Love You Ha Long Time

We boarded our Ha Long Bay boat after a scenic three-hour drive. After lunch, we and our fellow sailors - four Brits, two Aussies, two Singaporeans, and two Kiwis - headed into the "Labyrinth," a small, curvy cave in one of the Bay's innumerable island-mountains with a single, easily navigable pathway from entrance to exit. Then it was on to the Amazing Cave, an amazingly large cave with "amazing" stalagmite and stalactite formations that, amazingly, often looked vaguely like animals. Our wonderfully helpful and enthusiastic tour guide, Tinh, explained to us the wonders of stalactite and stalagmite formations:

"What is the smallest thing in the world?" he asked. Water, of course, because it can flow through everything, even atoms. He pointed out a stone turtle, monkey, lion, romantic middle school couple, and a dubious rock protrusion that he said looked like a finger.


After the amazing caves, we attempted to read as we sweated into boat-top lounge chairs in the baking sun (yes, sun, in monsoon season.) A couple of passengers went for a swim, only to be surrounded and attacked by numerous boat hawkers, who tried to sell you merchandise even when you were in the water and clearly had no money on you.


After another nice onboard seafood dinner, we went to the top floor of the boat again to hang with the fellow tourists, whose friendship Oliver deftly courted with his iPod's vast (and often Kiwi) selection of music. As the sun set, we photographed the gorgeous surroundings and, in the best part of the lovely Ha Long trip, talked with the other travelers into the night.








~Sasha




Well, I haven't really read over what Sasha wrote, so I may end up repeating a bit. No worries though, it's just an excuse for you to see more pictures. Ha Long bay is incredibly beautiful, and I'm not sure how well my pictures show that.


Sasha and I get into the "bus," a van, and get our first look at our to-be boat mates. They're all talking in low voices, and all of them sound like Aussies for some reason (even later on I'd think that the couple from Essex had an Australian color in their speech). After stopping by one more hotel and picking up the Singapore duo, we start off for Ha Long.


The drive is long, but I have my camera out (when DONT I have my camera out?) in hopes of capturing some non-city life. Rice patties go on as far as I can see on either side of the road, and people work out in them. Parents cut down plants with sickles while the children play on what look remnants of a stone wall of some sort.
They're all working hard, and I doubt that they get much for their efforts. I didn't get any pictures of it, but I saw what looked to be giant communal houses for the field workers...even in the best of situations they couldn’t make much money. But nonetheless the ones I saw not working were having fun.





ANYWAYS, back to the car. About halfway through the drive they pulled into this little tourist trap, which actually reminded me of a prison. Everything was hot, there were maybe 5 people working there, and outside in the plaza it was dead quite. Kind of like an East Asian South of the Border. The “fifteen minute” break was about forty minutes, but we eventually made it back on the van. We got to Ha Long harbor a little bit over an hour later.


The harbor was a giant tourist attraction as well. I overheard someone saying “I saw a series of pictures about this place. It showed ten years ago, and there was this little dirt road and one boat. Then five years ago, with maybe 15 boats and a little bit bigger road.” When we got there, there were at least 50 boats, and a giant asphalt parking lot. After sitting around for an hour, we finally went through security (?!) and got on our boat, the Santa Maria.


Things were so much better from that point on. Tinh, our guide, and the crew cast off and half an hour later we were being served a fresh seafood lunch. We didn’t write it down, but it was very good: rice with a fried fish, some other fish, and baby octopus. Dessert was some dragonfruit…we would have a lot of dragonfruit on the trip.




They gave us our room key and we took our bags down. More dragonfruit sitting on the bedside-table in the room. We grabbed our books and I took my camera and we went on top of the boat to read. It was hot (it’s always hot here). But this was especially bad, as there was no breeze and the chairs had been baking all day. We got to the first cave soon enough, though, and were glad at the prospect of a cool place for a while (they wouldn’t turn on the AC in the rooms until nighttime, and who wants to hang out in a room on a boat on beautiful Ha Long Bay anyways?).








