Hanoi – The Kinetic Canuck

Yowling Yagi

The last few days have been a whirlwind….in the literal sense! Hurricane Yagi hit Hanoi straight on and it was a pretty intense adventure! Winds were as high as 100km an hour in the capital (even worse on the coast!) and 9 people died in the storm in Vietnam. Several hundred were injured. Being here through it was a little nerve wracking so I thought I’d take a minute to share the experience with my readers.

Friday Afternoon

We knew the typhoon was supposed to hit Hanoi in the middle of the night on Friday. So, we did our shopping Thursday night to be safe, charged our batteries, and collected all the lanterns and flashlights in our apartment so they’d be easy to find.

Friday afternoon, I was at school, when suddenly it got very dark and very windy….about 12 hours ahead of schedule. I assumed the storm just got to us earlier than expected, so I packed up my things and head for home. The weather was already pretty bad by the time I made it onto the road, but I figured it was only going to get worse from there, so I risked it.

For best effect, listen with the sound ON…. once more, this wasn’t the typhoon…it was a pre-storm. And I drove in that haha!

The drive was horrendous. It took me 2 hours to drive 19kms. Luckily, the rain stopped about 20 minutes into the drive, but the streets were flooded and there was plenty of debris on the road making traffic worse than it already usually is. And of course, the human factor played into the situation as well. Everyone was in a rush to get home, and as a result, there was a lot of honking, a lot of near-accidents and a endless traffic jams caused by people running lights. By the time I got into my apartment, I was shaking from the stress of it all.

A tree that fell about 10 minutes after I drove past here on my way home (stolen photo from the internet)

The rain stayed away the rest of the evening, and we learned that the storm I drove through wasn’t actually part of the typhoon itself…just a pre-curser to the main event. Still…it did some damage and it was VERY intense! Here is a video of how bad the wind got in that part of the storm. Again, it wasn’t this bad where I was, but I was definitely moving VERY slowly on my motorbike because the wind was extreme.

There was a weird feeling in the city that night. People were out and about, talking about the incoming storm, grabbing a few drinks and watching the skies. We got home from cocktails with some friends at about 1am and head for bed. When we woke up…the big storm had arrived.

Saturday

When I woke up, the storm didn’t sound too bad. We live in a small building that sits between two bigger buildings, so we couldn’t really tell how bad the storm really was. We still had power, and no water was coming in, so we figured things probably weren’t going to be as bad as predicted. Then we started hearing banging…and snapping…and howling…

We only left our apartment twice that day…both times to go to the roof to see how things were up there. We stayed in the sheltered area (so we were safe!). We both really wanted to see what 100km per hour winds felt like. At one point, the wind nearly knocked me over…and again, I was in a pretty sheltered spot! You can see our neighbour’s roof flapping in the wind…

We watched the wind rip our neighbour’s tin roof apart strip by strip. We heard trees falling in the distance. All over social media, we were hearing about power outages and flooding in people’s apartments. There were rumours that the city was going to shut down the whole city’s power at 7pm to prevent fires from breaking out, so we quickly prepared dinner, expecting the worst. The power cuts never happened.

Pictures like this were coming through on social media all day long

We stayed inside the whole day, not daring to leave the safety of our sturdy little building. Still, when I laid down for a mid-typhoon nap Saturday afternoon, I could feel the building shake a bit from the safety of my bed.

Haiphong city, which is more coastal, got it MUCH worse than Hanoi. I can’t even imagine!

At around 8 or 9pm, the eye of the storm passed over Hanoi. It got eerily calm. The rain continued lightly but the wind was much better than it had been. Then, as we expected, the wind started up again once the eye passed. Luckily for us, things got better from that point. After the eye passes you, the wind changes directions. That meant that our neighbour’s roof was left alone, and we were no longer worried about metal flying through any of our windows. The only casualty in our house was one of the trees on our front balcony. It’s fine…but it did take a tumble.

