Halong Bay - The most beautiful place on Earth!

Sorry Mumsie! No blog for a couple of days because of no access to the Internet!

On Monday morning, we checked out of our Hanoi hotel early to go to Halong Bay.  It was a grueling four hour drive and the roads are so slow!  I don't think our driver ever got above 50 mph, but was probably mostly doing about 35mph.  I think they have to drive pretty slowly to avoid all the scooters!  Drivers blow their horns incessantly, but I don't think it is in an aggressive way, it's more as a warning to say "I'm about to cut in front of you - back off".  
My work colleagues will love this picture!  I think Dave could introduce a new express delivery service for 3 or less cylinders!

We also saw a scooter with what seemed to be giant poppadoms on board!

We called for a break after a couple of hours at a really strange place.  The manager followed us around this enormous shop the whole time we were there trying to persuade us to buy things,  It was really disconcerting!  He tried to convince us that they fired and painted all their pots on site and embroidered all their own pictures, but there were absolutely no workers!  It all seemed very staged - we didn't buy anything.

Once we arrived at Halong Bay, it seemed like a well-oiled machine and we were soon on a tender boat to take us to our Junk.  It was amazingly luxurious!  Our bedroom, albeit small, was as good as any hotel room and the en-suite bathroom was all in marble with a large shower.  We were invited to lunch and it was amazing!  It was all Veitnamese food and was absolutely delicious - all seven courses!  We started with a clam chowder, then spring rolls and there were a couple of king prawn dishes, which were to die for!
We were then able to chill on deck for an hour or so whilst they sailed further out into the bay.  

It is absolutely stunning!  You cannot imagine that there can be a more beautiful place on Earth than this!  After the madness of the city, the serenity of this place cleansed the soul.

We eventually stopped at Titop Island, which had a small beach (no doubt imported sand) and steps to the top of the mountain. 
In 1962, this tiny island had the honour or receiving a visit from astronaut Ghermann Titov, a hero of the former Soviet Union.  He was accompanied by Ho Chi Minh and "Uncle Ho" named the place Titop Island in remembrance of their visit.

There are 427 stone steps up to the top of the island and we all made an effort to climb them in the blistering midday sun.  Many of the steps had no railings at either side to hold on to and Louise, who isn't keen on heights, dropped out at the first rest point.  I managed 305 steps before calling it a day, but both Pauls made it to the top and were rewarding with amazing scenes of the bay!

We the  sailed further into the bay to the Floating Village.  There is a community of about 1600 people in  total living in four villages at the base of the islands.  They mostly sustain themselves through fishing, although a flotilla of women collected us in boats, which only held four passengers, to show us their village, so tourism is obviously now part of their economy. The floating houses are mostly built on plastic barrels and are anchored together in the sheltered coves.  You could tell that some inhabitants were more affluent than others, although most of them seemed to have a somewhat scrawny looking dog at the front of their house!   Our guide pointed out the village school and her own house.  There was a young girl of about 9 years old  in a boat shouting and having a proper temper tantrum!    Our guide explained that  it was her daughter and she wanted to row out to  our boat.  We said it was fine by us, but apparently, it wasn't allowed.   

There are about 50 families in the village, and nearly 100 children.  They have to be very organised, especially with hygiene  and the well-off families even have TV's.  There is also one community house where they hold their meetings..

Once back on board the junk, we had some relaxation time before going down to dinner.  Yet another excellent meal - we are certainly getting a taste for this Vietnamese food!
We sat on deck in the balmy evening heat enjoying a beer and glass of wine and relishing the stillness of the night without a single scooter to be heard - absolute heaven!

Hanoi is one crazy city!

We were up and out by 9am to have a full day of sight-seeing. We decided to get a taxi to the furthest place we wanted to visit - Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum.

Ho Chi Minh led the Vietnamese nationalist movement for more than three decades, fighting first against the Japanese, then the French colonial power and then the US-backed South Vietnamese. He was President of North Vietnam from 1954 until his death.
After the Japanese invasion of Indo-China in 1941, Ho returned home and founded the Viet Minh, a communist-dominated independence movement, to fight the Japanese. He adopted the name Ho Chi Minh, meaning 'Bringer of Light'.
At the end of World War Two the Viet Minh announced Vietnamese independence. The French refused to relinquish their colony and in 1946, war broke out. After eight years of war, the French were forced to agree to peace talks in Geneva. The country was split into a communist north and non-communist south and Ho became president of North Vietnam. He was determined to reunite Vietnam under communist rule.
By the early 1960s, North Vietnamese-backed guerrillas, the Vietcong, were attacking the South Vietnamese government. Fearing the spread of communism, the United States provided increasing levels of support to South Vietnam. By 1965, large numbers of American troops were arriving and the fighting escalated into a major conflict.
Ho Chi Minh was in poor health from the mid-1960s and died on 2 September 1969. When the Communists took the South Vietnamese capital Saigon in 1975 they renamed it Ho Chi Minh City in his honour.
He wanted a simple burial, but he was so revered by his people that they built an amazing mausoleum and his preserved body still lies in state for all to see. 

