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Gary's World Adventure
Vietnam...here we go again sorry if Im moaning but thats what this country has driven me to.
Hanoi City is great and more impressive than Saigon has their are several lakes right in the middle of the city where people exercise/socialise eat. Hanoi has a city I felt had a great buzz about it and of course wild with motor bikes as is the rest of Vietnam.
In Vietnam it is a delicacy to eat dogs...and there is an area referred to as "dog alley" where the complete alley has many dogs skewered and being cooked with people sat around eating them...not nice, though it does wonders for the streets has there's not hundreds of stray dogs about like the rest of south east asia.
I went on a day trip to see the Perfume Pagoda, which is a sacred pagoda high in the mountains and the history behind it is that years ago locals used to visit this pagoda if they were having trouble having children and allegedly after visiting and praying then they would be blessed with the luck of children to follow...as the guide joked that it could happen to anyone of us and we could be lucky...s*** I thought it would take more than luck if I had a child it would take a miracle ha ha
The journey was really nice we were rowed by petitie vietnamese ladies along the river which flowed through the mountains for 1.5hours then trekked an hour which had an amazing view..If I didnt know I was in Vietnam Id have thought I was in switzerland. Of course with the hour trekking and sweating it would be foolish to walk back down when their was a cable car...which was honestly
amazing from the top of the mountian passing several others to the bottom...an excellent view, then rowed back. I met a french-american family and there were 3 generations on the trip with me, the gran was 87yrs old and managed the whole day despite nearly falling several times and clinging to me for dear life....bless her!
Okay here's the moaning bit...HALONG BAY ORGANISED HORROR TRIP!
What a shambles this was...I booked a 3day 2night with one night on the boat and 4hrs kayakking....Or so they promised me.On day one I was still feeling terrible and full of the flu that Ive been trying to shake off for the last 2weeks and the company I booked with would not let me cancel or re-arrange (I should have known they were cowboys then) so I gave the caves a miss and stayed
on boat, I asked that if I was sleeping on the boat could I have my room key now to rest for an hour...he advised I was not sleeping on the boat but in hotel for 2 nights...feeling ill and arguing do not compliment each other but hey I didnt pay 40usd for nothing so after
much debate I was given a key! That was just the start!
In the evening I was told we would be circleing around islands to see sunset...think again gary, we were anchored 1mile from Cat Ba island with an awful view.
After dinner (7pm) our guide suddenly disappeared and not to be seen again til 8am next morning..he only went back to mainland to party and we were left with the captain and wife who could not speak a word of english...what else could one do other than be tucked up in bed by 8pm..great cruise this is turning out to be!
Day two...even worse. We were given a slice of bread and butter with coffee for breakfast and not even jam...remember we still have no guide and these people dont speak english. At 8am we're ushered to
mainland where our very hungover guide is waiting to take us to our hotel....and Im told Im sharing a room again with a stranger even after arguing he refused to ring his office and told me my agency booked me in wrong and walked away from me and again disappeared for an hour!
Mid morning when enquiring when we're doing kayakking Im informed its been taken off the schedule....what over my dead body! After seriously shouting at the guy and him making several phone calls he manages to arrange 1hrs kayakking for us (and has to cheek to make
out he's doing me a favour)...well a kayakk is made of fibreglass normally well not mine try a blown up dingy which does nto go in a straight line...short changed yet again I'd say! By now Im feeling trapped on this tour on a tiny island with the worst tour guide possible....we're (5 of us) taken to the worst hotel possible whilst other groups have posh hotels...then even within our hotel we're put on seperate tables for eating whereby we're given awful food.....I was sure paying 40usd would assure me
quality well gary think again..this was the netto of tours!
At the end of day 3 back in Hanoi the guide gave the usual "thank you for using our company..have an enjoyable time in Hanoi ect" that was the end for me...I demanded he stop the bus as I was getting off..I'd heard enough verbal diarrohea out of his mouth for 3days
now and enough is enough as I told him with everyone else following suit!
It is a shame as Halong Bay is beautiful and if managed/owned by the right country would be amazing but its a shame Vietnamese own it and dont really provide good tours of it...so many people I spoke to had
a nightmare at Halong Bay!
By the end of Halong Bay was just about ready to leave Vietnam..I was sick of rude/nasty people and getting ripped off I wanted out....so the same night arrived back in Hanoi I was off in search of Laos.
After paying my 18usd for a 24hr air conditioned coach to Vientianne (Laos) I was hopeful for some of the laid back Loas that many people had told me about!
BUT WAIT before that I had to suffer more at the hands of the Vietnamese...jesus these people would not me go quietly would they.
Its 1.30am Ive been on a coach for 7hrs now and we stop at a cafe in the mountians where Im told anyone for Loas needs to get off here and a coach would be along at 2am to take us to the border and onwards to Vientianne....so the 3 of us depart and the coach drives off to Hue..the minute it drives off a guy tells us to sleep...I try
to explain we're waiting for a coach at 2am..In his broken english he explains there's no coach til 8am and leads me to a room where he shines a torch onto 2 other travellers who are sleeping....Thankfully after the last 3days all I can do is laugh - Im argued out! The other 2 travellers did not see the funny side unfortuntuately and got annoyed and shouted...guess where it got
them? yes you guessed it curled up lyed on the same floor as me with kittens running around and the room stenching of cat urine! Have a good sleep!
Early the next morning 7.30 we're woken but some guy who stayed with us for the next few hours (where he appeared from who knows) he explains there's been an accident and someone has died and that no coach would be coming for us ...fan bloody tastic I think! He instructs us we needed to get the next bus to the border then their
would be a bus waiting the other side to take us to Lak Sao where we would need to stay overnight (at our expense) and the coach would pick us up the next morning. Then out of knowhere arrives a small yellow local bus crowded with people and animals...again all I could do is laugh, why I dont know either Im losing my senses or thats just the way asia has got me. Well after 4hours travelling on the floor of this bus then another hour in a minibus we eventually arrive at the Laos border where the we were infomed by the same guy that their was not another bus at the Loas side of the border and that
we were to make our own way to Lak Sao the nearest town where a coach would pick us up in the morning...we as you can probably guess by this stage of the journey my laughing had stopped and boy did I blow a fuse!
And to put in nicely I infomed him where to stick his imaginary coach I would be getting to Vientanne today as I originally planned even if it cost me another 18usd and would therefore be making my own way there by myself..how I did not know at this stage, but figured there must be a way!
That was it the last time Vietnam ripped me off...never again will I step foot in that country!
Oh nearly forgot I dont think Ive mentioned the time a vietnamese guy puched me in the face have I?
Im in Hue and a passenger on a cyclo when some fool runs into the side of us and ultimately running into another guy.....Of course the clyclo guys do a runner leaving me to sort the mess out....There I am in the middle of abotu 50 guys being pulled every way possible with them demanding money...which of course they had no chance of getting from me...I was the passenger for god sake! When out of knowhere the guy punches me in the face (well if you can call it that, felt like a slap...he was about 2ft nothing!)...in Vietnam if you lose your temper in public its frowned upon and you lose face so when he does this everyone including me walks away leaving him to nurse his cut face and crashed bike...fool! Oh and me nursing a few grazes/cuts ah well these things happen....! So now you can see why Ive had enough of this country!
Loas here I come...please go easy on me ha ha ha
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