Ha Long... Ha Long must we sing this song... Back in Hanoi now after spending last night in the Ha Long Bay vicinity. We had signed up to sleep on a boat on the bay, but we were informed -- after we were on the bus on the way there -- that for some police reason or other, that would not be possible. Uh huh. This sort of thing is apparently par for the course with tour companies in Vietnam. They would have to put us up in a hotel instead.

The bay itself is just magnificent. We took lots of pictures, and even some short movies, but unfortunately, the internet cafes here have ancient computers without USB connections, so I won't be able to upload any until we get home. Disappointing.

They took us onto one of the islands in the bay that had a gigantic cave inside, with countless formations of dripped limestone. Very cool. And (for a small extra fee) some young boys from the local floating village (!!!) took us on their boat through a tunnel into a small basin where we were surrounded on all sides by 500 ft cliffs.

They put us up for the night in on Cat Ba Island, a seedy island town that's about how you'd expect a tourist resort run by communists to be. Our hotel room had the following nice features:

A sopping wet roll of toilet paper.

A used and very dirty comb.

Leftover food wrappers from the last tenants.

A door of lightly frosted glass, which I guess eliminates the need for Soviet-era spy cameras.

We had a number of drinks with some fellow travelers at the Flightless Bird a few doors down from our hotel, then passed out. Today we breakfasted (baguettes with cheese, a banana, and tea), boated back (even more magnificent in the sunlight after the trip out with overcast skies), lunched (some fish dish; some chicken dish; steamed bok choi, tomatoes and cucumbers [avoided], french fries, spring rolls, rice), then took the van back into Hanoi. Tomorrow we have a relaxing day, then will probably do the Perfume Pagoda on Saturday.

I cannot stress enough what a chaotic place Hanoi is. The dust, the dirt, the waves of people clogging the streets, the smells (good and bad), the sounds. The other day we hung out our hotel room and listened to see if we could hear a full second without a horn beeping. We gave up after a few minutes. We have adjusted, however, and can now cross the street like old pros.