We got back to Hanoi yesterday after visiting Halong Bay for 2 nights. Halong Bay itself was very beautiful even though the weather wasn't perfect for it. It was the first time on the trip we've actually done part of an organised tour and we struggled a bit getting told what to do and how long to do it for! Our buddy Stu came with us for the last few days of his trip before flying home to Manchester yesterday :(
On the first day of our Halong Bay trip we got picked up by the cruise company in a mini-bus and taken to our junk boat. We were a bit shocked to find that the 3 of us were the only Westerners on the boat with us; we had a Vietnamese couple who didn't speak English and a father and son from Malaysia who were lovely. We cruised around the islands a bit, before arriving at 'Surprise Cave'. It's called 'Surprise Cave' because of the bits of stalagtite/stalagmite formations that supposedly look like various things like a penguin, a turtle, buddha, a Vietnamese King, Romeo & Juliet, a lion...... to me it just looked like a cave but I could see the resemblence in some of them if I squinted a bit? The biggest surprise of all was the penis shaped formation.. which would look less like a penis and more like someone pointing their finger at something, had it not been suggestively illuminated with pink light. After all the excitement of Surprise Cave we went kayaking around for a while, stopping/beaching ourselves at Bonau cave and having a look around and then continuing to aimlessly paddle around the islands.
The night-time activities on the boat involved the crew singing karaoke (loudly), so the 3 of us decided to opt for a game of cards in our room.
The second day we were taken to Cat Ba island (the biggest in Halong Bay and the 2nd biggest island in Vietnam) for some hiking. I was thanking God I'd decided to wear proper shoes rather than flip-flops after slipping and climbing up very steep and slippery muddy paths and over and around rocks. The hike took us to the top of one of the island's peaks where there was a 30m viewing tower. The tower (which we fondly nicknamed the 'Tower of Tetanus') was completely rusted and despite the sign at the bottom stating 'Max. 5 people', the guy in charge was letting 10 or more people up at a time. After our brush with death, we were surprised to find that we had to slide back down the way we came, past people that were still trying to clamber up. Very safe! :)
We were then taken to Cat Ba town for lunch and a bit of a stroll, and then back to the harbour to be picked up and taken back to our boat. While we were waiting at the harbour I was put to work by one of the local hawker ladies and carried around her snacks for her, hassling my fellow tourists. She was schooling me in what to say and everything.. very entertaining, and a great way to pass time! It was nice to find a hawker with an actual sense of humour! I ended up making 40,000d (about $2) in sales for her ;)
When we got back to the boat we had new company (the others decided to stay on Cat Ba for the night), a group of Thai women. They had had a bit of a bad run so far; they only got to kayak for 30minutes, and were even more pissed off when the boat crew commandeered the only sofa-booth on the boat and refused to let them sit there to play cards, even when asked politely! So we all decided to keep away from the rude boat crew and play cards on our back balcony. Steve got sick twice on the boat from the food, and they tried to make me pay US$3.50 for breaking a glass!! Left a bit of a sour taste in our mouths (literally for Steve.. haha) but we enjoyed Halong Bay itself.
We're leaving Hanoi on a sleeper train tonight for the old capital of Hue. The staff at the hotel here have been so absolutely amazing.. the best service I have ever encountered! They come and sit and talk with us while we wait for our complementary breakfast to be cooked, they let us leave our luggage here while we were in Halong Bay, they booked our train for us and let us check out late at 5pm, and soon they are going to come with us to the train station to show us where we need to be so we don't get confused by all the people grabbing us! I highly recommend this hotel to anyone visiting Hanoi.. it's called the "Hanoi Boutique Hotel" on Bat Su Street. Amazing.
Amiee x
Showing posts with label Hanoi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hanoi. Show all posts
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Back in 'Nam...
We spent the last 2 nights in Luang Prabang, Laos. The bus ride from Vang Vieng was very scenic and quite enjoyable, even though it took about 7 hours to travel 230km. The jagged mountain ranges in the North of Laos are just so beautiful. We were lucky enough to meet up again with our dearest travel buddies in Luang Prabang, which made the place even more fun. There is an amazing bar on the riverfront called Utopia, and, unlike other 'Utopia' bars we've been to on this trip (there seems to be one in every town..) it wasn't seedy at all! Darts, foolsball (spelling?), beach volleyball, giant Jenga.. all under a giant thatched gazebo with landscaped tropical garden. You can probably tell that I'm in love with the place! Megan and I were talking to the manager the day before Aus Day and convinced him to have a big Australia day party and put up flyers around the town, which he did! Smart man.
On Australia Day, Steve & I + our dearest Melbournite travel buddies, Megan & Lewis, plus Stu from Manchester, our token English buddy who we trained to say "I'm from Sydney" in an Australian accent for the day, all met up for breakfast and then headed out to Kouang Si Waterfalls. THE MOST amazing waterfalls I've been to! They were so gorgeous! There was the main huge waterfall, and then many tiers of small waterfalls spilling into turquoise swimming pools. The place looked like a landscaped very-flash tropical resort's swimming pool. PLUS to top it off.. there was a rescue centre for Asiatic Black Bears there, so we got to have a look at them too. Afterwards, we all met up for for drinks and nibblies in the courtyard of our hotel, and then went to Utopia. The manager let Megan and I 'DJ' for the night + we got a couple of free drinks, because the whole Aus Day party had been our idea! Unfortunately there is a Laos-wide 12AM curfew so Utopia shut, but we found a bowling alley on the outskirts of town that stayed open until 3AM... so that's where we finished off the night! An amazing Australia Day, even if we are in Laos!
