As part of the trip we got to explore some local cliffs which have been lit up like Disneyland...very pretty though. Another new experience for me was kayaking - around the bay & into some smaller, enclosed pools of water that the junk boat was too big to navigate. I probably won't be head hunted by the Olympic team any time soon but I held my own! Once back on the boat the boys had fun jumping off the railing on the top deck into the chilly water.....even when a large jellyfish came swimming by they didn't seem perturbed. Sunset over the cliffs was gorgeous, although it was here that we discovered a rather large spot on the inside of lens on our camera....NOT HAPPY JAN! All these beautiful sunset shots with a strange alien shadow in the middle of every one :( On the way back to Halong City the next morning we decided (after eating a huge breakfast) that it was a brilliant idea to go ashore on one of the islands and climb Halong Tower....all 700 steps! In hindsight, not so clever.
On arrival back in Hanoi it was decided that some of us girls were in need of some hair removal and we discovered that our hotel had ties to a salon....perfect we thought! They even arranged & paid for a taxi to said salon where a lovely lady was waiting for us to escort us into the building....did I mention it was based at a hospital? Needless to say I had a rather "interesting" experience with the young, apprentice waxer. You don't need to know all the gory details, suffice it to say my bum cheeks ended up stuck together!!
As the tour was now over, we found ourselves at our new accommodation - the famous (or should I say infamous??) Hanoi Backpackers Hostel. Run by a couple of Aussie lads and as you can imagine, quite "laddish". We checked in & were excited to see that we had scored the "Penthouse". Translation: Walk down the street to another building, down an alley way and up four flights of stairs to the top floor where we find a double bed.....and that's about it. Oh yeah, and a window that looks out into an air con unit. At least the air con worked.......that's right, we knew the air con worked cos it dripped....all night! I spose we shouldn't expect too much for $16 per night. Now we feel like backpackers!
On the evening of the following day we left on an overnight train to Sapa...famous for it's ethnic minority groups & their method of farming rice on terraces cut out of the mountain side, spectacular. Now when we booked the four day trip the brochure said "walk 12kms along beautiful rice terraces etc"...what transpired over the coming days was this:
Trekked (not walked) 9kms in the pouring rain down to a village & back again. Night 1 in the hotel. Trekked 12kms in the pouring rain to a homestay.Night 2 spent with a local family. Trekked 10kms out of the valley back to the hotel. Total 31kms. Did I mention it poured with rain for 2 out of the 3 days?? Now, having said all of that, the experience was amazing. From the tiny little local ladies who held me by the wrists to make sure I didn't end sliding down the mountain on my arse, to the patriarch of the homestay family, who's sole purpose for the evening was to get us all drunk on locally brewed rice vodka (apparently it doesn't give you a hang over but I think Andrew might have something to say about that!). The hospitality shown by all the local people we came across was heart warming and it was a memorable few days.
Sadly this is where things start to go a bit pear shaped. Having done all that walking in the rain I had developed a bit of a cold. This quickly progressed to a bad cold. We had arranged to leave for Halong Bay again in a few days time so I spent 3 days in bed in Hanoi trying to get better. Monday morning came & I wasn't going anywhere. Instead Andrew arranged for us to be taken to a local hospital...we were nervous. On arrival at SOS International Hospital we were greeted by a large staff of English speaking people...Thank God! They took me straight to a bed & the European doctor came & very efficiently arranged for every test, of every bodily fluid, known to man. Having ruled out Denghi Fever, Malaria & some other tropical disease I can't spell, I am slightly embarrassed to admit that I had the flu...Type B. (Oh, and a temperature of 39.8 degrees). Drugs were administered, rest was recommended & if I didn't feel better after a few more days come back & they would start all over again. $585US later, I felt better that at least I didn't appear to be dying so back to bed I went.
