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Northern Vietnam
Entry 10 of 20 | show all | print this entry |
After another 24-hour bus ride, we arrived safely in Vietnam's capital city, Hanoi. Everything is busy here. The roads are filled with people on motorbikes or scooters. On each scooter there can be anywhere from one to five persons, two being the most frequent. I have never seen traffic that was this terrible. I don't know if I have mentioned it, but our favorite traditional Vietnam dish is Pho. Pho is a bowl of noodles with a delicious broth and either beef or chicken. Beef is the one that we enjoy the most as it has the most flavor. We've also really enjoyed the fruit smoothie stands along the streets, the fruit is so fresh and delicious. Luckily none of this costs us much, nothing really over $1.50. On occasion, I indulge in a small bag of Oreos, they are so good! Alban and Phil are starting to avoid places with Oreos when they see them because they know I'll go grab some. And then there are the baguettes, which we eat often. They are great loaves of bread that can be filled with a variety of foods. My personal favorite is just the soft Laughing Cow cheese with tomatoes, oh man, that is really good!
Yesterday, Sunday, we had our tour of the beautiful Halong Bay. It definitely met our expectations in beauty, but the tour quality was very poor. We talked with the travel agent in our hostel for at least an hour trying to find out what to expect, he was all but helpful. We ended up paying $22, which was one quality point higher than the base of $18. The agent explained that the eighteen dollar tour was bad, and we wouldn't like it. With the $22 tour, however, we had the option of kayaking in the bay and eating pork and seafood. We took the $22 option just for the sake of kayaking, which we were really thrilled about.
Early sunday morning, we boarded our 16 passenger van for the 4 hour drive to Halong Bay. When we arrived, they left us standing on the sidewalk as they got everything sorted out--for nearly an hour. Then, along with about 50 other people, we boarded our junk and set sail. The ride was pleasant, and the bay was beautiful. They took us in a little way to a point where we could see where all the seafood came from. Surprisingly enough, it comes from right there in the sea. We were then all brought below deck for our lunch. There was rice, weeds, tofu, fish and octopus. The tofu and fish were delicious, I think that my one bite of octopus tentacles was plenty enough. The kayaking, for which we paid our extra four dollars, turned out to be impossible because the guide had other plans. So we were kind of gypped of that opportunity. Instead we went and visited some large cave. There were probably 200-300 people within this cave at any given time. It was all lit up with different colored lights to show us some of its beauty and there was even a pump-powered fountain in the middle of the cave. Honestly, the people, and man-made attributes of the cave, completely ruined the experience of seeing what once was an incredible cave.
After all was said-and-done for our tour, we found ourselves pretty disappointed in its quality. Regardless of the tour quality, Halong Bay is one of God's most impressive creations. No matter what tour you may end up with, Halong Bay is worth seeing. Take the opportunity when you get it.
Latest Comments (1)
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Yeah (reply)
Jul 6, 2008 23:32 EST by crowmagnumman
I've seen a lot of stuff about how crazy the traffic is over there. Glad you survived it.
Junks look really cool. It's cool that you got to go on one.
It's too bad your caving experience was not better. I've always wanted to go spelunking, but it probably wouldn't be much fun if it's as you described.
I think I will go look up pictures of Halong bay on google. Happy trai... show all
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