Halong Bay Day!

Today awoke ready to catch our shuttle to Halong Bay. This was a huge trip highlight for us, and something we had been looking forward to since Day 1. We got up, ate breakfast, and checked out of our hotel when the receptionist told us our ride had arrived. In the two minutes it took us to check out, our ride had disappeared. The receptionist looked a bit confused, but had just said that there was no parking on the street so they drove around the block. Well, we were hardly the only people at our hotel going to Halong Bay. It was basically organized chaos in the lobby of our hotel as about fifty people were catching random rides from different companies to the bay. Slowly the lobby cleared out, and there was nobody left waiting for a ride except for Brad and I. At this point, our ride was supposed to pick us up an hour ago. The receptionist reassured us that our ride was still it's way. At this point we knew that something was up. We waited another half hour, until the receptionist told us that two people got on the shuttle who were supposed to be with another company. A taxi was going to come pick us up and take us to meet our bus out by the highway. We were pleased that our receptionist had dealt with all the arrangements for us even though there was a mixup. When we reached the bus, everyone on it exclaimed "Brad!!!!" Apparently they had gone around asking everyone if they were Brad or knew who Brad was. The poor couple who had gotten on instead of us had been taxied to the correct bus.

We had a three hour bus ride to Halong City, the closet port to the bay. The trip was pretty uneventful and I slept most of the way (except for waking every few minutes when we hit and enormous bump). We got to Halong Bay, and took a little shuttle boat to our larger cruise boat, our home for two nights.

Many of the boats in Halong Bay look pretty rough. This is, after reading many blogs, because they are. We were warned not to take a cheap boat due to the fact the accommodations and food are not very good, and there was the possibility of rats on the boat. We were pleasantly surprised with the interior of our boat. Beautiful dark woodwork everywhere, spacious room and private bathroom. There were about 15 or so rooms on our boat, so it was not very crowded at all. We were greeted with a welcome drink and quite a delicious lunch. We then marvelled on the top deck of the boat as we cruised through emerald waters marked with glistening limestone cliffs. It was just like in all the photos you can google image search. It was pretty spectacular.

After cruising for awhile, we reached our first kayaking destination: a floating village. Until about 8 months ago, people lived in what were literally floating villages. They built houses on top of floatation devices and lived a couple hours off the shore of Vietnam. Unfortunately, these people were recently asked to move to mainland due to the water pollution problems they were causing. There was also an issue with educating the children. As you can imagine, getting a teacher to come out to the middle of the bay is not easy. Surprisingly, there was also an issue with the children not knowing how to swim(!), so drowning was another problem the government was not pleased with. When we kayaked through, there were a few houses left there to stage what a floating village used to look like. It was still very beautiful kayaking right next to the mountains, even though the floating village was a bit of a letdown. I had never kayaked before, and only canoed once, so Brad got the task of teaching me how to kayak. Luckily, Brad was pretty patient when it came to me spazzing at him when the kayak rocked back and forth.

After our kayak adventure, we were soaked with ours and the sweat of many before us that wore the life jackets we fashioned. We were then told it was time for swimming! We threw on our swimsuits and jumped off the boat into the ocean water. There is something very refreshing and wonderful about swimming around the mountains in the middle of the ocean like that. We had a pretty fantastic swim. I showered, and then we watched the marigold sky as we cruised into the sunset.

Dinner was very good on our boat. It never ceases to amaze us how many plates keep coming to our table during set meals. Between four of us, we had at least ten different dishes come to our table to enjoy. After dinner, we made some friends with an English couple and we sang karaoke and drank beer until 11pm, when we got shut down for the evening by the boat staff. We also hung out with a lovely Scottish and Australian couple, where we finished our night with beers under the stars in the upper deck. It was honestly paradise. It is one of the most beautiful places I've ever visited, with one of the most wonderful souls I have ever met :-).

Hoi An to Hanoi

Because of our night bus experience, we decided that we would fly for the next leg of our trip. We booked some fairly cheap tickets with Vietjet and also booked a private car to take us to the airport.

We had to be up fairly early. The staff at our hotel were excellent; they knew we had a flight so our doorbell rang twice at 5:45am to wake us up. That was followed by a phone call and one more doorbell ring. We were up and ready, ate breakfast and headed out.

