Thursday [Nov 18th]- We left the hotel at about 8 this morning. It was a three and a half hour bus ride from Hanoi to Hoi Long Bay. We were told we were staying the night on junk boats. As this did not originally sound promising, we were in for a great surprise. We boarded large boats with very nice accommodations. I LOVED our room! I wish we could have stayed there longer for one night. We set off soon after we arrived and had lunch. After we got about an hour out into the bay we stopped and soon departed for the floating villages. Once we arrived we were able to go canoeing around the bay and the villages. After canoeing we boarded back on our commuter boat and they took us to the island, which was fun. We had dinner back on the boat and they were supposed to tie our boat and our two others boats (all 47 of us needed three boats) together and people were allowed to go back and forth.. our boat had to take a taxi boat though.. so most of us decided to stay. It was nice to get a break from the chaos of a large group. So Rachel, Bri, Noelle and I all sat in the room and had fun girl talk until we went to bed at 1030 J
Friday [Nov 19th]- We woke up the next morning and had breakfast. Afterwards we headed to the ‘Surprising Caves” I actually liked it a lot. I haven’t been in a cave for a long time. I think the last time was almost forever ago when I went with my family.. (In Tennessee?? Kentucky?? I do not know.) It was definitely a hike though! We had to travel up over a hundred stairs to even get to the start of the cave. Many wonderful pictures later we got back on the taxi boat and onto our junk boat and set sail for shore again. We ate lunch in the town when we arrived then drove back to Hanoi for one more night. After dinner I walked around for a while around the shops with everyone, but didn’t buy anything.
Saturday [Nov 20th]- we loaded up the buses early in the morning (four in the morning… no big deal) and started our bus ride to the airport. After we sat on the ground for an extra hour due to bad weather we were finally in the air for an hour before landing in Hue. As soon as we hit the ground we were on the go! After eating brunch at a lovely hotel (which we later found out was not ours) we headed into the forbidden city, which was cool. Later we went to the castles of some queens and kings and other fun people. It was a REALLY long day. None of us were quite in the mood to be doing tours and sight seeing all day. It took a lot out of us. After sightseeing all day we boarded a dinner boat along the river. They played live music for us and the food was good. (note: I think all the food is good, as in, there is always something to eat even if I do not like it all). After the dinner boat we FINALLY headed to our hotel. It was jank compared to the hotel we ate breakfast in (what a tease!) we didn’t even have sheets, although once we got them they looked stained. In my bathroom we didn’t have a normal shower, just a showerhead in the middle of the bathroom (second time this has happened…. So weird! Who does that?) After taking a NORMAL shower in Rachel and Bri’s room I headed off to bed.
Sunday [Nov 21st]- after breakfast had church service in an alley, basically. Definitely an experience. And it goes to show that you can have church ANYWHERE! It is not the building that makes the church, it is where God’s people are congregated together. We then loaded the buses for a four hour long bus ride. About halfway through we stopped for lunch (rice and seafood) and then stopped shortly after at My Son (“mee sun”). It is an archeological site, which was pretty cool! There are not many restrictions so we were able to walk into the ruins and buildings. We had a guide as well, but I could not understand him for the life of me! The only think I remember is when he kept talking about Indonesian people and repeated himself five times saying, “dark skin” (points at skin) “curly hair” (tugs on back of hair). It was funny, but I guess you had to be there. We later traveled into Hoi An where we stopped and checked into our hotels before having dinner at a really cool outside restaurant. It was so cute! Although you had to walk down a back alley to get there, ha. Later many people went to the tailor shops to get clothes made for them. I didn’t know what I wanted really, so I decided not to waste money on something I didn’t care for. After I waited around with people to finish getting sized and all it was shower and bed time!
Monday [Nov 22nd]- Woke up, had breakfast, then it was off to our homestay with a Hoi An family in “Vegetable Village”! We got to see how they farm (and help out too!) and then we watched and helped use these vegetables, etc, to cook a typical meal. Whatever it was we made was good (do not know what it is called.) The main part was made of rice-flour and egg and we placed beef? And some kind of sprout (which I picked out) inside. It was good! We made other food as well. Later it was time to head back and walk around the city. We began walking as a group touring a few places but then a few of us split off to look around. We probably should have stayed with the group because next thing you know a little Vietnamese lady was dragging us into her “spa” promising $1 pedicures. She and a few other ladies sat the five of us down and started going to work. About an hour later I had my toes done, and my legs threaded (ouch) I ended up paying $15 dollars, but hey, whatever. I kind of doubt the threading was as good as it could have been, but my leg hair hasn’t grown back yet! (So good sign!) By the time we were finished we needed to head back outside of town so the other girls could get their final fittings on their dresses done.
