Good morning, Vietnam!

It worked!

Good bye, Vietnam! : 22 July 2004

You may have heard that most of Asia is flooding right now. Well, three days of solid rain in Hanoi has certainly done some damage, but amazingly, our trips to both Halong Bay and Tam Coc found breaks in the rain and some amazing photo opportunities. Next up, we say good bye to Vietnam and head back to Bangkok to actually meet up with people we know from home! It's flooding in most of Asia right now Our first trip was to the amazing Halong Bay. Huge limestone cliffs rise out of the sea, forming some 1,968 individual islands. This is one of those spots that you're just not supposed to miss when you go to Vietnam. So we didn't. And it was amazing. We had a 3 hour drive to get there, with a stop at the local handicapped kid sweat shop, where these poor kids were hand embroidering these really cool pieces of art. We boarded our private boat, and headed out into the sea. The two of us and our guide were actually outnumbered by the four staff on the boat! Not a bad way to tour Halong Bay. At first, we were a little worried by the huge crowds of people at the dock and the large number of boats. But the area is so huge, that it didn't take long for us to find our own little private path. We docked in the middle of this little circle of islands for lunch, and we had the place totally to ourselves, except for a coule fishermen using dynamite off in the distance. Lunch consisted of more seafood than either of us had ever seen in our lives, all of it incredibly fresh. By the way, I don't know if I've made this clear yet, but the food in Vietnam has been totally amazing. It's probably overall consistently the best food of any country we've visited so far (except, of course, for my food poisoning -- though even that was tasty going down). Well, we did get a bit seafooded out, but it was still pretty good. It's so damn impressive After lunch we took a swim around the little boat. Then it was back on the boat to tootle around a very small percentage of the islands, towards a big cave that had been discovered only 8 years ago, right near another cave that was used in the 13th century to store the weapons used to repel the Mongol invasion from China. Strange being in a place with this kind of history sometimes. Our next day trip was earlier today, when we headed out to Tam Coc (which means 3 caves). It's also known as the "Dry Halong Bay," though with the weather that's covering most of Asia right now, it wasn't terribly dry! But it was dry enough, and it was, once again, totally amazing. The limestone mountains rise out of the rice fields, and a river runs through them. And under them, through the 3 caves of the place's name. Little hut, big mountains The area is the location of the first capital of Vietnam after they kicked the Chinese out in the year 960-something. After floating through the amazing limestone mountains, we headed to the ancient capital itself a little bit up the road. Not much is left, except for two temples dedicated to the first two emporers, and some archeological stuff hiding in the fields with the waterbuffalo. Next up, it's back to Bangkok, where we meet up with Adrian and Gil, who have been on their own adventure through Thailand and Cambodia. This will be the first time we've seen friends from home since we left Hawaii!

Replies: 2 comments

Sounds like you guys had a blast,anyway here still same same ,but we had some nice weather, right now have promotion again,799 baht with motor bike ,just incase you need your front bungalow fix..you know me always pitching ,tara,muksuda says hi take it easy matt Posted by matt ,tara & muksuda @ 07/24/2004 11:16 PM PST

Hi guys! We miss you all, and our little bungalow paradise. We did have a great time in Vietnam, though. We'll be here in Bangkok for a few weeks, so if you make it up here to the big city, let us know, and we can all hang out. We've picked up one of Musuda's habits. Every time we pass something little we say "Look, Baby one" to each other! Sounds like you've got a good deal going, we'll be sure to spread the word! Our love to all! We'll talk to you soon! Posted by Robin and Andrea @ 07/25/2004 01:25 AM PST