Picking up where the story ended, we were at Vietnam at 12 o'clock in the afternoon. As soon as we crossed the border lots of taxis and ran towards us to offer their services. We tried to do some bargaining and managed to get a fairly priced one that would get us to the nearest place where there is a bus station. We soon found out that taxi drivers have friends that offer the same kind of service, so he drove us to one of them that offered to bring us to Hanoi. A bit naive as were we just accepted the price, happy enough to go to Hanoi so quickly. Afterwards we found out that this probably wasn't the best price we could pay. Well at least we learned a lesson from it. After waiting for a while in Lang Son (the name of the place) we finally set of to Hanoi. The reason for waiting was that the van was not full. When we set of the van seemed full to us, but appearantly this wasn't the case for the Vietnamese themselves. Along the way, many people were picked up and stuffed in the van. At the end the van was so full that people were just sitting on each others laps or on little chairs that were placed at various spots in the van. I never saw a vehicle as full as this one, it really showed the true meaning of efficiency.
After a 2.5 hour drive, Hanoi was finally reached. The city turned out to be extremely busy and the streets were so packed that it took us another 45 minutes to go through most of it. By reading the lonely planet we saw that we had to be in the old quarter, so as soon as we thought we'd reached it, we got out of the van. It was really good to be able to feel your legs again at that time.
So there we were standing, in the middle of busy Hanoi were motorbikes form the image of the neighbourhood and where most shops and stores are out for display on the streets so that walking gets to be an adventure on its own. We found the street where we were standing in on the map in the Lonely planet guidebook and we picked a hotel we wanted to pay a visit to see if it would suite us. So we just started walking. At one point we entered a street where lots of hotels were situated and many people are shouting to convince tourists to stay in their oh so lovely and cheap hotel. It one point we were tired of walking and went with a guy that offered a double room for only 8 USD (U.S. Dollars, 1 dollar would make 16.000 Dong. One euro would make 20.000 Dong, which is the official Vietnamese currency. USD is also accepted and most products were double priced). We looked at the room and it was quite big. We were really surprised that it would only cost us 8 Dollars, so we took it. At that point we were quite tired and sick of carrying our bags through the busy and somewhat dirty streets of Hanoi. Well, at least we had a hotel, so we could explore Hanoi in a more relaxing way. Here are some pictures to give an impression on what's Hanoi like:
When we had taken a shower after checkin in for our room, we wanted to book a ticket to the south as soon as possible, knowing that Chinese new year was coming up and that all transportation would probably be full. In Hanoi there are no real travel agencies. Instead, most hotels offer booking services and are the place to book transportation as well. At least that is what we assumed at the time. We talked to a staff member of our hotel to see what's available. He recommended us to go to either Sapa or Halong Bay since that were the places where most tourists go to when visiting Hanoi. We didn't really know about those places and wanted to go more south, initially trying to reach Ho Chi Minh City. Soon enough we let go of this plan and wanted to reach Ninh Binh first. The hotel staff member arranged a bus for us, which would depart the next day, early in the morning. Happy with our tickets we went walking through Hanoi. We mainly walked trough the old quarter of Hanoi since this part was recommended by lonely planet. After a while we reached a lake which is situated in the old quarter. We started thinking that going to Ninh Binh would not be the best solution, since would be stuck there in the weekend since the Tet festival would be held and all trains and busses would stop going for at least two days. At least, this is what the lonely planet would make us believe. Next to the lake there were some hotels as well and we saw one which displayed a train schedule to different cities in Vietnam. At that point we were really convinced that the trains would all be full since this also was the case in China. We asked about this to the attendent and she said that she had some train tickets available for the next day in the evening to a city called Hue. We were really surprised to hear this and immediatly decided to buy these tickets, since we thought they would run out soon. Hue is a bigger city than Ninh Binh and we figured there would be a good city to celebrate Chinese new year. At least way better than Ninh Binh. The only problem was that we had to cancel the bus tickets. When we got back at the hotel, the guy who helped us get the ticket got really mad and demanded that we had to pay the ticket. Unfortunately there was no way to get out of this deal so we ended up paying it anyway. When then knew that we would think twice before making hasty decisions in the future...
