.::* Living and Dreaming *::.

Vietnam: May 14-16

Hanoi: This city is pretty crazy. Motorbikes and people everywhere and cars trying to squeeze in between. We found our bus to get to the Old Quaters pretty easily but the minute we got off the bus, some guy came up to us pretending that he was there to receive us when really, we had not made any reservations anywhere yet. We let him show us his rooms though (at the Golden Dragon) and they were decent so we stayed.

For the day, we tried the street food and searched for a tour to get right out of the city. It took us awhile but we found a tour to go to Halong Bay for 2 days and 1 night on a boat for only $27 US. We booked this tour from Camillia Hotel 3 and the lady was so nice. She even offered us free breakfast before our tour and she booked us a private taxi to get us to the airport after our tour. It was kind of sketchy since this "taxi" was unmarked but it turned out to be a really really nice ride and well worth it. We were worried that we wouldn't get back in time for our flight out of Vietnam but everything was taken care of.

Halong Bay: This part of the trip was the best. We took a minibus to Halong Bay and got on a boat that took us to see some caves and for swimming in the ocean. We stayed on the boat for the night and when we woke up, we went kayaking and then more swimming. There was a lot of waiting around and I think that came with the price that we paid for the tour. I didn't mind it, especially since I don't know if by paying a little more, things would have been any better. Our toilet in our room didn't work though but the lady at the hotel did warn us that the cheaper tour was on an older boat so that was no big deal. The food was nothing to brag about but overall, the trip was worth it. Liz got a sunburn and my bug bites started to blister but I think that was the worst of it.

posted by ~diana~ @ 3:46 AM