Great start to SE Asia - Hanoi & Halong Bay

Volley ball before dinner
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Wow - what a crazy, busy, beautiful, scary place.

We'll never forget:

• Arriving in Hanoi and swearing we'll never cross a road here, fearing for our lives
• Eventually getting to the point where we were crossing roads just to take pictures of each other doing it
• Sipping beer sitting on a street corner on a plastic childrens chairs watching foreigners cross the road
• Eating at the street markets where if something was bigger than bite size a lady would lift it off your plate with her fingers and snip through it with a pair of scissors
• Our trip to Halong Bay which could have been our second honeymoon, and sharing it with some fantastic people 

Kyaking with Ms Daisy
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Wish we could forget:

• Having to second guess everyone and assume you are always been taken for a ride. The first time we were on our toes but they got us the second time - details below

Details

We were pretty nervous about landing in Vietnam but it really couldn't have been easier to find our way around. We piled into the airport bus and got taken to the Old Quarter. Instead of being dropped off at 1 designated point some man off the street boarded the bus and said we'd all be taken to whichever hotel we preferred to be dropped off at and then made us name the hotels we had in mind. We were immediately on guard but named a hotel in The Lonely Planet. Next thing we were told that we had arrived so we hopped out. There was no 'Sunshine Hotel' in sight but a man wanting to lead us to it was insistent it was right in front of us. He tried to tell us that the name on the outside meant sunshine in Vietnamese and he showed us the business card for Sunshine Hotel. We checked the address in our book to the street name and after being pretty insistent he pointed us in the right direction. Needless to say we never actually landed up at The Sunshine because we were persuaded off course by another gentleman promoting his hotel. No complaints though - it turned out to be pretty good - double room with en-suite and hot water, breakfast and free internet all for $10.

Our own little island
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It seems that the Vietnamese have caught on to the fact that most Western travelers follow The Lonely Planet (not hard to catch onto as you hardly see a tourist in the streets without one). Anyway, what they do is copy the name of the hotels and restaurants in the book and claim to be that one. There's a street close to where we stayed with 3 'Little Hanoi' restaurants in it all claiming to be the one recommended by The Lonely Planet.

We had most of the afternoon available and we spent  day 30 walking around The Old Quarter. That in itself is a feat as the pavements are too full of parked mopeds (Xe om) and stalls to walk on and the traffic is coming from all directions in the streets. It seems that road intersections work as follows - honk your horn several times, drive into the middle of one (on any side of the road), weave your way though in any direction and emerge on the other end, honking at regular intervals the entire time.

Sunning on deck
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We took a cyclo ride (bicycle with carriage in the front) and I felt surprisingly safe. It's great to just sit back and watch all the activity going on. By doing it this way you get taken down streets that you may not have had the courage to venture down on your own.

Day 31 was spent wandering around the streets and stalls. We braved a ride on the back of a xe om and enjoyed some great Vietnamese food. Lunch in particular was very interesting as we chose to eat at a road side stall and had a bit of everything (buffet style), some chosen by us and some simply plonked on our plates.

Few of the 3000 limestone islands
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The people you run into on a trip like this are amazing. When we were inquiring about tickets at the train station we landed up chatting to a mom who is probably in her late 30's. Her and her husband and their 12 year old son have taken the entire year off and are touring the world. We didn't get into the how's and why's but it's amazing to think there are people out there who have the guts to do that. As a matter of fact we very rarely bump into anyone who is on a shorter trip than me and Shawn.

Junk anchored for the evening
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Ended this day with another beer on a plastic childrens chair on a street corner.

Day 32 - 34 were extremely relaxing and fit for a honeymoon (if you don't mind sharing your honeymoon with 14 other people - great people though).

The trip started with our hotel staff pulling one over on us. We had arranged to meet our bus at 8:15 at the travel shop we'd bought our tickets from. At 6:30 we get a call in our room from our reception to say that our travel company had called (they had pryed all the details of our trip out of us the day before), and that they were picking us up at 7:30 so we'd better come down for breakfast and check out. We wandered about this but what can you do but believe them. We rushed downstairs and it soon became clear to us that new guests had arrived and they simply needed our room to be vacated ...... although they still won't admit to it.

Beautiful Halong Bay
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The next 3 days more than made up for it. The scenery on the 3 hour bus ride made it fly past, even though you're sitting on the edge of your seat the entire time and more often than not you're facing oncoming traffic, and before we knew it we boarding our junk.

From then on it was eating 7 course meals, sunning ourselves, swimming in the 24 degree water, some cave exploring and getting to know the other passengers. Everyone got along really well and it made the trip. Some of us ventured out for a midnight swim, helped along by the rice wine kindly supplied by the staff on board. We slept on the junk the first night but transferred to a smaller boat which dropped us off on a small remote island for the second night. That day we kayaked around the island, played beach volleyball and ended off with a 9 course seafood barbeque and some guitar playing on the beach.

Junk's queueing at the caves
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When we returned to Hanoi the following evening we managed to book ourselves onto the night bus to Hoi An which departed at 6:30pm. The ride was a bit crazy with all the swerving, honking and various 5 minute stops for no apparent reason. Nonetheless we managed to get a few hours sleep and after breakfast in Hue we arrived in Hoi An at 1'ish on day 35.