Mad World

Went out to Halong bay to get away from the craziness of Hanoi and get some r&r for my birthday. Woke up on the 19th in the mother of all bad moods, i just was not in the mood to pack my bag yet again, check out of the hostel, get on another mini-bus, meet another group of people, have the same fucking where have you been? I've been conversation ... Another overly chirpy but ultimately useless tour guide ... plus the whole birthday thing was also a bit depressing. Hence, ipod, sun screen, war and peace and a scoul were packed into my day pack and off to Halong bay i went to "celebrate" my birthday.

My mood didn't really improve during the day, on the three hour bus ride to Halong, when our guide insisted on telling us about how wonderful uncle ho was etc etc. But in went my ipod and i tried sneering but to little effect. At Halong city we were ushered off the bus and put in a pen and told to wait, then we were told to move and then wait again. It was humid, cloudy and crowded. Then we were told to go to the tender boat to get onto our junk. There were only going to be 15 of us, 4 couples, a son and mother pair, a thai lady and two very giggly norwegian girls and me. Great! On the boat i was given a key and told that i would have to share with the Thai lady, i just said, no. For 7$ extra i got my own cabin so nini and i settled in for the night ... Anyway really what i am saying is, that i don't do regimented organised tours very well, i am just not good at being bossed around. That afternoon we were supposed to go to see some caves, i made up a story about a sprained ankle and stayed on the boat, had a nap and read my book.

Halong bay is beautiful. It reminded me of Guilin in China, but in water, it really is magnificant. There are over 3000 islands most of which are little more that rocks sticking out of the sea. I was lucky enough to meet a geologist who explained how this happened. I can't really explain it here, but apparently, many thousands of years ago there was a Vietnamese king who was in trouble and called to the heaven for assistance, and the gods sent a powerful dragon to come down to earth. When the dragon came to earth, he fell in love with the beautiful princess and rather than go back to the heaven he crash landed in the sea and turned to stone. The rocks have to see and the scales of his back. We stayed on the boat that night and sang karaoke well the others sang and i lip synched.

To my total humiliation the next morning i was presented with a beautiful bunch of roses by the crew of the boat for my birthday. And i had a bunch of strangers sing happy birthday to me. We went over to Cat ba island. I waited in the bay getting some sun as the others went to visit another cave. A group of school children surronded me asking me all the same questions. They were so cute. One of the little girls ran down the street and then came back and gave me a rose, and said, i love you. It was so adoreable.

That afternoon we checked into the hotel, I had a nap and woke up and decided to go to the beach, i opened my bag and my wallet was gone! I freaked out. And ran down stairs, none of the staff could speak english. i was going crazy, then this guy came along and he had it. The cash was gone, only about 400000 dong. Some lady had handed it in.... i think that some tourists saw it took the cash and handed it in. There was a couple sitting on the steps of the hotel when i walked in, if i dropped it there then it would have dropped at their feet. Anyway, then Nini and i headed to the beach.

That evening I went out for dinner and some drinks with a lovely German couple, Eve and Ralph, they were great. He had served in Afghanistan, and was so interesting. And yesterday we headed back to Hanoi, I didn't really do anything yesterday. Went back and took some photos of the military museum. I wanted those photos of the US aircrafts and the vietnamese planes.

I'm heading to Hoi An this evening for two days anyway. The weather seems to have cleared up which is good. Apparently there is a bit of a cholera outbreak, and not all the crocodiles have been recaptured or shot, so well, it'll be interesting!