Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Vietnam – Hanoi and Halong Bay
28th Wednesday October
Arrived in Hanoi about 20.30, had to wait for our taxi for about 40 mins!! We had pre-booked a taxi through the guesthouse we had booked as Hanoi airport is well known for its taxi mafia….people are always getting ripped off by dodgy taxi firms!!! There was a lot of traffic going into Hanoi so it took 2 hours in total to reach our guesthouse. Our first impressions were very good as we both got a free bottle of water and were greeted by the nicest lady ever at reception. Checked in finally at 11pm….straight to bed!!!
29th Thursday October
Enjoyed our free breakfast at the guesthouse….baguette and jam!!! Before heading out we booked our Halong Bay tour with the company at the guesthouse. We would be returning back to Hanoi after Halong Bay to spend time with Lucy, so we didn’t want to see too much of the city before then. So we took a leisurely stroll around trying to make our way to the lake. We were amazed at how different Hanoi was compared to Ho Chi Minh City, the streets within the old quarter were very narrow and just crazy!!!
We were only strolling for about an hour before we got stung by some fruit ladies! Firstly they approached us by putting their fruit basket carrier on my shoulder…saying take picture take picture…so we thought great…lets take a picture!! Before we knew it they had done the same to Ryan and then had sneakily put a bag of fruit in each of our hands!!! This was all very well however they wanted 50,000 dong each….we were horrified at how quickly the sneaky devils could rip you off….so we refused to spend that much and was able to bargain them down to 20,000 and only one bag of fruit. When we finally escaped them we were able to find the lake. We got about half way around the lake when the heavens decided to open…we darted into the shoe market for cover, which didn’t work too well. Within 10 mins we were both soaked, we decided to stop in some local café and had some local soup dish!!! Still soaked we gave up and just walked back to the guesthouse to dry off. We spent the next few hours waiting for the rain to stop, while filling out the travel diary!!! Once is decided to stop we showered and headed out for some dinner.
30th Friday October
Up super early for our trip to Halong Bay. We had chosen the deluxe tour package, a total of 20 people on the tour. We got picked up from the guesthouse at 8pm and made the 3 hour journey in the worst minivan ever, the driver thought it would be a great idea to keep his window open. Because of this the bus was then ridden with Mosquito’s!!!! I alone killed 13…the window next to us had become a mosquito grave yard within minutes!!!!! By the time we reached Halong city we were very pleased to get off the bus, however was not pleased with the bites around our feet and legs!!!
From Halong City we boarded a small boat which took us to the mini cruise boat where we will start our voyage around Halong Bay. Once everyone was on the boat we were greeted by a welcome drink each before checking into our cabin. The cabin was lovely, probably bigger than some hostel rooms we had stayed in. It also had its own bathroom with a shower, which actually had a cubicle!!!! Once we had dumped our bags down, we headed up on deck for lunch.
The boat had already set sail….already the sights were amazing. Clear blue seas and hundreds of islands surrounded us. We enjoyed our lunch, which consisted of fresh bbq shrimps, rice, squid stir fry (Yuk), tofu sweet n sour dish, morning glory (looks like spinach but in fact a type of weed), chips and some chicken stir fry. All very good…apart from the squid!!! Over lunch we got talking to some other couples, Craig and Carly were from the same guesthouse. After we had finished lunch we all headed up on the top deck to enjoy the scenery and sun. We sailed for about an hour before arriving at the caves, we were pleasantly surprised at the size of the caves. They were huge, very colorful and interesting. Overall it took about an hour to walk through them, once finished we all climbed back on the small boat which took us to a floating fishing village.
Here we saw some horrid strange looking fish…no idea what they were called but they weren’t pleasant! We also had half an hour of Kayaking around the village, Kimmy wasn’t very good at this!!! We could have had longer but our guide recommended we got back to the boat in time for the sunset. Wow he was right, it was beautiful from the top deck….the sun set in between the islands. We then had some free time to swim and jump off the boat. Ryan and the guys on board were brave enough to jump from the top deck, but Kimmy and some of the girls would only jump from the bottom deck hehe. The sea was lovely and refreshing, extremely salty though.
