Dai Duong Hotel Haiphong

... quiet one that night and watched the other group have a few beers and play drinking games.

This trip was one of the best we have been on during our travels due partly to the great group we had but mostly because Halong Bay is one of the most amazing places on Earth!!

Only one more stop to go in Vietnam which is the mountain town of Sapa before we leave and head over the border to Laos - CANT WAIT!!

Lots of Love

Tom and Carolyn
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

... the sizes we wanted too. In the US, this job would have taken a long time and been quite costly, comparatively.

Today I noticed something very curious on the Hong Gai streets. I saw not one but two barber shops on the street. I really mean, on the street and not inside a shop. I love the photos I took of these!

I hope you can tell that although I am working hard for this volunteer project, I am totally enjoying it here.

... a couple of expat teachers Charlie and Dave who are lucky enough to be based in Saigon and Bangkok respectively. Both places still to come on our itinerary, we’re looking forward to meeting up with our expert tour guides soon!

Day 2 started off with breakfast at eight before heading off to one of the larger islands for a 6km cycle on some really funky bikes, the ones with the nice baskets and only one gear. Manly! After a shaky start I was ...

... We then took the bike with a German girl we met up to another beach about 25km north, one single windy road all the way up, having a bike is such a great way, the best way, to see Vietnam's beautiful country side. We have said that every place we go to now we will hire bikes, as its so easy and cheap and go off exploring, as the public transport network here is nowhere near as good as china, so getting to remote places is hard.

Returning to our hotel for dinner to find ...

... to Ha
Noi by eating a perfect Vietnamese sandwich (Bahn My) and beer in
front of Hoan Kiem Lake and taking a tour of the Old Quarter on a
traditional cyclo.




We're writing this
entry on a train. We're taking an overnight train to Sa Pa, a
mountain region in the North. This is our first overnight train
trip!! And it's not bad – very small quarters – no frills –
but clean enough. Mike's on ...

... 120,000 (25,000 = 1GBP). Second, that there were no ATMs on Cat Ba so a trip to the nearest ATM was best done by motorbike. John was taken for a ride! The driver demanding 70K D for a 5 minute round trip - we argued and eventually settled on 30K, much to his annoyance. As the bus departed we saw another ATM only 100 yds from the terminal! The rest of the journey was pretty uneventful.

... attitude that when you are paying for something, the people providing the service should do everything they can for you. This means that doors are often left ajar after leaving or entering, staff are requested to move tables and chairs for customers (even if the person serving is a 5 foot nothing wisp and the customer looks like they have spent their life in the gym), and any mess made is left for staff to clean up. Two more extreme examples I have witnessed ...

... have been like in their early stages, and I wondered to myself what the area would look like in five years time. And then I saw it, on a billboard towering over a roundabout, a plan for an even larger resort area designed in the shape of a cloverleaf. Speaking to people in Haiphong about the plans, they seem to be excited by the proposed resort, bringing as it potentially will a huge influx of foreign capital into the area. The resort will ...

... saw a few weeks ago nearly killed a market seller as she attempted to manoeuvre down a crowded alley while talking on her mobile phone - another common motoring accessory. While the focus has been on helmets, there still appears to be little regard by the general motoring public for those issues that lead up to the need for a helmet. Riding in Vietnam, I am struck by the constant beeping that at first appeared to do nothing but facilitate an onrushing headache. However ...

Parkson Plaza is a large shopping mall on the outskirts of the city; on the same road as most of the cat and dog meat eateries. There are a number of security guard/parking attendants outside, who, for 3,000 VND and a few jibes in Vietnamese about being a Tay (foreigner), will let you park your motorbike outside. Once inside, you are confronted by an airconditioned western-oriented dream world, where most of the advertising has faces of 'perfectly' coloured and ...