My time in Vietnam has so far been fantastic. As my plane landed at Noi Bai Airport I was filled with two emotions, the first one was dread because I knew it was going to be an ordeal picking up my visa, but the other emotion was extreme happiness because I was going to be spending the next few weeks in the company of two good friends.
After an ordeal (I was right!) getting my visa and a very long taxi ride I was met at the hotel by Lyb and Graeme. After a quick catch up over a beer we all went to sleep. We didn't want to stay up too late because in the morning we were heading off on a three day tour of Halong Bay.
The next day we were up and packed before 7am and after breakfast our guide came to collect us from the hotel to take us to the tour bus. After walking to a nearby street waiting for the rest of our tour group, we all hopped on the bus. To be honest the bus seemed way too small to cope with our twenty strong tour group (including the bus driver and the tour guide) but somehow we all managed to get a seat and cram out luggage into any space available.
The trip from Hanoi to Halong Bay takes about four hours and even despite our tiny bus, it wasn't an entirely unpleasant one. As we drove out of Hanoi and towards the coast, the landscape changed from flat farming country, dirty streets and old buildings into beautiful tree covered mountains and quaint little villages. Soon the harbor came into sight, but because it was a fairly overcast day, the distance view had the appearance of a black and white photograph. When we arrived at the Halong Bay Town dock, our tour guide went to buy us tickets for the junk boat cruise of Halong Bay. As we waiting with hordes of other tourists, locals floated around with boxes of drinks, cigarettes and snacks trying to make a sale. Tourism seems to be the main source of income for many of the people living in Halong Bay.
Our boat was one of many similar boats docked at the bay - a wooden three story junk boat. As we sailed through the harbour our tour group was served lunch. The meal was very basic - rice, fish, tofu, squid and veggies - but it was quite enjoyable and Lyb, Graeme and I engaged in small talk with the other people at our table. There was a middle aged Japanese man who seemed to be traveling by him self and didn't speak very much English and there was a Finnish couple who were on holiday from studying in Hong Kong. Our tour group seemed to have people of many different nationalities - Australia, Finland, Japan, Switzerland, England, Germany - it was a very cosmopolitan mixture.