The first cave was “Labyrinth Cave” for reasons I don’t understand. Tinh told us that it earned its name because there were many pathways and people got lost. The cave was incredibly small and had an entrance and an exit. They also had electric lights everywhere. Very touristy feel. We navigated the labyrinth, and exited on the other side of the cave. From there it was a roped pathway to the top of the mountain, where there were some spectacular views I must admit. I climbed to the very top then Sasha did the same, and of course we got some pictures of it. So we walked back down the path and went back to the boat, but not before I mounted the rock and looked over my land (see picture).





We were on the water for another half-hour before reaching “Amazing Cave,” named for its…amazingness. According to Tinh, the first explorers who found the place were awed by its general ability to be amazing, and so aptly named it. Tinh gathered us together to point at some dripping water, at which point we were informed that water is the smallest thing in the world. No one corrected him, as that would ruin his speech in the future, and we didn’t really mind; it was entertaining. Tinh knows it’s not true, too. He was a great guy with a good sense of humor, and I don’t mean to be so insulting. It was just a really amusing instance that I felt obligated to share. Anyways, we kept on in Amazing Cave with its electric lighting, tiled floor, and carved stairs to keep us company. Besides one incredibly amusing stone formation, with a great conversation to accompany it:



Tinh: pointing to stone formation “Some people they tell me that it looks like a finger. Others say it’s a gun. What do you think it looks like?”

Silence

Tinh: “Well, follow where it is pointing, and see the hole. Then it is less likely to be a finger and most likely a gun. Don’t you think?”

Silence, broken by some suppressed laughter

Tinh: “If any of you know what else it could be, please talk to me later and tell me so I can mention it with the next group.”






We were all glad to get out of there, and I caught the one truly cool stone formation at the top of the exit, as well as some good pictures of the water below us. The rocks jutting out of the water made for stunning visuals, and I really don’t think a camera does them justice. We “sailed” in our junk (it had sails, but only put them up when it wasn’t moving and used a motor the rest of the time) to the place where we anchored for the night. Some of the group went swimming, and immediately hawkers showed up…you can’t escape them here. Some even went over to the swimming people and tried to sell stuff (“yeah, of course, let me just grab this cash I carried with me into the water”). They were there for at least three hours until it got dark, and I think I was the only one who bought anything (some water and Ritz crackers).










We had dinner around 7:30, and laughed when they brought out French fries. The rest of the meal was better, though, with more fish and veggies and rice, again with dragonfruit for dessert. Most of us went up on top of the boat while some stayed downstairs to watch South Korea play in the World Cup. We had my ipod speakers, and that made the night so much better. From then until around midnight, we sat on top of the boat talking, the brits got drunk and everyone was babbleative (did I spell that right?). The music was always going, eventually ending up with the Kiwi’s ipod playing dub music for an hour. We went to sleep around midnight, cause we were getting woken up at 7 for breakfast and kayaking. Apparently one of the drunk ones dove off of the boat and the ladder wasn’t there to get back in, so he had to scale the side using the tire bumpers.





Ha Long Bay at night




Anyways, we had breakfast (a pile of bread, untoasted, with some eggs) the next morning, then went out to kayak. Three hours later, after seeing some beautiful coves and other such sights, we returned, dead-tired. The boat ride back was hot, and the drive back was even hotter. We ate lunch just outside the city, more of the fish and rice stuff, then were back on the road, with another of those tourist trap places along the way, too. We were glad to get back to our hotel at around 6 pm.


We rested for a bit in the wonderful AC, then went back out to dinner at Brother’s Café. Not really a café at all, there was a buffet, as well as three women who cooked some specialties. I’ll let Sasha do the details.


