Mum and Halong Bay
Hello munchkins!
Well things here are super busy at the mo. Mum came to visit, she left Monday but we had a fab dab time while she was here. We visited Ho Chi Minh Museum – which is the craziest most surreal museum I have ever been to. Sam took her for a couple of jaunts around town on the bike, and we went to the usual places; old quarter, botanical gardens etc.
Mum enjoyed our suburb ordering-in skills (necessary survival here) and we also visited Papa Joes and Luna for some lovely meals out.
Mum also visited my classes as well as some of Sams and was a great hit with the kids!
Mum and I had also decided to go to Halong bay overnight for a relaxing peaceful time where we could chat, nap and read. Well that was the grand plan.
We were meant to be picked up at 8am. We got a call at 7.50 saying they would be there in 20 mins. 8.10 came and went without the bus arriving, not surprised we waited, 8.20 and 8.30 rocked around and I was starting to get a little nervous, we gave them a call and the tour guide said he would be there in 5 minutes. 8.45am, 9am drifted by with no sign of a bus, finally at 9.10am the bus materialised.
We were the last to be picked up. Mum was in the front seat otherwise known as the I-can-see-my-death-coming-by-way-of-oncoming-traffic seat. I was in the if we crash I’m first through the windscreen feet first seat. Usual Asian bus travelling arrangement. So there went our idea of sitting and chatting away the three hour trip.
Sitting next to me was a lively 7 year old who had a loose tooth, the dad was cajoling him into letting him pull it out, the boy was unconvinced. Finally he let him, the mother was most unimpressed, she took a look at the boys mouth which was bleeding and gave the dad a look like; “really? On the bus? You had to take the tooth out now?” The boy spent the rest of the trip trying to show various people his tooth.
The bus finally arrived at the beautiful Halong bay, the guide got us off the bus – all 16 of us – and then decided that he needed to control us with a whistle, – so glad Sam wasn’t with us, he definitely would have quit the tour then and there,- After waiting “5″ mins (or to the conventional way of telling time 40 mins) we were on the boat.
The little boat we got on was a transit boat taking us to our overnight one. It crashed into an other boat about 15 meters from shore. Not reassuring.
Once we were on our boat (number 3318 I think) we had lunch and were off and away. we met some absolutely lovely people, there were 16 people on board. We had lots of fun but there were some very weird moments and I am feeling lazy so I am just going to list them .
- we weren’t allowed into our cabins until 4.30pm. I’m not kidding, one of the girls asked at 4.28pm and they said: “no, not until 4.30.”
- We had to be out of our cabins by 7am even though we weren’t off the boat till 12.
- when we were given our key the tour guide said: “If you lose, you pay $10.”
- When we were given our air-conditioning remote control (at 8pm) we were told again if we lost it we would pay lots of money. (you’re on a boat for christ sake, where is it going to go??)
- When Mum and I declined the offer of kayaking (or Kaking as it was called) I had to sign a note saying we wouldn’t ask for a refund!
- Those that did take the kyaking option were told that it would be $200 per oar and $500 per kyak that were lost.
- I got bitten head to toe by some mysterious insect, which, when I woke up in the middle of the night I thought were dreaded bed bugs and I quickly jumped out of my bed and into Mums.
- 1 hour before we got back into shore (it was very hot) they turned all the fans off, when asked if they could turn them back on again we were told the motor was broken, slightly odd as we were still powering in to shore..
Despite all this, there were actually some spectacular moments, watching the sunset from the top deck over the bay and Islands was beautiful, we had a wonderful time chatting to the people we met, and even though there was no water pressure the rooms were actually very nice.
We were glad to be home at the end of the two day journey (which felt like a week!).
Overall Mum had a very eventful trip. And we are trying to convince her to return next year. Though I think I’ve had enough of Halong Bay for a while…
Hope to see more of you soon!
xoxoxo Rose
I did have a fabulous time visiting Sam and Rose and hope other family will take the opportunity to do so too. Thank you my little munchkins for giving me such a fabulous time even though I didn’t get to see Uncle Ho because he was on his annual 2 month vacation to Russia for top up embalming. His corpse is 40 years old this year so those Russians must really know their embalming stuff. I found out Ho Chi Minh spent some time in England in the 1920s and lived in Crouch End in London where I used to go to school. Is this the truth I wonder or it is google-speak? He evidenly worked as pastry chef at the Carlton Hotel. And as Rose said the HCM museum was a blast. Hanoi is fabulously chaotic, Sam is a fab moto driver and they are both totally awesome English teachers. Seeing Sam teaching his 10-12 year old class was a hoot – they would vote him best teacher I know – he had them in stitches and my hearing was only partially affected by the experience! Visit if you can……..I’m booking my spot for 2010!
And you will be remembered as the one who whinged incessantly………..
err, how about you gtfo and foad? She wasn’t whinging on the boat, in fact, a couple insisted that we stayed with them when we get to France. Although, she had the right to complain as I saw the bites when she got home, and they were amazing.
We’ve been to Ha Long bay a few times now and this was clearly the worst experience there. Don’t be an assclown, especially with a name that ridiculous.
Try rubbing vegemite on the bites.