The travels of Tim and Megan: Hanoi and Halong Bay, Vietnam

The travel begins...Bangkok, Thailand

We departed New Zealand on our big "OE" and flew to Bangkok, Thailand, where we spent one night (just like the song). The flight to Bangkok was good, it was in one of those new Airbus planes, so we had individual TV screens on the back of the seats and loads of movies etc. Tim couldn't sleep much though, they don't make planes for people of that height.

When we were leaving Bangkok airport last night to get to our hotel, a guy approached us offering a cheap taxi to our hotel and when we told him where we wanted to go, he said that would be just 700 baht (about $28 NZ). Megan laughed at him and he looked offended, but we're not sure why, as the taxi we ended up getting cost just 190 baht ($8).

We managed to get about 4-5 hours' sleep in Bangkok before we had to get up and trek back to the airport to fly to Hanoi. It was hot in Bangkok - 29 degrees Celsius when we landed at 10.30pm and must have been around 30-odd degrees the following morning when we left.
Hanoi, Vietnam

We caught a connecting flight to Hanoi, Vietnam, without any dramas. So far so good... Thankfully, Hanoi, which is quite a lot further north than Bangkok, is a more pleasant 18 degrees.
Hanoi is a crazy place, apparently the city has a population of 3.5 million,and I think we saw every one of them riding a motorbike between the airport and our hotel. There are no apparent road rules, it seems to be whoever honks their horn the most and loudest has right of way and miraculously we didn't see an accident during our 1 hour journey from the airport and weaving through the city. They also have loads of manky chihuahuas roaming the streets. Filthy.

We found a hotel and then went for a wander through the streets. We had lunch at a little restaurant not far from our hotel. We had some pork spring rolls (yes, yes, it was quite possibly chihuahua spring roll!!!) to share, a can of coke each, Tim got chicken and vegetable fried rice and Megan got a noodle soup, all for a touch under $6 NZ. Got to love Asia.

We were both a bit jet-lagged and tired after the flight but we are enjoying the trip so far. Tim has decided that he will grow a big dirty beard during our travels, so keep an eye on the blog over the coming weeks for beard updates. So far we are on Day 10 of the beard and its looking nice, and will only get better.

We were recharged after a massive 12 hour sleep in the lovely Hanoi. We are pleased to report that in this new awake state, we have only been the subject of about five near accidents with motorbikes so far today.

We have some special pictures (posted below) of the crazy traffic around Hanoi. Imagine thousands of motorbikes all going in different directions and carrying all sorts of improbable things (raw meat, several children, entire house contents, dead bodies etc) and us in the middle of it all trying t edge our way across the streets, one of us wearing a conical hat (guess who!). The locals find that hat very, very amusing.

This morning we have done the obligatory queuing and shuffling to see "Uncle Ho" in all his glory. Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum is a large memorial to the national hero, located in the centre of Ba Dinh Square, which is the place where Ho Chi Minh read the Declaration of Independence on September 2, 1945, establishing the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The structure was completed in 1975 and was inspired by Lenin's Mausoleum in Moscow. The embalmed body of Ho Chi Minh is preserved in the cooled, central hall of the mausoleum, which is protected by a military honour guard. It was a little bit creepy, but also very interesting.

After that, we were the subject of highway robbery when we got "cyclos" (push bikes with carts on front for you to sit in, man behind does biking) back to the centre of town. They stopped before we got there and told us it was just around corner. Then told us it was 50,000 dong ($4.50) each (we had agreed 50,000 for both) and then when Megs pulled out 90,000 dong and Tim pulled out 50,000 dong they grabbed both lots and scampered (one of them motioning that he was off to get a drink, with a big smile on his face)! So we ended up paying 140,000 dong instead of 50,000 and turns out we only made it half of the way there!! Oh well, it can be our donation to Hanoi's economy.

We booked an overnight tour to Halong Bay with a place called Kangaroo Tours, and then an overnight train to Hue. Tim was grateful for the beard today - aside from looking fantastic, it was quite chilly in Hanoi today and yet his face was kept warm...
On Thursday night we had dinner at a nice place near the lake. They had a talking ATM inside the restaurant, and we were lucky enough to sit right next to it. It chatted away to us in Vietnamese all night. Tim tried the local beer, called Hanoi Beer funnily enough. It was pretty average, so mental note, don't try it. Anyway, the food was great and we had a really good night. Tim had fried rice for the third time in two days and Megan had pizza, which was a little odd. We both had ice cream sundae for dessert. We were just about to leave when Megan spotted a rat climbing up the cables
behind the ATM right behind Tim. That kind of put a dampener on the meal...

