Hanoi & Halong

OK!
We're back in business.
I think it was one or two of the pics on the card had got fecked, so when I deleted some, it worked.
Anywhoo...
Halong Bay.
World Heritage site.
Awesome.
What more can I say?
In brief, it's around 3,000 small islands off Halong city(about 3.5hrs East of Hanoi) in the Gulf of Tonkin, north of the South China Sea. Now for ya!

We went on a 3 day/ two night cruise around Halong Bay on a traditional Chinese Junk.
(And you were probably thinking, ahhh, the poor lads lugging those packs around SE Asia, it must be hard going at times) :)

On the first day, we set sail for a cave on, or should I say, in one of the islands.
A giant cave, 3.5sq km inside, they have it well lit. And have interesting myths and stories to go along with the shapes and formations.

A short trek came in the afternoon, but I'll cover that in a separate post...
After that we went against the plans for the day, which including swimming and kayaking etc. And chose to laze about on the boat. Joined by several Aussies, Spanish and English we had beers and I slapped out the guitar for a few songs after dinner Twas a great night! People from the the Junk near us even popped over onto our boat for the craic! :)

Sea Eagle:

Which ones is a boat, and which one is an island?

Here's a pic of a floating village.

Directly after taking this photo, we crashed into this floating home. It was awful. You could see the whole structure bending under the presure. They weren't happy to say the least! Check out the dogs, they're for security, so no one steals fish or robs anything while they're out at market and the like. You'd have to walk the dogs around the 'block' about 500 times for it to be worth anything to the dog!

The power cut for the night, which added to the atmosphere. Some people didn't like it, and were giving out, but I'm always a fan of power going, it brings people closer together!

The Spanish girls and some other dudes from the other boat:

Dave out with the Aussies and Debbie:
Day two we were still cruising around Halong Bay amongst the islands, and in the afternoon, we were dropped off at Cat Ba island. The only inhabited island in Halong Bay. We stayed in a hotel that night, easily the nicest place we've stayed so far on the trip! During the day we went to Monkey Island(That's right Nelbert & Smeels!) which I'll drone on about in the other post too.
The next morning was a cruise back towards the mainland, a quick lunch and back to Hanoi.

We didn't get much sleep, and were awake and up for dawn:

The fishermen were out early, the poor auld divils:

"Wow, how much did all that cost?"
All in for tours, transport from city, boat, every meal for the three days, staying on the boat, and treks, guides, etc etc
$65US - so about 50euro. Not bad! :)

Trek and Tiny Trouble

Here's a few pics from our trek up a wee lump in the ground:

That tiny tower on top of the smaller mountain is where we were heading. Shane, if you're reading this, it's the one that we lost all of the water in our bodies on. Wasn't that bad this time, it's not too hot here now.

The hazy view from the top:

Aren't we mighty!

Not sure why I look so scared there...

Monkey Island.
The game of my youth, well more Monkey Island 2 I suppose...
What am I talking about?...
Monkey Island.
Yes, it has a Monkey or two on it.
Enough chat.
Pictures!

A quick kayak out around some of the islands was in order first:

So one of the young monkeys was playing with the others, when he fell out of the tree and rolled down almost to where I was standing. He uncurled himself from the ball that gravity had sent him into on the downhill, and stared straight into my eyes.
I smiled.
Oops!
Smiling is a sign of aggression.
I ran.
He ran.
His Mother saw her child distressed.
She ran.
We all ran is what I'm trying to say.
She got me.
I got away.
Not without a scrape on the auld leg, but that's better than a bite on the arm or shoulder!

I checked with our guide about diseases, but she said they inject them on this island, as the tourists usually end up in a similar situation to me!

These are pics of Mammy Monkey

Footprints:

Daddy Monkey:

- that would make a good rapper name in the music business...

I decided to follow a path up one of the mountains...I turned back at one of the lower peaks as I've never seen rocks so sharp!

Had a great view up there of the far side of Monkey Island:

The kids:

S'true!

Shite and Street Swaying

The dealio is, we're leaving for Laos on a 22hour bus down a bumpy road at 5 tomorrow evening. We can't gp direct to Luang Prabang, we have to go south, then west, then north like a big bowl.
It's a 35 hour pain in the hole in total. But it'll be worth it.

Hanoi streets:

OK now that we're out of the building we were staying in before we left for Halong I feel I can say this now....
It was a dodgy place, but it was cheap.
That wasn't abnormal for us anyway.
We were on the fifth floor.
That wasn't abnormal for us either.
When a truck or car drove past the hotel outside, the building would sway.
That was abnormal for us.

Now I feel I must stress the word sway, we're talking, at one point, for up to a minute after a larger truck drove by!!!
Absolute fucking madness.
Buildings fall down in this part of the world all the time.
I'm going to be googling(not that that is a real word or anything) that hotel name until it does. Hopefully they'll have enough cop on to get out and close it down before it does.

- recognise her?!!

Market streets:

Now it's time to explain Weasel Coffee.
Basically what happens is they get coffee beans, and feed them to a Weasel.
The Weasel then shits out small nuggets.
Weasel Coffee.

Drinking on the street. You have to stand up and pick up your chair when cops go by, as you really are on the street.

Nick with our Bia Hoi barman:

- it's worht pointing out to all the aloholics at home, Bia Hoi or 'Fresh Beer' is a tasty enough beer, I believe it's made from rice. It costs 3,000dong a beer. That equates to 7 beers for a euro!

Or 30beers for the price of one if you're going by home standards.

And the mandatory bike pic:

Good day!

Pics Postponed

I'm hoping it's just the last two computers, but my camera won't work with the PC. A dude turned off the PC while the camera was loading up onto the PC, so not sure if he fecked it up or not. Instead of telling stories that would take more time than I have, I'll wait and see if it works somewhere else tomorrow, and hopefully do a good post then....

All is great, we're back in Hanoi, after spending the last three days in Halong Bay. Trying to organise getting to Laos, which is proving difficult to get a good route that isn' described by using words such as 'horror' and 'abandoned' and 'robbery' etc. So we'll check them out tomorrow again... it could all be sweet yet!

Hope all is well with everyone. Chat ye soon! :)