Day 35 Monday June 8, 2009 Rented a motorscooter and went to Cat Co 2 beach. Wasn't feeling to great and the beach was crappy and the chair rental was little high 60,000 VND. Hung around town and made our plans for the next day. Vietnam facts from my experience: -Money is in Dong, abbreviated VND ...17,500 VND= $1.00 US -Most places quote you prices in US dollars -They charge 3% to use a credit card -They take your passport at every hotel to get permission from the government to get permission for you to stay. -Seems that women carry [View Full Entry]

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Day 34 Sunday June 7, 2009 Switched boats early in the morning to go to Cat BA Island. We met some people from South Africa and Australia. They were fun to talk to. We were dropped off on the harbour and of course it was about 18km from the harbour so we waited for 30 minutes in the sweltering heat on a bench with a littlle stitch of shade above us. Teh bus trip was only 10,000 VND (57 cents) to Cat Ba town and we stayed at the luxurious Bay View Inn with two super fans above the bed, and [View Full Entry]

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Day 33 Saturday June 6, 2009 We arrived in Hanoi at 5 am (too early) and exited the train station to a mob of taxi drivers (see a pattern here?). We felt like lambs in a pack of wolves. We told a cabbie we needed to go to My Dinh bus station and he said that it was too far and that he would take us to another one that would get us to our destination of Halong Bay, yeah right. We tried to shake him off and find another cabbie that would take us where we wanted to go but [View Full Entry]

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Day 32 Friday June 5, 2009 We hired a motorbike and a guide for the day to visit more villages, same guide from previous day...He is good. We wen through Ma Cha, Ta Phing and another little village whose name I didn't catch. We drove over some very sketchy roads that were uphill, very narrow, with big rocks and lots of mud--very scary!!! I had to ride with the guide through several parts and in some places I had to get off the bike completely, better him than me over those steep drops offs, Id rather walk through those sections than [View Full Entry]

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Day 31 Thursday June 4, 2009 We rented mountain bikes and a guide and took a tour through several villages: Lao Chai, Ta Van, Ban Ho where we stopped for lunch, hiked up to a waterfall and took a swim near the bottom of the waterfall. The water was so cold! We didn't bring our swimsuits but it was so hot that most people swam in their clothes or underwear b/c they would dry off fast by sitting on the rocks in the sun. Cam went swimming in his shorts and I went in my underwear (I had on a sports [View Full Entry]

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Day 30 Wednesday June 3, 2009 Oh the mountains are beautiful outside of our window!!! You can't see the top of them for the clouds, it is so cool! Took a tour of more villages today both walking and riding in an SUV, it was too rainy to do anything else. We went over Tram Tom pass to get to the 1st village of Loi Chan, we walked through tons of mud and muck but it was worth it to see the locals. The 2nd village was the Black Thai were the some of the older ladies have black teetch from [View Full Entry]

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Day 29 Tuesday June 2, 2009 Arrived in Lao Cai, Vietnam at 5am. Didn't get much sleep on train b/c I had stomach cramps and was nauseated all night. After getting off the train, we got "picked up" by a minibus to take us up the mountain to Sapa for 30,000 VND ($1.70). Got onto the crowded bus only to realize that Camden had forgotten his travel guide on the train so he ran back to get the book while the train was moving!!! Camden said two guys tried to get money from him to jump on the train and find [View Full Entry]

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Took the pumpkin train to Sapa from Hanoi. We left at 9pm and arrived at 5:30am the next morning. It was a sleeper train and we were lucky to share a compartment with a french couple. Good roommates! We stayed in Sapa until Friday and took overnight train back to Hanoi, then took bus to Halong Bay and spent one night on a boat. The boat dropped us off at Cat Ba Island on Sunday and we stayed there for 2 nights. Tuesday we head to Hoi An by boat and bus.... I will update with details later as the [View Full Entry]

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Happy 1 year anniversary to us!!! We hired a driver with a motorbike to take us to church since we were running behind. Imagine 3 full grown adults on this thing the size of a scooter traveling through the crazy streets you've seen pictures of. The lord was watching over us because we were going to church, I'm sure, because we made it safely. The St. Joseph's Cathedral in Hanoi is BEAUTIFUL!!! The mass was in French, which didn't surprise me too much because this church looked like it belonged in France with the wonderful architecture. I assume this church was [View Full Entry]

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We switched to the Camellia 4 hotel this morning on Hang Giay Street in Hanoi. We took a cyclo (bicycle with a cart for sitting in the front of it) to our 1st stop for the day which was the Vietnam History Museum, next we walked to the Women's History Museum, and then our final stop was the Hao Lo Prision were John McCain was a prisioner of war in 1967. Afterwards, we hung out at the Hoan Kiem Lake in the middle of town and watched a group of ladies performing Tai Chi in the park. Later that night we [View Full Entry]

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