3 Year Anniversary!!
Yesterday was our 3rd year anniversary. This is just crazy how fast time flies by. Three years ago, Amy and I were walking down the aisle at the Sierra Madre Congregation Church and then backpacking through Turkey. It's been the best three years of my life and I'm really looking forward to many more of it come. It's always shocking to me whenever I hear about people my age already getting divorces. That's just insane. I can't imagine what life would be without Amy being here all the time.
We booked a two day trip out to Halong Bay with Vega Travel yesterday. The Lonely Planet Thorn Tree just raved about Handspan's trip to Halong bay, but I just wasn't interested in spending two times as much on the same boat cruise. I know we get what we pay for, but there really wasn't any point. I heard all the boats do the same thing anyway and anchor in the same area in the bay during the night. Supposed Handspan also had the best boat on the bay; something I really wanted to see first hand.
Halong Bay is a bay in the northeast of Vietnam that has over 1200 little limestone islands scattered all over the bay. It's just gorgeous. If you are familar with the limestone peaks around Guilin in China, Halong Bay is basically the same concept except that the little islands are situated in a bay instead of along a river. Unfortunately, there is usually a huge gray haze that lingers over the entire bay during the day. During dawn and dusk the sky clears up and the place just become picture perfect. The itinerary for the trip was for us to navigate through one part of the bay, stop by a big cave, go kayaking, spend the night on the bay and then sail back to port the next morning.
When we arrived at port after a three hour bus ride out of Hanoi there was literally a horde of backpackers there awaiting departure on their boats. Man, there were a lot of backpackers. As I expected all the boats looked pretty much the same. We got onto our boats and set sail. Soon the crew hand lunch ready for us. The food was good, but nothing spectacular. There were 11 backpackers with us from all over the place. 3 Ozzies, 2 Belgian girls, a German and his Spanish girlfriends, and two students from the U.K. A pretty dead crowd if it wasn't for the Ozzies. They also keep the place going.
Our crew was great at first; very curteous and helpful, but it turned south soon after that. There were seven of them. I had no idea what they did all the time. I'm sure it's a much better gig than working out in the rice fields. They sure could have been a little nicer. When we booked our trip, Vega showed us pictures of their own boat, but we quickly realized we were stuffed in a boat with people who booked their trip from all over the place. There's nothing wrong with that, but its certainly an issue with quality control. Nevertheless, we were fairly satisfied. We had our own room with bathroom and shower; way better than our Turkish gullet trip.
Our first stop was a huge cave on an island and we walked through. Not all that interesting, other than the locals throwing garbage into the water. Don't they understand that this bay and the water is their livelihood. Seemed like common sense to me. How hard is it to throw things into the garbage. After the cave, we anchored and everyone jumped onto kayaks and paddled around the bay and onto another island. Amy and I are pathetically out of shape. We made it, but only after long stretches of idleness.
Dinner sucked. It kind of made me feel we should have chose Handspan as people just raved about the food they provided. But you gotta love the Auzzies. They always keep everyone entertained. We sat next to two of them for dinner. One guy worked for Deustche Bank doing real estate investing in Sydney. He told me how real estate had skyrocketed there took, but that it was finally plateauing. Don't remember what the other guy did for a living. They had been traveling for 3 weeks already and had some fantastic stories to tell; mainly about getting ripped off. It was all in good fun. At the end of the day, no one should really care about paying $1.20 intstead of $1.00 for a meal. They had some good tips for us as we were headed down to the places that they just came from.
Many of fellow travellers left on another boat early next morning. They had a different itinerary, some going to another island to do some trekking and some just staying on the bay. The morning cruise was very nice, with the sky extremely clear. The three hour cruise was pretty uneventful. Our British companions were not very engaging. We got back to Hanoi around 4PM in the afternoon.
We had some extra time to spare after we got back to Hanoi to finish up some errands. We had to pick up a power adapter for our camera battery and watch a traditional Vietnamese water puppet show. The puppet show was one of those "Must See" things in Hanoi. A little cheesy, but it was fun. The audience was a completely a tourist crowd. I typically don't like doing things like that because it's really not the point in coming out to foreign environment and doing things that was constructed just for the tourists. The water puppets have been around for a long time and the performers seemed to be very skillful in their trade.
Dinner was spectacular. We decided to splurge again and went to dinner at the best Vietnamese restaurant in town according to the Lonely Planet (that's what they said about the French restaurant). We actually had to call in early and make reservations, which made me feel a little better. Unfortunately, they told us that it was a somewhat formal environment. Oops. The only pair of pants that I brought with us was a pair of jeans that got stained with some strawberry juice. They allowed us into the restaurant anyway, but we could only sit in the courtyard. Fine with us. The Emperor restaurant was just south of the 5 star hotels in town. Some local entrepeneur converted an old colonial style building into a swanky upscale Vietname restaurant. It was mainly an ex-pat and tourist stop, but there was plenty of nouveaux riche Vietnamese there. The white dudes with the locals girls always crack me up. Back to the food. We both ordered the set menus. Each came with 10+ dishes. This time the Lonely Planet was spot on. It was the best Vietnamese food we both ever had! The food was delicious and well presented. The service was great. Our waiter was well-trained and genuinely interested in delivering suberb service. We left full, and happy that we came. We walked the 30 minutes back to the backpacker section. (Don't tell anyone this. We stopped by the Sofitel Metropole to use their bathrooms)
We jump on the train in a few minutes. Hoping for the best. See you all tomorrow in Hue, the ancient imperial capital of Vietnam.
