Digital Wanderer

We live as long as we fly

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Vietnam — 15, a boat trip to the islands and a cave

 2011-06-04

We came to Ha Long to see the famous 3,000, or maybe even 6,000 islands. For this, you need to buy a tour ticket. Touts are selling them everywhere, boats leave periodically, there are hundreds of them. So look around, haggle, and ye shall find. The pleasure costs 20-50 bucks for a 2-4 hour trip. We paid something like 25 per person for 3 hours. Make sure to ask if the tour includes a visit to the cave (it almost always does). The cave isn't included in the price, but you can live with that, since the ticket costs somewhere around 2 bucks.

Ha Long also has a supermarket, so you don't have to overpay hustlers for soda. They have a fridge in there, canned coffee, and an endless amount of all sorts of grub like ice cream, dried fruits, plain sweet potato chips, nuts, and other Asian joys of life.

A condensation-covered can of the Vietnamese drink Nước Mía Lau sits on a wooden table. The can features illustrations of sugar cane, carrots, and water chestnuts; next to it lies a clear lid with a spoon, and cafe patrons are visible in the blurred background.
Judging by the picture, bamboo and carrot. Tastes a bit weird, but at least it comes with a spoon, and a lid
A hand holds a soft pouch of Tribeco brand Jeno grape juice with a plastic spout on top. The purple label features large grapes and a drawing of a boy on a skateboard.
Some kind of fruit jelly for kids, it sucks

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Vietnam — 14, heading out to Halong

 2011-06-03

The next day we headed to the famous Halong Bay. It was April 31st, a big holiday in Vietnam, and in a resort town like Halong, huge crowds were expected, so Thuy advised us against heading out there. But we didn't really have a choice, so we barged ahead, getting up at 5 in the morning and taking a taxi to the station. Thuy had told us in advance which company's bus to take, but the ticket counters were still empty, and the rest of the people didn't really speak English or burn with the desire to help us at 6 AM. We had to hop on the first bus we came across, good thing there were heaps of those heading to Halong. Special managers hustle you in there — generally, Vietnamese buses have managers who lure in passengers, collect ticket money, hand out slippers, and so on. The bus, by the way, departed not on schedule, but when it was completely full. What does "completely full" mean in Vietnam? It's when there are plastic stools standing in the aisle, with people sitting on them. At least they don't ride standing up.

IMG_5882

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Vietnam — 13, First Evening in Hanoi

 2011-06-02

From the bus station, we made our way a few kilometers to Thuy's house through crazy traffic, which you could see in the video. There, Thuy found us a hotel on the internet called New Sun Hotel (the site is down, per Vietnamese custom), located at 9B ngo 67 Van Cao, Ba Dinh district.

By the way, there are "only" 6.5 million residents in Hanoi, and even then, the majority are in the surrounding villages. The city was founded in 1010.

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Vietnam — 12, hotel in Yên Bình and the road to Hanoi

 2011-06-01

What were Cuong and I talking about? (By the way, when the aunt needed to find him, she yelled "Cuongyaaa", almost like in Russian). About how the road ahead was getting way too overloaded with traffic, and that it wouldn't be a bad idea for us to catch a bus instead of pedaling through exhaust fumes and dust. Cuong promised to arrange everything, called the bus company, then called the bus itself, and agreed that they would pick us up along with our bikes right from the hotel. Now that's service! Things get sorted out in a really pleasant way in Vietnam. The bus to Hanoi took  about 5 hours, quite a lot. The decision not to ride on our own power was the right one — the road is just too packed with vehicles and honking.

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