Sunday

Today, city workers started the long process of cleaning up. We head out at 9am to find some breakfast (the storm was gone at this point), and we were shocked by the devastation. Trees were turn right out of the concrete, fences and roofs lay scattered on the sidewalks (presumably having been moved off the road earlier in the morning). We saw one shop that was tilted to the left because a tree was uprooted right in front of it, and the roots nearly toppled the whole structure. There were cranes out, moving the bigger trees off of people’s houses and fences. The damage was baffling.

Cleaning up trees right in front of Moose and Roo

I made a couple of videos to show you what it looked like in our neighbourhood this morning.

Somehow, we never lost power. Right down our little alley, several power lines were damaged by trees, but our building never lost electricity. It’s funny the way storms can work.

The ally right by our apartment was mostly clear of debris this morning. We were very lucky!

So, Yagi was one heck of a ride! We were VERY lucky. Other than a bit of a leaky window and our plant falling over, we were unscathed. My drive home was by far the scariest part of the entire ordeal and the only time I ever felt like I was legitimately in danger (and I was more worried about the drivers on the road than anything else).

There are supposed to be another couple of storms coming, and it’ll be raining on and off all week as Yagi continues to dissipate and move inland, but for now, that’s all from me!

Hanoi City – Sightseeing, Traffic & Transportation in the capital

When I’m not at work, working on my post grad or at the gym, Dave and I have spent a great deal of time exploring Hanoi and the surrounding area. Unfortunately, I’ve been slacking a little with photos because I’ve just generally been on my phone less… But I should have enough to give you an idea of what Hanoi is like. So here we go!!

One of our favorite spots in Hanoi so far. Colonel Coffee in Yen Fu, where our first apartment was located.

Traffic

It’s impossible to describe what it’s like living in Hanoi without discussing the traffic. There is no metro in this city of 8 million people, and buses are slow. Of course, it’s too expensive to buy a car (and where would we even park it?) so we get around like everyone else: on motorbike.

This is Dave on my Honda Vision, the day we picked it up. He has a similar one that’s blue. They’re great, reliable bikes that are strong enough to get me over overpasses but not so big that I feel like I don’t have control.

It’s important to mask up if you’re cruising around Hanoi on motorbike. The traffic pollution is horrendous some days and even just driving 20 minutes without a mask on during rush hour will leave you with a headache and scratchy throat. I don’t even want to think about the long term affects we’d face if we didn’t buy high quality masks.

I happened to forget my good mask that day (the same one Dave is wearing). I still went and picked up a paper mask. It’s far better than nothing!!

The driving in Vietnam is also…wild. People don’t really look before changing lanes and it’s bumper to bumper traffic a lot of the time. We’ve helped more than one tourist cross the road in old town. Traffic won’t really stop for you. You just go ahead and walk into it with intent and the bikes and cars will go around you. People often ignore traffic lights and this leads to giant traffic jams, which makes getting home from work every day an ordeal (I’m just happy that only 1 half of my commute is during rush hour).

But…you dress for it, and you prepare your route ahead of time with traffic jams in mind… and you do get places.

My favorite part of traffic in Hanoi is seeing all the crazy things people manage to pile onto their motorbikes. EVERYTHING is done by motorbike here, so we’ve seen mattresses, refrigerators, ladders and massive piles of styrofoam, all being transported on Hondas.

I’m really not kidding when I say that everything gets transported by bike. We saw this guy loading up his bike on furniture street (there’s a street for everything in Hanoi… It’s awesome)

This is a motorbike that’s been altered to have a bit of a truck bed. And yes… That’s all styrofoam being transported on it.

Tet, or Lunar New Year has added another list of ridiculous things we’ve seen transported. For the last month, we’ve been seeing countless trees and bushes being driven around on the back of Honda’s. It’s a beautiful tradition for families to get these trees for the holiday. And it has made for a few laughs for us. We spotted all these drivers in 1 short trip into old Town last weekend:

Kumquat trees are put outside a lot of buildings and schools

And of course, I’ll never forget the time we saw 2 giant VERY breakable vases being transported across the city.

