17th January – Vinh City

I had a good visit to Hanoi, staying in a comfortable hotel that quickly felt like home.  A bit of a hike into the Old Quarter by taxi but nice to be away from the hubbub.  Before my night at the opera I visited the Women’s Museum which was interesting in terms of the very varied family relations especially within the hill tribes, some of which are matriarchal, but ironically the first exhibit was all to do with marriage and how important it is to women.  The concert was interesting.  A lot of expats and tourists in the stalls mixed in with Vietnamese though none of them were particularly dressed up, as I had expected and vaguely hoped.  I’d even bought a silk tie for about £2 so felt a bit overdressed.  People in the audience were talking out loud and using their mobile phones to text.  The orchestra was conducted by a Japanese chap who seemed very competent but the band itself was not that wonderful.  The strings were often poorly in tune with one another and the brass were all over the place and made painfully obvious mistakes at several points.  They made rather a mess of the Brahms Variations on a Theme by Haydn but seemed more comfortable with the straight Haydn concertos, the first of which was a piano concerto performed by an eleven year old boy who was extraordinary.  His cadenzas were not hugely appropriate to the period of the music but they were technically brilliant. 

The French-built Hanoi Opera House

Next day I visited the Ethnographic Museum which was not far from my hotel.  It’s a wonderful museum and I found it interesting to learn more about some of the hill tribes I have seen during my travels in the mountains.  Had lunch in the museum restaurant and then went back to the hotel. Always a relief to get away from all the honking and pollution of the streets.

At the end of the week I went on an organised tour to Halong Bay, a world heritage site due to its extraordinary karsts, over 2000 of them, that loom steeply out of the water.  It was nice to be organised by someone else for a while.  Had to get up around 6.30 so I could be ready to be picked up by minibus by 7.15.   Wet, foggy, rather grim morning.  Eventually got into the city through the rush hour and then we gradually picked up the other guests. We were told that there would be only 13 of us rather than the 30 that the boat can hold.  These included a middle-aged Australian couple, garrulous Geoff and Kerry who were lovely, and their third child Maddie (15); a young Australian man and woman, of Chinese descent, Edward and Eva, who were very quick to tell us that they were brother and sister and not a couple.  Two highly attractive young women - Hannah from Oxford and the sister of her Vietnamese boyfriend (who they were not travelling with) Lynne, probably Lin actually.  Finally there was a rather odd Italian man called Antonio who instantly reminded me of Joel Grey in the film version of Cabaret, camp with Berkoff-like expressions, and a pair of very quiet middle-aged German women who very much kept to themselves.  It seemed as though I was the most sociable of everyone and talked and talked to everyone over the two days. Very unlike me; I must have been desperate for company. 

It took four hours to get to Halong Bay but had stopped raining by the time we got on board the boat.  After checking into our cabins we had lunch when of course we really got to meet one another. In the afternoon we were taken by smaller boat to a huge three-chambered cave with stalactites and stalagmites which was very impressive and worth seeing, despite the hordes of tourists. God knows what it must be like when the tourist boats are full.

After this some of us did some kayaking but I hadn’t brought any shorts etc so went back to the boat to read.  In the evening we had supper together where I shared the bottle of Dalat wine I had found in my cabin (the only person given any which was odd), but then, when I went to bed, I found that my duvet cover looked dirty and didn’t even smell clean.   So I found the tour guide Hai and asked if it could be changed.  This he did without a fuss but it soured the atmosphere between us slightly.  Slept pretty well though.

The next day we were taken by small boat to a karst with a small beach and 350 steps that led to a look-out on the top.  Antonio and the German women didn’t come.  A great view from the top but still rainy and overcast.  When we got back from the beach we were given a perfunctory cooking class of how to make a spring roll, followed by lunch while the boat returned to harbour.  We set off for Hanoi again, a long exhausting trip somehow.  I was the last to be dropped at their hotel but everyone was very sweet, saying how much fun it had been to meet me etc.  Lin, who’s a second year medical student in Melbourne, even asked for my email so that she can keep in touch.  I don’t suppose she will but it was nice of her to ask. 

Yesterday, Monday, I left Hanoi, heading south to Thanh Hoa (pronounced Tang Hwa) – 170k.  I was given a big send-off from Mr Vung and the hotel staff and promptly went round the corner to take the bike for an oil change.   It took an age getting to the edge of Hanoi and I got lost finding the A1 highway so this took up a lot of time.  The highway was good and fast at first but then deteriorated and became not only broken up but heavy with trucks and buses, the dust and pollution dreadful.  Stopped just before Ninh Binh for a rice dish that was a nice change from pho.  Then headed on.  Got to Thanh Hoa around 3.30 filthy and tired.   After I’d found the hotel and had my beloved shower, black gunk came out from the corners of my eyes onto the towel.  An hour later there was more.  I guess the eyes have a clever way of cleaning themselves, but they were itchy for the rest of the day.  Had dinner at the next door’s hotel restaurant (carp and greens; not great but quite tasty).  Hotel room incredibly noisy from all the traffic and the honking outside.  Not looking forward to more road travel like today over the next three days.

Dirt from the road

Just 140k today but was oppressive nonetheless.   Nothing to look at or stop for, just one uneven, dusty, congested, polluted, incredibly noisy, nerve-racking road!  Nothing to recommend it at all, but it got me from A to B.  And B today is Vinh City where I now am.  The worst is the eyes.  The visor is next to useless because it’s already too scratched up, so I just wear my specs but they don’t stop the dust and pollution getting into the eyes.  I had to stop today to use a tissue to clean them they were weeping so much.  Yech.  I’ve just washed them in water using the tiny eyebath from the huge medical pack I’ve been lugging around, using bottled water of course.  Anyway tomorrow promises to be worse.  From here I go to Dong Hoi which is almost 200k.  The next day is almost as long but at least that takes me to Hue, the ancient capital, where I will be for three nights.  And then there’s a relatively short ride to Hoi An after that where I will be for about a week.  At least it’s getting noticeably warmer as I head south and it hasn’t rained properly since leaving Hanoi, thank god; it only sprayed a bit today.   I’m now looking forward to selling the bike.  I’ve had enough of this heavy traffic down the coast.  At least in Laos and the mountains, though remote, offered beautiful scenery and little traffic by comparison.