We’ve visited a fair few beautiful places in the world. Hạ Long Bay is well up there with the most stunning.
This is another of those days when the words in my log are few, the photographs many and really you don’t need many words:
Stunning scenes on Hạ Long Bay, headline picture, above and below.Health & Safety had not got started, let alone gone mad at that grottoInside (above) and outside (below) the grotto
Went on a cruise at Hạ Long Bay on “Yellow Dragon” boat – misty but pleasant – went to “new grotto” [i.e. newly discovered in 1996] – very slippery climb due to mist– went into grotto etc. Super lunch on boat – then long drive back to Hanoi. Overnight in Royal Hotel
Lunch on the boat, me & Thung (above), then return journey to Hanoi pictures (below)
Our two day/one night trip to Hạ Long Bay was incredibly picturesque, with the possible exception of our short stay in Hạ Long itself.
The agency and the guide book had warned us that, at that time, Hạ Long was not well served with Western-standard accommodation.
We chose to stay at the best available at the time, the Hạ Long Hotel, which is depicted above. That picture was the best possible angle one could find of the place.
The hotel, which had probably seen better days even in the early post-war period, had been a favoured haunt of Soviet tourists. The signage and information in all of the rooms was in Vietnamese, French and Russian only. I derived what little instruction we needed from the French versions. Honi soit qui mal y pense.
It’s a shame I didn’t photograph the room, which had a rudimentary look to it. But the biggest shame of all is that I didn’t photograph the refectory-style dining room, with long tables and benches. It reminded me of an austere English public school refectory; or perhaps a well-appointed prison dining hall.
The place was almost completely deserted when we were there in March 1996, giving the “refectory” an especially eerie feel. Had the place been fully occupied, dinner time might have looked more like this:
On looking up our Hạ Long Hotel in the old 1990s guide book and then Googling the address, I am pretty sure that the site is now the rather stunning-looking and very well-reviewed Ha Long Plaza Hotel. It must have had a comprehensive makeover since our visit, for some obscure reason. So I’m guessing that the old dining hall is now lost for ever in the mists of time.
But let us now put all of that to one side and return to the stunningly beautiful journey that was our two day/overnight visit to Hạ Long Bay.
This was one of those picturesque travelling days, for which I wrote few words but for which the pictures can say far more than words ever could.
Breakfast then off to Highway Five towards Haiphong – stopped in Tongs [Hải Dương?] Province for tea and green bean cake – then on to Haiphong for lunch and then looked at communal house (Hang Kenh) and on to Hạ Long Bay via ferries etc.
Haiphong (above) Communal House (below)We got on the above ferry after photographing it, but missed the one belowArrived in Hạ Long at dusk
Stayed in Hạ Long West – took the ferry to Hạ Long East for a walk before dinner and early night
Rose very early – flew [from] Chiang Mai to Bangkok then on to Hanoi – arrived 1215. Fought through bureaucracy – got taken to hotel– Changed/freshened up…
Quite a fight it was too, on arrival at Hanoi. I cannot remember all the details of it, but it was to do with filling in a form upon which you declare the address where you are going to stay.
Given that we were to be staying at several places in the space of a week and I had the local tour agent, Vidotour’s, address, I presented the form with that. Not good enough. If we were staying at several addresses I needed to list several addresses.
So I tried to write several addresses on a tiny form. The official claimed he couldn’t read my handwriting. “Do you know who I am?”, I felt like saying, but didn’t. He was quite cross and suggested that I had deliberately written illegibly.
So he called a more senior official, who suggested that the name and address of our local tour agent, Vidotour, would do. Good idea, Sir.
Welcome to Hanoi, Sir, have a nice cup of tea (Indochine Restaurant, later that day)
I should add at this point that we had a marvellous time in Vietnam; that hoo-ha on arrival was the only inhospitable moment during our stay.
In fact, the ability to get a temporary pass to enter Myanmar from Thailand at that crossing, just for the day, had been reinstated just the day before we arrived. We thought it only polite that we should take advantage and pop in.
Mae Sai monks
– on to a jade factory in Mae Sai then on to Doi Tung Temple etc…
Doi Tung Temple above and headline image at the top of this piece.Vistas on the way down from the temple.
