Travel Log 16

The day after I arrived Sab, Luke and Harry arrived and off we went to Halong Bay for a few nights.

The tour was nice – Halong bay was amazing, even though it would have looked better if the sun was shining. The tour included a trip to a very large cave, a trek up a slippery hill and a visit to viscous monkey island, a night on the piss and food which was … well – same same.

When we returned home the others had to leave to go south and I stayed in Hanoi to wait out the Tet holidays (Vietnamese new year holidays) . On new years eve I joined some other couchsurfer’s and had dinner around Thao’s house and then watch fireworks light up the cloudy nights sky. New years day I had a peaceful walk around the quiet ,chilly city, watching the locals in the temples and seeing some city sights.

After new year I hung around waiting for information when Hanoi would resume its services again. Unfortunately none of the locals seemed to know for sure. Three days after Tet I walked into the bus tours office and asked "do you have any buses to Vientiane, Laos" Bus tour guy: "we do but I am not sure when they are going to leave, maybe in 3 days time" Leon: "so buses will leave in 3 days, so they'll leave on the 20th" Bus tour guy: "well I can't be sure" Leon: "when will you be sure" Bus tour guy: " maybe on the..." pointing to the 23rd on the calendar Leon: "oh I see...??" and then I walked out. The whole town was like this no one seemed to know when businesses started again – it was very frustrating. If I hadn’t been in Hanoi during Tet I probably would have liked the city more.

On the plus side since everything in the city was closed and most couchsurfers were busy I did get to download 4 seasons of ‘The Wire’ and spent the spare time I had watching them.

Eventually services resumed and I headed to the Laos border.