Sight Seeing

Hanoi’s Old Quarter

The Hanoi Old Quarter is world famous. You can go down there any night of the week and there are full restaurants, full bars, and every imaginable souvenir for sale.

I did not deal with it very well when we accidently walked down bar Street my first week here. It was anxiety attack central!

But there’s more to the old quarter than just bars and shops. Hoan Kiem Lake is my favorite part of Old Town, and we’ve spent many hours walking around this beautiful body of water.

There are also occasionally performances in old quarter and a pretty impressive craft street (like I said…a street for everything). Whatever you find interesting…Hanoi Old Quarter is a must-see for anyone who visits the city.

They were playing Despacito… I’m not kidding

There are lots of little things to see around Hanoi outside of old quarter as well. We haven’t even come close to seeing them all yet, but here are a few we’ve managed so far.

The Long Bien Bridge

This bridge is old and it’s seen a lot. It was the first steel bridge to be build across the Red River, and it was opened to the public in 1902. It was built during Hanoi’s French colonial period, and for a while, it was the 2nd longest bridge in the world (the only bridge longer than this beauty was the Brooklyn bridge in New York).

I couldn’t get a shot this good from my motorbike, so this one is from https://vinwonders.com/en/news/long-bien-bridge-the-witness-to-many-historical-milestones-of-hanoi/

The bridge connects 2 large districts of Hanoi, and it’s rather quirky. There is a train track in the middle and bike/motorbike lanes on either side of the track (cars use a separate bridge). The thing is… The traffic goes the opposite way on the bridge. Apparently, there were big problems with traffic jams going into the bridge so the government decided to switch the directions to help with the problem. I’m not really sure if it helped (and some people drive down it in whatever direction they feel like driving…) But it’s an interesting quirk regardless of the reason.

Hanoi’s Mosaic Mural

One thing I find very charming about Hanoi is the 6.5km mosaic mural that runs along the Red River dike.

Every time we drive along this stretch of road (and we do it often), I see something new. Certain sections were designed by students, others depict cultural elements of Vietnam. Foreign artists from France, The UK, Chile, Russia and South Korea also designed sections (other countries too!) And it’s just a really cool piece of art.

It was built to commemorate the 1000th anniversary of Hanoi city, and it holds the Guiness record for the longest mosaic in the world… And I drive by it almost every week.

There’s so much more to write about but I’ll leave it here for today.

After a long, wet drive, we arrived in Hue today.

My next couple of posts will be about some really cool day and weekend trips we’ve taken since arriving in Hanoi! Stay tuned!

Vietnam: A Year For Me

It’s been a minute.

I’ve wanted to blog so many times over the past few months. I’ve wanted to share what our life has been like here in Hanoi. I’ve wanted to post about all the food we’ve eaten and the places we’ve visited, but I wanted to do it for me. I didn’t want it to be a responsibility or a chore. I wanted to WANT to write.

I finally reached that point.

Time has also played a factor. Working on my post grad, 3 moves in 6 months and my job have also kept me very busy.

The last 6 months have been about recovery and self care. I try to keep my posts pretty positive, but the reality is that it took a long time to recover from everything that happened to me in China. I’d hoped that writing it all out in August would allow me to leave it all in the past, but I guess trauma doesn’t really work like that. It’s been a process.

It turns out that watching your family leave a country without you, because petty tyrants have decided to make your life difficult, is not something you can get over quickly…

Part of the process has been just identifying all the ways I was hurt over the summer; not only by Suzhou’s immigration bureau, but also by people I had considered friends. People who I had gone above and beyond to help in the past, who left me high and dry when I needed them. People who spread rumours and said hurtful things about me, and who just acted like I no longer existed the second I wasn’t useful to them anymore. In some ways, the mourning of those friendships was far harder for me than dealing with the psychological abuse I faced from the authorities.

There’s no denying that I had some very good people in my life who were very much there for me… But there were still others that really hurt me as well.

