Ha Long Till Goodbye

I had an ahhmazing weekend in Ha Long Bay, spending 2 days and  night on a mini-cruise boat ship. Even though the weather wasn't ideal it was still just as beautiful. The sun didn't appear until we got back on the dock, but the fog gave the scenery a tranquil atmosphere. I would be careful booking the tours though because it's clear what the travel agent thinks  the tour is and what the boat tour think it's offering, and there is quite a difference between the two. We were told we would get wifi- uh nope! And water is free- uh I had to pay 75 cents for that! And the welcome drink turns out to be a rationed out sip of suspicious cocktail juice?! Anyway, we went back to the travel agent and he was kind enough to refund us like 3 dollars. Warm water for showering was available between 6:30am-7:45am Regardless, I had a grand time, even though the pictures in the brochure were nothing like what we got....Beware of White Cruise...though it seems like the other boats didn't fare any better...

After getting picked up in the morning, we started our 4 hour bumpy journey to Ha Long city where we stopped at a tourist shop where there was blatant commission going on, but they did have nice stitching pictures. When we finally made it, the first time looking at the boat, I thought it was a ferry taking us to our cruise boat because that is how far off the pictures it was.

 

 We went to the cave "Heaven" and if it weren't for the fact that it was a tourist spot, I would've thought it was a regular mountain, not actually this beautiful cave. After, we went kayaking and got to see the inhabitans of Halong, where they live on basically little water houses. It was interesting to see their simple way of life. They even had dogs!!

The people on the boat were 6 of us IVHQ volunteers (the Aussie and Scottie women, along with the 2 ladies from Dubai, and a girl from Canada), and 2 Russians who were quite funny, and two backpackers from Finland and Holland. Getting to hear their stories and plans of traveling southern Asia has got me itching to travel and backpack everywhere! Later we had a small party on the boat since it was just 10 of us and it was kind of awkward with the whole staff watching us since it was such a small boat. I mean the whole staff consisted of like 5 people. It got even weirder when the captain (when recounting this story later when we got back, Duc saw a picture of him and thinks he's from Thailand..if that explains anything) started offering us his drink which was straight up liquor and stared dancing with us. Awwwkward. Anyway, it was fun, if not for the sake of it being a fun story to tell. Then, since we only got warm water for shower between 630am to 745am, some of us decided to go swimming in the water in the morning. THAT WAS SO MUCH FUN!! Just don't think about what could possibly be in the water...

Crazy Captain

Even though it sucked to get back to Hanoi just when it was starting to get nice in Ha Long, I was excited to get back to the kids today. During our lunch break which is from 11:15-2:15, since that is such a long time, we wanted to go sightseeing, but I guess people take their lunch break seriously here because a lot of the places are closed for lunch between those same lunch hours-ridiculous! So instead, we went to this restuarant called KOTO, which stands for Know One, Teach One and is a social enterprise started from a former Vietnamese soldier who came to America I think then went back to Vietnam and started a project to help disadvantaged youth by providing them skills to cook/serve food so they can get hired in the hospitality area. It is such a great cause and a nice place. The food is kind of expensive for Vietnamese standards, so I suggest getting the dessert (duh) and the shakes. 

 This upcoming week, some of the volunteers are leaving and tonight was Nahid from Canada's last night. Something I've already come to learn is that the essence of traveling, the transient nature of it is that along with all things, people come and go. While the goodbye is always hard, traveling has a way of bringing great people together for a reason.

The Caucasian in the red shirt is a German tourist and just randomly joined us.