Andrea, Dionigi, Paolo · @ritornoalparallelozero · Treviso
How
Travel diary
The story · 2 days
Day 17 Nov 2004
Hanoi
New week, new country, on 07/11/2004 we landed in Vietnam. At the airport we were greeted by a damp, sticky heat, too good! It was time to put the sweatshirt at the bottom of the backpack. Our idea was to spend the first night at the airport, since we arrived around 23:00; an idea that immediately vanished due to the airport police who informed us that at midnight the airport closed. We then placed our trust in a young, up-and-coming fake taxi driver who immediately approached us and wouldn't leave us alone. In the end the choice was forced, we agreed on a price of 6 dollars to get to the center of Hanoi (35 km).
Our taxi driver friend also got us a hotel at a more than reasonable price: 8 euros for a room for three people, breakfast included, thousands of nice hyperactive red ants crowding the bathroom and behind the dresser a nice gecko (probably it's not spelled that way, anyway it's that species of little lizard with suction-cup feet). Despite our non-paying tenants, the accommodation turned out to be adequate for our needs.
The following day dedicated to visiting the city: surprising, frighteningly frantic, with millions of crazy motorbikes filling the streets (unbelievable how many there are, everywhere!) and honking apparently even without reason. Hard to explain in words the situation we found before us: one thing is certain, a city completely different from those visited up to now, with mostly run-down houses, with open-air drainage systems, with little restaurants camped out on the sidewalks: the feeling is of being decidedly in a developing country. But a must-see, see, see!!!! And if you haven't understood, see!
In the late morning we took a look at the obligatory pagoda, and the rest of the day we dedicated to visiting the classic city neighborhoods, made up of little markets and little shops of any kind. Back at the hotel not too late, we organized together with Bho (the owner of the hotel) the three-day excursion to Halong Bay and we also bought the bus ticket that will take us across all of Vietnam, as far as Ho Chi Minh.
The sailing ships
Day 211 Nov 2004
Halong Bay
Having obviously woken up early (seven in the morning) and begun our excursion to Halong Bay. The minibus picked us up outside the hotel along with 13 other participants: Australians, Spaniards and two couples from Singapore. Included in the service a guide named Moon, nice and with a fervid imagination; being a good entertainer she invited us to sing little songs to brighten our journey: what a pain!!! To reach the port of Halong City we were able to admire the classic scenery of this country suggested to us by countless films (see Platoon, Apocalypse Now and whoever has more, let them add more). Banana groves and rice plantations as far as the eye can see, where indefatigable workers, assisted by gigantic oxen equally dedicated to their trade, moved immersed in the mud to bring in the harvest.
After three hours of minibus, at the port our sailing ship was waiting for us (a characteristic motorized caravel with a dragon head at the bow and an old stinking engine at the stern) for the visit to the bay. After the boarding operations we set course toward the three thousand islets that make up the bay of the same name. The scenery didn't disappoint expectations; from a calm, flat sea these immense rock formations magically emerge, covered by lush vegetation and almost entirely uninhabited. Better than a film... Having eaten our first meal on board, we visited a cave that according to Moon (our guide) was supposed to be intact and wild, and instead to our eyes it turned out to be the first and fortunately only disappointment.
The ceiling seemed to be the result of a mediocre trowel-and-cement job, countless artificial lights more suited to a pub than to a cave in the middle of the sea and finally rocks in which Moon desperately tried to find some animal shape for us (who knows why???). After leaving the cave we moved to a quiet corner of the bay, so beautiful it was like a postcard, where we could splash around and refresh our tired limbs. Dinner eaten in mid-afternoon and a little evening spent admiring the stars in the total darkness offered to us by the natural setting, in the company of Jose, a Puerto Rican chemist and a globetrotter like us. Just enough time for a chat and then everyone below deck... obviously our room was located right above the engine, so close that the vibracall effect was included in the price.
The following day, having woken up at six, we headed immediately toward Cat Ba island (the largest in the bay). Check-in at the hotel and excursion to the island's nature park consisting of a good two hours of trekking needed to reach the summit of the mountain. Free afternoon and carefully reserved by us for beach and sea, even if not of the highest level but which gave us an aperitif of what will be our future. The following day dedicated to returning to Hanoi, first by boat and secondly with the usual minibus. Once we arrived at our destination we had time left for a relaxing shower, packing the backpacks and a new boarding for the destination of Huè, that is, fourteen hours straight of bus... enough to drive you crazy!!!
0 reader comments