My physical health also suffered a lot in the months I’ve been absent from my blog. I caught Hand Foot & Mouth disease within 2 weeks of getting to Hanoi, and it was a severe case. My feet are STILL recovering, nearly 6 months later. Then I caught a terrible chest cold that wouldn’t go away. I wasn’t sleeping much either, which made it so much harder for my body to heal. I was dealing with a lot of pain in my leg and back as well from old injuries.

My feet and legs were far worse than my hands. The swelling in my feet got so bad that I couldn’t even put sandals on.

My anxiety was also worse than it’s been in years. Every time a police car drove by me, my heart stopped for a second. The flashing light of sirens also threw me into panic attacks. My hands would go numb and I’d have to breathe my way back into a better state. Loud noises and crowds made me very jumpy as well, to the point where I was really struggling to manage my classrooms. This anxiety even caused me to struggle with my voice. My students joke that I’m addicted to Ricolas because I rely on them just so my voice doesn’t give out. Anyone who knows me in person knows that my voice is not exactly something I’ve ever struggled with… But after all that happened, it’s like my vocal chords were seizing up.

I had to buy blue light glasses because I was getting terrible headaches from studying online. I’ve had more headaches in the last few months than I think I’ve had in years to be honest.

The hardest part of the last 6 months has been the rediscovery of who I am now. I’m no longer a rescuer; I can’t handle the thought of going back into that life. The idea of facing crisis after crisis and solving problem after problem makes me feel sick. I’m not a musician anymore. I’m not a community leader. I went from being someone everyone in Suzhou knew…. To being nobody.

Decadz and The Experiment were a big part of my life in Suzhou

The worst part of it was that my social anxiety made it impossible for me to build a new community of friends. I’m extremely extroverted, and I need to be around others to really be happy….yet I’ve been too caught up in all my anxiety to make friends. It has been a really terrible snowball affect. Having a social life gives me energy, but I didn’t have the energy to build a social life.

We had a huge circle of friends in Suzhou. Over the years, it changed as people came and left, but we always had plenty of people in our lives.

But I haven’t just been dwelling on all of this these months. I’ve been focusing on getting better and on becoming ME again. Dave and I joined a gym, and my back and leg pain has improved a lot as a result. I’ve also lost 7kg. I use the steam room to meditate and have been doing a lot of yoga as well. I feel so much stronger physically.

Marien, my dear friend in Spain, gets a lot of pictures of me in the hot tub at the gym

I’ve also been giving myself permission to rest and to focus on myself and what I need. We’ve done some traveling and gotten out of the rut we’d gotten stuck in during COVID. Most of all, I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting. I’ve picked apart what hurt me so badly, and have come to understand the different levels of betrayal I felt in those months.

Luckily, I have two cats in my life who are masters of zen. They’ve given me a whole lot of cuddles over the last few months

Of course, I’ve focused on the positives I saw last summer as well. People who barely knew me invited me out to chat and to see how I was. People I’d never done anything for were there for me. So in some ways, although I felt very discarded…I also saw the good in people.

I was so lucky to foster Falafel during my weeks trapped in China too. He was adopted last week and I couldn’t be happier for him!!

I’ve also come to terms with the fact that I’ll never be able to go back to China. I’ll never walk into SAPA again and hear the excited barks of 1400 dogs that love me unconditionally. I’ll never take a walk around Jinji Lake again or do the canal walk. It definitely breaks my heart a little bit, but I also know that if I ever did go back, I’d never feel safe. After writing candidly about what immigration did to me on a public platform, I don’t know if a visa request would ever even be approved. So…that chapter of my life is done. China got 10 years of my life…. More than a quarter of it, to date… But it’ll get no more.

I took big step this week. Several, actually. Although we’ve been very slow to make new friends in Hanoi, we have had the luck of spending time with OLD friends who happened to be here. Through them, we met a few new people, including the owner of a restaurant & bar called Barbaros.

Allan & Wei were friends of ours in Suzhou. We’ve spent a lot of time together since we all moved to Hanoi

This week, I contacted one of the owners of Barbaros and set up 2 things: A Foodie event that I’ll be organizing after Lunar New Year, and a performance that I’ll be doing for them on Valentine’s Day.

