We flew into Hanoi and were greeted by 4 million motorcycles packing the tiny streets of the capital. The road system runs on an 'organised chaos' regime. People basically drive where and how they want to until someone gets a poke in the eye. Crossing the roads was comparable to, dare I day it, the streets of Delhi. Deadly. The group had to maintain a 'flying V' formation just to make it to the other side. I could throw in a nifty 'Why did the chicken....' joke right now but I cant think of one.
So, a quick inital night in Hanoi was spent eating copius amounts of spring rolls before we drove out to Halong City and boarded our vessel to take us out to Halong Bay. Halong Bay is a collection of 1969 small, steep islands rising out of the harbour of Halong. Simply stunning, but a tourist haven. My new camera decided to shit itself so all my photos look crap. I threw a king kong sized wobbly, including beating my chest and grunting. The boat took us through a huge cave network and stopped in a harbour where Steve and I, the adventurous ones, decided to take to kayak and explore the more out of reach places. We sauntered through a small cave opening and ended up in a deserted lake, bordered by mountains on all sides, possibly with monkeys in them. I let off a monkey laugh that echoed around the hills for 10 minutes.
A night in the harbour was spent putting up with generators, rattling windows and a Rotorua smell permeating our cabin before we headed back to Hanoi for a couple of nights. Went to the Ho Chi Minh memorial where they still have their fearless leaders body preserved in a glass cabinet. Pretty gross stuff.
We capped it off with a visit to the 'Hanoi Hilton', an infamous prison used in the war and prior. That was exceptionally grim.
An overnight train (interesting) to Hue followed. It was here where we did one of the most incredible activities so far; tour by motorcycle. The streets of Hue became our playground as we were whisked at high speed through back alleys, dirt roads, and footpaths to visit various places around the city. The city was one of the main affected places in the war and the bike ride was like a fleeting visit to every single scene in all the Nam war movies you can think of. We went out through places resembling the sniper buildings of 'Full Metal Jacket', the back alleys of 'Deerhunter' and rice fields of 'Apocalypse Now'. Intense. It was everything you expected Vietnam to be (based on the films) in a days worth of bike riding.
Right now, we have made the trip to Hoi An, and I have just paid too much for a tailored suit. Ha. Well, maybe not - I did go to the best quality shop. No point doing it by halves. We have a few days here before flying into Ho Chi Minh city and then onto Cambodia. Sin Lai