Halong to Hanoi

When we first booked the Cruise on the Emeraude I was hoping it would be
misty in the morning so I could get some really atmospheric shots. Well
I wasn't disappointed. There wasn't much sunshine, but with the mist,
the limestone karsts that make up the bay all had different shades of
grey the further away they were.

We got up early in the morning to catch the sunrise. Well I guess the
sun came up because it wasn't dark anymore, but it's winter here at the
moment so it's overcast most of the time. Being up early, we got to
watch the Tai Chi demonstration. I don't think I've ever seen so many
uncoordinated people in one spot as the group that were trying to follow
the demonstration. Tai Chi is supposed to be graceful, a bit like Kung
Fu in slow motion. Picture one of the characters from the Thunderbirds
with a nervous tic and you start to get the idea.

Speaking of nervous, I forgot to mention in my last entry the woman on
the cruise that decided to get a pedicure. This was being done while the
Vietnamese cooking demonstration was on, so there were a lot of people
around. A word of advice, if you're ticklish, don't get a pedicure. The
more it tickled, the more she giggled. Naturally we all noticed and some
joined in, which made her embarassed and therefore made her giggle even
more.

After the Tai Chi class breakfast was served and it was more top quality
food and great service.

I can't praise the crew of the Emeraude enough. Even though it's the
most expensive cruise on the bay, there's no snobbishness on the boat at
all. It's just a nice, relaxing, friendly couple of days. For what you
get out of the cruise, I think it's pretty good value. We visited
Milford Sound in New Zealand last year. That was spectacular, Halong Bay
is just so much more. People had told me before we visited how good it
was, but words just can't describe it. You can't describe a state of mind.

Once we got back to the harbour at Halong our driver was there waiting
for us, so were about a dozen postcard sellers. I sometimes wonder if
anyone ever actually buys the postcards. I certainly haven't seen anyone
doing so.

Something I've noticed on any tour in Vietnam or China is that you will
always end up visiting somewhere to spend your money on souvenirs. It's
probably the same everywhere and the trip back to Hanoi was no
different. Our driver apologised and said he was hungry and we pulled
into a huge warehouse kind of shop that sold everything from ceramics,
to gemstones, to silk. He didn't need to make an excuse as we
appreciated the chance to have a look around and came away with several
nice silk tappestries that were hand made on the premises.

We saw a total of three accidents on the way back to Hanoi. The first
was a truck that had gone into a ditch and lost its load of logs. The
second was another truck that had turned over in the middle of the road
and looked like it was carrying scooters. The third happened just before
we got to it. We were just coming into Hanoi and someone had fallen off
his scooter. He was still on his hands an knees as we went past, or
rather elbow and knees. Having had a motorcycle accident myself a couple
of years ago I know what it's like. I was wearing all the protective
gear, this guy wasn't. He looked like he was in a bit more pain than I was.

The room we had at the Hoa Binh hotel for the first two nights was small
and overlooked a back street. It had a lot of character, being an eighty
year old hotel. As we hadn't originally booked a room for when we got
back to Hanoi, we decided once we'd spent the first night there that we
liked it there and so we'd stay at the Hoa Binh hotel for the rest of
the time we were in Vietnam. However, we thought we'd upgrade from the
deluxe room to a suite, after all, it's only an extra ten US dollars a
night. The difference that ten bucks makes is incredible, this room is
huge and the bathroom is better than ours at home.

We booked a couple of tours that afternoon for the last two days of our
holiday. Thursday's tour was to Bat Trang village, where ceramics is the
speciality, then on to a couple of other villages, one with a pagoda,
one where they make paper, where we had lunch, and one where the
speciality is snake meat in the restaurants. Oh, and I can't forget the
furniture factory where my beard attracted a lot of attention with the
young ladies. Reminds me of a certain restaurant in Taiwan a few years
ago. But I'll tell you all about Thursday in the next installment. I
might even tell you about the restaurant in Taiwan too.