Bach Dang Hotel Haiphong

... whereas the one nighters were up at 7 to head back to Halong Bay and Hanoi.

Our extra day was spent 200m out to sea chilling on a floating platform, well worth the 20 dollars for an extra night! It was also spent checking on Pien every now and again as the poor girl spent the whole day in bed with a birthday hangover! The next days group turned up at about midday and were all pretty sound but nothing compared to the previous days people! We had a ...

... shop that could print the certificates for the teachers, and the poster that Nguyet and her team created in Hanoi for us. We had to go to more than 4 shops to find a good one with a color printer. But when we found it, wow. Some things are just easier here. The shop produced our poster and certificates while we waited! The computer assistant that helped us was so very good. He had to manipulate the colors and photo layout and size the print to ...

... motoring after a while. Then we sailed off to find our mooring for the night and a pre-dinner swim. The swim involved jumping off the top deck - a good 20 foot. Big points to Emma for being first girl in (and the only one that didn’t need her hand held) all be it producing a quite unique noise on route down, something between a scream and squeal.

We had lucked out, the food was great, a good few beers and a really nice bunch of people ...

... we have been shoved around from person to person. The hotel proprietor was the sweetest guy we have met on our trip, shouting at him would have got us nowhere. The only way we were going to have a good afternoon was to hire motorbikes. Us along with Adrian (a swiss guy that was the only person from out original tour that was in our hotel) took our scooters to Cat co 1 and 2 the 2 best beaches near Cat Ba town, Soon all this anger disappeared when we were floating in the cooling ...

... but it was interesting to see their set up: massive
complexes in, for the most part, rural areas. Outside the walled
compounds are food stalls for the workers, and immediately within the
gates are rows of motorcycles: the transportation of choice by
virtually all Vietnamese.




Upon arriving in
Ha Noi we meet up with Daniel and Lai again and book hotels and
trains for the trip up to Cambodia. Then we say our ...

... half hours, turned out to be the noisiest yet - the driver using a triple tone warbling horn for at least 60% of the journey, truly! Arriving in Haiphong, we shared a taxi to the ferry terminal only to find we had just missed the fast boat. We were then scammed twice!! First, we were told the only alternative was a bus-boat-bus service which would cost 300,000 Dong instead of the ...

... industry. Nearly everytime I use a public toilet in Haiphong, I have to flush before using it. Indeed, it is not uncommon to hear someone flush the toilet before they start using it; but not afterwards. People (men) also often sit and spit on the floor of the toilet, in the knowledge that someone else will clean up after them. Likewise, sinks are often left full after hand washing and paper towels are left strewn about the bathroom. There appears to be ...

... place. The statues do not bode well and are in somewhat bad taste when considering Do Son's notoriety. The first statue that you see on entering the resort is of a gigantic pair of breasts, while just down the path you are confronted by the equally large ass of a woman gazing out to sea. Travelling along the road on the way back to Haiphong, I stopped on the hillside and looked out over a barren landscape, which I imagine resembles what parts of Dubai ...

... a country where bicycle lights are yet to make an appearance. Some bikes come with custom horns; two I have heard are a cow's moo and a maniacal laugh befitting the Joker from Batman. Some of the bikes on the road are out of proportion to their riders, and it is a common sight to see petite riders trying desperately to keep control of their oversized machines, especially when they are made all the more unstable by the three passengers they are carrying on the back. One girl ...

... I can tell you that both Jolie and I had a hard time keeping straight faces and in one or two of the pics I had a hard time standing up the way they positioned my feet.......I thought that I would fall over if Jolie wasn't there to keep me upright. See you soon........Love from Jolie and Gee......See you on the other side!! Peace.