The next day we had to wait for the train that would depart in the evening to Hue and would take all night. We than went to the Mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh. Upon arrival we found out that it is closed on Fridays and Mondays. This was kinda shitty for us, since the day being Friday. No Ho Chi Minh's body for us...bummer. Next to the Mausoleum the former house of Ho Chi Minh was open for public, so we visited it. It was quite a nice place, and the man had quite a big garden to spent his time in we saw. After that we went to see some temples and eat in the old quarter. By that time it was already evening and after dinner we went back to the hotel to pick up our bags and went to the train station. The train we took looked like this:
When we boarded and left we found out that the train was almost empty! It was the 16th of february and Chinese new year would be in the night of the 17th we assumed. We met some Italian ladies in the train and soon found out that it would be best to buy train tickets in the train stations since hotels would overcharge you if you don't look out. We haven't really looked out, thinking it was a great opportunity of getting a train ticket during these times. We were charged to much. Well, another lesson learned there I suppose. The journey was really relaxed and we had big seats since we could sit anywhere we wanted. Around 11 pm, all of the sudden we received a bag containing some goods from the train personel. Because of the Chinese new year they said. The bag containing a sausage, some candy, a can of beer, and a card which said happy new year. We were really surprised by this, still assuming that Chinese new year was one day away. At 12 o'clock however we saw fireworks from the windows and we realised that Chinese new year in Vietnam was one day earlier than in China. We were destined to celebrate in an emtpy train... how sad...
After a decent night of sleep we arrived in Hue at approximately 8.30 am. When departing from the train station we immediatly saw that Hue is a much quieter and cleaner town than Hanoi. Much to our relief, we saw that the streets are much broader and less people sell food and other stuff on the streets. We then proceeded to the place where all hotels were situated according to the lonely planet. We found a hotel that charged 10 USD for a double room. The room looked decent enough and had a nice bathroom and proper shower, so we took it quite quickly. After taking a shower and changing to some more convenient clothes (in Hue temperatures rise at well over 30 degrees in the afternoon) we went to see that old part of Hue. This old part is located across the 'perfume river' that divides the city between old and new. The old part is completely surrounded by old walls and houses some great buildings that normally could be visited. Unfortunately, due to saturday being new years day, all was closed. This is what the old part looks like when entering:
After the morning walk we went back to the hotel and decided to rent a motorbike! We were really sick of cities and touristy places so we decided to just set of and explore the country side on our own. We had 8 hours on the motorbike starting from 2pm in the afternoon. So off we went!... at least that was the big idea. I couldn't get the motorbike starting at first, so somebody from the hotel had to do it for me. I'm not sure if they still believed me when I said I had done it before. Well, in Vietnam they don't really care about that, they didn't even ask for my drivers license. In the beginning I had trouble driving the thing, and I didn't know how to switch gears. Soon enough I found out and little by little it started to get smoother. By then the tank was almost empty so I had to refill it. After searching for a gasoline station for a while I filled it up to the top, so we could have many hours of driving. So off we went to the countryside!When we started driving we didn't really had a plan or direction we wanted to go to. We took the first road that would take us outside the city and ended up on small roads that would lead from little village to even smaller villages. The further we went, the more people were suprised seeing foreigners. everybody looked at as and shouted Hello! to us when passing. This was really cool, and we were happy to finally something that wasn't a standard tourist thing. We kept driving for about two hours and visited many villages. By that time the road conditions were very bad and the roads where basically made up by rocks and sand. Far from ideal. We than decided to head back for Hue. After about 20 minutes driving we felt that the motorbike started to behave weird and it became hard to control it. Some people started pointing at our tire. We jumped off the bike and found out that our tire went flat. The situation was that we were basically standing in the middle of nowhere and that nobody spoke any english what so ever.
Luckily for us, a gasoline station was reasonably nearby and after a little walk we reached it. We made clear with body language that the tire needed fixing and some man and woman started with the task. It took them about 45 minutes to fix it. We offered them some money for their help but they refused it. After trying a few more times they almost got mad for me offering them any money. I was quite amazed this kind of people still exist...
