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Halong bay
After a quick bowl of pho for breakfast we head to the port. We get to the gate where Anh Truong drops us off in the hands of his friends that works on one of the junk boats. Before we departed he told us "don't pay them, tell them you don't have any money, I'll pay when you get back". There must be a reason, they'll probably try to rip us off. We were the second to arrive after the French guy, traveling VN all alone. People started to trickle in. Next came 2 sweet old Swedish ladies, then 4 Asian folks and lastly 2 young German love birds. As we go to depart, other giant boats are all trying to pull into ever nook and cranny to try and pick u passengers for the day. We set sail to Halong Bay standing on the deck of the boat feeling the breeze and soaking in the breathtaking scenery in the near distance shaded by the foggy mist. As we get closer the islands become bigger and clearer. The lady tour guide came up and asked me to help her translate. "Halong Bay consists of 1,969 islands within 1,533 sq kilometers. Over 800 islands have been named so far, like this one that is called Dog Island (there is a natural stone in the shape of dog sitting on the edge of a cliff), and next we have Cat Island, the dog chased the cat up the mountain (statue of a cat sitting on the edge of a neighboring cliff". First stop, floating seafood dock. We get off just to look at all the fish amd seafood they have. Many familiar species like redfish, Cobia, Grouper and snapper but many different species that I have never seen before like mantis prawns, conch, clams. They talked us into buying 6 big mantis prawns and a small conch. As they were bagging our catch before we could even say anything they told us 1,800,000 VND = $90 USD. Heck... No... No deal! Finally we settled for $30 USD but that was still expensive but we didn't want to regret not trying it. Our guide takes our catch back to the junk boat and we are on our way to the next stop. We pull up to a floating dock with a bunch of row boats tied up to it. Again we bargain our way down from $10/person to $6/person. 6 of us hopped into a boat and the young lady rowed us towards tunnels through the islands. She took us through the tunnels, got up close next to the islands, and told us about how she grew up on the boats community. She showed us her school, and as we looked through the homes they had TV's! Who knew. Back on the junk boat we go. Next stop the cave! Up hundreds of steps, older people stopping to take brakes, checkpoints with beautiful scenery and finally entering the cave. It's beautiful! Almost looks fake as if an attraction at Disney World. Truly a natural wonder. After walking through the path through the cave we go back on the boat and lunch is about to be served. They cook calamari, steamed fish, shrimp, and clams. They also cooked up the mantis shrimp and conch that we bought earlier as well. We eat as the boat goes to our next destination. Final stop, the beach. We saw stairs so we decided to bypass the beach and climbed. We had to take several breaks but when we got to the very top there was a cage full off monkeys. They seemed sad, but that was probably the life they've always known. After several thought attempts to break them free we left before I got I'm trouble. As we head back to the dock my cousin told us that the Swedish ladies said that they paid $40/person for the junk boat tour. When Anh Truong picked us up, he paid $25/person for us. Without him we would have gotten ripped of also. Back to the hotel for a few hours rest until dinner time.
After a short 3 hour nap we were woken up to get ready for dinner. Anh Truong takes us to the city of Halong where he parks right in front of a hole in the wall shop with fish tanks right outside so we can take our pick of seafood. We settled with the redfish and a dozen mini gooey duck type clams. The redfish body they fried and the head and tail were used to make a soup. The clams were individually wrapped in foil with a little sauce and thrown on a grill until perfectly cooked. Anh Truong ordered a few more items along with a bottle of Vietnamese Vodka. "Yooooo" (cheers) and everyone drinks. We eat, we talk, we laugh. After a full belly and a happy heart we walk around the check out the small town. We walk past a table that is filled with all different kinds of shellfish. I have always dreamed of that ever since I knew that shellfish was my favorite kind of food but I was too full to eat anymore food. Right next to the table of shellfish were 2 gallon plastic bottles with a green liquid in it. Me and Eric wondered what it was and my Uncle explained that it was gas. That is a make shift gas station in the city. We walk to the flea market where there are hundreds of stands selling all different kinds of items like fake LV bags, silk, and hand carved items only to name a few. As we walk my uncle stopped to look at a shirt so we stop to wait for him. A lady vendor then approached us and asked us to buy her stuff so I replied "no thank you" in English. She turned to her friends and said "if they're not going to buy stuff why are they just standing there like a bunch of dogs" in Vietnamese, I turned to her and replied back in Vietnamese "we're waiting for our uncle" she was caught off guard and said that she was talking about her neighbor vendor. I didn't even get offended because this is how they are, so we just laugh it off and keep walking. Life is too short to get offended by petty things. Time for sleep.
- comments
TV hahahaha that's so funny about the lady talking about you! hope you liked hanoi!
mythy next time just raise your hand like you're gonna back hand her ahahhahaha
Mytran Hahaha you're having so much fun! I'm jealous. Sounds like you got tried instead of Eric haha :)
mytutym Haha she was cray cray I wanted to back hand her lol