Good morning to all ;)
I hope that you've had a lovely Thanksgiving long
weekend (for those in Canada anyway). I haven't eaten
my Thanksgiving meal but I can guarantee there will be
either rice or noodles and NO turkey :)
I can't describe Hanoi well, other than I get lost all
of the time (Tug, I honestly feel like you, every
street looks new all of the time!!) and there's loads
of traffic. (One motorbike for every three people).
I planned a Ho Chi Minh day on Wednesday (I think). I
visited the mausoleum and his former house on stilts
(he lived next to the presidential palace, in the
gardner's hut) and had hoped to get to the HCM museum
but alas, I couldn't find it!! I wandered the
streets, looked at the map, kept searching but it was
no where to be found by me ;) I gave up and started
walking back to the guesthouse for a shower and got
myself lost two more times....I feel like I'm in the
Bermuda triangle of Vietnam :)
I'd been debating about heading off to Halong Bay/Cat
Ba Island on a tour or footing it on my own. I
decided on Wednesday night that I'd do it on my own
and then I tossed and turned all night, worried that
there'd be no one to share costs with to visit the
islands, etc... So I awoke at 6am, dressed, showered
and booked a tour with the guesthouse where I was
staying. I was on a bus at 7:30am that same morning
on a 3 day tour!!
Halong Bay and Cat Ba Island can only be described as
beautiful, awe-inspiring and just plain fantastic!!
There are around 2,000 islands, plus caves and grottos
in the bay and it was very pretty taking the boat
through the bay. We stopped and toured a cave,
continued our journey and then anchored for the night,
had a swim and a kayak. It was very peaceful after
Hanoi. We arrived in Cat Ba Island in the morning,
went for a hike in Cat Ba national park. It was a
grueling hike up with a beautiful view at the top. I
don't think I've ever sweat that much!! (Tug, if you
remember the spiders from Honduras, we passed a number
of ones that looked quite similar. I have a good
photo of one.) We then had lunch and headed over to
Monkey Island, where they had monkeys and a beach. It
was quite pretty and we did get to see monkeys fairly
close up. (I think they get fed daily so that they
come down which I don't agree with). Dinner and then
there was a parade on the island due to the full moon.
Everyone was out with drums and masks, parading up
and down the main drag. It was quite a spectacle.
I've arrived back in Hanoi, booked a overnight train
ticket to SaPa in the northwest and am heading out in
a few hours. I've booked the train on a "hard
sleeper" - we'll see how hard it is after 9 hours
tonight ;)
Thanks for everyone who's written and I'll e-mail
again soon!! Hope that you all enjoyed your long
weekends :)
Sarah
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