Hanoi

So we found ourselves standing in front of luggage conveyor belt again, wondering why it's always others' luggage coming out first.

But these feelings offrustration always vanish in milliseconds as soon as you see your backpack coming your way unharmed, and you feel happy again. The savage luggage handlers once more were not brute enough to destroy my piece of New Zealandish product design. Lovely...



After taking the shuttle bus to Hanoi Old Quarter, the bus driver dropped us of at the wrong place, turning us again into the alert guards we normally are. Vietnam is notorious for its taxi and tour scams, and this could be just it. But false alarm, he just had misunderstood us, and he dropped us of at where he thougt the closest street to our hotel was... So after 15 minutes ofwalking, we found our chosen hotel.. which was full. The next one also. Panic!!! It's dark and we're in desperate need of beer!



The third one had two beds available. It was the Hanoi Backpackers hostel, a great hostel , which unfortunately only had dorms. As it was a goog backpackers hostel, it was also quite expensive, as quality and a good reputation has its price. We had our cold beer at the rooftop terrace, and after having watched a rat crawl by, we went to bed.



The next day, we had some though decisions to make. We should be in Luang prabang (Laos) on saturday 17th, giving us some time to discoverHanoi and another part of Vietnam. The question was: which part? We have to be in Laos in time, as we are meeting my parents in Luang Prabang. Yes indeed!!! Emotional times are ahead! We are really looking forward to meeting them, together with meeting the chocolate they bring along.



One option was to take the land border to Luang Prabang, passing some of the most beautifull sceneries Vietnam has to offer. But after asking the hostel owner and reading LP, this border is also the most difficult. ("some have no problems at all, some have a really hard time and ask me why I told them to take that route, which I didn't, and others just come back after 3 days of trying...")

A second option was to go to Halong Bay (a must see sight) and take the bus to Vientiane in Laos, which LP describes as "not a picknick, but more like a set menu for hell" and which causes an evil grin with the hostel managerwhen I asked about the bus.

The last option was to do Halong Bay and fly to Luang Prabang, which is the quickest and the easiest, but also the most expensive.

So... we chose to fly... Goddamned! But we really wanted to be sure that we get there in time to meet my parents, and taking the bus would force us to take another 11 hour busride to Luang Prabang after the 24h bus ride to Vientiane (the horror!)



So we booked our plane, and also a cruise to Halong bay, leaving the next morning. Afterwards we went into town.



Hanoi is a beautiful and great city, at least the old quarter. It is a bit dirty, but the charm it has is stunning. it's a maze of old houses painted in great soft colors, filled with local activity and bars and restaurants aimed at tourists and expats. So again, Vietnam wouldn't allow us any weight loss...

The drawback is the observation that Hanoi is pretty pricey. Of course is is a capital, but there's also the commercail attitude of the vietnamese, which is quite annoying when coming out of China. The people are friendlier, but in dealing with tourists they are much greedier and harder. They terribly overcharge you, but are less inclined to negotiate. You pay the price or you walk.

After a great dinner on the balcony of a small restaurant. We got in our bunk beds and had another night of sleep, interrupted by everyone that went to sleep or got up.



The next morning we left for our Halong Bay cruise. We had the most amazing and relaxing trip!

Our boat was a standard "Junk", and after lunch we set of for a cave. Meanwhile we read our books and just enjoyed the view and the good weather. This view consisted of the great Karst islands of Halong Bay and dozens and dozens of other tourist junks doing the same tour as us. Halong Bay is big business, and each day, hundreds of tourists leave for their trip.

We visited a cave, kayaked and swam ("can we swim here? ""No, many sharks here, we swim over there, further...""alrighty!") in the beautiful bay. We went to our room quite early, as the Vietnamese crew had no intention whatsoever to entertain us (they had enough to do watching their movie and listen to their awful music (think about a sample of a chicken on an early 90's housebeat, among others...)) The iTrip failed, so sleep was everything that was left.

The next morning we were dropped offat Cat Ba, a beautiful island with a national park. Driving into the island could be compared to a scene of Jurassic Park.

We climbed a hill with a small group. The top of the hill was crowded with othertourists, but the view was absolutely marvellous. We also climbed the observation tower, which truly was one of the most freightening experiences in our lives.

In the afternoon, a highlight of ourwhole trip came: WE WENT TO THE BEACH!!!! Yes indeed, for the first time we lied down on the warm sand and swam in the sea, celebrating it with a cold beer. Perfect!

That night we met some other people and had a drink in a bar. I'm going fast to spare you some hours of reading, but believe me that Cat Ba and Halong Bay are just excellent.

The next day we head back for the boat, but organisation was a bit strange that day. We were taken from one group to the next, and no one knew who we were or where we came from in the end. But after some phonecalls of the guides, it all got solved.

The day after we did the walking tour described in Lonely Planet. Quite funny to encounter several other people holding the same Lonely PLanet on the same page walking in the same direction...
It was great. We saw a ceremony in a small temple and visited some markets. In the afternoon we saw a water puppet show. It was nice, but it still puppets on water, so despite the beauty of it, it became a bit boring. Today we had our first motorcycle taxi ride (horrifying) and saw the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh, who wasn't there. he's in Russia for maintenance (true). Tomorrow We're off to Laos.