December 26th 2010 – Day 16

Christmas on an Island!!

It took three hours to Cat Ba Island, two buses and a fast boat. It was a bit awkward to get on the boat as you had to get on a car ferry and climb over the railings onto it, with our backpacks and rucksacks this was challenging.  Finally, we took another one hour ride on a bus across the island to Cat Ba Town.  The whole journey was not bad at all, we got to chat to other backpackers from France, Scotland & New Zealand picking up some hints and tips.  When we arrived in Cat Ba Town, our hotel was almost immediately opposite and again we were on the 4^th floor (getting used to those stairs at bit more).  We wasn’t expecting much as we only paid £4.30 per night but the room had two double beds, it was clean with a shower room, wifi, cable TV and a sea view if you looked over the rooftop of the building next door. 

The harbour was filled with boats and the streets  were lined with restaurants, hotels, pearl sellers and cheap massages (not the seedy type though).  After freshening up, we grabbed a bite to eat and took a stroll along the harbour until we found the bar (called the Flightless Bird)  run by a New Zealander who was on our bus. We met up with him and sipped loads of beer and chatted to him all night about Vietnam and it’s history and it’s customs.  It was a great night, we learned a lot about the Vietnamese wars and their relationship with China (didn’t realise they did not get on that well!).  We also met up with Mr Tong, recommended by Graham, the Kiwi as the best tour operator on the island so we said we would pop in and see him the next day.

The next morning, we were a little worse for wear (too many Tiger beers) and it took us a while to recover but we managed to get to a nice restaurant called the Green Mango for breakfast.  Waffle went for the American breakfast and I had delicious French toast made with brioche (big door stop wedges of brioche soaked in egg, fried and topped with cinnamon and icing sugar).  Great way to make us feel better!  We walked right along the harbour to a small beach in front of a large hotel,  As the sky was hazy, you could not see much of the karst landscapes but it looked a nice spot to wind down.  We had dinner at one of the Vietnamese restaurants by our hotel.  It was nice but we felt that the size and quality did not quite match to Hanoi and it was slightly more expensive.  We decided not to drink that night.

One day till Christmas so after our second breakfast at the Green Mango (because it was so nice and filling) we went to find Mr Tong’s tour shop (Cat Ba Ventures) and booked a boat excursion around Halong Bay for the next day and got him to book our train tickets to the Sapa Mountains (an eight hour journey by sleeper cab through the night from Hanoi) for the 28^th.  As there isn’t that much to do we ventured off to seek the secluded beaches.  There are three that are accessible walking from the town so we sat ourselves down on one of them.  Ahh...Christmas Eve and we were sitting on a beach....and to top it all we were going to spend Christmas Day on a boat around one of the World Heritage Sites, Halong Bay...As the night drew in the lights on the boats were turned on and filled the Harbour, not quite the Christmas lights we were used to but very nice all the same.

Christmas Day at last. 

We got up early and walked to Mr Tong’s office, we were a little early but his shutters were down and we remembered he told us he was going for a Christmas Eve buffet night the night before.  We wondered if he was hung over and wasn’t coming.  Eventually he did arrive, he was a little worse for wear but at least he made it.  To get to the boat we had to saddle up with two guys on motorbikes so we zipped along the island to Cat Beo Harbour...that got some fresh air in our lungs. We walked a plank to join about a dozen people already sitting on a smallish wooden boat.  The boat cruised past a floating fishing village and loads of the small striking islands this area is famous for.  The guides/crew could not speak English at all so as we pulled up to one of the larger islands (we presumed it was the surprise caves Mr Tong told us about) we all guessed we had to get off.  It turned out to be the caves which were very big and lit up with different coloured lights...it was full of stalagmites and stalactites...it was very beautiful. 

