Junk

To continue with the “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore, Toto!” theme, we had another mooch about the streets of Hanoi on our last night before the junk trip. I mention this because we finally “went native”. In previous posts I have tried to describe how the pavements are inaccessible to pedestrians because the Vietnamese effectively live on the streets when they’re not parking their scooters on them, thus making walking on the extremely crowded roads quite hazardous. By “living on the streets” picture families or friends crouched down on little blue plastic foot stools, eating, drinking or just fixing their bikes. Even the street vendors’ customers perch on these little blue stools scooping rice from a bowl or drinking the ubiquitous cheap home brew. Well, so did we! Picture six white farangs sitting around steel table amongst a load of yammering locals ordering home brew from a 7 year old as hoards of rickshaws, scooters and taxis roared past centimetres away. Great fun. You should have seen the look on the boy’s face when Carolyn and Linda decided they wanted vodka and coke. To be fair, he was able to sell us a small bottles of vodka (surprisingly mild) but had to get his elder brother to give him a ride to the shop to get a can of coke . . . He did hang around afterwards to see what the strange English women were going to do with it, though. The beer wasn’t bad either; and it cost around 20p a glass!

Anyway, on with the travels. The next day, bright and early (groan!), we climbed aboard a most uncomfortable minibus for a four hour and 170 kms ride to Halong Bay on the east coast. To be honest, I have travelled in more comfortable Turkish dolmus but the travel through Hanoi rush hour (which lasts for 18 hours a day) was worth it for the excitement. The guide books all say that Halong Bay is the place to visit in Viet Nam and is being actively voted to be one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. It is a huge region, 1500 square klicks, containing around 3,000 limestone monoliths rising from the waters and dotted with vessels of all sizes. Again, there is not enough space to describe it but there is a good web site together with a map here: http://www.halongbay-vietnam.com/halong_bay_overviews.htm

We had booked the Huong Hai Junk cruise at Hanoi airport when we arrived in Viet Nam for three days and two nights. It is listed on the site as a “deluxe junk class” cruise but there is always some apprehension when you turn up for these things, isn’t there? As it turned out, it actually was one of the most comfortable mini cruises I’ve ever been on; multiple course lunches and dinners with proper tablecloths and cutlery, excellent service, comfortable beds and clean en-suite toilets and showers. The food was a high point – mixed fish, meat and vegetable courses Viet Nam-style while weird rock formations glided by outside. Here’s a picture of our boat. We picked our way past floating towns where homes were tethered to each other and their fishing boats and children rowed to school and little boats selling drinks and snacks rowed up beside us while sea hawks circled and dived from their nests on the surrounding cliffs (Yes! Finally got an ornithological reference in, Andy!) and Linda even saw a manta ray breach the water. Kayak tours to explore the many caves were offered to the young and fit (you may assume I declined although I wish I’d had a go on one of the shorter trips). Overall, it wasn’t cheap, especially when the drinks were extra (and pricey) and we were a captive and thirsty audience, but what the heck. We can always resort to eating on the street for a pound when we get back to Bangkok.

Well, four hours back to Hanoi (groan!) and then probably an hour for a quick beer and then another hour and half through rush hour to the airport and then another two hours to Bangkok. We shall all sleep well tonight.