Vietnam

Hanoi

As soon as we arrived we have realized that Vietnam will be much different compare to Macau and Hong Kong. From airport is about 30km to Hanoi, we found guys with minibus offering this trip for $2 per person, so we agreed. Ordinarily this minibus would take about 12 people but they have managed to squeeze 19 of us. On way there you could see that most of the people works on rice fields or selling stuff by the road. As we were coming closer to Hanoi the traffic start pick in up and then we realise how crazy Vietnamese drivers are, standard rules like double full line, red on the traffic lights most of the time do not play any role in everyday driving. For once we didn't have any hotel booked, so we were bit nervous to find out where we will be sleeping. We had 9 hours flying + 6 hours on airport with no proper sleep, so we were getting quite tired as you can imagine. The minibus dropped us of somewhere in Hanoi :-) we had no idea where we are or where to go. Fortunately this French lady offered us they we can stay in her hotel as they have reason able price and good location. Once we got to the hotel we went for couple hours of sleep. Later that day around 19ish we decided to go to see the Old Quarter one of the most popular places in Hanoi. Actually forgot to mentioned they gave us room facing the road, we didn't pay to much of attention to it, but I should have had. As we were walking towards Old Quarter or you can here is the engine and the honking of uncountable number of mopeds, it is seriously amazing how many they have. One very interesting experience is crossing the street, because as I have mentioned standard rules do not work here, so crossing on zebra crossing or on the green light is no good as the traffic is still the same the only way to cross the road in Hanoi is the decide when to do it. What I was doing is waiting for time when only mopeds where on the road and the I went for it. Once you start moving across the road you cannot stop just steadily move meter by meter, even though you think is suicide it will work as the mopeds drives will find a way around you, at least most of the time, in worst scenario they will stop. After dinner and some beer we went to hotel as Lucy wasn't feeling very fell. The next day we spend in our room just relaxing and getting ready for more walking. As I said our room was facing the road, so we quickly realised that sleeping here would be very difficult with all the engine noise and the honking, so it was inevitable to use earplugs. Next they we went to see most of the stuff which are recommended for Hanoi ( Ho Chi Minch museum, mausoleum, president palace, One pillar pagoda, The temple of Literature ). Later today we going get ourself a trip to very famous Ha Long bay. Some advice here do not buy these trips or anything from your hotel as they will add few dollars on top of each price. For example they were offering train ticket to Hue, we are on the train right now, for $42 we went to the station to find out that the ticket $30, which you might think is not too big a deal but for $12 you get yourself nice dinner for two or a night in hotel. One the end we decide to go for 3 days trip as the difference was only $10 ( but it included night in hotel with breakfast, lunch and dinner ). The leaving time for the trip was 8am so we turned in quite soon. Next day they picked us up around 8 squeeze 10 to small van and we started our 4 hour journey to Halong bay. One thing I should mentioned is haggling, you need to haggle if you want to buy anything from these guys selling stuff on street, most of the time just go for half the price and then meet in the middle, what I do is ask for price for one , lets say bottle of water 10000 dongs and then I offer like 15000 for two, they do seem sometimes they will back of, but once you show them money they will go for it and this can be done pretty much with everything it all depends on you skills ;-) so go to Camden market and get some practise before visiting Vietnam. Our trip as I said was for 3 days, one night on boat and one in the hotel. After very long time on road we have finally arrived in Ha long bay, after 30min of waiting we have boarded our ship, but we were about to do another mistake regarding our room. As they were giving out the keys for room they asked if we want twin bed or two beds, obviously we said twin bed, so he gave us key from room 25. Once we entered the room we were quite pleased nice clean room with air condition and shower everything seemed to be fine, that was until we checked outside that our room was on top of the boat very old diesel engine, anyway we went to