We're back in civilization! Been in Hanoi a few days now and it is so lovely. I could spend so much money in the shops. Actually I have a bit, but I have such nice things it's ok.
The overnight sleeper train to Nanning was just a bit wierd. It was sooo small and squashed and Mike and I were down opposite ends of the carriage. As it is so small there is no space to stand or sit except on your bed so we couldn't really talk for 12 hours. Actually there wasn't even much space on your bed. The bed above was too low so you couldn't sit on them. We did both try to lie on one but I almost fell off so we stopped that. It wasn't that fun but was pretty funny. We managed to cross the border pretty painlessly, nothing really went that wrong but it was still very stressful as I worried about everything that could go wrong, thinking that every taxi driver was going to murder us and everyone was trying to steal our bags. Actually one time it was quite bad, we got into the only taxi on the Vietnamese side of the border and he took us down a little backstreet and told us to wait a minute while he got out. I stayed remarkably calm until he came back about 10 minutes later and drove off. Mike started spazzing out and only later told me that the taxi driver had walked into a house with about 20 large men in suits who all started pointing at the car and looking at us and though we were about to be mugged/ murdered/ sold into the slave trade. I'm quite glad he didn't tell his at the time. We then got mugged off and paid about 4 times as much as we should have for a mini bus to Hanoi as the taxi driver didn't take us to the bus station but some dodgy mate of his and we had no other option but to pay his stupid price. The driver was a maniac, he constantly drove on the wrong side of the road, so I just read my book and tried not to look out the windows and see this. We were dropped off at his mates hostel but with mike's amazing mapreading skills we found our way to Hanoi Backpackers Hostel where we wanted to stay and got a room.
And then everything started getting much better! The hostel is brilliant I'd recommend it to anyone, really clean, quite cheap, free internet and breakfast, and just lots of people who have been travelling around to ask advice from. They also organised our trip to Halong Bay and our bus ticket down Vietnam for good prices and no hassle. They are brilliant, after China I love them so much.
The first night we met a bloke in the bar who took us to a pizza place where we had real cheese for the first time in almost 2 months! We got up early on Monday and went to the Temple of Literature which was good and very pretty but I think we may have peaked with our gardens at Nam Lian and all others will never seem as good as that place. They had some cool old things on tortoises though. Then we wondered about and went down to the lake and sat writing in our journals, taking pictures and bumming Vietnam. Oh and we had a delicious lunch in a little cafe near the lake. All the food we have had here actually has been really delicious. We haven't had much street food yet, just been popping into little cafes and having the cheapest thing on the menu. Back at the hostel we were told weather was starting to go downhill so booked our trip to Halong Bay the next day. The company was called Rock Long Rock Hard which maybe should have indicated to us that it was quite a heavy drinking sort of cruise. We went with it though cos it had lots of kayaking which Mike fancied.
The kayaking ended up being the best bit, was so fun. We were out for about 3 hours which killed my arms but we got to go to loads of bits you can't see on the big boats. Also went to a cave called the 'Fairy Cave' which was pitch black but had loads of huge stalactites and stalacmites in it. We turned off all of the torches and stood there without talking and it was pitch black and completely quiet which was wierd. Then came back and jumped off the 3 level boat. And got very cold, think mike and I have both now got colds, possibly from this. Then everyone started drinking and it went downhill a bit. They turned this hardcore dance music and europop up really loud and started playing drinking games and it got a bit intense, while all we wanted to do was sit about and drink beer and look at this beautiful place we were. We found 3 other girls who shared out point of view and went to bed early with us. Bit sad but it didn't really seem the right place to get blind drunk and play I Have Never.
Took most of Wednesday to get back to Hanoi and then we just bummed about. Went to another brilliant restaurant for dinner and collapsed as we were so tired.
Got up early again today and went to the Thai embassy to sort out our visas and they were free!! They've got some sort of special offer on there at the moment which is pretty cool. Then we wondered about the Old Quarter and went to Dong Xuan market. I have bought so much stuff!! There is such beautiful silk here and it's just so lovely I keep buying pashminas and purses. Most of them are presents so I kid myself it's ok but I really ought to stop.
Oh and mike has just informed me that we're going to a snake farm this evening where we will do shots of snake blood and eat snakes. brilliant! That's pretty much all up to now, I'll let you know soon how the snakes are xx
IF YOU'RE GOING HERE (and can't be arsed to read all of my waffle):
- The direct train or bus from Nanning to Hanoi is probably easiest. We didn't do this, to try and save time but it wasn't any cheaper and caused us quite a lot of worry. If you do it yourself and catch lots of different trains and taxis: Sleeper from Guangzhou to Nanning 173RMB hard sleeper, train from Nanning to Pingxiang 30RMB, taxi to border 20RMB each (there was a little man offering it for 2 RMB, apparently this is a scam), really easy to walk accross the border, althouth the Vietnamese side is a little disorganised and you need 2000 dong or 2RMB to pay for something to get in. The money changers in the middle gave us quite a good price but check the exchange rate before you go, taxi to Lang Song $10, minibus to Hanoi $15 each (apparently we got mugged off here and it should be about 50,000 dong but they were asking 300,000. Make sure the taxi driver takes you to the bus station and not just one mini bus. Then just barter better than us, although it's pretty scary when that is the only minibus you can see and you HAVE to get to Hanoi!). Have a good map to be able to point to where you want to get dropped off/ work out where you are and walk to your hostel. Most of the streets have big signs showing their names making it a bit easier to navigate
- Hanoi Backpackers hostel is ace. $7.50 for a dorm bed with free breakfast. There are loads of rooms so I'd imagine you can normally just walk in. We got there at about 5pm and they had lots left.
- Rock Long Rock Hard tour of Halong Bay was $69.50 for 2 days 1 night including everything except drink (20,000 for beers, 30,000 for spirit+mixers). 3ish hours of kayaking which is brilliant. All food is lovely and lots of it, vegetarians had quite a lot of choice too. Then a LOT of drinking. Not very chilled out, and very loud europop music.
- The Gecko Cafe in the Old Quarter is brilliant. Don't think it's in the lonely planet but it should be. Meals about 50,000.
- You can get the 60 day tourist visa for Thailand at the Thai embassy in Hanoi and at the moment (April 2009) it's free!
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