Elle's Belles: family

Hanoi was cold. I mean, jeans, scarves, jumpers cold. I don't think any of us were properly prepared and hence there were some choice outfits on display. Luckily, it is not the fashion capital of South-East Asia. Throughout our trip, grey cloud hung heavy over us, which made me think of North Korea (even though I've never been). And it was mizzling. So I don't think we were seeing either Hanoi or Halong Bay in a good light.

See what I mean by grey cloud?

In Hanoi we stayed in the Sofitel Metropole, a lovely French-colonial style hotel in the heart of the old French colonial quarter. It was peaceful and pleasant inside but leaving the hotel we were confronted with a frenzy of activity - mopeds, bikes, cars, buses all with horns blaring, women with those special Vietnamese baskets on their shoulders, cars driving the wrong way down streets, mopeds trying to run you over. It was hectic to say the least. The shopping was excellent though and as Vietnam is so cheap we were able to indulge without feeling too guilty.

We had a four-hour drive to Halong Bay with the obligatory stop at a souvenir warehouse for much longer than it takes to empty your bladder. It was crammed with naff tourist tat and outside there was a multitude of huge marble statues (no photos allowed unfortunately) so we wandered among them, wondering why anyone would want such hideousness in their house/garden. After that we stood watching our driver enjoying a cigarette and having a bite to eat inside, and he eventually got the hint and we left earlier than planned.

I've mentioned the road situation briefly, but I will return to it now. There are no traffic rules in Vietnam (that we could ascertain). The road to Halong Bay is well-travelled and we were sharing it with heavy goods vehicles, big tourist buses, mopeds, cars and pedestrians. We saw unbelievable manoeuvres that endangered pedestrians, other vehicles and us - vehicles overtaking vehicles that were overtaking other vehicles with other vehicles coming straight for them in the opposite direction. At one point we arrived at the scene just after a fatal accident - the victim was still lying in the road with other cars and buses driving round him. Passing drivers threw money out of the window, apparently to appease his ghost. That kind of incident would be a big deal in the West and yet in Vietnam it hardly raised an eyebrow. Life is cheap.

We spent a day and a night on a tourist 'junk' which was an interesting experience. The hum of the engine kept making Al fall asleep (it was very soporific) and the food was fair to poor - it started out fair and ended poor. The boat took us very slowly through a very small section of Halong Bay and we ended up mooring cheek by jowl with the other tourist junk boats, as you can see from the pictures below. And then everyone disembarks and does the same thing - climbing one of the rocks (named after a Soviet astronaut), going to a 'surprise' cave with some impressive rock formations and then going to see some monkeys. This trip confirmed something that I think we already knew - we are not cruise-ship people. Still, we had fun and I have to admit the fruit carving was a particular highlight.

I'm not sure I'll be rushing back to Hanoi - I preferred Saigon and it is also warmer. I think after 7 months here my blood is beginning to thin and I never thought I would admit it, but I am starting to feel the cold!