Final Entry

Hello everyone. This is my final blog entry from Hanoi as am heading home tomorrow! (Arrive in ChCh 5pm Thurs 21st Feb from Auck for anyone who wants to know).

Well our long overnight train from Hue to Hanoi was thankfully not nearly as cold as the last train. In fact it was quite fun as we bought some takeaway pizza and took that on the train with us, this plus card games and sleep filled in the time quite well :-)

Hanoi is a really cool place with the usual insane motorbikes, I must admit we've all become quite the pros at crossing the road now. Got to be compleletly fearless yet still give way to certain things e.g. cars will NEVER stop for you so need to be aware! Our first morning in Hanoi we found a really nice coffee place for brekie and recovered from arriving at 5.30am. We then all met up at 8.30am for a trip to Ho Chi Minh's mausaleum (sp?) this was really creepy and I didn't particularly enjoy it. We had to walk in lines for ages and then into the huge building and walk past his body which has been kept for like 20yrs so far, very weird. We then got to walk through the property and see some of the houses where he lived and amuzingly things like his used car garage (heart warming...). The afternoon was then free time and I enjoyed doing a walking tour with Kate. This was really cool as each street in the old quarter seems to specialise in certain products. e.g. there were entire streets devoted to silk, kids toys, blacksmiths, herbs, plastic bags and weirdly sticky tape! Yummy meal at a cool western place we found which had an ice cream buffet - so nice as haven't had this for ages.

Up early the following day for the 3hr bus trip to Halong Bay. I was really looking forward to this part but unfortunately the lovely sunny trip I'd imagined was actually very cold, drizzly and so no swimming. Oh well Halong Bay actually looked really cool with all the mist. For those who don't know Halong Bay is host to numerous limestone outcrops straight out of the sea and looks amazing.

The boat trip turned out to be an interesting experience...first up our boat got stuck in the harbour so we had to take another boat out and then transfer back to the other one once it made it out (transfering between boats always very interesting...). Then the boat got stuck again! We ended up having our really yummy seafood lunch while waiting 2.5hrs for the tide to rise enough that with help from several other boats we managed to get free. By this time the weather had really packed up too so not great.

Made it to one of the islands and then found out the boat was having engine troubles so we wouldn't be able to get right into the port! Ended up having to take a really small boat with all of us on to get into port - so funny and embarrasing as heaps of tourists taking photos of us!! The cave was amazing - absolutely huge and stunning scenery all around it. Luckily after all this trouble we got put onto a much nicer boat which then took us to Cat Ba island where we were staying the night.

This island is beautiful and home to a national park. So after recovering in the really flash hotel we then got up the following morning for a 2hr trek into the forest. This was heaps of fun! The path wasn't much of a path and it was very wet and muddy climbing to the top of the hill. Also had to watch out for leeches as they attach themselves to the leaves and then to you if you brush past them (yuck). Really cool experience but got SO muddy! Then back to the hotel in time to catch the fast ferry back and the 3hr bus to Hanoi.

Our last group dinner was then last night and we enjoyed local food in a really nice place. Sad to say goodbye to Kate this morning but spending my last day hanging out with a couple of the guys from the tour who aren't leaving till tomorrow as well. We've managed to get a triple share room in a really flash hotel for only $30 US including breakfast! Very cheap accomodation here. Have been having fun going through dvd places here and using up the last of my dong (hehe as you can imagine there have been many jokes about this).

Tomorrow I am catching a taxi out to the airport and flying to Bangkok. Here I will have five hours to sort out my stuff in storage and hopefully get my things onto the plane - am a bit concerned about the weight of my bag...we shall see! Anyway then I have an 11hr or so flight to Auckland, 3hr stopover before finally doing the last leg to ChCh!

So that's it folks! The end of my big trip! I've had an absolutely amazing time and will bring back many memories (and pics, have like 7 cd's full!). Every country I've visited as had something different about it which makes travelling so much fun. Sure it's challenging sometimes but I definitely think that everyone should get out there and see the world! Thanks to everyone who has posted notes to me on here, hope I didn't bore you.

Bring on the next trip!!