We arrived at the hotel, meeting Lindsay, another classmate that I had traveled with to quite a few countries (Japan, Korea, Kili, Italy, etc). We decided to roam around the city for a bit before the midnight curfew. We walked by the lake and some stores and restaurants before heading in for the night.
The next morning, pretty early in the am, we headed to the HandSpan office, the tour provider for our Halong Bay overnight. We loaded a bus and drove for four hours to Halong Bay. While the bus was much more comfortable, the driving and roads were only marginally better than Cambodia. We arrived at Halong Bay a little past noon. We boarded a small boat which took us to our main vessel, the Treasure Junk. It was much nicer than I expected, complete with spacious cabins, nice dining area, sun deck and very thoughtful staff. I decided to be a vegetarian for this boat ride as it was much easier than explaining I don't eat pork or seafood - this proved to be an excellent idea.
We were welcomed with a juice drink and then given time to change before lunch. We had about 8 courses to our meal, most of which were fantastic, especially the fried spring rolls with vermicelli noodles and the fried taro. By the way, the spring rolls in Vietnam were by far the best we have had all trip. Probably because the paper wrapper is the thinnest.
As we sailed around the bay, we saw more and more of the tons of little islands that spring out of the water. While there is some local legend of a dragon, they really formed out of plate shifting. Only monkeys and birds live on some of the islands. Of course, we had overcast weather the whole trip!
Our first activity was to go kayaking around the islands. It was quite relaxing and peaceful. The water was a green hue and really unclear how deep. Many of the islands had caves. There was the option to go swimming, but Lindsay and I decided to stay in our kayak and float around. Taryn decided to brave the freezing water and go in.
After kayaking, we sailed a little further then had a "cooking class" which really was a DIY fresh spring roll station. We then had dinner, another million courses, which I couldn't even touch most cause I was stuffed. We also shared two bottles of wine between the three of us. Fun times.
Post dinner activities included squid fishing, but we were not nearly patient enough to catch any. Their method of fishing included shining a really bright light in the water and throwing a fishing line that had a flower looking metal hook at the end in the water and bobbing it up and down. Quite odd.
The next morning there was tai chi on deck, but it decided to sleep through that 6:30am option. Around 7:30 we arrived at a floating village. The village has about 90 houses and 300 residents. The site became a UN Workd Heritage Site in the 1990s, which helped cement the economic support for the area. Most of the people have fishing farms under or next to their homes which they use to make a living. There is also an oyster farm where they harvest pearls which they sell for jewelry. The homes were pretty small, by did have generators as they had televisions. Also many of the homes had dogs. Not quite sure how dogs get their exercise in or go to the bathroom without jumping in the water. We had a guy who rowed us around the village and dropped us off near the oyster farm. We learned about the pearl process, including how they add a mother pearl to the oyster and then put it back in the water for 12 months about 6 feet under water. During this time, the pearl becomes larger as layers get added to it. They then remove the pearl, which kills the oyster. Only about 30% of oysters have a pearl and only 10% have one they can use for jewelry. I might have misunderstood some of these facts as their English was good, but some got lost in translation.
After the village, we had brunch on the boat, including delicious pho (rice noodles in broth) before heading back to shore. We took a bus back the way we came, stopping at the same tourist market at the half way point. Unlike the tourist market in Thailand, this one was more legit as we saw them make the stuff they were selling. The coolest thing I saw was hand sewn silk pictures. The ladies were looking at a painting and then sewing it by hand.
We arrived back in Hanoi in the late afternoon and after settling in our hotel and a quick local dinner, we went to the water puppet show. Basically puppets controlled by people who are behind a screen in water. Still not 100% sure how they do it.
The next morning we headed to the Hanoi cooking center for a guided street food tour. .
The first stop on the tour was pho - soup with rice noodles, veggies and meat. Delicious and probably my favorite item of the day. Pho was served with a savory donut that you dipped in the broth.
Our second food stop was rice pancakes. Translation: really thin rice pancake with meat and veggies on the inside. Reminded me of the "intestine" dish at dim sum in Hong Kong.
The fourth course was BBQ pork, but I opted for the snail option. Yes, i tired snail. Supposedly very different than escargot. The big one was too chewy to get down, but I was successful on the small one.
Afterward, we headed to the dessert course where there were a bunch if jars with different items ranging from black rice pudding to mango to lycée to coconut and you could pick as many as you wanted and the. They would add coconut milk. In theory, you were supposed to mix it all together, but I ate them individually from my bowl.
The last stop was a local coffee shop where they served Vietnamese coffee - very strong. In fact first time ever than I can say too strong for me!
Turns out to be a great way to see the city. One of the tour books described Hanoi as bustling and I would have to agree. Tons of people selling things everywhere! And tons of motorbikes. They don't really use stop lights so lots of honking and also dodging moving vehicles when trying to cross the street. Additionally, there would be groups of stores selling all of the same product, for example shoes, metal works, electronics, etc. One of our fellow travelers informed me that it related to the guilds back in the day.
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