Week 3 - The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Well, this has certainly been the most eventful week so far and we have seen the full spectrum of life (and death)...

We start in Hue...

Hue itself doesn't offer much to talk about.  Apart from a very old citadel which Tina and the kids visited, the only other things we did were to visit the markets and cruise the river.  The kids loved the opportunity to play on the pool table in the DMZ Bar and that was probably the highlight for Hue.

While Tina and the kids had a day visiting the old Citadel and riding elephants, I rented a motorbike and made a day trip out to Khe San and back (just to complete the "A walk in the light green" theme).  Sorry to say that there was nothing in Khe San that warranted the 6 bumpy hours on the back of the bike.  Even worse, the part if the trip that stays with me, is seeing firsthand the mess that is made when this crazy traffic system here goes wrong.  Truly the stuff of nightmares. 

Having made it back safe and sound to Hue, we then all took the overnight bus up to Hanoi.  Having learnt from previous misadventures, we book an extra seat/bed and had a much more compfortable journey.

Despite being ripped off by the taxi from the bus station to the hotel, things picked up in Hanoi as we ended up in a great (very child friendly) hotel - The Rising Dragon.  The staff here are fantastic and put up with much more than they should have from the kids.  Jamie rode a bike by himslef for the first time in the hotel lobby, while Skye practised her mega skids between the people trying to check in.

From the hotel, we booked our dream trip out to Halong Bay.  VIP suite and stay on the boat for 2 nights.  Unfortunately, no-one remembered to remind the local police/mafia about this being our once in a lifetime experience, and they subsequently impounded the boat because the monthly "fees" had not been paid.  Our first experience of the extortion that rules in Halong Bay.

Trying to make the best of it, we hooked up with some of the people on the same bus out to Halong Bay and organised our own boat out through the bay, and then dropping us on Cat Ba island where we planned to stay the night.  Everything was going great until it went dark and the boat stopped at a deserted pier on the other side of Cat Ba from the hotels and said "get off".  As "getting off" meant taking the one minivan that was there waiting (surprise, surprise), we decided that disembarking was not the best idea (the 4 vietnamese guys in dark suits sitting in the van didn't look the firendliest of guys). 

Luckily there was another boat in the harbour and our boat agreed to take us there.  We organised with the captain of this boat to let us stay the night with him, and agreed a price which he explained was " a bit higher than normal" as he would need to pay off the men at the pier or he would get in trouble. 

Having secured a place for the night, we got to know the people on our new boat, and they turned out to be a great bunch.  The best bit of the trip (despite the truly amazing scenary) was Jamie doing Vietnamese karoake on the boat.  He had everyone in stitches, as somehow he managed to carry an oriental tune.

The next day we made our way back to Hanoi; a day earlier than expected, but we secured a full refund for the trip and all in all had a pretty amazing/eventful/tiring experience. 

In summary, Halong Bay is a really amazing, beautiful place BUT it is also a place where corruption and kick-backs are the order of the day.  We met some other people on the return to Hanoi and they told of a group of men physically beating up the young guy who took them out on a boat because he did not have the necessary "authorisation" to be there.

Tonight we take the train from Hanoi up to Sapa and stay a couple of days before crossing into China and heading for Kunming.  From there we will fly up to Beijing and start the guided tour.