Seat of Our Pants » Halong Bay

Summing up Vietnam

Martin — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:44:01 +0000

We’ve been away from Vietnam for more than a week now, and it’s time to summarize our experiences there.

The thing that really stands out is its diversity – both geographically and people wise. Our travels took us from Saigon in the south to Mt Fansipan in the north. In between, we enjoyed sights and wonders of a great variety. It’s safe to say that it was never boring.

We liked Saigon – it’s a pretty intense city with surprisingly large, well-kept parks. Spending only two days there, we never really saw much outside the central districts. It’s definitely a place that could take a bit more exploration. Oh and the food is great.

From Saigon we moved up to Mui Ne. This could possibly have been the least interesting part of the trip, but again the glorious Vietnamese cuisine came through. If nothing else, Mui Ne is worth a visit for its fantastic seafood restaurants. Had we been interested in water sports such as kite surfing and windsurfing, we would probably have loved the place.

In stark contrast, and this was a personal favorite of ours, Dalat provided us with cool mountain climate and beautiful scenery. It was also the starting point for our Easy Ride – one of the most exciting parts of our whole round the world trip so far. Riding on the back of vintage motorbikes for six days, our excellent guides saw to it that we experienced more than can be seen without spending far more money and effort. The Central Highlands are an interesting destination in its own right, but our gut feeling is that it may have been less gratifying without a proper guide.

After a short stop in Hoi An for tailor made clothing and banana pancakes, we took a long and tedious train ride to Hanoi: our base for exploring some of the delights of northern Vietnam.

Hanoi is nice. Friends have told me it was pretty bleak and dreary ten or fifteen years ago, but we found it to be a pretty cool and promising city. Too hot, at the time of our visit, but with a handful of interesting sights and decent shopping (if you like cheap copies, that is). We’re still a bit miffed that we missed out on Ho Chi Minh’s mummy. Next time, mummy! Grr!

Halong Bay is one of those must-see places that every country seems to have. In this case, it truly is a must-see. However, you want to do it right: spend a few bucks extra to avoid the crowds! We had a ball, just four tourists splashing around with a junk on the bay for a couple of days. Most tours there seem to follow the most trafficked routes, and we heard more than one disappointed voice complaining about overcrowding.

We loved Sapa and the mountains surrounding it. Again, we thought we’d be traveling through heavily touristed areas, but while we saw lots of domestic Vietnamese tourists, local tribespeople never failed to make us feel like we were curiosities. I have specifically fond memories of the hike up to Mt Fansipan – I can’t wait to do more of those merry little expeditions.

All in all I have to say that I would probably go back to Vietnam if I had the chance. However, I would try to focus on one area only: it is a huge, long country with the population size of Germany. You just can’t take it all in – concentrate on one area and you will come away happy and eager to go back.

Next up: a few more weeks here in Sweden, and then on to Singapore. We’re looking into various options on Sumatra after that. Stay tuned!

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Paddle on over, sister!

Jaime — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:37:50 +0000

When life is lived on the water, your everyday needs (water, Ritz crackers, b eer, etc) are delivered to you. Hung-over and feeling like crackers, but don’t have the energy to walk to the corner store? No problem! Just hang your hand out your window and eventually the crackers will come paddling over. Convenience at its finest!

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Livin’ large in Halong

Jaime — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:36:15 +0000

I’ve been to Halong Bay twice. The first time I joined a large group, 25ish people, on an organized tour from Hanoi. From the little I remember, we spent most of our time getting from Hanoi to Halong Bay and back and very little time enjoying the scenery.

My second time around (and Martin’s first) we decided to spend a little more money on a more personal option. I’m pretty pumped we did. We were set up on a 50 foot junk (a junk is what this type of boat is called) with two English girls. This tour was much more personal. Rather than being ushered around from one heavily touristed spot to the next, we spent the day motoring around the less busy areas, enjoying the scenery while lounging on the deck and swimming when the captain dropped anchor. I would highly recommend seeing the Bay this way.

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Number 1 in Cat Ba!

Jaime — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:27:01 +0000

We were having a nice dinner at a restaurant in Cat Ba when a local approached us and began rubbing Martin’s shoulders, proclaiming he was “Number One in Cat Ba!”. Well, we couldn’t argue with superiority, so Martin decided to accept this rouge masseur’s offer. He was pulled, prodded and folded for the next twenty minutes while I laughed at him from across the table. The man really seemed to know his stuff. He even succeeded to somehow pop Martin’s ears (he folded it and popped it like a finger).

He noticed my enjoyment, misinterpreted it as desire to have one, and decided my head needed a pounding. After a few, very flattering moves, I had to politely decline by cradling my head and shaking it violently.

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Halong Bay Tour

Jaime — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 12:08:57 +0000

Cat Ba is the only inhabited island in the Halong Bay archipelago. Since Halong Bay was on our “must see” list for Vietnam we figured Cat Ba would be a nice place to visit while setting up our Bay tour. What we didn’t realize was that we arrived two days before a major Vietnamese holiday. The room rates at our hotel jumped from $10 the first night to $18 our second night. Tomorrow night, if there had any vacancy (which they don’t) the rooms would be $55.

Needless to say, we’re heading out of town tomorrow. The choices are: take a two day/one night boat tour of Halong Bay; take a three day/two night tour of the Bay or head back to Hanoi.

We’ve made it this far, we figured we would do the boat tour. We’ve signed on for a two day/one night tour with three other people in a small junk (that’s a boat, not what’s in the trunk).

You’ll miss us while we’re away, I’m sure, but have no fear! We’ll update this blog as soon as we’re back in civilization.

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