Our one day and one night in Hanoi was not very eventful. Other than the campy but enjoyable water puppets show and wandering through the mass rush hour, motorbike confusion trying find a currency exchange, it wasn't too much fun. It's very busy and people aren't as open to tourists as other places we've been. Also, I failed horribly at food in Hanoi. I tried to get steamed rice wraps with vegetables and pointed to them and said "no meat?", they nodded and ended up bringing Simon and I steamed rice wraps with nothing inside (which is, I guess, what I asked for). Then at a street vendor, I assumed that I pointed at spring rolls and when I said "no meat?" They nodded. It was a deep fried pork stick. Ah well.... The hustle, bustle and tiresome city life of Hanoi gave easy way to one of the prettiest locations on our trip, Halong Bay.
Halong Bay consists of thousands of limestone rocks and mini-islands jutting around the Vietnamese coastline. It is definitely worthy of its placement in the seven natural wonders of the world. It's gorgeous.
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| A View of Halong Bay |
We took a two day, one night cruise to explore the Bay. Our company, the Majestic has some flaws (on-board activities lacking direction, expensive drinks at $2/beer when we're used to 0.75) but it was pretty good otherwise.
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| The Majestic was... mostly majestic. |
Our rooms and meals were amazing. We anchored in the bay at nighttime so it wasn't wavy at all. We had a triple and I'm pretty sure it was the nicest place we stayed all trip. The meals were gigantic portions and they really accommodated my vegetarianism more than anywhere else on this trip. I had just as many dishes as everyone else. Almost too many!
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| .....What a tourist. |
We cruised to Sung Sot cave to explore the caverns there. I actually really like caves (fav episode of Planet Earth) so I revelled in it. It was the biggest one I've ever been in (not that I've been really in many caves in my lifetime) and although it was touristy (lights, well worn paths and ropes keeping you off the rocks), it was still impressive. Unfortunately, the pictures I took didn't do it justice because they can't show the depth of it.
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| Where's Alfred? |
After the cave, our boat took us to a beach to go swimming. It's winter here so the locals think it's freezing but after the initial cold, the ocean was beautiful. It was like July cottage lake temperature. We swam for a bit before relaxing on the beach. It wasn't too sunny but after the mad heat in the south, it was a nice, breezy 24 degrees.
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| By the sea, by the sea, by the marvellous sea! |
There were these hilarious monkeys on the beach too and after being warned not to get too close, we enjoyed their antics from afar. One lady (a Darwin Award Applicant for sure) tried to climb a rock for a photo op and a monkey grabbed at her, she then tried again and it attempted to bite her! It was pretty funny (I am a horrible person).
I don't do it nearly enough at my cottage and never think to do it, but stargazing is one of my favourite activities. On our boat, I took some time to sit on the sun deck and watch the stars. Listening to music on my iPod in the background and getting lost up there. Unfortunately, I only got about 10 mins of good viewing before it clouded over. But there's something about sitting on a boat, slight breeze, listening to the national and looking up at the stars. I got a bit emotional. I know, I know... cut out the cheese, suze, yeesh! ;)
In the morning, we kayaked around a small fishing village (in the rain at points) and then cruised back. We didn't head back to Hanoi and instead switched off the bus to another car and went to the airport to catch our flight to Laos. Vietnam has been an interesting country to visit, with its mix of metropolitan and chilled out areas. I am looking forward to exploring some of Laos but I will miss my Vietnamese coffee in the morning!
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| Goodnight, Vietnam! |