Getting back on the boat, lunch was served.  An array of tasty Vietnamese dishes cooked by a lady as we cruised the islands.  We went a little further and stopped again to get into kayaks to go round at your leisure for about an hour then off again to Monkey Island!  We were told not to get on that island as the monkeys (which are not native and have just been put on there for tourists) bite and scratch.  Remaining on the boat we watched the others get off and stroll along a small beach looking a little bored but no monkeys.  We were more entertained by our boat crew arguing with another boat crew as the two boat banged into each other.  

The tour finished at about 5pm so we had time to get ready and go for dinner (at the Green Mango again!).  Waffle ordered...wait for it...burger and fries, chocolate fondant with raspberry coulis, crème anglais and ice cream...and I had deep fried seafood with chips, mango sticky coconut rice with a mango shooter!  I know that doesn’t sound like a typical Christmas Day dinner, but it was delicious and we enjoyed every morsel!! 

We checked out at our hotel and did the reverse journey back to Hanoi (bus...boat...bus...bus!).  We didn’t pay much attention to the journey as we had done it before with the exception of our first witness to two traffic collisions on a major road.  Both involved motorcyclists.  The first was with a lorry, the cyclist was lying in the central reservation but we could not tell how badly he was injured.  The second, less than 30 minutes later was definitely serious.  The motorcycle was wedged, still upright in the back of a bus, and there was blood and stuff on the road...Waffle saw the man/woman’s face covered in blood and looked messed up.  He was sure that he saw the cyclist weaving between all the traffic some minutes before. An hour later we arrived back in Hanoi and to be honest, we have grown to love it already and were excited about being back.  Our hotel was more up market than the last one as we booked through laterooms and got a good deal on a 3 star hotel the other side of the lake.  We were on the 4^th floor again!  Paying just £5 more a night added the luxury of a softer (enormous) bed, tea/coffee machine, buffet breakfast, better toiletries, a large shower cubicle and a lift!!  If we were just on holiday we would be happy to pay this and more every night but we are on a tight budget so every penny saved helps us extend our trip (here’s the accountant in me...£5 extra spent on accommodation each day for a year is £1,825!!) but it is nice to take advantage of the facilities occasionally and it was Boxing Day. 

We collected our vouchers for the train tickets to Sapa and went to a seafood restaurant for dinner.  Another budget blowing meal at £25!  Unknowingly to us we ordered a strange selection of food apparently.  I was told by the waitress and again by the head waiter to order 2 of my appetisers instead of 1 as they were very small and no-one ever had just one.  Waffle had a very puzzled look by the waitress when he ordered fried rice with his garlic scallops main course.  As usual the food came in no particular order, we are getting used to that.  Stranger still, I believe that every member of staff including the chef came out to watch us eat!  One by one they walked around and peeked behind corners smiling before the next one did the rounds!!   We realised after our soups that Waffle had ordered an unnecessary portion of fried rice to his non-Asian meal (it sounded Asian on the menu) and I got my starter during his main course. ( As it turned out 1 appetizer for me would have been big enough so I didn’t understand the problem there). Waffle finally got his rice when he had finished eating.  It is going to take a bit of time getting used to the menus here, it is hard to decipher what comes with what and how much is enough...Getting quite handy with chopsticks though I must say! 

Tomorrow is another long day, checking out of the hotel after breakfast and our night train to Sapa isn’t until 9:50pm, we arrive in Lao Cai 40km south of Sapa at 5am the next morning...hope the beds on the train ain’t too hard!! 

Merry Christmas...

(more pictures on our Flickr pages)

December 21st 2010 – Day 11

From Uncle Ho to Ho,Ho,Ho

Went to the botanical gardens on the way to Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum.  The gardens were quite small but it looks a nice place to get away from the hustle and bustle of Hanoi’s busy city life.  The Mausoluem of Uncle Ho, as they call him, was large and impressive, surrounded by guards in white uniforms blowing there whistles at people if they stepped on the grass. Not us though, we were behaving! There are some beautiful gardens behind it and a large open square at the front.  It is amazing to see the upmarket boulevards, embassy buildings, top of range cars like Rolls Royce Phantoms and designer shops in this Quarter, after staying in the Old Quarter which is where the poor and homeless reside and us at the moment (but as we are technically homeless too, I guess we fit in perfectly!).  Just around the corner of Uncle Ho is the One Pillar Pagoda.  It is quite small, after seeing a few of these shrines now dotted around the City, the pagoda itself kind of looks like all the others except as the name says - it stands on a single pillar! We must have walked miles but at a very slow pace stopping every now and then to sit and watch the Hanoians play badminton with or without rackets...  We had bets on two old guys playing using their feet, we think my guy won.

