Disappointment from Ha Long Bay to Hanoi

Today we got up at half 6 as breakfast was at 7am. Breakfast didn't live up to the standard of dinner and lunch yesterday but that's probably because we're fussy. There was toast, eggs, plain pancakes that were semi-cold and nothing to go on them, and fruit.

The reason we had breakfast so early was so that we could go kayaking at 7:45. The kayaks were all double kayaks. Lauren was at the back and I was at the front. We had about an hour. We went through a short cave/tunnel in one of the limestone islands into a lake that was surrounded by cliffs. As we came out the tunnel we looked up and there were little brown fluffy monkeys hanging off the side of the cliff and the branches protruding out of it. They were so cute and were just hanging about above the tunnel. We kayaked round the lake, swapping photographer roles with the Argentinian girls and then back towards the cave. There was some bigger boats with lots of tourists on hanging about watching the monkeys. They were also throwing toast and bananas to the monkeys. We managed to get really close to one of them. They were so cute. We kayaked back through the tunnel and paddled around a bit before heading back to the kayak station. We had managed to stay mostly dry except for our knees where the water was dripping off the paddle. It was a lot of fun although my arms ached afterwards, and although the weather was miserable the rain had managed to hold off.

We went back to the boat and checked out of the rooms at half 9. Then we had a cooking class. Well that's what it was called but that's a bit of a stretch. There was no cooking involved and the teaching consisted of a two minute demonstration. When someone says you're going to be making spring rolls, you don't expect to be putting pre-cooked ingredients into a bit of rice paper, rolling it up and eating it. It was more like how to make a rice paper wrap class. Like a smaller version of subway, with rice paper instead of bread, and no 'cheese and toasted' option. You just selected what you wanted, dumped it in and wrapped it up. It was a bit disappointing.

After this finished we had lunch. It was only 11am but we would be leaving the boat soon. Lunch was pretty good. There was some really good crinkly chips, battered fish, a chicken and veg dish, what looked like cabbage, rice and a potato salad (I think). I was absolutely stuffed afterwards. Once we finished we floated around on the water waiting for the boat back to the shore for the bus back to Hanoi. The bus hadnt arrived yet so we were just hanging about. After a while the man leading the tour said it was here so we got on the boat back to the shore. When we got there the bus wasn't there. We waited a bit and then we were told there had been an accident and the bus was stuck and our guide had no idea how long it would take for the bus to arrive. We ended up waiting almost two hours. Eventually it turned up, we got on and off we went. There was a lot of traffic and we were at a standstill at some points but we got back to Hanoi eventually around 7:15pm. We were supposed to be getting a bus to the next place at 6pm.

We arrived in Hanoi having missed our bus and having no place to stay. We had managed to contact the travel agents we booked with at the boat terminal and she'd said they would see what they could do but whilst on the bus our guide rang up and cancelled our spaces for us as we weren't going to get there in time. We were dropped off at the hostel we had been staying at and asked if they had any space. They didn't. Thankfully the staff there are so friendly and helpful. They let us use their WiFi and toilet and we managed to book a deluxe four bed ensuite for £4 each just down the road,  and the travel agents, who were also amazing, arranged a 8:30am bus for tomorrow morning at no extra charge. We grabbed our bags and headed to the hostel and discovered the rooms were not deluxe at all, but for one night it will do. We both got showers and just crashed out. 

Hanoi - day three

Today we got up at 9am and had chocolate pancakes. Then we headed out to do a free tour from the tourist office and information centre we found the other day. We walked to where we thought it was and found it wasn't there.  Turns out we had completely misremembered where it was. We wandered around a bit before doing into another tourist information and asking them about free tours. They pointed us to a different office, which turned out to be the one we were looking for originally. We were only about 150m away, it had just been down a road away from the lake, instead of on the lake front as we had thought. And after all that,  when we got there it was shut anyway. So we didn't do a free tour. We found some WiFi and googled other free tours but the one we found was all booked up so we never got to do a tour.

We spent the whole morning just milling around and walking about before going back to the hostel. We stayed at the hostel for a bit before heading out to the Water Puppet show. It was listed as one of the top things to do in Hanoi and the reviews on TripAdvisor said it was worth it just once and was an interesting insight into Vietnamese culture and it wasn't expensive so although it probably wasn't something we would ordinarily go to we thought we'd give it a try. We went to the 3pm performance which started very promptly. There was a 6 piece orchestra (or a Vietnamese version of) on the side of the stage, which was predominantly taken up by a pool of water with a temple backdrop. Puppets came out the temple and danced around in the water. There was some dialogue that was all in Vietnamese but it was mostly music. For the most part we had no idea what the stories being told were but we did recognise one where that was related to the lake outside where a turtle stole a sword. There was puppets of people and turtles and birds also dancing round. It was quite strange. I wouldn't say I agreed with the TripAdvisor reviews. I had no greater idea about Vietnamese culture and it wasn't that amazing, but it killed an hour or so.

