The End of Vietnam
Tuesday, January 1st, 2008Our last week in Vietnam was action packed.
Christmas Eve in Hanoi can only be described as madness! THOUSANDS of people cram the streets on foot, scooters and in cars. Sometimes it would take 10minutes to cross a street due to the crowds. We headed out around 8:30pm to get some dinner near St Josephs cathedral to see what was going to happen there. The people watching was excellent but after dinner and a couple of hours of walking around it became quite apparent that the celebration had nothing to do with the meaning of Christmas but mostly just an excuse to go out and mill about. This shouldn’t have surprised us since the country is a buddhist majority but by 11:15pm or so we ended up just going back to the hotel. We didn’t get to see a nice mass service but overall it was a great evening.
Christmas day we had a lovely traditional dinner at the Kangaroo Cafe (we’d changed to there from the irish pub). Kangaroo Cafe is owned by an Australian couple and we had roast turkey and gravy, roast vegies, stuffing, cranberry sauce and for desert christmas pudding with brandy cream sauce…for $12pp it was a steal! We stayed up late again that night so we could call Jim’s parents house for their Christmas morning. Our regular tradition is that we spend Christmas eve at their house with them and our sister and brother in law and all get up early to make breakfast together and open gifts,etc. We were certainly missing it this year especially when we heard they even had snow falling!!!
On the 26 Dec. we had a 6:30am wake up call for our transfer out to Halong Bay. We had heard many horror stories from other travelers concerning their trips out there so we were optimistic but a bit hesitant! It turned out to be a great time. Our guide spoke excellent english and was very personable and on the 3 1/2 trip out we only had 9 people, including us, in the minivan. When we arrived at the harbor it was quite a site. The Vietnamese, along with most cultures in SE Asia, have no concept of queuing up in line. So, rather than an orderly harbor it was a huge mismash of boats all of them LITERALLY bumping eachother out of the way to get the best placement! Craziness. Unfortunately, our boat arrived a bit late so with full packs on and carrying our day packs we had to climb over 3 other boats to get to ours. And I really mean climb…no nice ramps from one to another but climb up on the railing, down onto the next boat, walk the length of that boat, climb up on the railing, step to the next boats railing, walk down it, etc….let’s just say with 40lbs on our backs, low clearance and narrow passages it was difficult!
But, we made it on-board to find , of course, that is was NOT the boat the travel agent had told us we’d be on. We pretty much expected that and it was a decent boat so no worries there. After our 2 remaining passengers arrived we headed into the harbor for a nice lunch with lots of food and some great whole grilled fish and plenty of fresh vegetables. Then, off we went. It was about a 1 1/2 hr trip out to the center of the bay where we visited an interesting cave and also go off at Titop island so we could climb the 523 steps to the top to get some great photos. It’s winter so it was pretty overcast and misty and certainly cool, but not horrible. Since Halong Bay is a UNESCO world heritage site all boats have to anchor in the “sleeping bay” overnight so there we were , along with about 100 other boats. Dinner was not fantastic but certainly edible and after some more time talking to our boat mates it was a pretty early bed time.
The next day we went to the next bay to a fishing village where we got our kayaks. We spent about 2 hrs kayaking in the bay and through some caves…just remarkable scenery and it was a clearer day so we got some great views. Then back onboard to go to Paradise Island, their private island where we were spending 2 nights. They have just 7 bungalows on the beach and a restaurant/bar area. They had kayaks as well and Jim and Stefan, a german guy on our trip, went out for about another 2 hours to explore the area. Dinner was large and varied and then they made us a fire on the beach and we all stayed up late talking….it was so great to be away from the pollution and crowds of Hanoi and especially that damn, never ending honking of horns!
Everyone else only spent 1 night on the island and no new people showed up the next day so Jim and I were completely spoiled and had the entire island to ourselves!!! We spent the whole day drinking wine on our balcony, listening to Jimmy Buffet, reading and talking about where we’d been so far and the places we still had to go. A truly wonderful, relaxing day!
On 29 Dec. we had to go back to Hanoi and had one boat pick us up to go about 1 1/2 hrs to meet up with a different boat to go the final 1 1/2 hrs back to Halong City. From there we had our 3 1/2 hr transfer back to the city. Before we had left Hanoi we had gone into the Sports Hotel (we had stayed at the sister hotel in Hue) and checked out a room and made a reservation for 29Dec, negotiated to $18/night, put down half payment, and even had a confirmation receipt showing room # 202. But, of course, when we arrived back from Halong Bay we were told someone else had paid more for the room so it was not available but she could show us another one. Well, room 404 was the top floor, a tiny room with 1 small window with broken glass covered in cardboard and 2 single beds. We should have just expected it from our experiences in Vietnam but we were pissed off anyway. However, it was their last room available and after traveling for almost 8 hours the prospect of wandering the streets looking for another room for 1 night was not acceptable. So, we got her down to $16 for the night and blessed our lucky stars that we were leaving the country the next day!
Laos Airlines is not one of the worlds more reliable airlines and so we headed to the travel agency to reconfirm our flights which, thankfully, were still a go. The woman there told us not to pay more than $10 for a cab the next day, a figure the hotel people also told us. So, at 1:30pm the next day we got in the cab to the airport and the driver immediately told us he wanted $12. We said “nope, the hotel called you and told you & us the fare was $10″, he tried to tell us that price was for a small car but we were in a bigger car! No dice buddy, we were done with that crap after almost one month in the country! We just ignored him but I made sure to pay attention to direction to be sure he was, in fact, taking us to the airport! As we arrived he then told us he would need $2 for the toll booth going back out, even though we flew into Hanoi and know taxis don’t have to pay it!! Unbelievalbe…so, we just got out, made sure we had all of our bags, gave him a $10 bill and walked away with him sqwaking at us!!! Had I mentioned we were glad to be leaving???
That said, we really did like Vietnam, the country is beautiful, food good, lovely coastline, and an interesting history and we did meet many very nice people who were not out to screw us over. Unfortunately, there are enough of them that ARE trying to screw you every chance they get it puts a bad taste in your mouth and makes you suspect everyone of being like that. I didn’t like the fact that I became hesitant to even speak to someone for fear that we’d be hassled. Over all, I’m certainly glad we came here but will probably not be back very soon.
On to the peace & quiet of Laos! As always, Jim & Rhonda - living the dream!