Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Vietnam 2: Halong Bay





We arrived in Vietnam late Sunday evening (I think it was around midnight when we finally stepped into our hotel room) and spent Monday and Tuesday exploring Hanoi, then Wednesday morning we left for Halong Bay. We were picked up at our hotel at 8:30 or so and rode in a van for about three and a half hours to the dock in Halong. The trip of course included a stop to buy souvenirs (which they pretend is a bathroom break). There were four couples in our van, so when we stepped out at the souvenir stop, four Vietnamese employees attached themselves to our group, and then as the four couples started going to different parts of the shop we each had one employee shuffling along behind us.

Anyway, one other couple from our van was on our boat (the other two were on another boat), so the four of us got on the boat and sat on the deck drinking sweet tea for maybe half an hour until another van of people arrived. Eventually we set off and had a big lunch while we sailed into the bay. After lunch we saw a floating fishing village and some amazing scenery, and at four Mark and I set off for a kayak trip. We were the only two going in the afternoon, so it was just us and our guide, which was really nice. We kayaked for about two hours and the best part of that was going through a little cave into a lagoon where we were the only three people (that's where the picture above was taken). After kayaking was dinner and then drinks on the deck.

The next day after breakfast we got out to see "Amazing Cave" and then before we knew it we were back at the dock and on our way back to Hanoi. We have tons of pictures, but I didn't want to overload this post with images, so I hope you get the idea of what it was like. The first picture is our boat, the Dragon's Pearl, and then it's Mark and me in our kayaks, then two pictures of Halong Bay, one around sunset, and one at five in the morning when we got up for sunrise (though as you can see, it was too foggy to see anything).

Thanks for reading!
Catie

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Vietnam 1: Hoa Lu and Tam Coc




Hi Everyone! We just arrived back from Vietnam yesterday (at five in the morning) and now I've just finished my first day back at work. I want to write a lot about Vietnam because it was a really great trip and I'll start with a day trip we took to the old capital, Hoa Lu, and Tam Coc, a place about two hours from Hanoi with really amazing scenery.

Mark and I were the only two people signed up for the trip, so it was just us and our guide, Binh. We started with a two-hour car trip out of Hanoi (punctuated with a stop at a souvenir shop, as always). Then we went to a temple dedicated to the first king of Hanoi and then a temple maybe 200 yards away dedicated to the second king. It was a smart area to have the capitol of the country because it was all surrounded by amazing limestone cliffs so it was well-protected. They moved the capitol to Hanoi in 1010 so in three years there will be a huge celebration in Hanoi for the millenial anniversary of becoming the capitol (I plan to go back for that, who's with me?).

After that we walked up the road to get our bikes and while Binh and I were in the bathroom (or the 'happy room' as our guides liked to call it) Mark was accosted by village ladies trying to sell him things. The people in that area all studied French for talking to tourists, so we were monsieur and madame all day, which was interesting. The bike ride wasn't too challenging, even for me, and I learned to ride a bike less than a year ago, though we did get stuck in mud once and had to change our route a bit. It was rough going when we first got out of the mud but we passed some villagers who were cleaning motorbikes so they gave our feet, sandals, pedals, and wheels a power wash. After that we rode for maybe an hour and a half enjoying the amazing limestone cliffs, traditional villages (with children who asked for candy and one little girl who spat at us when we didn't give her anything), and wild animals (I nearly ran over chickens twice). Then we stopped to eat lunch and dry off and cool down a bit before a quick cycle to a dock where we got on a sampan rowed by two women (well, one rowed while the other stood and steered with a big stick). The boat ride was about an hour and a half and included a ride through a cave where the women stopped and tried to sell us crafts. Finally we had another short bike ride and then packed back into the car for Hanoi.

It was an exhausting day but really fun and a great way to get out of the city and see the countryside. The first picture is me and Binh on our bikes, the next one is the scenery on the bike ride, and the last one is from the boat ride.

Thanks for reading!
Cate

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Visiting Uncle Ho

Hi Everyone, I'll write a lot more about Vietnam when we get home (right now it's the end of day 2) but for now I wanted to quickly write about the surreal experience of seeing Ho Chi Minh before I forget the details. Also this is our last night in a place with a computer and internet in the room so I wanted to take advantage of it. Tomorrow we're doing a trip to Halong Bay, which includes a night on the boat and then we have three more nights in Hanoi and we're staying in a different hotel.

Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum is a bit far from where we're staying, so we took a Cyclo, which is a little cart that's pushed in front of a bike. It's a good way to get right into the crazy traffic while still feeling relatively safe (and we took a bunch of pictures during the ride that I'll put up when we get home). When we got there we saw a huge line of people waiting to get in but as we were walking toward the end of the line a man told us he could get us past the line to a special shortcut only for foreigners if we'd slip him five dollars (turned out to be five each). I'm not sure what the deal with that is, though we ended up in a line with all the other foreigners and it was much, much shorter, so he wasn't lying. I suppose he makes a deal with the guards, and I'm guessing the reason he said it was 'only for English, Australians, and Americans' is because the Vietnamese wouldn't be willing to pay that.

Anyway, after lots of waiting and passing through a metal detector and then more waiting to check cameras we made it into the mausoleum building. There were lots of guards inside and they shush you and push you into two lines and herd you toward the room with Uncle Ho himself. The room is a big square with the casket in the center and four guards standing around it. You walk on a narrow little path around three sides of the casket and then back out and it all happens very quickly, though you don't really need any more time because all you're doing is looking at a body. The guards grab your elbows and keep you moving along and they also pushed the children to a center track for walking around so that they can see, which is nice. The whole thing felt a little strange and it felt like a lot of hubbub for such a short visit but, hey, how often do you get to see the body of a national hero? Apparently you're supposed to watch the faces of the Vietnamese people in there because they're so reverant but I forgot to do that because I was too busy looking at Ho Chi Minh.

Ok, that's it for now. We've been keeping very busy walking around and seeing things and eating ice cream. This place is pretty fascinating and very different from anywhere I've been before (and an interesting change from Japan). Thanks for reading!

Cate