Halong Bay
We got up bright and early Friday morning to go to Halong Bay with a tour company called Kangaroo Cafe. We had a three and a half hour ride in a mini van from Hanoi to Halong Bay. Our tour guide was a Vietnamese girl called Chi (like the drink) and she was awesome. Her English was pretty good and she laughed at everything. We had a really good group as well. There was a Danish couple about our age, a Canadian couple in their fifties and a Danish family with three kids, but everyone spoke English except the two youngest kids.
We established that the rest of our group knew three things about Denmark (Danish pastries, Great Dane dogs and Princess Mary), two things about Canada (maple syrup and ice hockey) and one thing about New Zealand - the All Blacks. As we were driving to Halong Bay, Tim noticed a sign on the side of the road that said "Welcome to Halong Bay" and it had a couple of grizzly bears on the sign. Tim asked Chi if there are bears in Halong Bay. Chi said, "Yes, there are many bears in Halong Bay". Tim said, "Where are they, where do they live?". Chi paused and looked very puzzled and said "In the bottles". Ha ha ha ha ha.
Halong Bay was absolutely stunning. Halong Bay is massive and has hundreds of islands of limestone rock that rise up out of the sea. If you use your imagination (ie after a few beers) they take the shape of all manner of things.
After lunch we hopped on our boat and headed out into the bay. We visited "The Amazing Caves", which were actually very cool and deserve a slightly more original name. Unbelievably, in this cavernous, eerily beautiful place, there was graffiti, litter and two stores (at the entrance and exit). We are so lucky in New Zealand, it would be unheard of! In the caves Chi told us that the Vietnamese have four sacred animals, the dragon, unicorn, phoenix and turtle. We think the turtle is punching above its weight personally, but they seem to like it.
We then stopped off at a little beach, where some of our tour went swimming. The rest of us climbed to the top of the hill on the island, where we got an unbelievable panoramic view of the bay. We did the climb in 5 mins 30 secs, which we like to think is an all time record. No official recognition as yet.

After that we headed back out into the bay and dropped anchor for the night. The food we were served was brilliant - crab, squid, fish, but also soup, salad, rice, spring rolls and chips. Plus the ubiquitous pineapple for dessert. Lovely.

We got some really useful tips from the rest of the people in the tour, most of whom had spent a few weeks working their way up Vietnam from the south. So we now know where to stay, where to eat and which tailors are the best for the rest of our time in Vietnam.

On Saturday morning we stopped at another little beach and we climbed the 425 steps to the lookout at the top, (where the first man in space once climbed)...and took some more photos. The return trip in the mini van provided more entertainment as we saw motorbikes carrying cages full of live chickens and one with a few live pigs strapped to the back of the seat.

It was great having Chi there to point out interesting things along the way and answer our stupid questions. She also confirmed our suspicion that the conical hat Tim had been proudly wearing around Hanoi for the past two days is only worn by women. Apparently it would be a bit like a guy wearing a miniskirt up Queen Street! We wondered why all the Vietnamese women had been giggling at Tim...(however, Chi did say that a lot of male tourists wear them without knowing they are womens' hats). And so the hat has been passed on to a fellow (female) tour member and we are done with Hanoi.

Once again we have found that happy "hour" in Asia goes for hours at a time and features some of the best deals of the century. We stopped in at our local (the Polite Pub) for some $1.30 pints of Tiger Beer to help us sleep on the train tonight. We met up with the Canadian couple (Leo and Isabelle) from our Halong Bay tour in the pub. It was really fun, they had so many great stories to share. After a few Tiger beers, we met up with some other friends of Leo and Isabelle for dinner. Once again dinner was brilliant, very cheap and had loads of free entertainment - including live English premiership soccer, the menu (delights such as the "road bird in couple" and "fried bird in nest" sadly remain a mystery) and of course our very own "count the rats" game. Tim spotted about 25 rats all up although many were the same rats going back and forth on the restaurant wall opposite us.

Onwards to Hue on the overnight train, hope our roomies are special!