After a miserable 27 hour bus trip, we finally made it to Hanoi. At first, we were put in the back of the bus, which we thought was okay until we realized that those seats had less leg room. The "beds" reclined to about 130degrees, but you couldn't extend your legs and because the seats in the back of the bus were elevated, you couldn't sit upright without hitting your head on the roof. Needless to say, it wasn't the most comfortable journey, but the company certainly helped! After showering and eating, we went to bed as it was now after 11pm. The following morning we set off to explore the city. We checked out Hoan Kiem Lake, then went to explore a few museums. The Vietnam Military History museum had a lot of cool information about different provinces fighting, their war versus France and of course, against America. We then went to the Ho Chi Minh museum (Ho Chi Minh is their most famous president), which was strange. There was a very weird assortment of things that seemed to make no sense! By this point we were exhausted and hot, so got some food and relaxed for the afternoon before finding a karaoke bar in the evening!
The next morning, Joel and I were off to Cat Ba Island in Halong Bay. Cruise tours of the bay are very expensive plus the island was meant to be spectacular, so we opted with that option and it paid off! We met several others at the hostel (mostly Americans, 1 of which studies at UMD and 2 of which studied abroad in Dunedin, NZ) and ended up getting a group of 10 of us to rent motor bikes together the next morning. Cat Ba is beautiful with limestone and karst mountains covered in thick jungle and even just driving around was great fun, despite the rain. Hospital Cave is a weird place as it is a hospital built into a cave, used in case the Americans attacked the island. There is also a national park here and we hiked up Ngu Lam Peak for spectacular views across the mountains and to the sea. At night we got a fresh fish dinner where we could watch them catch and kill the fish before bringing it into the kitchen--so good! We all had a really great time and enjoyed the riding and scenery!
Finally, we did a day trip through Halong and Lan Ha bays. It was unbelievable! There are nearly 2,000 islands here, but most are simply karst cliffs and they stretch on forever. This bay rivals Milford Sound for beauty! On the trip we also spent an hour kayaking where we went through caves and under rock tunnels exploring different coves and whatever else we could find. Later in the afternoon, after a delicious fish lunch, we got to go rock climbing up a 50 foot rock and jumped off, which again was really fun! We were meant to stop at Monkey Island, an island full of monkeys, but a storm and moved in and the water was really rough, so we had to go back in a bit early. Anyway, it was an incredible day and the scenery was breath taking!
From here, I am going to take a night bus tonight to Sa Pa and spend 2 nights living and eating with a tribe family in their village and they will show me around the mountain area!
Got it and enjoyed your adventures and pics
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