Hanoi and Halong Bay

We had high hopes for our over-night bus journey to Hanoi. The bunks were roomy and comfy, and the air con didn’t make us feel like we had a terminal illness, as it so often does. Then came the Bony M DVD, played on repeat for all but three hours of the journey. I never realised that guy was so bad at dancing. It wasn’t until we got off the bus that we discovered it was also infested with fleas, and they’d really gone to town on us.

We booked a three day tour of Halong Bay almost instantly as our hotel room reeked of mold and the bedding was like sleeping on a warm wet wipe. The pictures we were shown of our $88, ‘superior’ tour, including two nights accomodation, all meals, sea kyaking and cycling around Catba National park, were a little too good to be true, and so the wait for our boat at the port in Halong City was tense. There was little water, just a sea of semi-traditional looking junks, ranging vastly in appearances, and an even bigger sea of tourists. Luckily ours was a fine vessel, with Asian pirate ship detailing and something verging on luxury. In fact the entire three days were amazing and far more luxorious than we had ever imagined. The only point we found to bemoan were some of the other guests and their ridiculous expectations. They really were a bunch of whinging little princesses. Although I concede most of this blog may appear to pick up on the negatives a bit, they’re always the funny parts. It’s the differences between our cultures that makes us want to visit these places, but most of the tourists in Vietnam don’t seem to want experience another culture. Instead they are content just to take their countless photos of a culture that no longer exists in the parts of the country that they visit.

Hanoi seemed to be teeming with gangs of yet more middle aged to elderly tourists in cyclo rickshaws. These pretty much look like wheelchairs with a bike welded on the back. Their appearance combined with their slow pace, make any passenger look mentally handicapped, as they slowly move their head from side to side, vacantly gawping in amazement at everyday vietnamese life with awkward grins.

A floating house, with floating dog.

A floating town.

Cat Ba National Park

Water Puppets.

The Temple of Literature. There were no books.

The Kelly prepares for take-off.

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