Highlights from Hanoi & Ha Long Bay

I just realized that I never posted pics from Hanoi and Ha Long Bay! It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed myself. I'm pretty sure Tania's favorite part was Ha Long Bay. We took pictures as much as we could, and there's a whole huge set of the pics on Flickr.



I really really loved Hanoi. We ate at all of these awesome restaurants, but we were a little dismayed that the restaurants in the tour books were all restaurants that catered to foreigners. I have to say that our cheapest and most authentic meals came towards the end when we were eating street food on tiny little chairs with motorcycle exhaust blowing up our butts.

Hanoi is a small city, and we walked because we felt like walking would be the safest course of action. Motorcycle taxis were aplenty, as were cyclos and taxis, but none of them seemed to obey any sort of traffic law and we wanted to get out alive. The highlight was really the water puppet show, which was a total deal. My sister said something along the lines of "they could charge stupid Americans 5 times as much and they would still pay."

We left Hanoi for Ha Long Bay in the middle of our trip and it was everything Hanoi was not -- peaceful and serene. We booked an overnight trip on the Santa Maria Cruiser, and it was quite nice as we were two of six guests total on the cruise ship. The ship maxes out at 16 guests, but I imagine it would have been quite crowded with all rooms occupied like that. I don't know how people do Ha Long as a day trip from Hanoi because it's nearly three hours just to get there.

Anyhow, I'm hoping that we get to go back soon. I'd love to go with Joel and the rest of my family and see the rest of Vietnam -- Hue and Saigon especially.

Leaving Vietnam

It's 7am here in Vietnam, and we're going to be leaving this afternoon. I wish we had more time here to see more of the country. We stuck mainly to Hanoi, with our overnight cruise to Halong Bay. It is warm and sticky here in Hanoi during the day, and I can't imagine going any later than spring. I am definitely going to have to come back to see more of the country -- especially Hue and Saigon which we did not get anywhere near.

Anyhow, once we're back stateside, I'll be able to upload the pictures to share all the fun we've had so far. I've got to start my morning soon...

Last Full Day in Hanoi!

Yesterday, my sister and I saw the majority of the remaining sights in Hanoi. The entire morning was taken up by queueing up to see Ho Chi Minh himself. It was quite the surreal experience. Afterwards, we saw the One Pillar Pagoda (Chua Mot Cot), perused the Military History Museum, and then had a super late lunch of Cha Ca. At night, we walked to Bobby Chinn and had a superb dinner.

Today is our last full day in Hanoi, and we're going to spend the majority of it in the Old Quarter. It's been a lot of fun and a lot of walking. Now to start our last day here...

Hello Hanoi!

It's been an interesting trip so far. Right now, my sister and I are back in Hanoi after doing an overnight trip to Halong Bay. Hanoi is a noisy, lively city, and the trip to Halong was peaceful and quiet. The Internet connection here has proven to be super slow, so I've decided to wait until I get home to upload our hundreds of photos. Our trip is more than half over, and I wish we had more time to explore more of Vietnam.

Here is an overview of what we saw/did so far:

Hong Kong -
Day 1: ate dim sum at Maxim's Palace, went up Victoria's Peak, went to the Temple Street Night Market, went to the Ladies' Market, walked the Avenue of the Stars and saw the Symphony of Lights, ate at a whole in the wall noodle joint
Day 2: ate dim sum at some fancy tea house, walked Hollywood Road and saw the Man Mo Temple, went to Lantau Island, took the Ngong Ping cable card to the Po Lin Monastery and the world's biggest outdoor Buddha statue, wandered around the Causeway Bay shopping area and found a whole in the wall Chinese BBQ place for dinner.
Day 3: ate dim sum at Viking Seafood Restaurant near the hotel, then went to the airport to fly to Hanoi!

Hanoi -
Day 1: wandered around Hanoi's Old Quarter and stumbled upon a night market, ate bun bo Hue at Restaurant 69 near our hotel.
Day 2: walked around Hoan Kiem Lake, visited the Ngoc Son Temple, passed the Cathedral, ate a delicious delicious lunch at Green Tangerine, shopped some more, then at night walked to the French Quarter, saw the Opera House, ate dinner at Club Opera.
Day 3: went to Halong Bay on an overnight cruise, went kayaking in Halong Bay.
Day 4: saw Amazing Cave before cruising back to the pier and returned in Hanoi!

We have tickets to see the famous water puppets tonight, then afterwards we're going to go find some yummy food for dinner. I'll go into more detail once I upload all the pics.