Northern Vietnam

The thing to see during any trip to Vietnam seems to be Halong Bay. If
you have only seen a few pictures of Vietnam, you have doubtless seen
a photo of Halong Bay. It is the place where giant pieces of stone jut
out of the ocean. We knew that it would be touristy, but we decided
that we would like to go anyways. We got on an overnight bus to Hanoi
then took the train from Hanoi to Hai Phong. We had planed not to stay
in Hai Phong but to take the ferry directly to Cat Ba Island and stay
there instead. However, when we got to the ferry pier we knew that
they were trying to scam us on the price of the ferry ticket so we
decided to spend the night in Hai Phong and take the ferry in the
morning because it seemed that most companies only ran boats in the
morning. We went back the next morning and were disappointed to find
the exact same set up. If you are a foreigner and want to get from Hai
Phong to Cat Ba you have to buy your ticket from the shady seeming
lady under the umbrella on the street for twice the going rate. None
of the companies will sell a ticket directly to you. We did enjoy our
night in Hai Phong. We found some good restaurants and some nice,
helpful people, but as soon as we approached the pier we found it to
be a really ugly place were everyone seemed to be aggressively trying
to rip us off.

We eventually decided to swallow the increased cost of tickets for a
boat that they would not let us see before we put down the money. Once
on the ferry we really enjoyed our trip to Cat Ba Island which is in
the middle of Halong Bay. The scenery is stunning, and the town is a
really nice place to visit. We had an amazing hotel room with great
views of the harbour for ten dollars a night.

The view from our room

We spent time at the beach one day and went on a boat tour of Halong Bay
the next. After too few relaxing days on Cat Ba we caught the early
morning ferry back to the mainland (for less than half of the cost of
our tickets in) and made the connection to the train we wanted back to
Hanoi with one minute to spare. On the train we decided that motion
sickness may be more prevalent here than at home. It was not the first
time that we have been near to someone who vomited for an entire train/
bus ride. Yuck.

We had a short stay in Hanoi where we enjoyed sipping coffees while
watching the chaotic traffic. Later we went to see a water puppet
show. Water puppetry is a traditional art form here and we really
enjoyed the show. Some of the members of the orchestra looked a bit
bored, but I might look bored too if I put on the same show five times
a day everyday.

I am writing this as we ride the train from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City.
On the train we have two older ladies and an undisclosed number of
mice for room mates. The ladies are very cute. They do not speak
english and we do not speak Vietnamese, but we have managed to
communicate a few things. One lady told us through hand signals that
the glasses prescription that she needs for each eye is quite
different, but someone made a mistake with her glasses and put the
lenses on the wrong sides. She was joking that she could hold her
glasses off to one side and look through only one lens. I joked that
she should try wearing her glasses upside-down. Everyone thought it
was very funny. I think it might have actually worked better than
right-way-up because I saw her wearing them upside-down to read
several hours later.

The ladies are checking out the postcards we were writing

Our other room mates chewed through the side of
our cloth shopping bag and enjoyed some of our crackers during the
night. We plan to spend a couple days in HCMC before we fly to
Manilla. From Manilla we take a six hour bus ride north to Baguio.
From there it is a jeepney ride to the town of Acop. We will be
volunteering at a farm near Acop for several weeks. They do not have
electricity, so I imagine that we will not have access to internet
unless we go into town for something. We will do our best to stay in
contact from the Philippines, but it may not be very frequent contact.