On Wednesday I got out bed & declared that I would be fine to leave for Halong Bay. We were picked up at 8am by bus for the 4 hour drive to the coast. By 10am I could hardly hold my head up & was deteriorating fast. We made it onto the boat where they could see that I was struggling & offered me a room to rest in for the 2 hour boat ride to Cat Ba Island (our intended destination). By the end of the boat ride I couldn't breathe (turned out to be a panic attack) & the local guide was making arrangements to get me to a hospital on the Island. It is times like this that the language barrier becomes a major obstacle. Normally a smile, some attempted Vietnamese & some made up sign language will suffice. Andrew was desperately trying to communicate with the locals - "Will there be a bus to meet us at the boat & take us to the hospital?", "Do they speak English?", "Is it a good hospital?"...the answer to all these questions was "Yes". So I was carried from the boat & the first hiccup....no bus at the dock. Instead we had to walk 1km to the bus station...when I say walk, I mean Andrew carried his big backpack, his day pack & me while some of the other lovely passengers carried my luggage. Then we had to wait 20 minutes for a bus to come. Second hiccup - the hospital. If you ask Andrew what he thought of the hospital he would say "It looked like something out of the war!". We walked (I was carried!) up 3 flights of stairs into a concrete room where 2 local guys were sitting at a table having a smoke...yep, in a hospital. Turns out one of them was the doctor. Third hiccup - no-one spoke English. They put me on a bed & the doctor started poking & prodding me. I just wanted to get out of there. Eventually Andrew just told them to organise a bus to the resort & we would sort everything out from there. In hindsight we realised that they actually must have known what they were doing. We checked the medication they had given me & it was identical to what the Hanoi doctor had prescribed - & better still it was $5US.
We eventually got to Cat Ba Island Resort where I went straight to bed.....& I think Andrew had a stiff drink. After another 4 days in bed & plenty of fluids I was on the mend. It was then that I realised what a weird place we were in. In the 5 days were there, we saw a total of 15 people...in the whole resort. We had the pool to ourselves, the restaurant to ourselves....& yep that was about all there was to do...pool, eat, sleep, repeat! It was just what I needed.
After 5 days we transferred back onto the boat to make our way back to the mainland & to Tuan Chau Island. A large island with "beautiful white sand on the man made beach" which is famous for hosting the 2008 Miss World Competition. I think that was possibly the last time anyone went there. We thought we had the place to ourselves on Cat Ba, but place was ridiculous. It was 3 days before we saw anyone else staying at the resort. We would go down for breakfast - full buffet - & be the only ones there. We did make one friend on the first day. A local guy who worked for the marketing department for the Island - clearly not doing a very good job! We had gone for a walk up the beach & had come across what looked like a shopping centre but turned out to be the dock for boats going to Cat Ba Island. He saw us & came running out of his office chattering away. He invited us in for a cup of tea & started pumping us for info about where we are from etc. Turns out his daughter lives in Sydney but he would really like to go to Melbourne....we wouldn't mind giving him our email address would we?? Hmmmmmmm? Nice guy but things turned even stranger when he started talking about his religious beliefs....I think he was trying to convert us. We made a hasty retreat to our resort but not before he managed to sneak us into the crocodile enclosure....that's right on this island is a crocodile & performing monkey show - cancelled due to non attendance. In actual fact there were only 10 or so sad crocodiles lying in a concrete pit being looked over by a 16 year old with a cigarette hanging off his lip.
The dolphin show was another thing altogether. A 3,000 seat auditorium (think Seaworld on the Gold Coast) & there were 21 of us in the audience. The whole thing was in Vietnamese so we had no idea what was going but non the less the show started & out came sea lions, seals & dolphins for a choreographed routine to music (Shakira & the like). It went for about half an hour then sadly it was over & we spoke of it again....strange. We are bewildered as to how they manage to stay open. The resort was massive, so massive in fact we had to be driven to our room on a golf cart. P.S We didn't help the cause by blowing up the TV either!
So it was back to Hanoi for a couple of days before we hit China. We managed to fit in some last minute sites; the Temple of Literature, breakfast at KOTO (tick that off the list Bec) & Hoa Low Prison. The ride on the cyclo from KOTO to the prison was a fun way to finish off our adventures in Vietnam. Sadly Andrew had a brain fart when paying the driver & paid him 400,000 Dong ($20) instead of 40,000 ($2).....the driver snatched his money & disappeared into the traffic before Andrew even had time to draw breath, but not before flashing us the biggest smile I've ever seen. Cheeky bastard!!
Now we are off to China. If it wasn't for getting sick in Hanoi I would leave with only fond memories of Vietnam. The people are amazing, the landscape breathtaking & the food....I have no words. China here we come!
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