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Mr. Gill: Hong Kong - Done. On to the next part of our journey, Vietnam. First stop: Hanoi. The short plane journey wasn't too bad, and we were in stitches before we even took off!! Only Jersey Shore fans will understand. Whilst watching the safety video, we realised the creator of this 3D clip must be a JS fan, because he had blatently modelled the male character on Pauly D!!! Quality stuff.
Getting through immigration was fairly straight forward, and we were met at arrivals by our taxi driver sent from the guesthouse. We realised within 5 mins of being on the road, that drivers here have no regards for rules! The Vietnamese certainly give Indians a run for their money when it comes to crazy driving! Hang was on hand at the guesthouse to check us in, and informed us that not only did they not have a twin room for that night, but they also could not accommodate us on Sunday! Nuts. We booked a 1 night trip to Halong Bay for Saturday, and agreed to leave Hanoi on Monday, a day earlier than planned. Hang took us to a small, dingy restaurant and left us to have some beef noodle soup, which was actually amazing, and for only 80p!! We spent the rest of the night walking the side streets, had a few beers and called it a night fairly early as we had to be up at 7.
The next morning we headed off towards Halong City, a 3 hour drive in a minibus with another crazy driver! Arrived about 12ish and jumped aboard the Fantasea Adventure boat, our home till the next afternoon. We were served lunch, seafood with rice, and set off towards Halong Bay on a pretty misty day. We seemed to have a decent group on board, young-ish Europeans, 2 Canadian brothers with their mum, an Aussie and some older Koreans. They weren't all too sociable to begin with, but they gave in as the night went on. Before our first stop, the mist soon passed, and we were surrounded by the pretty spectacular scenery. We explored some caves on one of the islands, and Gary hopped out to do a bit of kayaking. We pretty much lounged till we anchored up for the night, another crazy view in the sunset.
By the end of the night, the Europeans and Simon the Aussie were all sat around our table on the top deck. Adrian the Frenchie smuggled on some Vodka in a water bottle, which was slowly passed around, whilst Gary and I did our best to drink the boat dry of its beer supply. 20 cans later, we managed to tempt the French guy to partake in Garys drinking game; The Can Game! For anyone who doesn't know, heres how it works. One person starts by vigourously shaking a can of beer. He then hits the side of the can 4 times on his forehead. The can is passed to the next person who hits the can another 4 times and passes it on. Eventually, beer will begin to spit from the side. The person then has to suck on the can for a few seconds before hitting it another 4 times and passing it along. The beer will soon stop, at which point the person with the can must finish the remaining beer in one! Ridiculous game I know. But some how he agreed to play (as did I for some stupid reason!). True to French nature, he wimped out almost as soon as the can started to spit and ran off downstairs!! Me and Gary held in the laughter to continue, and soaked in beer, I was the unlucky loser. Suffice to say, we left a lasting impression on the remaining viewers (2 Danes and the Aussie).
Woke up for breakfast at 7, and to our amusement, the Frenchie was late! Poor lad! We set off to Cat Ba island to drop off some people staying for a second night, and we set off back to Halong City in now pretty hot conditions! Once back at the bay, we jumped onto the minibus back to Hanoi and no place to stay for the night!! Hang however, had arranged a twin room at their sister hotel, which was a lot bigger and generally nicer. Very nice of her. She shoved us in a prepaid taxi with 2 older Singapore ladies to the new place and left us to it. To be fair, for the price, it was pretty decent! We got to the new place, decided to shower up and head out in Hanoi, on what turned out to be a pretty messy night!!!
Me and G-Zed went on a walk around the town, ending up on a walk out the lake. Beautiful place, if I must say so myself (even if it was 2 guys walking around a big pond!). We looked for a decent bar, and found a balcony bar calling our name. Probably the dodgiest entrance ever...up a side alley, through some stairs and to a door that had "Bar" spray painted on it! Funnily enough it was names Balcony Bar (genius wordplay!). Just slightly worried, we were greeted by another Hang, the owner of the bar! A few beers and Vodkas later, we were pretty much the only guys looking out on to the crazy Hanoi traffic!! We treated Hang to a B52 shot, as it was her birthday a few days prior. We can safely say the South East Asains can NOT handle their drink! We had the owner of the bar DRUNK on 1 shot. Definitely not Punjabi wifey material (joke!). We even bought her non-English speaking brother a Sambuca, a TAXI DRIVER by trade! Nutters! Hang kindly (out of her own accord, before we get slaughtered by our mothers and sisters) ran out and got us some AMAZING sweet bread rolls. Heaven in a brown bag (even better than Super Skols for you cheapos!).
We headed off, giving Hang some handy lessons in marketing and web designs (and probably false promises of a website!!) for her pretty crappy bar! Ended up in a dingy local bar trying to watch the Carling Cup final, but all they had was repeats of old "soccer", and gay guys that took a fancy to me (that is ALL that I will say about that!). Convinced a proper dodgy looking moped driver to take else where (Dragon Eye, recommended by Hang), which he actually did! I witnessed the worst second half performance from Arsenal in years, culminating in a sh*tty 2-1 win for B'ham and STILL no trophy for the Gooners. Heartbreaking. I can actually confess I was close to tears. The night ended with a couple of local w****s approaching us, and us subsequently running off to the same moped driver, who later tried scamming us (too no luck!).
The following morning followed a late check out and sitting around in the reception for the first of our horrid bus trips!
To be continued! (pretty soon as I am behind with the blog!!)
- comments
Lucas Odusanwo I think you should expand on these guys who took a fancy to you!!! Sounds like a lovely story.