Brendon and Hester hit SE Asia

Brendon In stead of a maybe 4 day road trip from Luang Parbang to Hanoi we arrived fully fit after a 1 hour flight at Hanoi airport. Besides some quite exciting turbulance (fun being in propeller driven airplanes again), it was a relaxing flight. So just pass customs and ready to see Hanoi. But it was not that easy...! For some reason they seemed not to accept our visa, which was a multiple entry visa into Vietnam which would allow us to be in the country for another 4 days. We knew we would have to get it extended during our stay, but there shouldn't be a problem there. But, suddenly both our passports were taken away and we were asked to wait. First at the counter and later asked to sit at the side and see other people entering the country. At one point I walked over to ask what the problem was, but the only thing I could understand was that they were waiting for the boss to take a look! I tried to explain the multiple enrty part but without success. Everybody was still smiley, so we kept our fingers crossed and almost had our wallots ready to pay whatever, when they suddenly arrived saying everything was ok and that we would be allowed to stay in the country for another month! This was of course wrong as well, but we didn't complain, went through customs and found our bags on the now empty luggage belts. Still curious how it will be leaving when we fly to Thailand in 2 days. Outside the airport there was the usual hassle between taxi and mini-bus drivers and we choose the minibus as it would costs us only 3 dollars p.p. for a 30 km trip! Try that in Holland or England. It was poring down with rain and we saw the streets turn into rivers and we heard afterwards it had been raining fro 2 days now. Hopefully we would have better luck with the weather in the following days. We got trapped into a scam which brought us to an entirely different hotel then we were aiming for, but didn't have the energy to do anything about it. The hotel looked nice enough and wasn't too expensive, so we settled in. The staff were overly friendly and assured us if we wanted to book a trip, that we had to talk to them as they were a travel agency as well. It was quite late, so we decided to go for a stroll and find some food. As it was still chucking it down (a expression we learned means nothing to australians) we didn't walk far a found a table in a fish restaurant, where only locals were dining. On the table was a small gas cooker and they only asked us what we wanted to drink! We then realised that everyone was eating the same food, and before we knew it our food was arriving. In front of our eyes they cooked the fish, mixed it with vegetables and showed us how we had to eat and mix the noodles, spring onion, fish sauce, fish and veg, and finally peanuts. Delicious! Full and happy we crossed the street to our hotel, a mix of running and breast stroke, and watched gladiator before having an early night for the big shopping day ahead. As we had decided we were going to ship some stuff home, you of course have to shop first. We strolled through the Old Quater and made our way to the big market. Here we bought loads of stuff (not telling what as some might be presents for people!), which was followed by buying more stuff at local shops. In between we did some site-seeing and walked over the red bridge over the Hoan Kiem lake to see a temple with a dead tortoise! There is a legend behind that story, which I will spare you. I must admit they have some cool legends here, involving dragons, tortoises, swords and so on. We had lunch and visited a couple of travel agencies to book a 3 day trip to halong Bay. We eventually choose one which would have us staying 1 night on a boat and 1 on an island. It would have furthermore biking, kayaking, trekking, sandy beach bbq, caves, and visit to Monkey island. Excellent....excited! With our bags now full and happy with our forthcoming trip, we made our way towards the post office, where we discovered that we could either ship by air (2 weeks) or boat/land, which would take 3 months! Although that would almost make nice christmas presents, we didn't want to wait that long. The additional costs almost didn't make the saving money argument (because it's so cheap here)plausible anymore. But it is still a nicer story that you bought it in Loas or Vietnam then in a shop in Chinatown around the corner from our appartment. We walked around more and it was time to extend our research in Indian restaurants around the Globe (which will be the title of our book, catchy hey!). It was very good, although we were not happy/slightly surprised by the 10% VAT added on the bill. First restaurant to do this on our trip! When we wanted to leave the rain was just showing off. A man outside the restaurant told us to wait, while he ran into the rain to flag down a taxi and escorted us under his umbrella into the taxi. Added bonus point for the restaurant! We went home to pack for our 3 day trip to Halong Bay. Here the overly friendly hotel guy asked us if we would be interested in a trip. When we said we already booked one, his happy face turned and he didn't look or smile at us anymore till we left the next day. It is a shame that so many people in the tourist industry are extremely friendly till you say no and then really turn. It makes you suspicious of everyone! Just before we went to sleep Hester decided to play around with the electrics and shortcutted the whole hotel. It was pitch black and when I went down to see what was going on I saw other guests being lead to their room with torches. To be honest she only switched on a light at the exact time it went black. Not really her fault, but still funny hearing her fight her cause.....! ha ha. Next morning we checked out from the hotel, the guy was still not smiling, and took a taxi to were we would catch a minibus to Halong Bay. This was our first proper tourist tour, so we move when the guide says so. Something we had to get used to. We drove 4 hours where we got onto our junk ship (not as in rubbish, but it is a type of boat). We waited 90 minutes, for them to check our passports where we started to get to know our tour group. There were 2 australian girls from Adelaide of which one now lived in Perth, so I could talk about my Adelaide time. There was also a young dutch couple, so Hester could practise more dutch. 