More islands of Ha Long Bays 2000-odd....
Well, I've been offered a Project Management job in Vietnam - PMing a road safety project..... the only question is "where in the name of God would you start with road safety here?!?!?!" .... LOL. I met an English guy who runs his own consultancy firm here in Hanoi, and lives in Japan. An iron worth keeping in the fire, but I don't intend to run off and live in the screaming madness that is Hanoi just yet.
I'm an almost seasoned traveller one might say, but I fell victim to the Vietnamese language this afternoon. I had to get to Luong Ngoc Quyen St, and there were two on the map, one had some funny symbol over one of the letters, but I only saw the one that was miles away and didn't realise it was "sans symbol" so jumped in a cab and was promptly driven around the same old neighbourhood until the fare was reasonable (for him, not me) and delivered around the corner from where I started.... couldn't be fagged arguing as my only priority was to get to the Dr and get some more drugs, and quickly after a particularly bumpy car ride back from Ha Long Bay - which resulted in three hours, an x-ray, a big tantrum from me when he only prescribed Voltaren (and I was after narcotics) and then I had a vision of what I looked like: a traveller without a mark on them requesting Schedule 8 drugs - ie a junkie. Luckily the x-ray backed up my story (yep, two broken ribs, right where they were three flipping days ago and I could have told you that without paying 5 MILLION DONG for the privilege) and old mate happily complied with my request - pointing out that there was no pneumothorax (I could have told him THAT also) - On the upside I now have some strange patches that seems to be doing wonders AND I have no idea what's in it. I suspect I'm off my face on drugs though......
Ha Long Bay was stunning - I'd heard it was gorgeous, but it was even better than I expected. The best part of the experience was staying overnight on the wooden junk. I went with the cheap option - and it was still nicer than most of the hotels I've stayed in all trip!
There were only 6 of us on board - the job offer guy, David, and his two Vietnamese staff, a Spanish girl living in Dubai, an English Lady and me. The seafood on board for breakfast lunch and dinner was divine, the beer was really cold, and the views awesome. I couldn't swim with only one arm in action, so it was beer and a good book on deck for me... even so it was great.
We visited a floating village, where the villagers live on houseboats. This little bloke thought he could paddle as well as his Dad....
Cruised past about 2000 islands like this....
Moored for the night in silence.... the islands were ghostly under the full moon....
Visited some caves....
This lady cooks on board her"restaurant" boat.... safety-Kathryn says "a naked flame on a marine vessel poses an extreme fire risk".....
...and off to Hue (pronounced "Hawaii" - I have high expectations) tomorrow night!
No comments:
Post a Comment