Melda
Wannabe Psephologist
((Melda Travels, Day 9: Hanoi
(This is from yesterday)
So we finished our time at Nam Cat resort. It started promising with an extremely varied, diverse and delicious lunch the previous day but then it's like the chef called it quits because dinner was horrible and breakfast was just disappointing.
On a much brighter note we had great conversations with three other people from the ship we'd been on previously (which I call the Good Ship since I don't actually know its name): a retired Norwegian man and two Irish girls. After discussing Australian fauna, namely that everything is trying to kill you including kangaroos, we got onto the subjects of Irish and Norwegian politics --- and they were surprised at how well versed I was on the subjects. It was a novelty for me: I don't normally get to discuss European politics and electoral systems. I would never have expected the Treaty of Lisbon referenda, the Irish Senate referendum and the 2013 Norwegian general election as subjects to come up in conversation --- all topics I'm very well versed in.
The bathroom in our bungalow wasn't great. The entire floor was wet when we first checked in and we soon learnt why: the shower blasted water out like a Saturn V rocket, covering basically the entire room including the toilet. Hygienic. Oh, and one of the tiles on the wall had a scantily clad Jpop or Kpop star which was really unexpected (google those terms if you're unfamiliar with them). The rest of the bungalow appeared to be covered in a layer of filth or dust, even after bathing we didn't feel clean and the bed was so hard we might as well have slept on the floorboards. On the other hand the view of the bay was quite picturesque.
For the return trip back to port we returned to the pearl farm where we rendezvoused with... The Good Ship! I actually missed the vessel and its comfy cabin. After the two hours back to harbour we boarded the smaller boat back to shore and learnt about parking your boat: Vietnam style. The shore was completely full of boats and one of the boats had taken our allocated place. Our crew's solution? Full speed ahead! The invalidly parked boat tried to move and we rammed them. Then our crew physically grabbed the other boat (which was about five metres long, mind you) and manhandled it out of the road by pushing it out of the road. With their bare hands. I wished I'd filmed it. It was pretty awesome.
The four hour bus trip back to Hanoi was cramped and uncomfortable. A highlight was when we had to dodge another bus attempting a three point turn on the main road. Or ten point turn as it was more like. Lots of water buffalo and cattle wandering beside the road among the rice paddy fields. When we reached the frenetic and cluttered traffic of the Old Quarter of Hanoi I felt the feeling of 'ah, we're home' that you'd associate with a homecoming, which is unusual because we didn't particularly enjoy Hanoi last week. Maybe because everyone's back home now after going and visiting family for the new year holiday so business was back to usual, but it was now buzzing and bustling and seems somehow cleaner than last week.
We checked back into our clean and comfortable hotel with a decent bathroom; luxury after the resort bungalow. We enjoyed having once again access to wifi and the Internet then went on a street food tour. It was amazing. I normally steer clear of street food because I'm not overly fond of food poisoning but it was all really clean and good quality. I didn't eat everything on offer but it was pretty impressive. Our guide was really cute and adorable: she looked like she was fifteen but was probably ten years older than that. She was really good and we were so impressed we gave her a massive tip: it wasn't much money from our point of view but probably doubled her earnings for the day. Then it was back to the room for a comfortable night's sleep.
Images: the morning view from our bungalow, a floating village we passed, and a panoramic view from the Good Ship in Halong Bay.))
(This is from yesterday)
So we finished our time at Nam Cat resort. It started promising with an extremely varied, diverse and delicious lunch the previous day but then it's like the chef called it quits because dinner was horrible and breakfast was just disappointing.
On a much brighter note we had great conversations with three other people from the ship we'd been on previously (which I call the Good Ship since I don't actually know its name): a retired Norwegian man and two Irish girls. After discussing Australian fauna, namely that everything is trying to kill you including kangaroos, we got onto the subjects of Irish and Norwegian politics --- and they were surprised at how well versed I was on the subjects. It was a novelty for me: I don't normally get to discuss European politics and electoral systems. I would never have expected the Treaty of Lisbon referenda, the Irish Senate referendum and the 2013 Norwegian general election as subjects to come up in conversation --- all topics I'm very well versed in.
The bathroom in our bungalow wasn't great. The entire floor was wet when we first checked in and we soon learnt why: the shower blasted water out like a Saturn V rocket, covering basically the entire room including the toilet. Hygienic. Oh, and one of the tiles on the wall had a scantily clad Jpop or Kpop star which was really unexpected (google those terms if you're unfamiliar with them). The rest of the bungalow appeared to be covered in a layer of filth or dust, even after bathing we didn't feel clean and the bed was so hard we might as well have slept on the floorboards. On the other hand the view of the bay was quite picturesque.
For the return trip back to port we returned to the pearl farm where we rendezvoused with... The Good Ship! I actually missed the vessel and its comfy cabin. After the two hours back to harbour we boarded the smaller boat back to shore and learnt about parking your boat: Vietnam style. The shore was completely full of boats and one of the boats had taken our allocated place. Our crew's solution? Full speed ahead! The invalidly parked boat tried to move and we rammed them. Then our crew physically grabbed the other boat (which was about five metres long, mind you) and manhandled it out of the road by pushing it out of the road. With their bare hands. I wished I'd filmed it. It was pretty awesome.
The four hour bus trip back to Hanoi was cramped and uncomfortable. A highlight was when we had to dodge another bus attempting a three point turn on the main road. Or ten point turn as it was more like. Lots of water buffalo and cattle wandering beside the road among the rice paddy fields. When we reached the frenetic and cluttered traffic of the Old Quarter of Hanoi I felt the feeling of 'ah, we're home' that you'd associate with a homecoming, which is unusual because we didn't particularly enjoy Hanoi last week. Maybe because everyone's back home now after going and visiting family for the new year holiday so business was back to usual, but it was now buzzing and bustling and seems somehow cleaner than last week.
We checked back into our clean and comfortable hotel with a decent bathroom; luxury after the resort bungalow. We enjoyed having once again access to wifi and the Internet then went on a street food tour. It was amazing. I normally steer clear of street food because I'm not overly fond of food poisoning but it was all really clean and good quality. I didn't eat everything on offer but it was pretty impressive. Our guide was really cute and adorable: she looked like she was fifteen but was probably ten years older than that. She was really good and we were so impressed we gave her a massive tip: it wasn't much money from our point of view but probably doubled her earnings for the day. Then it was back to the room for a comfortable night's sleep.
Images: the morning view from our bungalow, a floating village we passed, and a panoramic view from the Good Ship in Halong Bay.))
