Halong Bay and back to hanoi again

Well, am emailing once again from hanoi, having just returned from 3 day boat trip to Halong Bay.
Halong Bay is a World heritage UNESCO sight, and rightfully so as the scenary is stunning, with more than 3000 islands rising out of emerald coloured water. The islands are made of limestone and many of them have caves with some great lithic features (which are illuminated by some fairly gaudy lights), and grottos and beaches. The main inhabited island is Cat Ba. Gemma and i went for the 3 day option as it is about 3hrs drive and 90mins boat trip just to get to Cat Ba from Hanoi so 2 days would have been a rush.The trip included plenty of time for swimming and kayaking (gemma and i are fast becoming experts at that!) and a bit of hiking in the national park forrests there. also explored some of the caves which despite the overly bright lighting were faily speactacular. I do need to clarify that i AM pleased i did the trip as it was worth it...as some of what is about to follow may not make it sound like it was.


we were in a group of about 16, which was a fairly nice bunch with some funny french-canadian guys and 2 girls from birmingham aho we got on well with. The trip was very well organised...but a bit too much so for gemma and i who dont take kindly to being bossed around all day being told when we are doing what and being sheparded from one place to the next. We loved the boat treip through the islands...exceptionally pretty, especially the sunset which was definately a highlight as the sky went through every possible colour. We slept on the boat on the open deck (we did have a cabin but having spotted several large cockroaches in our beds we were not keen to join them!), so relatively little sleep that night as we woke before sunrise to see if the colours were as good in reverse. We then did the hiking part of the tour, (slightly disappointing as far too many tourists around) and then some more swimmimg in the afternoon. All our meals were included and they did ok on the boat to cater for veggies, giving us the 'fake fish' that they are keen on here (some of it is ok...the fake prawns and squid is evil stuff thou7gh) and we have had rice and morning glory(green vege bit like spinich) at every single meal in the last 72 hrs.

Cat ba island itself was also not quite what we were expecting. we were thinking quaint little vietnamese town. what we got was an asian blackpool.
big lights, noisy bars, people pestering us to but tat...etc not overly impressive. this was where we spent the second night. it was a noce hotel (3 star, far too posh for us really) and we did have fun at some of the cocktail bars, but not very "vietnamese". The other thing i have really struggled to deal with during the trip is the "disney" take on it all. Our boat of 16 was one of about 20-30 that sets of daily from the harbour to go to halong bay and Cat ba. the boats are all identical, although everybody you speak to has paid a different amount for the trip. As we sailed (chugged) into the first set of caves, we seemed to be in a long chain of other boats all following each other in a kind of "its a small world after all" ride. When we moored in the bay overnight to sleep, we had to contend with not only the noise from our generator but also that of about 5 others who had anchored near to us.

There were areas of the waters filled with sewage and rubbish, and the locals didnt seem to care. whilst we were swimming at least 3 of the group cut their feet on glass bottles deposited on the seabed...and this is supposedly a UNESCO site.

All these things combined with the 'package tour' feel to the trip started to get to gemma and i.

we stayed up late talking and came to various revalations about our trip. we discovered that although we are enjoying ourselves immensely and seeing some cool stuff, we really dont feel we are getting culture or to know the people of south east asia in the same way we have each (separately) felt on other trips like india (and africa for me).

i feel like half the places we have been to could have been anywhere in europe (albeit cheaper) and even when we try to get off the tourist trail, we cant seem to escape it. everybody we meet has either already done the things we are about to do, or is about to do it. hence the 'package tour' feel. its not that we dont like it, just not what we were at all expecting. we talked to a few of the other backpackers and discovered we were not the only ones feeling like this.

now we have started to realise this, we reckon best thing is just to enjoy it for what it is, find some nice beaches, do the 'cultural' things where we can, and try not to get too upset at having to be just another set of tourists, sat on our air-con bus taking photos.

ok...now have got that all out.....!

we have had some good moments, for example our last dinner before we left for the trip to Halong, was our best meal yet. the vietnamese are keen on using soy beans to create fake meats and fish. gemma and i went to a vegetarian restaurant and enjoyed "bbq pork, beef with bamboo shoots, abalone salad (what is abalone please somebody??) and squid with mixed vege". they are actually pretty amazing (although as i mentioned...the meat is generally far superior to the "seafood"). Also, have just been top see the water puppetry show, which was highly amusing and quite well done (didnt understand any of the vietnamese dialogue, but the fire breathing dragons and phoenix puppets were pretty cool.

I still like the overall feel of hanoi. it has some pretty architecture, especially the way they build their tower blocks only one room wide so it all looks like stacked up houses. and the amount of beautiful ceramics, silks etc to buy is staggerring.
we are off to another veggie restaurant for dinner now, then getting overnight train to Hue for a night and then to Hoi An. will email again from there, by which time hopefully will have fallen more in love with the place! train should be interesting as we have 'hard sleepers' (no air con) which apparantly are only supposed to be for the locals (tourists supposed to get the soft sleeper air con options). perhaps this is the 'off the track' stuff we want???

really hope this hasnt all been tooo negative! not intended to be so, just a realistic view of things.
lots love
nadia
x