We all woke very tired this morning, met for breakfast, and said our goodbyes to Megan & Lewis. We were all a little heartbroken. We do get to keep our token Englishman, Stu, for a bit longer though, as he flew with us to Hanoi in Vietnam this afternoon, where we are currently. We decided to pay the extra and get a flight to Hanoi rather than taking the 3-day bus trip, as we are quickly running out of time! Our plane was tiny and even had propellors, but the view was absolutely gorgeous, and despite it only being a 1-hour flight, they fed us! :D
We'd heard a lot of stories from people about Hanoi being a bit unfriendly and full of scams, and within an hour of arriving we'd already found that to be true. The airport is waaaaaay out of town, so you have to get the bus or share a taxi. As there were 3 of us, we decided just to share a taxi. We agreed with the 'taxi pimp' (the guy who organises the taxi fare, and then takes us to the taxi) that we would pay a total of 250,000d between the 3 of us, but when we got into town, the taxi driver demanded another 20,000d. As he didn't speak a word of English, we couldn't establish what the hell the extra fee was supposed to be for, but despite our protesting, we were made to pay it anyway. On top of that, he didn't take us to the hotel we had asked to be taken to (which had been recommended by Meg&Lew), but another hotel in a parallel street. The hotel guy then tried to tell us that his hotel was in fact the hotel we had wanted to go to, despite being on the wrong street, and having a completely different name. When we pointed this out, he tried to tell us that it was owned by the same people, which is a load of crap, so we made the taxi driver take us where we had originally intended. Sheesh.
The recommended hotel was full, but we found another really nice one with amazing customer service. Our hotel guy spent ages with us helping us go through the different companies that offer boat tours around Halong Bay and then booked it for us (he used to be a tour guide apparently), + he gave us a free drink each, free breakfast in the morning, and is making sure that they have a room available for us when we get back from Halong Bay. Oh and we get to keep our increasingly heavy luggage here, and just pack a backpack with a couple of changes of clothes. He also recommended a Vietnamese restaurant for us, which was AMAZING. Mmmmmm! Cost us about $13 between the 3 of us. Such good value.
Anyway, very tired now so I'm going to bed; just thought I should do a bit of an update before we leave tomorrow. We'll be in Halong Bay on a 'junk' boat for the next 2 days doing kayaking, caving, hiking etc etc. It's going to be amazing! :D
Amiee x
On Australia Day, Steve & I + our dearest Melbournite travel buddies, Megan & Lewis, plus Stu from Manchester, our token English buddy who we trained to say "I'm from Sydney" in an Australian accent for the day, all met up for breakfast and then headed out to Kouang Si Waterfalls. THE MOST amazing waterfalls I've been to! They were so gorgeous! There was the main huge waterfall, and then many tiers of small waterfalls spilling into turquoise swimming pools. The place looked like a landscaped very-flash tropical resort's swimming pool. PLUS to top it off.. there was a rescue centre for Asiatic Black Bears there, so we got to have a look at them too. Afterwards, we all met up for for drinks and nibblies in the courtyard of our hotel, and then went to Utopia. The manager let Megan and I 'DJ' for the night + we got a couple of free drinks, because the whole Aus Day party had been our idea! Unfortunately there is a Laos-wide 12AM curfew so Utopia shut, but we found a bowling alley on the outskirts of town that stayed open until 3AM... so that's where we finished off the night! An amazing Australia Day, even if we are in Laos!
We all woke very tired this morning, met for breakfast, and said our goodbyes to Megan & Lewis. We were all a little heartbroken. We do get to keep our token Englishman, Stu, for a bit longer though, as he flew with us to Hanoi in Vietnam this afternoon, where we are currently. We decided to pay the extra and get a flight to Hanoi rather than taking the 3-day bus trip, as we are quickly running out of time! Our plane was tiny and even had propellors, but the view was absolutely gorgeous, and despite it only being a 1-hour flight, they fed us! :D
We'd heard a lot of stories from people about Hanoi being a bit unfriendly and full of scams, and within an hour of arriving we'd already found that to be true. The airport is waaaaaay out of town, so you have to get the bus or share a taxi. As there were 3 of us, we decided just to share a taxi. We agreed with the 'taxi pimp' (the guy who organises the taxi fare, and then takes us to the taxi) that we would pay a total of 250,000d between the 3 of us, but when we got into town, the taxi driver demanded another 20,000d. As he didn't speak a word of English, we couldn't establish what the hell the extra fee was supposed to be for, but despite our protesting, we were made to pay it anyway. On top of that, he didn't take us to the hotel we had asked to be taken to (which had been recommended by Meg&Lew), but another hotel in a parallel street. The hotel guy then tried to tell us that his hotel was in fact the hotel we had wanted to go to, despite being on the wrong street, and having a completely different name. When we pointed this out, he tried to tell us that it was owned by the same people, which is a load of crap, so we made the taxi driver take us where we had originally intended. Sheesh.
The recommended hotel was full, but we found another really nice one with amazing customer service. Our hotel guy spent ages with us helping us go through the different companies that offer boat tours around Halong Bay and then booked it for us (he used to be a tour guide apparently), + he gave us a free drink each, free breakfast in the morning, and is making sure that they have a room available for us when we get back from Halong Bay. Oh and we get to keep our increasingly heavy luggage here, and just pack a backpack with a couple of changes of clothes. He also recommended a Vietnamese restaurant for us, which was AMAZING. Mmmmmm! Cost us about $13 between the 3 of us. Such good value.
Anyway, very tired now so I'm going to bed; just thought I should do a bit of an update before we leave tomorrow. We'll be in Halong Bay on a 'junk' boat for the next 2 days doing kayaking, caving, hiking etc etc. It's going to be amazing! :D
Amiee x
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