We’ve taken 3 taxi cabs in Hanoi, and 2 of them have offered us “boom boom” and drugs. I think the taxi drivers of the city are the true black market and backbone of the economy. Walk out after dark and the motorcycle drivers, who previously called out “motobike?” will now pester you with “marijuana? Opium?” The same policy of just ignoring them works, though. With any of the hawkers, one syllable out of your mouth or ANY sort of recognition will send them into a rant about why you must buy what they have as they follow you for at least three blocks. Took Sasha a while to realize that, and we often had fruit vendors walking in our shadow as we awkwardly tried to pretend they weren’t there. He insists that he just gets a kick out of acknowledging them, but I just mention his experience with gypsies in Paris and he shuts up.





Okay, I realize that the overnight on Ha Long bay had really nothing to do with French culture in Vietnam, but it was seeing Vietnam, and it was incredibly enjoyable. It’s a beautiful place, and I’m glad we got to see it. The trip could have been so much worse, too, but we got lucky with a laid-back group who all spoke English incredibly well (even the two from Singapore). The crew was fun, and Tinh was incredibly helpful and hilarious. Good times.


Sorry if I bored you...I think I went into a bit too much detail but am way too lazy to try and fix it up.


Be back with more later, this took way too long to write.I also realize that I changed tenses a few times. Hope you're not upset.





~Oliver


We had dinner at the beautiful, though wet (it was raining on the outdoor restaurant) Brothers Cafe. The cafe boasted an all-you-can-eat buffet of personally prepared local specialties. We started with sticky rice crepes filled with mushrooms, shallots, shrimp, and pork. Then it was a lighter, less rich and more refined version of the My Van Than soup I had enjoyed two nights earlier on the corner of our hotel's street: pork broth with thin, tasty yellow noodles, roast chicken, pork kidney, fried wontons, chives, sprouts, and a bitter bok choyish vegetable. I went for some Cha Ca - fried tamarind-spiced catfish with dill, noodles, and peanuts - and Oliver went for a beef pho with scallions, coriander, and the ladyfinger-like breadsticks often served with soup here. I grabbed an interesting salad made of primarily lemon peel and bean sprout with onion, lemon leaf (?), lemongrass, and a light, limey dressing. Desert was an array of fruit - jackfruit, pineapple, cantaloupe, dragon fruit, and local baby honeydew - as well as "Sago Sweet Soup" (tapioca pudding) and "limewater dumpling" (a translucent green chewy rice-flour treat covered in a brown-sugar syrup.)

The taxi ride back from the restaurant was an enjoyable one, snippets from which include:
Driver - "In America, how much Boom-Boom?"
Us - "In America, Boom-Boom is illegal."
D - "How much Boom-Boom?"
U - "It's very expensive. Hundreds of dollars."
D - "Oh. Very Expensive Boom Boom. I get you Boom Boom here. Very cheap. Pretty Girl. 30 dollars one hour?”
U - "No thank you."
D - "Sorry."
Oliver – “I forgive you”
D - “Thank you. “
...silence...
D - "Tomorrow you go touring?"
U –“Yes”
D- “Take my card, I call you, pick you up, take you boom boom.”
Sasha – “No, no, that’s alright”
D- “Sorry”
…silence…
D-“Very pretty girls, I give you good price, you my friend!”
Oliver to Sasha: “Very pretty girls, and very ugly STDs”
D – “What that? You want girl?”
U- “NO! It’s quite alright.”

~Sasha





Pictures That Didn't Quite Fit





































Phew. Done. Finally.

A Walk Through France?

Not much got done today, thanks both to a late wakeup, general jet lag, the extreme temperature and humidity outside, and a struggle figuring out how to get the blog the way we wanted it. Our second outing into the diverse city of Hanoi was a bit more successful - the city ceased to be overwhelming and now we had a general sense of where we were on the streets. Google "Old District Hanoi," look at a street map, and you'll understand how we got easily lost (there are so many more side streets that aren't on those maps, too). We still can't bargain all that well, mainly due to the fact that we don't know how much something, like a kilo of dragonfruit, is worth. We'll work on that.



