Farewell Ha Long Bay

A disturbed night: the red wine or the coffee, or the Singapore Slings? The food has been amazing on this trip. Breakfast at 6.45 and then an hour trip to sail through a cave and back out again. We saw monkeys!! It was the worse of mass tourism, boatloads of people being herded on to sampans and then back on the tender to be back on the mother ship for 8.30, check out and brunch at 9.30.

Said long goodbyes to the crew and to the other four - John and Veronica, Peter and Karen and of course the lovely Chris, the history graduate currently a tour guide and cookery demonstrator. I am John's hero because I travel alone. Well need must.

I had a bit of a wait for the minivan. It'll take me back to the hotel where hopefully a car will meet me to take to Noi Ban and by tonight I'll be v back in the heat in Hoi An. It was drizzly and 17 Deg this morning.

Hanoi was interesting and I'm glad I went but I'm half I'm not going back. One thing you notice is that her there is evidence of bike helmets being worn. None of that in Lao. Seeing young kids being carried by parents on bikes is normal in SE Asia but one sight in Luang Prabang made me look twice. A young mum, in business wear, coming out of the Ecole Maternelle at lunchtime on her bike with her toddler fast asleep on her lap and the kid's backpack over the handlebars. Safety! Singing more disturbing was the incident witnessed by myself and some French tourists in the grounds of a Way in LP. A man and a young girl about 7 or 8. He was very angry and shouting at her, pulling her along then he faced her and kicked her. More angry shouting as they moved on and then they were joined by a woman, her mother? The man (father?) then kicked the girl again in the groin. She said nothing, didn't react, no tears. Then the couple and the girl walked off. And none of us who saw it did anything. I couldn't work out after why. Different language, different culture, fear, the fact it looked like her parents and her mother was there? I don't know. Language probably played a big part and just not knowing how to get involved. A couple of days later in a cafe there was info about local social services but too late by then.

Edit: and in Ha Noi the welcome is out for Trump and Kim Jong-Un. Banners and then close to the airport, flags - US, N Korea and Vietnam.