29th June - 6th July 2012
So we arrived in Hanoi at about 1am totally wrecked after the long day hanging at the airport. Instantly liked the atmosphere and feeling of Hanoi. It felt really safe and friendly even though we arrived so late at night.
On Saturday 30th June the first thing we did was go to book our tour to Halong Bay for the Monday. It's a 3day 2night tour, to what they are calling a natural wonder of the world, where you stay on a boat in the bay one night and in a hotel on an island the second night.
We then just did some general sightseeing on the Saturday and Sunday in Hanoi including the really interesting Women's Museum which was a real eye opener into the street vendors (who are almost all female), where it looks like they are trying just to rip you but in reality they are just trying to make enough money to feed and educate their kids by working 18hours a day.
Sunday evening we went to a show in the Water Puppet Theatre. I still don't know what the show was about! It's one of the 'must-do' things in Hanoi but didn't get it at all! I would tell everyone to go and make up your own mind as its cheap and only takes 45mins but it's very strange! It's more dancing dolls on sticks than puppets.
Afterwards we went around the massive markets where I got pickpocketed!!! We were in a massive crush of people and I felt something at my bag, looked around and one of the zips were open. Before I had time to even mention it to Ronan a woman handed me our hotel room key and just pushed me along when I opened my mouth to ask questions and gave me that 'keep walking' look!! Nothing else was taken and it could have been much worse as the key had the name of hotel and room number on it so it could have been robbed had I not gotten the key back! Anyways it was a very cheap lesson on being more vigilant even in a town where we feel safe and everyone is so friendly.
I was a little shaken afterwards as nothing like that had ever happened to me before but we continued wandering around the markets and getting the supplies we needed to leave on the boat trip in the morning. I was so excited as the images of Halong Bay were amazing so really looking forward to it. Imagine our disappointment to get to hotel around 10.30pm to finish packing and be told our tour had been cancelled!! We were supposed to be leaving in 10 hours and it was too late to book another one to leave Monday morning. Also we now had nowhere to stay Monday night as the hotel we were in was booked out!
So up early on Monday 2nd to go get our deposit back and book another tour. Vietnam is a funny country in that there are no copyright laws so if a company is doing well and getting good reviews, there'll be copycat stores (with the same or similar name) by numerous other operators within months. For example there is one travel company which is very reputable called Sinh Tourist, on our way to the offices to get a bus ticket we passed literally 8 fake Sinh Tourist offices. So we needed to do a lot of research and make sure we were going with a reputable company for the boat tour as we had heard stories of rats and cockroaches on the boats and not getting the proper itinerary for what you pay for. So the long and short of it was we found a company online that sounded good, rocked up to their offices (never book online in Vietnam!) on the Monday and booked in for the Tuesday morning tour.
We also contacted our friend Mark, who we used to live with in Christchurch (Dublin), as we were meant to meet him later in the week but we were able to rearrange and meet for dinner on Monday instead. We also booked into the hotel they were staying in as it was cheap and in a good location.
We did a little sightseeing for the rest of the day as everything was sorted fairly easily in the morning and then the rain started out of nowhere - the first daytime lashing rain we had since we came on honeymoon. Went into a cafe and I decided I might aswell have a coffee for the first time in 5 weeks.
In the afternoon we met Mark and his lovely partner Jennifer in the hotel just by chance. We were standing at reception chatting for a few minutes as you do, after about 20mins the receptionist told us we should take a seat and have tea or coffee rather than just standing there. We thought it was funny, realising that it is such an Irish thing to stand chatting 'for a minute' and still be there after half an hour rather than just sitting in the first place. That's not the way we roll!
In the afternoon my hands were starting to shake, so much so that I couldn't write in my diary. It was getting worse and I was actually starting to get a bit worried. I wasn't feeling anxious or stressed so couldn't understand it. About an hour later we figured it was the coffee!! Vietnamese coffee is known for being really strong and I hadn't had any sort of coffee in so long so it left me with the shakes!! So funny but just shows the effects it can have!
So we went for an amazing dinner with Mark and Jennifer that night. The food was fantastic and myself and Jennifer shared a bottle of local wine which was so good! Nicest wine I've had since we left Ireland. We had a great time catching up so all in all a lovely evening and loads of good food.
