We stayed at a well-known backpacking hostel in Hanoi, called “Hanoi Backpackers” which was the best place I have stayed on this trip, it was only £3 for a 12-person mixed dorm. It was very lively and had a good atmosphere, the food there was amazing as well.
We booked a trip to Halong Bay once we arrived, it was a 3 day/2 night trip. It took us about 4 hours to reach Halong Bay, it is one of the New 7 wonders of the world, the bay consists of over 3,000 limestone rock islands.
We arrived at the main station, got off the bus, and waited around to get a boat that would take us to another boat on which we would spend our first night on.
We saw all the luxury liners and nice cruisers that went on the bay, walked past all of those and then we saw ours. It was probably the oldest and worst boat in the bay. We had lunch onboard when we arrived, which was crap. We were then given our rooms and of all the rooms on the boat Simon and myself were lucky to stay in the smelliest and worst one on there. We couldn’t even stay in there for a few minutes without wanting to heave. We asked to change rooms but of course, the boat was full!!
That night we played drinking games. I hate doing this as it means you have to think about things when you’re just trying to drink, I decided to call it an early night and go back to the smelly room.
I had a great sleep in the end. Maybe it was tiredness that had caught up with me with all the travelling, or it could be the spray paint fumes that got me high as a kite.
The next morning, we were woken up at 7 am by singing chefs, who were of course next to our room. We went down for breakfast, which was hardly worth getting up for, we were given one rasher of bacon, which was cold, and an egg omelet thing, which was also cold.
We then waited around for an hour, to board another boat to take us to the deserted island, we arrived after an hour of passing different limestone rocks in the bay.
Our activity on the first day of our trip was Kayaking and Caving. After Kayaking around Don Det I was a bit of a pro at this, on the way into the cave we found a dead dog, how the hell this little fella got there god only knows.
We then got to the deserted island where we would be spending the night in Bamboo huts, with a mattress. Most people had a mosquito net that was provided to them, but of course, my bed did not have one.
Don’t think of this island as being luxurious or like you see on a postcard. It was basically a rocky beach with a crappy shack to all sit in, and our “bamboo hut” was just like Bob the builder had been given a shit load of wood and told to go make something shite!
I put my name down for wakeboarding as I had seen this on television and it looked easy enough, I was thinking how I would try doing some jumps and maybe try switching hands as they do in the movies. Fifteen minutes into my session, having swallowed half the water in the bay and not actually managing to get up out of the water these ideas of showing off had well and truly gone!
Next up was rock climbing. I did this because I wanted to see why Gaz enjoyed it so much and to be fair it was very cool and I did enjoy it. I managed to get stuck in the only crack in the rock face and ended up just “free climbing”. Which basically meant just floating across the rock face until I found a nice bit to grab hold of as I knew I was fixed in and secure if I had been properly climbing I would have been dead.
Shaun shouted “Do it for Holly” followed by “Cut the rope, he’s a scouser”. I decided to call it a day, I then decided to do something stupid. In the movies you always see people running across the front of a rock surface and I always thought that looked cool. I started to do it, and to my amazement, it actually worked. I then got my confidence and decided to go further and faster. I suddenly tripped up, whilst in mid-air and I then hit the rock face. I then did a full 180-degree spin and ended up being pulled down with my back scraping all the wall and everyone laughing at me. The instructor said he had not seen that done before!
That night, again more drinking games. I preferred this drinking game this time as it just meant turning a card over, so not much to think about.
The next day we got picked up by a boat, to get to another boat, to take us to another boat, which would take us to a bus!!! Jesus nothing is ever straightforward in Asia.
I could not wait to get back to the hostel, I had not spoken to Holly for 3 days and it was the longest we had not been in touch for like 6 months. I think being away from her and not being able to say hello made the weekend a bit less enjoyable, just wish she had come with me instead of being stubborn and refusing to.
The next day we would be flying to Bangkok so we had a wander around the city before we left, it is so busy with motorbikes, I have never been to a place like it.
The only thing I did not like about Vietnam was how the people were with me, and other travelers I met too. After going to Thailand, Laos, and especially Cambodia the locals are so different here that I have met. It felt as though they were always trying to rip me off.
