13/10/09 Perfume Pagoda

We arrived back in Hanoi at 5.30am after a really awful night on the night train from Lai Cao. We were shaken around throughout the night and both had very little sleep. apparently it may have been because we had the beds over the wheels but not sure if theres anything in that. We jumped into the nearest taxi and asked for a fixed fare but he said he had a meter...one that spun round at a rapid pace!! He drove really slowly and nervously and we were doubting wether he had a license at all, the price was going up so fast it was a joke. We pulled up at the hotel and the driver locked the doors until we paid up the over priced amount. We were both really annoyed as he had charged us 8 times the normal amount!!! We learnt and will only go with the safe Taxi company we now know about. We had booked to go on a tour to the Perfume Pagoda complex but decided to wait in the hotel reception as it would cost lots to book in early just to get a quick shower. We were on the internet and writing our diary until 8 when the bus arrrived for the tour. The Perfume Pagoda is actually an area of a collection of Buddhist pagodas/temples carved into the limestone cliffs of the Huong Tich mountains (mountain of fragrant faces). The scenery there is similar to that at Halong Bay with the towering limestone mounds and waterways. We arrived in My Duc where we boarded small row boats for the hour long row up to the pagoda site. We passed several smaller temples andf shrines along the Yen river. Our rower was a lady who really earned her money especially towards the end when it started blowing a gale and raining heavily. We were huddling under our umbrellas as she struggled to get us to the shore to get off. Once at our destination we walked to the start and end point of the pagoda trip. Liz went flying as she does on some wet mud and really cracked her back but was ok and carried on...what a sport!!! We were booked on a trip which included a 2 hour walk up through the lower pagoda area up to the top one in a cave but we only had 1.5hours to complete the whole visit. As we were in Vietnam it was "same,same but different" and we rode a gondola to the top instead. To walk would be 4kms one way and we would never have made it in the time. The gondola ride goes over the valley and over several small pagodas until we reached the top where there is the most special of the pagodas. A fight of slippery steps went down into the cave ,which locals say looks like a dragons mouth, and were shown round it by the guide. It was full of Buddhas ansd candles at a few different areas of worship. there were a couple of monks around the place and we stayed a few minutes to look around. We were then told to start the walk back which would take an hour so we could meet the others for lunch. The walk down took us along pathways through abandoned shopping stalls used when there is a festival. We stopped at three different pagodas on the way, one of which had a resident monk who invited us for tea. We should have accepted his kind offer but we were running pretty late for the meet so declined. That was a mistake because within a few minutes we were back down and would have had plenty of time to join him. The walk had only been a couple of kms not the suggested 4 so we had plenty of time. When we reached the bottom we climbed some stairs to a gateway to see what lay beyond and discovered another pagoda area which was really lovely. There were archways, bonsai, formal gardens, pagodas and a temple there but then we had to go to have lunch. We were fed a great Vietnamese buffet of rice, fish, chicken, spring rolls and vegetables which we had with a cold beer. It was meant to be Tiger beer but it definately wasn't ..more like a decanted local beer. After lunch the whole group went to see the pagoda we had visited and we got to have a second look which was great. We went back to the river and borded the boat for the return journey and when we arrived back to My Duc we gave our lady a generous tip but all she had to say was "you give me more". She was lucky Phil didn't grab the tip back...cheeky!!! We got the coach back to Hanoiand were back by 7.30pm and were hungry so went to a little italian resturant called Little Hanoi. The original Little Hanoi is mentioned in Lonely Planets so several other resturants have opened under the same name. We have found lots of borrowing of names and also claims of a mention in Lonely Planets. The Vietnamese are very resourceful people. After a lovely meal there overloooking the action in the street below, theres never a dull or quiet moment in Hanoi, we went off to bed.

14/10/09 Hanoi

At breakfast while waiting to hear if we would be going to Halong Bay or not an American couple started talking to Liz. They were really annoying and totally unprepared for Vietnam. They kept saying "in America" when describing things that weren't up to their unrealistic standards. We were in a great hotel and they weren't happy with it at all. After listening to the dreadful whining drawl for a while the woman started asking Liz about Princess Di "cause we loooooved herrrrr!!" Liz told her Camilla was much better for Charles and she'd make a great Queen which shocked the American. She looked dumbstruck that anyone could say anything supporting Charles and against Di...pretty funny. Liz knew Phil wouldn't be able to stand the Americans for very long and when he did arrive for breakfast he stayed about three minutes bedore making excuses to leave. We were due to visit Halong Bay and stay overnight but as the typhoon was still passing through, at a rate of only 9km per hour, Jennifer called us at the hotel to cancel the visit. Apparently all the boats that usual go out into the bay had been banned from leaving port as during the last storm a western tourist died out there. We went to the office to see Jwennifer to see what our options were and she said we could do a day tour instead the next day if the weather was better. She then said we would need to pay an extra $6 for the change of itinerary which as you can imagine we didn't pay. We were getting three less meals and a night less in Halong Bay !!!! The next day we had booked tickets to see the water puppet theatre in Hanoi as we thought we would be back but the day trip only returns at 8pm so we would miss that too, but decided to try and change the booking for that at the box office. It was raining heavily all day in Hanoi which was a bit miserable and we got to the box office the lady said we could change our tickets but would have to be back at 3.30pm for some reason. While waiting for the 8.30pm deadline we had lunch in another Little Hanoi which was apparently the original. It was a great meal and we only had one main to share as the portions were so big. We had coffee in the tourist information office/coffee shop then went off to the box office again. When we got to the front of the queue the girl said we could see the show that was just starting. We went in and sat down as the music was starting. There were a group of Vietnamese musicians sitting off to one side playing all sorts of unusual traditional instruments and singing. Then the puppet show began. It was as you would imagine all done on water so the puppets appeared to be swimming, dancing, boating and floating on water. It was very clever and the music was all fitting with the action . We really enjoyed it but Phil had a nightmare with a woman in front of him, who kept moving her head from side to side so he moved to the edge and had a great view. The show lasted about an hour and we left for a quick mooch around the streets of Hanoi. We ended up buying a picture then went back to the hotel to drop off the shopping. We had decided to look for the Bay bar for dinner as it is recommended in Lonely Planets but couldn't find it and ended up in the Potato bar...not very inspired name!! We asked for some Cashews from the menu and the strange waitress said "no!" . She couldn't seem to grasp that we wanted cashews and kept pointing at peanuts on the menu but we eventually got through. We had a really nice main course and ordered Tiramisu for desert. When it arrived it was on a saucer with a teaspoon, which t be fare was all the tiny thing needed. We ate it in two spoons !! After that we headed back to bed hoping the trip would go ahead tomorrow.