One Final Day, Still No Halong Bay

We awoke Sunday morning ready for our adventure to Halong Bay. We got up early in the morning, ate a quick breakfast in our guesthouse and sat down in the lobby to wait. And wait. And wait some more. At 9: 20 am we conceded defeat and resigned ourselves to the fact that we would not be going to Halong Bay on this trip to Vietnam. Instead, we would spend one final day in Hanoi.

Travel in SE Asia is at times extraordinarily easy and at other time extraordinarily frustrating. On Saturday we had stopped at a travel agency, Kangaroo Travel, to buy day tickets to Halong Bay. We were told by the proprietor that our trip might be canceled depending on the dreaded typhoon. He said that a van would be at our guesthouse to pick us up in the morning and that if it didn’t arrive, we could assume the trip was canceled. And this is exactly what happened. No Halong Bay for us. Instead, we were given one final day to explore Hanoi.

After returning our unnecessary items from our backpacks to our room (bathing suits, hats, extra sunscreen *sigh*), we headed out into the city once more. This was a hard day for us as we had really done everything we had wanted to do in Hanoi by this point. Having thoroughly explored the Old Quarter already, Zenia and I headed back to the area around St. Joseph’s Cathedral to explore it a little more thoroughly. We wandered through tiny alleyways and larger thoroughfares, enjoying a leisurely journey through a slightly quieter part of Hanoi. After three days in Hanoi I discovered the trick to finding a bit of peace in the cacophony – leave the main part of the city. Just run away to the back alleys and avoid the sight of any type of vehicle. Even then, the faint sound of honking can be heard from the main streets in the distance, but if you try very hard you can almost convince yourself it is just a few strange sounding birds. (I have obviously caught Bobby’s sickness. Hanoi tends to do that to you.)

We ate lunch at another restaurant near the Cathedral, La Salsa and then got a foot massage. Our time was relaxing and enjoyable, but as we stumbled back out onto the city streets we realized we had nothing left to do. Indeed, we spent the rest of our afternoon and evening whiling away the hours, sitting on benches by the lake, eating a last sorbet at Fanny’s, and a dinner at a terrible restaurant near our guesthouse. In a final grasp for something to do, we headed off to the Night Market, which was located only a few blocks from our guesthouse in the Old Quarter. That was an utter nightmare. Unlike the Night Markets of Thailand, Laos, and Camboida, which are dedicated towards trade with tourists, the Night Market of Vietnam is oriented toward natives and they come out in droves.

The evening was extremely hot and humid, so much so that our skin was bathed in a sheen of perpetual sweat. Unfortunately, this was true for everyone, which I can attest to personally. There were thousands of people wandering down the street. Shops on the sides of the street were open and ready for business and tables with tents over them formed an aisle in the center of the road. Follow the rules of the road (drive on the right side) people flowed down these aisles in a constant stream, leaving not a single ounce of breathing room between bodies. To enter the river of people you had to simply push your way in and hope for the best. Once you entered it was impossible to leave. I led the way with Zenia behind and as we walked/were pushed along I found it impossible to turn in any direction, unable to even move enough to direct my attention to where she stood behind me. The density of the crowd made the night even hotter and we were smashed so tightly together that I could feel the sweat on the arms of my neighbors. (Ew!) We managed to walk down four blocks in this manner before we turned around to return the other way. If anything this side was worse…babies were being pushed in strollers, taking up an inordinate amount of room and making the crowd even slower so that we moved only 15 feet in 2 minutes or so. We thought we would never survive and at the first opportunity, shoved our way to the outskirts of the crowd so that we could turn down a side-street and escape.

Having pushed and shoved our way to freedom, Zenia and I looked at each other and knew we were done with Hanoi. We headed back to our guesthouse and breathed a sigh of relief at being alone in the silence (relative silence – those horns were still blaring) of our private room. We showered and got into bed, ready to leave Hanoi in the early hours of the morning, content with our experiences in Vietnam.

It is probably unfair of me to make a comparison of the SE Asian countries I have seen with Vietnam based on so limited acquaintance with that country (I had only seen the capital city after all), but I feel comfortable saying that it was my least favorite country of SE Asia and the last one I would return to on any second travels I make to this region. Comparisons on any level show that this is the lowest country on my list. Food-wise, Laos ranks at the top of the list followed by Thailand and Cambodia with Vietnam coming in dead last. On a scale of history and things to see, Vietnam is by far the lowest as their history seems to begin and end with Ho Chi Minh and the constant need to tear down the old and build something new they seem to feel means that there is very little of the ancient Vietnam to see today. After visiting the four SE Asian countries of BABSEA, I am extremely happy I was placed in Laos. Zenia and I agree that there is no place quite like Laos and the calm and serenity the country exudes is the perfect tonic at the end of a long day at work. My only sorrow now is that I have so few days left in this beloved country (yes, only days left).

This weekend I will be exploring one final place in Laos, Vang Vieng, which is located just a few hours north of Vientiane. Tomorrow morning we will be taking a bus up to Vang Vieng to meet our Chiang Mai friends, Ellie and Vanessa, for a weekend of tubing on the Nam Song River, exploring nearby caves, and general fun. I will be back on Monday afternoon, so expect some amazing stories around then!