Hanoi & Halong Bay, Vietnam

On the 27th of August we crossed into Vietnam by way of an extremely convenient through-bus straight from Nanning to Hanoi. The whole trip was beautiful with brilliant green everywhere, a painless border crossing -- despite confusing everyone by having our China visas on our Peace Corps passports and our Vietnam visas in our personal passports -- and little jumbles of tall, skinny homes which came in such a hodgepodge of colors and styles that I felt like I'd crossed into another world with just a little more whimsy in it than on the other side of the border.

The guide book had gotten us very excited for Hanoi as a place to relax and people watch and enjoy the cafe culture, but I found it more stressful than not. The old quarter is a warren of little streets filled with small shops, guesthouses, cafes.... and travel agencies. Like, every third store-front is a travel agency. They are all selling the same tours, but they are NOT all legit. If one company starts making a name for itself as a reliable operator, instantly 10 more places spring up that crib the name and logo of that shop for themselves. We heard that prices have practicaly doubled in the last year as well, and from what we experienced that was definitely true, contributng to the feeling that we were being constantly ripped off (sometimes true, sometimes not). There was also the faint but pervasive feeling that our lives were constantly in danger. To wit: motorbikes. Everywhere. Zipping around with total disregard for the few streetlights, that sidewalk-street demarcation line called the curb, or your limbs. So that was fun too. Once we got the hang of crossing streets, we started to feel better, and as we chowed down on fantastic baguette sandwhiches, better still.

We did get a tour booked, eventually, to Halong Bay, a Unesco site filled with islands and karst formations dotting the salty blue-green landscape. We took in a cruise out to "Surprising Cave", a series of caverns that get bigger as you move one to the next. The entrance looks out over a perfect pirates cove of islands.

Next was a kayaking adventure and I would like to say that Linds and I did a VERY respectable job maneuvering around, between and even underneath some of the rocky islands. Ben kindly hopped into a kayak behind a rather hapless French-Vietnamese guy who could only manage to dig his paddle in on the right, so his trip was a little less relaxing as he battled to keep them going in a straight line. Upon reaching the turn around point, Ben jumped out for a swim, only to be told by a brusque kayaker-by that "You're swimming with jellyfish." Ben, happily paddling around in the lagoon, wasn't about to take that lying down and called back with bravado "YOU'RE swimming with jellyfish". He had to beat a quick retreat, though, when Lindsey and I pointed out that there were, in fact, a good number of quite large jellyfish in the near vicinity. A gorgeous sunset capped off a fun day, and good company meant that we received lots of good advice from fellow travelers regarding the next legs of our trip.