In Hanoi, we went to buy some mosquito spray and the girl got one off the shelf. Then she went behind her desk, got on her knees, and changed the price on the tag. It was comical as it was in plain view of us all. We all just looked at each other and laughed at how badly she did it. She had literally trebled the price of the spray.
That night Simon had given a barman 100 baht and he quickly changed it for 50 baht and tried to get more money out of him and when Simon told him he had seen him he just let it go. Things like this really put you off a place. I understand they are poor and maybe they are just trying to get what they can but Laos and Cambodia are worse off but yet the locals are so welcoming and love you to bits for visiting them.
I am pretty pleased to be leaving Vietnam, and getting back to some nice Thai food, nice people, and hot weather.
Whilst at Hanoi airport the weirdest thing happened to me when I was sitting trying to close my bag by the check-in desks. I got a tap on my shoulder and about 10 Vietnamese people were all looking at me, the man who had tapped me on my shoulder then pointed down the line of people to a girl who was standing there smiling away and started waving to me. Slightly weird and awkward, I guess I should have waved back but I didn’t, didn’t want to lead her on.
We flew with Qatar Airways and it was awesome, it was a Boeing 777. I have flown over 100 times and this was by far the best I have ever been on (except when I have blagged First Class). The stewardesses were lovely, the legroom was brilliant, and the whole flight was just awesome from start to finish and I did not want to get off.
We arrived in Bangkok and headed to Khaosan Road, as we had all been travelling together for the last five weeks we still managed to get on the wrong trains. Three of us ended up on the express, and the other two on the cheaper slow train and they somehow arrived before us. Whilst on the other train they had met a lad called Lawrence from Swansea who had just arrived for a few weeks before then going to meet his girlfriend in Australia.
We tried getting a taxi, we must have flagged down about 10 but none wanted to use the meter, which meant they just made the prices up.
Shaun, Joe, and Lawrence managed to find a taxi and negotiate a price of £1 each and Simon and Greg, and I were left to find one as well, we couldn’t so we decided to get a Tuk Tuk. If you have ever seen a Tuk Tuk then you will know that these are a massive squeeze with 3 people in one, but now imagine three massive backpacks and day bags. My legs were hanging out the side, and Greg’s legs were across our knees. It must have looked very funny to people seeing us.
We arrived on Khaosan Road and headed towards the Dang Derm hotel where Shaun and Joe had stayed last time, luckily for us it had a McDonald’s underneath it so I headed in and got a well-earned Filet O Fish!
That night we hit the bars on Khaosan Road, got a few beer towers, and started enjoying the night. As the night went on a few of them wanted to go see Soi Cowboy. This area is well known in Bangkok as it is where all the Go-Go bars, Ping Pong Shows, Hookers, and everything else that is seedy happens.
We arrived at Soi Cowboy and it was as bad as I thought, a small Soi that had half-naked Thai women trying to get you in the bars, we went in one, and as we walked in about 20 half-naked women were dancing around poles on a stage. Thankfully, they had Liverpool on so I took a seat and watched the highlights whilst the others watched the women. After the match, Shaun and I went outside, got some Pad Thai, and watched Barcelona. Lawrence, the lad we had met had apparently agreed on a price of £12 for one of the girls for the night. Three of us left them to it and went back to Khaosan Road as it was not our thing. I got back to the room and had a Skype call with Holly and then went to sleep.
At 6 am I was woken by Simon and Shaun coming into my room. Shaun had to sleep on the floor next to me as Lawrence had brought the lady he met back to the hotel.
We later heard that things did not go well for Lawrence. He was seen that night crying his eyes out in the middle of the street thinking he had aids when the alcohol had started to wear off and hoping his girlfriend did not get it off him. Lucky lady, hopefully, she sacked him off.
We left it late to book our bus to Koh Phangan for the Full Moon Party so we had to book with a cheaper, less reputable company. They advised us not to leave anything valuable in our bags as there were thieves going through bags during the trip, was which nice to know beforehand. The bus was 3 hours late picking us up, so standing around with all our bags for 3 hours in the heat was not a good start to the trip.
We managed to get on the bus, we put the inbetweeners on and watched that until we all fell asleep.