Good Morning (from) Vietnam

its that time again folks.

i am now safely into life in Vietnam - although i dont think i will ever fully get used to it. we flew into hanoi on thursday morning after getting up at stupid o'clock to check in. the airport was tiny and would probably fit into the check in lounge of heathrow, only 6 planes leave a day. i had heard some horror stories about air laos, but i can assure you that it was a good flight and despite the cloud cover an easily landing (there have been reports that the planes couldnt land in clouding weather, as they dont use computers and if they cant see they cant land). shared a taxi with some other backpackers going in a similar direction to us and headed for the old quarter of hanoi.

after bangkok i thought i was used to the chaos of a big city in asia - how long i was. it is like bangkok on speed - bikes dont stop, even if trucks are fast bearing down on them, people just walk out into the street and cause bikes to screeh to a halt and the beeping is constant, even when it appears that nothing is in the way they still beep. it didnt help that the taxi diver tried to con us and take us to his friends hotels in an attempt to drum up some extra business. in the end we all jumped out in the middle of nowhere and wandered till me and lucy found a guesthouse. lovely little thing, as it had no windows and was painted pink - also it was boiling in there and the little fan couldnt cope with it, so we stayed hot all night. by this time, after about 3 hours in hanoi we both agreed that it was best to leave as soon as possible and as the weather was hot the logical destination was halong bay and the BEACH (i have been waiting for this about 4 weeks). so we went for a wander around to find a travel agent that was cheap (ish) and booked a 3 day 2 night trip around the bay and cat ba island. sounded great, sleeping on a boat (not a sailing one, sorry dad) swimming from the side, a trek on the island etc etc.

anyway after we booked that we walked around the lake in the centre of hanoi in an attempt to avoid the sun and the millions of people. my camera was still eating batteries like tomorrow so i got some rechargeable ones and a charger - to save a few quid in the long run.

on the way back it started to rain, again like never before and we took shelter in an irish bar - which had free pool and darts and an expansive collection of music from sting to the police, which got boring very quickly. we ended up staying and drinking for about 4 hours before the rain stopped and we attempted to find the hostel, which was down so little tiny back street. due to another stupid o'clock start for the trip to the seaside we btoh went to bed early ish.

the trip to halong bay is supposed to be one of the must do things in the whole of vietnam and i can agree that this is the case.

the guy we booked with promised to pick us up from the hotel and take us to the bus, he arrived right on time on a little scooter. what followed was a brillant little adventure. as i was taking all my stuff with me i had my big backpack, funny enough on my back and the day sack on my front, on the back of a tiny scooter driven by a crazy little vietnamise man. i couldnt hold on as there was nowehere to hold to and i didnt fancy putting my arms around a man, so, as he sped through the morning traffic, stopping for nothing and peeping at everything i just hoped i would get to see the sea. looking back it was probably one of the highlights of my trip so far as it was completely out of the blue and really good fun.

so we got there and despite the cramped little bus which we had to sit on for 3 and a half hours and the hour waiting in the midday sun for the guide to book a boat, only when we had arrived the landscape and limestone formations are stunnning. the boat took 5 hours to reach cat ba island on route stopping at some caves, a floating village - it had a school, shop and pub - all floating miles away from the main land on little pontoons. when we arrived on the island it was clear that they hadnt booked a boat for us to sleep on and that what we were told wasnt going to happen. this didnt really bother me to much as i found out that we still had paid less that everybody else and that we had all the meals included, whilst they didnt. still it was annoying to know that you had been lied to. the next day we had a 4km trek up and and down a hill and it was hotter than the sun. by the time we reached the top everybody was covered head to toe in sweat and it dripped off us with an alarming rate. the walk was good, although the view wasnt, really. but it was fun and it felt like you had achieved something at the end. afterwards we were taken back to the hotel and had lunch before it was beach time. we walked the 2km or so in the sunshine and i could feel myself burning already. when we got there it was empty, so i headed straight into the merky water to cool off and relax. the cove had an island just off it and i thought it might be fun to attempt to swm to it, i started heading out to sea when this little bloke on the shore starts shouting and blowing his whistle at me with increasing distress. i returned to be told that you can only swim within certain bouys, which annoyed me somewhat. anyway my mission was over and i had managed to get into the sea at last. the sun got to hot to sit in and we headed back round the cove to the first little beach, to be greeted by close to a thousand vietnam people goign mental - it was like the costa del sol - packed. it turns out the beach is always empty till this time as they cant take the midday sun and so wait till later on before heading out to the beach.

in the evening there was a free live 'gig' in the street and we met up with some people off the original bus and had a few beers and games of pool. i thought about attempting to start a mosh pit but no one seemed interested and the idea fell on deaf ears.

today we had to again get up at a daft time to maek the trip by boat back to the main land and set about having a go at the tour guide about the lack of service. we moaned at him for a while and in the end we managed to get two free nights accomodation, which more than makes up for the lack of sleeping on a boat.

tomorrow i am off on another little day trip then i plan to see ho chi minhs remains and then head south out of hanoi. but i will keep you all updated, also thinking of heading into malaysia before i return

for info on halong bay -

http://www.terragalleria.com/vietnam/vietnam.halong.html