We booked a two day trip out to Halong Bay with Vega Travel yesterday. The Lonely Planet Thorn Tree just raved about Handspan's trip to Halong bay, but I just wasn't interested in spending two times as much on the same boat cruise. I know we get what we pay for, but there really wasn't any point. I heard all the boats do the same thing anyway and anchor in the same area in the bay during the night. Supposed Handspan also had the best boat on the bay; something I really wanted to see first hand.
Halong Bay is a bay in the northeast of Vietnam that has over 1200 little limestone islands scattered all over the bay. It's just gorgeous. If you are familar with the limestone peaks around Guilin in China, Halong Bay is basically the same concept except that the little islands are situated in a bay instead of along a river. Unfortunately, there is usually a huge gray haze that lingers over the entire bay during the day. During dawn and dusk the sky clears up and the place just become picture perfect. The itinerary for the trip was for us to navigate through one part of the bay, stop by a big cave, go kayaking, spend the night on the bay and then sail back to port the next morning.
When we arrived at port after a three hour bus ride out of Hanoi there was literally a horde of backpackers there awaiting departure on their boats. Man, there were a lot of backpackers. As I expected all the boats looked pretty much the same. We got onto our boats and set sail. Soon the crew hand lunch ready for us. The food was good, but nothing spectacular. There were 11 backpackers with us from all over the place. 3 Ozzies, 2 Belgian girls, a German and his Spanish girlfriends, and two students from the U.K. A pretty dead crowd if it wasn't for the Ozzies. They also keep the place going.
Our crew was great at first; very curteous and helpful, but it turned south soon after that. There were seven of them. I had no idea what they did all the time. I'm sure it's a much better gig than working out in the rice fields. They sure could have been a little nicer. When we booked our trip, Vega showed us pictures of their own boat, but we quickly realized we were stuffed in a boat with people who booked their trip from all over the place. There's nothing wrong with that, but its certainly an issue with quality control. Nevertheless, we were fairly satisfied. We had our own room with bathroom and shower; way better than our Turkish gullet trip.
Our first stop was a huge cave on an island and we walked through. Not all that interesting, other than the locals throwing garbage into the water. Don't they understand that this bay and the water is their livelihood. Seemed like common sense to me. How hard is it to throw things into the garbage. After the cave, we anchored and everyone jumped onto kayaks and paddled around the bay and onto another island. Amy and I are pathetically out of shape. We made it, but only after long stretches of idleness.
Dinner sucked. It kind of made me feel we should have chose Handspan as people just raved about the food they provided. But you gotta love the Auzzies. They always keep everyone entertained. We sat next to two of them for dinner. One guy worked for Deustche Bank doing real estate investing in Sydney. He told me how real estate had skyrocketed there took, but that it was finally plateauing. Don't remember what the other guy did for a living. They had been traveling for 3 weeks already and had some fantastic stories to tell; mainly about getting ripped off. It was all in good fun. At the end of the day, no one should really care about paying $1.20 intstead of $1.00 for a meal. They had some good tips for us as we were headed down to the places that they just came from.
Many of fellow travellers left on another boat early next morning. They had a different itinerary, some going to another island to do some trekking and some just staying on the bay. The morning cruise was very nice, with the sky extremely clear. The three hour cruise was pretty uneventful. Our British companions were not very engaging. We got back to Hanoi around 4PM in the afternoon.
We had some extra time to spare after we got back to Hanoi to finish up some errands. We had to pick up a power adapter for our camera battery and watch a traditional Vietnamese water puppet show. The puppet show was one of those "Must See" things in Hanoi. A little cheesy, but it was fun. The audience was a completely a tourist crowd. I typically don't like doing things like that because it's really not the point in coming out to foreign environment and doing things that was constructed just for the tourists. The water puppets have been around for a long time and the performers seemed to be very skillful in their trade.
Dinner was spectacular. We decided to splurge again and went to dinner at the best Vietnamese restaurant in town according to the Lonely Planet (that's what they said about the French restaurant). We actually had to call in early and make reservations, which made me feel a little better. Unfortunately, they told us that it was a somewhat formal environment. Oops. The only pair of pants that I brought with us was a pair of jeans that got stained with some strawberry juice. They allowed us into the restaurant anyway, but we could only sit in the courtyard. Fine with us. The Emperor restaurant was just south of the 5 star hotels in town. Some local entrepeneur converted an old colonial style building into a swanky upscale Vietname restaurant. It was mainly an ex-pat and tourist stop, but there was plenty of nouveaux riche Vietnamese there. The white dudes with the locals girls always crack me up. Back to the food. We both ordered the set menus. Each came with 10+ dishes. This time the Lonely Planet was spot on. It was the best Vietnamese food we both ever had! The food was delicious and well presented. The service was great. Our waiter was well-trained and genuinely interested in delivering suberb service. We left full, and happy that we came. We walked the 30 minutes back to the backpacker section. (Don't tell anyone this. We stopped by the Sofitel Metropole to use their bathrooms)
We jump on the train in a few minutes. Hoping for the best. See you all tomorrow in Hue, the ancient imperial capital of Vietnam.
posted by amy & albert at 7:17 AM
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