Ouch, that hurt
Trip Start
Aug 23, 1996
1
83
561
Trip End
Ongoing
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The bus to Hanoi is meant to take 12 hours. Maybe if the road was half decent it would, but this road was just loads of potholes everywhere, so it took us 17 hours. It was hideous. Also, the driver drove the whole stint. I am sure he was loaded on speed. He managed to pull over numerous times and eat. A main meal at 04:00 is a bit far fetched. We arrived, feeling like crap, and grabbed a hotel room. Had a look around as it was still the morning here, found a café and booked a trip to Cat Ba Island. The next morning, we caught a bus to Halong Bay, and then jumped onto a boat to take us to Cat Ba. In the water, all the way along are columns of rock coming out of the water. It was quite amazing actually. They were everywhere. We stopped off at one island and we went into some caves. People used to live in here and there were concrete buildings inside. It was ok. Once on Cat Ba Island, we organised to go on a 12 Klm walk over 6 mountains. Whilst going up the third one, the guide said we should all use walking sticks. Halfway through the walk, my stick got stuck in a rock, bowed, caught my nipple ring, and ripped it out. I was screaming in pain, which is kind of understandable. The last time I felt pain like this was when I had my nipple pierced !!!!! That put a sour note on the rest of our time on Cat Ba. The following morning, all bandaged up, we left and went back to Hanoi. Wondering the local alleys, we found a Beer Hoi place. This is where they brew their own beer. 5 of us had 35 beers, 7 plates of food and it worked out around US$2.20 per person. We did try to go and see Uncle Ho Chi Minh, but he was in London at the time at Madam Tussaud's getting re-waxed. We did however go to see the water puppets. These are quite colouful and appear to be swimming on water. For an added 0.50c, they give you a free tape As our time was up, we went to the airport and left. One further day in Bangkok, and I jumped on a plane to go to Sydney and Lucy was going to Melbourne. Our Mothers did not know we were coming home for Christmas. This was their present
