Happy New Year, Ha Long Bay!

For New Year's we headed north to Ha Long Bay.

I had been worried about not booking the tour before we arrived in Vietnam, but the hostel we stayed in doubled as a travel agency, and was able to easily book tickets for us once we got there.

We checked out early on the morning of the 31st, had breakfast at the hostel, and were picked up by our tour guide, along with a few other people going on the same trip. As is traditional in Southeast Asia, we were left mostly in the dark regarding the details of our journey. After leaving the hostel, we were dropped off in a parking lot along the highway in front of a bank, and the next thing I knew, our guide and the van had disappeared. We discovered about 30 minutes later when he came back that he had gone to pick up another group of people, and then he left to get more.

Finally, after at least an hour, our bus pulled up, and we were able to board. I was relieved that it was actually a bus, because in Cambodia and Thailand when you book a "bus", you generally end up with some sort of van jam-packed with people.

Every time we asked how long the bus ride would be, we got different answers. The hostel told us 2 1/2 hours, the internet told us 3, the guide told us 3 1/2 until we hit traffic, and then he told us 4. It did eventually end up taking around 4 hours to arrive, but we had stopped along the way at a big warehouse full of junky souvenirs for about 30 minutes. It was annoying being taken to a place like that, but at least it was a place to stretch, and the people there didn't bother us to buy stuff too much.

Shuttle boat

When we arrived, we were taken to a small shuttle boat that took us out into the Bay where our actual boat was anchored. I was a bit disappointed, because the weather didn't seem to be cooperating- the sky was overcast and the Bay was quite hazy. However, I was happy to finally be there, and I crossed my fingers that once we were out cruising around I'd be able to see everything.

Our boat in the background.

We boarded the boat and everybody gathered in the dining room for a sort of introduction. Afterwards, we got our room keys and went to our rooms to put our stuff away and get settled before lunch. At lunch, James and I were seated with a really nice South African couple and a girl from Sweden we had met at the hostel. As we ate, we watched rocky islands appear through the mist and get closer and closer.

The picture-taking marathon had begun.

For every photo you see, there are at least 10 more on my camera, and countless ones I talked myself out of taking. 

Every few minutes, someone would lean out the window, snap a picture, eat some more lunch, out the window, another picture, more food, and so on for the rest of the trip, basically. Even though visibility wasn't ideal, everything was beautiful and I wanted to capture every minute of it.

Our major stop for the day was at Sung Sot, or Surprising (also translated as "Amazing") Cave. We got off the boat and walked up a long, steep flight of stairs to entrance to the cave. As expected, it was quite amazing and/or surprising.

View from the entrance of the cave.

Some monkeys! The only reason I saw them was because there
were some dogs standing on the walkway below them barking like crazy. 

So, as part of my visit to the cave, I feel the need to tell you a story that may border on TMI, but I feel is essential to rounding out the tale of my visit to Vietnam:

While in the cave, I had to go to the bathroom. We were at the top of a mountain, and inside a cave, and there were no dark corners or bushes to go behind. And the cave went on forever. and ever. and ever. It was huge, and there was this path we had to follow that wound around and just generally took its time, and of course I wanted to take pictures and actually enjoy myself since I had really wanted to see this cave for such a long time, and by the time we got out of there, I had to GO.

We finally reached the exit to the cave, and filed into the line headed down the stairs. Down, down, down, it was a long way down. At last, I saw the sign that was a beacon of hope. "Restrooms this way", it said. I got to the bottom and ran inside.

And then I stopped.

Two toilets, with no partitions and no toilet paper, in a room with no door next to a sink that didn't work.

"Oh, dear God, no."

Just then, I noticed a stall in the corner. Thank goodness, I thought.

Too soon.

I walked in, closed the door, used my foot to prop a trashcan against the door since it was broken and there was no lock, and made general preparations for use of the facilities. As a last minute thought, I tested the flush button.

Nothing.

"Nooooooooooooo!  Why?! WhyWhyWhyWhyWHYYY?!?!"

I kicked aside the trashcan and ran outside to James and asked him to check the men's room to see if it was any better (I was desperate), and he informed me that I really did not want to know what he saw in there. I thought frantically about my options. At this point, I was doing the potty dance and had no choice.

"Can you stand guard?" I asked him.
"Can I what?"
"Just... don't let anybody come in!"
"What do I do if a woman tries to get in?"
"Tell her 'no'!" And I ran back in the women's room, leaving James standing awkwardly at the non-door.

I looked at the free-standing toilets in the middle of the room, gathered my last bit of courage, crossed my fingers that no one would come in, and prayed that James and I would eventually be able to forget about this particular moment in our relationship.

Luckily, living in Japan has taught me to carry tissues at all times, and I was able to at least dodge the no-toilet-paper bullet. The one redeeming moment in that entire experience. The rest of the moments were just straight out of one of those nightmares where you show up at school and realize you forgot to put clothes on. I'm so happy I come from a country where toilets don't need to be squatted over (lookin' at you, Japan) and are generally contained in private stalls.

