Hanoi
Just completed a long 33 hour bus journey from Phan Thiet to here, Hanoi. Never the best time to arrive, 9pm on a Saturday night but at least not as hot as expecting and raining – it always seems to rain in Hanoi !. Seems fairly quiet and not as many backpackers around as usual.
After HoiAn returned to MuiNe for a night. Ate my words and used a tourist bus as more convenient for MuiNe only to have my dislike of them reinforced with their usual late arrival, unfriendly attitude and hassle to get you into their own hotels.
Would have liked to spent longer as like the place but with my visa running out wanted to get to Hanoi to get an extension and hopefully a Chinese visa. So next morning took a local bus to the next city and then planned to get a bus north. However put on a magical mystery tour by a taxi driver and eventually had to tell him to stop and walk the few kms I has just come. I wanted to be annoyed but with all the kids shouting out hello and waving it was hard to be angry and the charm of Phan Thiet won me over and I stayed a night there. Not much in the way of sites but the fishing harbour photographic and people lovely.
Next day was able to get a bus for Hanoi. A long journey but this time went with Hoang Long, a decent bus company who put on a good spread of food for free at each stopping point. The route ok but long. On one side the sea, the other the highlands with just a narrow flat plain to follow. Besides settlements the rest mainly paddyfields and cemetaries and war memorials. However despite the Vietanamese tunnel building skills and ability to get things down the HCM trail, for some reason they seem to be very slow at constructing a decent highway along the country. Narrow, potholed, busy and an average speed of 50km per hour says it all. At least made it without mishap.
Hopefully tomorrow leave the internet world and have a week in CatBa.
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