Once everyone had showered etc, we all sat down for dinner at 6.30pm. Dinner was exactly the same as lunch, apart from some spring rolls and another fishy dish (this was actually pretty good). Over a few beers everyone had got to know each other well, it was nice chatting and finding out about the other places people had been too. Most people had already been to Laos….it was here we got to learn about Tubing!!!! We spent the rest of the evening fishing off the boat and drinking. 2 of the guys managed to catch some squid, this was interesting to watch. As the squid inked all over the boat, one of the squid was pretty big so one of the men who worked on the boat took it to cook!!!
31st Saturday October
Happy Halloween……
Started the day nice and early…breakfast at 8am! We had to say goodbye to the people in the group, which were only doing the 2 day tour. We were then taken off on another smaller boat to continue the tour. We were on the smaller boat for about 2 hours before we arrived at an island for cycling. We all asked the tour guide if we needed to change our flip flops for shoes, but he said no!!!! Off we went to choose our cycle bike. We cycled for about an hour before arriving at some small village. Here we enjoyed a nice chilled drink, before setting off on some trek through the jungle land!!! We were walking for about 10 mins before it dawned on me that we should have worn shoes….flip flops weren’t designed for trekking!!!
We trekked through some pitch black cave, down some steep rocky bank, crossed some stream where there was a single bamboo pole to balance ourselves across!! Again not easy in flip flops. In total we trekked for about an hour, so overall it wasn’t too long…but long enough to put us off doing one in Thailand! We then got back on the bikes and cycled back to the boat. It was good to cycle across the island as you got too see how the local people lived.
Back on board the boat to make our way to the next island. This island was small and the beach was only about 100 meters long. After the cycle ride we were all pretty hungry, so we all tucked into a bbq lunch! Guess what….shrimp, rice, tofu, chicken….we were getting a good pattern going now for our meals!!! No wonder they were all included. After lunch we had about an hour to chill out on the beach. Me and Willoughby decided to do some more kayaking….the water was lovely and clear a lot nicer than the day before. It was here that Willoughby set up his gorilla pod and camera to take that good picture of us in the sea with islands in the background!!
We then had to squeeze all 20 of us on this handmade fishing boat, which realistically was only big enough for about 4 people!!! We didn’t see much point either as the boat only took us 50 meters to get back on the original boat. We then sailed for an hour to Monkey Island…this was a slightly bigger island with a bigger beach. It had little monkeys roaming around, the water again was very clear however was very chilly…this was lovely and refreshing though as the sun was extremely hot! We actually spent the whole hour in the sea chatting to Craig and Carly. Before we knew it our tour guide was calling us back to the boat!!!
We then made the journey to Cat Ba Island where we would be staying for the night. We were taken by bus and dropped off at the hotel. This was a lovely 4* hotel, which overlooked the harbor. Our room also had a sea view….we had a few hours to chill out before we all met at 6pm for dinner!! Were we had….you guessed it….shrimp, rice, spring rolls, chicken, tofu (all we wanted was some god damn noodles for a change)!!!!! After dinner we were taken to a local bar, where we all got welcomed with some rice wine shot!!! Here we consumed copious amounts of tiger beer while watching Spurs Vs Arsenal game followed by Fulham Vs Liverpool….before we all knew it was 1am!!!!! We then stumbled back to the hotel to enjoy our 5 hours sleep before breakfast in the morning!!!!!
1st Sunday November
Not an impressive start to the day….alarm goes at 6am!!!! Up early to fit in our free breakfast before heading back to Halong City. The free breakfast at the hotel was “amazing” a buffet fit for a king! Kimmy enjoyed her 2 bowels of cereal…coco flakes while Willoughby tucked into his bacon, eggs, sausage and toast!! Followed by lots of coffee to wake us up. The fresh juice was lovely as well. Of course it would have been rude not to go back for seconds…which we did!
After we had enjoyed breakfast it was back on the boat, 3 hours of blissfully taking in the scenery before we reached Halong City. Here we had our last free meal, nothing special just the same old food we had been given all the other times. By now we were craving some noodles or even a sneaky Western meal!!! After lunch we were crammed onto a mini bus to enjoy the 4 hour drive back to Hanoi….Lucy time to commence!!!
