Home Vietnam 1 Vietnam 2 Vietnam 3 Vietnam 4 Vietnam 5 Vietnam 6 Vietnam 7 Vietnam 8 Vietnam 9 Vietnam 10 Vietnam 11

Oct.15 Didn't sleep much - I'd been struggling with the humidity - took a cold shower & went down to eat breakfast. We walked down to the post office to send letters so they (back home) knows we made it in one healthy piece. Annemette got a sore throat & is very pathetic. In the post office we found a letter from Xavier -( an old friend from the 93 travel ,who lives in Cambodia). Then we went shopping - Annemette needed a few things - like t-shirts & a scarf for her throat.< Then we walked over to the original Darling cafe (there are 2 of them & they fight over which one is the original -!!!!) Met Lauritzs from Denmark - he's 69 & traveling alone - because his wife does not like to travel low-budget. Later! Is back in Hang Bac - Annemette is waiting for a aviation person who can tell her where her backpack is - our malaria pills are in the pack - so we're a bit lost on that subject. The person never showed up - so instead we booked a train ticket to Hai Phong so we can travel out & take a look at Halong Bay. Later we met 4 Danes - ready to leave Vietnam - I asked them if they had any leftover Malaria pills & they promised to see what they could find & will meet me tomorrow morning. that was so nice! Later Andreas - Geert _ Annemette & I went out to eat at a traditional Vietnamese restaurant. I wasn't hungry so I only had a coke - but the others had noodle soup with lots of meat in (Annemette is a vegetarian) - the local stared at us like they wanted us to leave the restaurant. We found a nice bar on the other side of the street & had an orange juice. - It's really hard to walk in the streets here - you walk out in the gutter - the sidewalks are so full of other things - the families more or less live out there. The gutters are also used to throw garbage in & dirty water - so you jump a lot. In the streets are cyclos - moped bikes & cars. Everybody's going everywhere in the same time - they don't care for anybody but themselves. Hai Phong oct.16. Packed our little home in my backpack -we only brought enough clothes that could fit into our day packs The big backpack stayed in the storeroom at Queens - I had a shower - got dressed & went down to find Helene & her boyfriend - they had malaria pills enough to cover us for the next 3 month - (20 $) Then we left on 2 cyclos (bike taxis) - down to the North-station. It was a newer train & there were hardly any people on it - we had soft seats - ! We rolled out into the countryside's full of paddy fields - muddy rivers - villages - water buffalos & hardworking people. There was a young man in the train who wanted to practice his English - ! At the end of the track was Hai Phong - the ugliest city I'd ever seen in Vietnam - it's a harbor town & they assume all whites are Russian - because of the many Russian ships. We found a dorm room in a hotel across the street from the station. Then we took a walk to find the boat to Hung Bai. We met a gum selling girl who told us the ticket office was closed for to day & we walked back to the hotel to eat dinner. Hung Gai Oct.17 It was like leaving the road to hell & find a side road to heaven. - after eating breakfast we went back to the harbour & bought the tickets to a rusty old ferry.- we climbed upstairs - the gum selling girl & her friends were there too some of them were selling postcards I gave them some go cards (Danish free cards you can take in cafés) Then the ferry tooooo'ed & they ran off & we sailed out in Halong Bay - !!!It's fantastic - full of islands - steep rocky mountain like islands. The legend says it's a dragon who got mad & whipped the ocean bottom up with the tail so these islands ended up looking the way they do. If someone have seen Catherine Deneuve in "Indochine" you know what I talk about. The same rocky island are found in Thailand & inland in China near Guilin. A local guy entered the boat near Hung Gai - He knew a really good guesthouse - etc etc etc……… Somehow you get used to these guys. Unlucky for him this guesthouse was right next to a Karaoke bar - so we followed another guy to a really nice guesthouse. We share a room with Geert & met 2 other Belgium people - both Annemette & I had been bitten by an insect. It looks like a cigarette burn on our throats & it hurts.