Christmas is just around the corner and we haven’t seen anywhere to get turkey dinner but on Friday we managed to get as close as we could to a Christmas dinner in a chain run coffee shop called Joma...Roast turkey, stuffing and cranberry sandwich with a very tasty pumpkin soup – it was great – I know it was just soup and a sandwich but made us feel all festive (they were playing carols in English adding to our mood).  Still feeling festive, we ambled through the streets with all the Christmas decorations and Chinese red lanterns on sale in their masses.  We didn’t want to go on too much of a ramble as we were saving our strength for our trip to the Perfume Pagoda the next day.

Visiting the Perfume Pagoda was a mixed bag of travelling and sites good and not so good.  We went by minibus to the village where we had to travel the next part by boat.  On the way we passed small villages where you could see the rice noodles being dried in the sun on racks and shabby restaurants.  Our guide, who spoke broken English asked everyone if they had eaten ‘doc’ before and as we had passed many duck farms we thought he said duck so we said yes confidently.  He looked surprised...’You tried doc?’ he repeated...I asked him if he said duck or dog...and guess what, he said dog, everyone then said no in horror.  He told us that the village restaurants were cooking up dog meat in the restaurants and that it is lucky to eat dog at the end of the month and cat at the start. (Not so lucky for the dogs and cats!!).  He then pointed out a man on a bicycle with a cage full of dogs on the back and said they were for dog meat...(I understand the cultural differences and have eaten all kinds of exotic meats  but it was very upsetting to see the sad look on the dogs crammed into a cage, as if they knew they were on death row).  Trying to forget their sad eyes, we arrived at the river and climbed into a metal canoe which was rowed by a small Vietnamese woman.  The trip down the river took about an hour.  You could see the karst mountains all around  the calm and peaceful river, it was lovely. 

We then took the cable car to the top (1,000 rugged steps seemed too much).  The  Perfume Pagoda is in a cave and is thought of to be a significantly lucky pagoda.  The cave was full of stalagmites lit up by the lighting below forming shapes of dragons coming out of the walls.  We visited another Pagoda on the way back to the boat which seemed more like the ones we have seen before.  They fed us a selection of Chinese food and we headed back, arriving in Hanoi about 6pm.

Sunday we booked our next hotel as we decided to leave Hanoi on 22^nd and make our way to Cat Ba Island to spend Christmas – beaches, boats and nature parks!  Later we went back to the night market and Waffle found a Liverpool FC leather wallet he liked (that’s his birthday present sorted for tomorrow!).  The trader wanted 100,000 dong for it (about £3.30) I haggled, as you are told to do, started at 50,000 (suppose I should have started lower than that), I eventually said 75,000 to which he said no 70,000... I agreed quickly before he realised what he said.  Quite funny to get him to undercut my offer...Saved 90 pence in all!!! 

For Waffle’s Birthday we went for a drink and a chocolate cake by the lake then wondered around the shops looking for a new cap but his head is too big!!  In the evening we went to his favourite restaurant for the Thai special hotpot he wanted.  It is cooked at the table and has prawns, clams, squid, pork, chicken, beef (which was cooked briefly in the stock so it was still medium rare) and loads of vegetables and noodles.  We had starters as well and was quite a task to eat it all but we gave it a good go.  After several beers we crashed back at the hotel.

It’s Today and not done much today except packing ready for our 2 ½ hour train journey to Hai Phong in the morning and the hydrofoil to Cat Ba Island. 