Back in Hanoi we collected our bags and made our way by taxi to Lucy and Chace’s apartment. We were greeted by them straight away…big hugs for Lucy. Was so good to see her, it felt random as we were in Vietnam but damn good. As soon as we entered the reception at the block of apartments we were pleasantly approached by their landlady….what a b****!!!! Landlady from hell, she wasn’t too impressed to see that we were gonna be staying with them. Firstly she couldn’t get around how 4 people are going to sleep in a 2 bedroom place! The religion in Vietnam means that couples are not allowed to sleep in the same room until they are married! Watching her try to figure this out in her head was pretty funny, after 10 mins of sweet talking from Chace she agreed that we could stay for one night ONLY!!!
After we had got over the funny episode with the landlady we caught up a bit at the apartment before heading out for dinner. The apartment was really nice where they were staying, I was extremely impressed by the luxury shower!! Chace took us to a bar he knew, where we enjoyed a nice dinner. While leaving the bar we were all suddenly star struck as before our eyes was not only….Lou Carpenter from Neighbors!!! How random is that. For dessert he took us to “Fannys” the nicest ice cream parlor you could ever imaging!! I enjoyed a nice sorbet dish of 3 different flavors and Ryan being the biggest ice cream fan had 3 different types (mainly chocolate)!!! Lucy was impressed with this place, so impressed she thought there were more than 1 of them dotted around the lake, only to find out there was the one!! She hadn’t quite got her bearings yet!!
2nd Monday November
Chace sadly had to go back to work today so it was the 3 of us left to explore the crazy city. We had a pretty chilled out morning, finally headed out about midday! Grabbed a taxi into the old quarter, where we had a wonder around the lake before trying to find the HSBC building!! That took us near enough an hour, leaving the bank Lucy was pretty much a millionaire in dong terms with her big wod of cash!! Heading back towards the lake we stumbled across a very nice dinner where we all enjoyed a chicken sarnie with chips….man it tasted good!!!! We spent the afternoon just generally wondering around taking in the crazy sites of Hanoi, so far Lucy wasn’t too impressed bless her. Was so glad to be there with her, helping her try to settle in and gain her bearings.
As the landlady wouldn’t allow us to spend another night with Lucy and Chace, we went on the mission to find a guesthouse for the next few nights left in the city. We checked out a few places but there were all a little out our budget, the next place we went to ended up giving us a bargain. A double room was $25 however we said we couldn’t afford that he then proceeded to bargain with us. In the end we got the room for $15 a night. It was lovely…so good that it had a bath tub!!! We all headed back to Lucy’s place to grab our bags. Spent a few hours chatting to Lucy until Chace got back from work, little did we know that he had received some s***ty email from his landlady!! She wanted us to fill in a form with all our passport details etc I we were to stay another night, luckily we avoided any more hassle by booking into the hotel in town. Poor Chace had got a bit of an earful so we felt bad if we stayed anymore. Once we got to the hotel it was pretty late so we just child out and relaxed…enjoying the room!!!
3rd Tuesday November
We enjoyed breakfast at a local café on the balcony overlooking the central square, watching the craziness below!!! At 1pm we met Lucy by the Lake where we had a stroll around before stopping at a café. We sat outside overlooking the Lake, the 3 of us enjoyed a drink while chatting away. Before we knew it a few hours past, before heading off we enjoyed a plate of spring rolls!! We decided to head into the old quarter to find the indoor market which was in the guide book. We found it but were a little disappointed by what it was….it was huge but was a dive!!! The only thing I brought was a key ring to add to my collection and Lucy brought a face mask to wear when on Chace’s motorbike. Ryan even felt someone try to get into his backpack, so after this we quickly made an exit!!! Back to the Lake where we took Lucy to a local bakery which we had found a few days earlier, we all enjoyed a little cake each while sitting by the lake. As you have properly gathered the lake was the nicest place to be when in Hanoi….we wasn’t impressed with the city. It was too busy and the people were all out for your cash, we preferred the south of Vietnam!!!
In the evening we had arranged to meet up with Lucy and Chace for the last time before we flew to Laos the next day. We met them in the centre, Chace then took us to a really nice restaurant. More of a locals place with hardly any Westerners. It was lovely, set outside in a big garden area. The food was also excellent and cheap cheap!!! After dinner we headed back in the centre where we enjoyed a yummy chocolate brownie at one of the coffee places, overlooking the busy streets. It was finally time to say our goodbyes to Lucy and Chace…Boo Hoo!!!!
Next adventure....Laos!!!!
- comments