Landing in Noi Ban airport (Hanoi, Vietnam), we felt more prepared for a new country this time. Mostly in terms of understanding the logistical side:

• VISA – we knew what the VISA process is (bring 25 USD dollars to a desk at the airport, along with your passport, an invitation letter which we paid for online for about $15, and two passport sized photos. From this they create a VISA, valid for 30-days, which they then stick into your passport).
• Money – we are using a Halifax Clarity Credit Card, which allows you to pay anywhere in the world without paying any extra fees, and lets you withdraw money without any fees (providing you pay back the credit card via online banking the same day). So at the airport, we withdrew five million Vietnamese Dong (finally a millionaire, sadly that is only £158/$220).
• SIM card – in order to maintain internet access for exploring a new country, we were advised to get a Viettel SIM card directly from the airport. For about £10/$14 we have enjoyed fast 4G internet access nearly everywhere in Vietnam.
• Transport – as part of our resolution to spend less in each country, we elected to take a local bus from the airport to our accommodation, rather than taking a more expensive taxi. We knew the bus number, price and where to get off.

Not only did we feel more confident in ourselves about what we were doing, we must have been outwardly exuding this as we waited for our bus as other people started looking to us for advice and information about how the buses work in Vietnam. We were more than happy to oblige and show off the tiny bit of internet researched knowledge we had. Steve ended up in a two-hour conversation (whilst waiting for and whilst on) the bus, with a Russian chap who has been living in China for the last couple of years. He insisted on buying Steve’s bus ticket (30,000 VND or about £0.95/$1.32) and explained that he was only in Vietnam overnight and had a flight to catch the next morning, so he wasn’t going to sleep and instead explore the city: site see in the remaining hours of the afternoon and early evening and then eat, drink and party until seven the next morning. As the talking and joking continued, he eventually explained that he does quite a lot of travelling, and has been involved in all sorts of jobs, from arranging senior businessmen in China to have Russian brides brought over, to dabbling with cryptocurrency, to keeping people quiet (that need to be kept quiet!). An extremely jovial and friendly chap, but also someone we were keen not to get too caught up with – we genuinely worried that we would end up being detained in either a Chinese or Russian airport if they saw a photograph of us together (the chap boasted of being taken to a police station more than 30 times)!

When we arrived at our hostel, Vietnam Backpackers Hostel, Hanoi, it was safe to say it was the most party based hostel we had stayed in so far. Some hostels have their own bar, and an area for the guests to socialise, but this place is more like a bar which has some rooms should anyone have any time to sleep in between playing drinking games, quizzes, dancing and other such frolics.

We got a couple of hours of sleep initially, before exploring to find some dinner and have a few drinks in the hostel. We quickly made friends with several people, including Andrea and Hanna, two Norwegian girls who were also staying in our room. The hostel was quite encouraging for everyone to have a good time, enjoy drinks at the bar, and at one point even started pouring spirits/liquor directly into the mouths of anyone who was willing! At midnight they close the party down in the hostel, and take everyone on a pub crawl, as it was our first night in Hanoi, and as our friends were keen, we decided to head along with them on the pub crawl.

Their version of a pub crawl isn’t quite like we have experienced elsewhere – they basically take everyone to one bar for two hours and then a club for as long as people want to stay. After a flight, adapting to a new city, and partying with people with youth on their side, we bailed out before everyone went to the club and retired back to our room – which was quiet by now, as everyone else was out. We drifted off to sleep, until about 3:00 am when the Norwegian girls came back, although we only briefly woke up as they got ready for bed. Then at about 3:30 am the two other people from our six-man dorm arrived, Tim and Hamish – they were drunk and whispering between themselves, but, without realising it, being loud enough that everyone could clearly hear them. So Andrea and Hanna started whispering to them too and laughing, so we joined in. We all ended up just talking for about an hour in the room, finding out where everyone had come from, laughing and discussing our plans in Vietnam. Everyone mentioned a Castaways tour that the hostel runs, saying how it is an amazing way to see Halong Bay, so we made a note to check it out.

The next day we went site seeing around Hanoi, to see: the Temple of the Jade Mountain and the Temple of Literature. We also went through the markets which sell Genuine Fake goods, such as shoes, clothes, coats, bags etc. They look identical to the original product but are all fakes (which cost a fraction of the price). It is a kind of funny situation: a lot of these goods, for the genuine shops in the UK, are actually made in Vietnam, and then in Vietnam, you buy the same (or very similar goods), still made in Vietnam, but no longer genuine. The survey is still out as to whether any of these goods, whilst looking identical, will last the test of time and not break after a few weeks of use…

We also did a walking tour in Hanoi, organised by the hostel, partly because walking tours are generally quite good, but partly because it was free! On the tour we made friends with a couple of girls from New Zealand called Libby and Bailey which Gemma instantly bonded with. Steve enjoyed a traditional Vietnamese coffee on the tour, and they also took us to a big indoor market where they probably sell everything, but finding anything is practically impossible, it is such a maze which, to our Western eyes, isn’t at all organised.

