Hanoi Day 4: The Train

Slept through the night easily. The sea is dead calm and the boat did not rock perceptibly. Almost felt like we're on a stilt house over the waters. The morning air was pretty cold this time of year. Fore-go-ed (fore-went?) showering. Although the others who did make use of the showering facilities had fun with the temperamental water heater that blasts cold and warm water in alternation.

Boat ride today was far more leisurely, since there's nothing scheduled. Just a ride from the boat park to Cat Ba Island, where we pick up some more passengers, and back to the jetty.

Relaxed on the top deck, catching sun and appreciating the scenery of islands that look like human faces, bosoms, cocks, etc. Um... I meant roosters. The other synonym is rather prone to misunderstanding.

It was only when we swapped tourguides at Cat Ba, that we got a guy who actually recognised my GPS device. He was more useful, and started pointing out islands and naming them for me. He also pointed out the hidden lagoons where Tomorrow Never Dies was filmed. The boats are not licensed to go there. The only way to take a look at the lagoon without going through red tape with the authorities was to stop at the village and borrow a boat from one of the fishermen.

The filming happened near a floating fishing village, which sees a lot of boat traffic for the seafood the villagers sell. It's really a cool lifestyle, these villages... Grab two dozen blue plastic barrels; seal them; lash them together into a raft; planks over the top; four walls and a roof; a few dozen yards of rope to anchor your real estate to an island. Stock some booze, and you've almost got a Malibu lifestyle with a huge, zero maintenance swimming pool, and without the risk of the pool-boy diddling your wife. The bay is so sheltered, it'll be like living on a pool deck.

What's amazing about Ha Long Bay is the cleanliness. Despite the production line of boats bringing boatloads of tourists hitting the islands at staggered intervals, the waters has remained pure. The industry is strictly regulated, each licensed boat is required to maintain certain standards, they can only stop at certain islands and stay on a designated course. Discipline and good sense keeps the water and beaches refuse free. I did not see a single Coke can, or discarded tyre washed up on any of the beaches.

If we had such beauty in Malaysia, you can be sure that local authorities will have raped the place and ejaculated commercial crap all over the place, all in the name of development, as some corrupt official lines his pockets. Who wants to go all the way to Langkawi to see a giant concrete eagle, pay rm20 per cab ride, rm50 per jet-ski ride, or see the museum dedicated to Mahathir?


Back at the jetty, we had our last "Big Lunch". Took the chance to talk to the other Vietnamese tourists. Most importantly, to learn how to order non-dog meat.

Vietnam Observation #4
Chinese 'cuisine' here pretty much sucks. Sweet and sour pork that's neither sweet nor sour. Lunch was at a 'Cantonese' restaurant...

And mini-van back to the city.


The mini-van will only drop us back at our hotel, and wouldn't take us to the train station. So we have to trek through town lugging everything on our backs. Didn't give me much trouble, cos I travelled light.

Dumped out baggage at the train station and took a walk around that part of the city. There's a smaller lake marked out on the map, so we thought we could try to find it.

This adventure failed it's primary objective, but it was more interesting than I had expected.

We took a general bearing and just went down random roads and alleys that lead in the general direction. My GPS isn't much help, cos it only marks my position and my trail, but there is no Hanoi city map that I could download into it. There isn't a community of GPS nuts here after all...

If the Old Quarter is like Petaling Street, then the rail station area is like Chow Kit.

Narrow streets. Old buildings. Sweat shops. A LOT of hair-dressers...

Even saw a 'hotel' that almost looked like the 'Pig Cage' dwelling in Kung Fu Hustle.

There were no other tourists on these streets with us. In fact it occured to me that, to the locals, we probably looked like a bunch of foreigners trying to find some Vietnamese tail, and rather unsuccessfully at that. It was at this point that I looked at the hairdressers with renewed suspicion.

There can't be THAT big a market for hairdressers... In such a poor part of town, no less. Granted that almost every Vietnamese girl keeps impeccable silky straight hair, but even then! I later had these suspicions confirmed by our Sa Pa guide. He confirmed that some of these establishments are more than likely to perform special services, which the locals have dubbed, "Happy Ending".

Well, now you know...


A note about trains in communist countries... They leave on time. Something that takes some getting used to, for us Malaysians. But no disaster this time.

We got a sleeper coach. The room was cosy and comfortable, and all four of us fit in one room just nicely.

And this night, we inducted WeeLoong to the game of Bridge. And the laughs never stopped. It's amazing that a commercial airline pilot can be so inattentive. Almost everything went past him.