Arrived at the Chiang Mai quite late – changed – went around night market and got a light bite there – then returned (saw end of the cricket!) & slept
We stayed at the Dusit Princess if I remember correctly.
[I have been pulling my journal notes together for Ogblog using a dictation app – no prizes for guessing what some of this piece looked like before I corrected the dictation]
Rose quite early – left Lisu village.
The taller of the sweet children was a bit tearful saying goodbye to us
Headed north. Long drive – stopped for coffee on Mae Kok/Myanmar border.
Then on to Akha village [see headline picture and below]
I seem to remember that Chinese lunch being especially good, with high grade barbequed meats as a centrepiece, but we obviously did not find Mae Salong (now renamed Santikhiri), or at least the part of it we went to, photogenic.
Then Chinese lunch in Mae Ta – on through the market and then to Mae Taeng elephant ride fiasco followed by bamboo rafting.
I described the elephant ride as a fiasco, because I recall really feeling uncomfortable about the elephants, especially my one, who seemed unhappy and hungry. Mine kept wandering off to the side of the track to try to grab a nibble, only to be roughly discouraged from doing so by the dude at the front of the elephant. I note that if you Google “Mae Taeng Elephant Park” 25 years later, you find a lot of bad reviews and references to cruelty. I’m not surprised based on our experience.
Unusually for me, I found the raft trip afterwards more to my taste than the elephant ride, whereas I was expecting to feel more comfortable on land!
In the Lisu Village – Kongburi negotiating while I display the body language of indifference
Then on to Lisu Village – quaint Lisu Lodge – just us [staying the night]…
…the music and the giant flying roaches.
Showered washed and walked around village – got sold to – ate – got played at – then to bed.
I really should expand the story of our stay at the Lisu Lodge. It was a lovely but fairly rudimentary place back then. It is a fancy-schmanzy eco lodge now. Good luck to the place.
The Lisu people were sweet and gentle and very welcoming. They did seem especially keen to sell us their trinkets though.
We were the only guests that night.
Janie and I particularly remember the meal. We have just the one photo of me being served the food (above).
We had been looking forward to our private dining experience. However, we were joined more or less throughout the meal by a local who serenaded us with his traditional stringed instrument, which was probably a relative of the pipa or Chinese lute. He played pretty well and at first it sounded really nice, but after a while we were craving a little more privacy and a little less noise.
Then, out of the blue, came a giant flying roach (or beetle) which noisily landed right behind us and startled us both. The musician calmly stopped playing and gently removed the beetle in his hands. Daisy and I gave the musician a round of applause for removing the giant insect, which he took to be applause for the end of his set, so he bowed and left, taking the pipa and beetle with him.
Thus we spent the rest of our meal in quiet, tranquil privacy.
All of our photos from the Thai leg of the journey can be found on Flickr through the link here and below.
Very photogenic – see headline picture, above and below. In truth quite a touristic place, even back then.
Return to town – fabulous seafood lunch on Soi 24 Sukhamvit – top rate.
Then home straight on to Oriental Hotel and shopping plazas – light supper in River City Shopping Centre – then home for early night.
I look a little under-dressed there for the Oriental Hotel, but oh my gosh I still have that holiday short-sleeved shirtDaisy looks like the sort of lass who likes her grub.
All of our photos from the Thai leg of the journey can be found on Flickr through the link here and below.
Writing up our first major independent travel holiday, 25 years later, in March 2021, is no easy task. While I did take notes on this trip, which helps, I did not keep the sort of comprehensive journal that was my habit on earlier big trips and became my habit again later.
Further, Janie and I have both mislaid our printed itinerary for this adventure, although I know I did have a copy of it as recently as 2011 when we were arranging a return visit to Vietnam; infuriating.
Still, we have a wonderful collection of annotated photos, which helps. I also still have our trusty mid 1990s copies of the Lonely Planet Guides to Thailand and Vietnam, well thumbed and helpfully folding open easily on the more oft-used pages.
So let’s go!
12 March 1996 – Left London on time! Event free flight.
I told you the notes are quite light. I’m pretty sure we flew Thai Air. Last class it would have been, but on Thai Air that wasn’t too bad.
13 March 1996 – Arrive Bangkok on time (6:20 am). Went to BelAire Princess [now BelAire Bangkok] with drunken guide Kai.
