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When we got off the plane in Ha Noi it was raining...:( and so it stayed. The weather here is not fantastic and very cold.
When coming from HK to Hanoi we got a little bit o culture crash. Not very developed comparing to HK, Hanoi is quite filthy and non-hygienic. People to their dishes on the sidewalk, rats wondering around like on a parade, asian spit all over the place and they eat all sort of weird foods. Everything from dog to frog, including pigeons.
Scooters everywhere, crazy driving, and believe it or not... Luxury cars right next to them. We sat for some beers at a local cornerbar( they literally put some plastic chairs in the street and there it was:The Bar:)) scooters where almost driving over our toes, thats how chaotic it can be.
After a sleepless night because of the loud traffic, we are delighted with a vietnamese coffee: black coffee with sweet milk! It' s the last day of the year. Tomorrow it's Chinese New Year:2012- year of the dragon, so everybody buys flowers and mandarin trees to decorate their homes and make the good luck follow them into the next year. We instead, decide to visit Halong Bay, a UNESCO Heritage Site, located about 3 hours drive from HaNoi. We spent the whole day in that stunning scenery of huge limestone blocks rising out of the sea and explored the place with a kayak. Just if it wouldn't have been so freezing cold.... The trip was worth it, we saw a floating village, Cata ate fresh seafood and we captured some amazing moments. Inthe evening we get to the hotel to meet thegroup of the overland tour:again people of all ages( the oldest and funniest one is 72 years old), the guide it vietnamese( not english as we expected) andtheworst of all: we don't have a truck!:( i thought it would be similar to the african one, but it somehow seems my first impression of overland tours is not the best. We are going to stay 11 days in Vietnam, going south. We start today by hopping on the Reunification Express- a sleeper train we will spend 13 hours on. We were " kidnapped" by a rishka driver and he took us for a city tour we didn't want to take...he was so convincing that we actually believed that he was sent by our tour leader. Never gonna happend again!
The good: Fun facts--> beers drunk: Larue, Hanoi, Saigon, Tiger all for 1$ :)
The bad: Money facts: we are millionaires here! He he!
And the ugly: Vietnamese are verybad with english and very proud that they won the war with the U.S.
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