July 16 - Hanoi & Halong Bay

After 5 days in Beijing we were ready to leave so we hopped on a plane for Hanoi in Vietnam. China was good but Beijing is just a big city with a ton of tourists and we were ready to move on. There is so much more to see in China but I guess it will just have to wait for another day.

Hanoi has a very nice and laidback vibe despite the thousands of mopeds zipping around. We stayed in the Old Quarter which is a claustrophobic maze of small streets and alleyways filled with art galleries, craft markets, restaurants, food stalls and beer dens – it was a bit like an Asian version of The Plateau. We made friends with an Israeli couple and after a day of exploring the streets we all went out for dinner at a local restaurant, followed by beers at one of the beer dens which was actually just a street side counter with plastic chairs spilling out into the traffic.

 

 

The next day we left for Halong Bay which is about 3 hours east of Hanoi. It looks like something out of a Sci-Fi movie; an endless view of over 3000 limestone mountains jutting straight of the sea. We arranged a boat trip through the islands and spent 2 days and 1 night aboard a Junk with about 15 other people. The boat was beautiful, the room was great, the food was delicious and the scenery was unreal. We also had a chance to visit a massive cave deep inside one of the mountains, do some kayaking and go swimming. It was one of the most unique and beautiful activities that we have done on the trip.

There were small fishing villages floating throughout the islands which looked like they were constructed out of random stuff that had been found in the water. Some of these villages had small floating bars and I think one even had an ATM. It was pretty cool to see the villagers going from house to house on their small rowboats.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the boat trip, we headed straight to the train station for yet another 24 hour train ride south to Nha Trang.