Vietnam = chaotic

I am about to give you a very honest post- hope you still love me in the end :)

Vietnam has been an experience for me. M has been here before, so he may have been better prepared. We arrived in Hanoi, had a shuttle take us to our hotel in the old quarter, and set off to see Hanoi. The original plan was to leave the following day for a three day cruise of Ha Long Bay (a world heritage wonder of the world). The cruise was booked and paid for.

My first day in Hanoi was rough on me. I really struggled with the chaos. There were tons of people, and it was really hot. They have so many scooters and motorcycles, it was overwhelming! They honk constantly, and I had a hard time enjoying myself as we walked around exploring. I am already a jumpy person, and random frequent loud honking- and I was in a constant state of anxiety. A scooter even hit Vickie on the last day - she was fine though.

I think you can see my uneasiness in this picture....

This video is showing the subdued Hanoi because less people were out in the pouring rain. The first day we got there, the traffic was at least twice as heavy...


We got up super early on the day our cruise was to pick us up- and no shuttle! We finally asked the front desk, and they told us everything was cancelled because a huge storm. The only reason we were in Vietnam to see a wonder of the world- Ha Long Bay! Needless to say, I was devastated! I did not handle the situation well...thank goodness I was with people who love me. I was so upset, and I had very little sleep the night before. We thought of leaving Vietnam all together, because I had so much trouble the day before. We weren't planning on spending five days in Hanoi. We looked at flying to Thailand, Malaysia, and even Australia. We decided to stay in Hanoi, but we didn't even have a hotel room! We only booked two nights in Hanoi- the day we got here and the night before we were leaving. 

The hotel (Hanoi Ruby Elegance) we stayed at our first night found us another hotel and scheduled a day tour to the  "Ha Long Bay" of the land. Despite my utter freak out, the hotel staff was amazing. They even repeatedly apologized for the weather! In fact, the hotel (Hanoi City Palace) we moved to was also amazing. The staff at both places were so accommodating and awesome. I would highly recommend either hotel.

I am not proud of how I felt or acted that day. It may have been akin to a pouty five  year old.  I didn't like Hanoi at all- I wanted to take a relaxing cruise on Ha Long Bay. I was having extreme culture shock- probably the worst I have experienced in my travels around the world. This was the biggest Asian city I visited outside of Singapore. I didn't take to it well right away. 

So on a couple of hours of sleep and after packing our bags and changing hotels, we set off for our day tour. It was supposed to be a one and a half hour drive into the country side. On our way, we stopped at a lacquer shop where they still make lacquer goods by hand (most is done by machine now-a-days). It was pretty neat seeing them make the pictures. Of course the idea is to get the tourists to buy stuff, which we did.

 They made eggshell paintings with actual eggshells. Some of them are burnt a little to  change their colors. They also break them into a bunch of different sizes.

 This guy may not have been happy about my picture-taking...

They cut mother-of-pearl into such detail - even these tiny butterflies...

After driving another two hours at least, we made it to the "Ha Long Bay" of the land. It's name is Hoa Lu- Tam Coc. There are tons of limestone mountains, and it was the ancient capital of Vietnam. It included a boat trip on little row boats down a "river," through caves and passing by the beautiful limestone peaks.

 Vickie, Kevin, and the tour guide setting out...M and I were in another boat

 This guy was dredging. It did not look like a fun job.

 Our boat driver changed at least four times, and also did several pick up and drop offs of stuff along the way. This was one of the drop off points...

 There were lots of caves that we traveled through...

Posting this video was almost the death of me - but on the bright side, I used iMovie for the first time.
Also, I thought it was really cool how the rowers of these boats used their legs instead of their hands - you can see another boat rower and then briefly ours at the end of the clip doing this.

This was at the very end of a long trip down the river, and all these ladies were waiting to sell us food and goods...they are under the rock because the rain was about to let loose...

 Here's my half of an umbrella...unfortunately,  I wasn't offered this unitl I was already soaking wet...and it didn't work so great...

 Not sure if this picture does the rain justice. It was intense...

 Water Buffalo!!

We were supposed to go on a bicycle tour through the countryside, but due to the thunderstorm, we just drove straight back to the hotel. The boat M and I were on didn't have umbrellas (okay- there was one that was offered more than 2/3 of the way into the storm), we road three hours home soaking wet. Not the most fun I have ever had. 

Well, I will post some more of our exploits around Hanoi. I did finally adjust to the city, and I grew to enjoy it. Our last night in Hanoi was an amazing experience- stay tuned to learn more about it!