Hanoi

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Hello Everyone,
(today's blog is written by Emma)

We arrived in Hue early morning, giving us the day to explore the area. We went to the Citadel, which is the centre of the old city that also contained the palace and living quarters that used to belong the the royal family, our highlight was the ponds of 1,000 Carp which you could feed for a few pence.

After our last very long night bus we arrived in Hanoi in north Vietnam. Hanoi, like Saigon, is another big city that is very noisy with heaps of traffic making the place feel like there is a constant rush hour. It is also a very compact city with most buildings only being one room wide but three stories high. Quite a lot of the restaurants and bars only have about 7 or 8 tables. During the day we walked around the old town and in the evening we went to see a water puppet show. The water puppet show is a traditional art form which is unique to Hanoi and northern Vietnam. The show takes place in a pool of water. The puppeteers are behind a bamboo screen and the controls are under water and out of sight. However, it was not really what we were expecting and was quite strange. It was also in Vietnamese so we did not understand what was going on and it just looked like wooden puppets jumping around, unbelievably our photos still don't do it justice! On our second night Adam and I went out to celebrate getting my masters results. Adam took me out for nice meal then we went out for some drinks.

Our next stop was Halong Bay. We booked a luxury 3 day cruise around the islands (which is apparently the best way to see Halong Bay). The boat was quite small with only about 15 bedrooms, but the rooms were lovely and not cabins. We arrived at about 1pm on the boat and were served what can only be described as a sea food extravaganza, including squid, prawns, clams, and tuna. We then spent the afternoon kayaking around the islands and caves, and even saw a wild monkey swinging from a cliff. Dinner again was huge with more seafood. (If you did not like seafood then you would have gone very hungry!). On the second day we took a smaller boat round the islands stopping off at secluded beaches to go swimming and jumping off the boat.

After a beattifull sunset and not surprisingly missing the voluntary 6am tai chi the next day we went back to Hanoi and flew to Bangkok where we arrived today. We aren't staying long though as tomorrow we fly to Malaysia!

Will update you when we are there.

Emma and Adam

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Photos

Hue
Feeding Frenzy

Hanoi
Local Fruit Seller

Our Junk!
Cruise in Halong Bay (It was dusk, the weather wasn't that bad!)

Hilltop, Halong
It was worth the walk!

Hilltop Halong
Definitely worth the walk

Halong Bay
Us!

Sunset
The sleeping bay in Halong

Comments

[john]

Hanoi
Emma, Adam. I have a new respect for you both, a live aboard junk, wow.It has taken all my powers of persuasion to get Victoria on a 2 hour dolphin spotting trip. Keep having a great time, get to a skype link at some prearranged time for a chat. Miss you Dad