Hanoi & Ha Long Bay

After much procrastination I've decided to write some bits about Vietnam 3 weeks into our time there and only 4 days before we leave for Cambodia!

After the constant development of China (huge shiny new train stations, wide clean streets and loads of shops) we had no idea what to expect from Vietnam... The dire warnings in the Lonely Planet pretty much said everyone is out to rip you off in Vietnam, so we were obviously a little nervous.

Taking a night train from Nanning to Hanoi we had to stop twice. Firstly by 4 Chinese guys in military uniform who checked, double checked and re-checked our passports and visas then off into another brand new Chinese station to have our bags x-rayed and back on to the train. So far so good, next an hour later we pull up on the Vietnamese side of the border crossing at a small rickety old building, no platform walk across a railway line. Inside we fill in the entry exit card, then go for the swine flu test, the lady behind the desk hold up a sign asking for 2 dollars which Sue went off to get. Whilst I weakly argued... hang on a minute if you want to test us for swine flu why should we have to pay?? A blank look and another point at the poster and we gave up and paid... rip off number one and we failed, the Chinese people in our set of bunks were not asked to pay!

So back on the train and a few hours later at 5am we arrived at Hanoi station, once again not a shadow of the Chinese stations we were used to. Armed with a lonely planet we knew a Taxi should be 2-3 USD. We were prepared with dollars in hand, only to be told $25 by the first taxi driver who very kindly dropped to $15 after some debate... Eventually armed with my trusty compass and a map with an arrow at one edge saying Railway station 2km we set off to walk with 3 other westerners we bumped into. They were soon offered a 4$ taxi and took it leaving us frustrated and wondering whether to walk on or try one last time to negotiate a better rate. Finally we got a $4 rate agreed and were taken right to our pre-booked guest house.

A recommendation from an American girl we met at our guest house took us to a swanky restaurant overlooking the lake which is central in old town Hanoi, the dish she recommended was very nice indeed BBQ'd pork with noodle soup know as Bun Cha. I was already warming to Vietnam, nice weather, BBQ'd food, a great view and it was all quite cheap.

That evening we met up with some friends we had spent some time with in China that night for a drink at the big (and rather expensive to stay at backpackers), another BBQ, this time a burger and a few beers and we decided to book to go to Ha Long bay with this backpackers (it seemed like they were up for a party).

The next morning we were on the bus heading to Ha Long bay a cluster of thousands on tiny islands in the South China sea. Our first day included lunch on the boat then all the boys jumping off the side going for a swim in the sea, with a bit of natural competition... He jumped off the fourth deck so now I'll have to, all great fun though a few people who's technique was not up to scratch ended up walking like penguins! After that Kayaking to a small island with a cave (or tunnel) which lead to a rainwater lagoon surrounded by cliffs, unfortunately no pics due to the lack of a dry bag or waterproof camera.

That night we partied on the boat then went for a swim, a few of us swam to another boat but the Vietnamese boat hands told us to go away! We then swam to one of the islands and when we swam away from the lights of the boats we could see some sort of glowing plankton, is was pretty cool, making your hands glow when you moved them through the water. We retired to our surprisingly comfortable cabins only to be woken at 7am buy the crew of our boat for breakfast, check out then a boat to our own private island, there we sat on the beach then swam to another island which was completely empty. When we came back we were up for wake boarding, the activity we had chosen to do. It was pretty hard but eventually both Sue and I go up on our feet albeit only for 20 meters or so. We are looking forward to doing it again and improving, some of the guys, who had snowboarded before were better than us and made it look easy others didn't stand up at all.

Another party that evening and the next morning we were heading back to Hanoi, one boat to another then lunch on the big boat followed by some more sunbathing on the top deck.

The next day we went to see the Prison in which American POWs were kept during the American (Vietnam) War, it looked like they were kept in ok conditions but then that was according to the Vietnamese. The french had also used that prison to keep Vietnamese political prisoners and had apparently not treated them as well, they had done a pretty poor job of running the prison as hundreads of Vietnamese had escaped...

One last funny thing about Vietnam is that they have no copywrite law so a few years ago a guy made a good name for himself running a company called the Sinh Cafe, they do good tours and transport in Vietnam. Unfortaunatly for him loads of people have copied his name and opened up their own shops called the Sinh Cafe offering similar services but more expensive or less reliable, There are hundreds of Sinh Cafes in Hanoi, we managed to find the original with the help of the Lonely Planet website!