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So the girls night out turned out to be... not what I expected. It was Anh's friend's cousins last night out with the girls, who ranged from 15 to 20 (25 if you count me). It was at a very expensive little bar/restaurant attached to the Sofitel Metropole Hotel. Place was called Angelina I believe. and it ran me $45 USD for two drinks and a small caprese salad. The bride-to-be was picking up the tab for her friends, and I suspect the parents paying as part of the wedding budget was the only reason such a venue was selected. Very nice place, but I was hoping to go out and experience Hanoi night life. On a Sunday night, it wasn't sounding too promising...
A little bit I did not realize, is that my friend Anh isn't permitted by her family to go out or drink, as such, she had no idea where the good (or bad) places were in Hanoi, which landed us (with me unawares at the time) asking the taxi driver for recommendations after we parted ways with the other girls. Had I realized what was being said (in Vietnamese) I would have interjected, as many driver's
get commission from certain venues to bring in customers. Also, given no specification as to what you're looking for, will assume a foreigner wants to go somewhere expensive, or they'll just take you anywhere owned by someone they know. Well... we ended up having quite an adventure.
We were taken to a bar attached to another hotel (a Sheraton I think). I can't remember the name of the place... Now, I generally avoid high end hotel bars in developing countries, as (aside from being overpriced to root out the locals they don't want) they tend to attract the traveling business people staying there (and prostitutes prowling about) and a retirement-aged travel crowd. I try to find the backpacker places where you it's easy to meet lots of other Westerners or locals a little closer to my age. But it was fun... or maybe just funny.
The music was loud techno, with a dance floor full of Asian men. But the 'dancing' consisted of lots of jumping and awkward hand moves. I finished my beer, and we decided we would go after I hit the bathroom. I walked in the first stall (half open) to discover a girl using the
toilet in a most peculiar fashion. They had Western toilets, but this girl had climbed on top, feet planted on either side of the seat and squatted over the bowl. I apologized for the intrusion and was giggling to myself so badly I almost forgot I came in to use the restroom myself. I will now always lay down paper or wipe the seat before using toilets here. All the crap that you can get walking around barefoot can now be transmitted via toilet bowl to your tush if people's shoes are being planted there.
I still laugh when I recall the image of that girl though... How odd she must think Westerners are to design toilets we must balance on top of!
Anyways, as we left there and it was almost midnight (closing time for most places in Vietnam). The taxi knew one place that was still open, and said some other foreigners went there too. It was a little drive away, down by the water. It was called Sailor's ....something. (Bar, Club, Rest, or something like that). It was actually on a boat docked at the end of a wood-planked walk over a marshy area. It was
ridiculously hot, but the music was good and we danced anyways. There were three other Westerners there and we were all soaked in sweat. (Somehow the locals never seem to sweat much, if at all.) It was fun and drinks were a little expensive, but I kept em coming anyhow. No local beers, so I had a few Carlsberg bottles at 50,000 dong each ($1 USD = 19,000 dong). When it got too hot on the dance floor, we could go sit around the boats open deck, where the breeze coming off the water was incredibly refreshing. It ended up being a late night (almost 2am!) and we had to be up quite early to catch a bus to Ha Long Bay.
It was an EARLY morning, as I had to rise and shower at by 6 or 6:30am. Had to be at the bus station by 0730 (I think... it's fuzzy since I was still mostly asleep). We hopped on a public bus, which was barely 1/4 full, and I was surprised when we departed at that capacity. I didn't realize there were many stops along the way, as well as picking up any other passengers looking
to hitch a ride anywhere along the roadside (this is common in China as well). It took about 4 hours to get there, much of which was spent in head-bobbing sleep. We got dropped on the side of the road, and we about to hop on motorcycle taxis when a guy on the bus jumped off and said he would call someone for us. It was a guy running a HaLong Bay cruise/tour outfit. He showed up very quickly on his bike, and we got another one with me on back to tote us back to his tour office, where we booked for a cruise. There was as good mix of Vietnamese and other foreigners on the trip. We shared a table below deck with two young Kiwis and an American doing a motorcycle tour across Vietnam.
It was a beautiful tour around the bay. Such beautiful karsts and a cave that looked just like the Reed Flute Cave in Guilin, China, including cheap colored lighting that gave the place the feeling of a strange dream more than of a natural formation. We stopped at the floating village and I bought a HUGE coconut to drink (and later eat)
for 20,000 dong (abut $1USD) of a little girl with her auntie in a small boat that pushed over when we stopped. It was a really beautiful area. We were there at low tide, so there were lots of little caves that were accessible. Made me wish we'd had time to rent kayaks and go check them all out... but alas, there was only time to see one cave, at additional cost (I missed it but was assured by the returning guests that it wasn't that great). We cruised around some more, stopped at the caves with the crazy stalagmites and stalactites, and then cruised back to shore.
It was a great day, though a very tiring one. The cruise operator guy told us he'd get us back to Hanoi included in the price, as we didn't get back from the cruise until after the last public bus had left. It was a full van, with only two fold down seats remaining, which I wouldn't even consider a seat. I would have much rather paid for another means of transport... the seats we at a great angle to the side, making backs ache and toes go numb after a
while on the long drive home. I finally managed to sleep crawling off my seat onto the floor, using my seat as a pillow.
I was very tired by the time we got back, and I got dropped at the hotel after dinner (Pho!) while Anh went on home to sleep/pack for tomorrow, since we're flying to Da Nang tomorrow afternoon after doing some more sightseeing in Hanoi in the morning 😊
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