our "meeting room" and right a way the guide came to us with smile on his face and saying that they will turn the engine of at 5pm, so we said that should be ok. Ha Long bay is amazing place, it about 2000 small islands spread around the whole bay. Today was very foggy, which in away added to its magic as the island would start appearing in front of you out of nowhere. After like hour of cruising we arrived at our first destination the cave. The cave itself was nice, check out the pictures. After seeing we were on our way to see the floating village, where we would have some time for kayaking around this villages. These villages are very interesting as at least myself I cannot imagine to spend my life on one of these as I can see it as very limited way of life. These guys they have 30x30m space for them self 15x15m is the house and the rest is x number of small " tank" where they keep the fishes they catch. I do not see myself to have such small area for living, but I guess if you born there you will have plenty to do and I'm fairly certain they would say the same about us living in big cities. After dinner we went to our room on the way there we could here the engine, we were very pleased, not for long though as we made it to our room we have noticed the lights are on and the air condition is working and that could mean only one thing, there was a power generator somewhere and pretty big one and as you can guess they couldn't place it anywhere else then behind our room, so the noise from this generator wasn't as bad as from the engine, but no sleep without ear-aids :-( dammit and we were looking forward for " romantic night on a boat " . There was no point going to our guide to ask for different room as all the other room where full, so we were stuck here. It was rough night especial half time through we could here a mouse trying to get to as from place in between the wooden walls and I can tell you it was trying hard, it is surprising how much noise one mouse , somebody was suggesting it was rat :-). can make, anyway we made it through. Next morning after breakfast we arrived at the biggest island in Ha Long bay the Cat Ba, which has some nationals park and very nice beaches, of course because it is autumn here the beaches weren't really option for us, so we went for hour of trekking in the jungle and later that day we had arrange a trip to monkey island, to see some …....... monkeys of course. After the very exhausting hour of trekking in very humid jungle got lift to our hotel The Cat Ba Hotel Plaza and to our surprise hotel so very nice and almost empty, not almost we were indeed the only customers there as the other guys have chosen the hotel in centre Cat Ba, but I have to say the staff there so nice the guy actually owned the hotel and he was pleased every time said something nice about the hotel. Then we went for the Monkey island and frankly if you have ever seen a monkey in your life safe yourself $10 and don't go here. We spend 40min trying to see any monkey, then we saw some very fare a way and as we made our way back to the drop of point on the beach we saw the monkeys actually came there, but it looked like they came as it was a feeding time, the guide gave them some crisp a shortly after that we were boarding the boat again, not without some issue thought as they used this small bout to get us there and they said only 7 people at the time, well on the way back they squeezed about 14 of us on the boat, which was quite heavily leaking and with every small wave we though we are going to sink, but on the end we managed to get dry back on the boat. Around 6pm we were back in Hanoi and on our way to the train station, we stopped in coffee, it wasn't really about the coffee, but they had free internet ;-) , one note here be careful ordering Vietnamese's coffee as it is ridiculously strong. Anyway after 3 hours surfing we went to the station and to say the truth we didn't know what to expect as we bought 2 tickets in 4 bedroom cabin, so we were really afraid to find out who is going to be our neighbour. Well fortunately for us it was British bloke and one lady from London, so we were safe. At 11pm we start moving and after watching a movie we went sleep, we woke up into very beautiful day, sun is shining finally again. We are about to arrive at the Hue station, so we shall get ready. Ohh I forgot to mentioned on the way from Cat ba to HA Long bay if you ever go you will be offer to see 2 more caves for 50000/person, you can save yourself some money again as it is not worth it, it is only for 20 min and all you see is more rocks, me personally I wouldn't dare to call it cave ;-).

