Hanoi and Halong Bay

We arrived in Hanoi to some good old fashioned throwbacks to communism. The visa process was actually pretty easy, you apply online and they sent you approval to come, then you get a visa on arrival. We arrived to a very staid, very Russia looking airport, uncannily Russian in fact. We went to the Visa on Arrival station and you actually had to go past to first window to give them your documents, then walk back from where you had come, wait and then they called your name, paid and went to the window to pick up your visa. While Becky was asking questions about why they would have two windows to handle such a process and why you had to walk past the first window and then come back to it, I felt very comfortable.

First of all, no Facebook in Vietnam, the government has it blocked. I did a search though and some people had posted about how you could change your settings and backdoor your way in. So, I couldn't post pictures for a while until I got that all figured out.

Hanoi is crazy, well I'm going to say it regardless of who is reading this (mom or dad) because to be honest, Hanoi is fucking insane!! Everyone rides around on motorbikes or scooters with no regard for lights or stop signs (if they actually existed), one way streets, any traffic laws. There are so many of them that really, the crazy system is the only way it could work. I will post a video of it when I can because pictures don't do it justice. They ride up to four people on one scooter with their babies and helmetless kids standing on their laps and weave in and out of traffic, honking incessantly and transporting all their goods on the back; tvs, refrigerators, dogs, whatever. But, no one really seems to get angry with each other, and there doesn't seem to be any road rage, I really can't explain it.

We had a really nice hotel that was profiled in the airline magazine of the plane some people we met had brought. It was dirt cheap and right in the heart of the Old Quarter, an old marketplace area of streets that don't have any continuity in name or direction. I have pretty good sense of direction but it is really easy to get turned around in there. People open up garage doors at the bottom and their shop is right there and the bring products out onto the sidewalk as well, avoiding all the motorbikes that are parked everywhere. Each street has a trade that it is devoted to; silk, liquor, clothes, electronics, shoes.....and then there are some streets that have everything under the sun. You have to walk in the street, worried that someone on a motorbike is going to hit you in the ass but it doesn't happen. Crossing the street an adventure, you just start walking and somehow they all avoid you. I went out to grab a small bite and a couple of beers while Becky went to bed early the first night we arrived. I had some Pho, a brothy soup with either Bo (beef) or Ga (chicken) that is the national dish of Vietnam. There are 100s of places where people sit out on the sidewalk on little blue stools eating Pho for breakfast, lunch or dinner. On my way back, I had my first offer of boom boom from a cab driver. It's a little unnerving at night walking around because there are just so many people and it's dark except for the motorbike lights zooming around everywhere, but I imagine you would feel very safe soon enough, I never had any issues at all.

We woke up on Wednesday morning and were picked up for the four hour drive to Halong Bay, a Skull Island looking place with limestone rock formations. Ron, y friend we will be ultimately visiting in Shanghai had heard good things about an overnight junk boat trip there so I looked into it and had booked it. What a great opportunity! You arrive at a wharf which is teaming with actiivity and take a tender out to your junk boat. I gotta say, there are tons to choose from and I had read horror stories about some bad ones, but we were staying on the nicest one that was available. We departed and had a pretty decent 5 course lunch and headed out to sea. We went to a cave called Surprise Cave. The cave has three chambers, each progressively bigger than the one preceeding it. The last one would be on Caveman Cribs, it was ridiculously large. We had an opportunity to go swimming but passed as it was still overcast. We had a nice dinner and ended up hanging out with an Australian couple that night.

The next morning we went to a fishing village, very cool. The whole thing is a floating village, no land or freshwater, they must go to Halong City to get all their vegetables and fresh water, and its a pretty good hike by boat to get there.

As we headed back, we went thru the Vietnamese countryside, seeing farmers, small towns, water buffaloes and of course, motorbikes.

Thursday night we went out to a place called Bobby Chinns which had been profiled on the Discovery Channel. The food and atmosphere were fantastic although it was pricey by Vietnam standards.

Hanoi is celebrating the 1000th anniversary of the founding of the city as we are here and it may explain why so many people are here right now, but it also places it on Frommer's Top Ten Destinations of 2010.

We got up Friday morning and went to see the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum which unfortunately is closed as they send the body to West for preservation from October thru December. Not sure what it is about communist countries having their dead leaders lay in state and try to convince everyone that its the real body, but this makes two. We walked around the city for a while and then headed to the airport where I sit now.

Next stop.....Bangkok/Phuket

Hong Kong

Well, this is attempt number two so it will be much more abbreviated. Somehow, everything I had just typed was cleared.

Got to Hong Kong after a 15 hour flight, there's no way to cut it, that sucks. By the time we got to the hotel it was about 6pm. This was actually better than Russia because I only had to stay awake a few hours more and then I could get on a regular sleep schedule. We stayed at the YMCA which is in Kowloon on mainland China and faces Hong Kong island. BEfore you laugh, the YMCA is highly rated and has an outstanding location and view of the light show on Hong Kong Island http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHWmFkpondw. After dinner and a quick view of the light show, we were pretty cashed.

On Monday morning, we took the Star Ferry across the harbor. It's dirt cheap and affords great views of the harbor. We then walked down to check out the Reunification Monument which was erected when the island was given to China by the British in 1999.

We then headed up to Victoria Peak to check out the skyline. You take a tram up to the peak that is so steep the buildings built on the hill it goes up look like they are slanted!! Ok, that cheesy line is from the brochure. The views are amazing, unfortunately, the day we were there it was overcast so while we could see everything, it all had a shade of gray.

Afterwards, we went to the backside of the building to visit Repulse Bay and Stanley Market. We ended up only driving by Repulse Bay as we weren't going swimming anyways.

Stanley Market is a crazy, claustrophobic hodgepodge of stores that seemed to be in the alleys of a town called Stanley. Everything you possibly could want is for sale. Sometimes though, you just want a beer and that's what we did after walking thru for a while.

Despite Becky's best efforts to get me to do something that night, I was done and passed out pretty early. Mind you, I passed out from being tired, not from drinking.

The next morning, we got up and had some time to kill before heading to the airport so we headed to a temple where Taoists, Buddhist and another Easter religion all have temples. Lots of people with lots of incense sticks giving it up to a higher power. We then ran by a garden which was actually quite nice.

I do need to comment on the Hong Kong train system. Absolutely the best I have ever been on!! Normally on a platform, trains going one way are on one side and trains going to other way are on the other side. To transfer to a different line, you have to go up or down and then trek over to the other line. On the Hong Kong line, when you transfer, the line is right across the platform and you get off at different stations depending on which direction you want to go. Plus, you pay for where you go, not just to get on, which I guess has pitfalls as well. You press a button on a touchscreen, it tells you how much and then you have to swipe your card when you get in and get off. If you try to get off at a later stop, the gate wont let you thru. Lesson learned. A fantastic express train gets you to the airport in about 20mins for about $12 and you can check your bags at the train station. Love it !!! That system is going into a Sim City I'm gonna create.

Overall, we spent a perfect amount of time in Hong Kong, there's not a lot to see, just a lot to take in. The skyline is ridiculous. It's also about the easiest travelling you will ever do in a foreign language speaking country. Everything is in English, you can find whatever you want to eat and it's ridiculously easy to get around and safe, Hanoi was next and well, I can't say all the aforementioned apply.