Weekends around Hanoi

The fact that I hadn't managed to post anything in the past half a year is a testament to how Hanoi is a different brand of life from Bahrain. 'So long,' week-long treks off beaten paths in the Middle East and 'welcome,' hours of sitting on my ass poring through emails, making sure our monthly protection fee payments  (revenue) to HQ are up to scratch, pax are happy, staff are happy, agents are happy...and being around when the Canadian ambassador's wife invites you over for tea. No better way to get you that rude awakening from 'GM's assistant' life and keep that butt on the office chair than responsibilty so real you can feel it resting on your tongue the moment it goes up your rear-end. Life is good.

Still managed to squeeze in a weekend here and there to explore les environs de Hanoi:

Halong Bay - 62 bucks US for a three day/two night excursion to the prime attraction of Northern Vietnam. And this was after I asked the sales team to source me something high-end. This is the bang that your buck gets you:

- A 3-hour ride with 20 other people in a 15-seater to Halong City

- A 15 minute rest stop at a kitschy souvenir store/restaurant/snack shop so that the bus operator can collect his commission for unloading us there

-  Arrival in Halong City where you get to experience briefly the life of a DHL parcel in a distribution center. All the while assuming I had been riding with my tour-mates, I had to quickly conclude all conversation and exchange contacts as our group of 20 were quickly chopped up by the leader into subgroups based on our exact trip nature (day trip/two day/three day) and forwarded to other groups that happened to be doing the same tour, and then shipped off, literally.

- Boat ride to a fish farm, where after the visit, lunch was served on board. I sat next to a sweet German couple. We had stir-fried squid with celery, stir-fried cabbage, salted water soup (yes) and white rice.

- Visit at the 'Cave of Surprises' with my group of 30. We were herded off the boad, into and around the cave, then out. MOOO!!!

- Arrival at Cat Ba island (the largest in the Halong archipelago). All the while assuming I had been riding with my tour-mates, I had to quickly conclude all conversation and exchange contacts as our group of 30 were quickly chopped up by the new leader into subgroups based on our accommodation and forwarded to other groups that happened to be staying at the same place. Couldn't quite figure out where that feeling of deja-vu came from.

- Dinner at the Sunflower Hotel, where my group of 6 were served dinner. We had stir-fried squid with celery, stir-fried cabbage, salted water soup and white rice. Deja-vu again.

- Wholesome breakfast the next morning consisting of a slice of bread and a chunk of butter. When I asked for a butter knife, the guy pointed at the second slice of bread.

- What I thought would have been a 5-hour trek across the Cat Ba National Park as promised by the itinerary, which turned out to be a 2-hour hike with another group to 15 unfamiliar faces who joined half way through, led by some dude (in flip flops) through a dirt path and up some hill-with-a-view that most likely happened to be someone's back yard. Tickets into the real deal only cost 5HKD a pop, and they still had to cheap us out. I guess for them that's 5HKD extra they could spend on buying squid and celery.

- Lunch back at the hotel. Stir-fried squid with celery, stir-fried cabbage, salted water soup and white rice.

- 'Free time' for the rest of the day.

- Dinner back at the hotel. Stir-fried squid with celery, stir-fried cabbage, salted water soup and white rice.

- Realization that the second night wouldn't be out at sea "under the starlit sky'" as per the itinerary because, as per the third new guide, that was the 'Summer schedule' and that no one bothered to update it at the agency. Somehow that was my fault. Stared at the mosquitoes swirling around the white ceiling of my room and tried to pretend they were comets and constellations. The mold patches helped enhance the effect.

- Breakfast. Bread with a side of bread.

- Boat ride with yet another group back to Halong City. At this point I decided to stop talking to them. Wouldn't want to waste my name cards. I'm sure the trees in the Amazonian rainforest would understand.

- Lunch at Halong City docks. Care to guess? Take this tour if you ever want to know what it feels like to be your friend's pet cat/dog/hamster.

- Bus ride back to Hanoi, with complimentary hike half-way across the city upon arrival to get home. They refused to drop each passenger off at their respective destinations because "their big van wouldn't fit in the small alleys." Funny how this is seeing as they picked us up with the exact same van.

I'll be back to Halong one day, just not in a 62-dollar kinda way.

Other trips:

Bat Trang - A quick 20-minute drive with Long to the locally-famous ceramics village. 3 hours of wandering around yielded a HKD10 scented oil burner. It was  banging-my-head-against-the-wall time when I realized that same burner, along with most of what they made there were available in the supermarket 20 paces from my office.

Ha Dong - Zegna and Ferragamo can blow it out their asses. This is THE place to get ties. And watch silkworms eat all day too.

Comments

[Yvonne]

It's 1:30am and I just got home from work. Your trip gave me a chuckle, I especially like the butter knife part, but I can totally visualize your expression when they separate you from your new friends for the second time... Max: "diu..."

Just remember not to be too cheap next time :p

miss ya
xoxo

[Melody]

ur blog entry scares me >_<

[Brian]

see what happens when you do things on the cheap? you never learn.