We have now made it from ho Chi minh to Hue to halong Bay up in Hanoi. Hue was relatively uneventful as we ate at the same restaurant almost every meal and took an over night bus the day after we arrived in Hue for Hanoi. The one awesome thing we did was jump on the back of a motor bike and see the forbidden city and a couple tombs that dated back to around the American Civil War. I honestly thought things would be a bit more ancient than that but it was nonetheless amazing. We'll put up some photos in a bit.
But after our overnight trip to Hanoi we went striaght to a bus for Hanlong Bay. After another 3 and a half hour trip we arrived on our boat for what we planned on being a 3 day and two night adventure. We floated through the bay and the seemingly infinite rock island peaks rising straight out of the ocean to our first night's stay on Cat Ba Island. The island was awesome! We ate with our friends we met on the overnight bus ride and called it a day.
The next day started off here on Cat Ba Island in the Halong Bay of Vietnam with a “trek” up a mountain to get a view of the island itself and its seemingly endless expanse of steep peaks stretching far into the horizon. The hike took about 2 hours and we got some amazing video and panorama pictures from the two peaks we hiked to. This is one of those places that rival Yosemite for the sheer beauty of creation. It seems like this must have been one of God's special projects to amaze humanity with, and he pulled off a masterpiece. The funny thing is I never heard of Halong Bay until we researched the guide book on Vietnam, so I can't wait to see what the rest of SE Asia has on hold for us.
At the end of our hike a little puppy sat at our feet as we drank Fanta and talked about the hike with the other travelers. The dog was quite polite until I urged it to nibble on my finger, and after a couple minutes of playing with it like that, it wanted to chew on everything. It was fun for a little while, and then we couldn't stand it any more. I guess I should be a better influence on the maturing puppies on Vietnam, but it sure was fun watching it bite the Australian friend of ours. She shook a water bottle at it and tried to tell it “no” in English. Somehow I just don't think a Vietnamese dog speaks two languages: Vietnamese and English. The dog obvisouly kept chewing in disregard for the Australian's command; it was quite funny.
After we headed for a bite to eat at one of the local eateries and we enjoyed a “proper” breakfast as the English love to say. I spent a Vietnamese fortune for my 5 diffferent dishes, but in the US it was a steal at $5 or so. That's a serious plus about traveling to Vietnam- cheap.
Then we headed to Cat ba Beach 2, literally that was the name of the beach. I can't imagine Los Angeles naming their beaches that way, but on an island I guess there are few enough beaches just to number like this for a name. Once we got to the beach this trip instantly felt like a vacation for once instead of a busy city or constant travel. Not that I didn't like the previous week, but this beach was a place to really slow down and think about where we were. Holy crap! We're in the middle of Vietnam in a bay covered with rock spires everywhere you look. The beach was lined with palm tree palapas, hammocks, and a few bungalows for a night's stay for 16 USD without even beginning to bargain with the owners. It's a pretty good deal. We went there with our new travel group which now consisted of Ryan, myself, two Australian girls, and now two British guys. We swam around a bit and traded stories of our travels on the black rocks nestled in the sand on the beach. It was a pretty awesome way to spend the afternoon.
Around 2 pm we knew we had to get back into town to catch our bus for the boat that night, so we walked back into town to make sure we made the bus. Around 3:30, 30 minutes after our pick up time, we decided to have the hotel owner phone the travel company about our boat ride. Well, it turns out that they plain forgot to pick us up and that we were going to stay another night here. I can definitely think of worse places to be delivered that news. So we got a room for ten bucks and put our stuff down- that's only $5 a night for me by the way.
We sat down on our balcony overlooking the bay and noticed some local kids playing soccer in the concrete lot below us, so we decided to go join them. The kids were probably in high school so we joined in on their game, and they basically destroyed us. These guys were regular Pele's flying around the field. Now, Emilee and Jenna are good at soccer but I've never been so mesmerized and confused as I tried to figure out what these guys were going to do every time they got the ball. Their feet whirled around the ball as if they were going to go this way or that and there was no telling when they were actually going to go either way. So I basically tripped over myself trying to get the ball from them; othrewise they would have simply walked me backward into my own goal as I stared at their feet. Just so you know, even the Brits thought these guys were good. We sweated out a couple hours playing with them and then called it a night.
Ryan and I went back up to the balcony and enjoyed some music on the computer with a couple Vietnamese beers while talking about life and then we went down to meet eveyone for dinner. We met up with some more people from Australia and one from Sweden and we went for some seafood.
Along the way on the street we ended up walking into a group of people skipping rope and they invited us to try. So we all took our turns looking like fools trying to jump around. It was hilarious. I thought for some reason that it was going to be simple. At least that's how I remember it from PE in 4th grade, but I think I've grown a bit since then. Now I get in the way of the rope much more easily.
It took me three tries to get in there and jump more than 3 times, and being a professional athlete I was a bit bummed. But I got back in there the next time and totally dominated! I must have jumped ten times before screwing up but it was a huge victory for me over here in Vietnam. We all got in there and at one point 4 of us were jumping around with the Vietnamese people cheering for us. It was awesome. One of our realizations so far has been that ahletic activity is truly one of the only international languages left. You can go anywhere in the world and jump rope or play soccer and you do not need to verbally communicate at all to do so.
I guess there are a lot of similarities between sport and language if you think about it. Ryan pointed out that sports have no meaning except the ones we give them. Think about it; we create these sports out of nothing at some point or another and then they grown into world wide crazes, like the Soccer World Cup, but appart from people creating it and making all these rules, we'd just be kicking around a ball. But now with all the history and tradition it means so much more. In the same way the noises we make with our mouths mean nothing apart from the cultures than know which sounds correspond to actual objects or ideas. Both are created out of nothing by humanity and both have rich histories and traditions that give meaning to silly games or sounds from the mouth. And sports are universal. Everyone knows soccer but not everyone verbally speaks the same language. How amazing on sports! They're basically a hold over from before Babel we decided.
After our sweaty soccer match and a couple beers we went to eat and had some seafood hot pot stuff. It was really good as this island is known for its seafood, and it only cost me $4. What a deal! Then we grabbed a couple beers with our new found friends plus a couple. I talked to a people from Sweden, Norway, France, Belgium, Australia, England, Chile, and Canda all night. It was pretty cool. Ryan and I really enjoyed ourselves as we sat on the empty Vietnamese street side with our international friends talking about whatever popped up. We were enjoying each other's company and enjoying the drinks. It was decidedly different than a lot of the drinking that goes on in the USA where people drink to loose control of themselves so they can be someone else with no inhibitions for a night. Here we merely enjoyed some time together with other people from all over the world telling stories in Vietnam. Maybe people in the States could use a dose of this way of “going out” for a night.
Now we're going to sleep getting ready for a day at the beaches again and maybe a tour of the island before we hopefully get picked up for our next night on the boat.
Peace,
Peter
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