(click here to see more of our pictures from Hanoi...)

December 15th 2010 – Day 5

Settling in

On Sunday we didn’t get out of bed till 2pm so we missed breakfast.  We had a walk around the Old Quarter close to our hotel and had coffees and beers in a chain run coffee shop while we sent out some emails.  We carried on walking around, weaving in and out of the traffic through the old streets which were grouped by trades; silks, wood, art etc. We stumbled across the huge night market which seemed to go on forever, the sights and smells was overwhelming. Eventually we came to the end of it and started to feel hungry. There was a big and very busy restaurant on the corner of a main street that looked inviting so we thought we would give it a try.  It had counters all way round with loads of different types of food on display.  Someone came and sat us down on a long table and handed us a menu.  The sweat was starting to run down our backs as we scoured the menu (can’t imagine what it is like in the hotter seasons!)  We chose a starter and a main course each with beers of course! Waffle went for a shrimp noodle soup and beef with chilli and salt, I went for papaya salad with dried beef and noodles with pork and shrimp.  They all came at the same time along with various other plates of herb salads etc and we didn’t know where to start.  It only cost £8...another great meal.  The night was still young so we popped in to another couple of small venues for beers, at the last bar we watched an Asian guy so drunk he could hardly stand insisting to the restaurant owner he was fit enough to drive!  After a bit of a debate and an attempt to get on a scooter, which turned out not to be his, he we put on his scooter and sent on his way...who knows how he got home!

Monday we managed to get up at 10am for breakfast, a simple choice of American eggs, bacon & toast, Continental jam & toast or Vietnamese noodles all with  fruit, juice and a good strong ‘wake you up’ coffee.  After breakfast we decided to go to Hoan Kiem Lake a few streets away, it was very tranquil.  There were quite a few married couples having their photos taken.  It looks a nice place to escape the hustle and bustle.  Back in the streets, a woman carrying fruit in two baskets balanced on a long plank of wood across her shoulder came up to us and put it on my shoulder, bagged up some fruit and said take a photo to Waffle.  We know this was going to cost us...she said 15,000 dong (which is about 50 pence so that was OK).  However, another woman came from across the road and did the same to Waffle!  Fools...now they both wanted money, we should have said no but ended up handing over some money expecting change but didn’t get it...the second woman took off with about £6 worth of dong and realised we had been ripped off.  We ended up with two bags of fruit we didn’t ask for and two photos for about 10 times what we should have paid.  Put that down to tiredness and experience!  Went for noodles in a place near our hotel that was filling and only £5, the meals are getting cheaper!!  Feeling very tired, so went back to hotel for the night.

A few days in and I think jet lag is taking its toll, we both were wide awake at 4am on Tuesday morning and finally dropped off to sleep at about 6.30am. Then struggled to be up in time for breakfast but we made it.  We needed that shot of strong coffee to get us going!!  It was raining slightly so we decided to do something indoors...so we went to prison...the old French built Hoa Lo Prison to be exact.  It was used to hold Political prisoners at the turn of the 20^th century and was used to hold American prisoners of war during the 1970’s including the US Senator John McCain and was nick named the Hanoi Hilton.  It was small but very interesting.  We headed back towards the lake and had a coffee in a small coffee place. We are big coffee lovers but you could stand your spoon up in them they were that  strong!  I had pigeon in honey for dinner and it came with the head and feet still on, it was tasty bit a bit fiddly to eat.

Today we went to the Temple of Literature in the centre of Hanoi then wandered around the French Quarter. We are getting used to the time difference now and have been out most of the day. Preparing for our next journey, we went to the railway station to find out what to expect...the trains don’t run that often but we think we should be OK but the area seemed more run down.  We ended up in a main street full of restaurants, we were spoilt for choice. We had our best meal so far and said we would go back there for Waffles birthday next Monday and have the seafood broth cooked at the table which looked amazing. As we headed back to the hotel, all the bars were preparing for a football match on TV between Vietnam and Malaysia, they are football mad over here but the game ended 2-0 to Malaysia...  

