A visit to Amazing Cave

Friday 9th March

Floating houses of the fisher-folk

How lovely it was to wake up on a boat gently bobbing in Ha Long Bay!  After a breakfast big enough to last the day, we set off in the little tender boat for Amazing Cave.  Well named, whoever thought of it!  Fortunately we invested in a new camera before this trip, so we were able to get a few photos that did it justice.  Apparently this beautiful cave complex was once used by people who fished in the bay, but once tourism got going in the area, they were moved out.  A shame for them, but lucky for us. 

Two of the lovely ladies from Kangaroo Cafe
 who accompanied us on our boat trip

Amazing Cave - this was once all under the sea

Some formations looked like broccoli!

We saw some ladies selling fish from their little boats. Whenever they saw a would-be customer, they gave the baskets a little jiggle to get the fish moving to prove that they were still alive.

The floating fishmongers of Ha Long Bay

Back on the boat, it was time to vacate the cabin and chat with our fellow travellers until we reached the port.  We were taken to a hotel at the port for a lunch fit for a King and then we were back on the bus for the long trip back to Hanoi.  We stopped at another souvenir/marble statue place where I forked out thousands of dong (not many dollars) for a silk robe, an onyx turtle and a cute little fridge magnet.

Back in Hanoi, John was missing his usual ‘Vietnamese No. 4’ that he usually has at the Adelaide Central Markets on a Friday night, so we described the dish to the hotel staff who did a Google search and found a place a few streets away that made a very similar dish.  We both had a bowl of it at the grand cost of $1.20 each.  It wasn’t exactly the same as John’s usual, but it was mighty good!

We then went a-wandering around the streets.  The intention was to find the shoe shop where John had bought some sandals so I could buy some too, but we didn’t quite get our bearings right.  As we've usually found, getting lost is not always so bad in a city as there's always so much to see.  When I finally decided that a toilet was more necessary than sandals, we stopped into a 3rd floor café near the lake and had a cup of tea and watched the world go by.  The lake is very beautiful when lit up at night.

The shoe shop was nearby, but had closed by that time, so tomorrow will have to do.  On the way back to our hotel we came across a night street market that seemed to go forever up the street.  We had a good browse, but don’t want to buy anything at this time as we’ll have to carry it around everywhere.  Shopping will have to wait until the last day.

Our beds seem to become more welcome every day.  Wish I’d brought my pedometer!  We're off to Sa Pa in the mountains tomorrow.

Ha Long Bay

Thursday 8th March

We started bright and early today to ensure we got a good breakfast in before heading off to Ha Long Bay.  When we went to check out of the hotel, the nice man behind the desk presented me with a gift for International Women’s Day which is celebrated widely in Vietnam.  The gift turned out to be a little Vietnamese lady figurine.  I had been admiring these in the souvenir shops but hadn’t yet bought one so I was very pleased to receive this memento of our trip.  Our next pleasant experience was being told not to bother to settle up for the mini bar and laundry expenses yet as we’ll be back at the hotel tomorrow night.  Nice to be trusted!

Dance lessons by Hoan Kiem Lake

We took a taxi to Kangaroo Café to meet with our other Ha Long Bay travelling companions, first nipping around to the ATM again to draw out a few more million dong.  Once all had arrived and formalities were completed, we boarded the bus to Ha Long.  The bus ride took about 4 hours and included a stop in a complex where marble statues, laquerware and various souvenirs were sold.  We passed by many areas of rice paddies being worked by men and women in conical hats.  In most cases cattle were used for pulling the ploughs through the paddies but we also saw a few mechanical ploughs.

Rice paddies on the way to Ha Long Bay

We arrived in Ha Long around lunch time and boarded our tour boat.  Due to some recent incidents with dodgy boat operators, it is now a requirement that all tour boats must be painted white.  Some of the operators haven't got around to it yet, so there are still some of the lovely brown boats in action, but soon they will all be white.

Our tour boat

Drink seller plying her trade (one of many)

After settling into our cabins we sat down to a lovely lunch and then motored off in the little tender boat to Ti Top Island. 

Ti Top Island - you want us to climb up there?!

Apparently (although I didn’t count them) there are 420 steps from the bottom to the top of the island.  All of our tour group made it to the top, where we had a wonderful view of the bay and took loads of photographs. 

Warning to old geezers

We made it!

Wow!

Nice spot for a game of soccer!

Ha Long Bay is quite similar in many ways to the Goto Islands in Japan – except we had the Goto Islands almost to ourselves and we’re sharing Ha Long Bay with hundreds of other tour boats.  The tender took us all back to the boat where we sat on the deck and chatted with our fellow travellers until dinner was ready.  We are travelling with Australian, English, German and Dutch folk and we’ve all enjoyed swapping our travel stories.