It’s a great restaurant with a fantastic menu!

This week, for the first time since I was arrested on July 1st…I picked up my guitar and played. It felt good. My voice was strong and I spent several hours just belting out some of my favourite songs and learning some new ones too. My fingers are killing me (I miss my callouses!!) but it’s a good kind of pain.

My old friend finally came out of storage

Today…I got a picture of Dave and I at the airport, on our way to Danang for a short Tet holiday, and for the first time in a long time…my eyes are happy.

I’m planning on doing a bit of writing on this holiday. Check back soon to hear about the awesome day & weekend trips we’ve been taking, and about Vietnam’s ancient imperial city: Hue.

I didn’t really have anywhere in this post to include this ridiculous photo of Hugo, so I saved it to the end. One of my TAs got him this Christmas outfit haha!!

Home in Hanoi

Two weeks ago today, I got my passport back from immigration, and got ready to leave China for good. I would be lying if I said I did anything other than hit the ground running. We went out for dinner in the Old Quarter the night I arrived, started work 4 days later, and started motor biking around the city within 10 days (don’t worry, we’ve bought proper helmets and face masks to save us from the pollution). We’ve also been to dozens of cafes and restaurants around Hanoi, and have gotten to know the city quite a bit! The last 2 weeks have been filled with adventure, experiences and newness; exactly what I crave in my life.

My first meal in Vietnam! Fried crispy chicken in rice. Dave ordered fish and vermicelli. The meal was incredible, and one of the only restaurants that we’ve circled back to so far! There are so many great restaurants that we almost always opt to try something new!

There’s so much for me to write about, but for today, I’ll start with a short introduction to the city where we are living!

About Hanoi

People have been settled in the Hanoi area since the 3rd century BCE. More than 2000 years ago, people began creating communities along the Red River, which flows through the city. With so many little lakes and rivers flowing through the city, it’s no surprise that the area has a long history. The settlements eventually grew, and in 1010CE, Hanoi (called Thang Long at the time) became the capital city of Vietnam.

Vietnam was a French colony for many years, and was later occupied by the Japanese during World War 2. The American invasion in Vietnam in the 60s and 70s also had a profound affect on the city, with many buildings and bridges being bombed. For a while, after the war, Hanoi wasn’t a very welcoming place for foreigners, which is understandable. It’s come a very long way since then.

A lot of this beautiful city was destroyed by wars

Our experience in Hanoi has been magical so far. People are very friendly, polite and helpful. People have offered us directions when they saw us looking for something, and all our Grab drivers have been very nice. English is also WIDELY spoken here; much more so than in Suzhou. Although many people study English in China, it seems that very few are willing to speak it with foreigners. In Vietnam, our experience has been quite different.

My first meeting at one of the middle schools I’ll be working with this year. I met several teachers who spoke English and even met with the Vice Principal who was able to do orientation in English. I’ve been told that the principal speaks English as well. The big difference between the two countries is that China is relatively closed for tourism. Their tourism industry revolves around Chinese people travelling around China. Vietnam, on the other hand, is a popular tourist destination, so there has been a bigger push for people to speak it here. A large part of their economy depends on it.

A Lively City

Hanoi is known as the introvert city, and Ho Chi Minh City is known to be extroverted. Anyone who thinks that Hanoi is introverted though, should really visit Suzhou! This city is SO alive! There are cafes, restaurants, pubs and bars everywhere. People seem to love being out, walking around the little ponds and lakes all over the area where we live. On any given night of the week, there will be groups of people enjoying beer and a great meal at the tiny restaurants that are scattered across the city.

This was on a random Thursday night in Old Town. There are always people out and about, and bar streets like this are a hive of activity!

We went for a little cruise on the motorcycle Sunday night, after dinner, and couldn’t believe how many were out cruising around the lake as well! The roads in Hanoi are almost always chaotic, but as long as you stick with traffic, and move with cautious confidence, it all seems to be ok. Traffic doesn’t move quickly, but it does move at least. Having a motorbike saves you a lot of time on the roads, so we didn’t wait long before getting one!

