Hanoi Airport and the Trip Home

Airports during the holidays are remarkably similar. They are crowded – there are children who are overtired, hungry, and parents who have used up all their patience already.

We got to the airport the required two hours prior to departure and checked in without incident. The lounge, though, was packed to the rafters with holiday travellers. That part in itself isn’t such a big deal, we can handle the crowds and work around that – the biggest pain for us is that all those people, with their smart phones and pads and laptops – suck up all the bandwidth, meaning that it’s hard for US to get access to the internet.

Not that we are any more important than them; it’s just a commentary on the inconvenience of crowds.

Hanoi airport led to Saigon, where LJ managed to spend all but about 92,000dong of the Vietnamese money – roughly $4.92.

We went from Hanoi to Saigon on Vietnam Airlines. After that, we transferred back to Cathay Pacific and were on them until NYC, when we once again transferred to US Airways for the final leg home.

Travelling such a long distance can play with your mind a bit. From Saigon, we went to Hong Kong. Hong Kong then led to a very LONG plane ride (11+ hours) to Vancouver, BC, where the plane stopped presumably to refuel and get a new crew.

It was there that one of the strangest things happened. We had to leave the plane and take all of our things with us – that’s no big deal in itself – but we were sequestered in a “lounge” (actually another gate area), where we had to go through a Canadian inspection – metal detector (hand wand), open our luggage, power up electronics and be “inspected.”

Now, we went through security in Hong Kong, hadn’t left gone anywhere since boarding the plane. Exactly what their intent was, other than to mess up our luggage, is somewhat unclear. Usually the Canadians are pretty reasonable and rational about stuff like this – much more so than the US – but this was kind of baffling.

So after we’d been off the plane for an hour or so (between about 9:00 and 10:00 p.m. local time) we were re-boarded.

And it was time for another meal!

One thing you can’t help but appreciate is the fact that they food and drink you more than adequately on Cathay Pacific. First, we were given a meal on Vietnam Airlines between Hong Kong and Ho Chi Minh City. Then we got another on Cathay Pacific, after boarding in Hong Kong, followed by Breakfast before we hit Vancouver. Then after we re-boarded, “dinner” was served.

Each time (other than Breakfast) once the meal was over they dimmed the lights to encourage everyone to go to sleep. These people have the routine down pat. Feed the passengers, then make it dark so they’ll go to sleep. Sleeping passengers tend not to be problematic.

So we’re back on the plane about 10 p.m. (ish) local time headed to NYC, where we’re supposed to arrive 6 a.m.(ish) local time. Since there was a significant amount of sleeping on the trip between Hong Kong and Vancouver, there’ll likely be a movie or two involved in the last leg of the trip.

Departure

We could not have asked for better weather for our adventure. It was sunny and comfortable everywhere until we went to Halong Bay – and then we were caught in clouds and fog, with occasional sprinkles. Not unpleasant, but also not sunbathing weather, either (not that it was ever a consideration for us).

Hanoi, however, proved to be clouded in and rainy during the entirety of our return there, which made leaving even easier.

We’ve said before that we contribute little to the local economy – if you can’t eat or drink it, unless we actually see the local craftsmen (or women) producing it, we are unlikely to make a purchase.

This is good because it means you don’t have to figure out how to get it into your suitcase to go home. Besides, there’s little that we take on a trip that can’t be abandoned – in this case, a couple of polo shirts that were destined to be reduced to “yard shirts” at home, underwear that’d lost it’s elasticity, and socks that refused to stay up.

We got stuff all packed away and ready to go for our ride the next morning at 10:00.

Return to Metropole

All good things have to end. We find that for the most part, at the end of 2 weeks we are refreshed and ready to at least consider returning to our routine. After the trip to Halong Bay – and the 3 hour ride on the bus back (complete with yet another stop at Pedro’s – although this time they had no electricity, although they offered to take care of any cash transactions we might want to make – we were ready to pack it up and head back to the house.

The strangest thing happened when we got back in Hanoi. We were with the same people on the van as had ridden out with us – all speaking French as their primary language, but it was a quiet ride in any language.

At one point the driver (who, incidentally had slipped a beer into his cup holder when we left Halong Bay, although he never opened it in front of us) stopped at a seemingly random place and demanded that one couple get off. The driver, apparently, spoke nothing but Vietnamese. When nobody went to get off, he made a call and then handed the phone to a the guy in a young couple who then tried to understand what was going on.

Eventually they figured out that they were in the wrong place and moved on to the right stop, but it was odd – it was almost as if the driver were angry that nobody would do what he wanted.

Dropped back at the Metropole Hotel, we found that we were moved into a different room – it was unrealistic to expect that we’d be back in the same one – this time Room 130. The only complaint was that it was on the side of the hotel rather than the front and, facing the adjacent park, was a bit noisier than the first room.

It was only for one night, though, so what did it matter? Our goal was to get packed and ready to leave.