Dinner was fantastic and I don’t think I’ll need any more food for the next month or two!

Admiring the artistic vegetable decorations

We went back up on deck for another chat and a view of all the lit-up boats until we got a bit too cold. We’re off to visit a cave tomorrow, so we had an early night so we’re fighting fit in the morning.

A day in Hanoi

Wednesday 7th March

We started today with a visit to the Ho Chi Minh Museum and then went to view the old man himself in his mausoleum.  This involved a fair bit of security, checking in our bags and cameras before entering, and being carefully watched by uniformed guards every step of the way.  Uncle Ho is looking remarkably well for his age.  The viewing involves entering through one door, doing a circuit and leaving by the opposite door.  It wasn’t really the most inspiring thing we’ve ever done, but we couldn’t let the opportunity go by.

John and Ho Chi Minh

Our next stop was the Hanoi Tower shopping centre, where we had been told we could buy cheap leather motorcycle jackets.  We went there by taxi and got ripped off by the driver, but when we realised that the extra 20,000 dong that we paid is only 89 cents, we weren’t too worried.  Unfortunately, the shop in question no longer has any leather jackets so we left empty handed.

Mum's taxi

The mini-skirted side-saddle technique

The mini-skirted-side-saddle-high-heeled-text-as-you-go technique

We took a taxi to Kangaroo Café, this time checking the meter and settling up before getting out.  We took out 10,000,000 dong from the ATM and went to the Kangaroo Café to pay the remainder of our tour costs.  It was nice being a 10 millionaire for a few minutes!

We then headed off to the Old Quarter to roam through the streets of vendors selling all manner of goods including clothing and fabrics, metal cookware, fresh and dried food, souvenirs, wooden items, kitchen gadgets, pots and pans and everything else that anyone might need.  After visiting the Old City Gate, we came across the Dong Xuan Market and spent some time wandering around numerous stalls.  John just had to buy himself an army green hat with a red star on it ($1.23).  He won’t be wearing it Vietnam, but we made sure to get a photo of it.  In readiness for our trip to Sa Pa on Saturday, we bought a couple of windproof jackets.  The weather forecast for Hanoi is quite cold so we’re expecting the weather to be REALLY cold in the mountains.

Vendor going through the Old City Gate



Fruit and vegetable sellers

A feast for the eyes!

Feeling pretty hot and grotty, we made our way back to the hotel for a rest and shower before heading out to a restaurant called Highway 4 for a really nice dinner and then to the Water Puppet Theatre.

The Water Puppets planting rice

The water puppets were terrific!  The show was quite spectacular and was accompanied by musicians and singers performing traditional music.  We thought that our $4.45 each was very well spent and would recommend a visit to this show to anyone spending time in Hanoi.  The puppets are an old art form which was originally performed in rice paddies and has now been adapted for the theatre.

We made our way back to the hotel and got our packs ready for our next adventure - the trip to Ha Long Bay tomorrow.

Off to Vietnam

Tuesday 6th March

After our 6.30am checkout this morning, we made our way over to the Sentral Station.  There is an airline checkin counter at the station, so we used that in preference to lining up once we got to the airport.  At the airport we found a café for breakfast (pancakes again!) and mooched around until boarding time.  This time we were on a smaller plane but as we only had a 3 hour flight it wasn’t so bad.

As promised, we were met by a driver to take us to the hotel.  Our first impressions of Hanoi were quite startling.  It appears that the white lines on the road are just a recommended guideline and the way to avoid accidents is to frequently beep the horn.  We soon had a respite from our startling ride, however, as our driver’s car broke down!  He was able to get it going again, only to have it grind to a halt a bit further up the road.  On two occasions, John had to get out to push the car off the road, including from the middle of a crazy-busy roundabout.  While he was doing that I surreptitiously peeped in my handbag to check the insurance papers. We continued in this way until we were getting quite close to our destination, when he finally had to concede that ‘my car is broken’.  He phoned a friend who soon arrived in his Airport Taxi and took us the rest of the way.

Flower Seller in Hanoi

 Our hotel is called the Charming 2 Hotel and is very well named.  The hotel and its lovely staff are all charming.  They apologetically asked us if we’d mind swapping rooms tomorrow, from our King-sized room to a suite!  Well I guess having a suite would be OK!! 

Complementary drink at the Charming II Hotel

Once we’d settled in, we headed out for some exploring.  The traffic is absolutely jaw-dropping!!  It is like a never-ending start of the annual Adelaide Toy Run.  Thousands upon thousands of scooters, taxis and cars are zipping around, beeping their horns and narrowly avoiding bumping into each other.  Crossing the road requires a technique which we started to develop after a few scarey tries.  The idea is to step off the footpath and start walking at a consistent speed in a consistent direction and then the scooter daredevils just make sure they avoid knocking you over.  Not for the faint-hearted!