This is the area where we are currently living: Yen Phu. There’s a little lake right by our apartment and there are always people sitting outside, enjoying the view and a drink.

Foodie Paradise!

I’m planning several posts about Vietnamese food in the future, but so far, we’ve been enjoying a lot of the international food that we missed so much while we were in China.

Vietnam is much more open than China, and as a result, they seem to be more adventurous here. In Suzhou, many of the ‘international’ restaurants had to make major changes to their menus in order to appeal to local tastes. One chef we knew in Suzhou actually left his job because they wanted his food to be more ‘instagramable’. He made incredible home-cooked style Italian food but the restaurant wasn’t doing well enough because appearances is what sells. He actually left the restaurant because he didn’t agree with the mentality, but the reality is that restaurants need to do this in order to survive in China. As a result, you get less authentic cuisines.

Southern Fried Chicken from Twin Tails. I ate a LOT of this during my 6 week immigration ordeal. True comfort food was available in Suzhou, it’s just that Suzhou didn’t have much of it

It’s also more difficult for foreigners to open restaurants in China. Rent is expensive and there are a lot of hoops to jump through to make it happen. This doesn’t seem to be such a problem in Vietnam because there are international restaurants EVERYWHERE, and they all taste and feel authentic.

Some of the cuisines we’ve tried so far:

West African – Sierra Leone

North American

We even met up with some of our Suzhou friends here in Hanoi!

Ukrainian

Home made bread with garlic lard…very eastern European (don’t knock it til you’ve tried it!)

French Crepes

So there you have it, my first post about Hanoi (since we moved here, anyway!). We visited this gorgeous city back in 2017, and I knew I wanted to live here right away. I’m so glad we listened to our guts and made this move. So far, it’s an incredible adventure!

Ha Long – How Beautiful

The first leg of our holiday is coming to an end. At 5:20pm today we fly to Vientiane; the capital of Laos. I must say, I’ve fallen deeply in love with Northern Vietnam. I just finished the best bowl of soup of my life; Chicken Pho to rival grandma’s best noodle soup. The rice noodles are light and delicious, and the fresh lime sits at the top of the soup, too light to sink, and coats every noodle in delicious fresh flavour. Now, I’m ordering my second Vietnamese coffee for the day. Dave pointed out just now that it tastes like Baileys, without the alcohol. He’s right. Motorbikes are zooming past us, and we’re eating on a balcony on some little side street of Hanoi’s old quarter. Life is good.

Halong Bay – History and Modern Uses

Last night we returned from 3 days in Halong Bay. Translated, it means ‘Descending Dragon Bay’, and it’s located in Northern Vietnam, about a 3.5 hour drive from Hanoi City. It’s famous due to its karst limestone landscape, 2000 islands and its many fishing villages.

Historically, Ha Long Bay is significant. People have been living in the area for more than 20,000 years. The bay has also saved Vietnam from Chinese and Mongolian Invasion on more than one occasion. Now, it’s known for its beauty and tourists flock to Northern Vietnam to experience its gorgeous views.

Halong Bay Cruises

The primary way people choose to see the bay is through cruises. There are hundreds of choices to make when taking a Halong Bay cruise, we decided to go with a mid-range, 2 night trip with a night on Cat Ba Island. There are also day trips, 1 night trips and some people choose to spend the night on Monkey Island or other places in the area. 1 night on the boat was enough for me. I don’t know if it was because I was reading Life of Pi, or if the boat noises kept me up, but either way, I didn’t get much sleep during our night on that Vietnamese Junk.

Some of the other boats in the bay

A recently added regulation in the bay forces all boats to be painted white, to lessen the chance of accidents. As a result, some of the individuality of these tours has been lost

Our boat was comfortable enough. We had a comfortable bed and a nice little bathroom to ourselves. The cabin was small, but space isn’t something I expect in Asia, so that was no surprise. We had a fan that worked and an air conditioner that didn’t, and all in all, it was a cool way to spend a night in Halong Bay!

