Hanoi to Lan Ha Bay and Cat Ba Island

Today was billed to be one of the highlights of our time here in Vietnam...and it certainly didn't disappoint. An early start and a taxi journey to Hanoi's typically confusing and slightly chaotic bus station started what was a slightly random 4 part journey involving bus, bus, catamaran and another bus to arrive in the sublime island seaside town of Cat Ba. Met a few fellow travellers en route who we hope to meet tomorrow for NYE and another unfortunate South African guy who seemed to not have any idea where he was going but was clutching at a leaflet saying 'castaway island' with pictures of lots of girls in bikinis - we wished him luck on his quest finding that place?!?

A fortuitous food stop in a place ran by a friendly French hippy ('Jeff') and his Vietnamese businessman friend ('Tony') we had quite a journey ahead to reach our 'Whisper of Nature' bungalows. He kindly arranged for us to get a local fisherman to give us a ride to the other end of the bay and also give us a bit of a tour of Lan Ha Bay (the quieter but no less fabulous cousin of the uber-famous, and touristy, Halong Bay). There began one of the most brilliant few hours...

Our friendly French friend and his buddy rocked up with their motorbikes and gave us a lift across town and along the bay towards the fishermans wharf. I do not recall ever being on a motorbike before and never as a passenger, it was certainly hair raising as we took some tight corners on some sketchy roads but it was great fun! We boarded our fishing boat and the tour began...

There are few words that can describe the beauty of the Lan Ha bay with its numerous limestone outcrops, sandy beaches, floating houses, fishing boats and turquoise sea. I hope the photos give you a sense of the place. It is clear why the area is a world heritage site.

Arriving at the little tiny dock near the hamlet if Viet Hai, we were given cycles and cycled the last 5km to our destination. A stunning little spot in the middle of absolutely nowhere surrounded by limestone crags and jungle. Looks like JB might need to get used to some of our smaller reptilian gecko friends who share the bungalow with us, but I for one am happy as a bean!

Tomorrow kayaking and NYE in Cat Ba Town...happy new year to you all!

Hanoi craziness and the Perfume Pagoda

Well, it has been 2 days now in and around Hanoi and already knackered! This city is totally crazy mental, the sounds of motorbikes (or to be more specific 125cc or less motorbikes and scooters) are most definitely the kings of the roads around here; with cars a close second; people carrying ridiculous amounts of vegetables and fruit on their shoulders third and brave elderly folk on antique cycles a distant fourth. The incessant use of horns, beepers, buzzers, bells seems to be the way to get your prescense noticed by other road users - indeed many hawkers seem to have recorded messages blaring out of their piles of rugs, teapots, fruit, kettles and got knows what else they are selling from their trolleys. It is fair to say that a couple of days here and you will never cross the road in the same way ever again...crossing the road just involves throwing caution totally to the wind and just walking out in front of the traffic and watching vehicles flow past you somehow - it is as if actually there is a system there somewhere - but I for one don't know what it is. Certainly waiting to cross the road at a 'green man' is a waste of time, as are traffic lights and indeed pavements. There is a happy calamity to it all tho, everyone is at some kind of peace with each other and almost respect we are all just trying to get somewhere, albeit very slowly!

The people here are all great, a smile is greeted with a smile and a "hello, how are you?" precedes every offer of a bag of deep fried squid, frog or lift on a motorbike. A smile and a polite no is all that is needed for them to move on, there is no pestering - they all seem to nice and polite for that.

We have been staying at the lovely Madame Moon Hotel, the staff are all brilliant and super helpful. Thang Ha, the lovely receptionist pretty much organised about the next week of our trip, booked us trains and boats on what will be a fairly complex week or so in exchange for a few dollars...money well spent and definitely earned. The profuse apologies when our wifi went down briefly was unexpected and almost ironic really considering where we are.

After a fairly uneventful flight (which is of course a good thing!) with Vietnam Airlines, who certainly were much better than we had anticipated, we arrived in Hanoi yesterday and spent most of the day wandering about getting lost. It's quite intense with jet lag and JB was in need of a tactical nap by the end of the day, as was I. The highlights were certainly when we got off the busy main streets into the backwaters where the locals live, a polite nod by friendly locals to stop us walking into the sewerage channels...! The telephone and electricity wires here are a sight, certainly health and safety has not made it here and all the better for it!

Shops are amazing, groups of traders seem to work together, meaning you come across about half a dozen shops selling pretty much one item all in a row! (shops selling exclusIvely deep fat fryers, exhaust pipes, sunglasses, foam, 2 by 4, orange and blue tarpaulins, saucepans...you name it it's out there somewhere!). Seems a strange way to trade as you can presumably trade them off against each other but all seem content. 

