Vietnam part 3 & KL
Door: robenfloorinazie
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Floor
23 Juni 2012 | Indonesië, Gili Trawangan
Last time we promised you to write about our trip to Halong Bay, our last stop in Vietnam. We booked a three day, two night tour, nice and convenient since it included three meals a day and a visit to all the Halong bay highlights. Halong Bay is a bay (duh) filled with over 1000 limestone islands, which creates amazing views!
The trip started in the early morning by a three hour busride to Halong Bay. During this busride we were amazed to see dozens of women selling baguettes on the highway! Apparently, it is normal to just stop in the middle of the highway (which you share with scooters as well) and buy your baguette...
In the harbour we met our group for the next three days. Since we booked a low budget tour, most of our group members were in their twenties, and backpacking like us, which was nice and easy. Together we got to the boat, which would show us the beauty of Halong Bay, and had lunch there. Unfortunately, they didn't serve us the lunch which they served to the owner (and this guests) of the boat (we were pretty sure they were maffia...) which included fresh lobster, prawns and plenty of vodka....
After lunch it was time to discover the beauty of Halong Bay: amazing views over the perfect blue ocean and beautiful limestones. Meanwhile, the boat took us to an island where we visited the mountain caves. Here we saw many stalagmites and stalagtites which were exposed by colourful lights. After this visit we got back to the boat and sailed to a nice spot for kayaking. We had little difficulty to find a nice flow together... But, it was great fun!
The rest of the day, all we had to do was relax at the boat and have fun together. This was quite easy with our nice tour group! We ended the evening by playing some stupid Dutch card game (toepen), great fun, and counting cockroaches.... The boat was soooo dirty that the cockroaches literally dropped from the ceiling: absolutely disgusting, especially when you also find then in and next to your bed... As a result, we ll had a terrible night of sleep and hoped for a better night in the hotel the next day.
Our second day started at Cat Ba island with a trek in Cat Ba National Park. Altogether a two our trek which ended at the top of the hill with some astonishing views over the mountains of the beautiful island. After this trek we were all dying for a nice (hot) shower and good lunch (thus far, the food wasn't to good....) and hoped for the best. At first the hotel looked alright with nice big rooms and private HOT showers! Lunch was also better the the meals we had before: such a relief! However, when Floor entered the room at night, two nice and big cockroaches were waiting for her, one in the middle of the pillow!! You can feel it coming: again a terrible night of sleep with visions of big cockroaches and spiders all night long.... Definitely a moment to miss your own CLEAN bed and to long for some Western luxury.
Since we were on an island, we obviously had to discover the beaches which were supposed to be great. The island turned out to be much more crowded than we expected, with the big hotels and resorts all over the place, such a shame. However, the walk to the beach was nice and we ended up at a nice local beach full of Vietnamese people laughing and having fun (quite extraordinary)!
The third day of our trip, it was time to head back to the harbour and return to Hanoi. Due to the bad food and many cockroaches we weren't to happy about the trip, however, Halong Bay was definitely worth the visit and we made some nice new friends and had a great time together. Since we had such a good time together, we decided to meet that night for dinner in Hanoi at a nice Indian restaurant (all dying for a proper meal!). Here we had definitely the best garlic naan ever! So, we had to come back the next day....
After this one day in Hanoi, it was time to leave Vietnam and catch a flight to Kuala Lumpur for a two day stop on our way to Bali. When we arrived in KL it felt a little like coming home: we knew this place since we'd been here before! However, with all our new experiences we looked at KL with diferent eyes this time. It all seemed suddenly so developed: perfect highways where the speed limit exceeds 40 km/h, nice and clean streets, well organised public transport and on top of that China town seemed soooo clean this time! Happy to be in this modern city, we were looking forward to our two day stay here. We ended up in a nice homestay, with just one downside: no AC while it was over 40 degrees.... In addition to this they keep the beds clean by folding them in plastic, result: you sweat like hell, which is not helping if you're in high need of a good night of sleep.
Our days in KL turned out to become even more westernised when we ended up buying iPads in the big modern shopping malls of KL. As a result of our new gadgets we ended up spending the rest of our time in Starbucks (good coffee, airco and free wifi), Mc Donald's and Subways (yep, we really miss the Western food). After two days, it was time to leave for our final destination: Indonesia!
More about Indonesia the next time!
Love,
Floor & Rob
The trip started in the early morning by a three hour busride to Halong Bay. During this busride we were amazed to see dozens of women selling baguettes on the highway! Apparently, it is normal to just stop in the middle of the highway (which you share with scooters as well) and buy your baguette...
