Hanoi, Sapa and Halong Bay

  Hanoi, Vietnam
Monday, November 12, 2007

Bike Chaos

Hanoi has officially been promoted to the top of the crazy driving charts, even beating Beijing and Bangkok.  This place is just crazy but the stats give you a better picture - I was reliably informed by a tour guide that there are over 2 million motorbikes in Hanoi from a population of just over 3 million.  And why so many?  Because motorbikes cost just 300 US Dollars over here so they're dirt cheap, and even in the more rural areas motorbikes are readily available as villagers swap buffalo's for motorbikes.  This all adds to the roads being chock-a-block with mainly motorcycles but also some cars, buses and cyclos (a 3 wheeled bicycle with seating at the back for passengers).  Of course this makes crossing the road immensely fun also as there are hardly any pedestrian crossings so the general rule is to just walk across the road and hope for the best (closing your eyes is a good tactic too).  In theory they say that the bikers are ready for people crossing the road and as long as you maintain a constant line and speed you'll be okay, and after a few early attempts I realised this was true and towards the end of my stay in Hanoi I was crossing the road without even thinking about it.

Hoan Kiem Lake

Anyway I digress on the subject of traffic.  We arrived in Hanoi on a Sunday evening and took the 45 minute taxi drive into Hanoi and experienced the breathtakingly crazy drive into the city centre (also quickly picking up on the other rule of driving in Hanoi - You must beep your horn at least once every 10 seconds).  After checking in to our hostel at about 10pm there wasn't much else to do other than find some food and we opted for the closest and easiest place which was a French restaurant that had a cyclo theme to it.  The cyclos were 1930's styled cyclos that was very similar to eating a meal in a wheelchair which was something different.  The food was excellent and I enjoyed a steak in pepper and cognac sauce, a crepe suzette and a couple of ice cold beers for 7.50 which was expensive by Vietnamese standards but definitely worth the money compared to back home.

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum

The following morning was dedicated to seeing the sights after getting some cash from the ATM.  I took 3 million dong out which became the largest numerical amount I've taken out of a cash machine ever (it was only worth less than 100 quid though).  So first stop was the Hoan Kiem lake where there was a real exciting atmosphere as loads of locals were surrounding the river in marvelment at something.  A giant turtle had hit land in the central pagoda which was the event of the day and it doesn't happen too often I gathered.  Next stop was the Vietnam History Museum - unfortunately closed on Mondays.  Then the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum - unfortunately closed we think because his body had gone elsewhere for restoration.  Then the neighboring Ho Chi Minh museum - closed because it was a Monday.  Okay fair enough, we gave up Monday as a bad sight seeing day and after getting lost around some markets headed back to the hostel for their legendary rooftop barbecue, which was a good place for meeting other travelers including very bizarrely a croation/hungarian/swiss bloke who supported Stockport County.  The majority of people from the rooftop bar went on to the local Irish bar (one of the very few places secretly serving after 12pm - it was Laos all over again) where we met even more people we'd seen previously in Laos - there really is a firm backpacking circuit in place.

On the Tuesday we visited the Hanoi prison which held political prisoners under the French colonial-ship and US soldiers during the American/Vietnam war - nicknamed the Hanoi Hilton by the Americans.  Was very interesting to visit but I wasn't convinced by the propaganda on how US prisoners were treated.  I took in the Ho Chi Minh museum after the previous days closure and this was very weird and abstract but interesting again all the same - wouldn't recommend it unless you have nothing better to do though.  Then in the evening it was a matter of killing time until our 12 hour train ride North West to Sapa.

Hmong Tribe in Sapa

Amazing Sapa Scenery

Anton In Sapa

I was tipped of about Sapa from a friend back home (thanks Rachael!) and it was an amazingly beautiful place.  Despite a very bumpy train ride, I arrived there quite refreshed and ready to trek.  Our group was small and only contained 6, a couple of Austrian girls, a German guy and a South Korean guy.  After a jeep ride to the main trek start we then trekked for about 13km through the picturesque Sapa countryside, particularly built up through the rice terraces which looked like huge steps in the hills.  The areas are full of ethnic minorities like the Hmong, Dao and Tae tribes.  We were followed on the first half of our trek by about 15 or so Hmong tribeswomen and children - luckily for me as there was one particular older woman who was helping me keep my balance on the muddy tracks (the complete reversal of helping an old lady cross the road).  Our guide warned us that they would follow and chat to us with the express purpose of us buying some of their handcrafted goods which I duly did buying a wristband thing and a small cushion keyring with bells on it - both really useful items.

