Sadly, it's coming to an end. Today was our last day in Vietnam. Haven't blogged in a while so here's a quick recap of the past 5 days:
We caught an overnight train back from SaPa to Hanoi. We had a sleeper car this time which was infinitely better than the trip up there, though I still couldn't extend fully in the bed. We arrived at our hostel at 6AM for a noon check in so we ditched our bags and went in search of air con. Hanoi is miserably hot. It's high 90's and humid everyday. I wasn't feeling well after the train ride and napped about 4 times that day. We feel asleep at the temple of literature (it was really boring) and got yelled at by a security guard. We went in search of "food street" and found some outdoor stalls to have a nice seafood lunch. Went to a night market that night that apparently only sold bra's and phone accessories and shoes.
The next day we left early for 3 days in Ha Long Bay. It was beautiful. The first day we spend on a boat, traveling through the hundreds of large steep rocky islands covered in trees that fill the bay. We kayaked around some islands, went into a cave and dove off the boat. The food on the boat was great (squid, shrimp, make your own spring rolls, etc) and the rooms were surprisingly spacious. The next day we got dropped off on Cat Ba Island, the biggest in the bay, and opted to cycle around the island as it was too hot for trekking. We saw Hospital Cave which is a very large cavern that was used as a hospital during the war. It had 3 floors, 17 rooms and a cinema!
Then we went to Monkey Island, a private island owned by the tour company. There we meet up with the other boat from our tour company that had all the fun young people on it and the trip got much better. We swam, played soccer on the beach, kayaked, ate some great food, played drinking games, partied with a Vietnamese man whose daughter had just gotten accepted to college so he bought everyone 3 rounds of beers! It was great. (Note: These Scottish guys taught us the greatest "drinking" game ever. It's not so much a drinking game as a game to play while you're drinking. It's basically the little green man rule from kings - there's a little green man sitting on your drink and you have to remove him before you drink and put him back after - but the penalty for forgetting him, instead of just having to take a drink - not much of a penalty - is that the the man runs away and the rest of the group gets to decide where he's gone, then you have to retrieve him. Hilarious. He can go anywhere. On the bartender's head, in a little kid's pocket, swimming in the ocean... and you can't explain it to anybody until after you've gotten the man. fantastic. Anyway...) We were up late and then woke up early yesterday to catch a bus back to the big island to take a bus across it to catch a boat back to the mainland to take a bus back to Hanoi. Loads of traveling but really fun. Unfortunately, I was not feeling well at all. We got back to Hanoi, showered, ate and crashed.
Today I feel much better though the heat here is unbearable. We decided to skip the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum as it didn't seem to be that impressive and instead to walk around a market and see the city a little more. We also napped through the hottest part of the day. Great decision. Tonight we got one last bowl of Pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) and have to pack up for the morning flight home.
It's been a great trip. Tarik and I are still talking which is amazing. I wish we had 2 more weeks to see Laos but I'm grateful that I got to spend this long and now I have something to come back for. I didn't get a chance to run in Vietnam but it is way too hot here anyway.
Leave at 1:30 tomorrow afternoon, 6 hours in Singapore - going to the pool and possibly the spa - then 12 hours to Frankfurt and 7 to New York. Get in at 11AM Tuesday. Back to the good ole US of A.
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