Christmas

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They don't seem to celebrate Christmas much, but there are some places with lights and decorations, but I think it's mostly for the foreigners.

We got up at 7:30 for breakfast and then went to the Sung Sot cave, "Amazing" cave in English, saw a monkey at the end eating some bread, and then went to take showers. The cave was really touristy and it made me miss Sewanee with the untouched caves and preserved nature. We had woken up early to have time to go swimming, but it was too cold, so we just took showered and got packed.

We had a terrible lunch at a nearby hotel and then went on the bus back to Ha Noi. Ronald and I had a few hours to kill before our night train, so we ate, went to the supermarket for snacks, and then walked around the local markets.

Our train left around 21:00, but we met at the cafe around 19:30-20:00, and then waited in a room at the hotel that's connected to the train station. Max led us there and through the station to our train, and I'm glad he did because I don't think we'd have ever found it on our own. We shared a cabin with two Australians and went to bed early, around 10:30pm...we were tired!

Technical Details
* Turtles represent luck and longevity. Students will go try to touch their heads in the lake before their entrance exams into University.
* both the unicorn and the tiger are symbols of strength

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