We then continued our journey. After five minutes the tire was flat again. We were standing in the middle of a village and more and more people started to surround us. Since nobody spoke english it was quite hard to make clear we needed help. When guy pointed that I needed to go to a house, so I walked up there, leaving Jamie with the bike. When I reached the house I saw that it had a device to pump up tires and other stuff with. There was nobody home though and I didn't know how to work that machine. I just went back to the motorbike seeing that Jamie was surrounded by almost the whole village. People were touching her arms (how can she be so pale!) and offering her a bottle of coke. The people from the gasoline station probably knew that the tire would have problems again because after a few minutes they appeared on their motorbike and took us on their backs. One of them would ride our bike and we had to sit on two others. They would then bring us to a place where appearantly some people would have to tools to fix the tire properly. We arrived at some sort of mansion in another village were apparently a family lived that was quite wealthy; at least to the standard of the region probably. Our bike was taken there and 4 people started getting the tire off. They failed to do so since the exhaust was in the way. They stopped working and started talking a lot. One of them then set off and returned 10 minutes later with someone else carrying a new tire. Our tire was then fixed properly and we paid for the tire. We gave them some extra for the help and finally they excepted it. We could then go back to Hue. It was around 6pm at that time...
In Hue we drove around for a little bit and decided to go and eat something. We there decided that we wanted to go to the Vietcong tunnels that they dug in the war and after that back to Hanoi. We went back to the hotel to book these trips. The tour to the tunnels would set off the next morning at 7 am and we would be back at the hotel by 2 pm, according to the schedule. We then went to the train station to book tickets to Hanoi again. The only problem was that I couldn't get money out of any ATM in the city at that time. They were either empty, not working or not accepting my card, which over time really became frustrating. We had to book the train in the hotel than because I could pay with my credit card there. At the train station we looked at the prices to make sure that we weren't overcharged. Back at the hotel the employee told us they only charge 10,000 Dong service costs, which is 50 eurocent. If we wouldn't have looked at the train rates I'm quite sure they would have charged us way more. The train would leave the next day at 3.30 pm.
The next day we were picked up by a bus that would bring us to the 'Vin Moc' tunnel complex. We arrived in the city of Dong Ha at around 10 am where we had lunch and proceeded to the tunnels. The tunnels are situated in the DMZ (Demilitarised Zone) which divided North and South Vietnam during the war. We went in the tunnels at around 10:30 am. Before we went in we saw a map of the complex. The map showed family rooms and conference rooms, which tooked quite big on the map. The guide told us that around 300 people lived in the tunnels for around 4 years. When we went in the family rooms were very tiny and I couldn't believe that whole families lived there. The conference room was also very tiny and narrow. It's really hard to believe that so many people actually survided in those tunnels for so many years. The tunnels were in the same state as the were in the war, only lightning was added, so we had a good image on what the conditions were for those people. It was really impressive to go through the tunnels.
After this we went back to Dong Ha where the group that would have a program for the whole day would stay and the other group who were on the half day program would go back. The half day ' group' eventually consisted of three persons. Jamie, me and a english guy we had to catch a bus at two. Instead of a propper coach we were again stuffed in a van which would stop on the way to pick up even more people. This looked like this:
We arrived back in Hue at approximately 1 pm again and we still had some time to have lunch and prepare for our journey back to Hanoi. Arriving at the station we saw that it was very busy with people getting back to their homes after celebrating Chinese new year with their families. We thought that we would have the same train as the one on the way to Hue but when entering the train we were unpleasantly surprised. Appearantly the hotel booked us a ticket for a local train that would stop at every small town and would take 17 hours to reach Hanoi. The train really looked messy and dirty. Food was laying everywhere and the train didn't have airconditioning. This was quite a shock and we jumped out of the train to call the hotel. Somebody of the hotel immediately came over on his motorbike and asked if we could switch tickets with the other train, but it was full. We had no choice but to take the local train.