CZ/SK

Vietnam

Hanoi

Jakmile jsme prijeli tak jsme si uvedomili ze vietnam bude docela jine misto nez Macau a Hong Kong. Z letiste je to asi 30km do Hanoi, nasli jsme nejakeho chlapka co nabizel cestu minibusem za $2 na osobu tak jsme to vzali, jelikoz takxi je tak $20. Za normalnich podminek tento minibus pojme as max 12 lidi, ale oni zvladli narvat 19 lidi I z batohama ;-) Na ceste do Hanoi jsme mohli pozorovat co tu vetsina lidi dela, je to tak pul na pul, pestuje a stara se o ryzove pole a zbytek prodava na ulici veci. Jak jsme prijizdeli blize k Hanoi tak se provoz zacal zhustovat a brzy pote jsme zjistili jaci jsou vietnamsti ridici blazni, pravidla jako dvojita plna, cervena na semaforu tu vubec nehraji roli. Dnes je to poprve co nemame domluveny hotel takze jsme trocha nervozni. Jsme po 9 hodinach letu + 6 hodin na letisti a zadny poradny spanek, takze jsme docela unaveni jak si dokazete predstavit. Minibus nas vyhodil nekde v Hanoi :-) nemame ani tucha kde jsme a kam jit. Nastesti jedna francouzka co byla s nami v minibuse nam nabidla ze nas vezme k ni do hotelu ze je to docela blizko a je lacinny takze jsme to brali. Hned jak jsme se dostali na pokoj tak jsme sli na par hodin spat. Pozdeji okolo 19 hodiny jsme se rozhodli navstivit Old Quarter ( Starou ctvrt ) jedno z nejznamejsich mist v Hanoi. Jo vlastne jsem zapomel zminit dali nam mistnost ktera mela okna do ulice, nejak jsme tomu moc nevenovali pozornost, ale meli jsme. Jak jsme sli ke Old Quarter vse co bylo slyset je zvuk mopedu a neustale troubeni z nehorazneho mnozstvi skutru, je az k neuvereni kolik jich tu vubec je. Jedna velmi zajimava zkusenost je tu prechazeni ulice, jak jsme uz psali zadne pravidla tu neplati, takze cekat na zeleneho panacka na prechodu je zbytecne. Cesta se da prejit jedine takovym zpusobem ze si pockate kdy jsou na ceste jen skutry ( coz je vetsinou ) a pak vyrazite, ale jak jednou vejdete do cesty musite jit neni zadne cesty zpatky, musite pomalu ale jiste kupredu ikdyz si myslite ze vas musi nekdo prejede, proste bezte dal vietnamci vas objedou jsou na to zvykli. Po veceri jsme si dal nejake pivko jsme se vidali zpet na hotel. Dalsi den jsme cely prolezeli a sbirali sily na dalsi den chozeni. Diky pozici naseho pokoje jedina cesta jak se trochu vyspat bylo si necim ucpat usi, jelikoz dokonce okolo 12 byl jen slyset ty skutry a troubeni. Dalsi den jsme se vidali na vetsinu pamatek ktere se maji shlednout v Hanoi ( Ho Chi Minch mauzoleum, muzeum, presidentsky palac, Pagoda na jednom tramu, Chram literatury ). Jeste dnes si musime domluvit vylet do proslule Ha Long zatoky. Jen aby jste vedeli zkuste se vyhnout kupovani takovych vyletu pres hotel jelikoz jsi vzdy prihodi par dolaru. Napriklad listek na vlak do Hue, ve kterem prave jsme, z hotelu za $42 a na stanici $30, coz se mozna nezda az tak moc ale za $12 se tu da dobre naveceret pro dva nebo jedna extra noc v hoteli. Nakonec jsme se rozhodli pro tri denni vylet, rozdil v cenne jen $10 ale stoji to za to ( je v tom noc v hoteli s snidani, obedem a veceri ). Vyjizdime rano v 8 takze jdeme spat brzy. Dalsi den rano jsme se vidali v minibuse na 4 hodinovou cestu do Ha Long zatoky. Jen vec co musim zminit je zjednavani ceny, na ulici se tu musi sjednavat , vsechny ceny jsou nasazeny tak min 40% tak kdo umi ukecat ten tu bude mit raj na zemi :-) Jak uz jsem rekl nas vylet je na 3 dny jedna noc na lodi a druha v hoteli. Po velmi dlouhe ceste jsme dorazili do Ha Long mesta. Ted uz jen 30min cekani nez se muzem nalodit. Kratce no nalodeni jsme udelali dalsi chybicku s nasim pokojem na lodi. Jak se rozdavali klice tak se ptali jestli chceme rozdelene nebo spolecne postele, tak jsme rekli spolecne tak nam dali klice od pokoje 25. Hned jak jsme vesli tak jsme byli prijemne prekvapeni jak bylo vse cista a pekna na to ze jsme na lodi az na to ze pokoj byl primo nad velmi starym dieselovym motorem, ale nejak jsme tomu nevenovali pozornost. Pak jsme sli zpet na palubu kde si nas hned odchytl nas pruvodce a rika " nebojte se