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| Hotel Charming 'executive room' |
Anyhoo after interminable hours in the not so delightful Hue airport, I had a nice flight (again lacking in hospitality - althought the flight was only an hour long and the plane was nice the stewardesses were quite unfriendly and you got a bottle of water only - even little Nokair in Thailand gave you a bag of nuts for your short flight) then landed in Hanoi. The guy picking me up from the "Charming Hotel" was a young dude whose first comment was "i've been waiting for 2 hours' making me think it was my fault when I did tell them I'd be there at the time I was there (not overly with it really in Vietnam I found). Anyhoo after we picked up his brother, he made the hour trip with the radio going and Vietnamese pop playing loudly on his phone as well...delightful - NOT! So the Charming Hotel was okay - the receptionist thought she was doing me a great favour by putting me in the 'executive suite' (about the same standard as my $15 a night in Dalat) for "the first 2 nights" which I didn't think was great as I was hesitant to unpack - just having to pack it all again etc..(ended up staying in that room - good point - on top floor so quiet, but the in room computer would not work at all - also people kept saying they would come and help with things and never did - so not quite as charming as internet reviews would have you believe). Anyway, Hanoi was shite - I did not like it at all and couldn't wait for the 4 days to be over. The people were not friendly and in fact on my last day, a guy who'd harrassed me several times that day to take up his offer of polishing thongs or some such, told me to 'fuck off then' when he pointed at my (new) shoes and his glue indicating he could just quickly fix it - I wouldn't be in it - and that's what I got - so it makes sense to me that research shows that people go to Vietnam once but rarely return - hear, hear. (Although I may go back to Nha Trang and Hoi An someday).
Okay so there were a couple of good things - I visited that holiest of holy places "The Temple of Literature" dedicated to Confucius and scholarship and higher learning in general - very special (again tourists being idiots and hopping on ancient carvings for photos - brainless!) Also did the Halong Bay thing and can't believe how unexcited I was about it - I guess because I'd been taught to expect disappointment in Vietnam and yep - my hotel offered me trips on junks ranging from $18 -$35 - so thinking I'd get the Christina - a 'deluxe' junk as told, I was suckered in and the junk I of course got was (IMHO) not really even seaworthy (see pic). Anyhoo met some nice Aussies on there, and also had to tolerate the most embarrassing displays by a Polish lad who thought his english so competent that he'd joke around with the poor guide - anyway he was extremely rude and unfortunately he was on my little day trip. To illustrate, when we were getting off to tour a cave, the guide said 'take your valuables your cash and your diamonds' to which he replied (and I happened to be just passing him in the opposite direction at the time) while looking at his crotch, "yep I've got my 2 diamonds right here!!" well I of course did not know where to look! (creep!)
Okay spent a mountain of cash on nice Vietnamese silk garments (have spent a small fortune in general on this trip - but the stuff is right up my street and I don't think I've been too extravagant - let's just say there was some furniture that I would have loved to have taken back home and I controlled myself there - so how good am I?) and shoes.
So left Hanoi around 6 am for the flight to Laos! Yeh! Good evening Vietnam!
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| Me at the Temple of Literature in Hanoi |
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| On the junky Junk in Halong Bay |
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