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Published: October 20th 2008
hello. Last time we wrote we were about to embark on our Halong Bay journey. This is one of those "must sees" here in SE Asia, and after our trip we would definitely agree. We chose to travel on a tour through the Hanoi Youth Hostel (choosing a tour is the biggest challenge as there are thousands of choices from all the travel agencies throughout Hanoi, and they are all pretty much the same). However, the youth hostel promised a younger crowd and getting off the beaten track a bit with a visit to their private beach. We ended up with a great group comprised of 4 Brits, 2 other Americans besides ourselves, an Aussie, an Irish girl, a Canadian, and Dutch girl, in addition to a crazy English dude from the Channel Islands (the British ones, not our California ones!) who was our guide, named Stacy. We boarded our junk boat about midday on the 1st day, cruised out through the islands and did a bit of kayaking. We were served both lunch and dinner on the boat, and each consisted of multi-course traditional Vietnamese meals-delicious. The first night was spent chatting and hanging out on the upper deck of
the boat, along with some late-night swimming and jumping.
The next day we transfered off the junk boat to a smaller boat which brought us out to the company's private beach. We had the choice to either kayak or rock climb for the morning-most of the group, including ourselves, chose kayaking-mostly since it was the cheaper option. We kayaked through some caves, into lagoons, as well as to some gorgeous little coves (Check out the pictures to get an idea of the scenery!) The afternoon was spent chilling on the beach and cheering on the rock climbers on their most difficult ascent of the day. In the evening we cruised back to Cat Ba island, where they fed us a pizza dinner and put us up in a decent hotel overlooking the harbor.
The next day we finally woke up to some sunshine (it had been overcast the previous too days with random showers). (As a side note-it just started pouring rain right now and our internet cafe has a tin roof that is making it so loud Matt and I can barely hear eachother!) Ok, back to our last day...we boarded the junk boat we had stayed on the
first night for a morning cruise back to the mainland. Everyone enjoyed the sunshine and spent the cruise laying out in the lounge chairs on the top deck. We were bussed back to Hanoi and arrived just in time for a quick dinner, a shower at the hostel and then onto an overnight bus that would take us down the coast to Hue.
Our bus was a sleeper bus that consisted of three rows of two levels of "beds" that almost reclined to flat, but not quite, and almost had enough leg room to stretch out, but not quite! However, we both slept surprisingly well on the bus, though it was quite a bumpy ride (I had to strap myself down with the seatbelt to keep from falling out) and our driver was obsessed with honking the horn.
We woke up to a rainy day in Hue, so we invested in some .18 cent ponchos and set out to explore the city. We took a short river cruise, saw a pagoda and walked around the citadel, but that was about all there was to do, so we quickly moved on the next day.
Hoi An was the next destination, and
only a short 3 hour bus ride from Hue. In Hanoi we invested in an open tour bus ticket, which entitles us to 5 trips between set destinations. While it restricts our flexibility as to choosing where we go, it was the cheapest and most convenient option for getting down the super long Vietnamese coast. It also leaves at specific times of the day depending on the destination and thus far has arrived almost exactly at the scheduled arrival time-a novelty after our Lao travel experiences.
Hoi An is a charming town that is every girl's dream-it is filled with tailors who will make everything from a tailor-made suit to a bikini-all at a discount price! It is impossible to visit Hoi An without having at least one item made, so Matt and I joined the masses and chose some things out of a catalog, were measured, and are now waiting to see the results. It was fantastic to open a catalog, point to anything, choose the fabric and the color and tell the tailor-"make that!"
We met up with some friends from our Halong tour and shared some dinner and drinks with them. Hopefully we will continue to run
into them as our travel paths cross.
Yesterday, the weather finally cleared and we had some sunshine again. We rented a motorbike and headed out to the coast to the local beach for our first real dip in the South China Sea. We met some Slovenians who had found a volleyball and had a game of doubles, then enjoyed the rest of the afternoon hanging out with them (learning about Eastern European politics and all the other stuff that is left out of American history classes).
This morning we rented another motorbike and loaded ourselves and all our packs onto it (Lao style) for the 20km drive up the coast to China Beach (we had heard some good recommendations on a place to stay up here and some rumors about surf). Luckily the rain held off long enough for us to find the place-Hoa's Place, then started coming down. The guesthouse has a super friendly owner who is promising us one of the best family meals for dinner tonight (and who Matt beat in a backgammon game over lunch). The surf is currently blown out because of the storm, but it looks like it has potential, so we are keeping
breakfast on the Junk boat
family style dinners...ie. all you can eat-the last man standing, or sitting in this case. our fingers crossed. (sort of looks like Rio Nexpa in Mexico) We're hoping to relax here for a few days, rain or shine, then head back to Hoi An to pick up our clothes before heading south again.
The internet connection in Vietnam (as well as the quality of computers) has been some of the worst yet, so pictures will have to be uploaded at a later date. We'll give it a shot in a little bit, but we aren't promising anything!
See you in Nha Trang! Cheers!
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aunt pat
non-member comment
let there be sun!
Loved your blog!! So what did each of you have made at the tailors? Everything sounds awesome in Vietnam and I'm already looking forward to your next entry. Stay safe, have fun. Many Hugs