Life during the past 7 days has been full of new adventures, relaxation and transport chaos. After my two days in the mountain town of Sapa, we (myself & Anne) headed back to Hanoi, on the overnight sleeper train, before catching the bus just 2 hours later to begin a 3 day tour of the Ha Long Bay region off the north coast of Vietnam. Ha Long Bay. Ha Long Bay is famous for the Island caves, and sailing around the rock formations off the coast of Ha Long City. This is also a typical holiday 'resort' for the North Vietnamese. The 3-day tour included one night on a 'junk' boat, followed by one night on Cat Ba Island (National Park) with a mountain walk /scramble, swimming in the bay, and some kayaking through caves! All this with a continually varying number of passengers, which was completely in contrast to the description from the travel agent, as to why we should book the 'deluxe' cruise, instead of the standard one. I'm fairly sure that there was no mention of the actual 'on board wildlife' (rats on the ship) which led to some of the passengers sleeping on deck, as opposed to the in the room with the rats. There was also little mention of the ever changing guides, or the lack of any 'power' in the cabin rooms, whilst the ship's engine was on. Highlights of the tour included, reasonable sea food (open for debate), stunning scenery, and the visit to Monkey Island, where the monkeys only appeared as we headed away from the Islands... probably laughing at our attempts to scramble up the rocks to find them! The continually changing tour guides continually lied to us about the itinerary for each day, and the conditions of the walks/treks that we were going to do, telling us that flip flops ('thongs' for you Aussies) would be more than suitable to scramble up wet slippery mountain paths! The lies continued to the point where I was pleading with the tour guide to get me to a hotel so I could have my first shower in days.... Still, despite my verbal swipes at the Vietnamese tourist trade, (most of which would lie through their teeth to make some money), I had a great trip, meeting lots of interesting travellers of all descriptions, and enjoyed being a tourist, even with an organised itinerary! My tip for future travellers here in Vietnam, is don't expect to always get what you pay for, or is described to you by the travel agents - then you won't be disappointed.
After returning to the thriving city of Hanoi, myself and Anne checked into 'Prince 79' hotel, in the old quarter of Hanoi. This is a busy lively modern city that offers great food and entertainment, and provides near death experiences at every street crossing due to the sheer number and unpredictability of the motorcycles, whizzing through the streets! A short walk away was the city centre lake, where Hanoi comes to life throughout the day with people getting up from the early hours to walk, run or exercise in a number of ways around the lake. It remains busy all day with tourists and people just sitting around the lake reading, talking or simply relaxing. There is a water puppet theatre by this lake and each of the close by streets are themed into selling particular goods, some streets selling shoes, some clothes etc etc... it's almost like a game working out what type of goods each section of streets are selling. My time in Hanoi had a dual purpose, both relaxing with Anne, and my friend Phuong (who I met 8 weeks previously in Hoi An at work), and visiting the Blue Dragon organisation (working with 'street kids' - kids who either live or work selling things on the street). There is a branch of the Blue Dragon organisation in my town of Hoi An. My visit to this organisation involved a wonderful day of swimming with a group of disabled children, joining in an art session, at the drop-in centre, and then attending the 'monthly' birthday party celebrating the birthdays of any of the kids that month, and also showcasing some of the seriously talented kids, including some dancing (hip-hop style). This centre certainly had some impressive workings, and I had to admit I was certainly envious for the amount of local resources that were available in the Hanoi area, as opposed to a complete lack of any specialist health resources in Hoi An. There was also hugely noticeable regional difference between the people Hanoi and my town of Hoi An. Hanoi is a city with far greater exposure to the Western culture and this is evident not only in the variety of worldly food available, prices of food, clothes, but also in the far more 'open' dress code of the local people. Here the women dress with less restriction, as opposed to the seriously conservative style in Hoi An, where a females shoulders and chest are almost never exposed.
Friday's main adventure apart from another 'interesting' massage, where the women again joined me on the massage table hmm.... was taking the bus back from Hanoi to Hoi An, total journey time was from 18-30 Friday to 1400 Saturday, via a change of Bus in Hue. The reason for me doing this journey was to accompany my friend (Phuong) and some of the kids from Blue Dragon, on an overnight sleeper bus to a camp they were heading to this weekend. I was soon questioning the validity of this journey ten minutes in, as my sleeper seat did not fully recline and I had the very back seat which was shorter than all other seats. When you consider these are seats made for the Vietnamese public, you can imagine what I must have looked like trying to curl up like shrek one of the seven dwarf's beds.... still the rather funny kids we travelled with kept me entertained until I finally managed to sleep for a while. I left the kids as they they got off before me, and headed home for a much needed shower and shave!
Completely by chance a Dutch couple I met during some of the Ha Long Bay trip, saw me here last night back in Hoi An, and left me a note with my neighbour, so we have just spent the evening together at the local beach, a nice end to a truly breathtaking week!
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