We were up at 6am on Tuesday morning to leave for our Halong Bay tour and I had only gotten 3.5 hours sleep - that damn coffee had me wide awake staring at the ceiling for hours.
After all that happened with our other tour getting cancelled and the horror stories I had read online, my expectations were so low. There were 10 other people in our tour group. We got chatting to an English couple John and Sally on the bus from Hanoi and we were instantly having the craic, it helped they had just come from China and had the exact same thoughts as us!!
When we reached our boat we were pleasantly surprised as the room was gorgeous and actually nicer than some of the hotels we stayed in! We then had lunch on the boat (most of the meals were provided in the tour) which was really nice although not great for Ronan as it was very seafood orientated. I discovered I really like squid! Never tasted it before but it was really good! The scenery was fantastic - just like it shows on google images, absolutely breathtaking! It was so surreal to be eating looking out at the images I had only seen online before.
We then went for a tour of some amazing caves. The guide had timed it really well and we were the last tourists in that day so we had the whole place to ourselves and it was really impressive.
After that it was time for some sea kayaking where we went through a cave into a private bay and we were the only ones here aswell. Unfortunately we couldn't risk bringing the camera on the kayaks (just aswell as Ronan jumped in and almost toppled me and the kayak getting back in! They were double kayaks). It was just so beautiful, really amazing. We also had a bit of a swim, where Ronan jumped off the top of the boat, despite my pleas for him not to take the 20 foot jump (he only learnt to swim a couple of years ago and hasn't exactly been practicing much since)!! Following this it was time for showers and dinner on the boat. Afterwards myself, Ronan, Sally and John sat up having few drinks on the deck listening to music and watching the amazing scenery all around. The rest of the tour had went to bed around 9.30pm! We had a massive rain shower so that was the only thing that drove us to bed in the end as we were getting soaked in the deck and the boat workers were asleep across the dining table chairs!!
We were awake early the next morning (Wednesday 4th) with all the boat workers up at 5.30am making a racket. We went to an island and climbed 340 steps to a viewpoint (only a tenth of the amount of climbing we did during our Nepal trekking so not too bad!) for glorious views over the bay before having breakfast back in the boat. After this we sailed to a national park to do a bike tour through some local villages. When we got to one of the villages we had an option to trek but the 4 of us (me, Ronan, Sally and John) declined. The others were really into it and cycled really fast so we didn't get time to take pictures or anything on the way down so we thought we would chill out, have an ice-cream and a leisurely cycle back with photos was a better option in the heat! We were totally faffing about and having the craic taking ages but imagine the mortification of the trekking guys having done a steep mountain climb for an hour and still passing us out on the bikes on the way back, they were waiting for us at the end!!! Whoops!
We then had lunch on the boat again before doing some more sea kayaking! We were out for about 2 hours without realising it, when we showed the guide where we rowed to he said we'd done over 4Km's! After this we transferred to Cat Ba Island which is where we were staying for the night. This wasn't a major tourist spot until fairly recently but now looks like a street in Blackpool with the tacky neon lights everywhere (the curse of a Lonely Planet recommendation)! We just had time for a quick shower and change before heading out for a drink and dinner with Sally, John and two others from the tour!
Dinner was an experience, it felt like we had just wandered into someone's sitting room except they provided us with a menu so we reckon it was a restaurant! So two minutes after they took our order, they start making phone calls and we are wondering if they are ordering our food from somewhere else until 10 minutes later they get a delivery of raw meat and vegetables. And so the preparations begin! We were all starving and had to watch her painstakingly cut every tomato, cucumber, all veg and prepare the meat etc from scratch! All done very slowly and with great care. It was like a form of torture and we thought we would never get fed! In the end it was only a little over an hour later when the food started arriving so could have been worse! Had a few more drinks afterwards while surveying the red light district of Cat Ba where a 'massage' cost 1 dollar - hmmm...
The next day we were leaving the paradise that was Halong Bay so it was mostly about enjoying the beautiful scenery on our trip back to mainland. We got back to our hotel in Hanoi at about 5pm having just missed Mark and Jennifer. We had arranged to meet Sally and John for dinner so just time for a quick shower and change before heading out again! We all agreed that the tour was fantastic and actually great value for money considering what we got, easily one of the prettiest places on earth!