We made a quick dash up the street for just a couple more purchases – most everything was still closed for New Years – then opted to go back to the hotel for dinner local. There was still a LOT of traffic (foot and otherwise) in the downtown district and we were tired – it simply wasn’t worth fighting it to go out for food.

Saturday Night

We are back at the Metropole Hotel in Hanoi tonight.

We depart tomorrow (our Sunday...Saturday for most of those of you following along) for home.  Our trek is Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon); Saigon to Hong Kong; Hong Kong to Vancouver; Vancouver to New York (JFK); JFK to Charlotte.  We are to arrive back in Charlotte around noon on Monday.

Hope you've enjoyed following this adventure with us.  We'll post one more "post-script" once we are home.

Halong Bay

This is what it is advertised to look like.....we didn't see a ray of sunshine..but it was still amazing.

Friday saw us up and out of the hotel.  Everything in Hanoi was still closed anyhow, and we had an excursion booked.  We packed for overnight in our backpacks, left our other luggage with the hotel and caught the bus at 7:30 a.m. for a 3 ½ hour ride to the ocean.

Over the mountains.  Plastic bag at the ready.

Except it was mostly interstate and not bad at all.  The van wasn’t one of those big comfortable buses like we had anticipated.  Instead, 10 of us were in a 13 passenger van for the ride.

There was no AC until EB asked for it when we stopped for a toll gate (not wanting to distract the driver, who had an incredible smoker’s cough), and then it was frigid for the rest of the trip.

At first, we thought people were quiet because it was early morning.  Then we realized that we were the only ones that spoke English as our native language.  Everyone else was French.

At about the 1 ½ hour mark, we stopped at Pedro’s North of the Border, featuring everything tchotchke you could imagine.  There is a little difference, though.  This place was also a factory that made ceramic ware and carved marble statutes.    That didn’t stop them from selling chips and snacks, liquor, silk everything, tea sets, chopsticks and way more than we could keep up with. 

Prices ranged from $1.99 to $100K+ for some of the huge carvings, so it was probably a little more legitimate than Pedro’s in South Carolina, although the marketing concept is much the same.

Buses full of people pull in.  Sell them things.

(For those who don’t know, Pedro’s is an infamous tourist trap on the North / South Carolina Border.  If you’re going to Myrtle Beach, you’re hard pressed not to pass it, and if you have children you’ll have no alternative but to stop there).

We were there better than half an hour, probably to encourage couples to do the, “We don’t need that,” “Do you really have to have it,” and “How are we going to get it home” dance.  (They offer shipping worldwide).

The rest of the ride was uneventful.  We arrived at the Marina, which is much like an outdoor cruise terminal with lots of ships.  Our Tour Director met the bus, segregated us out as to the particular ship we were on and sat us down in an outdoor café with instructions, “Memorize my face.  Don’t move from here.  I’ll be back.”

We had a beer and enjoyed the last of the WiFi before we sailed off.

Back on the Ship

We went back to our cabin and had a little rest, not being interested in swimming or squid fishing.  The next organized activity onboard was a “cooking demonstration”.

Turns out they were going to show us how to “roll your own”. 

Spring roll, that is.  We’d tried this at home before without much success.  Turns out the trick is to (a) moisten the rice paper before you try to fold things up and (b) put the shrimp in last.

Again, here, we saw the rudeness of the French group.  It almost looked like EB was going to have to “cut a bitch” because of her elbowing and pushing in front of him.

After the cooking class came supper.  Again, set menu, but it was very good.  There was just way too much of it.

By the time dinner was over it was about bedtime. 

Victory Cruises -- This is an interesting concept in cruise ships, although it kind of follows our prior experiences.

Everyone rushes in with their luggage, expecting to be first in line and attended to.  The staff were very efficient, working both in English and French.  We were assigned “Suite 1”, which is at the front of the boat and on the 2^nd level.

It’s actually not a bad sized cabin, at least for overnight, but just had a queen bed.

Way more togetherness than we are used to, especially since there is a definite tilt of the boat toward the edges.

The other thing that’s a bit odd is that there is a HUGE bathroom.  Not just huge by cruise ship standards, but enormous by residential home standards.  It has a jacuzzi tub, a separate shower that could easily match that of a small YMCA, and a standard toilet and sink.

We each tried the tub – finally got enough hot water to fill it and then couldn’t figure out most of the controls, and there were no directions anywhere.  The shower was nice, though.  But it seemed a little strange to have that much real estate devoted to the toilet.

We had a balcony on the side that’s about 30 inches wide.  There are a couple of chairs there, but unless we turned them sideways neither of us would have sufficient legroom to sit there.  We did have a great view through the patio doors, though.

Meals on the ship are not selected via menu.  It’s all set and brought out.  We figured out where to sit by the fact that there were little national flags on the various tables.  We had a table for 2 by a window, and the table next to it, also for 2, was occupied by Graham and Kate, a nice couple from New Zealand.

We met them up on the top deck (available for sunbathing, when there is sun – it’s been cloudy since New Year’s eve) and ended up going on an excursion with them later.

Back to lunch, though.  You sit at the table with your flag, and this is when we realized that the passengers were dominated by French and a Korean tour group.

