We arrived into Hanoi at around 6pm to a welcoming 17 degrees. A cool drop from the heat in Laos. Hanoi is madness, there are only really two road rules: 1. Drive on the right most of the time, and 2. use your horn. Don't even get me started on trying to cross the roads here, basically shut your eyes and walk. hopefully most of the traffic will swerve round you.
Thien Trang Hotel would be our perch for the next two nights. It's located just outside of the old quarter (where most of the travellers crash). The front deck dude was super friendly and real hard case. You could tell he was trying to practice his english ("You going to get dinner? I have been working very hard and very busy, and so I am very hungry also." good dude tho. We went for a wander to the old quarter to try find something to eat, it was about 8pm and we had no idea where we were going. all the locals were perched on the path on little stools chewing these seeds, some were drinking. The footpaths aren't really footpaths. Everyone parks their scooters on the path, or sits and eats on the path, or drives on the paths. If you want to walk, you have to do it on the road. Horns go off all the time. i mean ALL the time. Our best gap has been 13 seconds between horns.
Day 2 in Vietnam, we went to see the sights of Hanoi. The Hoan Kiem Lake, a couple of temples and a whole bunch of museums. pretty much museum'd out now. The best of all of them was probably the Ho Chi Minh Museum. That was epic, especially the grounds. If you're considering visiting the museum of ethnology, make sure you agree to a price to go out to it, some wacko driver tried to charge us 900,000 dong (about $45 USD) just to go out there. The driver had locked us in the car, so there were some heated words between the two parties, but eventually we settled on 200,000 dong. we still got ripped off, but better than being stuck in the car with this wacko. We taxied back to the old quarter for dinner and then checked out the night markets. If your into phone covers or clothes, then the markets will be awesome. although, if your anything bigger than a 12 year old, you're in for a tough time trying to find stuff that'll fit. All in all, it was a pretty productive day in Hanoi. We covered a lot of ground, and lucky we did, as we sorted our trip to Halong Bay, which includes the overnight bus down the coast of Vietnam when we return.
Ha long Bay is epic. I recommend anyone coming near here to get to Ha Long bay. There's epic caves to go see, kayaking round the islands, swimming if you're brave, and epic nights on Karaoke. Once you get a few cocktails in ya, you pretty much become inseperable from the mic. We locked in a 3 days, 2 nights package, which includes a night on the boat and a night in a garden bungalow. All our feeds are included, and you just pay for any drinks you have.
Met this Aussie from Perth, named Anton. He was good value - not so great with the singing (but neither were we). He had a few too many cocktails and had to put himself to bed before he comad. There were three frenchies on board - they were... french. Nah, they were all good, but kept to themselves. Also, there were this couple (i think) - an italian dude, Daniele, and a local Hanoi chick (Trang My). Man, the Hanoi chick can sing man. She nailed "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion. Seriously impressed. We also had a Russian and a Vietnamese couple on our boat, but they were pretty quiet - they must have suffered when everyone was singing... meh. Today, we climbed this epic hill in the National Park in Ha long bay. Was tough work, got fairly muddy and sweaty by the end of it. We made it to the peak (225m up) but the view was ruined by the mist. Now that i mention it, it's misty everywhere here. Still epic, but i could imagine the view in summer it would blow your mind.
I'm currently perched up in the Garden bungalow on Monkey island. we just got back from a hike over the hill to another bay. We found out why this place is called monkey island - monkeys everywhere across the ridgeline. apparently they attack you if you shwo fear. we didn't, naturally, so we were sweet.Anyways, that will do for now. Travel is pretty sweet. Catch you in Hue!
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