We weren't really out of the hotel for long, but we walked far for the short time we were out in the heat. Well, actually, the hotel is "in the heat" as well, since only our room has AC (and oh is it wonderful).Anyways, we ventured down out of the Old District and walked along the beautiful Hoan Kiem lake, where it seems the benches are always taken up by embracing couples like this loving one that asked for a picture. Before long we noticed a change in the way the streets were organized. The small, haphazardly organized streets of the northern lake and Old Districts gave way to larger, tree-lined boulevards set up in almost a grid pattern. Save the smothering heat, it felt like we were in some French city. That smothering heat, however, made walking much more a daunting task, so we hopped in a cycle (more fun than a cab and a TAD safer than getting on a motorbike, though anything traffic-related in Vietnam is in no way safe) and went straight back to the hotel and spent the rest of the daylight hours in the tight vicinity while we created the blog.






The food wasn't even that great, either. There's a spot a few doors to our right where something is constantly being cooked, and Sasha ventured over there twice during the day. There are two different women who cook two different meals. The morning/afternoon is given to a kind woman who cooks bun cha-I don't have the details now as Sasha's sleeping but I'll post them below with pictures once I do. He got the last bowl of the day of that stuff, and a new woman took over the spot. Her specialty was deep-fried quail, so we picked two up for a snack. Scrumptious. Sasha reports that she was very mean to him, but I guess that's reasonable as most of the westerners that we've seen tend to go to restaurants and not street vendors and she probably felt that he was stepping across some undeclared boundary. That idea makes sense, too, as these little street vendors and soup kitchens are very intimidating to a westerner, as there are never any other westerners around, there is little if any lighting, and the place is generally very dirty. Enough to keep ME away, at least initially. Dinner was quite a let down, and we decided with it to never take the hotel's recommendations ever again. We were sent to a "good Vietnamese restaurant" (hotel's words) which looked like a diner, served hamburgers as part of the menu, and had no Vietnamese inside it save the staff. We forgot to take pictures, and got out of there as soon as we could. I had something resembling pho, but that doesn't really matter as neither of us really ate what we ordered.
We picked up some meat skewers from a street vendor outside - who knows what kind of meat - then headed back to the hotel. Sasha was still incredibly hungry, so he went down to the corner where a street kitchen (larger than a street vendor, street kitchens specialize in one or two meals and do them VERY well) to get some more bowl of something...I'll leave the details up to him.

Well, that's our day for you. We went up to our room after that and watched some of The Office then went to sleep. Exciting.

Some clarification:

Bun cha
Sweet vinegar pork broth with pickled radish, charcoal roasted beef-chive patties and bacon, lettuce, shiso, sticky noodles, and fresh Thai bird chilli. Verrry good.

My Van Than
What Sasha ate at the street kitchen. Made of opaque yellow vermicelli, sweet pork broth, bean sprouts, fried pork wontons, peanuts, deep-fried shallots, bbq chicken, beef kidney, and shiso.

On the side there was clear scallion, shrimp and dried baby mushroom broth with mushrooms, baby scallions, pork wontons and fried bread for dipping.

~Oliver

More Lovebirds

They Carry Pigs on Bicycles

After roughly 30 hours in transit, Sasha and I were glad to finally arrive in Hanoi. Our first glimpses of the city were through a cab window to the tune of the crappy 80's Beatles covers that the driver forced us to endure. He liked it though, and apparently so did his dashbord companions (below)We saw many a strange sight, the oddest of which was a man biking with several large, live pigs strapped to his back. We failed to get a picture, as we watched him go by in stunned silence, but hopefully the chickens make up for it (see top). Surviving the ride, we dragged our luggage through the wonderful glass doors of Hoa Linh Hotel, where we are to stay for 6 nights. We upgraded to a deluxe room, doubling the size and adding a window and balcony for only $25 a night..we were ripped off. We decided that we might splurge somewhere after Hanoi and spend maybe $50 one night for a 5-star, where we can finally get some laundry done.

