I know, I know, vacation was a long time ago. It's just been very hard to sit down and try to break down such an awesome trip. It's daunting to find a starting point. I'm not sure I'm ready yet, but here goes...
Freezing and tired at the bus stop, we were excited to begin our two-week trek down Vietnam and up through Cambodia.
Our first taste of Vietnam was a bit surreal. Trying to get your bearings in such a new place is difficult - the multi-colored, French-inspired homes, the ramshackle buildings and the ever-present mopeds all competed for the attention of our eyeballs, as our brains struggled to keep up.
Thankfully I had made a reservation for a hotel in advance (most of the trip we flew by the seat of our pants). Getting to the hotel was the easy part. The real adventure began when we set out to explore the city. After a good 20 minutes of walking it was evident we were heading the wrong direction because our destination wasn't that far from the hotel's doors.
What's vacation, I guess, without a little exploring. Eventually we reached out destination - Hoan Kiem Lake - and it's bustling surroundings. The lake sits right next to the Old Quarter - a historic collection of streets that feature different goods on each street.
After grabbing a bite to eat we tried for a second time to contact our guide for our boat trip on Halong Bay. We were scheduled to leave in the morning and had been told to check in with the guide when we arrived to Hanoi. We tried a few additional times, including a trek to the "office", but it was closed for the day.
In the morning we still hadn't been able to touch base with our guide and were feeling dread on the possibility that we might have gotten stiffed. I was thinking up ways to put a positive spin on the potential disaster when all of the sudden our guide showed up. Hallelujah!
Halong Bay is such a beautiful place - beautiful enough even for me to forget about my team in the Super Bowl. I know, wow! It's hard to properly describe it with only words, so I'll let some pictures do the talking. Here you go:
After a night on the boat we were back in Hanoi searching for a hotel. We ended up in a cheap backpacker hotel with plywood (or at least it seemed) beds. Unfortunately for me the discomfort didn't stop there. We headed out to a delicious dinner in the Old Quarter near Hoan Kiem. My dinner of the local specialty - cha ca, or grilled fish - was a new experience for my taste buds and my table skills as I had to wrap rice noodles, the grilled fish, nuts and veggies in a sheet of rice paper.
While my meal was fantastic, I think it was the trigger of some unfortunate side effects that haunted me for a few days. After dinner we walked back to the lake to a theater to catch a water puppet show - a form of traditional Vietnamese theater. Neither of us were enthusiastic about it, but when in Rome... The show lived up to our low expectations, it was hot, cramped and not all that entertaining, but I'm still glad we checked it off our list.
The following day my stomach problems made for a miserable day. We tried to catch some of the other sites in Hanoi but were only moderately successful. But we did see the tomb of Ho Chi Minh and the former presidential palace from the outside, we also checked out the HCM museum, an interesting pagoda (temple) and the Temple of Literature (an ancient "university" for scholars of Confucian learning).
Then it was off to the train station for our ride to Hue. Hue seemed more than just miles away at that point because we had over two hours to kill before catching the train, not to mention our 13-hour ride. Because it was so close to the Lunar New Year we weren't able to book a soft bed in the train and instead ended up with hard beds. It wasn't as bad as I thought, but Gina and I ended up with the top bunks in a three-tiered set up and it was a bit of a tight fit. Luckily we shared our car with four other foreigners and I was able to get a decent amount of sleep.
Up next: the former imperial city of Hue.
Freezing and tired at the bus stop, we were excited to begin our two-week trek down Vietnam and up through Cambodia.
Our first taste of Vietnam was a bit surreal. Trying to get your bearings in such a new place is difficult - the multi-colored, French-inspired homes, the ramshackle buildings and the ever-present mopeds all competed for the attention of our eyeballs, as our brains struggled to keep up.
Thankfully I had made a reservation for a hotel in advance (most of the trip we flew by the seat of our pants). Getting to the hotel was the easy part. The real adventure began when we set out to explore the city. After a good 20 minutes of walking it was evident we were heading the wrong direction because our destination wasn't that far from the hotel's doors.
What's vacation, I guess, without a little exploring. Eventually we reached out destination - Hoan Kiem Lake - and it's bustling surroundings. The lake sits right next to the Old Quarter - a historic collection of streets that feature different goods on each street.
 |
| Hoan Kiem Lake |
In the morning we still hadn't been able to touch base with our guide and were feeling dread on the possibility that we might have gotten stiffed. I was thinking up ways to put a positive spin on the potential disaster when all of the sudden our guide showed up. Hallelujah!
Halong Bay is such a beautiful place - beautiful enough even for me to forget about my team in the Super Bowl. I know, wow! It's hard to properly describe it with only words, so I'll let some pictures do the talking. Here you go:
After a night on the boat we were back in Hanoi searching for a hotel. We ended up in a cheap backpacker hotel with plywood (or at least it seemed) beds. Unfortunately for me the discomfort didn't stop there. We headed out to a delicious dinner in the Old Quarter near Hoan Kiem. My dinner of the local specialty - cha ca, or grilled fish - was a new experience for my taste buds and my table skills as I had to wrap rice noodles, the grilled fish, nuts and veggies in a sheet of rice paper.
While my meal was fantastic, I think it was the trigger of some unfortunate side effects that haunted me for a few days. After dinner we walked back to the lake to a theater to catch a water puppet show - a form of traditional Vietnamese theater. Neither of us were enthusiastic about it, but when in Rome... The show lived up to our low expectations, it was hot, cramped and not all that entertaining, but I'm still glad we checked it off our list.
The following day my stomach problems made for a miserable day. We tried to catch some of the other sites in Hanoi but were only moderately successful. But we did see the tomb of Ho Chi Minh and the former presidential palace from the outside, we also checked out the HCM museum, an interesting pagoda (temple) and the Temple of Literature (an ancient "university" for scholars of Confucian learning).
 |
| mausoleum and grounds |
Then it was off to the train station for our ride to Hue. Hue seemed more than just miles away at that point because we had over two hours to kill before catching the train, not to mention our 13-hour ride. Because it was so close to the Lunar New Year we weren't able to book a soft bed in the train and instead ended up with hard beds. It wasn't as bad as I thought, but Gina and I ended up with the top bunks in a three-tiered set up and it was a bit of a tight fit. Luckily we shared our car with four other foreigners and I was able to get a decent amount of sleep.
Up next: the former imperial city of Hue.
Halong Bay is beautiful! I hope your stomach issues didn't spoil the entire trip. :/ Foreign food and water can taste good going down, but...
ReplyDeleteAnd P.S. I still haven't gotten around to posting about my trip to Europe.. so if you're a few weeks late posting, it isn't so bad in the scheme of things. ;)
ReplyDelete