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Week 46 - Y2 (Jan 14th to Jan 20th) |
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Sun., Jan 14:
I got up early again this morning for a boat trip down
the Perfume River. It stopped off at a bunch of royal
tombs and pagodas on the way, none of which were as
interesting as I had hoped. Also, the tour had a
bunch of older people on it, and I had absolutely no
one to talk to except for this really boring Irish
guy! Disappointing for sure. When I got back to the
hotel, I waited for a little bit, and then the bus
came to pick me up for an overnight trip to Hanoi.
While I was waiting, I met Drew, a guy from Montana
who was also taking the bus to Hanoi. Drew works as a
fisherman in Alaska during the summers, and spends the
rest of his time travelling.
On the bus, we were pretty pumped at first because it
was only half full and we had seats to ourselves. But
then . . . this crazy crazy lady ended up sitting
beside me. She kept on pushing me into the corner,
and at one point she actually smacked me in the butt
to get me to move over more! Worst bus ride ever.
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Mon., Jan. 15:
We arrived in Hanoi at about 6am. Drew and I shared a
taxi to the Kangaroo Hotel, which he had heard was a
good place to stay. We got ripped off on the taxi and
didn't realize it til later-- the taxi driver had
rigged the meter to go faster!
When we got to the hotel, we had to wait until 7:30 to
get rooms. It turned out that double rooms were the
same price as single rooms, so Drew and I decided to
share a double room to cut down on costs.
After sleeping for a couple hours, we hit the town--
most of Hanoi's action is in the Old Quarter, which is
this crazy bustling area around Hoan Kiem Lake that is
really French and really Asian at the same time. The
street names change pretty much every other block, and
it's a really confusing maze of streets and traffic,
but it's really cool! The lake has kind of a misty
quality about it, and there's a little island in the
middle of it with a little temple that we visited.
The temple has the remains of a 240 pound turtle that
was found in the lake.
Then we went to the Dong Xuan Market for a look--
claustrophobic and crazy!
After dinner, we found a jazz club-- it was really
weird to think that I'm listening to jazz in Vietnam!
We didn't stay too long though, because we're both
going on a trip to Halong Bay tomorrow early in the
morning. (It seems like Vietnamese people never
sleep!)
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Tues., Jan. 16:
Drew and I got up really early to take a minibus to
Halong City for our Halong Bay tour.
The bus trip took about 3 and a half hours, and then
finally we got on our boat for the tour. The boat was
amazing! 3 stories, with a nice dining hall, patio on
the roof and sleeping cabins on the lower level. Also
on the tour were 4 really awesome Swedish guys, a
Hungarian couple and 4 Koreans. It was kind of fun to
use my limited ability to speak Korean.
We sailed for awhile, and finally we started seeing
all these beautiful rocky islands-- all very tall and
narrow. You can see where the water has started
chipping away at the base of the islands. The water
in the bay is really peaceful and emerald green. It
was a little foggy and pretty chilly, but still
incredibly beautiful.
Our first stop was at Sung Sot Cave, which is this
massive massive cave. It's been declared a Unesco
World Heritage Site, so you can walk with a tour guide
through the cave and see all the different rock
formations that have come about from the water.
We had a really nice Vietnamese lunch on the boat, and
then we stopped over at a floating village. These are
really cool-- it's basically a bunch of tiny houses
that float along the water. There's even a floating
elementary school. Most of these families are dirt
poor, but pretty self-sufficient. Most of them fish
for a living. Get this-- there's even floating
convenience stores! Women will row up to you with a
boat full of fruit and candy and snacks for sale. At
the floating village, we had the choice to buy some
fish that the cooks would prepare with dinner. I
opted not to, but the Koreans bought some squid to eat
raw.
Our final stop for the day was this lovely beach on
one of the islands. There were stairs up the mountain
so that you could see Halong Bay from above, and we
stayed there for the sunset. It was too cold to swim
(the crazy Swedish guys went in anyway!) but I did dip
my feet in the water for awhile.
Dinner on the boat was great-- more seafood done
Vietnamese style. After dinner Drew and I played
dominoes with the Hungarian couple for awhile, and as
it turned out, it was one of the Swedish guys'
birthdays, so we ordered a bottle of Johnny Walker and
played cards and actually got a little drunk! The
Swedish guys are absolutely hilarious and totally
fun-loving. By the end of the night, Drew and Joaquin
were jumping off the roof of the boat into the water!
