March 6th - Day 28 - Hanoi to Ha Long Bay

We were up reasonably early so that we could arrange a short tour of the Old Town and central part of Hanoi. The hotel laid on a car and driver, who spoke very little English, but who proceeded to take us to all the principal sights in Hanoi. Below are some of the places we went to.

First, the presidential residence. It seemed rather grand for a communist country!

We then drove past Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum, where an army of leaf sweepers were at work. All identically dressed and wearing the trade mark Vietnamese coolie hat.

Ho Chi Minh's body is embalmed in the mausoleum, which is a very impressive, gaunt looking structure, reminiscent of Lenin's tomb in the Kremlin. Apparently, there are only three leaders embalmed in their own mausoleum: Lenin, Mao, and Ho Chi Minh. We have now visited all three.

Two guards, in immaculately dressed white uniforms, guard the entrance doors.

As we drove around motorbikes and scooters come at you from all sides. How they don't hit each other, or you, I'm not sure.

We came to the Old Town, with its very narrow streets and market stalls. This is a typical sight, a market trader laden down with goods.

In the main market area, every type of vegetable was on sale, mostly sold from piles on the ground.

The central lake in the background and scooters everywhere.

Our drive round the city took about two hours and then we headed back to the hotel to pack and drive the 150kms to Ha Long Bay, a World Heritage Site.

As we drove out of Hanoi we saw numerous examples of the rather strange Vietnamese housing style. They build two, three, four and five story houses that are very narrow and often stand on their own. In the majority of cases only the front is painted, with the

sides left with bare cement. Definitely not my style of architecture!The drive to Ha Long Bay will be forever remembered because of the diabolical driving, by both car and truck drivers. Vehicles overtake directly at you, forcing you to swerve out of their way. How we never saw any accidents I will never know.

We arrived at Ha Long Bay to board our junk at about 3pm. HERO had organised for the whole group to be taken by three junks out into Ha Long Bay, for one night. There were about fifteen of us on our junk. We were taken by a small tender to the junk from the jetty.

One of the three junks with the 4x4xplore banner on the side.

Ha Long Bay is an incredible place. Hundreds of karst islands jut out of the water, as far as they eye can see.

Unfortunately for us, the weather was very overcast and we didn't see Ha Long at its best. Added to this was the fact that since we have been in the Hanoi area it has become quite cold, with the temperature down to as low as 12 degrees. Wendy in her anorak, to keep out the cold wind, with Inez Pritz, cruising through the islands.We reached our destination as it was getting dark. There were many other junks anchored nearby, which made for a pretty photo, with their lights and the dark shapes of the islands behind them.

In the evening we were all taken by tenders to an island with a cave for a candle lit dinner, with traditional music and dancers. It was great fun, apart from the cold wind that blew through the cave. How the weather has changed since those days in Thailand!

Tomorrow we leave Vietnam for China, the last country we visit on the tour.