We're learning how to cross roads like this!

We set out for the Kangaroo Café to pay the deposit for our upcoming tours.  On the way, we were offered a ride on a Cyclo (pedal powered rickshaw).  We asked how much it would be and the man said ‘100’.  We knew it couldn’t be 100 dong as 10,000 dong is about 44 cents, so it had to be 100,000 dong.  When we arrived at our destination, he was suddenly able to say ‘100,000’.  John handed him a 100,000 dong note and the man suddenly decided that it was 100,000 each!  Fortunately John can be a tough cookie when he needs to be so he just refused to pay it.  Once we got to the Kangaroo Café we asked about an appropriate price to pay and they suggested it should have been about 50,000 dong.  Lesson learned!! 

We paid our tour deposits and had a welcome cool drink and rest.  We then found our way to the Hoan Kiem Lake and the nearby Water Puppets Theatre where we purchased tickets for tomorrow night’s performance.  We then strolled around the lake, taking photos, marvelling at the ongoing motor scooter derby, avoiding the locals trying to sell taxi-rides, shoe shines and all manner of other things (except the one with the sweet pastries who we thought deserved our support) and general watching the world go racing by.  It’s really hard to describe the experience, but we’ve shot a few pieces of video footage so we can relive it once we’ve finished having counselling when we get home.

We went back to the Kangaroo Café for dinner which was delightfully delicious – those wonderful fresh vegetables that the Vietnamese combine so well with beautifully flavoured sauces.  I think we took care of our week’s requirements of vitamins in one meal!

Dinner at the Kangaroo Cafe

We then made our way back to where we thought the hotel was and it turned out we were mistaken.  However we were only one street out and a helpful shop assistant pointed in the right direction.  We have learnt that stopping on the footpath looking at a map brings on a load of taxi drivers hoping for a fare, so there is a bit of a technique to finding out where you’re meant to be.

Hoan Kiem Lake

Once we connected to the hotel’s free wi-fi (a service which the KL Hilton couldn’t manage) I was disappointed  to discover that, while not officially banned in Vietnam, Facebook suffers from unexplained ‘technical difficulties’ so I won’t be able to use it while we’re here.  Very annoying as I’ve come to rely on Facebook to keep in touch with family and friends all over the world.  But I guess if that’s the worst thing that happens to us, we doing OK.

Hopping around KL

MONDAY 5TH MARCH

Waiting for the Hop On Hop Off Bus

After a classy breakfast of hotcakes at Macca’s, we set off for a day of sightseeing. We bought passes for the ‘Hop On Hop Off’ bus for about $12-$13 each. This gave us one day of unlimited use of the bus service which runs in a loop around the city, with stops at all of the main attractions.

First stop was the National Palace. Visitors are not allowed inside the Palace grounds, so it was strictly a photo-shoot. The bus stopped here for 10 minutes to allow the tourists to do our thing.

At the gates of the Palace

We then continued on to our next stop which was the National Mosque. We had also intended to visit the Islamic Art Museum, but of course, because I wanted to go there, they are closed on Mondays!  Oh well, there’s always next time.  The Mosque was very impressive and we had a nice chat with an attendant.  The best thing about this was that she was standing in the coolest spot.  Ladies are required to cover up and the mosque provides appropriate robes and head coverings. 

Here’s me in my stylish outfit.  It’s all made of synthetic material and is most unpleasant in a hot humid city.  It was nice to escape!

Our next stop was Merdeka Square – once a cricket field and the site of Malaysia’s proclamation of independence.  The square is surrounding by some very impressive buildings including the Royal Selangor Club and many other examples of beautiful architecture. 

After a bit of people watching and photo taking, we hopped on the next bus and hopped off at the Petronas Towers, a very impressive pair of 88 storey buildings connected by a sky bridge at the 41st and 42nd floors.  To get a ticket to go up to the sky bridge it is advisable to front up to the ticket counter at 8.30am.  We weren’t that keen but were still very impressed by the building. 

We dropped into the shopping mall next door, which was like a big, upmarket version of Marion Shopping Centre, with all the brand-name stores.  We found the food court and had a lovely meal from Sizzles.  Well named!  The meals are all served on sizzling plates.  We had a noodle dish which was very nice.  All around us were locals, including women in head scarves, tucking into their Macca’s and Subways, while we were eating noodles with chopsticks!  They probably thought we were very funny!

