Back From Halong Bay - Hanoi Hotels - Vietnam Riders

[Sunday, March 8, 2009, 10pm Hanoi Time]

We're back in Hanoi at the Stars Hotel on Batsu, right next door to the Hanoi Boutique Hotel where we stayed the other night and thought we were staying tonight. But people on the tour to Halong Bay said we were paying too much at $35 per night. So we checked at the Star and we could get the same room (balcony on the street) for just $20 with a computer in the room. The room is exactly the same size, not quite as spanking new, but also with breakfast and close enough I can use the wifi from next door. Actually, people were saying that $8-$15 was the going price for pretty much the same hotel room all over the Old Quarter. As it turned out, the old hotel didn't have any empty rooms anyway and wanted to send us to their other hotel. There are little hotels all over the old quarter of Hanoi for very little. This is one case where internet prices are much higher than you can get if you just show up and ask.

Apparently the hotels make their money selling tours. It appears to be best to go directly to the tour company itself. Halong Bay, two days, one night, prices ranged from $40 (2 star hotel on land) to $250 (private car, sleep on fancier junk) per person. If you're on a budget, you really need to bargain and check out other places.

We had a very pleasant trip to the bay. I'm going to show you the trip in photos. This first post will be of the way there through mostly motorcycle pictures. Rather than crop the motorcycle pictures, I decided to leave them as a I caught them from the bus and you can get a sense of the 3 and a half hour ride to Halong Bay from the backgrounds in the pictures.

Our tour guide Bang.

The bridge over the Red River back into the center of Hanoi. Bang got a phone call, we had to go back and pick up some more passengers. Bang said that 6 million people live in Hanoi, and 8 million in Ho Chi Minh City.

Brooms.

The highway just outside of Hanoi.

Rice fields outside of Hanoi.

Not sure what these are. First I thought they were jackfruit,
but now I think they are a big squash, but I'm not sure.

One of many factories.

The obligatory Asian pit stop at a ceramics factory.

These little piggies are going to market I suspect.

And here we are at Halong Bay, getting ready to board our junk for the ride through Halong Bay.

Here's one more motorcycle picture. This is from the bridge again, coming back into central Hanoi at rush hour.

Hanoi Traffic

We spent the day walking. I did get my ATM card back and it still works. It seems if you don't get the right pin the first time, they keep the card. I didn't get it right because I didn't push the buttons hard enough. Viet (above) whose headed to school in Texas worked out the card.




This is the headquarters of the bank whose ATM ate my card. The guard came over to tell me not to take pictures. Then when I asked Viet if I could take his picture he said sure, right in front of the guard, who got angry, so we went outside to take his picture.



We're booked on a tour to Halong Bay tomorrow. Overnight onland in a hotel, then back on the boat Sunday. Everyone assures us the water is totally calm. Prices shifted from the original recommended internet company that wanted $250 per person, to $125 per person, and finally we got it at $57 per person. Granted, we aren't staying on the boat overnight so that lowers the price, but J was worried about being seasick. And I think the first one included a private car and now were in a van with others, but that's fine.

So here's why I'm feeling a bit headachy today. The video is short, but gives you a good sense of getting across the street in the old quarter of Hanoi.

Hanoi Morning Walk

Our walk this morning. We're back at the room to get my passport. The weather is delightfully cool. I'm wearing a long sleeved shirt, though now at almost 1pm a t shirt would also be fine. So this will be mostly pictures with minimal commentary.



All was great as we learned to negotiate the motorcycles until I tried to get money from the ATM machine. I did get my receipt. But no money and no card back.




Michael, in the hotel where we found the ATM machine, was helpful. This isn't too unusual. But he couldn't get through.


We walked on to the travel agency the Australian couple at breakfast recommended. She called and got through. They are going to try to get our card and we might be able to pick it up at 2pm nearby. If yes, we'll go to Halong Bay tomorrow.






If not, we'll try to get the card tomorrow, Saturday, and go for just one day. So we slowly wondered on, using a walking guide to the Old Quarter of Hanoi as a general guide. Different streets have shop after shop of the same item. Sewing stuff, travel shops, shoes, kitchen stuff, etc.

Good Morning Vietnam!!

Here's a morning view from our balcony. The flag is part of our balcony.



I was going to add an audio from the movie Good Morning Vietnam, but when I looked for it, I got to a website that has original audio from soldiers in Vietnam, including this audio of the actual DJ Robin Williams played saying Good Morning Vietnam that someone taped off the radio. When you listen, no, it isn't broken. He just has great lungs.


And when I went onto Skype to see if I could get through to my son, the skype phone rang and it was my father's cousin in Brussels calling. I had found her skype number several months ago, but she's never on. So she must have seen my request to contact her and answered. So we talked for the first time in over a year. She must be 86 or 87 but there she was in living color. And we were still in bed. That was fun, but switching to German was a litte tricky. Fortunately, she can understand my frequent English words. It was the Thai that slipped in that confused her.

OK, we need to get up and explore Hanoi.