We were sleepy but nothing some iced teas and coffees didn't fix. We had an exceptionally smooth flight and landed, without having made any onward travel plans. We dealt with the typical airport confusion, booked a hotel and grabbed a taxi. I felt like the taxi driver was taking too many turns and ripping us off so we only paid in what we thought was fair. Easy.

The service at our 'Rising Dragon' hotel was very good. Our room was clean and comfortable. The front desk helped us book a trip to Ha Long Bay and recommended some good restaurants around Hanoi.

We had an uninspiring bowl of Pho while sitting on the street because it was close and we didn't take any of our receptionist's suggestions. Very shortly after this, I decided we should eat again. This was partly due to the fact that our soup was shit, and partly due to the fact that I was actually still hungry.

We went for bun cha which means pork BBQ. This was absolutely delicious. You get a bowl of BBQ pork belly and BBQ pork patties with something like bamboo, all soaking in a salty, fishy broth. You also get an enormous pile of rice noodles, minced chillies and garlic, and tons of fresh herbs and greens. We also got a huge pile of crab filled spring rolls. Basically, you take some of everything, mix it together in a bowl and chow down. This was an absolutely fantastic meal.

We checked out a local park known for having a mystical lake. According to legend, there was something about a turtle and a sword and a lake. Yaaaa, I dunno, I wasn't paying attention. 

We stumbled upon a traditional water puppet theatre and decided to take in the show. Even though it was all in Vietnamese, we enjoyed watching the puppets dance around in the water, and we wre also impressed with the live Vietnamese music. Overall, it was an unexpected, mesmerizing experience.

We decided to check out some shops and head to the market. The market was closed so we opted for an A/C break at our hotel. We had a map, we knew where we were, but we still got lost. Several times. In fact, as soon as we thought we knew where we were, we'd be lost again. It was so bad that we actually walked right by our hotel unknowingly.

The old quarter of Hanoi has a wild feel. The streets are narrow and congested with millions of motorbikes, taxis, locals and tourists, all of whom equally share the road. There are no rules, no right of way, and no space. Restaurants, street vendors, and trades people have their tables set up in the streets and often times traffic simply moves around them. The maze of streets all look equally chaotic and equally similar.

We freshened up at our hotel and headed out for dinner and beers. I am always on the look out for bia hoi and we selected a local joint that had plenty of bia hoi freely flowing. We had some delicious noodles and spring rolls and had a very entertaining waiter. The beers went down easily.

We called it a night and packed our small bags for our exciting trip to Ha Long Bay tomorrow!

Hoi An Day 2

We were early to bed so we were early to rise. I always look forward to the tar-like Vietnamese coffee in the morning and look forward to when the hunger demons release my wife from their grip. We had nothing planned for today aside from picking up Josie's coat.

After our breakfast noodle bowls, coffees, tea, and dragon fruit (and ants - these little guys are inadvertently served with every meal), we grabbed Josie's new coat and decided to wander the town.

Soon enough it was lunch so we tried going to another restaurant recommendation but they weren't open yet so we ate delicious noodle bowls of cao lau on the sidewalk on tiny plastic outdoor furniture. It is kind of like urban camping. Restaurants like these are found in every street corner here.

We arranged a boat ride around the rivers and ended up with a hilarious driver. He spoke almost no English but we still shared lots of laughs. He suddenly motioned for Josie to drive the boat so she reluctantly jumped behind the wheel. Both the driver and I found this hilarious. Then it was my turn. I started horsing around and weaving the boat about the river. Josie was rolling her eyes and the driver thought this was hilarious. His laughter caused all three of us to laugh. I got brave and suddenly did a doughnut on the middle of the river. More laughing at this, absolutely.

We met another boat in the river where I got to try throwing a traditional fishing net into the water. Then we headed through some smaller, picturesque channels back.

We made several stops at different restaurants and pubs for bia hoi, and the local specialties white rose (shrimp dumplings with croutons), and deep fried wontons with a sort of salsa.

After sneaking across the Japanese covered bridge without paying the toll, we decided to have hotel room cool off time before dinner.

Dinner was delicious again. Another recommended restaurant which turned out to have the same owners as the one from last night. We had hot pots (like soup only better). Food here is fantastic!

Our guidebook recommended Why Not? for a drink. When we got there, the answer was blatantly obvious. We didn't even finish our beers, instead we wandered town with them (which isn't a problem here). One more beer, then bedtime.

Hoi An

After an extremely long and uncomfortable bus ride (imagine laying in the cargo container for 12 hours), we finally arrived in Hoi An. We were very pleased to get off the bus and see that our luggage hadn't been stolen throughout our frequent stops during the night. We were also pleased that we had already arranged a place to stay and that it was within walking distance. 

Our hotel staff was great. They greeted us with breakfast and information about the town. We took our morning poops and then headed out to explore.

The entire old centre of Hoi An is a UNESCO world heritage site. Because of it's unique location between a river and the ocean, it was in important stop on early Asian trading routes. This meant that over the years it was occupied by the Chinese, Japanese, and French. The result is a fantastic collection of old buildings, narrow pedestrian-only streets, and the influence of many cultures. Most of the buildings are painted yellow except for the tea warehouses which are slightly taller and made of dark wood. Lanterns are the main source of light in the evening, painting the town in a rainbow of colour. 

Tourism is the main industry in Hoi An; shops and restaurants are endless but nothing compared to the amount of tailors you can find here. In fact, the tailors out number the other businesses in town two to one.

After finding our bearings, we couldn't help but be drawn into the tailor shops to check out the situation. You can have anything you want made in about a day. You name it: suits, dresses, winter costs (even though winter doesn't exist here), luggage, accessories, shoes - it doesn't matter. If you can dream it, it will be created for you overnight.

Surprisingly, I was the one who began to cave first. I shopped around but simply couldn't resist the offer to have custom leather shoes made. Red leather shoes, specially made for my feet? Yes please! Cost: $45. Time: 3 hours from measurements to shoes.

Josie also caved. A custom fall jacket was created for her. She chose the style, fabric, and trim, and then had her measurements taken. The next morning it was ready. $40.

Because of Facebook, we realized that we would be in Hoi An at the same time as a colleague of ours from university so we met up with her for lunch. We enjoyed seeing a familiar face (first one in a month), sharing stories, and having a delicious east Indian meal.

Central and northern Vietnam are known for bia hoi, or fresh beer. We enjoyed drinking these for about 30¢ per glass. This beer only lasts for the day, and often restaurants run out and then you have to drink beer from the more traditional bottles.

Lonely Planet, fellow travellers, and hotel staff all on separate occasions recommended we eat at a particular restaurant so we headed there for dinner. Josie had a noodle soup dish typical for this area of Vietnam and I had squid stuffed with pork. It was delicious.

We tried to take in some of the evening buzz but were exhausted from our travels from the previous night so we got the sack early (but not before cool-off-naked-in-front-of-AC time with beers).

Beer

Sent from Samsung Mobile

The hot bus

We slept in long this morning, as we had nothing planned. It felt wonderful! We had booked a night bus to Hoi An the day before, so we had nothing to do but roam the streets of Nha Trang.

We stopped for a little bite to eat at a cafe, and decided we better look for flights from Hanoi to Bangkok. Hanoi is our last destination before flying home to Canada from Bangkok. This ended up being a very long task, as every time we tried to book a flight, it erred. After three hours of frustration, we gave up.

We walked to a travel agency, since booking a flight on our own seemed impossible. She was able to book us the flight we wanted by using her phone and facebooking her counterpart in Saigon (sketchy!). Then, when Brad went to pay, they didn't have a machine to pay with. Brad and the lady went down the street to pay at another store whilst I waited in the office. He paid and came back, and we waited for our tickets to be emailed to us. Remarkably, they were. It was the weirdest experience booking a flight ever!

The lady suggested a place we go for lunch. It was definitely local place, and there was no English there. We pointed to a picture we wanted, and ended up getting a super delicious meal! Bonus.

We then went for Beer o' Clock since we had a short time to kill before catching our bus. While we were at Local 2, the power on the whole block went out. If you've ever seen the tangle of power lines in Asia, you would know this doesn't seem so surprising. We finished our beers and spring rolls, and then went snack shopping for our bus trip. The power was out there, too, so they handed Brad a lantern and we shopped with that!

