First time in Vietnam

I decided to go to Vietnam with my sister during the five days in a row holiday last week. Without any money, we had to fly with a low cost airline. The appearance of the plane reminded me of Air Crash Investigation programme on National Geographic Channel. However, we arrived at Noi Bai Airport in Hanoi safely. The airport is 45 km away from the city centre. The local bus did not seem to be frequent, thus, we decided to took a minibus to town[2USD plus 1USD from the bus terminal to a specific hotel]. Vietnam currency is "DONG". It contains many zeroes, however the US dollar is widely accepted.

Day 1
The day after our arrival, we went to Ho Chi Minh Museum, which dedicates to the former Vietnamese leader, Ho Chi Minh or uncle Ho, and the Vietnamese revolution against foreigners. Ho Chi Minh body is located in a grey building in the front of the museum and could be visited without any fee. Any image recorders were not allowed. After this, you could visit Ho Chi Minh residence and the main museum. The fee was applied for foreigners.

In a walking distance, It was the first university of Vietnam known as the Temple of Literature. The temple is established in 1076 and had educated Vietnamese for 700 years. Those who had graduated would be named on steel turtles in the temple.

By walking back to the hotel, I passed Ho Hoan Kiem lake, which was a place to chill out. It was surrounded by tourism shops and cafes.

In the evening, my sister and I booked a tour to Ha Long Bay [40USD each] before having dinner at a restaurant near by, where pho and fresh spring rolls were superb.

Day 2
We presented at the tour agency early in the morning for the minibus before joining another 14 foreigners to Halong Bay. The minibus took 3.30 hours to cover just 173 km because of the traffic and the road condition.

The shore at Halong was full of foreigners waiting to board the boats. Our boat's name is "Emerald Junk". She had 3 storeys; the deck, the restaurant and the hotel-like rooms on the bottom. The boats no longer used sails any more. The smell of fossil fuel burning was strong at the shore. After the welcome drink, We had 40 mins to rest while the boat was departing.

The first stop was "Hang Dau Go" cave [Wooden Stakes Cave], which was full of limestone. The artificial light in the cave was quite unpleasant for me though. Not far from this cave there was a smaller cave to visit. I like the last, which was left decorated by nature.

From the cave, it took one hour and a half to reach the kayak site. It was time to exercise back muscles. One kayak was for two people, thus, having a lazy partner might be frustrated :). All kayaks were guided to a closed sea by going underneath a tunnel. I was warned not to bring my camera because it could be wet, but actually it was not that wet. Putting the camera in a plastic bag should should be o.k.

The boat anchored not far from the kayak site and now it was time to show-off your diving skill. Jumping from the restaurant roof to the sea was challenging, but if you are looking for more, go to the deck, where I was standing for more than 20 mins with shaking legs before I jumped :). An american guy could even run, stamped his feet on a sun bed and jump with his head down :o . 2 thumbs up for him. After dinner a chilled out time on the deck is recommended.


Day 3
The boat traveled back to the shore and we had to be ready to get back to Hanoi. In Hanoi, we stayed near St. Joseph Cathedral, in a franchised hotel. There was a very good pho restaurant near by. A cafe' near the cathedral also served a really good set of fresh spring rolls.

Day 4
We had to leave the hotel early morning. It was quite frustrated that the hotel did not have change and when I used my card they had not yet even plugged the machine. It took us a while before we could pay the bill. We took the 2USD minibus back to Noi Bai Airport. The passport control in Vietnam did not take the immigration card [so why did we have to fill it at the first place?]. A few hours later, we arrived in Bangkok safely.