Hanoi,
Ha Long Bay and Cat Ba Island at Vietnam
When we arrived at the bus terminal, OMG - so many motorbikes (semai), and they wanted us to get on the back of them. But luckily, my sister and I had been practicing our Vietnamese along the way. Krong means no, so it seemed like they understood and left us alone after that. We checked in at the Rising Dragon hotel, which we loved and would highly recommend to anyone. The receptionists are friendly, the hotel is clean, and the bellboys are nice. (They did not stand around waiting for a tip as we had heard.) It cost us only $22 per night including breakfast and 24 hour coffee or tea and snacks. The first place we visited was Tang Long Lake and Ngo temple. It was OK for me, but it felt pretty much the same as Sauboahard Park in Chiang Mai - nothing really special. Anyone intending to visit this lake should be cautioned to watch out for pickpockets. They tried to distract my sister by first touting a package tour to Ha Long Bay, then suddenly two other men began following her. She did not have her backpack on the front like me and I saw one man trying to open her bag. I slapped his hand very hard and said “WHAT !” He stopped and ran away. Wow! Thieves are everywhere no matter we go, so we must be careful!
Talking about food, they seem to eat mostly noodles here, and Vietnamese food (not readily available in Thailand) is quite different from Thai food. They eat noodles with fish sauce mixed with water, meat, pork, chicken or dog. Vietnamese noodle soup is usually served with beef or chicken. The soup has a base of rice noodles with Asian basil, mint leaves, lime, bean sprouts added. Pho seems to be their traditional dish just as pad Thai is ours in Thailand. After eating some more very interesting stuff, we started walking around to take in the Saint Joseph Cathedral and some Hanoi culture. Motorbikes are everywhere! People here love sitting around talking on stools or chairs. We found it to be a lovely, charming culture, so we sat down with a young boy to practice our Vietnamese with him. It was a great experience to share and learn a bit about their culture.
My sister‘s dream was to see the bamboo puppets. So off we went to
see the water puppetry show, which is a puppet dance on water - a unique and
ancient Asian tradition and only one place in the world. The puppets are made
out of wood and then lacquered. The shows are performed in a waist-deep pool. The
puppeteers, normally hidden behind a screen, control the puppets using rods concealed
under the water. They manage to create the illusion that the puppets are moving across the water. When
the rice fields would flood, the villagers would entertain each other using
this form of puppet play.
The following day we visited Halong Bay is about 4 hours from Hanoi by slow bus (not allowed to exceed 50 km/hr).. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site, a beautiful bay with just under 2,000 limestone cliff islands around the bay. We took the tour bus to Halong City (obligatory stop at a souvenir store, of course). It seems like the government here has been very clever in placing many disabled people in one tourist spot to display and sell their embroidered silk wares. Same same in Thailand …but different. At first it felt like stepping into a ski-lift, going out on that boat. One trick we would like to recommend you to consider the tour package that available at your hotel it will more easier than experience buses and transfer boats also cheaper and not complicate like us. At any one time there are about 300 similar passenger boats sailing around Halong Bay and they all have similar schedules so we could always see a few boats behind us and a few ahead of us, all heading in the same direction. There were so many we lost track of them. Sailing around the bay in those old looking boats is soooo relaxing and nice. The bay is very quiet and the scenery is so beautiful that you get the feeling of moving around in slow motion. My sister said she was so happy for the first time in her life to be able to take a boat ride without getting motion sickness.