Back at the bus stop, we hopped on the next bus and made our way to Chinatown.  Besides seeing a couple of remarkable temples, we were not overly impressed.  It was mainly cheap watches, fake designer handbags and plastic stuff.  We did wander around one of the temples and watched the locals going about their temple business, which seemed to include offerings, blessings by the priest and burning paper things.

So off we went again, this time to Central Market.  This was much more interesting than Chinatown and we stopped to enjoy a cup of tea before setting off on foot to Little India.

Motorcycle gear Malaysian style

We were pretty weary by then, so made our way back to the hotel for a rest and clean up before heading back to the Sentral Station for dinner.  By the time we’d finished eating and using up a bit of free wi-fi at McDonalds it was time to go back to prepare for our flight tomorrow and call it a night.  The weather forecast for Hanoi is 30 degrees.  Sounds good to me!

We made it to Kuala Lumpur!

SUNDAY 4TH MARCH

We’re now in steamy Kuala Lumpur enjoying the luxury of the Hilton Hotel.

We managed to fit in a few more minor disasters before we left.  Not satisfied with mouse in the clothes dryer issue, I managed to vacuum up a cigarette lighter into the under-floor vacuum system.  This means the vacuum system will be out of order until we get home, so we’ve left the housesitters with a tacky little pull-along vacuum cleaner.

Our next hiccup happened when we arrived at the Adelaide Airport.  Malaysia Airlines has a new check-in system operated by TOLL and the new system was malfunctioning.  Even though we had printed off our boarding passes at home and had no checked in baggage, we still had to line up to have our passports checked and our hand baggage weighed.  We lined up from 7.50 until 9.10.  Our flight was supposed to leave at 10.00 but there was still an enormous queue of people waiting to check in.  We were all rewarded with a $15 voucher which could be redeemed at a number of shops within the airport, but they had to be redeemed today.  Fine for us – we went to Cocolat and bought $30 worth of chocolate!  But we couldn’t help wondering how the people at the end of the queue were going to spend their vouchers with a plane waiting at the gate to take off.  We finally departed at 11.15am.

Once we were in the air, the pilot came on to announce that we were experiencing ‘technical difficulties’ – but it was only the flight entertainment system that was playing up, not the aircraft.  From memory, this also happened on our last trip to Japan.  I hope they maintain the aircraft better than their entertainment systems.  The flight was quite uneventful except for a few drink-slopping bits of turbulence.  There are a lot of pot holes in the sky!  John was pleased to get his first ever view of Uluru.

Apologies for lack of clarity - we were a long way up!

As we already had our pre-purchased tickets for the express train to KL Sentral, the next stage of the journey went very smoothly.  For most of the journey, there was not a lot to see except for the palm tree plantations which have replaced the natural vegetation as far as the eye can see.

Our next almost-disaster happened when we were checking in to the hotel.  Having spent the last few weeks dreaming of jumping in the beautiful Hilton pool, I was horrified to see a notice on the check-in desk apologising for the fact that the pool was closed for maintenance – just for the 4th March.  Of course!  They see me coming, don’t they!  All was not lost, however, as the Hilton is connected to the Meridien Hotel and the pool is divided down the middle.  The Meridien side was still open and Hilton guests had use of it during the closure.  Phew!

John conked out for a while so I had a read of the brochures and thought about a rough ‘wish list’ of sights.  Once Captain Snooze rejoined me, we went out to find some dinner.  As we’ll have the full day tomorrow exploring, we just went over to the Sentral Station and found a nice little food court.  We both ordered a Thai fried rice dish and I was astounded to find that the price was about $2 each!!  The food was really nice – mine was suprisingly spicy (I can usually tell by looking at a dish if it’s going to be spicy, but this one caught me off guard).  For a little blending of the cultures, we went to Dunkin’ Donuts for dessert.  John couldn’t resist the little worms in this donut!

After dinner it was time to hit the neighbour’s pool.  The water was colder than expected but wonderfully refreshing.

After the swim it was time to hit the sack to build up our energy for a full-on day tomorrow.

'Twas the night before take-off...

Saturday 3rd March 2012

...and all through the house, was the pungent aroma of decomposed mouse.  After two weeks of trying to detect the source of a disgusting smell in the bathroom, we finally unearthed a dead mouse resting in peace in the back of the clothes dryer.  Our house-sitters have been spared the experience of the pong!

We're off on our next adventure on a 10.00am flight tomorrow.  First stop is Kuala Lumpur for 2 nights.  We're doing our '5 kilogram backpack' thing again - we're quite good at it now and it makes travelling so much easier.  We're not sure of the reliability of the Internet on this trip but will try to keep up the communication as well as we can.  'Bye for now!