Hello all!
So I'm currently on a sleeper train in the middle of the Northern Vietnamese countryside. There is no wifi so I'm typing this at 4.02pm and I'll post it tomorrow night at the hotel. So please continue reading for the blog for both 1st February and 2nd February, they are both below!!
Saturday 1st February
Hue then overnight train.
Today Laura, James and I got a taxi for $3 to the ancient citadel of Hue. This is where the emperor and his family used to reside, and lots of royal ceremonies took place. The place is huge, a big square about 600m x 600m with many temples and other royal buildings inside. We started off at the main palace, Thai Hoa Palace. In front of it we stood then sat for about 45 minutes, while a group did a flag dance, various fight scenes and some dragon dancing. It was great to see, there was music and lots of colour.
We spent the rest of our three hours walking around the complex, taking in all the ornate temples and buildings. I particularly liked the Co Ha Garden and the Royal Theatre. I really really enjoyed the ice cream I had outside the theatre because the sun was really hot and intense today.
After the citadel we went to the Royal Antiquities Museum which was included in our ticket. Here we saw lots of royal furniture, such as beds, desks and then utensils and decorative vases as well.
We caught a taxi back and had lunch at a little cafe, then managed to communicate to the waitress to bring us all another sandwich each to take away for the overnight train. We got a ten minute bus to the train station where we waited for a little bit. Now we are on our train. When we first got on, we were in a dirty carriage with people all in the aisles lying down and dirty luggage everywhere. I saw inside a compartment and the mattress and blanket were filthy, I started to cringe and thought maybe the overnight buses weren't so terrible after all. But!!! We walked through to the next carriage, and our compartments are pretty clean with a power point to charge our cameras for Halong Bay tomorrow. Laura and I are on the top bunk, the bar isn't very high. I hope I don't fall out like I did when I was a little girl!!! Natalie and Nina are below us. We have a nice little shelf for our backpacks and our big bags are under the bottom bunks.
6.26pm. This is actually a lot of fun!! Leah, Nathan, Abi, James, Tom and I played cards for a while. Then a few of us walked the length of the train. God some of the other carriages are disgusting, I love ours even more now in comparison!! Now Laura and I are doing sit-ups on our bunks because we haven't been to the gym in three weeks hahaha.
Sunday 2nd February
Overnight train, Halong Bay
The rest of the train ride was pretty good! A weird man opened a couple of our doors, but I put the chain across which stopped him. What a weirdo. We woke at 4am and got off the train at 4.30 in Hanoi. Here we boarded a four hour bus to Halong Bay. We arrived and had breakfast in the hotel, and were able to access our rooms pretty early!!
Laura and I went for a walk around town. There isn't much here, my guidebook did say that. There are lots of hotels. A lot of shops are still closed due to new year. It's quite cloudy today, but we walked along the pier and beach, had a quick stop at the market and then had a drink at a cafe. I've noticed I am a little bit sunburnt. I think our new sunscreen isn't very good. I'll just have to try and stay out of the sun even more so!!!
This afternoon we went on a four hour boat tour of Halong Bay. It was cloudy but still bright so we had great views. We boarded a nice boat and had a huge seafood lunch (Laura had fruit and veggies though as she's vegetarian). We had calamari, crab, fish, prawns (peeled them just like you taught me ash - I'm a pro now!) and heaps more. It was delicious!!
The scenery surrounding us was breathtaking. We saw the famous 'Kissing Rocks' and then most of us went kayaking near a little fishing village. We went through cave openings into lagoons with enormous cliff faces rising above us. A lot higher than the ones we abseiled down!! Quinny told us all the limestone islands used to be part of a mountain range, and over five million years the sea level rose and now they are all smaller islands. There are thousands of them.
We saw some men blow something up in the water, and the water police were onto them straight away! Was interesting. Our last stop was the Thien Cung Cave, which fishermen discovered when seeking refuge during a storm. The entire Halong Bay was made a UNESCO world heritage site in 1998 so now there is a walkway inside and the cave is lit up in all different colours, it looked amazing!
We sailed back to shore and sat up top on the boat chatting and taking in the views.
Tonight Laura, Jo, Leah and I are skipping the big group dinner and having a relaxing wine and cheese night.
See you in Hanoi tomorrow!!
Love to all
Claire and Laura
Xoxox
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