Vietnam Photos

I wrote a lengthy post about my trip to Halong Bay a few bus rides ago but after the computer died and I lost everything, I decided I’d get around to it a couple days later. It’s been a while now and much has happened since, so I’ll try describing my time in Halong Bay briefly now.

Situated 4 hours or so north of Hanoi, Halong Bay is likely to become one of the world’s ‘new’ seven wonders. It really is amazing, whilst at the same time confusing, but regardless, it acts as host to countless tour groups, from small families to older couples, from Vietnamese tourists to 18-30 year-old backpackers. I opted for the more ‘youth-orientated’ cruise- a 3-day, 2-night boat trip put on by Hanoi Backpacker’s Hostel, or in other words, a booze cruise. However you actually do participate in quite a few activities and of course get a chance to see the real beauty of Halong Bay.

We left early for the cruise and started the trip up north. After the 26-hour Vientiane to Hanoi bus, 4 hours was actually quite enjoy enjoyable and went past quickly. Due to so many people signing up for the cruise on that specific day, we were put onto a 2nd smaller boat that at night joined up with a 3rd smaller boat. We boarded the boat just in time for lunch as we made our way into the heart of Halong Bay. Afterwards we joined up with the other boat, jumped over to theirs and began drinking and diving off into the bay, which was actually a pretty massive jump even though it doesn’t look like it. Kayaking was next on the agenda, with a small trip taking us to a famous cave. Beer, darkness and cave exploring never goes well together.

I’ll skip to later that night when we again left our boat to be on the other one, where it was basically a night of drinking games and socializing with everyone else on the boat. We separated into 2 tables to play one game, and somehow the other table ended up pretty much naked. I’m not sure if I was better off as I had to swap clothes with a Swedish girl, resulting in me wearing a slim black dress for the evening. It turned out that my legs looked unbearably sexy in it so I wasn’t complaining. As the night winded up we went to bed with a 7am wake-up the next day in time for a 7.30 boat check-out.

We spent the better half of the morning taking several boats to the ‘Castaway Island’, a small piece of beach claimed by the hostel, featuring luxurious open bamboo huts where you’re given a thin mattress to sleep on, next to another 5-10 people, and even a mosquito net! I felt like a King. The island had plenty of activities organized for us to do, such as wake-boarding, rock-climbing, kayaking, tubing and volleyball, but, regardless of the fact that I’m travelling and in South East Asia, I spent most of the day relaxing with the other lazy people.

I did however get convinced by a Dutch guy I’d met a few days before to come kayaking as he had a bag of beers and just seemed so happy that I couldn’t say no. We finally made our way across the water to another island but soon realized that it didn’t actually have a beach of sand, but rather a beach of slippery rocks that we figured we’d be able to walk through. We were wrong. As the waves got stronger, we tried to pull the kayak out from the rocks but kept getting pushed back and falling into the rocks. It ended with a few bruises and several cuts but at least I can say I did some form of physical activity.

Later that night we continued with the drinking games after a big dinner, again going to bed early due to an early wake-up the next day. By 5pm the next day we were all back in Hanoi, tired but as it was my last night in the city I felt the need to go out still.

A few friends I’d met all the way back in Chiang Mai and had seen since then in Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng came to the hostel and surprised me. They’d brought along with them a really cool Israeli guy who didn’t make me feel bad for my awful Hebrew, and we spoke throughout the night, leaving me feeling pretty awesome that only we could understand the conservation. After 3 days having to listen to Swedish without a clue what was being said, it felt nice to be on the other side of the table. We ended up at a small random bar where they gave us our own room and Nagilla, and I eventually convinced the Vietnamese waiters to start dancing with us, which is always a game changer.

There isn’t much else to say about Hanoi. Backpackers tend to hate it. The people there tend to be colder, the food and alcohol is more expensive and there is a limited amount of stuff to actually do there. There are numerous stories you here of people getting mugged, pickpocketed, ripped off, and in general just taken advantage of. When you come to a city with the intention of trying to learn about it, meet its people, see what it has to offer and really, give your money and improve their economy, you don’t expect to be taken for a ride, but in Hanoi we as travellers tend to feel as if we’re just seen as money-bags.

Anyway, I left Hanoi the next day to head south, but I’ll talk about that in the next post.

Tomorrow I head to Cambodia for the next week with a few Swedish guys I met a few days ago, before returning to Bangkok to catch my flight to Myanmar, and I’m really looking forward to getting away from the big cities and back to an atmosphere similar to that of Laos.