Whilst exploring the city, speaking to people, and sitting in the hostel common areas, we kept hearing people reiterate that Castaways tour, organised by the hostel is something everyone should do. The sales video of it showed a private beach in Halong Bay (a UNESCO Heritage Site), with accommodations on the beach, kayaking through caves and a boat trip around the bay itself – but we also heard from other travellers there was a lot of alcohol and partying (neither of which we are adverse to, but we just didn’t want to end up on a booze cruise and stuck on an island we can’t escape from that is out of control). So we went to the sales desk and asked them directly:

• Question: Is it a booze cruise?
• Answer: Definitely not

So that’s good:

• Question: Will there loads of forced fun, alcohol poured down your neck, drunk 20-year-olds flashing?
• Answer: Oh no, nothing like that. You two, a couple in your thirties, will be completely comfortable there

So we signed up, at £140/$200 per person, which was more than we really wanted to spend on a three-day tour, but after all the positivity we had heard, the chance to see a UNESCO World Heritage site, stay on our own island, we decided to splash out on a trip of a lifetime…

The Castaways bus picked us up from the hostel at about 8:00 in the morning, drives to the harbour, where you board a boat, which takes you to another island, which you take another bus to cross before getting a final boat to get to the actual Castaways island. So it is a bit of a painful process to get there, which isn’t helped by having to wait for every connection (the staff running the tour weren’t phased by this, and said it is just how things are in Vietnam). The bus is where you start meeting the other people that you’ll be sharing your Castaways adventure with – our bus was full of lovely people, but it was quite apparent that a lot of them were 19-year-old Americans (which we later found out were part of an American scheme called Semester at Sea, which basically means for one semester they sail around on a cruise ship, having their lessons on board, and they are then dumped at various ports of the world to explore).

The island itself is, as advertised, set in the middle of Halong Bay, which a long time ago was a solid piece of land, but now has eroded into thousands of islands. A picturesque landscape, in the middle of nowhere, and our own private island to explore it from. But shortly after arriving at the island, we started to get a taste of what the intentions of the island really were: one of the staff shouted a chant for everyone to follow, then lead us out to the beach to shotgun, which didn’t sound good, but surprising was something that all the Americans were enthusiastic about. So I asked one of them what we were doing. They were even more astounding that I didn’t know what a shotgun was than I was at the fact that they all did. So, for those of you unfamiliar… someone uses a knife to make a square shaped cut, on the side, towards the bottom of a beer can, you then hold the can on its side with said cut facing up, the team leader gives a motivational chant for everyone to follow, then everyone lifts the can with the makeshift opening to their mouth, and opens it (using the conventional ring pull), thus allowing the beer to freely flow out of the can in about two seconds flat, down the consumers throat. Do this on repeat for an entire weekend and you end up with a group of constantly drunk 19-year-old Americans and all the frivolous behaviour you would expect to come with this!

But at least we had a cultural boat trip, which definitely wasn’t a booze cruise. During the cultural boat trip, along with shotguns, a constant barrage of drinking games were played, as blaring music was piped in for us to dance to. I haven’t been on any other booze cruises to have a point of reference, but for something advertised as definitely not a booze cruise, this felt suspiciously like a booze cruise. In the middle of the cruise, we stopped and got into kayaks so we could go through caves and explore. We learned some facts about the area and it was one of the highlights of the tour. To be fair, even whilst kayaking, everyone was asked to take several beers with them, as it is hard to really appreciate millions of years of natures hard work, creating this landscape, without consuming a beer, shotgun style, in two seconds flat (as nature intended?).

Despite the digs at the fact it was far more alcohol-focused and filled with 19-year-old Americans than we had signed up for, we did have a good time and made some great friends, including Katherine and Ailsa, two Scottish girls – which were companions with us in other parts of Vietnam. Steve also tried tubing (holding onto a large inflated disc, with three other people, whilst being pulled as fast as possible by a speedboat until everyone falls in) which was lots of fun (both to watch and participate in). Although falling in the cold water was not so much fun (even our hardened Scottish friends struggled with the water temperature). We did see all of our friends from the hostel we stayed at in Hanoi, although the four of them had come the night before us, so we only crossed over for one night. They also hosted a talent contest one night, which Gemma won by performing a karaoke version of What’s Up by 4 Non Blondes which the entire island’s inhabitants (of mostly drunk Americans) joined in the chorus “And I say, hey yeah yeah, hey yeah yeah, I said hey, what’s going on?“. After the performance, one American girl told Gemma that was so honest and raw and another stated the performance had changed her life … a chap from England, on the other hand who called himself Billy Elliott (although his name is actually Elliott) loved the song and said he felt it may have even beaten his talent show entry, which seemed to consist of him showing the entire audience his birthday suit (with no real reason given as to why).

Overall we felt this was a very busy introduction to Vietnam, and we were excited for the next part of our adventure, taking a night bus (a new experience for us both). What could possibly go wrong…

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