Activities During The Cruise

I feel like we spent all 3 days getting on and off boats for different activities. There were a variety of things to do, including kayaking, exploring a cave, visiting a Pearl farm, visiting Monkey Island and floating past a fishing village. All were interesting in their own way.

The little boat we took to each excursion

Kayaking was probably the most beautiful of all our stops, but the weather made it less enjoyable than it could have been, but still…being on the water was very nice. This activity made me very happy that I still have a water-proof camera 🙂

We visited a huge cave shortly after kayaking as well. It was beautiful and had some pretty spectacular views.

Vietnamese uses the Roman Alphabet. The little symbols above letters indicate tones

Dave and I just outside of the cave

We took this little bridge back to our boat

Day 2 began at a Pearl Farm, where locals have found ways to get oysters making pearls in a sustainable way. It was an educational stop! We learned how pearls are artificially implanted to produce real pearls. This is much better for oyster populations, because before this process was discovered, oysters were found in the wild, opened up and killed just on the off-chance they were carrying pearls.

Oysters are kept in these cage thingys

They are opened up carefully, and 2 things are put inside

This is a piece of donor oyster that helps create the pearl

This is a bead that the pearls will grow around

2 years later, a pearl is ready for harvest!

Monkey Island was our last stop before Cat Ba Island. There’s no surprise regarding what we found there…Dave also went hiking up a steep mountain. He didn’t take any pictures (because, of course he didn’t :p), but he did scrape up his leg on the jagged rocks. Vietnam doesn’t baby its tourists the way Thailand and Cuba does. They let you decide for yourself if you can do something. As a result, Dave saw 60+ year old grandparents hiking up the mountain on his way down.

Cat Ba Island

As I mentioned earlier, our second night of the tour was not spent on a Junk. Instead, we went to one of the only islands in Halong Bay where people live: Cat Ba Island. Cat Ba island is home to about 13,000 residents, and its main purpose is hosting Ha Long Bay tourists.

Docking at Cat Ba Island

It’s a lovely little town

Like everywhere in Vietnam, Motorbikes are the primary means of transportation

As we came into the area, we passed a floating village, home to about 1000 people. These villages are an incredible sight, even when you’ve seen them before. We were able to see a floating village in Cambodia during the dry season. It was very cool seeing one completely afloat!

Fishing villages like this are found all over south east Asia. The most famous ones are Vietnamese

They have everything a normal little town would have; including pets!

Once we checked into our hotel, we rented a motorbike and headed for Cat Ba’s most famous sight: Cat Ba National Park.

The road to the park was stunning

It was about a 30 minute drive, and it was gorgeous the whole way!

Of course, we passed overloaded motorbikes along the way!

The park itself is quite nice. We didn’t see much for wild life, but I made some canine friends! Mostly, we were just happy to be out in the wilderness, enjoying the fresh air and the peace and quiet. The hike up was hard work, but it felt so good to get some good exercise in! I’ve been too busy this year to get to the gym, and my body was definitely not happy with me on the way up, but it was well worth the trip!

The steps were pretty slippery at times. We had to be careful not to fall

A friend of the canine variety

Some random deer we saw fenced in on our way to the mountain

Near the peak we saw this sign. We didn’t go any further because we couldn’t find the way, and when we did finally figure it out, it was time to leave (so we wouldn’t have to drive home in the dark!)

My handsome husband, enjoying the hike!

We stopped at a little shop at the end of the hike and ordered some iced coffees. We figured they’d probably be instant, given the location of the cafe, but this lovely Vietnamese woman made us fabulous Vietnamese iced coffee with fresh grinds and sweetened condensed milk!

We spent the evening walking around and enjoying the town. I think my favourite part of this whole tour was Cat Ba island. I never really feel like I’m on a holiday with Dave until we’ve rented a motorbike! It was also nice not to have a guide following us around. We both enjoyed the freedom to explore the things we were interested in, at the pace we wanted.

One of Cat Ba’s beaches

Dave insisted we take this picture. My helmet hair isn’t as bad as I thought it was!! haha!

