More Hanoi

Just a few of the many Halong Bay islands.

Still in Hanoi then -  I have to visit the Thai embassy to hand in my visa paperwork, this turns out to be not as easy as I'd hoped, the lady behind the window says I should have brought a printout of a bank statement, first I'd heard of this, finding somewhere in Hanoi I can print the thing out at turns out to be tricky.  And then she refuses to accept the Thai money I've brought specially for the fee, nor can I pay with local currency, rather she insists on US dollars.  More fun ensues as I visit an ATM to withdraw a couple of million in Vietnamese Dong (oh yes), and then manage to find a street full of shops that I realise must be money changers, as two separate people have directed me here... there is no English signage, nor any of the lists of exchange rates you might expect, but never mind, in the end I get all the documents handed in with around seven minutes to spare.

Back in a kayak!

I have time for more sightseeing, visiting various parks and lakes, in each case it is good to get away from the traffic.  I am a little surprised to not really see anything in the way of impressive temples here - one of the lakes has a little island which allegedly contains a small temple, after I pay thirty thousand Dong (around one pound) to get onto the island the thing turns out to be entirely fenced off and pretty much under construction rather than restoration.  I rather suspect this country is only just emerging from a period during which religion was oppressed, and the temples largely demolished - perhaps to make room for giant statues of Uncle Ho, of which I see a few.

View from the boat.

There is good food here, interesting stuff to buy on the street, I get a savoury pancake one day, and some sort of deep fried pork omelette another.  Of an evening, the local speciality 'cha ca la vong' - catfish fried with spices - is rather tasty, and I of course get some spring rolls.  Not totally convinced by the bland, cold rice vermicelli that seems to be the standard accompaniment but never mind.  On the plus side I get to visit the cafe that invented Vietnamese egg coffee... there's time for cultural stuff too, at the weekend there is traditional dancing happening in the street in the old town, and I also do the 'water puppet' thing which is a local tradition.  Most entertaining, a series of vignettes covering legends and pastoral scenes, with kings, rice farmers, fish and fire breathing dragons emerging from the water to do their thing.

Thien Cung (Heavenly Palace) cave.

On my last day in Vietnam, with the Thai visa all sorted out, I'm able to get away from the city on a very long day trip, to Halong Bay.  It's maybe two hundred kilometres away, but the bus sure takes its time getting there and back, it is totally worth it though as this is an incredible place, some accident of geology has resulted in, our guide tells us, around one thousand seven hundred steep sided islands rising dramatically from the waters of the bay.  The scenery is breathtaking, with new vistas opening up as I travel among the islands on a very comfortable boat, one of a large fleet catering to hordes of tourists - mostly more or less local, my own group is composed of Filipinos, Japanese and Koreans, plus me.  We get a fine meal of seafood fresh from the bay, I get to do a bit of kayaking, paddling around and through a couple of narrow entrances to find circular 'hollow' islands, and then we're back on the boat to visit an incredible complex of caves, carved by the elements into the interior of yet another island.  I realise I need to come back and do a multiple day trip here... there are trekking trips you can do in the north of the country too, apparently this can include scaling the highest mountain in the three countries of what was French Indochina.  Well, some other time...

Photos to go with this post can be found here.