Hanoi and Halong Bay

We left Sapa to head for Hanoi on an overnight train, arriving at 5:30am when the roads were deceptively quiet! Once the city was fully awake though it was very tricky to navigate round the thousands of scooters taking over the roads (and pavement). It was also surprisingly chilly and rainy in Hanoi, which we weren't expecting. However, we acclimatised pretty quickly and spent the next day or so wandering around the narrow streets of the Old Quarter, also visiting some tourist attractions such as the Hoa Lo prison museum (where the nasty French mistreated the Vietnamese apparently!) and Temple of Literature (not so pretty in the grey drizzle unfortunately). Another day we checked out Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum (from outside only as it was closed) and various government buildings - this area looked more modern with wider streets and more impressive buildings.

After a couple of days of waiting for the rainy weather to improve (and a day of watching rugby in a pub!), we decided to risk it and take the 3 day 2 night boat trip around Halong Bay which we had been so looking forward to. In Hanoi we'd met up with a friend of mine from Uni and her fiance which was cool, so the four of us decided to do the trip together. We turned out to be very lucky with the weather - as we approached the coast the clouds cleared to reveal a lovely blue sky with sunshine - and it stayed that way for the whole 3 days! We boarded the boat, enjoyed some really good seafood then cruised towards some caves for a look inside. We then did some gentle kayaking to view the grand islets from up close - a very beautiful place, especially in the glittering sunshine! We slept overnight on the boat and woke early the next day to climb a view point on a small island - about 300 steps to climb certainly woke us up! Worth the effort though.

Day 2 involved a trip to Cat Ba Island where we did a small cycle tour in a more secluded area of the island - very pleasant. We all decided we weren't up for the trekking that was included for that day! As there was only the 4 of us with our guide we could choose what to do so we spent the extra time swimming in the sea and jumping off the boat instead, which was much more fun! We were then taken to a hotel on the island where we would spend our second night. First thing we did was head to a beach for a couple more hours before sunset - perfect! Quiet evening and then up early again on day 3, which was time to travel back to Halong. Two boats and a couple of hours and lunch later (food was a highlight of the trip too, loads of fish and seafood) we were heading back to Hanoi, very satisfied with the trip and excellent weather. We spent one more night in Hanoi and will start to head South tonight.

Nicola

Latest pics: click here