vietnam- the second week

monday february 9th
*caught a 10:30 taxi to the airport and rode the 20 ks to danang in order to catch our flight to hanoi
*minna isn't too keen on flying, she was nervous for the first plane ride of the trip
*we had tried to book the classic one hotel but when we arrived at the hotel we were at the classic street hotel; which was decorated in burnt orange... obviously hadn't been remodeled in awhile
*we decided to walk around the town a bit. we were just up the street from a tiny lane way market, the food looked wonderful
*a ton of touters mobbed us. the lady handed us her fruit baskets and told us to take a picture, she said it was free. then after the pictures she insisted we buy fruit. needless to say we were sold rotting bananas. we learned to be careful of the touters.
*we had lunch at little hanoi (megan's suggestion!)
*walked, walked, walked, walked some more
*the city is built around lake so the streets are pretty round about. the entire time we were there we had no idea how we got anywhere. the first day it took us two hours to find the lake, turns out it was two blocks over from the hotel
*our lunch was massive, so we decided to get a few drinks then head down to minh's jazz bar. while at the bar a rat climbed down the wall and down sally's arm. she freaked out and it was hilarious. even the waiters were laughing!
*after an hour of vietnamese jazz we wandered back to the hotel

tuesday february 10th
*decided to go visit the ho chi minh museum and mausoleum. the museum was not as informative as we thought it would be, most of his letters and diary entries were photocopied. the mausoleum was massive, but unfortunately it was closed to the public by the time we made it there
*there was a tiny pho restaurant near the museum. we were served lunch by a lady who had to be about 85. she kept feeding and feeding us, and at the end of the meal gave us the fruit from their family's shrine
*visited the temple of literature it was amazing to see the first university of vietnam. there were five courtyards in all and amazing grounds
*sally treated us to tickets for the water puppet show. the music was amazing, but we were so tired from the trip that i dont think we enjoyed the performance as much as we could have
*stopped into a french restaurant for soup and tea on the way back to the hotel

wednesday february 11th
*columbus cruise picked us up from the hotel to take us on our over night tour of ha long bay
*apparently our boat was undergoing some maintenance so we were upgraded to the pinta boat. this meant roses in the room and 8 course meals
*ha long bay was fantastic! it was bright and sunny when we arrived. the boat was beautiful. our guide, hi, was amazing. he was very friendly and knew a lot about ha long
*went to the hang dau go and hang thien cung caves. there were great views of the water from the top of the caves (about 150 steps high)
*we went back to the boat and watched the sunset from the deck as we made out way to where we were going to anchor for the night
*we ate dinner and then sat on the back of the boat talking until about 9 pm. then we went to bed, such old ladies

thursday february 12th
*i wanted to get up to watch the sunrise the next morning, however it was too misty to see the sun
*we had a massive breakfast then looked at the floating village from the boat deck
*next we climbed into our kayaks and took off between the island. i was paired with sally, and to be honest we struggled to keep up with hi! it was fun, but i had never been kayaking before and sally had only been once. in the end we did alright and were not the last group back
*hi bribed some boating officials to let us into a secluded cove. we kayaked through the rocks into the empty space
*we had lunch on the boat then caught the bus back to hanoi
*we showered and planned the rest of our trip. we were pretty tired so we went out for dinner and gin and tonics

friday february 13th
*we were heading to sapa that night so we booked into a hard sleeper
*woke up about 7 and hung around the hotel until pretty late packing up our stuff
*we made our way across the street to the travel agent and booked the rest of the flights and hotels for the rest of the trip
*walked around the other side of hanoi and stumbled upon the opera house
*had the best lunch in all of vietnam for about $2.50 AUD each
*sat in a small garden and talked for a bit
*went out for a drink at the 'sponge bob' bar
*dinner at pho 24. sandi ordered the beef balls... turned out to be a mistake. the stomach of steel was defeated
*caught the train. it was a 6 person sleeper so there were two other people in the carriage with us. i climbed into the top bunk, took a sleeping pill and was out until the next morning

saturday february 14th
*arrived at the lao cai train station around 8 am. apparently one of the women in our carriage was very strange and didnt really understand train etiquette. sandi woke up and the woman was staring down at her from her bunk. she was referred to as 'spider woman'
*we were scammed into paying three times as much than we should have for a ride up the mountain. minna was furious and confronted the taxi driver, but suddenly they didnt remember how to speak english
*our hotel was called the royal. it had a beautiful view of the mountains. most amazing place we stayed, by far
*we cleaned up and walked around sapa. the town isnt very big, but has beautiful views of the mountains and a lake towards the edge of town
*bought the girls valentine's day presents. tickets to the ba cah markets on sunday
*we stayed in for the night and watched 'only you' with marisa tomei and robert downey jr

sunday february 15th
*the van ride to the ba cah village, which is right on the chinese border. our tour guide was named tom and he was very stylish
*the ride was hilly, but beautiful. the lady in the seat in front of me got car sick
*once there we walked around the market. we saw the water buffalo area, horse area, dog area, pig area, and the handicraft area. the minority peoples of the area made most of the stuff being sold at the market
*the market was packed and is a major place for social interactions for the surrounding villages
*we visited a small village next to the market and tried corn wine
*drove back down the mountain and stopped to have a look at the official border gate into china
*tom invited us out for drinks at the local disco once the tour was over... we didnt go
*sandi and i went for a walk. then we all went out to a cafe up the street for a pho dinner