2 Japanese/Vietnamese couples who kept to themselves, 3 middle aged Frenchies, and an Isrealian couple who probably had the most exciting/travelling life I have ever heard. Lived in Costa Rica for a year, 100m buggy jumps, travelled on a boat for 30 days a couple of months back etc. etc. etc. We set sail and had lunch on the boat. Naturally a lot of fish was on the menu, which was very good. Afterwards you could sit on the topdeck to see the views. Hester and I settled ourselves on the front of the junk, with our feel dangling of the ship being absolutely taken aback by the exta ordinary nature. Limesone mountanous formations sticking out of the sea, which creates thousands of islands of various sizes. With massive eagles circling the skies and numerous other junk ships sailing on it's waters it is breathtaking. We sailed to an island where there were 2 caves. Here we got back to earth and right into the tourist world which we have been trying to avoid as much as possible. The way through the caves resembled a line a Disney World and the only thing which were missing were the little signs telling you how long it would take to get to the ride. Once in the cave, which was a beautiful cave, they had made a path through the whole thing and lit up the cave with many different colours. They even had made red eyes in some rock, so it look like a skull. Again Alton Towers or "de Efteling" would be proud to have it. It was a shame as the cave was amazing by itself. The second cave was "same same" and we made our way back to the boat. We sailed on to a fishfarm, where the people who were on a 2 day trip were allowed to kayak, but as we were on a 3 day trip we had to wait till the next day to kayak. We were told to have a look around the fish farm, which was a floating village. It was 15m by 20m I guess, so we were done quite quickly. We bought some bananas (which are so so so much nicer here, almost sweet) and plums from a floating shop (woman in a rowing boat) and looked at the fish. We saw some creature which looked like it was hiding under a dish of some sort, which ended up being part of the horse-shoe crab! It was quite big and looked prehistoric. H held it's tail so we could have a good look and take some pics. There were also some sharks, which meant there was no chance H was going to swim on this trip! We went back on the boat and chilled on the deck till the others came back after which we sailed to a place were we could swim, and was also the place where we would spend the night. It was beautiful, surrounded by the rocky islands. We watched the sunset and had a shower, after which we had dinner on the boat and tried some Vietnamese wine. There's a reason why it's not sold globally, but didn't stop us from finishing the bottle. The evening we spend chatting on deck and eventually went back to our cabin for a good night sleep! Next day, after breakfast, we set sail again to where we had to enter a diiferent boat and said goodbye to the others who went back to Hanoi that day. We went to a part of Cat Ba island where there were bikes waiting. The bike trip was a bit of a joke. The bikes were rubbish. H's bike couldn't go uphill, so she had to change to the guides bike. It was a path tp some villages (about 5km), where we had a 15 minute break and biked the same way back. Back on the boat we sailed to a place where we had lunch and where we were allowed to Kayak. Safety doesn't really matter as there were no lifejackets and again not the best quality of kayak and paddles. We asked where we could go which would be nice, but our guide just said we could go anywhere as long as we were back at 2.30! So we started paddling around. Found some caves which we explored a bit, but when we wanted to return we realised the boat wasn't where we thought it would be. All the islands look alike and we were looking for a floating village again of which there were quite a few. 2.30 had passed already and we started to get slightly nervous. Eventually we found our boat 15 minutes later and we set sail to Cat Ba island. Here we were brought to our Hotel and were told we would get picked up the next morning at 8. We had dinner in the restaurant (included in the trip), where we met a Danish couple. After dinner there was a show in the town which resembled a mix of Vietnamese Eurovision Style Song contest singing, homo erotic male dancing, and traditional women dancers with props like little umbrellas. We were trying to understand the songs and give meaning to it ourselves, which was quite funny. I wasn't too impressed about the dancing as I think my pupils when I was a teacher would do a better job after 4 weeks. I promised H that I would mention the following comment I made and I apologise if it offends anyone, but it seemed appropriate (trying to be funny) at the time; during some of the women dancers I might have mentioned the following: "we live in a high speed MTV world, what's up with this sh*t"! Much to h's amusement. After watching 90 minutes of guys doing shimmeys and sexual girations and walk like an egyption moves, seeing life stories put to songs and dance there was only 1 question/comment I could make: either bring back the gay guys or I'm going to need some alcohol! We ended up going for that drink after which we went back to the hotel talking about all the things we should be doing tomorrow, Monkey island, snorkling, trekking, as if these things would actually happen. The next morning we had breakfast Vietnamees style; different kind of soupsand noodles and rice. We got picked up and brought back to the boat, which took us straight back to Halong city, so no Monkey Island etc. H and I got our favourate spot at the front of the boat and discussed is the animals jumping out of the water were fish (my opinion) or little squids (H's opinion)! The squish dillema has yet to be resolved. Lunch back on land and back into a minibus for 4 hours back to Hanoi. We have seen some CRAZY driving over here, but this guy should get a medal! Just happy to be alive, that's all. When we got back we complained to the agency for not doing any trekking through the national park or seeing Monkey Island. After a discussion, which our guide was involved in as well, we got a $5 refund p.p.! Which was kind of a joke, but what can you do. We booked ourselves in to a new hotel and relaxed a bit. We went out for dinner. After eating pretty much the same meal 4 times on our trip, we wanted anything but rice and seafood, so ended up having nachos for a starter and a burger and chips for me and bangers and mash for H. Got to love oriental food!! Went for a drink at "le Pub" afterwards and back to the hotel. Today we slept in and went to a memorial house, to see old style Vietnamese life. Wandered aroubd Hanoi, which has a great feel to it. The 37 degrees heat at the moment has a different feel to it! Therefore you can read 2 stories today, as we are escaping the midday heat by writing these stories. Tomorrow is our last full day in Hanoi and basically our last day of our trip. We will be flying to Bangkok where we'll spend 1 night, after which we will fly back to Europe. But first it will be one more hard core site-seeing day tomorrow!!!! I'm sure that will be our last story............... Pap: Erg bedankt voor de auto. Ik was de APK inderdaad helemaal vergeten. Stop de bon maar bij de papieren! Ik ben zeker ook benieuwd naar de Itali"e verhalen. Wanneer gaan jullie? Leuk om je berichtjes te lezen. Dikke kus aan mam. Muts: mooie verhalen hoor! Erg benieuwd om meer te horen. Geniet nog van alles. Nicky: Alles goed met de kids? Waar ben je?