Well, the bus did indeed get us there. Somehow, overnight, the rain and cold had set in too. Arriving at 7am in a wet and cold Hanoi was somehow not particularly inspiring. The ever so KIND? Bus company dropped us off at a location outside the main city area (which seems to be a favourite strategy) and provided taxis to the Hotels they worked together with. Not such a bad idea this time round as there were very few other cabs around and we were a little groggy. Arriving at an OK hotel that wants to get into the Lonely Planet guide, we didn’t have to barter too hard to get our ideal prices for the rooms. They were as all others so far, clean and basic; and we were located on the edge of the backpacker area in a very busy market area which provided us with amusement and cheap Pho, the local soup which seems to have what ever is handy, but sells at 50p a bowl and fills a gap.
Hanoi.. it’s a nice city that has been looked after well by Ho Chi Minh and friends. They’ve been nice and taken the extremely nice big French houses - Mansions near a Park, while keeping the rest in pretty dire poverty. I have a feeling the leadership lived in some very nice conditions all those years fighting the French, US and Cambodia. Since Communism has adopted the free market, the Vietnamese seem to have lost absolutely no time in making money from each other and anyone else they can- the wealthy driving Bentleys (new tuned ones no less) and the Porsche Cayenne in White was also a favourite. The kids embrace the new ideals and wandering around at Tet celebrations was amusing as they were all turned out in their finest threads and new haircuts/styles.
Day time as per usual, was spent wandering around the city and getting a feel for the place- evenings we found some good bars and eateries. I would recommend www.studio-vietnam.com for some great food and deserts (apparently the cheesecake was amazing- the lemon tart certainly was). Not what you’d expect I guess from a SE Asian place. Although this place was run by a Kiwi, Vietnamese know deserts and bread.. I think we can thank the French for that! Sometime of course, was spent on organizing a trip to Ha Long Bay which was an interesting experience too.
Ha Long Bay is looking to become one of the worlds natural wonders of the worlds. It is breathtaking, even in the mist. Sadly, the flotilla of tourist boats is so concentrated and the tours are so densely packed into one small area that there appears to be a converyor belt. We booked a 3 day tour there so got to see a bit more and do a little walking on Cat Ba Island. We started our tour with a mundane and bumpy bus ride from Hanoi through some very industrialized landscapes with towering mounds of coal and powerplant chimneys. Arriving in Ha Long bay to hear Abba’s rendition of Happy New Year on repeat was quite amusing (it was still on when we returned), and we boarded a reasonable Junk and were fed. Then off through the bay to the first set of islets, where we barged into the other boats to makes parking space for us and queued up to see a nice cave which has been lit with lovely lights; the addition of fountains made it simply perfect. I thought that some tourism consultancy might well be sitting back and laughing hard at the fact their proposal had been taken seriously. Moving onwards we made headway into the bay and the sun came out. Eagles soared overhead and the environment was impressive. We eventually moored for the night with a small number of other tourists. Up at the crack of dawn – 6am for some kayaking was fun, we expected more to come later that day, but it didn’t happen, which perplexed us slightly. After the kayaking we headed to Cat Ba Island which is inhabited and was where we went for a nice walk up a hill and looked that the jungle from above. The health and safety officers in the region obviously don’t look around too often. The viewing platform (25 metres high) was missing a top step … ours to reason why!
The tour went on and we were missing more and more of what we had paid for, but was more in line with what everyone else had paid for. It became very clear that there might have been some miscommunication when we booked it (we did get money back without any issues). Overall, the tour was great; we had been disappointed by the lack of kayaking as well as the chance to fish for cuttlefish, which was eloquently explained away by “there are no fish here”. Verdict: go and have a look if you are in the area!
Back to Hanoi for our next move, the train to Bejing.
...the tourist trail continues. More postings please! RT
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