Snake village and Halong Bay

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Hey everyone hope you're all good, Sarah writing here just to fill you in on the latest news. 😊

So Ed and I went to the 'Snake village' the evening before Halong bay which we thought would just be us and a few mates getting a taxi to this particular area but it ended up as an organised hostel event with a mini bus and group leader etc so there were roughly 16 of us. Allow me to explain the snake village: it isn't a village; to put it frankly you can kill snakes, eat hearts and drink blood and bile; eat 5 courses of various bits of snake and drink rice wine which is basically, disgusting. But there we all were Ed took a heart out of a snake and we both ate a heart (absolutely disgusting) and also handled a few snakes beforehand. It was a bizzare experience but the rice wine and blood vodka helped to ease any social barriers that would stop you eating either the crushed snake bones, snake skin or snake meat and then we all went out drinking - so were pretty shattered when we got on the minibus to Halong bay.
Halong bay is about a 4 hour bus ride away from Hanoi and then you need to take a transfer boat to reach the Jolly Roger (the hostel's boat) so it was a long journey but entirely worth the wait. All I can really tell you is the pictures will never do halong Bay justice; you can see the erosion due to the saltwater base and how those beautiful rock formations are slowly going to fall and dissapear from the human eye. The Vietnamese are pretty big on their myths and one of the legends which explains the Halong Bay's rocks is that on praying to the gods to stop the Chinese invading Vietnam the gods sent dragons which blew fire and created huge jade stones that became the rocks. Our group leader says the real reason is the sea levels have just been slowly dropping and it was originally a river bed which is pretty strange to think about; anyway I think I prefer the Vietnamese version.
We also had a really cool group you can either do a 2 day trip or a 3 day, most of us did the three day but some people left after the second day and I feel as if they kind of missed out. Our group consisted of: 2 ducth brothers (who were misunderstood by one of the girls who took them to be a gay couple - very funny), Ed and I, Jen (the American friend who had trouble with her visa) Kirsty, a lot of Irish girls who were great fun, a few lovely Oz girls, an English guy who is now staying on to become a tour guide and a few others who I can't be bothered to list right now. The drinking was intense, drinking games seem to be a mass tradition and led to our immediate bonding with everyone! We broke the boat's speakers and danced the night away under the clear dark sky of Halong bay; we could also see the other (posher) boats from a distance which we legally had to keep away from as an apparent 'party boat' we were too noisy to be around, ha. On going to the Kat Bu National Park 'Castaway Island' for the third day we also went wake boarding which was pretty cool, went swimming, played volleyball and had a BBQ. Oh yeah and drank some more.
It was amazing. Its hard to explain how beautiful it is and how much fun we had because we're both so tired now but we're of to see the traditional Vietnamese water puppets tonight which should be pretty cool and relaxing. Also by the way I forgot to mention that the Oz girls we've met have offered to show us round Melbourne, and the girl we met from Sydney says we can crash at hers which is obviously pretty cool.
Hope exams are going well Laura, and that both you and Cait are looking forward to breaking up from school. Mum and Dad hope work isn't too busy, Emmy hope Malia rocks. Hannah hope Spain is good - let me know! Generally lots of love to everyone xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Comments

[Mut]

Whatever next!
Great to hear from you. Halong Bay sounds amazing and I'm not surprised you had to keep your distance fromother boats!! The whole snake village thing I don't think would be for me - can't believe you both did it! Everything fine here - will send you a longer message later today as I need to get on with work now. Enjoy the water puppets. Lots of love, Mut xxxx

[Dad]

Tax & Catch-up
Ed, got your message re the tax refund. Will look out for it and action as you specified. Sounds like you're both having a fantastic time - can't believe you're into your third week already. Make the most of it and bring on Australia !!! All the best to you both. Dad.

[Mum]

Hi
Well my weekend away in Swanage doesnt really compare!! The experiences you are having will stay with you for a lifetime. keep enjoying and take care of each other. It is wonderful to have such great blogs from you both. I think it must be Ed's turn again soon!! No news on the tax rebate Ed, but will do what I can if and when it arrives. much love from all here XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX