The last few days of Vietnam

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The last few days have been jam packed and I haven't had the opportunity to get to internet. Friday morning, we took a tour of Hue by motor bike. We went to the Pagoda and Emperor's tomb. We took about a 40 min ride on the perfume river and stopped to observe locals making incense, and even tried our hand at it. I was not very good at it, and apparently made mine too fat. We stopped by a beautiful look out point, where there were American and Vietnamese bunkers. We found bullet shells on the ground that still remain from the war. The countryside was beautiful. All in all we spent about 6 hours on the back of a motor bike and it only cost about 8 bucks. We stopped for lunch at a nunnery and had a fabulous vegetarian lunch. I was excited because they used a lot of lotus seeds in the meal, and I had been really curious about what they tasted like. They are really just starchy like potatoes if you're curious. We immediately went home and got ready for the train, which was really quite an adventure. It was of course 2 hours late, so we got to sit in the train station for a total of 3.5 hours. I got to witness I kid pee on the floor because his mom was screaming at him so much and then the mom left it. Then I watched people walk through the pee on the ground. A great way to pass time. Once on the train, Lauren and I decided to venture into the cafe car, which was 9 cars ahead. It was probably one of the most entertaining parts of my trip. ha. A few of the cars were sleeper cars, and had so many people piled in them I couldn't help but think of sardines. It had a pretty interesting smell of Durian barf and congee, and once we got to the cafe car the waiter tried to rip us off on items that already had pre-marked prices. We arrived in Hanoi at 545 am and walked to our hotel, where we dropped off all of our stuff, but of course couldn't actually sleep, because it was too early to check in. We went to a nice breakfast buffet called Koto, which means to know one is to teach one. It's another NGO that tries to take kids off the street and teach them hospitality and cooking. Once we checked in, Lauren and I trekked around Hanoi and explored. There really isn't too much to do in this city, but we did go to the Hanoi Hilton. The Hanoi Hilton, is the prison built by the French and used to detain Vietnamese political prisoners during the 40's and 50's and later during the Vietnam war was used to hold American POWs. This is where John McCain spent 5 years as a POW. There was a nice photo of Mr. Mc. John Cain (as he was labeled) in the museum. Lauren and I of course B-lined to a French Bakery and had chocolate croissants. Sunday morning, we woke up and got on a bus to take us to Halong Bay. The bus ride was about 3 hours long and we drove through some interesting towns. Apparently we drove through a town that specializes in dog meat. I saw a dog getting skinned and a bunch of cages of puppies, which apparently were being taken to the market to be sold to restaurants. I learned that thit-cho and cay both mean dog. So most signs outside of the buildings specify this. Weird. It's kind of hard to get used to seeing it on menus. Once we got to Halong Bay, we boarded a boat, which was really a floating hotel. We cruised out about 2 hours and anchored. The food was actually pretty good, seemed like fresh seafood anyway. The Bay is absolutely beautiful. There are about 1969 limestone island and islets that dot the bay. It kind of looks like it is fake, like maybe someone just photo edited them in the background. Halong Bay means Bay of the descending dragons. Apparently the legend says that when vietnam was being attacked the people called on the dragons who came to the rescue and spit gemstones at the invaders, which turned into islands. Interesting. After lunch, Lauren and I went out in the kayak and got in the water. The water was pretty salty and actually perfect temperature. We got some sun. Lauren actually got a funny sunburn from her shorts. I took a bunch of pictures so I can make fun of her later. 😊. We didn't really do too much else in Halong Bay, just hung out and relaxed. Monday morning we drove back to Hanoi, and Lauren and I did some shopping and caught up on sleep. We had our final goodbye dinner with our tour last night and our little Vietnamese tour guide drank so much that he passed out on the table. Pretty entertaining. Today Lauren and I went to see Ho Chi Minh frozen. Well he's not actually frozen, but he is somewhat preserved in a glass case. He actually died in 1969, but is still on display. He looks really pale and they have him lit up with a weird orange light. There were about 12 guards around him, and Lauren and I got yelled at for smiling. oops. It was strange because mostly locals are the ones who go to see him. Later we went to a water puppet show. This was a pretty neat concept. The show consisted of a pool of water and a curtain that came down in the middle. Puppets were moved through the water by people crouching behind the curtains. There were lots of scenes with dancing fish and unicorn puppets, and fishing little men. I thought it was entertaining anyway for 2 bucks. We just had our last meal in vietnam, pho soup of course and are packing to leave for Hong kong. We randomly met some boys while we were walking to the puppet show who lived in Hong Kong, and they gave us a good idea of things to do. Traveling is so random like that. Tomorrow we leave for the airport at 8 am and will spend our last two days in HOng Kong before flying home on the 4th. IT's hard to believe that our trip is almost over.

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