me love you halong time
Continuation of last week… Gert and i arrived in Hanoi on Tuesday morning at 4 freakin’ 30 am and had to wait for our travel cafe to open up. Then another gross shower in the communal dorm bathroom and off to Halong Bay.
Halong Bay is absolutely gorgeous. We spent the first day on a boat cruising around, kayaking and swimming, all in view of the enormous karst formations rising from the water. Halong means “descended dragon” - legend has it that a momma dragon flew down to the bay to conquer an invading army and thought it was so beautiful that she stayed and had many babies. And when it was hazy, you could see the formations barely visible in the mist and one might almost believe there were dragons sleeping out there.
After climbing to top of caves in the cliffs
Gert and I got to spend the night on the boat and we really lucked out by getting one of only 2 upperdeck cabins, which meant that we had a large window that looked directly out into the bay, rather than over a walkway like the lower deck cabins. What a view to wake up to!
That’s the view from the bed
The following day we docked at Cat Ba Island to go trekking in the national park. After my bad experience trekking with piss poor shoes in Sapa, I decided to just go up the approach trail, which was hard enough, then meet the group at the end of the trail. As disappointed in myself as I was, I knew I made the right choice 2 hours later after seeing the beet red Scots coming off the trail, who all said “you made the right choice” - the trail ended up being much more challenging than anyone had expected, bloody knees and skinned elbows and SO HOT. Plus, I ended up having a great time with an older Australian couple who introduced me to Shandy… How come I never heard of this? Beer and Sprite. We sat with some locals in a cantina and drank a few cold ones, and even got to see a man showing off the mountain goat he had just caught - don’t ask me how! Those things are nimble! The entire village was very excited and he posed for pictures for me, and even grabbed the poor goat’s testicles for a photo. I think that’ll be my christmas card this year.
Top of trail
Goat nuts
Our guide showed us this freshwater spring; there was an old lady washing her clothes
Later that day, after the trekkers had recuperated, we took a boat to Monkey Island. And saw some monkeys. I don’t trust them. They warned us not to get too close, which we thought meant like 4 meters but actually “too close” meant 10 meters… a monkey came running at me from my blind side and I heard a guy who worked there yelling at it and it backed down, but I was already halfway to the water. It was right about then that a british guy who was leaving came up to us with a stick and gave it to Extreme Aussie Steve, saying “if they come at you, you might be able to scare them off with this, otherwise run for the water. They won’t go in.” Comforting.
Still, it was nice on the beach (though I felt like I was constantly being watched…) and very relaxing. No one got bit, which would have posed significant hold-ups at Customs… “Yes, I was bitten by a monkey in a 3rd world country.”
Cat Ba is quite touristy so after we got back to the hotel, Gert and I went walking away from the hotel strip and had a lot of fun with kids playing in the street - they all wanted Gert to play soccer with them (”where you from? Holland?”) because they all know Amsterdam’s soccer team.Then we met up with Extreme Aussies Steve and Ramona and 3 belgiums who were lots of fun, and we went to a couple bars and drank big Tiger beers. These backpacker bars… so fun but also, what’s the point of going to another country if you end up sitting in a posh bar where the only locals are the wait staff? Still, they were playing hilarious old Aussie pop music from the 80s and Steve was loving it. Bands we had never heard of - the Belgium guys were in the army and they only knew who Suzy Quatro was because they used it as a code word!
So the next day it was back to Hanoi. The bus was lots of fun - being with a bunch of westerners made me realize that I wasn’t overreacting about the way people drive here! At one point we saw a car coming toward us in our lane (it was a divided highway with a median) which made us shake our heads and laugh, until we realized there was an accident up ahead and we had to make a u-turn in the middle of the road too! So after turning around, driving against traffic, crossing the median and driving on the left side of the road, we were heading the right direction (on the wrong side), which amused the aussies who said “Finally!” But then we saw the accident and it actually looked pretty horrible, a mangled motorbike and a big truck and lots of dark pavement. Dampened the mood considerably.
Back to Hanoi, then Gert and I repacked our backpacks, me to go to saigon the next day and him to go back to Holland that night. I really enjoyed traveling with him so it was quite sad. We’d spent the week playing little jokes on each other and it was fun to see that we both had something up our sleeves for the very end… I was threatening to put opium in his pack for customs and he was threatening to steal my plane ticket home, so when he wasn’t looking I stuck a bag of Oreos in his bag (he had some in Sapa and said “I bought these cookies in Hue - try one! they’re so good!”) and just before he hopped in the cab he said “here’s your ticket back” and handed me a Vietnam Airlines envelope, and I freaked out for a moment until I realized a) it wasn’t mine and b) there was something else in it… Turns out he had been hoarding a pack of this dutch stuff called Direct Energy, some glucose candy thing that I had become addicted to and he told me he’d run out of in Halong Bay… Awwww.
Our last meal in Hanoi together… Tiger beer of course
So now i am back in Saigon, staying at a small guesthouse. I opted to not go back to family since I am walking distance from the travel cafes and airline offices and consulates that I need to figure out what to do next. And without my mother i would have a hard time communicating with my aunt and uncle… I will go back just before I leave to say goodbye and pick up some things I left there, but for now i want to be in the city center. I chose not to stay in the backpacker ghetto and I am glad. The famous Miss Loi’s guesthouse was completely booked when I arrived (I can see why, it looked charming) but there were many options nearby and I found a nice, clean, safe family run GH. I like the neighborhood a lot - they obviously see lots of westerners but it doesn’t look like many hang out with the locals, so when I went out to get some food that night I struck up a conversation with a friendly cyclo driver - he took one look at me and asked if I was part vietnamese, which was a first. Usually they only figure it out when I ask for nuoc mam and hot peppers with my meals! He recommended a restaurant down the street, so I picked up some really excellent rice and pork at local prices - I was getting so frustrated with the food in the tourist hubs: not authentic and overpriced. So I paid 8000d for dinner, about 50 cents. And 5000d for a nuoc mia (sugarcane juice) and bottle of water, about 35 cents. Just another reason to get off the beaten path.
Cu Chi tunnels; showing us the smallest tunnels
Demonstrating traps for American soldiers
Wall murals
Me in the tunnel… Before the flash, it was PITCH BLACK.
Back in HCMC, me and a cyclo driver
So now… I picked up a guidebook for Laos and have to do some quick decision making. The land crossing between Cambodia and Laos seems pretty dodgy - most travelers report that the border on the cambodian side is actually run by the mafia! And extortion is almost guaranteed. I’m looking into flying now, which might also work out better because I’m running out of time…
Tags: Travel
