Hanoi, Vietnam
We arrived in Hanoi this afternoon. It's wet, it's cold and I've had to put all my clothes in the wash as they are travel-filthy. Hrmph. I'm also sitting in a very cramped internet place with a lot of Vietnamese people who smoke (yuck, but cultural experience :() and have cockerill phone tones. Rubbish.
We actually left Vientiane about 4 days or so ago (they all begin to run together...) and went into the wilds of Laos to stay at a homestay place. Now I have never been good at camping and that's pretty much what homestay entails. A very cold night, spent in a very dark and spidery room, with people who stare and laugh at you constantly but cannot communicate with you, eating strange food and peeing in a bamboo hut out the back of the building along with all the snakes. Needless to say, I wasn't keen and won't be repeating that experience. It did nothing for me or for the local village people as far as I can see and it also made me feel like an animal at the zoo. Plus I was dirty, tired and had a long 12 hour day on the bus the following day. I was not happy.
This was the point when we crossed the border into Vietnam. It actually all went fairly well. I had been a bit concerned about it all as I pretty much thought I might be taken out for having tea bags in my luggage (they set dates for the death penalty here and they stick to them) but we were all fine. Then we met Han who was our driver to the half way point hotel (we were on our way to Halong bay) and I don't think I was ever so pleased to see a hotel and fried rice in my life. The hotel was freezing however and I had to get out my sleeping bag just to get to sleep. Ho hum...at least I had it with me. Then another long morning in the bus on the way to Ha Long bay (which means decending dragon. They believe that a dragon and it's babies came down and helped to wipe out the Chinese colonisers and of course it was a great success, hence the name). Ha Long is a world heritage site because of the 1900ish limstone islands which make up the bay. It's in the South China Sea too. I tell you this because there's a lot of pirates (really, not Johnny Depp though which is sad)which sail around this part of the world. Awesome. So we boarded our boat and it was amazingly slippy as it had been raining all day. Can I just say there is NO health and safety here and in fact in the past one of the boats sank in the bay when it was out with an Intrepid group!!! Awesome mark 2. However, I didn't fall off the edge of the boat, thought that's a bit of a miracle as there were no barriers...but whatever, it was VERY VERY VERY cold though and we had all gotten soaked in the rain (we don't have suitable clothing...well I have a rain jacket which I feel fairly smug about, but it's still not warm!) and needless to say it was a long and cold day until I got in to bed where I warmed up. Lovely. Then back to shore early in the morning and another bus journey to get us to Hanoi where we arrived about lunch time today.
I have been warned and warned and warned about Vietnam. It's fast, it's frenetic, it's mega dangerous to cross the road and they would steal your granny and then sell her back to you given half a chance. I've been around town for 4 whole hours now and all has been well. I am not afraid of them. The go-away face and a firm NO stands you in good stead and I'm Scottish for goodness sake, as if they could part me from my money ;) I jest. A bit.
Tonight we are going to see a puppet show and then onto the night market to have a look around if it's stopped raining by then. The rain does dampen my shopping spirit somewhat and I don't have any socks to keep me warm as I put them into the laundry this afternoon. Oh well, at least bare feet dry quicker even if they do get cold. It's about 14degrees at the moment before everyone starts going 'it can't be that cold'. Well it is. There will be more to follow...
posted by Yogini @ 9:34 am
3 comments
3 Comments:
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14 degrees- you don't know how lucky you are!! Its 3 here with gale force winds, driving rain and sleet!! Now thats what I call freezing- although I must admit I do have a warm house with hot water and all the other home comforts to ease the pain of feeling cold! Anyway you sound like you are having a fab time and Tevfik is very jelous of you and he just doesn't understand why I'm not!! Anyway I will send you a proper e.mail soon with all my news- not that I've got any particularly!! Take care of yourself and have fun. Miss you lots. Sera xxx
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