Cultural challenge or pain in the ass?
Our last full day in Vietnam. We pulled ourselves out of bed at
quarter to eight so as not to miss breakfast. Of course, it was just
muesli and fruit, so we could have been late. Sigh. I don’t know why
I’m so tired these days. Those overnight trains seem to have destroyed
me.
After breakfast we sat on the balcony and I blogged while Death
read. We waited for the power to come on to shower, but sadly, it
never did. Death braved a potentially cold shower in the dark, while I
preferred to wait for our hotel in Hanoi. I think the resort turns off
the power so guests don’t waste it, but the window in the bathroom
isn’t big enough for useful natural light.
We watched the fog come in, which was pretty, until Death commented he
hoped the fog didn’t thicken enough so that the bay was
unnavigable. Not being able to return to Hanoi today would be very
paranoia making. If I got the first boat out of Cat Ba tomorrow I
would probably be able to make my flight, but it would be close. I’m
betting we’ll just be forced to go slower, not stopped altogether. But
I was still nervous.
In fact, the fog didn’t slow anything down, but we had been
misinformed about the likely time of arrival in Hanoi. We arrived in
Hanoi at 6:30pm, and they dropped off the other people at their hotel
first, so Death had to sprint to get to his tailors in time to pick up
his suits. And then the Prince Hotel had no room for us, so they
wanted to shuttle us off to the Prince III. Which pissed me off. I’ve
heard that tourists shouldn’t be too angry about the way hotels lose
reservations here, because they have no collateral if the tourist
flakes. And the Prince at least booked a new hotel and paid for the
taxi there. But after traveling for a day, it’s nice to know that when
you walk into a hotel you have a room. And wifi. Luckily the Prince
III was close to an open wifi net, even if they didn’t provide it
themselves.
We walked across the street to the nearest restaurant for
dinner. Death wanted pho to stave off his cold. I wanted greens and
garlic. They provided both nicely, plus apricot tea for Death. Lovely.
The Ocean Tour delivered a good experience, but it had bad
communication throughout.
The road from Haiphong (third biggest city in Vietnam, major container
port) was lined with factories. Clothing, Ford cars, steel, etc. Not
too many large trucks on the road. Perhaps they only travel at night,
or perhaps there is a back road?
I have lost patience winding my way through the motorbike traffic in
the streets, now that I only have a day left. It’s not an interesting
cultural challenge, it’s just a pain in the ass.