Bus Stops for Beer...

January 25, 2010 (Tuan Chau, Vietnam)

We departed Hanoi early in the morning, having to get up at 4:30 in order to catch the 6:05 train. We walked to the train station and stopped for some noodles with chicken from one of the street vendors before we boarded the train. The train ride was a couple of hours to Haiphong and there was some nice scenery; unfortunately, there were bars at the bottom of the window so sometimes it was difficult to see out the window. But we were glad when we arrived because the seats we had gotten had been the Hard Seat tickets and they were literally "hard seats" of wooden benches.

Our plan when we got to Haiphong was to take a hydrofoil across to Cat Ba island, but when we got to the dock the morning ferry was full and the only other option for the rest of the day was to take a 250,000 VD per person ferry. This was about four times more expensive than the normal ferry so we opted not to take it and would instead take a bus to Halong City where we knew there were quite a few transportation options from there.

Like all bus rides in Vietnam it was entertaining. First, Kristin almost got left at the bus station because she had left the bus briefly to go to the bathroom. However, when she came back out and climbed onto the bus she saw Alex wasn't on board and realized it wasn't the same bus. She climbed off the bus and saw Alex waving in the back of the bus window as it was turning to depart from the bus station. Luckily, the bus went at a snail's pace for about the first 30 minutes of the bus ride so she probably could have caught up with the bus if it indeed did leave without her. As we crept along the bus tried to pick up more passengers, in order to justify the bus ride it seemed. Then about 15 minutes after we stopped looking for additional passengers and started to speed up, the bus pulled over and the bus assistant and some passengers got off the bus for a smoke break and the roadside stand poured them some draught beers for them to enjoy. Then we pulled over again about an hour after that for one of the men to take a "roadside" bathroom break. When we finally reached Halong City we were at full capacity in the bus. They dropped us off on this highway and Alex thought we might be able to walk to the bay area. However, we were able to bargain with one of the motorbike taxi drivers for a reasonable price -- otherwise, it would have been a LONG walk.

After lunch we looked for various ferries to go to Cat Ba but found out the only one was from Tuan Chau Island on the other side of the city. We took a taxi to the ferry dock and found out the tide was too low that afternoon so the next ferry wouldn't depart until the next morning; so we were stuck on the island. Luckily there was a hotel nearby and they did have rooms available. Although it wasn't in our plans, our stay at Tuan Chau was nice and relaxing.

We went for a walk around the island in the afternoon and through the small village. This was definitely not a place many foreigners come, as there was not much on the island to accommodate or serve them. As we walked around we stopped for some drinks at a little sidewalk stop and watched these Vietnamese guys use this hookah-like pipe for smoking. They asked Alex to try, but he declined as it appeared it was the same pipe that the entire village used. There was a lot of farming going on in the area so we saw hogs and oxen being lead on the village streets as well. For dinner, we had no choice but to eat at a little family-ran sidewalk stand in the middle of the village, but the food was still fantastic.

Photos from our village walk: