F Hotel Hanoi

... Hanoi with the afternoon as it was and hanging happily in the balance between enjoying what I have now and looking forward to getting home and getting back on track. Not that this year (or so) had taken me off that path - just digressed ever so slightly but with the result of being even more sure and hungry to get back to it all. Theatre reviews have started popping up miraciously on my laptop and the urge to get back and stuck into all I have missed is growing daily and ...

... So today when I got up to leave I got a half block from the Dr’s office and sat down on the curb as my head spun into a white light place. I broke into a heavy sweat and my xeom driver wanted to go back to get the Dr and I said no because I’ve experienced enough crowd scenes in this city already. So I rested for about 5 mins climbed back onto the bike and barely got there before I nearly passed out ...

... yay for Wendy, tough noogies for Pierre). We read that the VNese have left the bitterness of war behind them to concentrate on the growth of their economy and this is exactly what it feels like.<br><br>Today we walked around the Old Quarter despite the jetlag (mind you, Wendy slept a few times on park benches like a sad hobo). We get stared at a lot... not sure why.<br><br>Here, there are mopeds and small motorcycles (which don't qualify to be ...

... sat down, given a complimentary drink and a hard sale for a Halong Bay tour. Things certainly weren&#8217;t as relaxed as the South of the country. Over the next three days we were subjected to all manner of hard pressure sales tactics, touting and general scamming. From taxi drivers with extremely fast running meters to every other café adding the bill up incorrectly to constant short changing, we found the people of Hanoi far ...

... and the two pagodas we visited were really amazing. However, the trip was as much about the journey as the pagodas. The ladies rowing our boats are from families whose husbands/fathers were killed or injured in the war so who have had to make their own living. Apparently there are about 100 of them but only 27 are allowed to work at one time so there's an annual lottery to establish who will work. <br><br><br>

Early morning start we have to be ready to depart by 8.00am to drive to Mau Chau.Once again breakfast is exelent and we are in the lobby by 7.45am waiting for our guide Zen to arrive and he is on time so we are on the road a few minutes after 8.00am.<br>It is a cloudy day and the traffic is the usual jumble of motor bikes cars etc as our driver manovers us out of the city center. After about 30 minutes the traffic thins out and we start to drive ...

... overtaking other cars like a hara-kiri and honking the horn constantly we were not too keen on any more bus experiences for some reason). The next stop was Hoi An, a small town known for its abundance of tailors (unbelievably there were supposed to be 800 tailors in this town) to get custom made clothes. While waiting for the clothes to be ready we were well entertained and went to the beach, explored the UNESCO cultural heritage old city and went to see some more ruins. The ...

... that they still have loads of trees down the old streets. Incidentally, we would definitely recommend our hotel(s) - Golden Sun I, II, III - well located in the centre of things, decent price, very friendly and helpful staff. Also, the curiously named Pinky Moon bar just across the road. Nice spot for an apero - rude not to indulge with G &amp; T at just over 1 Euro ...

... money from tourists illegally (but not locals unfortunately.) Overall we found the people in the tourist area of Hanoi very unfriendly and were always looking for a way to get more money from our pockets. This was very different from what we found with the people of the South, who were much friendlier and easier to deal with in general. If I had to redo the month long trip through Vietnam again, I would've liked to have spent more time in Nha Trang and ...

... junk ship harbour. The trip to Halong Bay took 3 hours. The number of junk ships floating lazily waiting for passengers at the harbour was a beautiful sight. Weather was good too and after purchasing the tickets, Ah Fang led us to our Junk Ship. The ship assigned to us was to carry only our group of 7 persons. We cruise among hundreds of islets to take in the sight of unspoilt pockets of Halong Bay. It was pretty much like being in ...