I emerged shell-shocked and thoroughly traumatized, and headed back to the shuttle boat, which took us to a small dock where we could rent a kayak for about an hour before we had to go back to the big boat for dinner. Out of everyone in our group, only James and I and one other couple opted for kayaking. We were so happy we did, because aside from it being a nice way to forget the events of the past few minutes, it was just really, really, really, really pretty and relaxing. We were allowed to paddle anywhere, as long as we were close enough to come back in time, and we went around all the little islands in our vicinity, of course stopping to take pictures every minute or so.

Cool vegetable arrangement from dinner.

We got back to the boat and had some time to kill before dinner, during which there was free wine. Yum. After dinner, we started the wait for midnight. They tried to do karaoke, but no one was really interested, and once it got dark, there was squid fishing, which is just as exciting as it sounds. We did have some minor excitement because we could see the squid circling the boat, but we could never actually get one. We even tried baiting them with bits of cracker and some beer, but to no avail. We did have fun catching the moths that were attracted to the light and then accidentally got stuck in the water.

Squid fishing! Look excited!

Midnight finally arrived, and we all had one last toast and took some pictures to memorialize the moment, and then, like the old people we are, everyone headed off to bed. To be fair, we had to get up early the next morning, so we had an excuse.

Dusk on Ha Long Bay

I debated about putting this one on my blog. I mean, it's just plain awful. But it's my 2011/2012 picture at midnight, and it was so dark that I opened my eyes wide so I could see, but then the flash went off, and then the picture turned out awful. But happy new year. 

Our boat-riding friends.

The next day, we had to clear out of our rooms. After breakfast, those who were continuing on the 2-night tour were moved to another boat, while those of us who only booked the 1-night headed back to shore. It was a short trip, and I would have loved to stay longer, but I was really happy that I at least got to see everything. The fact that it was overcast the whole time just gives me an excuse to go back when it's sunny.

December 29-31: Hanoi

When I first arrived in Hanoi, all I could think of was:

omg, traffic.

I live in Asia. In a rather large city. I'm used to seeing people/automobiles in mass quantities. I've been to the big intersection in Shibuya in Tokyo where like a billion people cross at one time. None of these hold a candle to Hanoi traffic.

A Vietnamese parking lot. In English, we call it a "sidewalk". 

Notice the lack of lines, direction, or any form of rhyme or reason. 

KL airport: 4 a.m. 

We had paid for the hotel taxi to pick us up at the airport. I had heard too much about taxi and hotel scams and we had spent the night in Kuala Lumpur airport and it was very early in the morning so we were tired and did not feel like dealing with scamming taxi drivers. The guy picked us up and I think it took about an hour to get to the hostel, but I'm not too sure since I fell asleep on the way.

He parked on the side of a busy road. I got out of the taxi, collected my bag from the trunk, and the taxi driver pointed across the street.

"There it is!"

He said it like it was so easy. Like getting there would be no problem. I stood there on the side of a small street clutching my backpack, looking at the wall of motorbikes buzzing by in front of me in all directions. There were no lanes. No crosswalks. No lights. No traffic regulation whatsoever. And no sign that the motorists were going to stop or slow down.

"This way," said the driver, and he stepped into the road, motioning for us to follow. I walked close behind him, and the sea of traffic closed in around me. We walked steadily across the street, with bikes whizzing past on either side, parting around us like a stream around a large rock, and after what seemed like an eternity, we reached the other side, and I was able to breathe again.

The traffic at a large intersection just outside the Old Quarter in Hanoi. 

It took nearly our entire time in Hanoi to become accustomed to the Vietnamese street-crossing techniques. The trick is to just kind of start walking and keep going until you get to the other side and cross your fingers that the guys on the motorbikes are paying attention. Most of the time they are, but sometimes they're not, as we witnessed on a few occasions. Most of the time, I believe it's more trouble than it's worth for them to hit you, so they generally try not to.

The evening of our arrival, we walked around in the area near our hostel. At first, we tried our best to navigate our way around without crossing streets but soon found this impossible. The first few times we tried to cross, we had to sort of psych ourselves up and do a kind of countdown and just jump in, but after awhile, we had it figured out.

