Ha Long Bay - Last day with the Tour group

Today was the last day with the Motorcycle tour group, most head back home tomorrow on a flight, some, like me are staying on for a bit.

Today was a 7.30 bus departure for Ha Long Bay, arriving about 12noon, then straight onto a boat for 4 hours touring around Ha Long Bay, including lunch on board and a stop to visit a cave on one of the islands. Ha Long must really be seen by boat, the area is very picturesque with the limestone cliffs rising sharply out of the water. Well worth the long bus trip. Unfortunately in Vietnam, it takes a long time to get anywhere, there are few  major freeways as we know them, so it is always a slow journey.

Tomorrow is reunification day, so I will have a sleep in, a quiet day and meet some of the others for the fireworks tomorrow night.

Here is todays pics of Ha Long Bay

Kevin Kelly

below, the cave

Rice field on the bus trip back to Hanoi.

Hanoi Day 2

Hi all, another early start this morning, this group don't believe in sleep in days. Today's schedule was sightseeing in Hanoi.

First stop was Ho Chi Minh's Tomb. The queue which you can see here stretched about another Km t get in to see him, We skipped  that option.

Yes I was there

It is bigger than Lenin's tomb in Moscow, although he gets sent off to Moscow every few years for a service.

Presidential palace but Ho Chi Minh would not live there, too grandiose.

Asian girls love me, I kept getting asked if they could have photo with me, in this case, I got a photo too.

Near Presidential Palace gardens

Fish traps on a bicycle, Ethnological museum.

Weaving, Ethnological Museum

Hao Lo Prison or "Hanoi Hilton"

For those that got the Chop, French Culture at work.

We all had a Cyclio ride, but idiot Mark insisted on riding and having the cycle guy sit in the seat.

Family sedan

Light Commercial vehicle

Video of traffic from Cyclio,  all seems to work somehow.

Afterwards, we went to the Water Puppet show (no Pics) and that was nice, a bit of colour and sound.

Tomorrow, it is a 7.30am start for a 4.5 hr bus ride to Ha Long Bay, then onto a Boat, have lunch and then a big long bus ride home, the next day, most of the others fly back to Melb or Syd. My friends Chris, Greg and Lisa also go to Ha Long Bay tomorrow, but they are not back to May 2 so I will wait for them in Hanoi. The 30th is a big day here as it is the 40th anniversary of fall of Saigon or Reunification day. Should be impressive fireworks here on Thursday night and Friday is Mayday, another public holiday. It is looking increasingly likely that I will need to come back to Hanoi from Sapa and fly to Luang Prabang in Laos as everything I read says going overland by Bus from Sapa is 2.5 days and very uncomfortable. Forever the tough adventurer, I will take the easy option. I am waiting for some info from the local travel agent.

Hanoi

Hi all, arrived in Hanoi about lunchtime on a plane from Hue. Hotel in Hanoi is not up to usual standards, but is well located. This afternoon we had a little orientation walk around near the lake and had some drinks at the place where the rest of the team were going to have dinner. Not me and Mark it was overpriced and rubbish.

Instead mark and I went off tonight in search of the La Fer Vert or Green Fairy bar at the Hotel de Opera, also expensive but so much nicer.

On the way down, I contacted my other friends Greg & Lisa and Chris Bonython, who had arrived this afternoon in Hanoi from Australia and were staying the the very swish Sofitel Legend, an old French architecture building in Hanoi and possibly the best hotel in Hanoi.  We stopped in for drinks (absinthe) and said brief hellos and catch ups and then we left them to dinner and us to the Green fairy bar.

We had some genuine absinthe served the traditional way by being poured over a sugar cube and then set alight. Very nice, very expensive.

On the way back stopped at an Italian ice cream place, seemingly owned by a Frenchman and the ice cream was very nice, not the world's best, but very nice.

Crossing the Red River coming into Hanoi on the new Billion $ road and bridge built by the Japanese and only opened in jan 2015.

Some Hanoi houses on the way into town

View across the street from Hotel

Hotel Legend 2

Cyclio driver (get to go on one tomorrow) 

View from Cafe towards old quarter of Hanoi

The Lake

Bridge across Lake to Island temple

Greg Parkinson at Sofitel Bar

Absinthe at Green Fairy bar

pour over the sugar cube

Set on Fire

Let burn a bit

King Kong movie showing in Courtyard

Street Food stall

Lastly, this is a piece of Video one of the other riders (Kevin & Peta) took a few days ago before arriving at Hue. It shows a Bus passing. It gets really scary when you have 2  busses wanting to push through whilst having another two busses coming from the other direction, mixed in with trucks and cars and bikes on windy mountain road and going downhill. If you want to travel by road in Vietnam, uses Busses, they are fast and rule the roads, everything else gets out of their way, including trucks.

Tomorrow, sightseeing in Hanoi.