Hanoi and Halong Bay
Trip Start
Oct 30, 2005
1
59
122
Trip End
Ongoing
Hanoi,
Vietnam
Friday, March 31, 2006
Still, Hanoi had enough distractions with its interesting street life to occupy our time.
We struggled the next day to work out what tour to take, and chose one that sounded genuine - at least they had their own boat, which was brand new
At One Pillar Pagoda
. The following day, heading to Halong Bay we arrived at the port with masses of tourist buses and people. This sure is the must see destination here. Making our way to the boat, we realised that maybe our chosen tour was not so genuine as the boat was nothing like the pictures and was far from new. Still, it was comfortable inside, our only complaint is that we couldn't sit on the roof like many other boats to take in the view.The boat slowly made its way through the bay and the rock formations were pretty impressive even though the fog limited visibility a little, and made the famous clear sky photos unobtainable. The boat stopped at a cave inside one of the limestone peaks jutting out of the water. This was a huge cave and had been lit up with all colours on the limestone formations for all the tourists to enjoy. Yes, a bit tacky, but interesting nonetheless.
Continuing further we stopped for kayaking in very basic kayaks. The stories of being able to paddle through flooded caves weren't to be... we got to just paddle around. Still Glenn got it in his mind that we could go around one of the limestone crops in the allocated 30 mins. Three quarters of the way around, with Christie not impressed that he was not listening to her request to turn around, he finally gave up and paddled back, sure that if we had gone that bit further we would have made it (Christie wasn't)
Cave (Hang Sung Sot)
. Still, as punishment for not listening to Christie, he had to row twice as fast to make it back in time.We opted to stay the night on the boat, while others spent then night in a hotel on one of the largest islands around the bay. We met a Canadian couple (Trent & Sara) and chatted the night away with them. Retiring, we had a good sleep with the sound of lapping waves against the boat.
Returning back to the port the next day was basically the same scenery - again tainted by fog, so it was not as inspiring as we had hoped. With dreams of jumping off the boat into the bay waters, with amazing colours at night, and fresh seafood served, our trip wasn't the grand adventure we wished for, but still it was not too bad.
We decided the following day that we had better see the sights of Hanoi before we missed them, so sharing a moto (first time in Vietnam that we were able to share a moto) we visited the Temple of Literature, One Pillar Pagoda, and Ho Chi Minh Museum. The Temple was quite interesting, with grand gardens and was like a university in ancient times. There was a big assembly of school kids there that day, so that added to the interest
Halong Bay (1)
. The One Pillar Pagoda was not that exciting, so a quick walk away we visited the Ho Chi Minh Museum. Eager to learn more about Uncle Ho, we were disappointed that the display didn't really bring his life together in a meaningful way, but rather had snippets of information and photos on display. To bring light to disappointment, just as we were preparing to leave, we heard singing and just being a little inquisitive, we found another school group performing in one of the halls. So we watched a while, smiling at the similarities of school kids around the world, and of their teachers miming the words as the childen read lines or sang songs. To add the sugar to the cake, Glenn managed to get his much anticipated shot of Uncle Ho posing as the Kentucky Colonal (there are some similarities! - see photos attached)The next day we did a bit of shopping and enjoyed our last day in Hanoi before catching the overnight train to Sapa.
