Hong Ngoc 1 Hanoi

Today was (again) very hot and busy for us. We were ready to go with all of our belongings by 8 am for yet another bus ride with our not so favorite honking driver. Luckily it was just a short distance to the Citadel. It encompassed the Imperial Enclosure and the Forbidden City. I won't bore you with the details but we were there for almost 2 hours and that was enough. The whole place is crumbling but is being rebuilt very slowly. There was no maintenance on it from1945-1995 so you can imagin...

Our guide was waiting for us - hooray ! Typical - we were told we didn't need photos for our visas but guess what - we did!!! Luckily, Hien, our guide, sorted this at immigration so we had a rush job done by a lady in uniform $2 per person! then we were on our way- to the tour operators office so we could pay her all the lovely USD we had in our pockets! quite a journey into town from the airport and traffic was manic - bike bikes and more bikes - motor that is!! Arrived at hotel mid afternoo...

Awake early 0600 - as music and the morning new bulletin was broadcast to the whole village!! Fabulous! So got up and went for breakfast - not sure why we bothered to do that either!! Our journey today went via the largest pagoda in Vietnam - to reach this we had to go down the worst roads ever! The pagoda was in fact 3 pagodas up a very steep hill - we were offered backies on motor bikes but declined thinking it was safer to walk - yes maybe so but the heat ! Never ever have we been so hot! ...

Before going back to Hanoi, seven of us decided to see a bit more of Cat Ba Island. We started by seeing yet another set of caves. But these were different. In a sense they were a cross between the Cu Chi Tunnels and the Surprising Caves from yesterday. The caves were used over 40 years ago as one of the main strongholds for the North Vietnamese army. Within there were rooms used for briefing, surgery, choir meets, and, of course, sleeping. There was even a large cavern that was used as a cin...

My Ngoc Hotel Sore ass from motorcycle. Wondered if we were going to crash and my fleece was going to melt into my skin. Crossed a river on the bike. Totally random town, missed an offer to marry a local tribal chief. Maybe next time?

Wednesday, 1.11.06 It is our first day alone, as the tour officially ends today! We go downstairs and say goodbye to everyone. Once the bus leaves, we have breakfast, and then go back upstairs and enjoy the last hour or so in our fancy hotel. Around noon we check out, and take a cab over to our new hotel - the Hang Gnoc - in the middle of the old quarter. It's a great location, and turns out to be a wonderful little charming hotel. It's a 3-star (how déclassé) but it's exactly what we want. I...

Hanoi!! Very busy, bustling city. Scooters, scooters and more scooters. Our first experience of Vietnamese cuisine was very lucky and good, we stumbled upon a restaurant that had no menu and where we didn't order anything (except beer) and were promptly presented with fish in a frying pan on our table, noodles and assorted greens and sauces and a stir fry of sorts was made at our table, delicious! About 80km from Hanoi is a temple called the Perfume Pagoda. It is situated in a cave at the top...

Hello everyone! As you can tell, I've kept busy in Hanoi. I flew in on Wednesday afternoon and met a girl on the airport shuttle, Kim, who wanted to do mostly the same things as I did and was staying at the same hostel. I can tell you that the pictures of people wearing the pointed straw hats out in the rice fields are absolutely true to life. They were literally right outside the airport with their water buffaloes, a sign of wealth in Vietnam. The countryside is bright green and really beaut...