Back in the train everybody was just starring at us and nobody said anything. We just staired back and after a while a started reading a book and listen to some music. After a few hours we got some dinner offered by the train staff, and people started to talk to us a little bit. Although the train was dirty, there was a way better atmosphere than in the empty train to Hue, two days earlier. At one point a man walked up to us with his little baby daughter and placed her on my lap. Jamie and me were really surprised by this and we could see that the girl was as well! She just stared at us and after some minutes started crying. In the meantime the father was standing next to us, proudly, because hey, his daughter was held by some foreigners! It was quite an amazing situation. After this the man returned to his seat with his daughter, while she just kept starring at us. I think this train journey was the biggest culture shock I had so far in Asia...
We arrived back in Hanoi on monday, the 19th of February at 8.15 am. This was a very bad time for us to be arriving in Hanoi, since the trains to Sapa already left and the tours to Halong bay were on their way already as well. We were doomed to stay in Hanoi for the day and night. We decided to have breakfast before searching for a hotel and to decide there what to do next. Initially we wanted to go to Sapa first and finish of in Halong bay, but the plans were changed since trains were full. We checked in into a hotel and started looking for the best deal for going to Halong bay the next day. We found a tour that would last for two days and would set of early the next moring. We would sleep on a boat. It costed us 31 euro, which is quite reasonable if you see how amazing Halong bay is and what you get for that amount of money.
That day we walked through Hanoi again and visited the temple of literature which was closed the last time we were in Hanoi. This temple is considered to be the first University of Vietnam and was established around 1100 A.D. The teachings back then were all based on the eight books that Confusius wrote. The tempel is quite sizeable and it is a very beautiful, but it was too full with tourists. It's hard to enjoy to place with so many people visiting it...
The next day we left at around 8 am to Halong Bay where we entered a boat with about 12 other people, all non-Vietnamese.
When we just set off everyone was quite dissapointed because of the weather. It wasn't too cold but it was very cloudy and the place would look way better if it would be sunny. The main attraction from Halong Bay are the mountains that rise up from the sea and form very small but inaccesible Islands that can only be viewed from boats. Some of the bigger Islands are accesible but are very steep to climb. One of the first things we did, after having lunch was entering an Island which holds a cave. The location of the cave was quite high in the mountain so first we had to climb some stairs. The cave itself was not too small but also not too big. I didn't find it too special but it was nice to visited. The views from the cave into the bay were very pretty, and very suitable to show the ambience of the place:
On this picture our boat is also shown. The boats that are attached to the shore on the left side all look the same and on of them situated in the middle was the one we were on. After the caves we went back to the boat and went to a different bay were we could kayak for about 40 minutes. It was a kayak that hold two people so me and Jamie went in one of them. In one of the mountains near our boat was an small opening that looked like a cave. It could only be entered by kayak or small boat. We went through this and entered a place that very much looked like a lake and was only connected by the sea by this little entrance we went through. It was only quiet since only three kayaks were there and no other (big) boats. This place was just surrounded by mountains. At this point we were thinking that this must be the most beautiful and peaceful place on earth. After ten minutes we left again, since motorised boats entered and carried many tourists and disturbed the peace. Thankfully we had those 10 minutes...Back at the boat we had heard that we would spent the night at that place and we had time to go swimming around the boat. So this is what we did. The water was quite cold but after a while I got used to it. It was nice to be in the water again, certainly at such a stunning place. Back on the boat that evening we had dinner and after that we had time to relaxed. Most people were reading, making pictures or playing cards. We were playing cards with two people from New Zealand. Unfortunately at that time my throat was aching very much and I ran out of painkillers, so I went to bed early.
The next day we went on again and eventually back to the shore. At first we dropped of a group of people that would stay on an island for one day and then we visited a floathing village. It's quite amazing to see a complete village, a community of people, actually living on houses that float on the see. This is what this looks like:
Due to time difficulties, part two of the story will end here. I hope I can finish it tomorrow...
Wat is het toch leuk om jullie reizen te volgen...prachtige verhalen. Je maakt veel mee daar, als ik dit allemaal lees...super! Liefs, Mam
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