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I woke in the morning to a knock on my door, "Julie! Time for breakfast!" Binh yelled behind the door. Once I opened the door, the hot air hit my face. Having the air blasting in my room, the warm air in the hallway was a bit of a shock. It's always already so warm in the mornings in Vietnam. I climbed down the three flights of stairs and met the others for breakfast.
This was goodbye for everyone in my group, excluding Miguel and Christina. They all had only signed up for the two night and I signed up for an extra day with a bungalow on Monkey island. Christina and Miguel had signed up for an additional night on Cat Ba in the hotel before they head to Laos.
I said goodbye to everyone as they loaded the bus and I hit the market. I still needed to replace my fried sunglasses. I walked down the busy street and memorized a land mark on the corner so I could find my way back to the hotel.
The markets in Vietnam were much different than Cambodia. They sold a lot of cheap kid toys. plastic trucks, airplanes and cars all wrapped in plastic, laying along the sidewalks. Little kid t-shirts and onesies with Vietnam written across the front hung from the canopies. They had a few trinkets and souvenirs but not much of a selection like in Cambodia. I found a counter with cheap sunglasses and the girl helped me narrow down a pair as I tried on each one. "You have a beautiful nose,"she said. "And beautiful skin tone, very light. That's nice." She said as handing me another pair. I don't know that I've ever been complimented on my nose before.
I took a walk down to the harbor where little blue wooden house floated on the water. Teal, yellow, orange and aqua boats idled through the bay between the houses. I looked at my watch and only had an hour before lunch. I continued to be harassed, "Take a boat ride? Buy shirt? Taxi? Souvenir?" They each chirped. I decided to just head back to my room. I searched for the Dream Hotel landmark and took a left turn up the hill to my hotel.
A new tour group crammed in the lobby as the tour guide instructed them to head to the dining room for lunch. "Are you the American?" The guide asked. "Julie?" I nodded. "My name is Treng, I will be your new guide. Please take a seat for lunch." He instructed.
I took a seat at a table and a few new travelers sat down to join me. Tristan and Sanne from The Netherlands, Oliver, Rebecca and Vanessa from England. We talked about our travels so far, they all had been traveling for months. Tristan and Sanne were married but the others were traveling solo. Oliver had a very funny laugh and it echoed in the dining room whenever he told a story and laughed. He was quite the addition to our group.
The tour bus arrived and Treng, loaded us into the van. "We go to Monkey Island now." The van drove us back through the jungle, leading us out of Cat Ba island. We reached the dock and he announced, "We hop on the boat and it will drop us on Monkey island!" We loaded the brown rusty boat and I climbed straight up the stairs to the top deck to admire Halong Bay. It didn't matter how many days you were on the bay, the view never got old. There were endless turns guiding you through rocky islands and not one island looked the same. It was a breathtaking ride along that bay that I will never forget.
An island with huts came within our sight. We all gasped at the little island of paradise ahead and marveled at the secluded beach that would be all ours for the last day. As the boat grew nearer, my mouth dropped. One strip on beach with a sand volleyball court, wooden lawn chairs with cream umbrellas shading them. To the right lay four bungalows on stilts with straw huts. Straight ahead, rest a large hut with a star case leading to the second level overlooking the water. To the left of the island, lay a wooden staircase winding in and out of the jungle leading to a cabana viewpoint overlooking the entire bay. We all couldn't believe this is where we were escaping to.
The boat floated into the shore and the crew slid a narrow wooden plank into the beach. He grabbed a thick wooden rod and held one end while another crew member ran down the plank to hold the other end of the homemade rail. Treng motioned for us to de-board, I slowly made my way down the plank and onto the sand.
The hotel was beautiful on Monkey island, there are twenty-nine bungalows total on the entire island. This was the most exotic place I've stayed during the entire trip, a perfect grand finale to Asia.
The host checked me in and handed me a key, "Your bungalow is number three. Dinner will be served in the top deck at seven o'clock. Kayaking and hiking is free on the island." I grabbed my pack and walked down the stone path through the jungle passing tiny bungalow after bungalow until I reached mine. I twisted the key to open the pad lock holding two silver metal loops together. I pushed the wooden door open to find a large bed with a white mosquito net hanging from the bamboo ceiling. A little wooden dresser rest on the left side of the room and a bamboo wall separated the bedroom from the bathroom on the back of the hut. I slid the curtain to the side to find a sink, shower head and toilet with thin bamboo sticks barely reaching the top of the hut, revealing the open air jungle outside. It was the coolest bathroom I had ever seen.
