Good Morning Vietnam!

Cliché title, I know...but come on!

We arrived in Hanoi from Bali after a really long day of travelling. We took 3 flights, totalling 15 hours of travel, but we made it safe and sound. It was the first and second time either of us have ever had our names on a sign at the airport! The first time was at the Singapore airport - our connection was a little tight, so they had someone meet us at our arrival gate with our names on a sign and helped take us to our connecting flight. The second was at the Hanoi airport. We had arranged for our hostel to pick us up and they were there waiting. We felt so important!

I was a little nervous to go back to Vietnam, because I remember it as being nothing but mayhem, but I know Dave was excited to see the country and learn more about the war history especially. We arrived around 7pm, dropped our stuff off at the hostel and then made our way into the city for the first time. We only almost died 3 or 4 times, which is good considering no one obeys any rules of the road and you feel like you could get hit by a car or motorbike at any second. But, dinner was amazing and we quickly settled into keeping our heads on a swivel to avoid bikes and cars coming right at us. We were feeling pretty exhausted though, so we went back to the hostel to get some shut eye.

Just a regular old intersection

Our first full day in Vietnam was jam-packed. In the morning, we made our way to the lake and the temple to check them out. Then we did some organizing for the rest of our time in Vietnam. We booked a boat trip to Halong Bay and our bus ticket that ended up taking us down to Ho Chi Minh city for the next 2.5 weeks. Then we had some yummy lunch and decided to try and brave a local market. I cannot get over how people do not care about personal space here! Things were jammed everywhere and it was so crowded! We did a little looking around and priced out a few things so we were ready to barter with people in the next few days of shopping! That night we headed to the water puppet show in town. The show was really good - so colourful, funny and entertaining. I think it has improved since I saw it 7 years ago! After the show we went to grab some dinner and then decided to have a drink. In Hanoi it is very common to sit on the sidewalk on a children's plastic stool and drink beer, so, when in Rome...or Hanoi...grab a plastic stool and a 50 cent draft beer and enjoy the craziness. By the end of the night they kept adding and adding people to sidewalk that some people ended up sitting in the street with cars and motor bikes driving right beside them. It was hilarious to watch and we were happy we had arrived a little earlier.

Our view from the street

Unfortunately, the next 2 days weren't the best. Dave woke up with a fever in the middle of the second night in Hanoi and wasn't feeling good for 2 days. We kept him pumped full of fluids and Tylenol and he started to feel better, just weak and tired. I was able to go back to all of the places we booked our trips and postpone them for a day. We ended up staying in Hanoi for an extra day or two to make sure Dave was feeling better.

On our last day in Hanoi Dave was feeling up to a little bit of sightseeing, so we made our way to the Temple of Literature. That pretty much wiped him out though, so we just took it easy for the rest of the day in anticipation for our trip to Halong Bay the next morning.

Luckily, Dave was much better the next morning. He had way more energy and we was actually hungry again! So, off we went on our 2 day, 1 night boat tour of Halong Bay. Halong Bay is a beautiful area of Vietnam, where 1969 limestone islands appear out of the water. It really is a beautiful place. Unfortunately, it is also a really busy, touristy place now too. On our first day we drove out to Halong Bay and got settled on the boat before lunch. After lunch we started our sail through the islands. We stopped off at the Sung Sot cave, which is pretty beautiful! We managed to arrive just as about 15 other boats did, though, so there were line ups to get in and out of the cave. It kind of took away from the beauty of the place, but it was still really neat to see. After the cave we got to go to the beach and have a swim, which was awesome because it was so hot out. Then it was time for kayaking in and around some of the islands before dinner and relaxing on the boat that night.

The next day we were up early for breakfast and got to relax on the boat while we made our way back to the port. All in all, Halong Bay is beautiful, but with the number of tourists, and the amount of garbage in the water and the poor condition of the boats, leaking oil and fuel into the water, it may not be beautiful for long. We had a good trip, but we were very aware of the environmental issues that will soon be facing the area if something isn't done soon.

A few of the islands in Halong Bay

 

From Halong Bay we made our way back to Hanoi just in time to shower and have dinner before getting on an overnight bus down to our next stop, Dong Hoi. Neither of us ever wants to take another overnight bus if we don't have to after that experience. I actually didn't think it was going to be that bad because the overnight buses are actually sleeper buses and everyone gets their own little bed that reclines to an almost flat position. A huge improvement from sitting in a seat, like I did the last time I was in Vietnam. But, since we're in Asia, I should have expected some sort of mayhem would be involved. So, a bus showed up and said it was going past Dong Hoi to Hue. I got on the bus and saved a seat for Dave, while he put our bags under the bus. But, then they wouldn't let him on the bus. They said it was full, but I already had a seat for him. They still wouldn't let him on, and they wouldn't let me off and a very nice American couple got involved to try and help, which only made things more hectic. Then another woman couldn't find a seat and they almost made her sleep on a mat on the floor, so she was upset and yelling at them. They finally let Dave on so we got settled in our seats, then they proceeded to tell us that they were no longer going to Dong Hoi and we had to get off and another bus would be there in 10 minutes. Mayhem. So off we got and we waited and waited. Almost an hour later another bus showed up but it was going north to Sapa. So we kept waiting. But then they told us to get on the bus to Sapa because it would drive us to another bus that was going south to Dong Hoi. So, on we got and squeezed into the aisles with our big bags. And once we got to the other bus the only seats left were the front two, which had way less leg room than the rest of the seats. Not the most comfortable ride of my life! And the bus driver was really mean and kept the music blaring for the first few hours, even though people were asking him to turn it down as they were trying to catch a little bit of sleep. He was also smoking inside the bus, which stunk! But we made it to Dong Hoi safe and sound the next morning and vowed never to take another overnight bus again!

Thanks for reading

xo