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So today we are actually in Hanoi. We had tried to update the blog for our first nights in Ha Long Bay but it got very difficult when we had to walk throughout the entire hotel just to find a little signal. So here's what we remember:
Our first night in Vietnam after we had landed, Dylan had been stressing how difficult it would be to be allowed into the country. Five minutes later he walked passed the man with his legs up and his eyes closed, picked up his bag from the x-ray machine and entered the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. When we got all our luggage at the one conveyer belt in the airport I noticed Dylan's duffle(duffel?) bag had something either dripping or spilled all over it and to this day we're not sure what it is. Once we had all our things and continued to exit the airport, we were picked up by my mom's friend's friend who is a taxi driver in Hanoi. He spotted her right as we stepped through customs and waved us down. He was carrying a big paper sign that read: "Hien Thi Tran, O My Ve," which is my mom's name followed by what's loosely translated as "from America coming home."
The second you step out of the airport you instantly notice all the insane traffic and flashy signs. All the cars and scooters are honking at each other and the pedestrians just walk around the roads as they please. With all our luggage in hand we find ourselves walking in the middle of the street being honked at by every car and scooter at the airport. Our driver seemed to find this situation all to normal so we acted as if we were not scared to death as a car came to a screetching, honking halt as we casually walked by. A normal black four door sedan that he rented for us was waiting to drive us another three hours to Halong Bay. We were less than amused at this after our 25 hour flight but we knew we had to do it.
I fell asleep instantly but Dylan stayed awake for most of it. He said the driving was very slow going even though the only cars he saw were men pulled over relieving themselves on the side of the road. The length of the trip did not get any shorter when we got pulled over by a group of men armed with AK-47's.
However, we finally made it to Halong Bay 3 hours later. I was woken abruptly to eat at a resturant, and by resturant I mean a lady sitting on the side of the road with a pot and a few plastic childrens chairs.
At this point, we were only yards away from the water, but we couldn't tell because of how dark it was in the town. The flashing neon signs had disappeared somewhere along the road and the fact that it was 2 in the morning didn't help us see anything but what was in front of the car's headlights. Truong (the friend of a friend) picked a random--what I have named a street-a-raunt--place to eat, parallel parked the car right in front of the tiny tables and chairs, and we all followed him out to sit down and order. The three of us got Pho Ga (chicken noodle soup) and Truong got chao (poridge). Dylan and I were a bit apprehensive when the food was served (obviously due to the disgusting look of where we were and how dirty everything seemed to be) because of what we had heard from Kayla (my boss at Pho 7 in Tallahassee) who had not only a week ago stayed in Vietnam for three weeks with her family. She and her family told us all about how they lost so much weight and hated the food.
To our surprise, we both loved it. When Dylan exclaimed how much he enjoyed it I was so happy and eager to tell my mom. She didn't seem to enjoy the food as much as we did, but she made sure to tell us how popular the pho is in the north and how it's their specialty. The noodles here are so fresh, I could tell they were different just by looking at them. The broth is almost like no broth I've had back home, but somehow it was distinctively a pho broth that tasted amazing.
In the midst of our fourth meal at 2 A.M., a woman carrying extremely heavy balanced baskets of fruit stopped by us and we decided to buy some of her fruit to lighten her load. We got mang cau, mang cut, and nhan (logan). [I'm not sure what the other two are called in English so look it up and let me know! :)] Dylan loved the mang cut (one of my mom's favorites) but I didn't like it as much as the nhan .
Truong finished his meal much quicker than any one of us did and while we continued to slurp down our first real meal since we left America, he wandered off and came back telling us about a hotel he got us a room at and how it's right by where we were. Once Troung asked the woman for the price, he paid for us (because we hadn't exchanged any money yet, we were going to pay him back) and he drove us around the corner (literally around a corner) to our hotel.
Everything was so dark and no lights were on near the hotel so my mom kept asking if it was too late/if it was closed, but as we walked up a man came to open the door for us. Stepping into the hotel we immediately acknowledge the lack of any air conditioning and naturally my mom ensures that the hotel have AC if we're to stay. Later, we found out that the room had a remote controlled air conditioning system which worked surprisingly perfect. Our room was 18 degrees celsius and it felt amazing. The beds were hard as rocks. It felt like we were laying on wooden pallets with sheets over them, but that didn't stop us from getting our first real sleep in multiple days.