Not that we managed to see it!  By the time we arrived, the queue was three or four abreast and about a mile long - it was crazy!  We admitted defeat and got a taxi to The Hanoi Hilton instead.

This thought-provoking site is all that remains of the former Hoa Lo Prison, ironically nicknamed the ‘Hanoi Hilton’ by US POWs during the American War.
The vast prison complex was originally built by the French Colonials in 1896 and was intended to house around 450 inmates, but records indicate that by the 1930s there were close to 2000 prisoners.

Apparently, Hoa Lo was never a very successful prison, and hundreds escaped its walls over the years – many squeezing out through sewer grates.

Most of the exhibits here relate to the prison’s use up to the mid-1950s, focusing on the Vietnamese struggle for independence from France. 
You could go into the actual cells and at one point, Paul Halder was missing. My Paul was chuckling away and we said "You've not locked him in a cell have you?".  There was an annoyed voice calling "Yes he has!".  He wasn't amused, but we were.  
It's dreadful to think that such inhumane treatment of political prisoners was carried out so recently.  There were even photographs of heads removed from the bodies of the Vietnamese revolutionaries by the ominous French guillotine.

Although most of the museum is dedicated to the revolution against the French, there are several displays focusing on the American pilots who were incarcerated at Hoa Lo, including Senator John McCain (the Republican nominee for the US presidency in 2008). McCain’s flight suit is displayed, along with a photograph of Hanoi locals rescuing him from Truc Bach Lake after being shot down in 1967.
Although we were somewhat sceptical of the photographs of seemingly content American POWs playing basketball and decorating Christmas trees!
It was certainly a though provoking visit to have an insight into such recent autrocities.
From there, we walked to the Hoan Kiem Lake.

According to the legend, emperor Le Loi was boating on the lake when his magic sword, Heaven's Will, was grabbed by a turtle who quickly disappeared into the depths. 

All attempts to find either the sword or the turtle failed. Loi concluded that the Golden Turtle God had come to reclaim the sword that it had given Loi some time earlier, during his revolt against the Chinese Ming Dynasty. 

Near the northern shore of the lake lies Jade Island on which stands the Temple of Jade Mountain (Ngoc Son Temple), which was erected in the 18th century. 

It honors the 13th-century military leader Tran Hung Dao, Van Xuong, a scholar, and Nguyen Van Sieu, a Confucian master. Jade Island is connected to the shore by the wooden red-painted bridge. 

The Huc Bridge (The Huc, meaning Morning Sunlight Bridge).
There were offerings of money at many of the alters in the temple. I can't imagine that you would see this in England - the cash would soon disappear!

Paul was accosted by a couple of Vietnamese girls who wanted their picture taken with him, they were really sweet!

We then walked to the Old Quarter.  It was crazily busy, but we are more confident crossing the roads now.  You just have to walk straight across and trust that all the scooters will just find a way around you!
My work colleagues would have loved to see the guy on the scooter carrying a large Acetylene cylinder strapped on the back with a couple of feet of cylinder hanging over either side of his scooter!  No doubt he was delivering it to the guy welding on the street in his flip-flops with no goggles or protective clothing!
We were fascinated by the electric cables - it's just like a plate of spaghetti!  How on earth they know which cable belongs to which property, I'll never know!

The streets here seemed to be dedicated to particular wares - silk, silver, steel, brassware, but then also random groups of shops altogether one one street for sunglasses, door handles, electric fans, flowers etc!

After  a while, the incessant noise from the scooters become a bit too much and the heat and humidity was overbearing, so mid-afternoon, we headed home to the hotel for a cool shower and a rest.
We were determined not to be put off by yesterday's lunch disaster, so we chose a Vietnamese restaurant for our evening meal.  It was quite dark outside, so the concierge called a taxi for us.  The taxi driver kept chuckling and was driving exceedingly slowly.  We were a bit puzzled until he drove around the corner and pulled up at the address. It cost us about 35p!  
We chose a set meal for four to give us a mix of Vietnamese food and it was fabulous!  There wasn't a single dish we didn't enjoy.  Needless to say, we took a five minute walk back to the hotel!