(The boat staff didn't think it was as fun as we
apparently did)
Everyone slept on the boat that night in really cozy
sleeping cabins with private bathrooms. I'm totally
surprised at how nice this tour is so far!
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Wed., Jan. 17:
An early breakfast on the boat, and then some
reorganzation-- some people had booked 2 day tours,
but Drew, the Swedish guys and I had booked a 3 day
tour, so we changed to a smaller boat. Of course,
this was kind of a hassle, because the boat was late
to pick us up, and it took a long time to get everyone
where they were supposed to be.
Finally we got to Monkey Island, where we checked out
the local monkeys (they're really vicious! They'll
steal your stuff! But they're hilarious!) Then we
kayaked around the island, which was absolutely
amazing! The water was pristine and fantastic. I did
manage to get completely drenched, however.
After kayaking, the boat took us to Cat Ba Island,
which is the only populated island of the 2000+
islands in Halong Bay. We were checked into a nice
hotel there and given some time to rest and clean
ourselves up.
Then it was on to a 2 hour trek in Cat Ba National
Forest. We had been warned that the trek was actually
pretty difficult, but I figured it would be fine-- it
was technically really demanding, but not too bad
physically. We were basically climbing up huge rocks,
and actually I needed quite a bit of help from Drew,
because the rocks were too big for me to jump, and my
shoes weren't really good hiking shoes. But I
finished it! Still not a huge fan of the trekking
though . . .
The trek ended at our guide's house in the little
countryside village. It seems like Vietnamese people
always have their doors open, and people just kind of
wander from house to house. Space is cramped so a lot
of people hang out on the street too-- eating,
gossiping, playing, etc. In the guide's house, there
was this huge waterbong that was filled with really
strong bamboo tobacco. I didn't try any, but
surprise, surprise, the Swedish guys went to town!
They've also tried the local snake wine.
We had a little free time to shower before dinner, and
then we had a really nice dinner at the hotel. Our
guide Luca wanted to take us out for the night (he's
really cool!) so we made plans to meet up with him
after dinner, but then we couldn't find the bar! So
we went into the Blue Note, which was having a "Buy 2
get 1 free" happy hour special on beer. Throw in 4
crazy Swedes, an American ranch boy and me, and you've
got a wild party! When the bar filled up with
foreigners, the owner turned on the karaoke-- everyone
in the bar was yelling out the songs together and
dancing all over the place. We all got very very
drunk! Believe it or not, our guide showed up a few
hours later! I don't know how he found us, but he
jumped right in on the karaoke.
By the end of the night, I had lost Drew and the
Swedes, but Luca very kindly walked me back to the
hotel, where I found Drew wandering around looking for
me. Daniel, one of the Swedes, apparently thought it
would be a good idea to go swimming off the pier, but
unfortunately fell prey to a scam, and ended up
getting his camera, shoes and money stolen! You gotta
be careful with the locals-- even if you think they
want to be your friends, there's probably some
ulterior motive. I hate to be so suspicious, but
Daniel thought that he was making friends, and look
how it turned out.
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Thurs., Jan. 18:
Ugh. None of us are in good form today. Drew and I
are the only ones who actually managed to make it up
in time for breakfast this morning, so there was a
busload of tourists waiting around for our group to be
ready. Finally we drove to our new boat for the day,
where we joined another group, including a really nice
Irish girl named Cira. The boat took us a short trip
back to the mainland, where we had lunch, and then it
was a bus back to Hanoi. We all slept on the 4 hour
bus ride. 3 of the Swedes are taking a 24 hour bus to
Nha Trang tonight, and Cira is bussing down to Hue.
Daniel wanted to try dog meat, so Luca offered to take
us out for the evening in Hanoi. After sleeping for a
couple more hours, Luca picked us up at our hotel.
While we were waiting for Luca, Drew and I met a girl,
Christine who is staying at our hotel, so she decided
to come along with us. So Luca took Daniel, Drew,
Christine and I to this really basic looking
restaurant-- no chairs or tables, just mats on the
floor, and they spread newspaper down as a kind of
tablecloth. Luca ordered several dog dishes for us to
try. The smell alone was absolutely repulsive. I
only managed 1 small piece of dogmeat, and I almost
threw up with that one, so I gave up pretty early!