(more pictures on our flickr gallery)

December 11th 2010 – 4 days, 4 Countries

Malta – UK – Singapore – Hanoi

Well, the weather finally improved in the UK and our flight to Heathrow went well.  We said our farewells to my mom & dad after 2 months staying with them. 

At Heathrow, we stayed overnight in a very snazzy cabin in the airport itself (the Yotel - designed by the Dutch, very small but very cool, motorised bed/sofa, monsoon shower and various light settings including one for a ‘romantic’ night according to the diagram, (typical of the Dutch!) .  The next morning we enjoyed many free samples of spirits in the duty free just before our flight so we were ready for the long journey.  The flight was fine, no delays and very little turbulence.

Waffle getting aquainted with a Hindu elephant statue

 Arrived at Singapore on Friday evening and checked in to another hotel for an overnight stay.  Just enough time to walk along the main road for a meal and a few drinks – decided to go for dim sums.  We attempted to eat them with chopsticks... to the amusement of the waitress who kept peeking from behind a corner and smiling to herself!

Checked out a Hindu temple in a side street before we had a beer in bar close to our hotel where I decided to try an Iced Kachang (looked like a mixed flavoured slush in a bowl, I was sort of right, but it included mixed jellies and lychees at the bottom and topped with kidney bean and sweetcorn sauces!!).

Me tucking into an iced kachang

Next morning we set off for our final flight to Hanoi.  No delays again, this was all going too smoothly... it was all too good to be true.  This flight was only supposed to be for 2 ½ hours, however just as were 20 mins away from Hanoi, the pilot announced it was too foggy to land so we had to turn back round to Ho Chi Minh City Airport (1 ½ hours back the way we came).  We landed there and waited on the plane until they said the weather improved at Hanoi.  One hour later we set off again, arriving at Hanoi Airport after 6 hours setting foot on the plane and feeling extremely tired. 

The taxi from the Airport took one hour to get to our hotel, it was raining and the traffic was mayhem – all manner of vehicles weaving in and out, horns sounding constantly along the way.  Our room was on the fourth floor, no lift but very clean and comfortable with a powerful shower (on full power would probably take your skin off!!)  The first thing that we noticed on the streets was the huge amount of traffic and the street food everywhere – so many people going about their business (we was expecting it but it was still a huge culture shock). We were hungry so we went on the hunt for a good meal and found a restaurant called Kiti’s, it looked OK so we ventured in.  The menu was quite varied with western and asian foods.  We opted for mainly Vietnamese dishes; soft spring rolls, hot and sour shrimp soup, bbq ribs, beef red curry, sticky rice, banana pancakes with chocolate sauce and loads of beer!!  It was very tasty and very cheap, all this and a packet of 20 Marlboro cigarettes  for US$24. 

 

Hanoi roads!!  (Never seen so many scooters in one place)

We will unpack tomorrow, bed is beckoning...

5 Days to go

(Qawra, Malta)

All our vaccinations are done at last! We have been treated like pin cushions for the last few weeks but you gotta do what you gotta do...We have almost everything ready for our trip now. Just need to get some extra passport size photos for our visa approvals and get ready to pack our backpacks for the big day.   I know we have left the UK weeks ago but staying with family in Malta isn’t really the scary big adventure...that’s still to come (after months and months of preparation and dreaming about it, it is finally here...OMG!)

It is difficult to grasp when the sun is beating down but we were starting to get a little concerned with the weather in the UK causing disruption to our flights next Wednesday.  The snow has been falling thick and fast all over Britain and we have heard more is on the way...flights had been cancelled for two days from Gatwick which is very close to Heathrow, our first leg of our journey to Hanoi...They are just starting to clear the runways now so we could be in luck.

Whatever will be will be, I am sure this is the first of many things to test our patience.