This picture was taken at our favourite spot in Ha Long Bay. We explored a big cave on one of the islands - Dong Thein Cung Cave, which was illuminated with multi-colored lights. I thought it was fine, but we also have many caves in Thailand so it was nothing too new or exciting for me. I wish Tourism Authority of Thailand could use this technique to improve our tourist spots in Thailand. We visited another big cave on one of the islands, then a floating village where people live in dwellings built on rafts. Underneath they have enclosures filled with fish, squid and lobsters that they feed until they are big enough to eat and/or sell to us tourists. I took a lesson on how to paddle a Vietnamese Kayak. I thought it was fun but I am not sure all my passengers thought so! Be careful if you go there. Don’t buy anything from this village. They tried to cheat me twice. They tried to sell me a basket of fruit, but after bargaining for it I got only one piece of fruit. We also learned not to book package tours online in Vietnam. Booking through the hotel seems to be a better bet. This would have avoided ha ving to change tour guides 5 times, boats 6 times and vans twice, as we had to. We ate stir fried cabbage for 3 meals and had to share one fish with 6 other farangs! (Hey! I can eat a whole fish by myself!) Booking a spot on the boat is highly recommended - a great experience. And the Cat Ba Island is so beautiful and quiet with such wonderful fresh air. I loved it there most. Halong Bay is relaxing and awe-inspiring, despite being a classic tourist trap. I worry that the Vietnamese might escalate all this into a full-scale tourist-exploitation system and thus cause damage to a fragile ecosystem. Nature is what attracts people here in the very first place, so to destroy it seems insane. I must come here again, maybe in the spring time, or at least when it’s a bit warmer.
The following day we visited Halong Bay is about 4 hours from Hanoi by slow bus (not allowed to exceed 50 km/hr).. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site, a beautiful bay with just under 2,000 limestone cliff islands around the bay. We took the tour bus to Halong City (obligatory stop at a souvenir store, of course). It seems like the government here has been very clever in placing many disabled people in one tourist spot to display and sell their embroidered silk wares. Same same in Thailand …but different. At first it felt like stepping into a ski-lift, going out on that boat. One trick we would like to recommend you to consider the tour package that available at your hotel it will more easier than experience buses and transfer boats also cheaper and not complicate like us. At any one time there are about 300 similar passenger boats sailing around Halong Bay and they all have similar schedules so we could always see a few boats behind us and a few ahead of us, all heading in the same direction. There were so many we lost track of them. Sailing around the bay in those old looking boats is soooo relaxing and nice. The bay is very quiet and the scenery is so beautiful that you get the feeling of moving around in slow motion. My sister said she was so happy for the first time in her life to be able to take a boat ride without getting motion sickness.
This picture was taken at our favourite spot in Ha Long Bay. We explored a big cave on one of the islands - Dong Thein Cung Cave, which was illuminated with multi-colored lights. I thought it was fine, but we also have many caves in Thailand so it was nothing too new or exciting for me. I wish Tourism Authority of Thailand could use this technique to improve our tourist spots in Thailand. We visited another big cave on one of the islands, then a floating village where people live in dwellings built on rafts. Underneath they have enclosures filled with fish, squid and lobsters that they feed until they are big enough to eat and/or sell to us tourists. I took a lesson on how to paddle a Vietnamese Kayak. I thought it was fun but I am not sure all my passengers thought so! Be careful if you go there. Don’t buy anything from this village. They tried to cheat me twice. They tried to sell me a basket of fruit, but after bargaining for it I got only one piece of fruit. We also learned not to book package tours online in Vietnam. Booking through the hotel seems to be a better bet. This would have avoided ha ving to change tour guides 5 times, boats 6 times and vans twice, as we had to. We ate stir fried cabbage for 3 meals and had to share one fish with 6 other farangs! (Hey! I can eat a whole fish by myself!) Booking a spot on the boat is highly recommended - a great experience. And the Cat Ba Island is so beautiful and quiet with such wonderful fresh air. I loved it there most. Halong Bay is relaxing and awe-inspiring, despite being a classic tourist trap. I worry that the Vietnamese might escalate all this into a full-scale tourist-exploitation system and thus cause damage to a fragile ecosystem. Nature is what attracts people here in the very first place, so to destroy it seems insane. I must come here again, maybe in the spring time, or at least when it’s a bit warmer.
TAM BIET HA NOI
