Day 4: sept 7:
Vietnam offered us a good deal of highs to keep us on our toes all through. Ivan and me had planned our itinerary such that we fly in to Vietnam. However, to exit the country and to add to the thrill, we had planned to take the boat trip via the Mekong Delta to Phnom Penh in Cambodia. Since we did not have a confirmed ticket out of the country, we were the only guys among all who were escorted for questioning at the immigration. The officer asked us everything possible regarding our stay in Vietnam and our plans to travel out. We answered diligently while ogling at the beautiful Vietnamese air hostesses who were passing by. After confirming that we had enough USDs on our persons to even exceed our stay by four times the number of days that was divulged, our immigration was cleared and we stepped out of the airport. Now we had to withdraw local currency and I headed to one of the ATMs at the airport. The local currency is Dongs and I wanted to withdraw Dongs equivalent to 20,000 INR. I did a quick calculation I almost fainted at the figure I arrived at i.e. 76,00,000 Dongs. I don’t mind admitting that I was intimidated by the seven digit amount I decided to withdraw only 38,00,000 dongs. The seven digit amount was still gnawing at the back of my mind and my hands were quivering while I added the zeros to 38. After much deliberation I hit ‘Enter’. When I got the receipt for the withdrawal, I cried out for joy when I saw the number of zeros (I didn’t bother counting it) that proclaimed the balance in my account. I knew then that I loved the country.
We took a cab to the Central Backpacker’s Hostel at Ly Quoc Su Street in Hanoi. By the time we had showered and settled down, it was late afternoon and we set out to explore. Evening was at a local pub that played some good music. We came back early since we had to leave early for Hanoi the following day. However, when we reached the hostel, we got chatting and made friends with Matt, an Australian and Useke, a Japanese; out came Jim Beam and the night suddenly looked young. After a couple of whisky shots, we joined the bunch of men and women from various countries (other fellow room mates) who were recounting their travel experiences over free beer served by the hostel.
Day 5: sept 8
The alarm failed to wake us up and one of the hotel staff got us up by informing that the bus for Halong Bay would pick us up in 15 minutes. Need I say speed was of essence. I slept in the bus on the way to Halong Bay. On our way, we stopped at an exhibition where I picked up a Vietnamese straw hat. A beautiful girl at the exhibition sold it to me. She was all smiles as I tried it on and I bought it. I was wearing it all the way to Halong Bay posing for pictures wearing it. Even Ivan liked it so much that he posed for a couple of pics sporting it. It was at Halong Bay that a Malaysian lady, we befriended, told us that the straw hat in question was worn only by the women in Vietnam. Ivan almost suffered a stroke while I kept glum. Ivan didn’t want anything to do with the hat after that, so much so that he refused to even touch it since then, while I was adamant that I would carry the hat to India (which I eventually did and the straw hat survived being crushed many times, some of the attempts by Ivan, though it is difficult to say it was intended or not ;)
Halong Bay is an array of magnificent Limestone mountains scattered like islands in green water. Spectacular would be an under statement. We stopped at a trawler selling fishes and we bought 2 big crabs that were cooked and served for lunch on the boat. After lunch, we were taken to a place where we opted for a two person kayak and we set out exploring the various caves in the mountains on the kayak. Initially our kayak refused to move ahead but within moments we were on a roll and were kayaking between the mountains at good speed. On our way back, we picked up a bottle of Vietnam Whisky as we had to leave the same evening to Hoi An via the night train. We prepared our tribal mixes (whisky in cola bottles) for our train journey. When we reached the railway station, we realized that beer cans were freely available at the station. We bought a couple of chilled beers each and began our train journey with a smile on our faces.
To be continued…
Pics @ http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=228124&id=686198445&l=1163e4ce45
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