Stuck in Hanoi...
Trip Start
Jul 27, 2004
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77
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Trip End
Dec 13, 2006
I left Hanoi on an organised trip to Halong Bay which is renowned as one of the most beautiful places in Vietnam. The bus ride was about 4hrs and we arrived at the harbour along with about a hundred other tourist buses ready to board the boats and go sailing. Unfortunately the weather had other plans as it was so foggy we couldn't see a thing, so after lunch on the boat the trip was officially cancelled and we all jumped back on another bus to return to Hanoi. A flat tyre on the way back delayed us even further so we didn't get back until about 6pm - a ten hour round trip just for lunch! The next day thought I better do some more sightseeing to justify a whole week in Hanoi so a group of us headed to go and see Vietnams national treasure - Ho Chin Minh - in his Mausoleum. 'Uncle Ho' as he is affectionately reffered to has his own small army guarding him 24hrs a day and is very well preserved! We also visited a Museum dedicated to his life but unfortunately very little was explained in english, the old photos of him were very interesting though. We then headed to a local Vietnamese outdoor restaurant for lunch - the only women here were waitresses and the menu was meat and beer! The food was cooked in a corner near our table and there was a choice of spit-roasted pig, spit-roasted goat or spit-roasted dog!!! Having seen plenty of mangy looking dogs in cages outside restaurants over the last couple of days we gave the dog a miss but the pig and goat were very tasty!! Vietnam has been a really interesting experience, especially as so little English is spoken here, but having collected my Chinese visa I have decided to head to the border and start my journey through China towards Hong Kong where I meet back up with Mandy next week.