We went back to the same restaurant that we went to with Mark and Jennifer as it was so amazing (and I'd been raving about it since)! It was just as good this time. We ordered the same dessert which I am still not sure if I like! It was intriguing more than anything but this time it came with an extra ingredient. We looked at the area it was made in and the extra ingredient looked to us like mashed potato although Ronan reckons it can't have been, I'm not convinced it wasn't though!!
So we bade farewell to Sally and John at this stage having spent every waking moment for the last 3 days together but they have similar plans as us for the rest of Vietnam so we will see them along the way.
So we left Hanoi on Friday 7th July on an overnight train. When we saw 4 locals and 2 kids getting into our hard sleeper, 6 person berth we thought 'nooooooo what did we deserve 2 kids this time not just one'!! Already had a kid on an overnight train in China! But as it turns out they were lovely, the kids were both 3.5 and were so good and quiet particularly when they were awake since 6am but I still slept until 8.30am so despite our initial fears it actually turned out fine. The locals were so nice and friendly wanting to learn about us and insisting we share their fruit and biscuits! Kinda embarrassing when we had nothing to share back though as we had limited supplies! Most of the carriage was full of locals and they were all coming up for a look at us and asking us questions! Felt like celebrities!
We had read about people being bored on the cruise in the evenings so I had planned on writing in my journal, doing the blog etc as i hadn't a chance in ages but didn't get a spare minute! Vietnam so far has been go go go!! The only way I am getting this done now is because we are on a 19 hour train journey to our next stop Hoi An.
Oh totally off topic but have I mentioned how I love using chopsticks now and if given the choice between cutlery and chopsticks, I pick chopsticks?! And I'm never eating Uncle Ben's rice again?! The rice here is just amazing and you could actually just eat it on its own. Will totally be stocking up in the Asian shops in Dublin as Ronan won't let me post any home!
Anyways so behind on the blog entries as Vietnam has just too much happening and we aren't getting time,can you tell we absolutely love it here??!!
So we arrived in Hanoi at about 1am totally wrecked after the long day hanging at the airport. Instantly liked the atmosphere and feeling of Hanoi. It felt really safe and friendly even though we arrived so late at night.
On Saturday 30th June the first thing we did was go to book our tour to Halong Bay for the Monday. It's a 3day 2night tour, to what they are calling a natural wonder of the world, where you stay on a boat in the bay one night and in a hotel on an island the second night.
We then just did some general sightseeing on the Saturday and Sunday in Hanoi including the really interesting Women's Museum which was a real eye opener into the street vendors (who are almost all female), where it looks like they are trying just to rip you but in reality they are just trying to make enough money to feed and educate their kids by working 18hours a day.
 |
| General sightseeing |
 |
| Ronan takes over from a street vendor |
Sunday evening we went to a show in the Water Puppet Theatre. I still don't know what the show was about! It's one of the 'must-do' things in Hanoi but didn't get it at all! I would tell everyone to go and make up your own mind as its cheap and only takes 45mins but it's very strange! It's more dancing dolls on sticks than puppets.
 |
| Water Puppet Show |
Afterwards we went around the massive markets where I got pickpocketed!!! We were in a massive crush of people and I felt something at my bag, looked around and one of the zips were open. Before I had time to even mention it to Ronan a woman handed me our hotel room key and just pushed me along when I opened my mouth to ask questions and gave me that 'keep walking' look!! Nothing else was taken and it could have been much worse as the key had the name of hotel and room number on it so it could have been robbed had I not gotten the key back! Anyways it was a very cheap lesson on being more vigilant even in a town where we feel safe and everyone is so friendly.
I was a little shaken afterwards as nothing like that had ever happened to me before but we continued wandering around the markets and getting the supplies we needed to leave on the boat trip in the morning. I was so excited as the images of Halong Bay were amazing so really looking forward to it. Imagine our disappointment to get to hotel around 10.30pm to finish packing and be told our tour had been cancelled!! We were supposed to be leaving in 10 hours and it was too late to book another one to leave Monday morning. Also we now had nowhere to stay Monday night as the hotel we were in was booked out!