I dropped my pack, changed into my swimsuit and headed to the bar. I ordered a Bia Ha Noi, a Taiwanese beer and lay my towel across a chair shaded under an umbrella. I watched the people in my group already swimming in the water, cooling off from the hot sun.
Once they walked up the beach, they began gathering by the volleyball net. I immediately turned my head to look out at the water so they wouldn't ask me. I'm hate volleyball, I'm not very good and am a little afraid of the ball. It didn't take long for them to recruit me, "Julie!" "Me?" I pointed at myself. "Yes! Come on!" Tristan yelled from the court. I decided to try reverse psychology, none of these people knew me. They don't know that I'm afraid of the ball or that I'm not very good so I would try to start over. I smiled and confidently walked down the beach to the court.
We began playing volleyball and I have to admit, it was very fun. Maybe it was because I was playing on Monkey island, I don't know. However, I hit the ball several times and had the winning serve. It's really fun when you travel for a reason like this. You can try things over, pretend you're good at something or maybe realize you were never bad all along.
After we played we all ran back in the water to cool off and I got to know Sanne a lot more. She is a teacher in the Netherlands and used to travel all over the world. She finally brought her husband along because he is not much of a traveler. "He wants to go to the United States so this was his "warm up" trip." She explained. "Vietnam is his warm up trip for the States?" I asked. She told me that he is a pretty boy so everyone at his work has been posting on Facebook that they are shocked he's roughing it and not wearing suits. I had only met him in shorts, a Fedora and string bracelets lining his wrists so I would have never guessed.
Sanne and I joined Tristan and the others back on the lawn chairs and relaxed until sunset. We talked a lot about all the Ice Bucket challenges. They told me that the challenges were really big in The Netherlands two months ago, but they have been really impressed to see it becoming a world wide event. They told they have been enjoying watching all the American celebrities Ice Bucket challenge videos online.
After the sun set, we headed back to our bungalows to shower before dinner. Showering in my little bathroom, I was shocked to have hot water. I took a nice long hot shower and then changed quickly for dinner.
The patio upstairs for dinner had a stunning view of Halong bay. It was a huge wooden patio with a hut over the bar and seating all the way up to the balcony. Wooden fans above kept us cool in the open air, piano music played famous American songs in the background. The host guided us to a table set exclusively for our group. A full buffet and a flame grill with fresh oysters, calamari and chicken lay at the end of the buffet line. This was by far, the best food I had been served my entire trip. I believe this was true for everyone traveling, we all went up to the buffet three or four times. There was Pho soup, salad, fresh spring rolls, fried spring rolls, rice, fried crab, vegetables, desserts and the flame grill full of more seafood and meat.
Toasting to a great meal and the best day of the tour, we ate and talked about American TV over dinner. It seemed that's what everyone always wanted to talk about along the trip. They loved their American television, especially Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad and Scandal. "I love Friends!" Rebecca exclaimed in her English accent. Everyone always brought up Friends, which I thought was funny because it was so long ago. I asked Oliver why everyone watches American TV and he said a lot of people use American television to learn English. "And everyone wants an American accent." He added. "Really?" I asked. "Of course, you didn't notice that most places in Asia teach American English?" Tristan chimed in, "Other countries don't have the budgets for television either. We have shows, but prefer to watch your shows."
Being that we are all world travelers, I wondered what my next destination should be so asked the group. They really were the best people to give me advice. "If you had an unlimited budget for two weeks and could travel anywhere in the world, where would you and a guest go?" "As much money as we want?" Oliver asked. "Yep," I confirmed. "Well where is the money coming from?" Tristan questioned. "Don't worry about it!" I laughed, "Just, where would you go?" Everyone took a minute to brainstorm where to spend their time and then Tristan announced, Meldives. Vanessa said Hawaii, Rebecca said Australia, Oliver said Belize and Sanne said Turkey. My answer was New Zealand. We sat around and talked about more travel destinations and finished our beers until one by one, we headed back to our bungalows.
I climbed into my bungalow and pulled the two wooden doors together, sliding the thick slab of wood through a slot to secure the door. I crawled into my mosquito net and looked around my little bungalow. I never thought I'd be sleeping on an island in Vietnam but then again I never thought I'd have fun playing volleyball either. Another reason to go out of your comfort zone. I was learning that a lot on this trip. There have been a lot of uncomfortable moments followed by good ones.
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