Day 44 - 06th August
We set off early, after an early breakfast and headed back to Halong Bay to get our five hour bus back.
On board the boat, we had a new tour guide, this guy being called Màn and he provided us with an authentic Vietnamese cooking lesson in how to make Vietnamese spring rolls. It was an interesting lesson, learning how they made rice paper, watching how they prepared and cooked it.
Lunch was served with our creations. The vegetarians amongst us were not impressed as almost everything had meat. Sam and I were having a field day!
When we arrived back on shore, we had a bit of a wait, watching other people get on to buses whilst we waited around for someone to come and get us, my purchases of cheese Ritz and Oreos did nothing to numb the boredom.
And then we were off. Five hours down the road to Hanoi, with a lot of thinking time. I was still trying to process what I had seen in Halong. What a stunning mix of lively characters, scenery and food. Food is always important.
The calmness of Halong and Cat Ba were long gone as we stepped off the bus in Hanoi's Old Quarter, which was closer to Monkey Island with its usual chaos, that I actually enjoy.
We had a few hours before the night bus to Phong Nha so we grabbed some food and our bigger backpacks and waited . . . and waited, waited, waited. The bus was late, as usual. I occupied my time talking to Bulgaria again, who we might meet in Hoi An.
Finally, we boarded our bus just after seven pm and set off on the road trip from hell. The bus driver was a mad man, texting on his phone whilst driving, making the bus bounce around and leaning on the horn like it was going out of fashion. The blaring music didn't help either.
It was going to be another long night on a night bus (why can't it be like the nigh bus in Harry Potter.)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Hi, leave me a message. I would love to hear from you.