Goodbye Hanoi (and hello again!)
Cycling out of Hanoi in the blazing sun turned into a bit of a nightmare
when we couldn't find a bridge to take us east over the river. By the
time we realised that we had misread the map and it infact didn't exist it
was lunch time so we pedalled the 15km back to the city and had some lunch
before starting again, this time in the right direction. Managed to get
off the main road for a bit of the ride, and then found a little hotel in
the unremarkable city of Hai Duong.
Heading towards Halong Bay the next day we met some friendly English speaking brothers heading from Hanoi to their family home for the weekend. We were waiting to cross a river by ferry on one of the nicer detours on a smaller road when they started chatting. We got invited back to their home and had the priveledge of sharing some beers with them and meeting their family, as well as eating a welcome lunch. It was great to chat and see their farm (growing garlic) before heading on our way once more.
Our extended lunch stop meant that we had only four hours of daylight left to do about 80km, but the road was not too scenic so we just got our heads down and pedalled. Went through the dirtyest town I have ever seen, I think there must have been a coal mine close by or something cos everything was black...the road, the plants, the houses, and us after we had ridden through.
We arrived in Halong bay just as it was getting dark and selected a cheap
hotel from the millions on offer. We thought the town was not quite what
we had expected. Infact it was a glorified building site, with no beach
or tourists in sight. It wasnt till the next day we realised we weren't
in the real Halong Bay, but a poor next door neighbour 4km short!
We ended up staying in not-Halong Bay for another night cos Claire's dodgy tummy (I will spare you the details) had not improved. Using the Lonely Planet and the web we self diagnosed her problem as "travellers diarria" and then set about finding a pharmacy. With the name of the antibiotics required scribbled down on a bit of paper we followed directions to "the pharmacy" which turned out to be a market stall with every imaginable pharmacutical drug stuffed into a glass cabinet. We were more than a bit dubious, but sure enough the "pharmacist" pulled out a package of tablets with the correct name on (as well as PRESCRIPTION ONLY in big letters) and handed them over for 10,000 Dong (30 english pence). Result! I've always thought doctors were over-rated.
With Claire feeling better we headed to the real Halong Bay harbour at
about 10am and set about trying to negociate a tour of the bay ending on
Cat Ba Island. Our research had shown that it was probably best and
cheapest to arrange a tour from Hanoi, and that trying to do it yourself
was quite stressful due to very pushy touts. However we still were not
quite prepared for the bare faced lies and underhand tactics used by the
touts.
I won't go on about it too much, but just say that our 5 hour tour was more like 2 hours, we got shunted onto 2 different boats to get there, and the harbour that we were PROMISED was 5km from Cat Ba town was actually 30km.
Despite the crappy service we still had a great time, the scenery was beautiful and it was cool to chat to other travellers for the first time in a while. And the ride accross the island was a real highlight of the trip so far, so a blessing in disguise.
Cat Ba Island
At about 4pm we were dropped off by our boat at the remote north end of
Cat Ba and whilst the other travellers got into a bus to reach Cat Ba town
we hopped on our bikes and took the road (1 of 3 on the island) south.
The lush green hills and lack of traffic, and of course that special
island vibe (maybe i'm romantacising a little here) made for perfect
riding. Just as it was getting dark we entered the national park and
followed some signs to Frog Lake cos it sounded nice. Soon the road
turned into a steep hiking trail so we followed some signs to "Me Go"
instead, which might be Vietnamese for dead end, cos thats what it was.
Fine by us though cos it provided a perfect spot to put the tent up for
the night.
Cooked on a camp fire for the first time in ages and spent the night imagining what Languers might look like (apparently they are found in this park) and wondering if they eat tourists. In the morning emerged back out of the national park and payed our retrospective entrance fee to the slightly supprised looking park rangers (the office was closed the previous night). Took the coast road 20kms to Cat Ba town, stopping for the much awaited SWIM IN THE SEA!
By the time we reached the town the weather had gone a bit crap...cloudy and windy, but we headed to Cat Co Beach 2 where we wanted to camp. Finding out it was more expensive to camp than stay in a hotel we stayed for another swim, pretended it was sunny enough to sunbathe, got cold, and then booked into a hotel-with-sea-views.
The evening was pretty amusing, chatting to other travellers in the bars, playing pool, drinking a few beers and when the bars closed ending up at the late night noodle stand (the Vietnamese equivelent of a late-night kebab!). The highlight of the evening was an Israeli guy trying to do a wheely on his borrowed moped and stacking it into the noodle stall, knocking the whole thing down and landing on two poor local guys! At least it wasn't a porshe!
A long, hung-over journey on the slow boat (its not called that for nothing) bought us to the mainland again at Hai Phong and we cycled through drizzle for 20kms untill it got dark. Found a no frills guest house in An Lao for just over a quid at the back of a noodles restuarant, we were definately the first forigners to ever stay there. All the local English speakers payed us a visit whilst we sat in the restuarant and then got invited to drink tea with the next door neighbour. Our room was 2 beds (without matress) and an ancient fan, and was pretty much on the street. Noisy cos there was no glass in the windows, but i think its what you call REAL travelling dude. But seriously it was great to meet locals and chat with their many kids, who had pretty good english.
We are now in Ninh Binh, after a very wet 100km ride, from where we will explore the local sites if it ever stops raining.