Monday, September 25, 2006
Sunday, May 07, 2006
Train Journey Back To Saigon - 25th April 2006 Vietnam
I must confess that I wasn’t looking forward to our train journey.
You never know who you might be sharing with, and as it was such a long journey it was either going to be great or really bad!!
Well we shouldn’t have worried.
We ended up with a carriage to ourselves for the first few hours.
It lacked any power outlets, so there was no chance of watching more than one film on the laptop.
We were a couple of hours into the journey and both laying back just killing time.
All of a sudden, Alison shot up, opened the door and shouted at me to move.
It would seem that we were now sharing our carriage with a mouse who had decided to run across my pillow whilst I was taking a nap.
Within an instant, I did the gentlemanly thing and let Alison have the lower bunk.
Needless to say there was a lot of foot twitching coming from Alison’s bed as she wasn’t able to sleep a wink all night.
It was made worse by the fact that I had blocked all the gaps leading up to the bed with plastic rapping, which made a lovely rustling sound each time the mouse tried to get through !!
After 30 odd hours and little sleep, we arrived in Saigon.
You never know who you might be sharing with, and as it was such a long journey it was either going to be great or really bad!!
Well we shouldn’t have worried.
We ended up with a carriage to ourselves for the first few hours.
It lacked any power outlets, so there was no chance of watching more than one film on the laptop.
We were a couple of hours into the journey and both laying back just killing time.
All of a sudden, Alison shot up, opened the door and shouted at me to move.
It would seem that we were now sharing our carriage with a mouse who had decided to run across my pillow whilst I was taking a nap.
Within an instant, I did the gentlemanly thing and let Alison have the lower bunk.
Needless to say there was a lot of foot twitching coming from Alison’s bed as she wasn’t able to sleep a wink all night.
It was made worse by the fact that I had blocked all the gaps leading up to the bed with plastic rapping, which made a lovely rustling sound each time the mouse tried to get through !!
After 30 odd hours and little sleep, we arrived in Saigon.
Saturday, April 29, 2006
Halong Bay 21st April 2006 Vietnam
After our Sapa trip, we caught an overnight train back to Hanoi where we were supposed to be met by our tour company.
We were again let down, and had to negotiate the best price with one of many taxi driver all of which were more than willing to take you to their brothers guest house !
We made our way back to the tour company, and after complaining yet again were taken to a hotel to shower.
One hour later, we were on another bus which was taking us to Halong Bay.
I took this whilst travelling to Halong Bay
I wonder how many people have been charged with “Death by Coffin”!!
We had paid to spend a couple of nights at Halong Bay, one on an old junk, and then another in a hotel on one of the islnads
One of the many junk boats around Halong Bay
As is usual for boats, you get the normal safety drill.
Anyone who couldn’t swim was offered a life vest !!
Halong Bay is a world heritage site which consists of hundreds of large rock formations that look like individual islands.
The place is absolutely stunning, especially as the sun is going down.
The one negative comment about the whole area is the number of boats and the rubbish floating in the water.
We thought that we had paid for a tranquil night in a secluded location at Halong Bay, only to end up with 30 other boats some of which were playing Karaoke music all night !!
One of the larger caves at Halong Bay
These boats were originally used for fishing, now they sell water and beer for us tourists.
Whilst on the tour, we opted for a days kayaking.
It was a great day, although 2 people sharing one Kayak felt much harder than having a single seater.
The fact that the kayaks were getting on a bit didn’t help either.
We spent lunch on the beach in style !!
Things became a little worse after lunch when our guide showed us the new Kayaks that we had for the afternoon.
It would seem that our company didn’t own any Kayaks and would borrow or rent where ever possible.
Check out the racing seats !!
Alison came to everyone’s rescue and put the fear of god into our guide.
10 minutes later another boat pulled up towing more reasonable Kayaks for us to use
Alison after she had calmed down!!
One of the fish farms in Halng Bay
Our poor guide who's name was Hi
We took him out for a few drinks for him to recover from Alison's complaining !!
After another bus journey back to Hanoi, we arranged for a train to take us to Saigon.
The estimated journey time was 30+ hours !!!
We were again let down, and had to negotiate the best price with one of many taxi driver all of which were more than willing to take you to their brothers guest house !
We made our way back to the tour company, and after complaining yet again were taken to a hotel to shower.
One hour later, we were on another bus which was taking us to Halong Bay.
I took this whilst travelling to Halong Bay
I wonder how many people have been charged with “Death by Coffin”!!
We had paid to spend a couple of nights at Halong Bay, one on an old junk, and then another in a hotel on one of the islnads
One of the many junk boats around Halong Bay
As is usual for boats, you get the normal safety drill.
Anyone who couldn’t swim was offered a life vest !!
Halong Bay is a world heritage site which consists of hundreds of large rock formations that look like individual islands.
The place is absolutely stunning, especially as the sun is going down.
The one negative comment about the whole area is the number of boats and the rubbish floating in the water.
We thought that we had paid for a tranquil night in a secluded location at Halong Bay, only to end up with 30 other boats some of which were playing Karaoke music all night !!
One of the larger caves at Halong Bay
These boats were originally used for fishing, now they sell water and beer for us tourists.
Whilst on the tour, we opted for a days kayaking.
It was a great day, although 2 people sharing one Kayak felt much harder than having a single seater.
The fact that the kayaks were getting on a bit didn’t help either.
We spent lunch on the beach in style !!
Things became a little worse after lunch when our guide showed us the new Kayaks that we had for the afternoon.
It would seem that our company didn’t own any Kayaks and would borrow or rent where ever possible.
Check out the racing seats !!
Alison came to everyone’s rescue and put the fear of god into our guide.
10 minutes later another boat pulled up towing more reasonable Kayaks for us to use
Alison after she had calmed down!!
One of the fish farms in Halng Bay
Our poor guide who's name was Hi
We took him out for a few drinks for him to recover from Alison's complaining !!
After another bus journey back to Hanoi, we arranged for a train to take us to Saigon.
The estimated journey time was 30+ hours !!!
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