Sunset on the bay

Long day today. I was roused from a deep slumber at 5:30 am as the train pulled into Hanoi. My tour was going to leave at 7:45, but before that I had to buy an onward train ticket to Hue, after the ticket office opened at 7:30.

I had nowhere to go in the meantime, so I sat down and had some tea. The motorcycle guys kept hounding me, and I eventually lost my temper. You should never raise your voice to an Asian, and this only encouraged them. When I lost my temper a second time, they all laughed; they were egging me on. The best policy is to smile and joke with them, and tell them where you are going even if you don't need them. Once I did this, they showed me how to walk to the other station, where I could buy my ticket.

One thing that's getting annoying is the food vendors constantly ripping me off. In other countries, you usually don't have to hagle for food. Even if someone does give a higher price, as long as you know the real price, you can pay it. But in Vietnam, even the tea ladies will rip you off. Knowing that a cup of tea should cost 1,000 dong didn't stop the lady fom demanding 10,000 dong.

Boat to boat delivery

Other than the rip-off factor, Vietnam is incredibly easy to travle in, because of the massive tourist infrastructure. There are tours to anywhere you would want to go, and they always have an English-speaking guide. I've never seen anything like it. So if you want to visit Asia and are nervous about traveling, Vietnam is perfect. But if you're an intrepid backpacker, it's too confining.

Today's tour took me to Hailong Bay, the premier tourist attraction in the Northeast, where I cruised around in a junk, looking at all the impressive rock formations. It's beautiful, but a day trip would have been fine. But I'm staying the night on the boat, which is like a floating hotel. Tomorrow more baywatching, them I'm off to Central Vietnam.