goodmorning Vietnam

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After just a 3-4 hour drive from the village in laos we reached the border of Vietnam. You know those pictures and video footage youve seen of vietnam? Well it really looks a lot like that. Intense jungle and lots of guys in uniform. The guys in uniform harmless these days though and only want to give you a slow process of crossing the border. But we made it, and took off winding down the mountains from the border crossing to a town below. There we stopped for coffee and tobacco bong rips - old vietnamese men highly prefer smoking tobacco through a water bong rather than a cigarette.

A few more hours down the road we stopped for lunch in a local Vietnamese restaurant. The room that we were seated in was filled with a group of Vietnamese men holding a meeting, discussing plans for their new hotel. What it looked like though was a bunch of wasted asian men sitting at a long table singing songs and occasionally jumping up to race eachother chugging beers. The hotel own walked over to me at one point and challenged me. I declined until he offered to pay for the beer - then I empty my glass as his barely touched his lips.

Another few hours driving - napping, doing crossword puzzles, or singing along to oldies with our bus full of Aussies and Englishmen - and we were at our hotel in Ninh Binh. Nice, classy, quiet place with a restaurant and rooftop bar. Magee and I sat with a few of the guys in the group for a drink on the roof, but called it a night on the early side in preparation for another journey the next day to Ha Long Bay.

You've seen pictures of Ha Long Bay or you've seen shots of it in the back drop of several movies whether you've known it or not. Well it's one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. We had a 3 story wooden boat all to ourselves and spent a beautiful 24 hours or less taken in the sights 360 degrees around us. All of our meals were included and prepared beautifully on the boat and we only got off at two separate times. First we got off to visit several caves carved into one of the hundreds of solid rock mountains in the bay. Stalagtites, stalagmites and a whole bunch of tourists, but a lot cooler than it sounds.

Later we anchored for our second chance to get off the boat - for a swim. Magee and I soon found that there was really only one way off of the boat and that was from the roof of the third floor. We sailed off jumping and diving a good thirty feet to the warm water next to the boat. We soon convinced a few of our other group members to jump off with us and fun turned into exhaustion and we got back into the cabin. After sunset and another delicious meal, we returned to the roof to enjoy the moon, a few stars, and the lights of probably 50-60 other boats that were anchored around us surrounded beyond them by the faces of the cliffs at the edge of the rock islands.

When the boat nextdoor grew out of its night of Karaoke we retreated to our cabin for a quiet night's sleep on the water. I woke up this morning at about 5:30 to one of the crew members washing the cabin window a few feet from my head and made my way to the roof once again to take in my last few hours of the beautiful scenic views of Ha Long Bay as we made our way to shore. It may not have the title officially, but Ha Long bay gets a vote in my book as one of the natural wonders of the world, that I have seen anyways.

After going returning to shore, we drove four hours to Hanoi where I am now. Hanoi is a beautiful little spot with a lot of history dating back almost a thousand years. Some of the initial schemings of communism took place here and in combination with French colonization, Hanoi has become quite a mini-metropolis (as far as cities in Indochina go). The old-quarter of the city revolves around a beautiful little lake home to a semi-ancient buddhist temple. The lake itself is surrounded by a main street which leads to dozens of little alleyways that were years ago home to specialized markets for bamboo lanterns, blacksmiths, and more. Today many of these shops have been replaced by stuffed animal stores and internet cafes, but the city holds its timeless beauty as one returns to the lake - adorned with drooping willow trees.

Right now I have to grab some gelato - yes they serve gelato in the middle of Vietnam - and meet up with my group for a traditional Hanoi Puppet Show on the water...I'm not even half way through my 30 day Indochina loop and I'm sure a week in Vietnam and a week in Cambodia will unveil many more stories to share...

..to the otherside of the world and back.

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