Hanoi, Sapa, Halong Bay

Well, we are trying to figure out Vietnam. So far it is not a love story. Hanoi is incredibly hectic and noisy though not as much as Bangkok. Tough to cross the streets though. With all of the flooding we are making choices and still trying to see stuff.
We went up to Halong Bay to see the limestone cliffs jutting out of the water like tiny islands (karsts). It was all quite pretty though with overcast skies and warm days some of the color contrast between the land and sea is lost. We spent a couple of days on CatBa Island. We signed up with some kind of package. The prices vary incredibly and you never know exactly what you are buying even when you think that you do. We got on the bus with one guide and got passed to another guide at the boat dock, another boat while on the boat, someone else at the ferry terminal and someone else at the hotel. All of these guides - no paper, no voucher - just follow me and trust that all will fall into place. It does - I don't know how but you don't feel in control. Man oh man - I guess that all of these operations intertwine and the agents suck the money off the top. We are trying to decide if packages where everything is looked after is best or not - but then there is no quality assurance. Will keep posted as we figure it out!
Every nationality seems to be travelling - lots of Asians and also lots of Europeans out for 2 or 3 weeks - the global world of travel. And Vietnam seems to be a hotspot with buckets of tourists - and we are on the tourist trail.
We arranged for a day of kayaking from CatBa Island with 2 kayak stops, a stop at monkey island, and snorkelling. The Vietnamese couple seemed to have signed up for everything and then you discover that maybe they are just agreeable. One couple wanted a short cruise and no stops to be back at 3pm. Meantime the 2 French couples signed up for a day to return at 4pm. We had signed up for everything and were to be back at 5pm. We ended up with a little kayak but not what was promised. Anyways it was a bit too slow for us. The agent just shrugged his shoulders and said that not enough people had signed up so he put us on another tour. Such was our introduction to Vietnam.
We did enjoy renting a motorscooter and hiking in the national park and knowing what we were getting!
We returned to Hanoi and it was still peeing with rain (or again) so we made arrangements to go to sunny Sapa. They were just recovering from floods and some road washouts. So we had 3 glorious days of sunshine - the first that they had seen in a month. We signed up for a tour - an ok hotel and a 'homestay' with a tribal family. It turned out to be a cheap hotel - no mingling with the family. So we loved the trekking and our cute 17 year old female guide from one of the local tribes who had learned English in the market. But again a disappointment from the agency. Hopefully we are learning - but how many questions can you ask??? and what do you assume. I can only think that tourism is fast and furious and a lot of money here. Hopefully we make decisions that we are a little happier with in the near future. And of course we are also hoping for sunshine as that makes a huge difference. This am it is not raining in Hanoi!!

We see flush toilets, hot water, western dress and lots of advances here. Tons of women wear the traditional chinese hat (cone)and a scarf across the face - to keep the sun off and the skin white!, lots of motorcycles, narrow highrise buildings that extend quite far back and are not adjoined to the next building but a few inches apart. We understand that taxes are based on the width of the front thus all seem tall and narrow - why they don't share a wall is beyond me as no sunshine can get in the few inches gap.

The traffic mayhem...we watched a Lexus SUV turn into oncoming traffic (motor scooters) and then cross three lanes to get to the correct side of the road. When we were on the highway we did a u-turn to change directions as there was no lane or road to get you going in the direction that the driver wanted.
We are learning to start walking across the street and going not too fast and working our way past each of the oncoming scooters. Our technique is improving but!!

We bought the best train tickets for the night train to Hue, halfway down the coast and the agent arranged the taxi, gave directions and negotiated the fare. But as luck would have it the driver didn't really know the hotel next to the station where he was to drop us off. Needless in this traffic hectic and slow city he was probably very tired and frazzled. He got angry on the way in the traffic and then angry when he couldn't find the hotel. We got there in the end and it didn't take long to relax when we got on the train. Thank goodness we had allowed lots of time. I could never driver in this city...or manage a bike or scooter - so walking is manageable.