Have to say, the French group were some of the rudest people that we’ve encountered.  For all you hear about “Ugly Americans”, this group, at least, was giving them a run for their money.

The food was fine.  Drinks aren’t included – not even water – so they’ve picked up on that from the cruise lines.  The other disappointing thing we discovered is that their bartending skills leave much to be desired.  After the initial attempts, we opted for wine – who can mess that up, after all?

Except that at Dinner our Sommelier (whom we dubbed “Buffy” for some reason) couldn’t get the cork out.  Not just of ours, but of several she tried.  Then she was mortified that she “dribbled” wine on the tablecloth.

It wasn’t a big deal to us, of course – we were just glad that neither of us knocked a glass over – but she got a napkin to cover the spot.

Halong Bay

Amazing natural feature, with these huge limestone mountains coming straight out of the water.  For the most part, they’re unoccupied (and you can see why!).  Definitely worth the ride to see this natural formation.

And see it we did.

The excursion scheduled for the afternoon was to ride in a traditional boat (!) to a “floating fishing village.”

Let’s go over the rules about boats again.  We only get on them if they (a) have a toilet and (b) have a bar.  Yet we rode the tender from our big boat over to a dock where we got a brief historic overview of the floating village and then found ourselves in line to get on a row boat that was captained by this tiny woman.

We both had flashbacks to Thailand and the elephant reserve – “You wait here; Big Big elephant coming.”

During the overview, the guide explained how this village had been here for a very long time and until recently (about 10 years ago) was quite isolated.  No electricity or amenities at all.  Teens might have to row an hour and a half for a date at a neighboring village.

That probably worked to burn off some of that testosterone, though, so maybe it wasn’t such a bad deal.

Then urban renewal came through and now they have generators, schools and cell phone access.

They were dividing us into groups of 4 or 6.  We paired with Graham and Kate for a very pleasant 45 minute excursion that wasn’t anything like what we expected.

We figured we’d be rowed for a few minutes, dumped off at a “local village” and given the opportunity to buy a variety of “local goods”.  There is a pearl farm located on sight, and there was a snack bar where we boarded the rowboats.

Wrong.  This poor young lady had to row us for the entire 45 minutes.  No stops, just her.  A couple of times she had to tell us to quit moving, or to rebalance (which we happily did!) but that was it.

It was remarkably peaceful and beautiful, and we had a great chat with Graham and Kate while enjoying the scenery and taking pics.

Then it happened.

The captain’s cell phone rang. 

She stopped rowing to take the call.  Who knows what it was about but it may well have been along the lines of, “No hon, you go ahead and start dinner.  I am going to be rowing these guys forever.  I can’t believe I got the Americans again.” 

All of this was in Vietnamese, of course, so who knows what was really said.  But it was ironic that in this peaceful environment we had a sudden intrusion of 21^st Century civilization.

They aren’t quite there yet, though.  We could see inside some of the houses – that look a lot like those prefab sheds from the hardware store, except on a blue-barrel floating foundation – did not seem to have toilet facilities.  Nobody answered that question for us.

On the way back, we had a chance to go swimming, although we opted out.  That water might have been clean and nice to swim in during the summer, but it looked a bit frigid even if we’d been so inclined.

Floating Fishing Village -- 300 persons live in this village

Bamboo boats -- we got in this thing....4 of us...and she rowed it like hell for 45 mins.

Fishing Village Houses

This outlet takes you to the open ocean.

Our rower snagged us up against the rocks...she musta been afraid of getting the big American's swept out to sea.

Cooking Class -- Kate's in the blue polka dotted dress & red sweater

Eddie & Graham

Graham rolling one

Larry rolling one -- a Spring Roll

Graham & Larry "rollling one"

Dinner set-up

Overnight

This is what it looked like from our balcony -- lots of boats in the bay

There is a doorbell to our cabin.  This is the norm for all of the hotel rooms we’ve been in, so no big deal, right?

Except the “dinger” for this one plugs into an outlet on the wall above the head of the bed and has THE BRIGHTEST BLUE LIGHT on it that you can imagine.  You could read by this thing.  And there was no way to shut it off, cover it up or anything.

The ship didn’t move during the night, but stayed at anchor.  I guess if the purpose isn’t to “travel”, but really to go somewhere and be at a destination, that makes a lot of sense.

Sunrise was at 6:20 a.m. – again cloudy and overcast, so that was somewhat anticlimactic and we opted out of the Tai Chi class offered thereafter. 

The schedule also showed that “Breakfast” was promptly from 7:00 to 7:45 – turns out this was just pre-breakfast – coffee, toast and noodle soup before the morning activity.

That activity was exploring the caves in the rock formations.

Hmm, climbing around rocks hanging over the water in the rain looking at caves.

Nope.  Opted to stay on the ship.  We’ve seen caves before. When people came back, some were soaking wet – this confirmed the thought that we made the best decision for us.

These were in the night stand of the room...just in case!

Brunch

Brunch

Brunch