Tomorrow, we leave the madness of Hanoi for the tranquility of Halong Bay.

First Impressions!

We've arrived and already love this place!
We had some worries about Vietnam Airlines after checking out some forums, but our fears were unfounded. The aircraft was as modern and the service as good as any other flight we had been on - but it was such a long flight!
We had a touch-down in Frankfurt to pick up more passengers and all had to get off the plane for an hour. It was frustrating when you just wanted to get to your destination! But after 13 hours, we finally arrived at Hanoi airport.  We then had to queue for a weird Visa process, and although it seemed chaotic to us, I think they did actually have a system - it just seemed to take forever! But at least we ended up with some great entries in our passports.
There was a Vietnamese guy waiting in Arrivals with our names on a board and we loaded our cases into his mini-bus and were away.
Oh my goodness!!  It is just one massive free-for-all out there.  It seems that everyone in Vietnam owns a scooter and they all seem to be on the road at the same time!  Horns are hooting incessantly and the scooters, cars, vans and trucks all weave around each other, seemingly ignoring any road markings or traffic signs.  And as for Health & Safety - my brother-in-law, Rob, and work colleague,Mark, would have a field day - or a heart attack!
There don't seem to be any rules, some wear crash helmets, but lots don't.  It seems as though you can cram as many people onto the scooter as you want (we saw Mum, Dad and two children on more than one occasion), and as for what they carry with them - it seems to be whatever they can possibly fit on - even a fridge-freezer!!

We arrived at The Sunway Hotel at 7am and had a classic moment when the concierge and his helpers were waiting to take our suitcases. The concierge held his hand out to take Paul Halder's suitcase and Paul misunderstood and shook his hand!  We all fell about laughing and had to compose ourselves before trying to check in! So of course at 7am, our room's weren't ready. Just what we needed after a long flight, but they were incredibly gracious and polite about it (especially Lucy and Sophie) and said they would try to get our rooms ready for about 11am, so there was only one thing to do - explore! It was absolutely fascinating just aimlessly wandering the streets of Hanoi.  We passed a row of what may have been pet shops (there were dozens of birds in ornate cages hanging over tour heads), but then there were bowls of maggots and grubs and bags of what seemed to be crickets, grasshoppers or locusts - all alive - ready for purchase.  We're not sure if they were food for pets or people!
We found a street cafe with tables and chairs on the roadside and delighted the owners by stopping for a drink.  Then we sat back and watched the chaos!  There was a never-ending stream of mostly scooters, but intertwined with cars and vans, all heading down the street.  We couldn't stop laughing at the variety of things we saw carried on them - stacks of chairs (probably at least 12), about forty trays of eggs, 7 bags of cement, and the best one - a guy steering and a guy on pillion with a car windscreen balanced between them!  We could have sat there all day. We were across the road from a park where there were lots of older ladies (take note Mumsie!) doing Tai Chi exercises together - it was lovely to watch.  The guys had 2 big bottles of beer and Lou and I had 2 cokes - we paid about £2 - which included a tip!  We were then feeling a bit peckish and found a nice looking Vietnamese cafe for some early lunch - it was a disaster!  We hadn't a clue what we were ordering and played safe with some pork/mushroom and chicken/mushroom spring rolls. What we didn't realise was that the rice pancakes were steamed and incredibly slimy and anemic! Not a great experience for our first venture into Vietnamese food!

Steamed rice pancakes - not recommended!

On the way back, we saw another amazing Health & Safety phenomenon - cables dangling down from the street lights wrapped in plastic carrier bags!

Live (?) cables dangling down in the road.

There seems to be a perfect blend of old and new culture in this city, with lots of ladies in traditional dress carrying their wares in the traditional way.

By the time we made our way back to the hotel, they had our rooms ready. Beautiful rooms with a great big bed, which we fell straight into as by then we had been awake for 24 hours.

View of the city from our hotel window

Our Sunway Hotel room

After about 5 hours sleep, we took advantage of the hotel "happy hour" before venturing out to find an evening meal.

