It's Friday afternoon and it's already a week since we left Sydney.
After a fairly long flight (via Brisbane and Kuala Lumpar) we arrived in Hanoi. Nothing can quite prepare you for the Hanoi traffic. Foolishly I sat in the front seat for the 40 minute taxi ride into the city. I think I lost 10 years of my life and I swear that we should have had at least 20 accidents.
Hanoi traffic works on some Darwinian theory - survival of the fastest. It is totally chaotic. At every junction there are hundreds of motorbikes (often with the whole family on board), dozens of cars, a few Cyclos and many pedestrations - all trying to get across the road at the same time!
Traffic lights seem to have have no real purpose other than give pedestrations a false sense of confidence. It is rather daunting when the Green Man appears, you step of the curb and all the traffic starts charging towards you!
After a day we got used to it and were fearless as we stepped off the curb and walked with purpose to the other side. Amazingly everyone misses you.
The motorbike is the most common mode of transport. So far we have seen motorbikes carrying 2 pigs, a live cow (yes, live and tied to the back), 4 people, 6 metre long steel girders, 2 large window panes, about 500 coconuts. You'll enjoy the photos once we post them.
Our 4 days in Hanoi were great. We did a lot of walking, saw lots of museums, went to a Watter Puppet Show, ate lots of ice-cream and haggled for everything. We had two Cyclo rides where we trusted our lives to a local who pedals us around as we sit up front (with our eyes closed).
I strongly recommend everyone should come to Hanoi at least once in their life - it is a trully amazing experience.
Yesterday we got on our bus with another 3 families and headed to Halong Bay - a 3 hour drive out of Hanoi.
Halong Bay was tipped to be one of the "Modern Wonders of the World". It's a huge bay in the South China Sea that has thousands of large limestone islands. The islands are like mini-volvanoes - erupting from the sea with sheer cliffs and dramatic caves and arches.
We sailed out and cruised amongst them -marvelling at their beauty - along with another 200 boats (tourism is huge here). We stopped to explore a large cave system and then have a swim (in the rather poluted water). We spent the night on our boat and enjoyed a great dinner of fish, squid, crab and rice. The food so far has been pretty good - although the kids are generally sticking to pasta or rice.
This morning we drove back to Hanoi and in 2 hours we board our sleeper train to Hue. My expectations of the train are very, very low (we've been told to avoid the toilets).
More soon from this amazing country.
Ken
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