Hanoi, second glance

Returning from the Ha Long bay my first week of Vietnamese lessons took off. My teacher's name is Ngoc and we get along very nicely. Pictures of my her and my school will follow. The lessons are definitely showing some effect, as the people that I try to talk to on different daily occasions now usually get what I am trying to tell them and if I asked them to restrain their talking speed a bit I am also capable of following a simple conversation.
I used this week also to explore Ha Noi a bit further, without making that many pictures yet, but here are some of my second impressions.

Nam from my Hotel

 Entrance to the botanical garden

Botanical garden with wedding couple taking photos. As there are only very few parks in Hanoi, you will find wedding couples taking photos in them every day at every time of day. That noon there I counted 7 couples in the (rather small) botanical garden only.

 Traffic in the finer shopping street

 

The city is a badminton court :o)

(And not only badminton, you find people using streets and parks for all kinds of sports activities. From Tai Chi to fitness to aerobic to dancing classes. It's really cool.)

Our little Christmas party in the hotel lobby

Ha Long bay

As I had to wait till Monday for my Vietnamese lessons to start, I decided to do a quick two days all-inclusive touristic boat trip to Ha Long Bay. The bay is indeed amazing. I am happy that I have been to the Pang Nga bay in Thailand first, 'cause this really dwarfs it, and thus I couldn't have enjoyed the scenery as much down there, if I had been to Ha Long already. But checkout the pictures for yourself.

 The boat

 My roomies Frank and Dominik

 The amazing cave (That's really it's official name :)

Hanoi first impressions

Here some impressions from my first two days in Hanoi. Beautiful city, I really like it so. Absolutely not comparable to Bangkok, more to southern France maybe. But still with a very unique style.
Well, I will have plenty of time to explore it further, as I will be taking a two-weeks Vietnamese language class, starting tomorrow. Let's see how far I can get :o)

The entrance to the old citadel

 The temple at the biggest lake of the many lakes of Hanoi

View over another lake

 It's christmas :o)

 The old (1000 years) university of Hanoi

 A wise emperor

 traffic in Hanoi ... it's a bit exhausting, especially the continuous honk noise
The streets (mostly without name signs) are a bit confusing, too. So far, it takes me about 20 minutes from my hotel to my language school (by scooter) and about 45 minutes to get back (the to the school is pretty straight forward, but it's a one way and the way back is far more confusing)

 shopping street in the old town

 a small temple in the old town with tree being part of the building (very neat, they do that quit often here)

 One of Hanois many (seriously many) galleries

 Oh yes it's christmas ...

 Hoan Kiem lake at dusk

 Well, I let this one speak for itself ;-)

Short trip to Ayuthaya

As I changed my decision to go to Hanoi by train and not overland, I had two days to kill in Bangkok. As I have seen quiet a bit of the city in the first week that I stayed here, I decided to explore the surrounding sites a bit. So I went for two days to Ayuthaya, the old regal capital (destroyed  by the Burmese in the 1760ies)
See for yourself ...

Buddha in the Bhodi tree :o)

The three kings (or their respective ashes)

Ko Tao impressions

Besides being underwater Ko Tao is a nice but not highly exciting place to hang around. The whole island is more or less like one giant bungalow resort. But it still has pretty corners and when meeting a few nice people you can surely have a good time there ...

My new "awsome!" PADI diving friend and buddy Edvin :o)

Hanging out at the beach bar

Sairee beach

Miguel, Carin, Oliver

Malika

Oh, and it's raining again ...

And bye, bye Ko Tao

From Ko Yao Noi to Ko Tao

After a one day stop on Ko Yao Noi I took the bus from Phuket to Chumpon on the 28th of November which meant enduring eight hours of incredibly loud (and bad) Thai pop music.
Arriving a bit exhausted that way I stayed in Chumpon for one day checking out the nearest beach where I saw a couple of kite surfers. It was actually a nice to change to the typical beautiful south sea style beaches in Krabi. Reminded me a bit of the North sea back home.

After that I took the morning ferry to Ko Tao (quiet a rough ride) where I spend the last 5 days mainly with doing the beginner level diving course. Lacking an underwater camera and being a bit lazy I haven't made any pictures yet. Above water there's not much to see anyway. The island is like a giant bungalow resort with a couple of nice beaches and a few forested mountains in the middle. Since I met a couple of nice people from different countries, I'm having also a good time onshore. And hey, a nice beach, 30 degrees, the sea ... could be worse :)

A couple more days at Krabi and Phang Nga bay

After coming back from Ko Pu, I spend another three days at Krabi exploring the landscape by scooter.
It's been great for the landscape really is amazing.

Who sees the crabs?

Karst mountains

Not too shabby 

 Just a regular sight

After exploring a bit more of Krabi backcountry I ventured further North to the Phang Nga bay with its amazing rock islands (actually swam out to one of them , realizing how painstakingly slow a propulsion method swimming really is; it took me almost two ours to get there and back  to the shore)

View  of the island offshore of my resort when I started swimming ...

... and when I came back :)

Impressions of the bay from the ferry to Ko Yao Noi (see also next pictures)