I suppose I better start by telling you about our trip out to Ha Long Bay. It took us about three hours to get out to Ha Long but obviously not a problem for me as I have refined the habit of falling asleep as soon as I get into a moving vehicle. Once there we took a boat out to the boat where we would be staying the night.
Unfortunately we didn't have good weather so we didn't get the best views of the rocks/islands/whatever they're called but there was a light mist around them so it all looked rather eerie. We went to a little floating village where we got into canoes and we got to go explore wherever we wanted.
It was cool to get up close to these rocks and see the size of them. Of course, once we crashed into one of them I freaked out a little bit as there were all these black crabs which I thought were huge spiders. We also went into a cave which was rater large and our tour guide took great joy in pointing out all the rocks shaped as animals and parts of the human anatomy. Some were cool, some not so cool.
We stayed up into the night sitting on the top deck of the boat playing cards and singing songs. Even at night it was a beautiful view, we saw the outlines of the rocks as the sun went down and once it was pitch black all you could see were lights from other boats. Sleeping on a boat is rather odd. Once I settled in I could feel myself rocking ever so slightly. It was quite a weird sensation. The next morning was not so pleasant when I woke up to find five huge bites down my arm. I swear the mosiquitos here must think I'm some kind of open buffet as I have had two bites on my face (which thankfully have gone down now), innumerable bites on my hands and feet, the five on my arm and to top it off I have a huge bite on my neck which does not look good.
The next day we sailed out to Cat Ba Island where we went on a bike ride and went to another cave. This cave was one that was used as a hospital during the war, aptly named 'Hospital Cave'. It's pretty amazing what they had created in there. After we went into the cave we had a little bit of free time before cycling back to meet the rest of the tour group who had gone on a trek instead of the bike ride. I decided to cycle into the village. As I cycled through the village, children were waving and shouting hello. At the risk of sounding corny, it's so humbling to go into these villages where the people have nothing and yet they seem to be so happy. Makes you grateful for what you have.
We were staying on a small resort where we pretty much had a private beach and we stayed in a little wodden bungalow. After the bike ride we had the chance to go see some monkeys. Now, I don't particulary like getting close to wild animals. I don't mind seeing them in a zoo or whatever, but wild animals should just be left alone. Before we scrambled up the mountain our guide advised us that we need to be careful around the monkeys. We were not to laugh or smile as showing your teeth to monkeys is like asking "You wanna fight?". Also we were not to look them in the eye. He then started saying that he could no guarentee the monkeys wouldn't bite us et cetera, et cetera. Well, this just instilled fear into me. To put it mildly, when the monkeys finally appeared and started jumping on people, I freaked out and pretty much ran back to the resort.
We left Hanoi on Monday on a sleeping bus which was an experience to say the least. Lets just say, they aren't made for westerners. At 5foot8 I was crammed into the bed so I hate to think what it was like for anyone taller than me.
I did intend to write about Hoi An in this post but unfortunately I'm having a bout of illness and after getting sunburnt today I just can't be bothered. You will just have to sit in suspense.
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