Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Wednesday 18th January Hanoi
We spent a magical night on Ha long bay in a junk. We went kayaking and swimming off the boat. The rooms were good and even had showers and toilets. We explored the limestone cave similar to Janolan or Wombian caves as well. It was good to be off the road. One of the guys on our trip described the traffic very well. It is 3 lanes of traffic travelling down a 2 lane highway. As I have to sit looking out the front because I get sick if I don't, I saw the most amazing sights. Not for the faint hearted. We are travelling on the wrong side of the road heading towards a big truck with another truck next to us and no where to go. But there were no accidents and no near misses as a near miss is only when you lose a side mirror.
our way from Halong bay to Hanoi our bus had to stop to be repaired as it had gear box problems and was stuck in 3rd gear. We waited for 2 hours in a resteraunt where we could see them preparing meat, fish etc. The smells were awful as you can probably imagine.
The one and a half days we spent in Hanoi were hectic. The pace of life is amazing.
They seem to live on the streets. They wash their clothes, eat, pee, spit you name it they do it in the street. Around the corner from our hotel we saw some guys building an industrial range hood in the street. A little further up the road they were making picture frames. People having their hair cut. The petrol stations are a guy sitting by the side of the road with used soft drink bottles filled with petrol and a bike pump.
Arrived in Hue this morning by overnight train from Hanoi.
A very interesting trip. We were sharing with John and Lorna the Canadian couple.
We all ended up in the bar carriage near the front of the train playing cards and drinking with some locals. Not sure what their drinking game was but they were yelling out something in Vietnamese and then you had to scull. Wish I could show you the photos. May be able to upload when we get to Saigon.