We woke the next morning and were out the door at 9 A.M. sharp. We headed downstairs to meet Troung and he was nowhere in sight. We started to think that paying him on the first day was a bad decision and he had left us to fend for ourselves. However we talked to a receptionist and she reinvigorated our hope by telling us that our 9 A.M. sharp was actually 7 A.M. sharp. All our technology had failed us by not being able to change time due to the lack of signal. I'm sure Dylan's technologically handicapped Dad will be happy to hear this. None the less we unanimously decided to go upstairs to add to our only 4 hours of sleep.
Take two, we head downstairs and with a little hiccup along the way we met up with Troung and we headed to breakfast. Troung took us to a locals favorite dining spot where we all picked a dish for everybody to nibble on. All the dishes were loved except Dylan's (he was the newest to the Vietnamese cuisine).
After our second amazing meal (2 for 2 so far) we headed to the Halong market. We made it just in time to look around the shop while all the store owners were taking a mid day sleep. A new experience we didn't see coming was shopping along side a women sleeping on the floor. Quietly moving objects around as to not wake their owner is not an easy thing to do so we left soon after we came. We headed to the food section of the market where we searched for Che (dessert drink) all in one breath because the 10 A.M.- 12 P.M. sleeping hours in the market must also be the perfect time to fillet and dry out all your fish in the sun.
Finally we find a corner of the market to buy our Che and take a needed deep breath. For the first time we decide to bite the bullet and allow the addition of ice (said to be the main reason so many people get sick). We walked home still finding ourselves walking down the middle of the road, I guess Troung doesn't think the sidewalk is big enough or something. We headed back to the hotel for a much needed nap (vacationing of this caliber is tiring) and slept till 5 P.M.
We woke and headed downstairs to meet Truong. We ate at the same restaurant as we did earlier in the day but this time we picked out the fresh catch of the day to make our dinner. We chose one king fish, a crab and two different types of shrimp. The fish did not die in vain, two minutes after its TOD we saw him again this time baked and covered in a golden brown coating. The shrimp had also changed, turning red and juicy. We ate all of the fish, loving every last morsal. Along with the fish Dylan drank his first (but certainly not his last) Bia (beer) Saigon.
We stayed for a very long time, Dylan and Truong started to bond over the Bia and Truong started to show him how to eat all the food and what sauces to use. Truong knew the owner of the buisness who sat down and talked all night long with us. By the end of the night everybody was happy and laughing at everything everybody said. Dylan said more than once it was a crazy experience to talk to somebody through another person, more than one joke did not land properly because of this transaction. None the less the night was a success and even though all we did was eat dinner we seemed to lean more about Halong Bay and its people than any tour group could have showed. Dylan expressed how it had been his favorite night even though we had only landed one night before. Later still on into the night Dylan asked to go to the bathroom. He was led deep behind the streets into a tiny room with a hole in the ground by the owner of the buisness. Later on we found out he was previously a VC and Dylan said he would of been much more hesitant to follow the owner into a back street if he had known that beforehand. None the less the man was harmless and very kind (and smelly!).
PS this is to be continued when we have more time to rest! Now we must pack before we head to Dong Hoi and the Phong Nha Farmstay!
Till then!
xo
- comments
Mythy Elaborate on the group of men who pulled you over with ak-47s! And give more/better descriptions of all the foods, please :) ps. So happy dyl is enjoying all the foods!
Tv Dylan was the one who saw the guns! He'll tell you about it later I guess haha So the pho is so good. The noodles are so different. I don't even know how to describe it. My mom says its because theyre fresh. I'll take a picture of it next time close up. Thanks for the tips and questions! Keep commenting on the pics, I can see them but I don't get updates...idk why the app doesn't show them!
Holly Love these stories! Post more pics! Love you guys and glad you're having so much fun!!! P.S. I told you about the toilets!!!
susan Love your description of the restaurant, i.e. lady on the side of the road with a pot and kids chairs. I was laughing so hard, don't know why but that just cracked me up!!!