Hanoi and Halong bay

06 July My first night in Hanoi and settling in to my room. At 12.05am there was a knock on the door and it was a lad from reception. He explained to me that the electricity company had called and the electricity in half of the hotel was going to be shut off in 30 minutes. He went on to say that the hotel next door had a similar room next door and if i wanted air conditioning for the night I could move over. Not having unpacked and the sweltering heat not a pleasant thing at night I agreed. There was a guy waiting on a motorbike outside to help me move. I suspected something was dodgy when they told me the hotel was now a few blocks away. I left my bag a decided to take a look first. The room was OK but they wanted $15, not $10 agreed in the other place. The other people I was travelling with did not know where I was so I decided not to take the room and went back to the original hotel. I demanded my key back and said I was Ok with no electricity. Electric was never turned off and it turned out the following morning that they had an American Couple on the way from the airport willing to pay $20 for my room. I also heard that they moved the Brazilian lads then with the same cock and bull story. They told me in the morning that there was no longer a room for me at the hotel and i was to leave. I checked in to another hotel up the road and it was far better.
The following day I met up with Seamus and Kathleen for dinner and they asked a bicycle taxi driver for directions to a particular restaurant. He offered to take us there for a price but we said we wanted to walk. He wanted to be paid for the directions, which we did, and then he gave us the wrong directions. The place was turning out to be a complete con job but strangely enjoyable pitting your wits against them. The locals are lovely people but people earning their living from tourists are to be treated with caution.
Deciding to take in some of the local culture we all went to the Water Puppet show for traditional singing, music and puppetry in water. It was good fun but didnt understand much. Hanging out with a great crowd including 3 Irish, 2 Brazilians and 2 English. Rosie the Irish girl asked if she could take a look at our hotel as she was too interested in moving from the first one. I said Id show her my room and when we got to the hotel the owner was not going to let her in. She kept saying to us No prostitute, no prostitute! I dont think she understood what she was saying, but probably meant to say No night visitors that have not paid to stay. Rosie was not impressed and didnt want to stay after that episode. I thought it was quite funny.
7-8th July Didnt do much in Hanoi as it was a bank holiday and nothing much was open in the line of museums etc so just ate, drank and slept. We went to the cinema to see Kung fu Panda which was a laugh.
9-11th July Went to Halong Bay today on a 3 day cruise. Halong bay is a Unesco World hertiage site and consists of a bay of over 3000 islands in the Gulf of Tonkin, part of the South China sea. The cruise on a traditional Vietnameses junk boat took us to various parts of the bay with an overnight stay on an island and the next night on the boat. The other travellers on the boat were a super lot and we enjoyed that bit. On the other hand the organisers were dreadful and everything they did was messed up. Changing boats, buses, hotels at the last minute. Waiting around for hours between buses and boats, not having the names of their passengers, losing passports, charging corkage on drinking water when we refused to buy their extorsionately priced water. We had bus drivers packing buses to squashing point while refusing to allow anybody sit up the front with them (additional two seats), banging windows, slamming doors and shouting and pushing us. One guy refused to pay corkage and one of the crew members grabbed his hand and physically tried to prise his fingers open. Me and seamus rallied the others and told the crew that we were not going to pay corkage on water. We were told 10 minutes later that we had to change boats. What a disasterous company and it is rife in Halong. Such a beautiful place ruined by the tour operators.
12th July Back in Hanoi and flying to Vientiane, the capital of Loas tomorrow. Final thoughts on Vietnam is that its a beautiful and interesting country with lots of interesting history. The people are lovely if they are not making a living from you. The southern parts are more freindly than the Northern.