The last two days have been interesting. And I mean it in the way that only an experience in a foreign land can be interesting.
My flight to Hanoi went off without a hitch, relatively. The flight was delayed, then delayed again, but at this point I’m as used to the lack of punctuality here as I am the suspect hygiene standards. My Uber to the HCMC airport was cheaper than expected, the airports were nicer than expected, and to my surprise there were several shuttle busses in Hanoi that ferried travelers to the downtown of the city for a mere 40,000d (about $2). I’d heard that the main way to get from the airport to downtown was a 350,000d taxi ride. Note to self: tripadvisor users don’t know shit.
I found Hanoi to be not significantly different than Saigon. On the positive side there were fewer street touts hocking their knockoff knick-knacks, but the trade off was a severe shortage of sunny sky. The air feels dirtier, which is a surprise. The people seemed the same in terms of temperament, though I’ve been told that people in the north are generally friendlier. My hostel room was basic and not terribly unclean, though for $10/night I suppose you get what you pay for.
I had arrived at about 1am so my first real experience with the city was the next day. I had breakfast then decided to test out the travel agents in the area and had I tried to check prices at all of them I’d probably still be there now. It wasn’t an exciting experience, mostly like bargaining for an item in the market. I ended up going with Rose Travel Agency because Rose (I assume it was Rose) gave me an initial price that another agent told me “No, not possible for that price.” That, and her 5 star rating on tripadvisor (despite their users not knowing shit). I paid $90 but Rose advised me to tell people that I paid $110 so they didn’t feel bad about overpaying a bit. She even wrote $110 on the bill then still charged me $90. Nice lady.
Everything was straightforward, and I even used Rose to book a sleeper bus from Hanoi to Hue the day I returned from Bai Tu Long Bay. Oh right, I haven’t told you about that yet. Well I’m getting there, just hold your horses.
The following morning at 8am I met at the travel agency with a man who ushered me and a young woman over to one of the prototypical travel busses seen all over Vietnam. From there we picked up a few other passengers and set off for Ha Long City. 4 hour bus rides are not fun, but you make the best of it when you’re headed to a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Our group was an interesting mix; there were 2 Germans, 2 Danes, 1 French woman, 1 Argentinean woman, 2 Malaysians, 4 South Africans, 4 Brits, and 1 American (yours truly).
We got to the boat, set sail (figuratively), and were then lead around like schoolchildren for the next 24 hours. I exaggerate, but the tour guide leader did have a tendency to try forcing everyone into doing every activity exactly when we were supposed to, even if people didn’t want to. But as with the other idiosyncrasies here, I dealt with it. The South Africans had an issue with the boat crew not honoring their free alcohol perk and the French girl wasn’t a fan of the guide but other than that I think we all got along perfectly fine. I brushed up on my Spanish with the Argentinean, chatted about the recent Liverpool-Dortmund match with the Brits, and learned a bit about the South Africans’ homeland. Of the group at large I connected most with the Argentine and the French girl, possibly because we were the only solo travelers.
The first day our activities were as such: kayaking, swimming, beach volleyball, and a totally-not-tourist-trap-but-would-you-please-buy-some-pearl-jewelry trip to a pearl farm. After my Mekong trip I immediately recognized this side trip for what it was, not that I could have afforded anything at the prices they charged anyway. The swimming/kayaking was fun but could have been better had it been sunny and had there not been trash in the water. I’d figured that we were far enough from the mainland to be encountering trash in the water but that just goes to show how little I’ve learned about my new home.
When we got back to the big boat we had a great dinner (side-note: the food on the trip was F A N T A S T I C) then were told our activities were karaoke, fishing, and relaxing. Guess which one we all opted for, here’s a hint it involves laying on a lounge chair. It was a really nice night, all of the boats in the area congregate in the same area of the bay which made for a nice view with all the lights reflecting off the water. Myself, the French woman, the Argentinean, and the South Africans sat around on the sun deck chatting about… come to think of it I can’t remember what we talked about but it was a great conversation. We all retired about 9:30 and it just occurred to me I hadn’t described the accommodations.
The room was sort of small but the bedding was comfortable and the bathroom was surprisingly nice, it had a big glass enclosed shower with a waterfall showerhead. You’ll hear no complaints from me about the boat; it even had a bar in the dining room.
The second day we woke up about 7am for breakfast, which, true to form, was delicious if not extravagant. We then headed for a nearby cave called… something or other. I’d remember it if it were more memorable. I had naively assumed that our group would be the only ones visiting. Ha! The line of people marching up the stairs to the cave entrance resembled a line of ants returning to the anthill. Even better the entrance/exit was wide enough for one person at a time so you can see how it might be a little hectic. The cave itself was fairly interesting though not unlike a cave you might find anywhere else in the world.
Our next test was the construction of our own lunch, or at least part of it. We were granted the honor of assembling our own spring rolls. At which I must say I found myself to be a natural, my fingers deftly producing roll after roll of delicious rice paper-wrapped goodness. The rest of the lunch was (cue the broken record analogy) above expectations.
After this we headed back to the harbor, which lead to the first startling event of the first day and the first time since I’ve moved here where I had the thought, “I might die pretty soon.” To explain it simply, we were all on the smaller boat that’s tied to the left side of the main boat while we maneuvered the harbor, and the big boat was aimed just to the right of an even bigger boat, putt us in the small boat (you guessed it) on a warpath to collide with an opponent we had no chance of besting. Before we’d have hit that boat though, we’d have hit its anchor line, which would have been bad for one or both of us. The crew let us get a bit too close for comfort before unhooking from the main boat and ramming it into reverse, and by too close I mean about 5 feet. I was at the front so I got a niiiice view of my possible impending death.
But I’m typing this post so obviously we escaped unharmed, at least this time. Nothing else of note happened on the trip until the drive back to Hanoi, when there was a truck parked on the highway forcing us to stop. Our driver got out and shouted at whoever would listen, to which the driver of the truck responded with a right hook. He was wearing a camouflage jacket so at first I thought our driver had pissed off a soldier and was about to get a state-sanctioned ass-kicking but it turns out he was just some local with a temper. But as he and the driver had a pretty decent fight for about 5 minutes, we in the group were locked in the bus and it had the feeling of a tour group on a safari watching the wildlife from the safety of a glass cage. In the end neither of them really won and some other bystanders broke them up.
We arrived back in Hanoi about 4:20pm; I had a quick early dinner and a beer and was summoned for my bus trip by the travel agent next door. Now here I sit on a 12hr ride on a sleeper bus to the city of Hue, the ancient capital of Vietnam in the days when Vietnam had an emperor. It cost only $17 and after googling reviews of the company I see why. Many people posted on tripadvisor (idiots) that the sleeper busses here are generally inconsistent, inconsiderate, and unsafe. They post about busses crashing or nearly crashing into head on traffic, but if you’ve been in Vietnam for 5 minutes you know that that’s a possibility no matter what sort of vehicle you’re in. The wifi that the bus is supposedly equipped with mysteriously doesn’t work so I’ll have to post this at a later time, unless we have a head on crash in which case consider this my wheel and I leave everything to Bella, my parent’s dog.
Until next time, be great and be good to each other.
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