Vietnam: Hoi An, Da Nang, and Ha Long Bay

This post is to catch up with the new pictures we just uploaded that are actually from 2 weeks ago since we just now found an internet connection.

Confucius statue 

As we worked our way up the Vietnam coast we stopped in Hoi An after a brutal bus ride from Nha Trang. The bus was an overnight sleeper bus and it was super cheap to go the 300 miles to our next destination (about  $10 each). It wasn't really worth it in our opinion however as the bus stopped irregularly for restroom stops on the side of the road (in one case peeing in an alley), with the horn blaring all through the night and the amazingly poor condition of the road we both slept poorly though Cassie fared the worst of both of us. We Arrived in Hoi An in a state of fatigue and went to a hotel to rest our weary heads. After having some coffee we wandered around the historic part of town and really enjoyed the shops and street vendor's food such as buying a whole super amazingly delicious pineapple ready to eat for only 50 cents. We wandered around in the heat until we couldn't handle it anymore and went back to the comfort of our airconditioned room. The next day we took bicycles for $1 each and rode to a beach north of town. It was hot, but a very nice beach. We spent the evening wandering around town after the sun had gone down and found our favorite dumplings with meat, and a new thing we had missed before which was a baguette and pork vietnamese sandwich. Now, Nick (my brother) had taken us to a Vietnamese sandwich shop in New York City, but I have to say it didn't have anything on this street vendors sandwich. For only 50 cents each it was one of the best sandwiches we've ever eaten. The following night we went back and got another. While wandering at night we found some restaurants overlooking the river which served local fresh beer for only 20 cents each. It was pretty much heaven and we drank two each and still spent under a dollar.

Octopus for dinner

We continued to spend our days at the beach, though Cassie opted on our last day to go to a nearby ancient temple, My Son. My Son is a bit older than the temples at Angkor Wat and it was heavily bombed during the "American War". It sounded a little weird at first, but of course, the Vietnamese aren't going to call it the Vietnam war. Surprisingly though, there was no animosity to American's from the Vietnamese. Vietnam believes America must be it's ally against a much closer superpower: China. The tour guide talked about the parts of the temple that had been destroyed by American bombers, but sounded much more upset by the artifacts that had been stolen by the French and housed at the Louvre. There were some interesting statues, but there wasn't a lot left at the temple. I took some pictures, but unfortunately our pictures from there and Hoi An were deleted when I tried to upload them at a computer in the hotel and instead got a virus on our card.

view of Da Nang from Monkey mountain

After a few days in Hoi An, we decided to go just a little further north to a guest house we'd heard good things about, Hoa's Place. Right on the beach, outside of the city of Da Nang, Hoa's is famous for being a relaxed, good place to stay, with friendly people and good food.  It lived up to it's reputation. Mr. Hoa fought with the Americans in the war when he was just 14. He spoke very good English and had lots of stories to tell about the war and life in Vietnam. The first day there, we met Pierre from New Zealand who was married to Kim, a Vietnamese woman, they were going out on a scooter ride and invited us along.  We headed over monkey mountain to a quiet little beach. It was great having a local with us since Kim ordered all the food and probably got us a better price on things. While everyone else was out swimming, I had the interesting experience of having a local family hand me their 6 month old baby to hold so they could take a picture of me holding him. I didn't object, and they were quite happy about it, but was rather strange since we couldn't speak to each other. Pierre said they considered it good luck, and I had the experience a few other times of being pulled into random people's pictures.

researching our trip at Hoa's Place, Da Nang, Vietnam

monkey mountain beach

Vietnamese locals at Monkey Mountain Beach

While at Hoa's place, we debated what to do with our remaining time in Vietnam, we finally decided with encouragement from Marla (our round-the-world friend from Alaska) to head to Ha Long Bay. We had already purchased a flight out of Hanoi back to Thailand, so didn't have much time, but it was well worth the effort to get there.

After our overnight bus experience, we decided to stick to train travel this time and had a much more pleasant journey. After 24 hours of traveling on a bus, two trains, a scooter taxi, a bus, a boat, and another bus, we arrived at Cat Ba  island. We headed straight to Cat Ba adventures where Marla had recommended and got a one day tour of the bay. The owner even remembered Hank and Marla from their visit over 4 years ago and even whipped out their business card from his wallet to prove it! The next morning we got on the tour boat with six other people and headed out to Ha Long Bay. It was immediately apparent why this place was voted one of the new 7 natural wonders of the world. We began to see floating fishing villages immediately and not long after many limestone outcroppings that defied belief. Many reminded us of towers we had seen in southeastern Utah in that they seemed to be heavier than their supports allowed. We went to an island cave first. It was the biggest single cave we've ever been in and though the detail wasn't amazing it made up with size. There were tons of tourists (though our guide told us this was a small amount of tourists), many of them locals since it was a Sunday and many people had come for the weekend. At the end of the cave a boardwalk took us back to our boat and past a bunch of vendors selling things from their small boats. It makes sense that this is the only way to do business considering it's a park and an island, but some of these boats were packed to the brim with many different items and it made us gawk a bit as we walked by. Live seafood was available at some boats and the variety was really breathtaking. We headed back out on the boat to kayak in a bay and have lunch. We talked to the crew (their english was limited) but we got our points across pretty well. The Vietnamese people seem to love having their picture taken. The kayak was really enjoyable with two caves/arches that we kayaked underneath. It was a first experience for both of us to do this and it was really cool. We ended the day by swimming around in a small bay, and doing a bit of snorkeling. The ride back made for more impressive views of the bay and we both agreed that even without the other activities the boat ride by itself was well worth the $25 we had each spent for the tour.

Ha Long Bay

The captain

Surprise Cave - Ha Long Bay

Kayaking under the rock

Ha Long Bay

boat vendors at Surprise Cave

floating village kids

The following day we needed to get to Hanoi for our flight so we began our journey and arrived in Hanoi that evening at the hotel we had reserved near the airport there was something delicious being grilled out on the street. I asked the hotel manager what it was and he said "duck" so we asked the price and ordered some. He brought us some beer and we sat waiting for our dinner. While we waited we saw the chefs walk across the street and come back with 2 Live Ducks! I said to Cassie "i think that's dinner" and we both agreed but were sure they would take the ducks out back to kill them. Nope, while we were drinking our beer they slit the ducks necks, and began defeathering them. Given the country has little or no refrigeration it makes complete sense that many things have to be served fresh and this was no exception. The duck was amazing.

train food - a sour jiggling dumpling thingy with some pork on the side? it was weird.

Our train friend - Xinh

The next morning we got on our flight without any issues (the airport was surprisingly small and quiet) and arrived in Bangkok ahead of schedule. We wandered around town and went to see the Golden Buddha statue which was 10 feet tall and weighed 11,000 pounds. It's the biggest solid gold Buddha in the world and is worth about $273,627,172. If only we had room for it in our luggage.... We boarded another night train and made our way to southern Thailand to an island called Ko Phagnan. All told the 48 hour marathon journey from Ha Long Bay, Vietnam to Ko Phagnan, Thailand involved more transportation then I've ever taken in my life. Here the list:
bus-ferry-bus-bus-taxi-taxi-plane-train-train-train-bus-boat-back of pickup truck

Now we are enjoying our last few days on the East coast before heading to the West coast. We're a bit worried about the weather as it looks like it could rain more there, but there is climbing there as well as more beaches to relax on. It's a risk we are willing to take.

Hopefully we will be able to be more consistent on posts now that internet is easier to find.

-matthew and cassie