Tag: Halong Bay

Back to Hanoi

On By rrainefioreIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

We came back to Hanoi today.  We had to leave the bungalows early in the morning and were shuttled from boat to boat until we were back on the boat we had stayed on the night before.  They did a cooking class on the boat, but I skipped it.  It will be a long time before I can look at Asian food again.  I just sat on the top of the boat feeling like death.  After the boat dropped us at the dock, we waited for a bus, then the long ride home.  The bus stopped at one of those rest stops with the store to buy local goods again.  This one was a madhouse with people everywhere.  That didn’t help me feel better – getting tired of people everywhere.  The hotel I booked in Hanoi is good though.  It was the most cheerful greeting I’ve ever received at a hotel.  One guy ran out into the street to get my bags, the lady at the desk knew who I was and the other lady was so happy, she must have been coated in candy.  On the way to dinner a lady carrying food in baskets over her shoulder walked up to Erin and put the thing on her shoulder and then demanded I take a picture.  She wouldn’t take it off Erin and Erin looked like she was going to drop it any second.  I took a picture and then the lady tried to sell her fruit.  When Erin refused, she demanding money for the picture.  Erin gave her a tiny tiny amount of money which pissed of the lady and we hightailed it out of there.  After dinner, Erin and I decided to get body scrubs.  The guy in the spa must have gone to the same hospitality school as the lady at our hotel because he was so happy to tell us about the spa.  I usually love body scrubs.  This one was brutal.  There was nothing gentle about the lady who did mine.  It was like a sports massage with salt.  I had to look down several times to make sure I wasn’t bleeding.  But, at the same time, I was happy to have a layer of skin removed.  I felt like it was removing Sam Ngao, months of sweat, strange housemates, Hanoi and this sickness.  And nothing else matters except that the bed in my hotel room is soft.  I didn’t think there was such a thing in SE Asia as a soft bed.  If I could put this bed in the bungalow, I’d never leave.  Time to hit it!

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

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Yes, that boat is named Hung Long….

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Bungalows

On By rrainefioreIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Another early morning.  Breakfast was at 7:00am.  Then they took us to a pearl farm.  This was fascinating.  They take one oyster, cut 30 strips of muscle from it (yes, that oyster dies).  They have small balls made out of crushed up pearls (slightly larger than a grain of sand).  They use the muscle strips to attach the small pearl balls in 30 other oysters.  Then they put the oysters in nets and hang them from buoys in the water.  Years (9 or more?) later they open them up and see what pearls they created.  Some real small percentage still create “perfect” pearls.  I’m not much of a pearl person, but they had so many beautiful colors in the shop.  Black pearls are a deep blue.  There were green, pink, white and the yellow or gold were my favorites.

Then we went back to the boat and checked out and got on another boat.  The boat ride took quite a while and we picked up other people and went through an area tighter with little rock outcroppings.  It’s so beautiful, but it was still foggy so the pictures don’t do it justice.  Then you look down at the green water an it’s so full of trash.  It’s such a shame.  One of the world’s prettiest places with trash everywhere.  We passed tons of floating shacks on the water.  They all looked so run down and dirty.  I just kept reminding myself that my house in Sam Ngao is worlds better than that.

The boat finally pulls up to a tiny rock/island with 20 or so bungalows on it.  It’s right out of a travel magazine.  This will be our home for the afternoon and night.  The room was very basic, but the views stunning.  It was quiet with no tv or wifi.  Can I just stay here forever?  After lunch I wanted to go swimming, but it was rainy and just a little too cold.  I just feel like I want so badly to be immersed in water.  Plus, I kept remembering how the water looked not too far away.  So I walked a little on the tiny beach and then took a nap.  After dinner we played cards which was real nice.  In a world with parties and bars and constant internet, I forgot how much I love sitting around playing games and just enjoying the company of others.

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

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Pearl Farm
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Pearl Farm
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Bouys with oysters below them waiting years to be brought back up

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Tiny temple on a beach

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Floating home
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Floating home
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Making my house in Sam Ngao look awesome
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What?  This is where we are staying?

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Hello

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Halong Bay

On By rrainefioreIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Today we got up early to get on a bus to Halong Bay.  The bus didn’t come on time and then later we found out they had messed up the dates of our bus pickup so someone came in a taxi and drove us to the bus.  I thought that was interesting.  The bus ride was over 3 hours long and had a rest stop along the way.  The rest stop was a warehouse sales place where they were selling stone statues, embroidery, clothes, lacquered items, jewelry and other locally made souvenirs.  They had some food and drink too.  It was a zoo of people.

One of the interesting facts that the tour guide told us was that Hanoi had a population of 9 million people and 6 million motorbikes.  That seems to match what I experienced.

When we got to Halong Bay, that was a zoo of people, buses and boats.  We got on a boat that took us to another boat.  A ton of boats left the harbor around the same time.  Not quite what you see in pictures.  We checked into our room on the boat and had lunch.  There was so much food it was ridiculous.  Most of it, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to hold it down or not.  After a while, there were less boats around us.  It was beautiful, but so foggy that you couldn’t see far and all my pictures look unimpressive.  We went to Cat Ba Island and went in a cave.  There are supposedly tons of caves in the area, but not too many open to tourists.  Then we had time to kayak.  They gave me a kayak that was way too big for one person so I gave up after about 5 minutes.  Dinner was the same as lunch – so much food and I barely ate any.  There were 24 guests on the boat and for the most part, it was the most boring group of people I’ve ever met.  Since I felt so bad, I decided to go to bed after dinner instead of “partying” with the rest of the boat.

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore

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There are green trees, I swear
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Love Love the little furry fruit (Lychee?)

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