We had set out to try to find dinner. I had found a place that sounded really good recommended online called Bun Cha (actually, the name of the food they serve is called bun cha), and we headed out on our quest for dinner. The intersection in question wasn't very far from our hostel, but it took a bit of courage to get there. The glorious thing about Vietnam is that they label their streets (now we just need to get Japan to jump on the "our citizens actually know where they are" bandwagon), so we were able to find it in no time.
I saw the store first, and pointed it out to James, who clearly had a different idea of the kind of place we were looking for. I had seen the description online, so I knew it wasn't going to be the nicest looking place, but I don't think either of us expected it to look like the back room of a Seven-eleven in the bad part of town. It was just one room, open to the street, with small, child-sized tables spilling out onto the side walk. Two ladies, the women who worked there, sat inside along with a few customers. James was skeptical, and it took us a few walks around the block for me to convince him to go back. We generally act like spoiled foreigners whenever we go anywhere. Being that we live in Japan, I generally take the opportunity of traveling to find restaurants and things I miss from back home. Even after going to Kuala Lumpur multiple times, I don't think I've actually eaten any Malaysian food, because I'm always so distracted by Chili's and all the nice western restaurants they have. I was determined, though, to get some real Vietnamese food. I told him I really wanted to go, and that if we both ended up with cholera or something to blame me. Apparently he was not very reassured by this promise, but agreed to go back.

Al fresco dining in Hanoi.

We walked back to the restaurant, and went inside, looking at the two women with uncertainty. They gestured for us to sit down, so we did. There was no menu, so we simply motioned "two" and the woman nodded, in a few minutes bringing us each a bowl of broth with an assortment of pork, as well as a heaping plate of mixed greens (including ::gasp:: fresh cilantro), a plate of cold noodles, another bowl of cold, sweet-flavored broth, and a huge plate of fried spring rolls and another empty bowl.

I had no idea what to do.

We had sat down at about the same time as a Vietnamese couple, and while I ate a spring roll I tried to watch the couple out of the corner of my eye and see how they went about tackling this mound of food. It seemed similar to a Japanese dish, where you have the broth in one bowl, and you take a bit of noodles and greens and dip them in, and then eat them. There was also a bowl on the table of chopped peppers mixed with something (ginger, perhaps?), and James added some to his bowl, realizing too late that unlike the Japanese, Vietnamese like their spice, and these peppers were hot. He gave me a couple to add to my bowl, and  after adding only 2 pieces of hot pepper to an entire bowl of broth and noodles, my mouth was burning.

Glorious, glorious spice. The whole meal was absolutely amazing, and way too much food. The noodles and greens are actually unlimited, but we could barely finish what we had. It was just fantastic, and probably the best thing I ate while in Vietnam.

Afterwards, we walked around some more to try to work off some of our huge dinner, and were thrilled to accidentally find a bakery we had been searching for which that day was having a special of gingerbread cookies.

My first gingerbread man in 2.5 years.  Yum. 

We spent the rest of the evening walking around Hoan Kiem Lake, and the next day, we had the whole day for sight-seeing in Hanoi. We were able to see most of the major sites of the city, most of which were concerned with President Ho Chi Minh, or the Vietnam War.

Evening view of Hoan Kiem Lake.

Walking around the lake-- all the decorations are up for New Years. 

Flower Festival surrounding the lake. 

These bird cages are hanging everywhere.
I think there's a town nearby that specializes in them,  but I'm not entirely sure why they're so popular. 

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum

I wish I would have been faster to my camera. The man in the center of the picture is riding his bike while carrying a bunch of individually bagged goldfish. Not your usual cargo. 

We visited the Ho Chi Minh Museum. We arrived just before closing, so they let us in for free, although it normally only costs a dollar to get anyway. It was actually a very interesting looking museum. Extremely high on propaganda (as is everything in Vietnam), but very cool aesthetically.

This is somehow supposed to represent a human brain (?)

Artifacts from Ho Chi Minh's death.
A watch he was wearing stopped at his time of death, his last entry in his journal, those kinds of things. 

After leaving the museum, we found ourselves at the entrance to a temple, and then accidentally at the One Pillar Pagoda. 

One Pillar Pagoda.

We then headed onward to the Temple of Literature.

Turtles carrying tablets inscribed with the names of graduates. 

Turtles are supposed to be one of the 4 mythical/magical/special creatures in Vietnam.
The three others are unicorn, phoenix, and dragon. 

After the Temple, we stopped at the "Hanoi Hilton", or the Hoa Lo Prison. Originally, it was built by the French, and was used for the imprisonment and execution of Vietnamese freedom fighters. During the Vietnam War, it was used to house American POWs, and was known as the Hanoi Hilton.

Most of the displays emphasize the mistreatment of the Vietnamese at the hands of the French, with a very small portion dedicated to the American soldiers. The American exhibit, however, is just a bunch of baloney. They try a bit too hard to talk about how well the Americans are treated-- most of the exhibit looks more like an advertisement for a summer camp (prisoners laughing and smiling while playing basketball and having Christmas parties) than photos from a prison. Vietnam doth protest too much, methinks.

They claim to have John McCain's suit from when he was shot down. 

In the evening, we decided to visit a nearby night market, and purchase the obligatory knock-off goods, including but not limited to a "Gucci" wallet, and also a wallet from "Burberry".

And that was Hanoi. 

We were meant to spend one more day in the city, but instead booked a side trip further north to Ha Long Bay, something I had been looking forward to for a long time. 

Onward!