Our shuttle was 50 minutes late picking us up, and we've now been on the bus for almost 8 hours. We've gone a pitiful 250km. We're supposed to be there at 6am, but we're only a little over halfway. The bus is hot. The AC is weak. The window next to me is shattered, and there's packing tape holding some Bristol board plastic up. We stop every half hour for what I can only imagine are cigarettes. sometimes it smells like cat food on the bus. The bus itself is really nice and quite new, but it's definitely lacking some comforts. You aren't allowed to wear shoes on the bus. I put my flip flops on to go down the bus stairs, and got yelled at by the Vietnamese driver and smacked on the arm. I ended up having to step barefoot in the mud since I wasn't allowed to put my shoes on until I was off the bus.

I do not feel bad about putting muddy footprints in the bus.

Here's hoping for some sleep at 3am.

Nha Trang

After a fairly gross train ride, we arrived at Nha Trang. We quickly settled into our hotel. This is where our hotel clerk told me my eyebrows are too light and I should pencil them in black. I pretty much gave him a look that said go f*** yourself and did not have any time for him the rest of our stay there. Then, went for dinner. Brad really wanted to go snorkelling, so we searched for a tour company to do so. We couldn't find the tour company lonely planet recommended, but we were pretty sure we found the same tour. We booked it in hopes we didn't book the overfull Chinese tour we had been warned about.

We then went to this pretty sweet bar called, "Why Not?" and drank far too many strong margaritas. Brad said he only snorkels hungover.

We passed out at a decent hour and woke up early to go on our snorkel tour. We hopped on a boat and we travelled for about 45min to our first destination. I had never been snorkelling before, and was feeling pretty apprehensive about wearing flippers and a mask and floating in the ocean with nothing but those two things. Well, everyone was jumping off the boat at our first location and I didn't really have an opportunity to hesitate, so in I went jumping a meter or two off the boat into the water.

I hit the water and pretty much panicked because you can't breathe out of your nose with the mask on. I got my nerves under control, and the swam out nearing the coast of one of the islands. Once I got over the fact that I could stick my face in the water and breathe (it goes against your natural instincts!) I was amazed by what I saw. Coral of all types, starfish, sea urchins and hundreds of colourful tropical fish. It is by far one of the most incredible experiences I have ever had.

We went back on the boat to go to our next destination. The next place had tons of tennis-ball sizes jellyfish. I honestly couldn't relax and enjoy this area simply because the jellyfish kept freaking me out. Even though the little guys don't really sting (more just like a mosquito bite), I couldn't help but be intimidated by seeing 10 right close to my face.

I was pretty happy when we were done at this spot to get the hell away from those damn jellyfish. I was swimming back to the boat, when something caught my eye. I initially thought the light was refracting strangely in the water. Suddenly, it came into focus. It was one giant jellyfish, about the size of a basketball. We were told to stay away from these ones because a sting is going to hurt much more. I pretty much Bee-lined it in the other direction as fast as I could to get away from it!

When Brad also returned to the boat, he asked if I saw the giant jellyfish he did! He said he pretty much had the same thought-process: get the hell away from that thing!

It was then lunchtime. All the bench seats got folded down to create a table all 25 people could sit around. Then, they brought out squid. The morning glory. Then fish. Then spare ribs. The food just kept coming! We had a massive amount of food on the table. It was pretty much awesome, and we were all awestruck. It tasted pretty good, too!

After lunch we reached our final snorkelling destination. This was the best place by far. Tons and tons of colourful fish playfully flickering about in an alien world under the sea. There were no jellyfish here, so it was very enjoyable.

The boat ride back was lovely, too. We enjoyed watermelon, pineapple and dragon fruit as we watched the cerulean waves roll across the hull of our boat. It was incredible.

We showered all the salt water off of us when we got back to our hotel, clearly waking up our sunburnt skin. It's a little painful even today. Damn whities trying to do what the locals do!

We went for a lovely dinner in clay pots, went for a beer tasting at the local brewery Louisiane on the beach, and then walked along the beach path. It was a fantastic evening!