This post covers the period we were in Ha Long Bay and traveling by Train to Hue, which is between the 2nd and midday of the 4th day of October. I am already convinced that this segment of the world tour will live long in the memory, as we have met some lovely people and we were able to indulge in some excellent sightseeing.
In fact, and I know it is early days, I think Vietnam could be somewhere near the top of the list of countries we visit, as I have absolutely loved everything about Vietnam: the history, the food, the people, the architecture and the natural beauty. It will be interesting to see the final leaderboard of countries once been 'there' and are back again to the UK, at the end of our trip.
On the morning of the 2nd October we were picked up from our hotel in the old town quarter in Hanoi and had a 1.5 hours drive to the port that serves Ha Long Bay. Ha Long Bay (literally 'Descending Dragon Bay' in Sino-Vietnamese) is a Unesco World Heritage site that consists of thousands of isles of varying sizes and forms, most of which are limestone, and features many islets and caves. It reminded me of the landscape from the Leonardo DiCaprio film, 'The Beaches'.
A good thing about tours is that, if you get a good one, you can meet some interesting and fun people; thankfully the group on this one was excellent - a Fellowship quickly formed. Tours will also be useful, every now and then, to freshen things up as just two of us on the road together. There were sixteen of us in the group which was comprised of Americans, Slovenians Dutch, British, French and Danish. I know it comes to us all eventually but this was the first tour that I have been on where I was the oldest person in the group... :-(
As with all groups there are naturally some that you gravitate to more than others and this group included some key protagonists from LOTR, but thankful no Smeagols:
- Merry and Pippin: A great couple from England, Mairead and Alex, who are from Oxford and Litchfield respectively. One thing I have learnt over the years is to wear a hammers T-Shirt on the first days of a tour as its a great icebreaker. True to form this initiated a conversation with Alex on football and a friendship was made; albeit Football is a sport he knows nothing about as a Stoke fan... ;-)
- Galadriel: Miriam, a life-force and real joy from sunny California. The address for her brilliant blog, which puts mine to shame and is well worth a read, is http://dandeliondiaires.wordpress.com; and
- Gandalf: An American chap called Chris, who lives in northeast China with his girlfriend Alexandra, who is wise beyond his years. He is an interesting mix of 'legal wiz by day'/'Capoeira teacher by night'. In fact Chris stepping up to the plate during the Tai Chi class, when all the staff admitted to not knowing Tai Chi (..,) was a highlight of the tour; especially his rendition of a Capoeira song about a rueful sailor who had a bad life that was wooed by the life on the high seas...
Once we arrived at port we quickly departed from land on a tender that would not only take us to our boat but be used many times on the cruise to get us from the main boat to activities in more shallow waters which included a jaunt around one of the more substantial Islands (Monkey Island), which had some spectacular caves and (can you Adam and Eve it) Monkeys, and Sea-Kayaking round some pretty bays and islets.
Apart from the activities and breakfast/lunch/dinner the rest of the time was spent on the sun deck taking in the stunning views. This also served as a safe haven to retreat to after we were subjected to an incredibly poor Karaoke system after dinner on the first day, which seemed to only have songs from the 1950s or Vietnamese/Chinese classics, played through a sound system that sounded worse than my old Sega Mastersystem from my youth. Whilst up on deck I also seized the moment to teach others an interesting version of Rummy that I learnt many years ago in Australia, which killed a few hours.
Like all tours, there were a lot of funny/embarrassing moments, of which I will share four:
- One of the staff on the boat seemed to take a shine to yours truly and continuously referred to me as Mr Bond. He seemed to get the joke when I said only if this was 'Mr Bond, the retirement years', but seemed genuinely perplexed when I announced to the group that "Odd Job had lost a bit of weight".
- I endeared myself (not) to an American woman on Monkey Island, when I used the Ghostbusters' gag to her question of, "where do these stairs go" with the answer "up". In true Mr Deane 'how to make friends and influence people' fashion this was quickly followed up with a retort to her deadpan look stating that it was a joke and when she asked "really" I said to some. Well you can't win them all...?
- After the sea-kayaking, I was summoned by two Vietnamese women on the jetty. Fearing that I was about to be tapped up for tacky souvenirs, I gingerly made my way over only to be 'bullied' by them as they groped my manboobs, whilst laughing that I had big breasts for a man. They were really sweet and laughed heartedly when I stated that it wasn't me having big breasts but them having small ones. I was relieved that Becs was there and laughing at the whole thing, as that situation could of sounded completely different when played back to her later...
- 'Vietnamese wine'-gate: I think all of the group felt a little duped when we all sampled a few glasses of seemingly complementary Vietnamese wine at lunch on day one, only to be told later that we were going to have to pay for the glasses drunk. As Becs later informed me that our package included complimentary wine with food, when it came to settling the bar tabs I made them fully aware that we wouldn't be paying for the wine.
It is amazing that in one week travelling we now are so money conscious that we made a fuss over £10 and I think others on the trip thought we must be the worst IT Manager and Investment Banking Compliance Executive, but if we overspend just by £5 each day that is nearly one thousand pound extra over the whole trip; and it was a matter of principle that you should get what you paid for.
My embarrassment was complete when, after forty minutes in the company's offices using various negotiation tactics to get them to refund the wine, Becs finds the email from Expedia that confirms that the trip is inclusive of wine served during meals, only for it to be pointed out that is a different tour. I think I will ask for actual evidence next time before going into bat...
Still, all turned out reasonably level on the budget front over the two days, as we got a couple of (complimentary) beers from the tour company, whilst in their offices 'debating' and later, at a vendor near the train station, we got at 50% discount on our food and beers, as they were delighted that we encouraged other westerners to sit down, especially as it went from empty when we arrived to about eight groups and couples by the time we left.
Like the ending of the 'Fellowship of the Ring' on the banks of the Great River, our fellowship parted ways, all going different directions across Vietnam or the world. Merry and Pippin's part in this tale is not over as they were on the same night train from Hanoi, albeit going to a different destination and were in a better class of coach; snobs.
The 14 hour train ride from Hanoi to Hue was great. As most people know, I am a bit of a transport geek but it is also another great way to meet people. In our sleeper cabin we had two really nice travel companions: a tap-dancing Japanese graphic designer called Seiya, who was travelling round Vietnam on his own, and a Vietnamese guy from Hanoi who was a civil engineer and travelling to Hue for business.
We had a far better travelling experience than Alex and Mairead who, whilst it started out great as they shared alcohol with their cabin companions, a married couple who diplomats for the UN and Japan, it all got a bit awkward when the wife of the couple projectile vomited over Alex's bed narrowly missing his head. In fact when I went to see them the next day in their cabin, before we disembarked the train at Hue, the wife was still sleeping it off and the husband was a tad tense with embarrassment.
Ours was a great compartment as the Vietnamese chap taught the three travellers some basic Vietnamese words and Seiya treated us to a great rendition of tap dancing. Seiya also taught us a few words in Japanese ahead of our leg in Tokyo and promised to join us on one of our nights to show us to his favourite places. It was funny to see his face when the penny dropped, after a number of drawings, that 'Cumpie' (hello in Japanese) had completely different meaning in English.
The next post of the blog will cover Hue, the Demilitarised Zone, trip to Hoi An and our time in Hoi An. As we have an eighteen hour train journey to Ho Chi Min starting this afternoon, I hope to knock it out on route so that it can be posted at some point on our first day in the city. I also hope to reacquaint myself with how I can add pictures and videos into post.
Tam Biet (which is the Vietnamese for goodbye literally meaning to 'part temporarily')
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