Underground vs. Island

Hanoi presented itself to us this morning as a real metropolis - Vietnamese way of life mixes with French construction style and offers a similar hustle and bustle as Saigon - after we experienced it only at night yesterday and were curious about what to expect in daylight. We would have loved to see some of the great sights - for example, the Temple of Literature, the Opera House or the Water Puppet Theater - but the first train ride on the way to Cat Ba Island was imminent and the tickets were already booked.

We will come back to Hanoi in two days on the way back and definitely want to admire the Temple of Literature (http://en.vietnam.com/northern-vietnam/cities/hanoi/attractions/van-mieu-temple-of-literature.html).

😳

So after breakfast we take a taxi to the 'Long Bien' train station.

According to Google Maps, it is about 5 km away and can be reached in 15 minutes. The taxi driver is very helpful 😉 and takes us on a detour through Hanoi - or maybe he didn't understand us??? - anyway, after almost 30 minutes of driving, we arrive at a train station that didn't actually called Long Bien. Luckily, I see the name and tell the taxi driver - he is surprised, drives back and drops us off at an extremely underground corner - only a few backpackers seem to get lost here, the people on the streets look at us questioningly and don't understand English either. Now time is running out until the train departure - passing many steaming cooking pots and countless mini stalls on the street, past bird cages, scooter spare parts, small dogs, hats, melons, coconuts and chickens...fully loaded honking scooters, whistling policemen who vainly try to regulate something here - we search for the entrance to the train station. A policeman is happy about a task (still a friend and helper here) understands us and tells us the way - phew.

The train is already ready. As it stands there and how we have to climb into it, it reminds me a lot of the many train rides during my apprenticeship 😊

This train has a lot of similarities. So it starts to rumble - we sit down - Hard Seat, Soft Seat was gone 😳 - suddenly a young Vietnamese woman speaks to us in German.

The world is a village. She would like to start her apprenticeship as a hotel specialist in Wittenberg in December and is currently taking a language course at the Goethe Institute in Hanoi 😊 we have an animated conversation during the train ride, learn a lot about the country and its people and her family. We tell her about Germany and invite her - Wittenberg is practically on our doorstep. In Hai Phong, our destination, she protects us from the taxi drivers chasing tourists and negotiates a fair price for us. The taxi takes us to the port - hm, when we arrive there, we are immediately surrounded by ticket sellers for the crossing to Cat Ba Island. It's important to stay strong and not get involved in a sales conversation here, it's 'survival important' 😀

We book the Super-Speedboat, take a look at it and hope that it can still live up to its name (the sight is already slightly battered).

Hai Phong has a fairly large port - it looks a bit like Hamburg - just dirtier and technically on a different level. The aviation industry still has some developing to do 😀

The crossing is quite beautiful - the boat really goes fast, but it makes a lot of noise and looking out is not possible - the windows are as good as blind, great. After less than 1 hour of travel time, we land on the beautiful Cat Ba Island, the largest archipelago in Halong Bay.

Our hotel is located in a nature resort right on the beach - we find cute bungalows here under coconut trees. After the last few days of travel, with the many impressions among thousands of people and extremely heavy traffic, it is a total oasis of relaxation for the eyes and ears - aaahhh.

Looking back on the last few days, we get an idea of what is meant by the growing world population, resource depletion and environmental pollution. We live in Germany at an extremely high level in every respect - it's just a pity that the youth is missing.

(Kerstin)

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