Goood-byeee Vietnam

Final moments in Vietnam are tic-tocking away. Tonight I take a night train to Lao Cai on the border of China and tomorrow I step off into Yunnan province to hunt for the perfect terraced rice paddy (legend has it that it's in Yuanyang village). Getting on-line inYunnan may turn out to be more difficult than in Vietnam, so let's see how often I manage to sit down and have a chat with you all.

Halong bay fulfilled the promises of the meteorologists and was grey and drizzly. However, it still looked like a whole bunch of lovely misty mountains (island hillocks) and a good time was had by all. I especially enjoyed our 40 minutes of kayaking despite a light drizzle, since that allowed me to get up close and personal with the amazing limestone formations that the bay is known for. I also paddled through one low grotto to discover the hidden lagoon behind - sooo exciting, maybe I was the first person ever to find this place, which would have been an amazing feat considering the number of boats full of tourists engaged in just the same activities as I was.


An unexpected bonus was the cave we visited. I wasn't expecting much and I'm not a huge caveholic, but this one was quite spectacular and had some amazing formations. The multi-coloured lighting was a bit much though, and made me think I was in a Walt Disney cartoon rather than a natural setting. I was kind of waiting for seven jewel mining dwarfs go past singing. Unexpectedly the tour delivered; the food was quite good and the ship and my twin cabin, which I shared with a very nice lady from Singapore, actually looked like the ones in the brochure! Judging by some travel stories about these cheap Halong bay tours, I think I got lucky despite the weather.

So it's back in Hanoi today - where I promptly rushed off to see the water puppets this afternoon (what a GOOD tourist I am!) with Alexis and Lauren, the excellent Chicago girls of my Mekong floating market boat tour. They have been systematically stalking me through Vietnam (or occasionally I have been stalking them) and I'm glad of it! After Mekong we accidentally ran into each other in Ho Chi Minh City at the market and had good lunch and a fond farewell, then again in Hoy An and had lunch and dinner and a fond farewell, then again on Halong Bay when, of all the hundreds of boats on the bay, our two boats came alongside to exchange passengers... So this time in Hanoi we've had a great dinners, lunch and puppet show. Sadly soon we will be saying our final fond farewell as Lauren and Alexis fly off to Luang Prabang in Laos and I chug off to China. Part of the fun of travelling is to occasionally run into like-minded travellers you can share experiences, travel gossip, mealtimes and good times with - so here's looking at you kid(s)!

The water puppet show today was really enjoyable - no disclaimers needed. Basically there is a big pool of water on the stage and the puppets seem to levitate on it - or be wading in it - no strings visible. The puppeteers manipulate the puppets from behind screens on long sticks under the water and various strings which open jaws, lift hands etc. The one hour show consisted of about 15 short sequences, which were light and playful, often with very mundane themes and stories that naturally took place on water - e.g. the man trying to catch a frog, or the fisherman pulled out of his boat by a huge fish, another fisherman failing to catch fish but accidentally entangling a woman in his net or the day of the great boat race.

Soon away with the train I go. Once I get to China I hope to find a nice spot and just chill there for some days. Having to go through the whole length of Vietnam (some 1900km I think) in two weeks has made for a breath-taking pace. On the 15 days I will spend in this country, I will have slept in 11 different places - making things such as laundry impossible to manage, since it never has time to dry before I'm off again! And I used to be such a clean person!