In the harbour we met our group for the next three days. Since we booked a low budget tour, most of our group members were in their twenties, and backpacking like us, which was nice and easy. Together we got to the boat, which would show us the beauty of Halong Bay, and had lunch there. Unfortunately, they didn't serve us the lunch which they served to the owner (and this guests) of the boat (we were pretty sure they were maffia...) which included fresh lobster, prawns and plenty of vodka....
After lunch it was time to discover the beauty of Halong Bay: amazing views over the perfect blue ocean and beautiful limestones. Meanwhile, the boat took us to an island where we visited the mountain caves. Here we saw many stalagmites and stalagtites which were exposed by colourful lights. After this visit we got back to the boat and sailed to a nice spot for kayaking. We had little difficulty to find a nice flow together... But, it was great fun!
The rest of the day, all we had to do was relax at the boat and have fun together. This was quite easy with our nice tour group! We ended the evening by playing some stupid Dutch card game (toepen), great fun, and counting cockroaches.... The boat was soooo dirty that the cockroaches literally dropped from the ceiling: absolutely disgusting, especially when you also find then in and next to your bed... As a result, we ll had a terrible night of sleep and hoped for a better night in the hotel the next day.
Our second day started at Cat Ba island with a trek in Cat Ba National Park. Altogether a two our trek which ended at the top of the hill with some astonishing views over the mountains of the beautiful island. After this trek we were all dying for a nice (hot) shower and good lunch (thus far, the food wasn't to good....) and hoped for the best. At first the hotel looked alright with nice big rooms and private HOT showers! Lunch was also better the the meals we had before: such a relief! However, when Floor entered the room at night, two nice and big cockroaches were waiting for her, one in the middle of the pillow!! You can feel it coming: again a terrible night of sleep with visions of big cockroaches and spiders all night long.... Definitely a moment to miss your own CLEAN bed and to long for some Western luxury.
Since we were on an island, we obviously had to discover the beaches which were supposed to be great. The island turned out to be much more crowded than we expected, with the big hotels and resorts all over the place, such a shame. However, the walk to the beach was nice and we ended up at a nice local beach full of Vietnamese people laughing and having fun (quite extraordinary)!
The third day of our trip, it was time to head back to the harbour and return to Hanoi. Due to the bad food and many cockroaches we weren't to happy about the trip, however, Halong Bay was definitely worth the visit and we made some nice new friends and had a great time together. Since we had such a good time together, we decided to meet that night for dinner in Hanoi at a nice Indian restaurant (all dying for a proper meal!). Here we had definitely the best garlic naan ever! So, we had to come back the next day....
After this one day in Hanoi, it was time to leave Vietnam and catch a flight to Kuala Lumpur for a two day stop on our way to Bali. When we arrived in KL it felt a little like coming home: we knew this place since we'd been here before! However, with all our new experiences we looked at KL with diferent eyes this time. It all seemed suddenly so developed: perfect highways where the speed limit exceeds 40 km/h, nice and clean streets, well organised public transport and on top of that China town seemed soooo clean this time! Happy to be in this modern city, we were looking forward to our two day stay here. We ended up in a nice homestay, with just one downside: no AC while it was over 40 degrees.... In addition to this they keep the beds clean by folding them in plastic, result: you sweat like hell, which is not helping if you're in high need of a good night of sleep.
Our days in KL turned out to become even more westernised when we ended up buying iPads in the big modern shopping malls of KL. As a result of our new gadgets we ended up spending the rest of our time in Starbucks (good coffee, airco and free wifi), Mc Donald's and Subways (yep, we really miss the Western food). After two days, it was time to leave for our final destination: Indonesia!
More about Indonesia the next time!
Love,
Floor & Rob
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23 Juni 2012 - 08:22
Gert:
Wauw kakkerlakken. Ik weet hoe dat is, kan me voorstellen dat jullie slaap tekort kwamen! Geniet van de laatste weken. X -
23 Juni 2012 - 10:31
Jet:
Hmmmm garlic naan dat klinkt goed!! Nou chill ze nog even daar!! liefs xx -
23 Juni 2012 - 20:13
Oma Thera:
Bedankt voor jullie uitvoerige mail.
Ook heel hart.bedankt voor de verjaardagskaart.Kwam precies op tijd.Heel erg leuk ben er heel blij mee.Heel veel liefs
Oma Thera xxx -
23 Juni 2012 - 22:38
Paulien:
Jullie trips klinken echt geweldig, maar qua beesten enzo lijkt het me wel afzien....... Nog hele fijne dagen op Bali! Kuskus
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