hoi an, hanoi and ha long bay

Just got back to Hanoi from Ha Long bay cruise.

Since I last updated when I was in Hanoi, I met up with Gordon and some other now 4th years who are going north to south in VN. It was so surreal to meet up with people in such unfamiliar surroundings! We had a few drinks and Gary and I sold them Jungle Beach- that place should be paying us for the PR we are providing for them! Anyway, they went off there this week, hope they enjoyed it.

I got a couple of skirts and a top made in Hoi An- it wasn't the cheapest or best quality but it was an interesting experience. Everyone here is fascinated with my pale skin- to the extent that strange women keep touching me (just on the arm) even if we haven't interacted. It's quite creepy actually. If we have interacted they usually hold on to me. It's a really Vietnamese trait, invading your personal space and touching people.

So Hoi An was a beautiful town although it rained our second day there and we weren't really able to do much apart from sit in cafes and drink coffee. What a disaster!

Anyway, we organised to get the train from there to Hanoi, and since we left it quite late we had to get hard sleeper! 6 people in one room. We had level 2 and level 3 bunks. It was a great experience. We got a taxi from Hoi An to Da Nang (about 30km north) to the station. The taxi played all the greats- Yesterday, Glen Maderious, Lionel Ritchie, the Bangles. We sang along and the driver must have thought we were nuts! The train was packed full, we were the only white people in the carriage. Dinner was rice and warm soup and chicken which was one of the most fun experiences in VN so far. (G and I were the only people drinking beer) Our train was about 50mins late but we didn't mind because it meant we didn't arrive in Hanoi at 4.48am.

I quite like Hanoi, it's very different from HCM but we only spent a day here because we bumped into Zoe and Luke and decided to go a cruise to Ha Long bay. This was a difficult call- there are so many different companies and it was hard to decide which ones were best to go for. Anyway we picked a kind of averaged priced one which was probably the best option. We had a day sailing and a day on Cat Ba island. This second day was pretty horrendous. We seemed to be hanging about for ages, no one told us what was going on, it was POURING with rain, only Zoe had on proper shoes (they told us it was ok to climb a mountain in our flip flops, and let's just say, it wasn't) and the island was full of litter and fumes and it wasn't pleasant. We did enjoy the boat though, and sang a lot of karaoke and drank a lot of over priced beer and cocktails.

We just got back to Hanoi this evening and tried to complain to the company but they didn't really get it. Anyway. Cooking class tomorrow, HCM mausoleum, massage, manicure and pedicure and drinks at the Sheraton to go then CHINA on Monday!

xxx