Hanoi, Vietnam
We stepped out of the airport and were immediately steaming hot. The drive from the airport to our hotel in Hanoi gave us flashbacks to the traffic in Cairo; it was definitely not as bad, but had a similar "anything goes" feel. The one big difference is the incredible amount of motor bikes in the city. The bikes just zoom in and out of traffic with no fear.
Within a very quick hour, we arrived at our hotel, which was extremely nice. We stayed in the nicest room they had, yet the price wouldn't get you a room at Motel 6 in America. So we were loving Vietnam from the get-go.
We were eager to venture out and see the city so we were, once again, fighting the traffic. The crazy traffic makes it very difficult to cross the street. You literally walk directly into oncoming hoards of motorbikes and cars. People tell you to just walk without looking. We were both pretty terrified to do this at first, but it wasn't too long until we got the hang of it (sorta).
John McCain's flight suit
We also visited the Temple of Literature in the pouring rain. Luckily, the rain didn't seem to stick around long in Vietnam, but we bought some $2 ponchos and kept on trucking.
Getting a shave
Halong Bay
Halong Bay is 4 hours east of Hanoi. It has jutting limestone islands/formations everywhere you look. There are many boat companies that offer cruises along the bay, and we chose one that has a 3 day/2 night cruise. The cruise was most definitely a huge highlight of our trip! Not only was it incredibly beautiful, but we met some great people from all over the world while on the boat. Oh and Jon got to jump off the second balcony of the boat, so he was really happy!
On the boat we did several trips. The first was a visit to a floating fishing village where people not only fish, but also make pearls. About 200 people actually live on these floating houses, and they do trips to the mainland for food and necessities. Apparently, they enjoy chicken more than fish, so these trips are frequent.
The second trip was more fun and sun. We kayaked through a bat cave - we weren't told that bats lived in there until we were inside. We both discovered we are afraid of bats. Who knew? We also saw local people chipping oysters off of rocks. We decided not to join them because of the ugly black crab-looking things that were also covering the rocks, but it was definitely neat to see where oysters come from! From there, we were taken to a beautiful area that had about 10 natural beaches and we kayaked to them from our boat.
One interesting thing about Vietnam is that most of the people working are women, and, according to our guide, the men tend to stay at home and drink wine. We found this to be true because women were tending to the rice fields, rowed our boat in the fishing village, and were collecting the oysters. This was also true throughout the rest of our time in Vietnam since almost all of the people in stores and restaurants have been women. Jon wants to move to Vietnam! jk jk
All women!
New friends from the Halong Bay cruise! They've invited us to New Zealand for a visit!
Hoi An
Of course we were very excited to visit Hoi An because of the wonderful shopping there. Hoi An is known for its tailoring. There are tons of tailor shops all through the town and they all are very eager to get your business, so we spent some time checking out the scene and also asking our hotel for recommendations. We ended up shopping at several different places, so it was interesting to compare the tailoring between the shops. They say you can get very good quality as well as very poor, and we're happy to say we are pleased with all of our clothing purchases. It is quite remarkable having clothes made for your body and shoes made for your feet!
Lindsay became friends with one of the tailors
No one minded that construction workers were shoveling dirt right next to food shops in the market
Hoi An is also known for having beautiful beaches. Our hotel rents out bikes for free, so we biked our way down to the beach and spent the day hanging out in the sun. Jon also took a lesson on kite boarding, which he really enjoyed.
We've had some great food while in Hoi An, and it's given us appreciation for air conditioned restaurants. We've found it hard to find air conditioning in Vietnam, but that was to be expected. Thankfully our hotels have had great air conditioning, so we aren't complaining. In fact, our cabin on the boat in Halong Bay had such good air conditioning that we think it may have broke our camera. Yes, our brand new DSLR broke, but thankfully Jon purchased a super duper warranty, so we'll be getting it fixed asap. Needless to say, our pictures from Hoi An won't be quite as good as the pics from the rest of the trip, but we are very happy it happened at the end of our trip vs. the beginning.
All in all, we have had an amazing trip and are so happy that we've been blessed with this wonderful opportunity. This trip has only deepened our appreciation for traveling and we are excited to continue to travel throughout our lives. Up next, New Zealand? We'll see, we'll see.
We hope that you all have enjoyed reading our blog and being a part of our journey. Stay tuned for more trip stories and stats.
All our love,Jon and Lindsay
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