Hanoi & Halong Bay

The next public holiday and opportunity to travel was over Easter. We packed our bags and flew to Hanoi, Vietnam. We arrived late on
Friday evening and checked into our hotel La Siesta hotel in the old
quarter. The staff were friendly and downstairs they had a bar and
restaurant. We were given a delicious welcome drink and then taken to our room. The charm of the old quarter is the street stalls and
restaurants where everyone sits on tiny plastic stools and drinks and
watches the world go by. We walked down the street and found a local
Vietnamese restaurant. We were taken to the 3rd floor up some
crumbling spiral stairs. The staff pushed past us with mountains of
plates and the restaurant was packed. The décor was basic with
crumbling brick walls but the food was delicious.
The next day we got picked up by our tour guide in a luxury private
van and driven to Halong bay. There was an American couple and a
Colombian couple in our van too and it was interesting to hear their
stories and where they had traveled. The journey took around 4 hours and we stopped halfway at a large shop where they were selling painting, lacquer bowls, clothes, jewellery and sculptures. It was a
tourist trap but we were glad to stretch our legs. We finally made it to Ha Long Bay Harbour and we were taken into Indochina Junks large
reception area where we had to wait. The other people on our van
were on a different smaller junk boat and we were on the Dragon
Legend Cruise which was a larger more luxurious junk boat. It held
around 40 people and was huge. I would have preferred to have been
on the smaller junk boat. The junk boat had a large open deck with
swimming pool and restaurant. Each cabin was huge with a large
bathroom. We headed out of the harbour and towards the magnificent

Bai Tu Long Bay. The manager was a strange man and he
barked orders at us which was fairly amusing but annoying. We sat on
the deck and had a 7 course meal while watching the islands go past.
The food was delicious and an array of fish and meat and vegetables.
After lunch we cruised to Vung Dang – Cong Dam area where we took a smaller boat to the island and we could swim and relax on the sandy
beach. We went kayaking through the mystery Karst Mountains in
Vung Dang area. We then went back to the Dragon Legend junk boat
to shower and relax before dinner. Dinner was another 7 course meal
and we were stuffed by the end.
The next day we cruised to Cong Do area to explore the well- hidden
Thien Canh Son Cave. We climbed up the hill and into the hillside
where inside we found a huge cave with stalactites and stalagmites.
The manager told us that until recently locals would sleep inside the caves and chop down the stalactites and stalagmites for money. We
finished the cruise off with another kayak around the island. As we
cruised back to Ha Long Harbour we had yet more food. After our cruise had finished we disembarked the junk boat and waited back inside Indochina junks waiting room for our van to take us to our next destination Yen Duc village. The Colombian couple were also in our van and it was interesting to hear their different experience on the other junk boat. The drive to Yen Duc village only took around 1.5 hours. The village was close to the main road and surrounded by limestone quarries. In the distance you could see a factory. We arrived and were led to our The Viet house. There were 9 of us in total staying at the home-stay – 2 French, 2 Colombian, 3 Australian and us. The rooms were arranged around pond and were basic but comfortable. The village itself was large and was one of the only villages in the delta where typical traditional life remained. The local people had kept their life simple with rice cultivation and farming activities. We were given traditional local porridge as a snack and then taken into the village. Our first activity was learning the process of cultivating rice and practicing grinding rice. We then tried catching fish in a muddy pond. We had to wear rubber waders up to our chest and gloves. We were given a wooden basket and shown how to catch the fish. The muddy pond had hardly any water and was mainly mud which made it difficult to move around. I caught 2 fish but they were so slippery I couldn’t get them out of my basket so I had to get my husband to do it for me. After fishing we had to be hosed down. We then walked back towards our home-stay and visited an old lady who showed us how to make bamboo brushes. The whole experience was fascinating and really fun. In the evening we all sat together around the Viet houses and ate a delicious meal of traditional Vietnamese food including the fish we had caught that afternoon. For dessert we made sweet almond balls. We first had to roll out the pastry then place the ingredients inside and then fry. They tasted delicious but

were probably very bad for us.
The next day we woke up early and our guide showed us traditional
exercises that the locals would do before going to work in the field.
We probably looked a bit stupid but it definitely woke us up. We had
a delicious breakfast of eggs and pork porridge and fruit. After
breakfast we went on a bike ride through the village. Our tour guide
first took us to the local market where they were selling, brushes,
pharmaceutical products and meat and vegetables. I tried to ignore
the dog meat! We then went to meet the oldest man in the village who
showed us his family tree and explained the impact of the Vietnamese war in this area. He lived in a traditional style house with a central room with alter and then 2 wing rooms which would have been the

bedrooms. Afterwards we were to the cemetery which was built into
the side of the mountain. Our guide explained that she was from the
village and her family was buried in the cemetery. It was ancestor day
so the cemetery was extremely busy with people going to pay their
respect to their elders and give offerings – fruit, paper money, paper horses and incense. As we made our way back to our Viet houses we
stopped at the village temple. The temple was being rebuilt and still
didn’t have any walls. The temple structure was made of wood with
intricate design. Our guide explained that the locals took it in turns to help build the temple on their days off so that is why it took so long to
build. As we walked around the complex we saw the monks. The
surrounding grounds were filled with vegetable patches and fruit
trees and statues. We then bicycled back past the rice fields to our viet
house. We had one last meal before going to watch the water puppet
show. The water puppet show was performed every day for the people
traveling back from Halong bay. It is a tradition that dates back from
the 11th century and tells stories through puppets dancing in water.
The theme of the skits is rural and has a strong reference to Vietnamese folklore. Once the water puppet show was finished it was
time to go back to Hanoi. On our last night we stayed at the Hanoi
Pearl Hotel which was also located within the old quarter. We had a
wander around town visiting the lake and bridge to the island temple.
We had a disappointing meal next to our hotel but it was saved by a
delicious cheese cake at the French bakery.