The city in a bend of a river....and Halong Bay

It was a long bus ride North to Hanoi (name translates to my clever title) but I was glad to have Esther's company and to be on to new places. We broke up the 16 hour ride by watching a movie in my sleeper seat, which had more room as it was at the front. Afterwards it was sleep or do nothing since the reading lights didn't work and the bus was dark. I slept off and on but was a little rattled by the swaying side to side motion of the bus. The driver decided that turning the music on 5 am would be OK since, you know, nobody's sleeping or anything! I dozed off and on after that until we arrived. A short walk to our hostel and we were able to check in right away. We went upstairs and changed before eating breakfast. We ran into Hannah, a girl that Esther had met in HoiAn and set out to buy various tour tickets from a recommended travel agency. After doing our research I assumed that MisLy (Miss Ly) would be an old lady. Nope, she was a young woman with a serious face. She was efficient and honest and right away we all trusted her. I'd been going in to ask about a bus to Laos as well as Halong Bay. We all had different schedules but after some discussion decided to go together to Halong Bay and share a room. We figured it would be much more fun to go as three as opposed to one! We walked around some more that day, just seeing the old city and were ready to leave by the next morning. We left our big bags at the hostel, taking only backpacks with us for the one night on the boat. We ate breakfast and then waited and waited for our mini bus to arrive. It was quite late but finally arrived. It had been forced to drop a couple off who had forgotten something. Instead of meeting the bus at the next pickup they demanded they pick them up again. Didn't seem fair to me, especially since we ended up being 45 minutes behind on the whole day.

A short 4 hour ride, with a stop half way at a government agency helping handicapped people with art (there are a lot of these through Asia and they always use them as rest stops). We got on the boat and were shown our room, which was lovely, with a double and a single bed. We had some time to enjoy the view before we had lunch. Lunch was served family style and there were many choices. It was good but not great and I was still a bit hungry at the end. Aw well. A bit more free time and we loaded a smaller boat that led us to a floating village where we paired off to get into kayaks. Unfortunately, even though no one has ever fallen in (I asked), we were told not to bring cameras in the kayaks even though the view was fabulous. I went with an older man from France whose wife had chosen not to partake. We rowed our way to a small cave where we were informed fishermen live during different parts of the year. Next we rowed to a floating village where people lived in houses/huts that are tied together in the water. They are not on any kind of land. They can get their shopping when a local lady arrives with a boat full of food or there's another floating market with fresh fish, though I doubt they are short on this! We learned that 4000 people live in Halong Bay in floating villages. They don't go on land unless they decide to go to school. The government has started schools for the children but it means they have to live away from their families. They live here all year round and have everything they need. It was fascinating to see...I mean a deep freeze on a boat! Next we went to Surprise Cave which is....duh duh duh......a huge cave. It's pretty touristy though with sidewalks and lights. It was still beautiful!

After passing the monkey we loaded back onto our small boat which drove us to our home for the night. First we stopped at a floating market where the staff bought fish for our dinner. I know where fish come from AND what they look like but I don't really like knowing that they are suffocating in a plastic bag for me.....ick.  After returning to the boat we showered and got dressed for dinner which was served the same way as lunch. Afterwards, us three girls sat around talking as the boat staff prepared for karaoke. On the TV they were playing old music videos which we thoroughly enjoyed watching and making fun of. Some of them I didn't know as they were European but we had some good laughs anyways. We headed to bed early, and before karaoke as we were all tired.

The next day was a bit of a disappointment. It started out with toast being prepared a good half an hour before we were eating. So, if you know my dad you know this is definitely unacceptable....not to mention when we finally did eat the cold toast, most of it was also chewy from humidity! Awesome combination! Afterwards we went to a small tourist island, called Chill Out Beach, with all the other tours. After 40 minutes we were back on the boat to check out. Then we waited for lunch, we waited for the boat to take us to the mini van after lunch, and we waited for the mini van. I wish they would have planned more things but all well. Back to Hanoi. Esther wasn't hungry so Hannah and I went out in search of cheap street food for dinner. And we scored big time. BBQ ribs or chicken with rice and veggies for 35 000 dong...less than $2! And it was fantastic. Hannah left the next morning so we woke up and had pancakes and fruit salad together as a send off. The rest of the day we wandered and saw more of the city. We returned and had BBQ for lunch. Afterwards we chilled for the afternoon as we both had night buses to catch. And mine was a doozie....30 hours to Luang Prabang and I heard it was a nightmare drive. Can't wait! I wish I'd had more time in Hanoi, it's a lovely city but I'm itching to keep moving as I can feel the clock ticking my time away!