This morning my heart is light and happy. I am a day away from leaving this endlessly fascinating country of Vietnam, and have had five incredible weeks here. I finally opted for the air-conditioning ("Air-con" as they call it here) option in my room at the Real Darling Cafe on Hang Quat street in Hanoi for an extra $3 per night, as the temperature has risen in the past few days to a sweltering and humid 37 degrees Celcius! (That's 99 degrees Fahrenheit for all of you fellow-Americans!) I slept well, and was up without an alarm at 6:30am this morning much to my delight- the first time I have woken up naturally that early on this trip.
I have finally acclimated to the noise and chaos of the city, the sounds of scooters and cars honking relentlessly at all hours has officially become "normal" to me. Each day I wake up and wade through the sea of traffic on the streets that consists of locals and tourists on foot, Cyclo drivers, taxi drivers, motorbikes, and ladies peddling their goods from a pole balanced on their shoulders with two baskets hanging to the ground, shaking my head "no" to the hundreds of vendors, cyclo-drivers, and motorbike taxi drivers that offer their services to me all day everyday (as well as to every foreigner walking down the street). At this point, it feels so common that I smile and shake my head as an effortless reflex, but I do still occasionally wish that I had a sign on me that says 'I have been here for 5 weeks, and I prefer to walk- if I want a ride somewhere, I definitely know where to find you!' :)
I got back from my motorbike trip four days ago, and the following morning left with one of the two Swedish Daniels for Halong Bay (definitely click on this photo link!). We were picked up from our hotels at 7:45 in the morning, and taken for a four hour bus ride, stopping halfway for food and tourist markets. We were in a group of twelve, consisting of two Americans, a handful of English, and a handful of Aussies. When we arrived to our boat, we were served a tasty meal inside the dining cabin outside of the sun, and shown to our private rooms. The rest of the afternoon was spent on the top deck sunbathing or taking photos of the enormous and beautiful islands that are jutting out of the bay creating a beautiful smattering of scenery at all hours. Next a visit to some impressive caves. After that, we had a one hour period of getting to kayak around in the gorgeousness, and even took an un-approved swim from our kayaks. The water was the perfect temperature, and I only felt like I had truly arrived to the beautiful Bay once I was fully submerged.
That evening we had a tasty dinner with much variety, and shortly thereafter the crew started asking us if we were going to do Karaoke. It didn't take much time to convince me, and we had it up and running in the next ten minutes. Only four or five of the twelve of us were participating while the rest of the english and australians were on the top deck drinking and playing cards, but wow we had fun! We were a small and dedicated posse, singing classics in english to the backing track of Vietnamese-made tracks made quite possibly from a small Sony synthesizer or something like that. The tones were hilarious, the drum tracks silly, and the tempo of the songs were quite different from the originals in some cases. The volume was SO LOUD! This all made it even more fun, and our Vietnamese boat crew were looking on, smiling, laughing and applauding. We tried to convince them to join us, but they wouldn't, much to our dismay.
The next morning Daniel and I woke up a half an hour before breakfast for the only permitted time offered to us to swim. It was glorious to wake up, and dive straight into this cold water and swim until they called us in to eat. Breakfast, then more sunbathing on the top deck. Before you know it, it was 11:30am and we were back in Halong City. We were taken to a big lunch, and then got back on our bus for the 4 hour return to Hanoi.
We met up with the other Daniel for dinner, and had a late night that night, visiting various Bia Hois (a local cheap beer specialty in Hanoi served in outdoor areas), and eventually to a smoky euro-trash hookah bar that was not quite my cup of tea, but, certainly interesting!
The next morning, one Daniel left to go to Bangkok, and I met up with the other Daniel for a 'Daniel-tour' of Hanoi, which is through the eye of this skilled photographer, through less-visited streets that are more 'real-life' of the locals, and many lakes and special views. After a long morning of exploring and photo-taking, we had lunch at a street cafe, and had a super tasty meal, while being observed by the staff to see if we were eating it and using the condiments correctly. With a nod of approval from one of the servers, I knew that we were. :)
In the afternoon heat, we both returned to our respective hotels for resting, where I took a big long nap, and got my AC turned on. When I awoke it turned out that the Daniel that left for Bangkok missed his plane, so, I wound up having dinner with both both of them again at an excellent outdoor bbq-it-yourself place, after visiting a beautiful railway bridge with photographer Daniel for some sunset photos. This was also a highlight- seeing the real local life going on, we saw perhaps only one tourist (who we had also seen in Sapa!) but otherwise it was just us two. Vietnamese were out walking as the sun went down, locals selling food and drink on the bridge, older men doing exercising and stretches from the vantage point of the bridge- it was cool. We even got to see the 6 o clock evening train go by!
We had our excellent BBQ dinner, and I realized I was done for the night. I went back to my hotel, and went to bed early. We had had many late nights, lots of adventures, and I was starting to crash. I got great sleep last night, and as you know, awoke quite early this morning, and made my way to this internet cafe that is on a street-corner, down a long hallway that passes a small room that has a family hanging out in it, and up some stairs into this room full of fast computers, where I have spent the entire day writing these blogs!
Tomorrow, I board a bus to Vientiane, Laos, and quickly make my way to Luang Probang. It is wild to think that I have spent five weeks in this crazy country, and am on my way to an entirely new and different one! Wow!
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