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I haven’t seen the sun since arriving in Hanoi 4 days ago.  There is a constant fog that surrounds the city and although it’s not raining it’s certainly not the best weather for hiking, swimming, or simply seeing things.  Which is unfortunate for us because we just took a 3 day trip to Halong Bay.  Halong Bay is supposedly the thing to see in Vietnam.   Taken from this Wikipedia article which can explain it far more eloquently than I, “The bay consists of a dense cluster of 1,969 limestone monolithic islands, each topped with thick jungle vegetation, which rise spectacularly from the ocean.”  Indeed, it was spectacular, but would have been moreso if we had been able to see further than 300 feet.

I’m not a fan of tour groups, especially after seeing the ridiculousness at Siem Reap, but everybody has suggested them for Halong Bay so we went ahead and gave it ago.  3 days for 42 dollars each, including food, tour guide, boat, kayaking, hiking, swiming, a cave, and 2 overnight stays, one of which is on the boat.  It was nice, and maybe we had bad luck, or maybe you get what you pay for but regardless I wasn’t particularly happy with the tour and certainly wouldn’t recommend this company to other people.  It did have it’s great moments though, such as swimming and kayaking in the middle of the gigantic limestone islands before all the other tourgroups came.  I love boats as well, just being out in the ocean was fantastic and the fact that it was foggy just makes me want to come back to Vietnam again even more.

One of the activities on the tour was “trekking” (they reallllly don’t use the word “hiking” here).  Now, I’m no professional, but I’ve hiked a few miles in my life and I think it’s  interesting how casually tourguides can refer to a “trek” when it was definitely one of the most difficult 4 kilometer (round trip) hikes I’ve ever done.  You’re rewarded with some beautiful views at the top but for Moe who’s lived in Tokyo her entire life and never been on a real hike it was not the best way to start things off.  You follow this path up some steep steps, which is ok, and then you reach an incredibly steep, muddy, slippery uphill that never really ends.  You’re never walking or hiking so much as climbing and slipping over the entire thing and everybody in the group was muddy by the end.  Moe was incredibly nice about the whole thing and didn’t complain even though she got cut pretty bad on her legs.  She’s ok, but we’re a bit annoyed with the tour agency for not caring in the slightest about anything and being angry that we took a long time to come down the fairly dangerous mountain.  The whole thing took around 3 hours.

They also took us to Monkey Island where we could go hiking some more or go swimming.  As the name suggests there are monkeys there, but after playing with the monkeys and bear at the Gibbon Experience I wasn’t particularly interested.  I do love hiking though, so I took the opportunity and hoped this one would be better while Moe relaxed on the beach.  Well, it turned out to be almost more ridiculous.  Although it was dry it was just as steep, with way more sharp rocks that were not particularly fun to climb over, and led nowhere except to a beach that was exactly like the beach I had just come from but dirtier.  I hurried back and went swimming with Moe, which also turned out to be painful as there were lots of rocks under the water where you’re supposed to swim.  They were surprisingly sharp and unpleasant and in fact Moe cut her toe again while we were swimming.  I’m looking forward to going to Koh Chang in Thailand which is supposed to be quite nice and painless.

Ok, all complaining aside I still really enjoyed the tour.  Halong Bay is extraordinary and although the weather was bad Moe and I made the most of it.  It’s often easier and more interesting to describe the bad parts of experiences but overall it was still great. 

Hanoi.  Hanoi is my favorite large city that I’ve visited in Southeast Asia.  It’s huge, it’s cheap, it’s loud, and it’s (sometimes overwhelmingly) chaotic.  It’s quite dirty compared to Tokyo, but far cleaner and less smelly than Bangkok.  I’ve never seen as many Motorbikes in my life.  There aren’t really any stoplights at most intersections so everybody is constantly honking and swerving in between each other at them.  It’s a lot of fun to watch and even more fun to ride through on a Cyclo, a 3 wheeled bicycle/rickshaw where the driver sits behind the (1 or 2) riders.  I hadn’t seen then before I came to Vietnam, and their great fun as you’re in front with nothing to block your view.  The architecture here is quite old and interesting and I could spend an eternity in Vietnam alone trying to take decent pictures of it all. 

The 30 hour train ride from Saigon to Hanoi was pretty ridiculous.  People don’t speak english in Vietnam nearly as well as Thailand, Cambodia (note: we only visited touristy Siem Reap), or Laos which made buying the train tickets an experience in and of itself.  I’ve experienced some of the “I don’t care about lines or queues” in Laos but this was different.  I took a ticket, whose number should signify where I’m supposed to come in line, but it turned out to be completely arbitrary yet important as long as I had it.  The line was about 10 people, 5 or so of which were completely crammed into the window, but everybody yelling at the ticket lady.  I went and stood behind one of the people, not touching him but being careful not to let anybody else get around me and cut in front.  I showed one of the crammed in guys my ticket and he said something in Vietnamese, took me, and crammed me in between 2 people where I couldn’t really move until it was my turn.  Everybody is yelling the entire time but when it’s my turn everybody turns completely silent until I’m done.  I say “Hanoi,” she says something in Vietnamese that I can’t understand in the slightest but seems to require a response, I say “yes” and nod my head, she types the amount into a calculator and shows it to me, I pay, we get 2 tickets to Hanoi, and everybody starts yelling again while I leave.

This train ride came after a full day of bus riding from Siem Reap so I was already pretty exhaused.  After the ticket buying experience I was a bit annoyed although I thought it was funny.  I became more annoyed when we got charged twice as much each as was clearly written on the sign at the bathroom (not the slightest bit uncommon for foreigners in Southeast Asia, which is understandable and usually I’m ok with).  I became more annoyed when we got onto the train and I realized it wasn’t as nice as the overnight ones I’d taken in Thailand and there were tons of Vietnamese pushing/yelling us in the tightly packed corridors.  Things got a lot better though when we got to our room which had 6 beds in it, which meant 4 random Vietnamese people who didn’t speak a word of english.  When you don’t speak a word of Vietnamese, and they don’t speak a word of English or Japanese, things get realllll interesting and creative, as well as funny and awkward at times.  For the next 30 hours (sleeping excluded) we hung out with these guys, who were all a few years older than me, trying to explain things using the extremely limited Vietnamese/English dictionary section of my guidebook, charades like gestures, and drawings.  The guys were really nice and seemed quite interested in foreigners as they were kind enough to almost constantly buy us beer, food, and soda.  Some of them may have been a bit too nice, in fact, and 2 particularly were more than a bit creepy.  I’m not sure if it’s the Vietnamese way or not, but they weren’t shy in the slightest regarding personal space, not with me or Moe.  Moe unsurprisingly gets more attention from guys here, even those monks we talked to (who aren’t even technically allowed to touch girls).  If people know how to say “beautiful” in Japanese or English they often do.  I made sure to stay between Moe and them but these Vietnamese guys stared at me just as much as they stared at her and touched me a bit more than either of us thought comfortable.  Staring at foreigners in Asia isn’t uncommon and I’ve gotten used to it but still, when the person is sitting right beside you it gets awkward pretty quickly.  Anyways, despite those 2 guys we had a lot of fun on the train ride and it was certainly an unforgettable experience. 

We have 2 more days in Hanoi and then we fly to Bangkok where we’ll head to Koh Chang as soon as possible to spend the rest of our time.  Vietnam is an amazing place and quite different from the other countries I’ve visited thus far.  It’s too bad I don’t have more time to spend here, but I’ve thought the exact same things about every other country as well.  Things are great, Moe and I are doing well, and the rest of the trip will be fantastic.  Next time from Koh Chang!