Hotel lobby

After the disaster at lunchtime, we decided to play safe and head for Al Fresco, which sounded somewhat Italian.  We took a taxi there and had the usual hair-raising ride.  There is definitely a total disregard for all things legal - red lights don't seem to make any difference and people seem to head down the wrong side of the road and therefore straight at you all the time!   We seems to spend the whole journey 'oohing' and 'aahing' and falling about in fits of laughter!  We were dropped off outside Al Frescos, but were drawn to Jacksons - what a result!  The food was to die for (not Vietnamese. but we've still got time to find our way around that adventure). The food was absolutely top class and the staff were so lovely.

Paul's garlic prawns with chili cooked by the hotel manager at our table.

Lou and I had belly pork lollipops starters - one of the tastiest dished I've ever had!

The manager made us dessert crepes at the table for free just to thank us for visiting his restaurant.

The lovely hotel manager flambeing our crepes.

We are now sat back in the hotel bar listening to the resident girlie group and hoping that Wigan can beat Spurs (which is playing on the TV here!).

The Sunway Hotel

If Spurs drop points, it ill be the perfect end to the perfect day!

Well this should be different!

For the last two years, we have had great adventures driving Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles.  This year, we had planned to drive the US East coast from New York down to Key West, but we thought the coastline may have been somewhat ravaged by hurricane Sandy, so we have shelved that idea for a year or two.

Route 66 2011 - the beginning.
Blog address: www.mooreroute66.wordpress.com

Route 66 2012 - the end!
Blog address: http://route66adventure2012.blogspot.co.uk/

Next on the bucket list? - Vietnam!

Map of Vietnam showing our three destinations.

We haven't travelled in Asia before but my son, Dan, had such a great experience there a few years ago with his good friend Sharon that we were keen to give it a go.

Dan sailing on Halong Bay.

Sharon enjoying a roof-top view.

Our friends, Paul and Louise, are travelling with us and we are all besides ourselves with excitement!  It's difficult to decide which parts we are looking forward to the most - the hustle and bustle of the cities, the amazing sights in Halong Bay, or the peace and tranquility of the beach resort.  But hotels and internal flights are all booked and visas and currency all sorted. 
For a couple of weeks, we will be millionaires as we get about 28,000 Vietnamese Dong for £1.

We fly to Hanoi on 26th April 2013.  Hanoi is the capital city and blends the old culture of Vietnam with modern French style - baguettes and street cafes are common. It is also a chaotic place and the big population of Hanoi is apparently all crowded on the streets, which are packed with bicycles, assembled bike-carets, tuk tuks, motorbikes, motorcycles, cars and pedestrians. It sounds like absolute transit craziness!  Apparently, the north of the country has some weird menu choices including snake, porcupine, rat and dog! We probably need to highlight some words from the phrase-book so we know what to avoid on the menu!

The crazy, crazy streets in Hanoi!

After a couple of nights there, we will spend a night on a junk out on Halong Bay - one of the most beautiful places in the world and a World Heritage Site.  Halong Bay translates to "Descending Dragon Bay" and  it's 1600 islands form a spectacular seascape of limestone pillars. Because of their precipitous nature, most of the islands are uninhabited and unaffected by a man.  The scenery will be amazing and the Junks are supposed to be quite luxurious.  We will also get to visit one of the floating villages, where whole communities live on rafts, with shops and schools forming part of the village.

This has to be one of the most beautiful places on this Earth!

We then spend a week chilling (in beach bungalows - sounds awesome!) in Danang at the foot of the Marble Mountains.  It seems like we will be in the middle of nowhere, but with an amazing stretch of private beach.  Although a few hundred yards walk down the beach and we will be able to watch the local fishermen hauling in their catches.  Shuttle buses will mean that we have the choice of heading north to Hoi An or south to Danang if we tire of the solitude.  Or a ten minute walk and we can visit the Marble Mountains.  It's years since we had a beach holiday and we have a feeling that one week will be enough - we'll soon get itchy feet again!  

Peace and tranquility for a few days!

Lastly, we move onto Saigon (Ho Chi Min City) for the last few days, which has a larger population and is even more manic than the capital city of Hanoi! Just the name, Saigon, evokes countless images and expectations, with the chance to wander through alleys, teeming markets, ramshackle shops and historic pagodas.  But there are also the sleek skyscrapers, designer malls, gourmet restaurants and minimalist bars. It sounds like an amazing metropolis!

Let's hope we never need to cross the road!

We have treated ourselves to the five-star Caravelle Hotel,which was one of the first luxury hotels to re-open its doors in post-war Saigon.  During the war, it was mostly used by journalists and is steeped in history.  It is in a great central location and has a roof top bar, where I am sure we will spend time reflecting on our time in Vietnam.

Ending the holiday in style - The Cavarelle Hotel.