So up early on Monday 2nd to go get our deposit back and book another tour. Vietnam is a funny country in that there are no copyright laws so if a company is doing well and getting good reviews, there'll be copycat stores (with the same or similar name) by numerous other operators within months. For example there is one travel company which is very reputable called Sinh Tourist, on our way to the offices to get a bus ticket we passed literally 8 fake Sinh Tourist offices. So we needed to do a lot of research and make sure we were going with a reputable company for the boat tour as we had heard stories of rats and cockroaches on the boats and not getting the proper itinerary for what you pay for. So the long and short of it was we found a company online that sounded good, rocked up to their offices (never book online in Vietnam!) on the Monday and booked in for the Tuesday morning tour.
We also contacted our friend Mark, who we used to live with in Christchurch (Dublin), as we were meant to meet him later in the week but we were able to rearrange and meet for dinner on Monday instead. We also booked into the hotel they were staying in as it was cheap and in a good location.
We did a little sightseeing for the rest of the day as everything was sorted fairly easily in the morning and then the rain started out of nowhere - the first daytime lashing rain we had since we came on honeymoon. Went into a cafe and I decided I might aswell have a coffee for the first time in 5 weeks.
In the afternoon we met Mark and his lovely partner Jennifer in the hotel just by chance. We were standing at reception chatting for a few minutes as you do, after about 20mins the receptionist told us we should take a seat and have tea or coffee rather than just standing there. We thought it was funny, realising that it is such an Irish thing to stand chatting 'for a minute' and still be there after half an hour rather than just sitting in the first place. That's not the way we roll!
In the afternoon my hands were starting to shake, so much so that I couldn't write in my diary. It was getting worse and I was actually starting to get a bit worried. I wasn't feeling anxious or stressed so couldn't understand it. About an hour later we figured it was the coffee!! Vietnamese coffee is known for being really strong and I hadn't had any sort of coffee in so long so it left me with the shakes!! So funny but just shows the effects it can have!
So we went for an amazing dinner with Mark and Jennifer that night. The food was fantastic and myself and Jennifer shared a bottle of local wine which was so good! Nicest wine I've had since we left Ireland. We had a great time catching up so all in all a lovely evening and loads of good food.
We were up at 6am on Tuesday morning to leave for our Halong Bay tour and I had only gotten 3.5 hours sleep - that damn coffee had me wide awake staring at the ceiling for hours.
After all that happened with our other tour getting cancelled and the horror stories I had read online, my expectations were so low. There were 10 other people in our tour group. We got chatting to an English couple John and Sally on the bus from Hanoi and we were instantly having the craic, it helped they had just come from China and had the exact same thoughts as us!!
When we reached our boat we were pleasantly surprised as the room was gorgeous and actually nicer than some of the hotels we stayed in! We then had lunch on the boat (most of the meals were provided in the tour) which was really nice although not great for Ronan as it was very seafood orientated. I discovered I really like squid! Never tasted it before but it was really good! The scenery was fantastic - just like it shows on google images, absolutely breathtaking! It was so surreal to be eating looking out at the images I had only seen online before.
 |
| Our room on the boat |
 |
| ...with a view |
We then went for a tour of some amazing caves. The guide had timed it really well and we were the last tourists in that day so we had the whole place to ourselves and it was really impressive.
After that it was time for some sea kayaking where we went through a cave into a private bay and we were the only ones here aswell. Unfortunately we couldn't risk bringing the camera on the kayaks (just aswell as Ronan jumped in and almost toppled me and the kayak getting back in! They were double kayaks). It was just so beautiful, really amazing. We also had a bit of a swim, where Ronan jumped off the top of the boat, despite my pleas for him not to take the 20 foot jump (he only learnt to swim a couple of years ago and hasn't exactly been practicing much since)!! Following this it was time for showers and dinner on the boat. Afterwards myself, Ronan, Sally and John sat up having few drinks on the deck listening to music and watching the amazing scenery all around. The rest of the tour had went to bed around 9.30pm! We had a massive rain shower so that was the only thing that drove us to bed in the end as we were getting soaked in the deck and the boat workers were asleep across the dining table chairs!!
