spend most of your time drinking and not a lot of sight seeing. At least it has been a bit warmer at home we are having some nice days. I am at South West Rocks tonight still much the same. Went to the pub for tea you have to do that when you are here. The water still looks beautiful. Tomorrow I do schools in Kempsey and then go onto Nambucca and Coffs Thursday. It is going to be a big week. Can't wait for you to come home and start planning the wedding it is going to be beautiful. Take care and be careful on that train. Love Mum xxxxxxxxxxxxx