I woke up next morning and got on the bus for Halong bay - The four hour journey is nothing like driving on the scenic Great ocean road in Melbourne. The road is full of bumps and potholes. So we get off our buses near the harbour and get the first glimpse of Halong bay - the view i Uh-mah-zing! Absolutely gorgeous!
We sat on a small boat to be taken to our cruise ship. I sit there with a big smile on face with a sense of accomplishment! A feeling of finally doing/seeing something that I've been wanting to do/see for months! The photos just don't do justice for the amazing place that Halong bay is.
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| Limestone formations on Halong Bay |
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| A house on one of the Lime stones |
We are told the rules of the cruise - No drinking with right hand - if you are caught, you have to slam the whole drink in one go - imagine drinking water from a 1 litre bottle! Second rule is not to utter the words "mine" and "ten" - or you have to do ten push ups. We have our lunch and our kayak boats are ready. I team up with my Swiss friend and we kayak around the bay and through some cool caves. Its pretty damn amazing (minus the random nappies floating around on the bay)
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| Our Kayaks |
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| View from the cave |
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| Kayaking through the caves |
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We come back for dinner and the real fun begins - drinking games on board! 2 packs of cards are scattered all around and you are required to pick a card and do what's told on the card. Some of the crazy activities include drinking with straight hand (i.e. no bending elbow), doing belly shots, mixing all drinks and slamming them one go- (ewww...beer+vodka+rum+whiskey = vomit), and a whole bunch of other games. To make the most of the happy hour, I bought 2 cans of Coke and got dirty looks from everyone for free :( I sat there praying the whole time hoping I don't pick cards that require me to do silly dares - I have'nt prayed that hard even for my Year 10/12 scores! Nervously, praying to every god I could remember, I drew my first card - It was a 7 of hearts - which meant I had to be the troll - i.e sit under the table and do nothing until someone pulls out another troll card. Phew! not that bad. I sat for nearly 30 mins. As I got up, our table was almost empty. Most of them had left. Damn! My other cards included shouting "F%^& you" at every one and daring someone to do something. All in all it was fun but it was way too much drinking my little liver could take - so we girls came back to our rooms and talked for a bit and fell asleep. Next morning we got ready to head back to Hanoi. We met some cool people on the bus, reached Hanoi at 5 and I had a bus to Hue at 5.30. So I quickly said my byes to my new friends and actually felt pretty sad leaving them.
I got on the famous Vietnamese sleeper bus for my 14 hour journey to Hue. I thought I had experienced the worst bus/train journeys having traveled 2nd class on Indian trains - boy was I wrong! The Vietnamese sleeper buses are mother of 2nd Class Indian trains.
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| Sleeper buses in Vietnam |
The seats are so narrow that there is barely any space to even keep my bag on the side - I wear my eye mask and go to sleep. At about 1 am the bus stops and I remove my eye mask and I m greeted by a smiling toothless Vietnamese man sleeping literally next to me, except on the floor! WTH - when did he come and how the hell he find the space to sleep! Geez!
Again not complaining for the price I paid to travel the whole country but its not quite what you expect especially when the travel agent shows pictures of a spacious bus with comfy leather seats.
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