Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

The second stop on the Vietnam trip was more of a day trip to Ha Long Bay. It is said to be one of the newer Natural Wonders of the World. We booked a trip through our hotel for about $23. It included transportation to and from, boat ride, lunch, and caves.

It took 3 1/2 hours on the bus each way. It was the longest bus ride that I had been on in quite a while. We only got to stop for once. The place that we did stop at had restrooms but nothing to eat. There was plenty of souvenirs to buy. Most people bought candy just to have something to eat!

Once we got to the Bay and boarded our ship, it was nothing short of amazing. Most of the ships all headed out at the same time. So you look around and you are surrounded by other boats. Then everyone sort of disburses all over the Bay. The weather was perfect. It was a bright sunny day. Perfect jeans and a t-shirt temperature.

The Bay was gorgeous. All the wonderful rock formations in the middle of the Bay were really neat to see. Our boat tour stopped at a fisherman's dock. We got off the boat and looked into his nets that had what he had caught that day. I am not sure that we ever met the fisherman as he was busy drinking and playing cards at that point in the day! After the visit to the docks, we had lunch. It was quite the lunch of all sorts of seafood and veggies.

The rest of the day was spent sailing around the bay and soaking up the sun. We paid $5 more to get to go on a smaller boat that took us into some "caves". They were not caves at all more like lagoons. The openings into the "caves" we pretty cave-like, and we did need to be in the small boat in order to get through. The boat also docked and we got off to see an actual cave. This is a newly found cave that just started to become a tourist site in 1999. It was pretty interesting to see all the special lighting that they had done in the cave to make certain formations stick out.

We also saw the one school that is located out on the Bay. It is a one room school house where all the children that live on the fishing boats attend school. I included a picture of it (blue building). The school is actually funded by the USA. I thought that was amazing that the US is involved.

The ride home was another 3 1/2 hours. It felt a lot longer going back to Ha Noi, even though the distance was the same as the morning ride. I think it was because we were all ready to get back and enjoy the water puppet show.

Ha Long Bay was definitely one of the best things on my Vietnam trip. It was one of the most beautiful places I have seen in my life thus far.

Ha Noi, Vietnam

As most of you know, I recently went to Vietnam. It is still considered a third world country. I went with a core group of about 5 people. My friend Anna decided to give us the nickname of "Team Awesome"! Ha ha ha. Everywhere we went we referred to ourselves as Team Awesome! There was another couple that joined us off and on throughout the trip and I also knew two other people that we randomly ran into. We decided to fly into Ha Noi (which is in the north) and work our way down the country and fly out from the southern part. I have so much to say about each place that I thought it would be best to start blogging about each city. First up... Ha Noi.

Ha Noi is the second largest city in Vietnam. It is in the north. When we first arrived at the airport, we decided to take a taxi van into the city to our hotel. We were stuffed into a van with quite a few other Vietnamese people. It was the most cramped hour of my life thus far! It is all about the experience though!

The city was full of scooters. I have never seen so many scooters/motor bikes in my life. Minda you Venice, Italy had quite a few, but nothing compared to Ha Noi. Not only were there scooters everywhere, but there was hardly ever just one person riding on a scooter. Most scooters had 2-4 people. I couldn't believe that 4 people could fit on a scooter but Vietnamese people are tiny so it works. It was like the scooters were the family vans/SUVs that we would have in the US to tote our families around. The kids were squeezed between the two parents. One kid would usually be in the front standing and holding onto the handles, then the dad, another kinda and a mom. Sometimes there would be a kid behind the mom and sort of strapped to her. It was crazy! everyone but the children are required to wear helmets. I am not sure that they even make helmets small enough for the tiny kids.

We spent the next day exploring the city. There is a walking tour that is outlined in the "Lonely Planet" (the guide book of all guide books). It was nice to be able to go at our own pace. There were so many shops with cheap clothes and shoes. In fact there is an entire street that is lined on both sides with shoes stores. It was on the walking tour! I ended up buying some really cheap sandals ($2) to wear for the rest of the vacation. We walked through an enormous market where they did sell roasted dog (put a picture of it). I did not try it as it is not a meat that I am curious to try. I also was able to eat one of my favorite fruits called Rambutans. They are red, orange and yellow spiky balls. They are delicious! I was excited to see that Vietnam had them the time of year I was there!

The day after we left early to head to Ha Long Bay (Blog post to follow). After we got back from an all day trip on the Bay, we headed to the water puppet show. This is an ancient Vietnamese art form. It is a show with traditional live Vietnamese music that has marionette puppets on the water. At first I thought it was going to be really cheesy. I was shocked by the movement of these puppets. There also lots of special effects like fireworks and colored smoke. There were about 10 short stories. The entire performance lasted one hour and cost us $3. It was really neat and now I know why everyone that has been to Vietnam told us that we had to go see this show. There was only one theatre and we had to purchase the tickets one day in advance!

Next stop on the Vietnam trip....Ha Long Bay