motor se vypina v 17 a pak az rano ", tak jsme si rekli je to ok. Ha Long zatoka je uzasne misto, pres 200 malych ostruvku rozlozenych po cele zatoce. Dnes je vsude mlha, ale pridava to cele zatoce na krase, jelikoz jak projizdime okolo ostruvku nove a nove se pred nami vynoruji. Po hodinove plavbe jsme dorazili do prvni destinace coz byla jeskyne. Podivejte se na fotky z jeskyne. Po te jsme se vidali nasvstivit plovouci vesnice kde jsme meli moznost se projet sami na kajaku, coz byla sranda. Samotne vesnice jsou docela zajimave ja si sam nedokazi predstavit na jedne z nich zit, jelikoz je to docela limitovany zivot teda aspon pro me, jeden dum je na plovouci plose tak 30x30m z toho dum je tak 15x15m a zbytek jsou koje na ryby. Ale pokud se tu lidi narodi tak si asi zvyknout, pro ne bude asi stejne nepochopitelne zit jak zijeme mi. Po veceri jsme si sli na chvili lehnout uz po ceste k pokoji se nam ulevilo jelikoz jsme neslyseli ten motor, jakmile jsme se dostali do pokoje, zjistili jsme ze jde elektrika tak jsme zapli air condition, ale jak si vetsina z vas uvedomi kdyz je motor vypnuty odkud se ta elektrika bere ??? ano byl to generator a velkej a co si kdo nepral byl primo za nasim pokojem, takze misto jen hluku a smradu z motoru jsme tu meli hluk a vibrace z generatoru, takze super zase dalsi noc se spuntama na usich ( a ja si planoval " romantickou noc na lodi " ). Chtel jsem si jit stezovat ale jelikoz vsechny ostatni pokoje uz byli plne nemelo to cenu. Noc nebyla moc prijemna krome hluku z generatoru v pulce noci nam v pokoji zacala skrabat myska, neveril jsem kolik hluku muze takova mys udelat ( nekteri teda rikali ze je to krysa ale ja radsi budu verit ze jen myska ). Dalsi den jsme vyrazili na nejvetsi ostrov Cat Ba, ktery ma velmi pekne plaze a narodni park. Plaz pro nas nebyla jelikoz je docela zima, ale meli jsme domluvenou hodinovou prochazku pralesem a pozdeji vylet na Monkey island ( Opici ostrov ). Po velmi vecerpavajicim " prochazce " velmi vlhkym pralesem nas vyhodili pred hotelem, hotel byl velmi pekny a skoro prazdny na prvni pohled, na druhy teda uplne prazdny, recepce byla v tomto hoteli super asi proto ze ten na recepci byl chlapek ktery vlastnil ten hotel tak se snazil aby se nam tam libilo. Po trocha odpocinku jsme jeli na Opici ostrov, ale abych se priznal pokud jste videli nejakou opici v zivote, usetrete $10 a nechodte tam. My jsme stravili 40minut lozenim po ostrove hledanim opic, pak jsme nejake videli na druhe strane ostrova, ale jak jsme se potom dostali zpet na plaz opice byli uz I tam. No spis to vypadalo ze opice prisli na krmeni jelikoz jim rozdali asi tri balicky chipsu a pak opicky zase odesli. Pote jsme se vidali zpet na lod, ale ne bez problemu na ceste tam nam rikali ze musime vzit mensi lod aby jsme se dostali az na plaz a ze muzou vzit jen 7 lidi za raz, no ale na ceste zpet nas tam narvali 14 na lodku, do ktere pokud jsem jeste nerekl docela zatekalo a s kazdou vetsi vlnou jsem myslel ze jdeme ke dnu. Nakonec jsme to zvladly ja teda jen s mokryma ponozkama coz bylo ok. Dalsi den jsme okolo 18 vecerni dojeli do Hanoi a vydali se pezky na vlakovou stanici. Zastavili jsme se na kafco, teda spise internet zdarma ktery tam meli :-) , musim upozornit na vietnamske kafe, jelikoz je nehorazne silne. Po 3 hodinach serfovani jsem se vidali na stanici a rict pravdu nevedeli jsme co cekat, jelikoz jsme koupili 2 listky ve 4 mistne kabine, takze jsme zvedavi jaci budou nasi sousede. Nastesti pro nas nas soused byl jen aglicky borecek a nejaka starsi pani z londyna. Ve 23 hodin se vlak rozjel mi jsme podivali na film a sli spat. Probudili jsme do krasneho dne, slunce konecne sviti, Uz prijizdime do Hue, tak se jdeme pripravit. Jo jeste jsem zapomel na ceste z Cat Ba do Ha Long mesta, nam byl nabidnuty kratky vylet do dvou jeskyn za 50000 dongu/ na osobu. Ve zkratce nechodte a bezte spis na veceri, jelikoz to jsou vice mene dva male pruplavy a kolem do kola skaly, je to jen 20min , osobne bych to jeskyne ani nevolal ;-)

Ivo&lucia