Sapa Pool

At one of the rest stops there was a pool table so we stopped for a unique game of pool with our guide for which the rules follow:

RULES OF SAPA POOL

1) The game is to be played on an uneven surface with table legs propped up by anything you can get your hands on.
2) Game is played with 15 balls including 2 black balls and all balls must have various dents to prevent even surface flow.
3) Five minutes into play the white cue ball will be swapped with the number 13 striped yellow ball because the cue ball is unplayable.
4) Object of the game is to pot whatever balls you want to, including the 2 blackballs.  The winner is the person who pots the last ball on the table regardless of how many you've potted prior to this.
5) There are no bonus points available for launching the red number 3 ball into the adjacent pig sty - this only means you have to retrieve the ball.

The following day we got some more insight into the state of the table as we saw a couple of locals taking a mid afternoon siesta on top of the table.  Overnight we stayed in a home-stay where our guide, Hai, cooked up a great Vietnamese meal and we were joined by the owner of the home-stay and a neighbour.  And then out came the Vietnamese rice wine (oh joy of joys) and each of the locals took it in turn to toast and down the rice wines, which we did 5 times in total.  It didn't taste too good but certainly warmed you up.  The rest of the night was made up from our own entertainment, including a traditional Korean stone catching game, similar to the English game of Jacks, and our guide singing various backstreet boys songs to us - rather worrying.

The Sapa Six

An Englishman, a German and a South Korean walk up a mountain ... no not the start of a joke but thats what happened as half of our group decided on the easier option of a motorbike back up the hill.  The 1 hour 'calf cracking trek up the hill' (the tours description not mine) wasn't too bad and we saw many wild boar and buffalo roaming freely before we reached our base for lunch and then it was back to Sapa town centre to chill for a bit before returning for the overnight train back to Hanoi.  The train was even more bumpy than the first journey but I was amused by the conversation we managed to generate in our cabin.  There were four of us (two English men, a Korean and a partially deaf German) but we managed to converse for 2 hours in a mixture of English, Korean and even sign language I'd learnt back home.  Sapa was a truly beautiful place, but you couldn't help feeling it had turned into a bit of a tourist trap, particularly when you saw some of the smaller tribes having mobile phones, satellite TV, flat-screen TV's and DVD players and nice motorbikes.  Kind of takes away the romantic image of the tribes roughing it out, but progress and technology is everywhere I guess.

On Board Anton

Ha Long Bay Scenery

Our train got into Hanoi at 4.30am the next day, which gave us 3 hours to get sorted before we were on another bus trip towards Ha long Bay.  The bus journey there took only 4 hours but including witnessing my 3rd car accident in Hanoi province - perhaps not surprisingly.  Once arrived at the docks, we were ushered to our boat which was a fantastic looking vessel and very upmarket.  After an 11 course lunch (yes that is 11!!) we settled down for a bit of deck relaxing before arriving at some natural caves for a bit of exploration.  After this it was time for a bit of Kayaking around the bay and then some swimming and diving of our boat until sunset and dinner.  Once again for dinner we had an 11 course meal including whole crabs (I made a right mess of my plate with this), mussels and red snapper.  This was followed by on-board Karaoke and general drinking and merriment.

Caves In Ha Long Bay

Views Of Cat Ba Island

The following morning we set sail to Cat Ba Island where we visited a fish farm and some caves.  These were for me more interesting than the previous days caves as they had more history about them as during the Vietnam war, fish farmers would run for cover to the caves to escape the B-52 bombers.  After another great seafood lunch we checked into our hotel for the night and we were free to enjoy the beaches until dusk.  After a group evening meal we headed with some Spaniards and Swiss from our tour group, first to a quiet bar that had 30 minutes of Karaoke and then to a night club just up the road.  When we walked in here there was a bit of a rough looking crew of guys at the edge of the dance-floor so I started to wonder if it was the right decision to go there, but there was no need to fear as they we're dancing to backstreet boys and westlife within minutes - I wish I'd took pictures or video footage of it, had to be seen to be believed.  The next problem was the awful choice in music and it took us half an hour to get the DJ to change it which he did by simply putting a Black Eyed Peas CD on and then buggering off.  Well the music was better and later I even made a comeback with my previously retired Michael Jackson dancing.

Next morning just consisted of the trek back to Hanoi for a few hours break before embarking on the start of our open ticket bus journeys as we headed south down the country towards Saigon.