Asia-Europe 2012

While waiting for the customs broker/customs officials to do their homework, we decided to take a 4 days trip in the Northern mountains. We rented a 125cc Yamaha YBR for 25USD/day. Great motorcycle. Reminds me a lot of my first car, a 34 hrosepower Oltcit!

Driving/riding on the Vietnamese roads is an adventure itself. Anything can be on the road: potholes, dirt, debris, trucks on the wrong side of the road, animals, crops drying in the sun etc. Specatacular views, nevertheless, and very friendly people. By tomorrow we should be in a national park, and then catch a train back to Hanoi.

The Halong Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a must for Vietnam visitor. We took a $85/person 2 day, all inclusive, bus and boat tour from Hanoi.

After boarding the ship, we cruised through the bay until we docked on an island to visit a nice cave, said to have been discovered only in 1995.

The next stop was in a village built on water, in a way similar to the one on the Titicaca lake. There we had the opportunity to do some kayaking to get a closer view.

We spent the night in a bungalow on the Monkey Island and we returned the next day in a similar fashion.

The trip was very well organized. The tour had many options/extras so we had to join 4 different tourist groups but we were never left behind. Unfortunately, very limited explanations from the guides.

There seems to be a problem with shipping. Although the motorcycle was supposed to be here on the 4th, 7 days later the shipping company didn’t get the customs clearance. I heard all the typical excuses from both sides (customs office and shipping co): we didn’t get the file / we already sent the file / the officer in charge of your case is not in the office today / I will investigate and get back to you / etc. Great job, guys!

In the meantime I arranged to extend the driving permit for Vietnam. But even that won’t solve the problem, since the Cambodian visa expires on Dec 30th…

“I will investigate and get back to you.”

Vietnam continues to be just like I knew it from the war movies: rainy and foggy. We visited the Ho Chi Minh compound, where we could see the house where he lived and worked, his mausoleum with the open casket (no recording allowed inside) and the museum. Among other gifts received throughout his live, we found a wooden brandy bottle from the Romanian people.

While navigating an unimaginable maze of alleys we also found the remains of a US Air Force B52 shot down in 1972 for violating the Hanoi airspace with aggressive intentions.

The city is very similar to Paramaribo and Havana, with architecture showing a great past but too much decay everywhere 🙁

The traffic in Hanoi is hilarious! There seems to be not a single rule that is always in effect yet no accidents!

We rented a 125cc scooter for $8/day to experience this, and to go to crooked alleys Palomina wouldn’t have been able to take us to, see the movie bellow.

These guys make me believe I wasted my money when I purchased a pickup truck… wondering how the guy transporting metal is able to turn. We also saw one guy transporting 5 cages each containing a medium sized pig, but we didn’t catch it 🙁