Vietnam- Hanoi, Halong Bay, Sapa

Warning: Long post with lots of pictures!

We have been in Vietnam for 9 days now. We spent our first 3 nights in Hanoi. We arrived on my birthday which was lovely. I treated myself to a McDonald's cheeseburger and fries at 2 in the ayem in the Singapore airport and then about 4-5 hours later Justin bought me a McGriddle breakfast sandwich ( an egg, cheese and a sausage patty stuffed between two pancakes with maple syrup pockets! WOW!) Started off my 27th year with a bang and a few extra pounds!

The hostel we booked in Hanoi over booked so they put us up in their sister hotel for the night. That was a great birthday gift and it was so nice to have a big clean room to catch some z's in, oh and to take a looong hot shower in, which I will never take for granted again. We were both so pooped when we arrived we tucked right in for a power nap. We hadn't really thought through our consecutive travel plans when booking so we were on a all night bus backed with a late flight and night in the Singapore airport. I guess at the mere age of 27 I am too old for that kind of thing! ;)

To be completely honest, I don't think I would recommend Hanoi. Around the old quarter and the lake was charming but there are so many scooters/motor bikes that I could hardly breathe. I had to wear a hanky around my face. It really was that bad!

Our hostel to hotel upgrade! We had a great view of the city!

Water puppet show!

I think it is kinda of neat, around the city they have tons of bird cages just hanging in random places. I feel sorry for the birds but it is adds a nice touch to the city!

Veggie bike!

She wanted me to pay her to take Justin's picture holding her baskets! Ha!

Crossing the intersection is a little risky! We found that you just have to go and keep walking, everyone swerves around you!

We visited the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. That was an interesting experience. I guess they went against his wishes as he wanted to be cremated. We also toured where his lived as President.

Next stop: Halong Bay

Halong Bay- we were all about it so we signed up for a 2 day, 1 night cruise with AClass. Once we boarded our junk we sailed through the natural wonder of limestone islets to the floating village of Vung Vieng. Vung Vieng is a functioning village that survives from the seafood industry. Every morning boats come into pick up their stock and trade them for other supplies.

Our room! We were really impressed with it. We heard tons of horror stories about these junk boats being full of rats and cockroaches but ours was really nice and we did not have a sighting of either so I was happy about that!

There was even a red rose tucked in the bed!

Pure beauty!

Living the ultimate life of relaxation.

By the way, I am no longer a nail bitter. Really, it is the truth. I have not bitten my nails since we got back from Japan in Jan. I did have an episode on our way back from Sapa that caused some tearing but not bitting! ;)

We went for a bamboo boat ride through the floating village and around the limestone.

These poor cats were tied up!

It really would be a beautiful place to live among all the limestone.

Our "junk" boat

I loved that a short cooking class was part of the package, something fun and hands on. We made fried pork spring rolls and they were mighty tasty! Afterwards, we enjoyed them with some local wine.

Floating market passing by, she had everything from beer and wine to snacks and toilet paper. However, we were told by our boat if we purchased something from her they would charge us a service charge to bring it on board. I thought that was kind of lame of them.

Sunset on the bay

In the morning we got up bright and early to check out Sung Sot cave. I was really surprised at the size of this cave, it was enormous and really cool to walk through.

Next stop: SAPA

From the moment we arrived until the moment we departed it rained in Sapa. Not only did it rain it SNOWED. We were stunned to wake up to a light dusting of white. I surely was mistaken in only packing a pair of yoga pants and a light zip-up. Needless to say, we bucked up put our rain ponchos on (best purchase yet) and went and did a bit of trekking in the rain.

Cat Cat Village

Sapa is a hillside town located in the northern part of Vietnam. On a sunny day there are suppose to be spectacular views and magnificent scenery of rice terraces and mountains towering above the town.

Members of the local hilltribe H'mong. The H'momg women are all over town urging tourists to buy their handicrafts and trinkets. They follow you around saying "You buy from me". This one girl wanted me to pinky swear that I would buy from here the next day because I said "maybe tomorrow". Sure enough she tracked me down the next day and even waited outside a restaurant we were in.

The traditional H'Mong clothing. Most of the tribe members we saw had blueish hands from the dye in their clothing.

This is the last thing I thought I would be using on this trip. We had to rent a heater for our room it was so chilly! It was $4 for the night. We spent a good chunk of time tracking down places to hang out in with fire places. At one point we really bought our time by the fire by ordering drinks, appetizers, main courses, dessert and more drinks!

Justin spent a lot of doing this and I.....

spent a lot of time doing this! (Photo by JTH)

Sopping Sapa was not really a crowd-pleaser in my opinion. But even with the "downs", at the end of the day, I always find myself laughing and I know that the ruff edges do file themselves down and know my blood will return to a normal temp and that is just part of the fun and experience.

Note: All my pictures are taken with my wimpy ol' point-and-shoot. So PLEASE do yourself a favor and check out Justin's flickr account for more photos! Here is the link http://www.flickr.com/photos/kungfuji