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VIETNAM
Hanoi & Halong Bay
"The land of a million scooters, no traffic laws and never ending hooting."
New country, new culture, language, food and customs to experience. Our journey started off with a 3am alarm and an early morning flight into Hanoi . Needless to say not much was said until we had at least found some coffee to help us deal with the trauma of being awake in the wee hours of the morning.
Touch down and clearing immigration in Hanoi was no hassle apart from taking a little time. Backpacks strapped on and some hastily given instruction from the tourist information desk and we exited the airport in search of a bus. CHAOS and noise befell these weary travelers at an ungodly 8:30 hour of the morning. We could not walk five steps without being harassed for a taxi, mini van or 'bick-bick'! I later guessed that that was a bike taxi.Confused and in shock we rushed back into the airport and interrogated the tourist information clerk for exact information about the bus we needed; where it was, the colour and any distinguishing markings we need to look out for.After failing to find the damn bus we gave in and climbed into a Vietnam Airlines mini bus bound for the city centre. The bus was packed to the roof with locals, luggage and two female tourists. Then a poor soul got kicked off to make room for one more tourist. Eyes as wide as saucers we traveled into the centre.I had to put my headphones on as the constant use of the horn was driving me to distraction! This is certainly the land of no traffic laws and excessive use of the horn!When approaching a junction, the rule appears to be; honk like a mofo, forget your blind spot and just go where you please. I have to give credit where credit is due, it does keep the traffic moving, until you throw a car or parked lorry into the mix, then all hell breaks loose.
Note to any travelers, its always a good idea to read the Annoyances and Dangers section of your Lonely Planet guide. We were almost dragged off to another guesthouse when the driver of the mini van strategically dropped off all the locals and the one male tourist and Andy and I were the only two left in the van. The scam was that they picked someone else up and he started chatting and being a friendly chap. He asked if we had a guesthouse organized and we replied yes and gave the name (stupidly). He then seemed to mind his own business and started making phone calls. A few minutes later the van stopped and someone else came inside. Greeting us with a huge smile told us he was from our guesthouse and that there was a mix up with the reservation as someone fell ill and needed the room a while longer. He offered to take us to his second guesthouse however. Immediately A&I were on alert.The guy was rather adamant and asked us to come inside. Andy followed him and I stayed with the bags.Andy handled the situation perfectly and insisted that we should be taken to the original guesthouse first and pointed out that we were on the wrong street as it was and there was no sign outside stating "Hanoi Guesthouse", which we had booked. After much arguing we eventually just picked up our bags and headed off down the correct street and found our guesthouse.
We were so pleased to be greeted by lovely staff and a wonderful room with our own PC.Only crap thing was the Vietnamese govt don't like Facebook therefore blocked it from use for the whole of our trip.
Our clever receptionist organized a lovely private tour of the sites of Hanoi for us by calling up one of her tour guide student buddies who escorted us around the city in an aircon'd car and provided much information and insight into the culture and ethnic groups that make up Vietnam . The next day we embarked on a 2 day tour to Halong bay, of which we were informed it would take 2 hours to get there, then it increased to 3 with the possibility of being 5 enroute!!! That was one thing we discovered from the start of our travels through Vietnam , accurate and honest information about transportation throughout the country would be as scarce as hens teeth!!Thankfully our trip turned out to be 3.5hrs, which at first felt like 3 days as A&I made the fateful mistake of actually paying attention to the road and driving style of our driver. I think we aged about 5 years on that journey.We since decided to adopt the mantra of "what the eyes do not see, the heart will not freak out about".
Halong bay was very pretty, albeit shrouded in mist and grey skies while we were there. Our onboard accommodations on an old style Junk were lovely and our tour guide did a good job of keeping us entered during the day with cave explorations, a fishing village visit and the possibility of swimming or kayaking. The latter were both vetoed by A&I due to the fact that it was actually rather chilly.The evening's entertainment were not so warmly welcomed when our slightly over excited guide announced that there would be karaoke after dinner. His pleas to Andy and I fell on deaf ears when he suggested we sing a number from the Spice Girls. For some reason everyone on the boat were avid night fishermen and the back of the boat was strewn with a buffet selection of baited rods instead.
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