Unfortunately, all good things come to an end, and before long, we were on our way back to Hanoi. We met some very nice people on the way back and it was great chatting with them and hearing their stories. We also learned how to make spring-rolls, which was fun.

Spring Rolls are a traditional Vietnamese food. In the north, they enjoy deep fried spring rolls and in the south, fresh.

This was our guide for the second half of the trip. I kind of hated him…he was always angry!

It was a lovely trip and I’m very glad we made it! Halong bay is definitely a must-see for anyone travelling through south East Asia.

Next, I’ll be writing about our time in Vientiane, Laos! Exciting things are yet to come!!

laothingtodo2 — Photo from vientienbackpackershostel.com

Cheers!

Initial Impressions

Day one of our 33 day holiday is coming to an end, and it’s time to recap and reflect.
Hanoi City – Organized Chaos

We have begun our trip in Hanoi: a bustling and historic Vietnamese city. We’re staying in the Old Quarter of Vietnam’s capital, where coffee shops are on every street corner and motorbikes are the primary means of transportation. There’s an organized chaos here, in every sense of the word.

There are thousands of shops piled atop one another, and everywhere you look, there are people eating bowls of Pho on the sides of the street, and sipping coffee at tiny tables, sitting on tiny plastic stools. What’s interesting, though, is that all those tiny little shops are organized and neatly merchandised. My (extremely neat) sister would be impressed by the level of organization these shop owners manage to have in their little side-of-the-road shops.

A small and popular restaurant in the Old Quarter

A good friend of ours lived in Vietnam for 4 years and she gave us valuable advice before we left for Hanoi. She told us that the roads here are like a river; vehicles weave in and around one another and never really stop moving. She told us to walk boldly but slowly and that vehicles would mostly just part around us. It was terrifying at first, but she was right. There are no crosswalks in the North American sense, but somehow, we got around just fine. In a lot of ways it was less scary than India. Ok…in every way.

French colonialism is easily identifiable all over the city. The streets, buildings and even French language are visible everywhere you go. Cambodia was also colonized by the French, but the impact there wasn’t as obvious as it is in Hanoi.

Hoàn Ki?m Lake – Passive and Pleasant

After a long day of travel yesterday and a long semester of 60-hour weeks, I wasn’t up for much today, so we mostly spent our time down by Hoàn Ki?m Lake, which was a lovely experience. The lake is a beautiful spot for wedding photos, so we saw several happy couples being chased by photographers.

A Monk, enjoying the view

Some interesting trees

A cobblestone bridge. I love cobblestone!!!

A happy pair of newliweds

Some beautiful bonsais

There was a small temple by the lake as well. We paid 30,000 dong each to enter (less than $2 Canadian) and enjoyed the quietness of the place.

There’s plenty to see walking along the lake. The Old Quarter is a lovely place to spend the afternoon!

Different from Delhi / A Change from China

One of my favourite parts of travel is walking around at night, when the shops are lit up and the weather has cooled. Vietnam is so different from India. While there are shops everywhere, just as there is in New Delhi, nobody grabs you by the arms and nobody is too terribly pushy. South East Asia, though hectic and tourist oriented, seems to have more of a dignity about it. People bargain, but don’t try and rip you off. People try and sell their goods, but if you say no, they move on with their days, un-offended and un-worried.

The restaurant where we had dinner. They greeted us when they saw us looking at the menu, but never grabbed me by the arm to try and pull me in, as was the usual experience in New Delhi

Tonight we walked around for a little while and found a restaurant where we enjoyed the best Vietnamese food I’ve ever had. Although I love Chinese food, the oil has started to gross me out a bit. Vietnamese food is fresher and crispier…with more raw vegetables and coconut sauces. Dinner was delicious…and the coffee I just finished was an excellent way to end the night!

Tomorrow we set off for HaLong Bay…another UNESCO World Heritage Site to add to our list. We’ll be spending 2 nights and 3 days enjoying one of Vietnam’s greatest treasures.