Hanoi - Halong Bay

Hanoi – Halong Bay

Our Hanoi Hotel was called the Hanoi Moment. Centrally located in the old town with great access to the shopping streets and markets. There are 17 million people and 5 million motorcycles. It is fascinating watching the traffic flows at roundabouts and intersections. They travel pretty slowly and seem to ignore anything on their right just missing other bikes and cars. There is no tooting of horns or aggression, just a chaotic mass of moving bikes. You’ll get 200 bikes at a set of lights which have squeezed past the busses and cars to get to the front. Some have whole families of 5 on board. A three year old standing on the foot well, a five year old between mum and dad, and a seven year old behind. All on a two-seater motorcycle! Sometimes the mother will be nursing a new-born and feeding it, and I once saw a 4 year old standing between her fathers’ legs reading a book. Confident youngsters stand between mum and dad with hands on the drivers’ shoulders. No helmets, no safety gear they just seem so at home on the bikes. There were very few traffic lights in Hanoi in relation to the population, and we did not see one traffic jam, it just flowed and cars slowly edged their way through intersections. Take a lesson New Zealand. Hanoi is vibrant and bustling and safe to walk around. We ate street food on little plastic stools, (remember our Facebook photos?) walked to markets and just absorbed the sights and sounds.

After one night here we were picked up next morning for a 3 hour bus ride to catch the boat to Halong Bay, where we spent the next three days/two nights on a 3* Junk. It was quite an expensive trip but all food was included as well as kayaks and sightseeing. There are 12 cabins on board allowing for 24 passengers, but only half were occupied. We anchored the first night in a secluded bay close to some sea caves and cliffs towering out of the sea. In spite of the fact there were about 200 of the 600 similar boats out on the bay, we were lucky to be so private. There were just 4 other boats close by. The food was incredible - 11 course lunches and dinners, with huge quantities and great variety. Cathie doesn’t like some fish types so was given a special menu with chicken and beef. We kayaked, we swam off the boat in the evening and socialised with the other 10 passengers. That evening before the meal we had cocktails and a cooking lesson on how to make spring rolls. We all had a go, with varying success. Cathie managed to score herself a huge bruise on her arm as she slipped off the ladder getting back on the boat after a swim. Have you ever tried to lift something up when you are in 10meters of water? I had to cling to the ladder behind her and help her get her leg out from between the rungs. It didn’t help that the ladder curved away under the hull of the boat and so the top was leaning backwards. Quite an effort for her but a shower and a few beers soon bought it right.

The second day we were split up from the one-nighters and transferred to another day boat for more kayaking and ended up with just 4 American girls who had just graduated as Doctors. We both enjoy Kayaking and explored some caves and what seemed like volcano craters filled with sea water. The landscape is quite strange with high sided islands poking out of the sea. Millions of years ago it was all under water. The food was just as good and we had a nice relaxing time. We visited a floating fishing village, and a pearl farm which were interesting.  At the end of the day we were taken back to the original boat to meet our next lot of passengers and repeated the first days plan. More food. Our cabin was small with an en-suite, which got quite smelly at times as the septic tank fumes came up through the plug hole, but the shower had a magnificent view. We steamed back and met the bus for another 3 hour journey back to Hanoi Moment Hotel, where we had left our big bags. We only took backpacks each. We arrived at about 4.30pm and then had to wait until 8.00pm for a taxi to take us to the train station for our trip up to Sapa.  We went out for a meal to fill in time and wandered back via unfamiliar streets and got completely lost. We had to get a taxi back to the hotel as it was getting late and we were going around in circles. He simply drove us around the corner and stopped….we were that close!

Another overnight train trip looms!