Hanoi and Halong Bay, Vietnam

September 15th - September 21st 2011 

We flew from Hong Kong and into Hanoi, Vietnam. The visa on arrival was pretty straight forward and as we had booked a night in a hostel a man came and picked us up. As soon as he started driving we noticed that the traffic is absolutely mental! We'd heard that the traffic might be a bit crazy but were still shocked to see babies being held while on mopeds weaving in and out of traffic, people on mobile phones driving motorbikes one handed etc. The highway code definately does not apply in Vietnam!

Vietnam Traffic

We got to the hostel (Central Backpackers) and was pleasantly suprised, big rooms, a clean bathroom and big comfy bunk beds with plenty of space. The hostel offered free internet, free breakfast and free beer during happy hour! We were very impressed especially after what we had received in Hong Kong. It was also in a great location, only a short walk to the lake, water puppet theatre and there were loads of good restaurants nearby too.
 

Lake near our hostel

We spent the first day exploring the area and trying to exchange Hong Kong Dollars for U.S Dollars or Vietnamese Dong which seemed impossible although after hours of walking we finally found a place that did it. We booked a Halong Bay tour to start in a couple of days time to give us time to get our laundry done and see a little more of Hanoi. We wandered around the night market after dinner and sampled the local sugar cane juice which was like clementine juice but very sweet.

Night Market

We spent the second day getting completely lost trying to find the train station to book train tickets down to Saigon, we eventually found a train station but it was the wrong one! On the walk we did see lots of sights, a woman washing snakes in a bucket and lots of weird and wonderful market stalls. The long walk gave us good practice at crossing the roads too. You have to walk and let all the cars, mopeds and bicycles avoid you!

We eventually got to the right train station and booked train tickets to Da Nang. We then spent the evening at the famous Vietnamese Water Puppet Theatre which was actually pretty good and for only approx 2 pounds. We had dinner at a place that does vegetarian food and I had an amazing Vietnamese dish of fried potato with tomato and rice. It was so yummy we went back a few times.

Water Puppets

Day three we went on our tour of Halong Bay. We had decided to go for three days and two nights. One night on the boat in the bay and one night on Cat Ba Island. Halong Bay was absolutely breathtaking. We toured a cave and went swimming in the water which was as warm as having a bath. We swam with others on the tour until the sun set and then had dinner and played cards with a few of the people that we had met.

View from the boat of Halong Bay

We woke up the next morning and got to Cat Ba Island. There was a bit of trouble when we got there as a British guy came up to us and a few others on the tour warning us not to stay at that particular hotel as he had been threatened with a knife the night before. He started walking away shouting about waiting for the police to arrive when a local man hit him hard to the floor with some bamboo and then kicked him while he was down. We were all obviously shaken up but had no choice but to stay the night. The night picked up when we walked with two other couples we had met and had cocktails down by the water.

Halong Bay

Our last day on the tour we went kayaking around the bay which was tiring but fun and we made our way back to the main land and back to Hanoi. After the tour we had one more night in our hostel before we packed up and got on our very long over night train to Da Nang. We hadn't researched what to do in Da Nang but thought we'd be spontaneous and decide once we were there where to go and what to do.

Hong Kong

September 10th - September 15th 2011

Star Ferry

We flew from Beijing to Hong Kong and got to our hostel in Kowloon which was situated in Chungking Mansions. The place is notorious among backpackers as everyone on a budget stays there as it's the only affordable accomodation in Hong Kong. It was being held up by scaffolding and was surrounded by people trying to sell you suits, knock off watches, hand bags and even drugs. It definately does not make a good first impression!

We were told by the manager in reception that they had no room in the dorm that we had booked but not to worry as we were very lucky and would get a 'special' private room. He then showed us to our 'special' room which was actually the tiny computer room with the worlds smallest bunk bed in it. It was as small as a broom cupboard and had the added touch of a security camera in the corner which they didn't bother to turn off. We wandered down to the harbour and caught the Symphony of Lights show before going to bed.

Symphony of Lights

We had the worst nights sleep ever but woke up with a brand new city to explore. I had visited Hong Kong very briefly on a stop over trip and had so much that I wanted Craig to see. Our first day we dcided to venture to the top of Victoria Peak which has panoramic views of the City. We took the Star Ferry across to Hong Kong Island and walked through the city to the tram which would take us to the top. The further up the tram travelled the more amazing the views got. We went to the top of the Peak Tower and enjoyed the breathtaking scenery before making our way back down again to have a look around the shops and taking the tram back down to the city.


View from Victoria Peak

We wandered to the Botanical and Zoological Gardens as it was close by and I had read that it was free to enter. It was really peaceful so we sat and ate ice lollies in front of the water fountain with a view of the architecturally famous HSBC building and Hong Kong skyline. We looked at the animals and birds in the gardens and walked back to our ferry. We got back to our hostel and moved in to our dorm room which was just as bad as our previous room, four tiny bunk beds crammed into a room with no space to put your bags and a dirty bathroom. And this place is three times the price of our nice Beijing hostel!

Orchids in The Botanical Gardens

Another sleepless night ensued as we were sharing with people who got in in the early hours and decided to keep everyone awake laughing all night. Not only that but the manager decided that 3am was a good time to barge in and start shouting at everyone making sure that they had paid. He did this again at 7am. We decided to escape our dorm as early as possible and took a bus to Aberdeen which was once a small fishing village. We took a Sampan boat out to the harbour and took lots of photographs of the junk boats, house boats and restaurant boats. My Hong Kong paintings from uni are based on this place so I made sure I took lots more photographs for future paintings.

Junks in Aberdeen Harbour

After Aberdeen we got the bus back to the city and went to the Space Museum where we saw an Imax movie and did a moon walk simulation which was pretty fun!

Day three in Hong Kong we decided we would take the ferry and bus to Stanley and spend some time at the famous market and relax on the beach. Again we successfully caught the right bus and got to Stanley fine, we sat on the top deck of the bus and got to enjoy the views of Repulse Bay from the winding roads which were spectacular.

We walked through the markets but being on a very strict budget managed to walk away empty handed, an achievement for me! We walked along the seafront to St Stephens Beach where we relaxed under the shade of a tree as it was so hot and humid.

We decided to head to the museums on a Wednesday as they are free and so we explored the very interesting Museum of History and Science Museum. Both were pretty good and even better as we didn't have to pay for them and got a days activity for free which is usually quite hard to come by.

Me and Craig in Aberdeen

Hong Kong was another amazing city. We knew that it would be expensive but didn't realise quite how expensive it was. As nearly half our budget went on accomodation we had to save money with our food and ended up eating in Mcdonalds a lot of the time. Of course being vegetarian all I could have was fries and an apple pie so for about a week that is what I survived on and Craig had a Big Mac meal nearly everyday as it was the cheapest thing they had. Next time we go to Hong Kong we will go on holiday with lots of spending money so that we can take advantage of nice hotels and the amazing food that is there but unfortunately out of our price range.