Vietnam travel from Hanoi to Halong Bay

By: Footprint

Travel in march to Vietnam, 2nd March, Dragged myself out of bed, with Sarah’shelp, and just made it to the Kangaroo Café for 8.30am- I felt like I was dying. You name it, stomach ache,headache, arse ache the works! Slept on the bus mostof the way to Ha Long bay, which Sarah was pleased aboutas it meant I wasn’t harping on about how crappy Ifelt and she could read her book in peace! I managedto force down some dinner en-route, which turned outto be a big mistake - I won’t go into detail. We setsail on a boat out of Ha Long city bound for the bay,the scenery here is just stunning. Legend has it aDragon made the 2000 or so Islands by whipping themout of the sea bed with his tail – if you believe thatyou’ll believe anything! We visited several caves cutinto the limestone by the sea and they really wereimpressive, some even had resident colonies of batsroosting in the roof. Again, these had been made byDragons – however, they must have been out orsomething when we got there because we didn’t see any.This was possibly a good thing as my ‘trots’ were sobad by this time I doubt I’d have been able to runaway anyhow. We cruised the bay all afternoon, therewas a low lying mist which really set an atmosphereabout the place. By nightfall we’d reached a quietnatural harbour in, we ate on aboard (not meunfortunately – I was downstairs ramming imodium downmy throat!) and then slept on the boat which wasreally great.Travel in march to Vietnam, We woke around 7.30 amafter a humid night on the boat. I have to admit thatwe had no problems at all with our berth, but some ofthe group had actually had rats running over theirlegs and face during the night! Felt slightly betterbut I was still having severe stomach pains and theworst headaches I’d ever experienced, I guessed I maybe dehydrated so I started eating re-hydration saltsby the shovel full and drank everything I could get myhands on. The bay looked great so early in themorning, we had Sea Eagles snatching fish just feetfrom the boat – they were awesome to watch. We sailedon to Cat Ba National Park, then onto Cat Dua(Pineapple) Island, it was still quite misty but warm.We rowed to the beach there and found a spot to chillout. Within 10 minutes we were under siege by themonkeys that live on the island. One tried to take achunk out of my arm but a right hook saw him off. Onelady in the group was not so lucky though, as she wasbeing relieved of her nice handbag by the monkeys sheresisted and got a nice bite out of her leg – notpretty. I have to say though, that despite beinglittle sods the monkeys were bloody funny to watch -reminded us of Alfie one of our nephews a little bit! Didn’t eat all day today as felt that 24hrs starvationmay sort out my guts - fat chance, just made me feelmore tired than ever! Met a top guy called Carl fromMelbourne Australia. He’s kindly invited us to stayif we pass that way later in the year. Carl hadtraveled just about everywhere years ago when wastravelling was hard going – reminded us both of UncleRon a bit. If you’re read this Carl, thanks for theoffer and we look forward to seeing you later in theyear. We finished days sailing back at Cat Ba andspent the night in a nice hotel on dry land. I had agood shower and immediately felt a bit better. Imodium doing great so far - just worried about theBarnes Wallis effect!4th March, Managed somebreakfast and boarded boat, Sarah managed to polishoff enough for four people as usual. The sun wasshining as we sailed back to Ha Long bay, what afantastic view. The rock formations are justincredible. Jane, Anna and Jane kept us entertainedon the way back, three great ladies who’d done so muchtravelling it was incredible, we could have listenedto them all day. Hello, if you read our journal! Wegot back travel to Hanoi late, ate as I was feeling a touchbetter, then headed over to the rail station to catchthe overnighter travel to Hue. We shared the cabin with twoVietnamese, a girl and a guy named Binh - neither ofwhom spoke English. Binh could see that I wassuffering and hopped off the train at one of thestations and got me a bottle of water (yeah – yeah, weknow they warn you not to accept gifts from strangers– but it’s OK we’re grown ups we can look afterourselves!) how kind is that. Second thoughts maybehe was a bit worried about me leaving a “Trampsbreakfast’ on the cabin floor?! Still feel terrible,but at least we’re out of Hanoi which is a cool placeand en-route to Hue – let’s see what that brings!

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