Immediately after departing from our hotel, Sahsa was assaulted by a woman selling bananas and pineapples. Being the unforceful and kind person that he is (note: similar to when he gave a gypsy 20 euros by accident in France), the woman placed her pole thing and hat on Sashie, allowing for this wonderful picture to be taken. To be fair, there is one of myself also, but it's not as fun to look at. We were off in the Old District of Hanoi, the most congested area of the city. According to our little guide book, this square kilometer used to be barricaded in by walls, but nowadays the walls are down and there's only one gate left standing to remind people of how things used to be. Nonetheless, the place is a maze. The streets follow follow no distinguishable pattern, and street signs are lacking. Couple that with our tendancy to be harassed by every single pettler within a three block radius of our current position (due to both our clothing, skin tone, and the fact that I'm at least a foot taller than everyone else here), we easily lost track of where we were. So, every time we wandered out, we ultimately were forced to return by cyclo, where we were charged an absurd two dollars per ride (the nerve). The food offered on the streets sometimes confused us, like the picture above (is it dog, pig, or a huge rat?). We didn't really eat a real meal until later that night when we visited Little Hanoi, a sit-down restaurant down the street from our hotel.

Sasha's meal
Lotus Salad

Made with lotus, celery root, coriander, chillies, fish sauce, lime, shrimp, peanuts, and some great herb, like lemon verbena (dan mot? is what she called it).







Oliver's meal
"Little Hanoi" simmered chicken

Much less interesting, chicken, green and red peppers, and tomatoes were all simmered together in a vinegary hot and sour sauce and served with white rice.





Yum.

After dinner, we set out into the Old District again. The area had apparently undergone a complete makeover during the hour we were inside, as merchant stands and car blockades took up at least 10 blocks and people crowded the streets (even more than they had during the day). Sasha and I added to our DVD collection from earlier in the day by purchasing some 100% silk ties for 3 dollars a pop. Besides that, though, we just wandered around taking in the sights. It's an incredibly fun city, especially the Old District, and there's always so much to do - especially if you have american dollars on you.

Traffic in Vietnam is freakin' insane. What appear to be lanes apparently mean nothing to the motorcycle-dominated traffic of the Old District (the rules seem to be more closely followed elsewhere). Sasha and I were initially fearful of crossing roads, but we soon realized that the best way to cross is just to suck it up and walk in a straight line from one side to the other, no matter the traffic - everyone either stops or veers away from you, often passing inches from your face. We're now pros at crossing, and I think I'll probably die once I go back to DC and try to J-Walk Wisconsin in heavy traffic. So, with all of this crazy traffic, of course I proceeded to walk into the middle of a busy intersection at night to play hooky with some drivers to try and get some good pictures. They came out okay, I guess.

What Sasha saw
















What I saw












I'll be back later once the second day is good and done. Enjoy.


~Oliver

Midday Snacks

Mangosteen - slam the hard purple fruit against the wall and pull out the sour-sweet opalescent pulp. For a while, I'd tried to barter with everyone selling these. The first man I ran into offered mangosteens for 30,000 dong a kilo (pretty close to a dollar a pound,) but, since I was under the impression that that was actually 20 dollars, I got ticked off and tried to barter him to half price. He chased me off, and I never got as good a price anywhere else.

A steamy pork-tomato broth with lime, chilli, with vermicelli and ground pork. I added some nearby chilli paste, at what I thought was someone's suggestion, only to be laughed at by a group of surrounding women who'd clearly approached just to laugh. (It was damn good with the chilli paste, though.)




The Night Market
filled with all sorts of ten year-olds who don't hesitate for a second to shove you forcibly out of the way, and, in some cases, into the repulsive gutters (Oliver had bad luck and got his flip-flop submerged in a dark black gunk that probably included ten different types of soup and just as many of human excrement) - was quite nice. Nice shirts and wares there.

~Sasha


So I lied, we actually had a picture of the pigs. Enjoy.