After the show we went back to the hostel and showered before going out for dinner to have a dish called Bún bò Nam Bô,  which had been mentioned in several places as worth trying. It was basically noodles, beef, beansprouts and peanuts. It was the only dish offered at the place we went and it was made at the front of the restaurant from big bowls of ingredients that were added to noodles that were mass cooked. I thought it was pretty good but Lauren wasn't a massive fan. But the meal and a drink came to less than £3 so it was nice and cheap. Afterwards we headed back to the hostel to chill and pack as tomorrow we're heading off to Ha Long Bay for the night. It's rained pretty much all day today and we had hoped to see Ha Long Bay in the sun but the weather forecast is not looking good.

Hanging round Hanoi

This morning I got up around 8am and went and took advantage of the free breakfast the hostel offers. They have a menu and you can choose what you want from it. I had chocolate pancakes (obviously). They weren't exactly the same as English pancakes but they were still nice. Then I went and woke Lauren up and told her to take advantage of the breakfast while it lasts, so she did and also has chocolate pancakes.

Once we were both ready we set off to visit Hoa Lo prison, which is not a prison anymore. It housed political prisoners from the French rule of Vietnam and then American pilots, who named it Hilton Hanoi as apparently they were fairly well treated according to the museum. This is disputed by some apparently. John McCain was held there during the war.  We got a bit lost trying to find the prison and it felt like we had walked really far. The route from the hostel was almost a straight line so we don't really know what happened. But we made it eventually and paid to go round it. It was quite interesting. You could see the cells and how the prisoners were shackled. It must have been awful to be a prisoner there. There was little light and apparently it was extremely overpopulated. It was built for less than a thousand people but held 2000.

After the prison we headed back towards the hostel, stopping a restaurant for lunch. Lauren had chicken wings and I had pork ribs, both with a huge portion of fried rice, and a side of what we assume was some kind of broth. We saw others eating it so tried it. It was very watery but quite nice. The rice and ribs were really good. We both had a coke as well, and the meal came to less than £2.15 each. It was amazing.

After lunch we came back to the hostel and rested and researched things for the rest of Vietnam. After a while the house keepers came in and one of the staff wanted to do some wallpapering near my bed so we went out.

We wandered down to a big underground market but we weren't impressed. We probably spent less than 5 minutes there. It was more like a car boot sale. So we wandered down towards the lake and round the town, seeing what there was to see. We ended up back by the lake so we sat and watched Hanoi life and traffic going on around us. Around half 6 it had started gettin dark and all the lights around the town had come on so we started heading back and noticed a waffle place. It was so cheap,  we thought why not? They were quite small portions which was fine as we were still full from lunch. After the waffles we went back to the hostel. On the way back to the hostel we passed a place selling chicken feet and some kind of brains. I originally assumed it was chicken but thinking about it now, it was too big for a small chickens head. It was a a bit smaller than the palm of my hand so I have no idea who's brains they were.

Lauren's bag had arrived at the hostel and she was very happy. We started doing some planning but around 10pm I feel asleep sitting up in the middle of the conversation, only to wake up 5 minutes later wondering why the music had stopped and where Lauren had gone. (She'd gone back to her own bed). So that pretty much put an end to the planning and we both went to bed properly.

Hectic Hanoi

We arrived at the airport around 10:30am. Immigration was no trouble and we were given month long visas without any questions. It had taken us a while to get through the border checks and down to our luggage due to long queues, toilet stops and form filling out. When we got there most people had collected their bags and gone. Mine came round pretty quick. Lauren's didn't show up. We talked to the people at the luggage lost and found and apparently it never left Auckland. So Lauren has absolutely nothing with her apart from what she's wearing. Hopefully her rucksack will be dropped off tomorrow morning but we will soon find out.

When we eventually got out the airport we had someone from our hostel waiting for us. We got in the car and off we went. This was the first time we encountered the madness of Vietnam drivers. There was hundreds of mopeds just going in and out of the traffic and everyone was beeping like mad. We had several near misses but we made it to the hostel without killing anyone.

We were able to check in and go to our room straight away which was amazing as check in wasn't supposed to be until 2pm. We're in a 6 bed ensuite that has plenty of room. We dumped our stuff and had a little lay down on the beds. After a while we decided to go out. This was the second encounter with Vietnam's crazy drivers. Crossing the road is a near death experience. Mopeds are coming from all directions in no real order and beeping away. And they are everywhere. They're parked on the pavements so you have to walk in the road and they outnumber the cars about ten to one. There was mopeds with one person on, with two people, with two people and kids, and we saw some that were laden with China cups etc.  Utter madness. We found the best way to cross the road was to just start going when there was a little gap and just not stopping. The mopeds would go round. If you hesitated you were more likely to get hit.

We went to the lake in the middle of Hanoi and looked at the red bridge. It leads to a temple but we didn't go in. We wandered around for a bit and then went for a soft drink. We planned some stuff while drinking and then headed to a travel agents to book, before heading back to the hostel.

We just hung out for about an hour and a half and then headed out to the night market, which was packed full of stalls and people. Lauren got some new sunglasses for 3 quid. We walked around for a while before heading back to the hostel for an early night.