Explanations for the pictures at the bottom, as well as a video of me jumping off the boat from the top deck which was the 3rd floor and about 30 feet high (the woman filming and laughing in the video was one of the german ladies on the ship).
I decided that there’s no way that I could spend any more time in Hanoi so I went to the Vietnam airlines office and booked a flight to Siem Riep, Cambodia. Flight was around $100 cheaper at the office than I could find online which was great. I booked a 2 day 1 night trip to Halong Bay not really sure what it was but a few ppl had recommended it to me.
We left the next morning at around 8:30am for the 3.5 hr drive to Halong bay. It was only 170 km (a little over 100 miles) so it prob wouldn’t take more than 2 hrs in any civilized country but there are very few highways so we had to go through the local villages in order to get there. It wasn’t a great ride as the air conditioning we were promised barely worked and it was about 120 again so everyone was sweating like crazy. When we got there, we got off the van and got onto a tiny ship that transported us to the main ship which was actually pretty nice. We checked into our rooms on the boat and I had a shared room (since I didn’t feel like paying the extra $12 for my own room) and when I looked at the room realized there was only 1 bed and considering the woman I was supposed to be sharing the room with was a 65 yr old Australian lady, that wasn’t going to work. After a little yelling we both got our own room and all was well. The other ppl on our tour were pretty interesting (more on that later). There were 2 german boys that were about 20 yrs old, 2 middle aged german couples traveling as a group, 1 young dutch couple, 1 polish guy and his Vietnamese girlfriend (very perplexing couple) and 2 british girls. I started speaking w/ the 2 british girls, Jacqueline and Charlene, who were both really cool girls and the 3 of us pretty much hung out for the next 2 days straight. It was surprising how different we spoke considering it was the same language and it happened relatively frequently where they would have to repeat themselves 3-4 times b/c I had no idea what they were saying w/ their accents (which were awesome btw). They were in law school and they had gone to Clossacks for undergrad, but alas, I had obviously never heard of Cossacks. After about 10 hrs I realized that they were actually at Oxford and they had studied Classics (which when they said sounded like Clossacks to me). I mentioned that I had gotten into Cambridge for law school but that I wasn’t going and they seemed happy about that since Cambridge is the enemy.
Anyways, Halong Bay turned out to be one of the most incredible places I have ever seen and after this tour, going down the Mekong river in Ho Chi Minh City seemed like a waste b/c this was so much cooler. It is hard to describe but halong bay is basically gigantic rocks/mountains that are sticking out of the water and they are incredible. The rocks are sort of what I think about when I of the mysterious far east and are better described by looking at the pictures above. The boat took us to some caves which were ok, but nothing special, basically, it was just nice that the caves were so much colder than the outside temperature. After that we got to go kayaking.
One of the interesting things about halong bay was the floating villages. People had built houses pretty far out in the water in order to have better access to the fish so I was able to kayak through one of the villages which was pretty cool. After that we got to go swimming off the side of the boat. I actually jumped off the top of the boat which was about a 30 foot drop (although in the video it looks like much less) and just swim around in the water which was beautiful and refreshing.
We had dinner and after that I went fishing w/ the Charlene and Jacqueline. When we went to ask the guides for fishing rods they almost giggled at us b/c there was a 0.001% chance that we were actually gonna catch something but wtvr, we had nothing else to do so we figured why not. After about 20 minutes, Charlene got a bite and when she pulled her fishing rod out of the water, there was a squid attached to it. We had absolutely no idea what to do so after a few minutes of thinking about it I went upstairs to get a bucket to put the squid into. The tour guides were absolutely shocked that we had caught some (as were we) and they gave us a bucket but by the time we put the squid into the water in the bucket it was already dead. After that, we went to hang out on the roof w/ one of the german boys. Turns out that both boys had just finished their service to the gov and the one we were speaking to was about to start school (which is paid for by the company that he’s going to work for when he graduates, which in this case, was airbus). I mentioned my last name was Kestenbaum and it turns out that Charlene actually knew one of my cousins who used to live in england which I found pretty amusing.
The next morning we had breakfast and our boat took us on a tour through the mountains, it was really cool and everyone went up on the deck and we were talking to each other. I had spent pretty much the entire previous day w/ Jacqueline and Charlene so it was nice to get to know the other ppl a little bit. It’s also nice talking to other travelers b/c pretty much my entire trip has been possible b/c of tips that I’ve gotten from ppl that I’ve met along the way.
The boat took us back to land and we had lunch at about 12:30, and then got back on the bus (the van on the way back was much nicer than the one we had going there). We picked up 4 new ppl to take on the bus, 3 vietnamese women and one little white girl who I thought looked about 10-11. Charlene, Jacqueline and myself were really curious as to what the deal was with the little white girl (where the Vietnamese women her babysitter, mother, etc?). Anyways, eventually the 3 of us started talking to the little girl and it turns out that the Vietnamese woman was the little girl’s grandmother and although we didn’t quite get it out of her, it sounds like the white girls grandfather was fighting in Vietnam and took this Vietnamese woman home and had some kids so she’s ¼ Vietnamese (although she didn’t look it at all) and the grandmother was traveling w/ her 2 friends and granddaughter. The grandma and little girl lived in the middle of nowhere in Utah (a few hundred miles from salt lake) and the little girl was so bored and thrilled to talk to ppl that were at least relatively close to her own age. She was a little odd and at first I thought she was home schooled as she was interested in pride and prejudice, sense and sensibility and not gossip girl and some boy at school but wtvr.
I didn’t book a hotel for that night so I just went back w/ Charlene and Jacqueline to the hotel they stayed at which they said was relatively nice and pretty central in the city and I didn’t really like the hotel I was staying at before. They were leaving late that night and I was leaving the next day so the 3 of us went out to an amusing dinner where we basically talked shit about all the other ppl on our tour. We didn’t quite understand the 2 dutch ppl (who were both beautiful and at first glance seemed like a perfect match) who we assumed were a couple but they seemed to hate each other and so we decided they were fighting. The middle aged germans were quite normal (although one of them was british originally and a little strange) but the polish guy and his Vietnamese gf were perplexing b/c they didn’t even speak the same language so there’s clearly something odd going on there. The 2 young germans also seemed pretty normal. Anyways, after a few drinks we left and went back to the hotel where we hung out for a little while before they left and then I went to bed. I just flew into Cambodia (never imagined I’d be saying those words) and I’m going to walk around the temples of Angkor wat tomorrow and everyone I’ve met that has been said it’s incredible so I’m excited about that. I took a motorbike into siem riep which is the town adjacent to Angkor wat (surprising the motorbike could hold my suitcase, which went between the drivers legs) since it was only $2 and a cab was $7 and my driver was really nice and wanted me to hire him so maybe I’ll do that for 1 day here, I shall see. Anyways, I don’t think I did Halong bay and my experiences there justice b/c it was really very cool but wtvr, hopefully the pictures will get it across a little more. Also, I really liked the ppl on my tour which obviously made it more enjoyable.
1 and 2. Halong bay
3 and 4. me at halong bay
5. floating village
6. me swimming in water
7. halong bay - view from one of the islands
8. hut that was built into the mountain
9. woman from floating village selling fruit
10. floating villages
11. me, jacqueline and the dutch boy
12 and 13. me, charlene and jacqueline
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