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Long days travel to Halong....
Entry 15 of 67 | show all | print this entry |
With only having the 15 day visa for Vietnam and wanting to see some of the north including Halong Bay (my main reason for visiting vietnam in the first place) we decided to fly. This is not the most budget way of travelling but it is the most efficeint for covering as much ground as possible. Early flight to Hanoi (2h, $115) would give us the rest of the day to get to Halong city and then organise the trip to Halong bay the day after. Flight and check in at a tiny airport were dead easy and the flight was a breeze. Was quite special to see the vientamese rice paddies laid out underneath you like green velvet on coming in to land. This is however where the ease of travel stopped and led to a very frustrating tiring and hot day. Not the introduction to the north we had hoped for after loving the very friendly south. We got our bags and made our way outside to get a cab into hanoi to the bus station to get a bus to Halong (4h, $6). However, the vietnamese mafia control all transport from the airport into hanoi and therefore prices are kept artificailly high. We managed to get a cab with a danish bloke who lived in Hanoi for $15 for the 40min ride. This was pretty expensive but we did it all the same. Getting into hanoi the danish bloke got out at the old quarter as we pulled up at a guesthouse. The scams here relate taxis to specific run guuesthouses where you are pretty much made to stay as they are once again mafia run or at least they take a slice of teh profits. The guesthouse guy wanted us to stay, we told him we wanted to get to halong from a bus station, he then said it was too late and they had all already gone (it was eleven in the morning and we had been reliably informed from our danish friend that they run all day). So as i was talking to him kim leaned over and half shouted BUS STATION and slammed the door in his face. Not the smartest move i initially thought but after a few insults it got us away from the guesthouse. We were then taken through town to a minibus service also apparently owned by the same group who then proceeded to try to charge us a large amount to get us to Halong. At this point we grabbed our bags, paid the driver and walked away with shouts coming from behind us. We went to the nearest place and got lunch and tried to figure our next move. We went from guesthouse to guesthouse asking about the bus to Halong, each one trying to sell us their trip to halong from thier guesthouse until i finally managed to find an answer. Go to the bus station (she drew a map for me) and then get bus to halong. Simple enough huh, so we got motos to the depot and walked to the station. A guy passing us his umbrella and trying to sell us tickets for the bus on the street. We were pretty much sick of this by now and fended him off, rather aggressively as he grabbed my arm to stop me getting away. We made it to the ticket office and got the bus (a public srvice minibus) to halong with only about 5 people. We settled in for the trip but realised that the hustler who was standing on the platform to the middle door was grabbing people off the street who were at bus stops and getting them to use his bus. A great scam for him as the cash went straight in his pocket and not the bus companies. Unfortunately the row of four seats we were sitting on soon had 5 people on it and every other row too.
To make matters worse, 4h later, we were dropped on the highway in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere. Apparently a ticket to your destination means being dropped on the highway with a bunch of moto drivers who try to charge you $4 to take you 4km to your final destination which, after consulting the guidebook maps, was only 500m away. These guys really were quite aggressive and were trying to convince us that now that a bridge had been built the town was 4km away and not 1km away from exactly the same point...hmmmm, special space-time continuum altering bridges aside, we were going to walk. It tuned out to be just round the corner and down some step to the destination we wanted. And we strolled into town and bargained for a room and got the biggest one in the place for equivalent of three quid each.
Finally nativagting teh guy downstairs who was tring to sell us a trip for $120 which we later got for $40 thanks to some research by the resourceful (and determined not to be ripped off) kim we headed to bed. What happened to the peaceful inquisitive people of south east asia?
Latest Comments (1)
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That's it guys! (reply)
Jul 28, 2008 08:09 EST by minicartel
Stick to your guns. Don't let them rip you off. It was exactly the same for Aurélie and I in Morroco. A good travel guide seems to be helping you out loads.
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