We were awake early the next morning (Wednesday 4th) with all the boat workers up at 5.30am making a racket. We went to an island and climbed 340 steps to a viewpoint (only a tenth of the amount of climbing we did during our Nepal trekking so not too bad!) for glorious views over the bay before having breakfast back in the boat. After this we sailed to a national park to do a bike tour through some local villages. When we got to one of the villages we had an option to trek but the 4 of us (me, Ronan, Sally and John) declined. The others were really into it and cycled really fast so we didn't get time to take pictures or anything on the way down so we thought we would chill out, have an ice-cream and a leisurely cycle back with photos was a better option in the heat! We were totally faffing about and having the craic taking ages but imagine the mortification of the trekking guys having done a steep mountain climb for an hour and still passing us out on the bikes on the way back, they were waiting for us at the end!!! Whoops!
We then had lunch on the boat again before doing some more sea kayaking! We were out for about 2 hours without realising it, when we showed the guide where we rowed to he said we'd done over 4Km's! After this we transferred to Cat Ba Island which is where we were staying for the night. This wasn't a major tourist spot until fairly recently but now looks like a street in Blackpool with the tacky neon lights everywhere (the curse of a Lonely Planet recommendation)! We just had time for a quick shower and change before heading out for a drink and dinner with Sally, John and two others from the tour!
Dinner was an experience, it felt like we had just wandered into someone's sitting room except they provided us with a menu so we reckon it was a restaurant! So two minutes after they took our order, they start making phone calls and we are wondering if they are ordering our food from somewhere else until 10 minutes later they get a delivery of raw meat and vegetables. And so the preparations begin! We were all starving and had to watch her painstakingly cut every tomato, cucumber, all veg and prepare the meat etc from scratch! All done very slowly and with great care. It was like a form of torture and we thought we would never get fed! In the end it was only a little over an hour later when the food started arriving so could have been worse! Had a few more drinks afterwards while surveying the red light district of Cat Ba where a 'massage' cost 1 dollar - hmmm...
The next day we were leaving the paradise that was Halong Bay so it was mostly about enjoying the beautiful scenery on our trip back to mainland. We got back to our hotel in Hanoi at about 5pm having just missed Mark and Jennifer. We had arranged to meet Sally and John for dinner so just time for a quick shower and change before heading out again! We all agreed that the tour was fantastic and actually great value for money considering what we got, easily one of the prettiest places on earth!
We went back to the same restaurant that we went to with Mark and Jennifer as it was so amazing (and I'd been raving about it since)! It was just as good this time. We ordered the same dessert which I am still not sure if I like! It was intriguing more than anything but this time it came with an extra ingredient. We looked at the area it was made in and the extra ingredient looked to us like mashed potato although Ronan reckons it can't have been, I'm not convinced it wasn't though!!
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| What a spread! And that is with some of the dishes eaten already! |
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| Our dubious desserts! |
 |
| Spot the mashed potato??!! |
So we left Hanoi on Friday 7th July on an overnight train. When we saw 4 locals and 2 kids getting into our hard sleeper, 6 person berth we thought 'nooooooo what did we deserve 2 kids this time not just one'!! Already had a kid on an overnight train in China! But as it turns out they were lovely, the kids were both 3.5 and were so good and quiet particularly when they were awake since 6am but I still slept until 8.30am so despite our initial fears it actually turned out fine. The locals were so nice and friendly wanting to learn about us and insisting we share their fruit and biscuits! Kinda embarrassing when we had nothing to share back though as we had limited supplies! Most of the carriage was full of locals and they were all coming up for a look at us and asking us questions! Felt like celebrities!
We had read about people being bored on the cruise in the evenings so I had planned on writing in my journal, doing the blog etc as i hadn't a chance in ages but didn't get a spare minute! Vietnam so far has been go go go!! The only way I am getting this done now is because we are on a 19 hour train journey to our next stop Hoi An.
Oh totally off topic but have I mentioned how I love using chopsticks now and if given the choice between cutlery and chopsticks, I pick chopsticks?! And I'm never eating Uncle Ben's rice again?! The rice here is just amazing and you could actually just eat it on its own. Will totally be stocking up in the Asian shops in Dublin as Ronan won't let me post any home!
Anyways so behind on the blog entries as Vietnam has just too much happening and we aren't getting time,can you tell we absolutely love it here??!!
So glad yer loving it! Sounds amazing!! Xx xx
ReplyDeletePhew! OK Marathon reading session but I'm all caught up now. Sounds like you're having an amazing adventure. I'm very jealous. Enjoy the next stop!
ReplyDelete