Hey, Hey, Halong Bay, Hue and Hoi An

  Hoi An, Vietnam
Sunday, November 9, 2008

OK... so the day that Tom Mills (to be known as Tibbs from now on, to avoid confusion with Tom Guy) arrived, it was raining... raining really hard... Tom and I had gone for a swim and got wetter on the way home than we did in the pool, and hauled ourselves up reading for the rest of the day...  Tibbs got a mini-bus from the airport along with a girl called Roxy (actually it's Raukura, but she goes by Roxy) and checked into our dorm...  We had a group hug, a few beers and called it a night...

The next day it was raining even harder... barely anyone was out and about and when we got down to the lake we saw that the entire area was flooded... so we all ditched our shoes and went barefoot and walked around the city for a while.  We visited the 'Hanoi Hilton' which is a prison first used by the French to imprison Vietnamese anti-colonialists, and later to house American soldiers.  John McCain was held there, as he was a pilot during the war and landed in the lake...  It was a pretty horrific place, but very interesting to see...

We grabbed some food and then hit the hay fairly early... because it was still raining...

Early the next day we (Tom, Tibbs, Roxy and me) got picked up for a trip to Halong Bay, just east of Hanoi.  It took a few hours on the bus, which we spent playing cards on the back row and being moaned at by jet-lagged French people ;)  When we got off the bus, we stocked up on drinks and got onto a boat that would take us around some of the islands.

The first stop was a group of caves with amazing formations inside, illuminated with different coloured lights... it was beautiful... we walked around and had a good look, having several formations pointed out to us, like the 'breast rock', the 'cock rock', 'the elephant', etc...  Then when we got back on the boat, Tom reached into his 24 pack of beer to find that 2 had been taken... we asked very nicely if someone had put them in the fridge for us or something, to which the crew looked blank and then kind of chuckled... SWINES!

We were then presented with a fantastic sea-food dinner, accompanied by drinks and a lovely evening swim off the side of the boat.  We spent the rest of the evening playing cards and drinking our diminishing beer supply.

The next day the boat moved off again and we were taken to Cat Ba Island for a walk in the National Park there... Tom, Tibbs and I took the hard route, while the rest of our group went the slightly easier route... that just means our way was muddier, really... It wasn't too bad, but all up hill, and when we got to the top there was a big tower with a view over the rest of the national park and back to the sea... but there was GIGANTIC wasps up there, which I am terrified of, so I look like I want to run away in pretty much all the photos... hehe...

After making our way back down we were taken to our hotel for lunch... we had a spare hour to kill, so Tom, Tibbs and I rented mopeds for an hour... the island is pretty quiet and it seemed like a good place to learn...  I almost immediately crashed mine into the curb and then dropped it on my foot, but after that it was all good... we made our way around the island for about forty minutes, getting used to the controls and stuff, and then went back to the hotel to catch a ride to the kayaking spot.... From there we kayaked a kilometre or two to Monkey Island, which has... funnily enough... loads of monkeys sitting on the beach... we didn't have our cameras because of the kayaks, but they were pretty cool monkeys, you'll just have to take my word for it... they were going for people's feet quite a lot though, so we kept our distance and went for a swim instead.  And that was pretty much it for the day... we kayaked back, went for dinner and played cards all night... again.... (there isn't much nightlife on these small islands!)

The next morning we were taken from the hotel to the boat and back to Halong Bay, where we had lunch and then got on a bus back to Hanoi...  it was still pretty flooded, so the going was slow and we didn't do a lot... just grabbed some food and got on a sleeper-bus to Hue.

Having arrived safe and sound, checked into a hotel and showered, we felt confident enough to rent mopeds for the entire day... you may be wondering at this point, does this girl have a death wish?  And I wouldn't blame you... however, Hue seemed like a nice small town with little traffic, so we decided to go for it.

We got used to the controls again for a bit, and then headed out on the open road... the first stop for me was to buy some sun glasses, because I was very slowly going blind... so I bought the first pair I found... a gigantic pair of red, fake, D&Gs with diamantes around the edges... (don't worry, I picked off the diamantes the first chance I got... you'll sleep better tonight now, eh?)  We then went and visited the Thien Mu Pagoda, which is also a working monastery... It had displays of monks who have burned themselves in protest over the years, and lots of mini-monks walking to and from lessons :)

From there we whizzed about town, grabbed some lunch and headed for the beach, just outside the town, and it was a really nice ride.  We stopped and had a (small) beer, played some cards and went for a swim... there was a pretty strong current and at one point I realised I'd been swimming towards Tom and Tibbs for a good 2 minutes and hadn't actually got any closer... which was a bit disturbing, but I got there in the end... haha...

We dried off and got back on the bikes to head back to town and realised that time was ticking on and we'd better try and get back before it got dark...  We didn't... we went down the same quiet roads we had used on the way there and hit Hue rush-hour, which consisted of all the bicycles in the world and half the mopeds in the world, all trying to go the same way... it was pretty nerve racking, but I have to say I really enjoyed weaving around the traffic... there seem to be no rules at all on the roads here, but we've been in Asia long enough to know that there are... they just go against the ones you learn at home... for example, don't toot in anger AFTER an event, toot as a preventative measure before you get to them to let them know you're there and avoid any form of collision... it works wonders!

Anyway... after several wrong turns we finally made it back to our hotel in one piece, and then went out for food and drinks... We were pretty much out of money for the day, so once again, we just called it a night and played cards in the room...

The next day we fannied around for a few hours and then got on a bus to Hoi An, the tailoring capital of Vietnam.  We went straight to our hotel and had a little wander around the town in the evening and drank a little bit too much of the special offer litre cocktail...

The next day we got up early to rent bikes and meet Mr. Trung, who takes small groups of tourists to his fishing village.  He took us to see the pottery workshops, which use man-powered potters' wheels to throw pots, and everyone got to have a little go...  Next up was a spot of fishing with some local fishermen... it poured down with rain almost as soon as we got to the bank, but it was still pretty cool... we toughed it out, although the other on the tour went and found shelter... Tibbs and I caught two tiddlers each, but Tom wasn't so lucky this time ;) :p

After that we were treated to a slap up lunch, provided by Mrs. Trung, back at their home, which was really nice... Unfortunately, one of the other people on the tour asked us how much we paid for the tour, and Tom forgot we had promised not to tell them we had bartered with him... so as soon as Mr. Trung gave us our respective bills, she started saying it wasn't fair that they were paying more than we were and they should get the same rate... and I kind of see her point, but since she'd already agreed to a price, it was a bit late really... Mr. Trung wasn't happy and neither were we...  It's not Tom's fault really... he just doesn't like lying to people...

Anyway... with that out of the way, we decided to head over to a tailors to pick out some clothes... we might be budget backpackers, but who can turn down the chance to have a tailor made suit at half the price of a shop-bought one at home?  It took a few hours to pick out what we wanted, and several more trips to get the sizes just right, but we all ended up with some top-notch clothes, which we promptly sent home... Tom got two suits, three shirts and two ties, Tibbs got a very dapper suit with waistcoat, shirt, tie and cuff links, and I got a suit (trousers and skirt set), three dresses and a winter coat that is so beautiful I almost don't want to wear it!!

When we finally got all that sorted, and it took some doing, we got on another sleeper-bus to go to Nha Trang... Vietnam's premier dive location and beach haven... ready for some SERIOUS relaxation...  Watch this space!