Fortunately, Luca had ordered some noodle and bamboo
soup as well. I think Luca was hoping that we'd have
a big night out, but Drew and I were both still
hurting from last night, and Daniel had a flight to
Hong Kong early in the a.m., so we bailed after
dinner, and went straight to bed.
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Fri., Jan. 19:
We slept in a little today, which was nice, but kind
of ruined our day a little. Drew and I had been
planning to check out some museums, and we proceeded
on foot to the History Museum, but we made it there at
about 11, and it seems that every museum in Hanoi
closes in the afternoon from 11:30 to 1:30! How
ridiculous is that! So they let us look around for
half an hour, then told us to come back later. We
didn't really have anything else to do, and it was
really frickin cold today, so we spent the 2 hours
hanging out in a coffee shop. The rest of the museum
wasn't really worth the wait. We spent the rest of
the day just walking around, looking for a jacket for
Drew-- he's going on a trek to Sapa in the north part
of Vietnam tonight, and apparently it's almost 0
degrees there right now!
At 8pm, I said goodbye to Drew-- it was lucky that I
met him, cause it was nice to have a friend and a
roommate for a week! I think we'll probably keep in
touch.
The hotel didn't have any other rooms left, so I was
put in a room with a Dutch girl, Deborah, which was
fine with me, cause it'll be cheaper. But I was still
pretty worn out from my shenanigans earlier in the
week, so I went to bed early again.
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Sat., Jan. 20:
Because Drew and I kind of wasted yesterday, I joined
a city tour for today to see all the sights. Same as
usual-- driving around for about an hour to all the
different hotels to pick tourists up. Apparently city
tours are something that only old people do-- everyone
on the tour was well over middle-aged, and I didn't
really have anyone to talk to. Where's Drew when I
need him! Our first stop was Tran Quoc Pagoda, one of
the oldest in the city. Next, we went to the Ho Chi
Minh Mausoleum Complex. In the tradition of Lenin and
Mao, Ho Chi Minh's embalmed body is on display for all
those who want to see. You can't bring anything in
with you, so you have to check your cameras and bags;
and then everyone walks single file past the body,
standing up straight, and making no gestures. It's
kind of surreal. After the body, we took a look at Ho
Chi Minh's presidential palace and stilt house, as
well as the One Pillar Pagoda, which is a pagoda that
is balanced on only one pillar. People come here to
pray for children.
The next stop was the Temple of Literature, which was
the first university in Vietnam. It's quite lovely.
They have all these stones engraved with the names of
all the people who have ever passed the exams. There
was also live traditional music, featuring the
monochord instrument, as well as the lap harp that I
loved so much in Hoi An.
After a delicious but very boring lunch with the old
folks, we went to Ngoc Son Temple, which I had already
seen with Drew. Our last stop was the Museum of
Ethnology, which was fantastic. Vietnam is comprised
of several different ethnic minorities, including
loads of hill tribes such as the Hmong, ethnic Thai
and so on. (Similar to the hill tribes in Thailand
and Laos) This museum gave really good breakdowns of
the population of Vietnam, and gave a lot of detail
about the lifestyles of all the different minorities.
Since I don't have time to go up to Sapa to see it for
myself, this provided a good substitute.
When I arrived back at the hotel, I ran into
Christine, and we walked around the Old Quarter for
awhile, stopping for coffee and pho (noodle soup).
She bussed out to Hoi An at 7pm, and then I changed
rooms at the hotel again (the Dutch girl left today).
I ended up in a room with a really sweet Israeli
couple. It was really interesting to talk to them--
both have served in the Israeli army (even girls have
mandatory service), but both loved the idea of serving
their country. Again, I can't believe how different
their lives are from mine.
With the hotel, I'm amazed at how little privacy it
seems that Vietnamese people have in their lives. My
hotel is family-owned, and the family sleeps here. At
night, they pull out mats and bedding and sleep in the
lobby. Their bedrooms are packed back away into the
corner every single morning. Their bathroom is shared
with all the guests of this hotel as the restaurant
bathroom. I can't imagine not having any space to
really call my own, or having to pack all my
possessions away in the corner every day. It's only
been a month, but I hate living out of a backpack.
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