Ventured once again into Hanoi on Friday night. It was very difficult finding a place to eat because all of the places with English menu's charge through the roof, but the Vietnamese only places we cannot read the menu's! After a bit of culture shock we had dinner at the Kangaroo Cafe, an Australian owned place that served Vietnamese food. Had two beers, entree and main for ten bucks between us. Then went for a walk to the 'New Hanoi'. We are staying in the old quarter where everything is VERY old. Beautiful, but old. The new Hanoi is insane though! Shops, markets galore, a KFC that serves rice and gravy instead of potato and gravy, many, many bars etc. Was quite nice, and lots of tourists so we felt less out of place.
Arose bright and early on Saturday morning to be picked up at 8 by our transfer to Halong Bay. Enjoyed some pho for breakfast (noodle soup, traditional breakfast) then jumped on the bus. We paired up with a couple from Adelaide. On our tour there were about 15 of us- us two, the Adelaide couple, a couple of Manchester and a big group of French who were all 40+. The drive there was interesting to say the least. Once again, no road rules. The hundreds of tour buses just weave in and out of the roads, avoiding motorbikes and cars. It was crazy. We stopped on the way at a community centre where people affected by the Agent Orange in the war make trinkets, bought a few things but it was very touristy.
Then we arrived at Halong Bay (after 3 hours!). The trip was spectacular. The bay itself is HUGE, with these huge rocky mountains towering out of the sea. It was quite overcast which made the place looks so mystical, almost jurassic park like. We were staying on the Calypso Cruiser junk boat, a beautiful pirate looking ship. The rooms were stunning and the staff so helpful.
The food on the cruise was AMAZING. Over the time we were there (2 lunches, 1 breakfast, 1 dinner) we had squid cooked three ways, prawns, mussels, chicken stirfrys, fish stirfrys, beef stirfrys, spring rolls (we made them ourselves at a cooking class), lots of rice, these little sweet potato cakes, and lots of fruit. We were very well fed. Everything is so healthy though. The cocktails were not as cheap as in Hanoi, about $5 but very nice.
Whilst we were there we went to this amazing cave, actually called 'Amazing Cave'. Its about the size of a footy oval in the middle of this massive mountain. Very pretty. After that we went swimming. Our guide told us we could jump off the roof of our boat if we wanted to. Has to be scariest thing I have ever done. I freaked out whilst on the roof and all these other boats crowded around us egging me on. I felt very proud once I had done it. The water, despite it being 6pm at night, was lukewarm and absolutely divine.
This morning bright and early we went kayaking through the bay. It is just undescribable just how magnificant it is.
We now have two more nights left in crazy Hanoi- feeling a little less culture shocked though, the people we have met are just so lovely and give us a really nice impression of the Vietnamese people. We are just about to go and have some one hour massages as we are quite sore from all the kayaking/walking we have done. One hour costs $10!!
I hope you are all well. Do email me with any Melbourne goss! I miss you all! xxxx
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