On the way back we saw a lot of pretty and tall girls who were nicely dressed and wearing sashes. Each green sash had a different country. Little did we know the “Miss Earth” pageant was in town. Never heard of Miss Earth, but ok! I had my picture taken with Miss Puerto Rico, haha. I never saw Miss USA. So anyways, we headed back to our side of town, had dressed fitted then a few of us headed back into the market and had a little haggling fun.
*Oh! Right before we went back to the markets Noelle and I saw a pair of pants on a manikin. The lady asked if we wanted to try them on, and we did, but they ended up being too big. We both really loved them though so the lady said she would take our measurements and have the pants ready for us by eight. So I ended up getting something made after all. They were only $10 so why not!
After the markets we headed BACK to our side of town so the girls could pick up and finish paying for their dresses, then it was time for dinner… which was back towards the markets. Dinner was great though! And we had birthday cake for Stacy’s birthday.
We did ANOTHER take back and walked back out of the market area so Noelle and I could pick up our pants (which fit PERFECTLY by the way) and then headed back to the markets to get a tad bit more bargaining done. Later after going back to the hotel we heard of $8 massages. I had never had one before, and it was cheap…. So why not.
LESSONS LEARNED: (1) Never let a lady drag you into your shop and make you pay for something you weren’t sure you wanted to have done…. Just say No! (2) Every little thing adds up. It may seem like an amazing deal, and it may actually be really cheap… but next think you know you blow $40 in one day!
Tuesday [Nov 23rd]- TODAY!!! Finally caught up J We had breakfast at 6, then left Hoi An by 7 to catch an early flight out of Da Nang. We arrived roughly an hour and a half after taking off in Ho Chi Min City! Our first means of business was to head to the hotel and to have lunch. After lunch I changed into shorts because it was SMOKIN outside, then got on the bus with everyone else. Our first stop was the War Remnants Museum. It was all about the Vietnam War. Can you say Intense??? It was definitely very eye opening and rose a lot of questioning. It was definitely an evil event, and I think I wish it never happened. So many people were affected on all sides of the war. I may write an actual synopsis of the whole event and my thought process while I learned very new and interesting information later on and post it as a blog.. I have to journal about it either way. But it was definitely impacting. After touring here for a couple of hours we headed to the Independence Palace. We were supposed to go in and tour around but there was some official meeting taking place so we weren’t able to (not that I was really complaining..) So we headed early to a Colonial-Style General Post Office and a Notre Dame Basilica which were right across the street from one another. We took pictures and walked around, then got icecream afterwards before setting off again. After finishing our icecream we lugged ourselves across town to the water-puppet theater. Since we ended up not going to the Palace earlier we arrived 45min early and had to wait around, outside, in the sticky, humid air. The water-puppet theater was definitely interesting. I think I would have enjoyed it more though if the Vietnamese ladies (and others) voice was not the most obnoxious thing I have ever heard. I just don’t enjoy asian singing.. I cannot get past that twangy sound of their singing voice.. ouch! After the show we walked to dinner, which was Great! THENNNN, we walked around, heading back to the hotel. After I showered I spent an obnoxious amount of time trying to figure out how to unblock facebook so I could finish uploading more pictures. And now, hear I sit. The lights are off, and I am ready for bed!
So basically…. I SWEAR not to take this long in between blogging again. The cruise really messed me up and set me behind on the whole blogs/pictures/journals process. It was a nice time to just relax and enjoy myself without having to do any work. But I hope whoever reads this is still enjoying hearing about my travels! I also hope its fairly easy t read, I am not the best writer and it is hard to spend a ton of time going back to edit or revise, etc etc. I just tend to let it flow, as if having a conversation. But ok, really.. It is time for bed! Waking up a 7 in the morning.. gross.
Goodnight All! (Or Good Afternoon for you!)
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