On Saturday (March 2nd) we left Luang Prabang and flew to Hanoi. The LP airport was a one-room building (looked more like a bus terminal than an airport), in which you were forced to go through “security” and get rid of any liquids (e.g. even sealed drinking water) before entering... but then once you got through you realized there were zero options for food or drink on the other side (not even a vending machine.) After 2 thirsty hours and 3 power outages a man walked into the room and apparently told us all to come board the flight (it was not in English.) We walked outside, walked across the runway, hopped into the little prop plane and were airborn about 6 minutes later... talk about simplicity and lack of protocol. I’d hate to have been in the bathroom during the “announcement”... you would have missed the whole shebang!
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| Halong Bay |
We slept in Hanoi Saturday night, and then left early on Sunday morning for Halong Bay, a ~4 hour drive. Once there, we boarded our “junk boat” and spent the next 20 hours cruising the bay. It was gorgeous. Thousands of craggy rock formations, really quiet and peaceful scenery. Our boat only had 9 of us aboard (the 5 of us plus 2 really fun aussie couples) and 7 crew members. We spent the time enjoying the view, swimming (for the brave boys), trying to stay warm (it was cold!) and eating loads upon loads of seafood! The meals that the cook on this boat prepared were legit - prawns, clams, octopus, fish, and tons of rice and veggies.
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| Prawns! Example of the seafood on our little boat |
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| More pictures of Halong Bay |
My favorite part was kayaking.... for an hour or so in the evening we were given kayaks and allowed to venture around. Matt and I paddled over to this lagoon that was about 200m in width and almost entirely enclosed with the exception of this little opening under one of the rocks that kayaks can pass through. It was completely quiet, except for an giant family of monkeys who were horsing around on one of the banks and putting on quite a show. Needless to say, they kept me pretty entertained.
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| Matt illustrating the "AquaNova" water we bought... not to be confused with the real thing |
Yesterday (Monday) we returned from Halong and had a 4-hour stopover in Hanoi. Just enough time for dinner at a restaurant made up of lots of little street vendors (but with better sanitation). Around 8pm we boarded our overnight train - the “Orient Express” - bound for Sapa. The train was an experience. The station was in a pretty dodgy part of town, looked like a bus station that hadn’t been cleaned since 1957, and was packed with people. (Not exactly Ogilvy or Grand Central.) The two highlights? 1) All the knock-off bottles of Aquafina bottled water that we realized weren’t even actually sealed (we noticed this after buying a couple of them but thankfully not drinking them).... seriously, who creates knock-off water???
And 2) A crazy Vietnamese mother sitting next to us who had twin boys probably about 2 years old who apparently had exhausted her patience... because we (and the entire rest of the station) watched her run around frantically trying to grab them, and then take off one of her shoes and use it to violently beat the kid (”spank” I guess - bare bum and all) while everyone watched and pretended it wasn’t as awkward and uncomfortable as it really was.
The train itself looked like it was about 80 years old, and was quite “cozy”. The four of us girls were in one cabin, with Matt in the cabin next door. (Coincidentally he ended up sharing it with a family of Italian women... hahah.) The ride was noisy and felt more like a boat than a train, but got us to Sapa in one piece with no problem. We arrived around 5:30am and putzed around for awhile, getting breakfast baguettes, before being able to check into our hotel room.
I’ll save a description of Sapa for another post.
Last random comment to end on - this afternoon Matt and I were wandering around, and came to the conclusion that the more countries we see, the more we love America. Yes, all of these countries are REALLY cool, with awesome scenery and interesting food and cultures.... but there is nothing like home sweet home. I think we can safely say our next few vacations will be domestic ones!
Much love to everyone back home!
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