Had a bit of a mixed bag experience with the street food, but we have put that down to experience...let's face it for 3-4 quid it doesn't matter if you want to go to 3 places to get a square meal.  Certainly we have found a couple of special places.

We decided today we could not face walking about again, so we booked a tour through the hotel to see the 'real Vietnam' and visit the super holy Perfume Pagoda. We kinda knew it would probably be a bit awful joining a bus load of tourists, and it kind of was, but our tour guide was hilarious and the rowing boat trip to the Pagoda itself was pretty special. Also seems that Buddha is a bit of a fan of the old chocolate cake, biscuits, super-noodles and strong coffee as these seem to make up a large proportion of the offerings. Was also nice to stretch the legs a bit climbing up the hill to the pagoda itself which was in a large cave. There was also another much more impressive (but less holy) temple and pagoda which was a very special spot - we hope to see lots more of these and maybe not be so busy. There were a few curiousities along the way as well including a couple of slightly sad looking monkeys.

Certainly Edward seems to be a bit with the kids, raising a cheery smile whenever he is brought out to say hello and with him motivating our boat rower we overtook most of the competition on the return leg of the river journey!

We are up early to head over to the much anticipated Halong Bay and Cat Ba Island tomorrow for a few days but Hanoi has certainly left an impression...! Tom

Hanoi!

Hanoi is a crazy mental place, crossing the road will never be the same again...walking out in front of moving traffic coming at you from all directions is the only way to cross the road here! Feeling pretty tired after a long couple of days getting here so will post a full blog entry soon, all I will say is that we just successfully haggled for 2 pairs of ridiculous Christmas pyjama bottoms for £2 each...kinda not sure if that was good or bad due to the ridiculousness of the purchase...but it was fun anyway! We also have a new companion for our travels in the form of Edward the blue bird, oh and first night and first sharing a double bed experience!! Photos to follow in next few days! Catch you all soon! Tom

Boxing Day with Turkman and the 11 syllable Italian lady

"more booze" says JB...we have had a few bottles of wine, lots of banter with the distinguished Tom Kirkman and the fabulously glamorous Mariantonietta Anna Tarantini and eaten some great Christmas food including Butternut squash Wellington....mmmmm delicious. arrived at the Madison du JB today and Jaryn was still standing about in his pyjamas. A manic period of packing and house cleaning ensued and we were really in holiday mode. We also booked some of the random train journey's we will be going in in Vietnam - we shall see how that pans out! We also booked our slot on the Routeburn Track in New Zealand...very exciting! We wish you all a merry Christmas! Next stop Gatwick airport in the stormy weather...

Gearing up for the off..

Well its 38 hours til take off and currently feeling a little tipsy and full of turkey on Christmas day, the huge pile of stuff which I intended to fit into the medium sized rucksack is sat there looking at me as if taunting me. Nonetheless it will all fit and tomorrow will travel over to Hither Green to meet up with 'the Big Dog', eat some more Christmas food, probably get drunk and then dash across to Gatwick airport for our flight on Friday lunchtime. The tripadvisor reviews of Vietnam Airlines ("come fly with the lotus" - whatever that means) providing some hilarious if slightly disconcerting reading with numerous tales of duct tape, superglue and polyfilla reinforced aeroplanes and interesting sounding in-flight entertainment! Couple that with another 'vicious low' weather system coming in at pretty much 12pm Friday as our plane is scheduled to take off....either way it will probably be a fittingly random start to the adventure.

The travel idea all started a few months ago on the side of a mountain somewhere where the seed of excitement was sown. Jaryn was adamant that he needed to get out of the big smog over the winter and with some gentle persuasion, I also thought what a grand idea it would be.  Then in the flurry of anticipation you buy the lonely planet guides; ask well-travelled friends for ideas; book the flights...and then nothing really happens for a while. Then suddenly the date starts to creep up on you and you realise you really need to think about purchasing all the things you need. Then some more time passes, life gets in the way, and you still have not sorted it all out, and then this little thing called Christmas arrives and all the shops close in the run up to the day you leave! So, you throw mercy to the wind and say "well hey its an adventure why do I need possessions anyway" and half the junk you were probably going to take could be picked up for about 30,000 Dong (about £1) anyway!

 

This will probably be an expression we will both be pulling during the coming weeks!

This blog will hopefully provide some amusement for anyone who is interested, and a bit of a memory for the both of us as well on our return...first stop Hither Green...!