Hanoi and Day 1 of Ha Long Bay

Sorry guys, the internet I was stealing got taken down, so I had to wait a day to continue posting. I have had some jet lag before. But man this one kicked me square in the face. I got to Hanoi, and was thoroughly unimpressed by the airport. That's ok, because the people were very friendly, but not the pushy friendly I was used to from Greece, Egypt, and Turkey. Just polite and friendly. To avoid the taxi scams, I approached the official airport tourist desk and requested an organized taxi to the hostel, and also reserved one to the airport for my travel to Beijing on Saturday.

I got to my hostel no problems. It was down what we would call an alley, although in Vietnam it's a full street. A big street in Vietnam is one that can fit cars, not just bikes. It's a big hostel too, with three buildings and a ton of people. Good hostel though, with airconditioning in all rooms, extra fans everywhere to help even more, and resonably hot showers. Althought it has the feeling of a really well run frat house. Almost everyone (including a lot of the staff) seem perpetually drunk or hungover.

I immediately reserved a slot on the 3 day, 2 night tour to Ha Long bay, which was the real desination for this leg of the trip. Ha Long bay is a beautiful bay in the northeastern section of Vietnam, bordering Chinese waters. It's a World Heritage site and definately the coolest part of the Top Gear Vietnam tour. We left early Monday morning, took a 3 hour bus ride to Ha Long bay, and then jumped on our Junk, a vietnamese cruise vessel. Because they over booked us, we ended up with nicer rooms than expected, complete with air conditioning. The boat took us out into the islands, which look like little mountains sticking out of the water. Then the two boats (one for 2 day-ers, one for us 3 day-ers) stopped and let us swim for a while. The boats were 3-4 stories out of the water, so we all jumped from the tops of the boats. One of the boats had an extra high roof we weren't supposed to be on, but a bunch of us, including me, jumped off it anyway before they yelled at us to stop. If any of you know about my fear of falling, you know how big a step that was for me. Totally worth it though. Tons of fun.

Afterward we did some kayaking, hiking up some of the islands, and then ended at a little floating fishing village. These little villages (essentially bamboo houses floating on the water) are everywhere in Ha Long Bay. Supposedly there are some villagers who will live a full life having never touched land, although that could just be an old legend. Some of the houses were just extra large row boats, one of which had a flat panel tv, which was wierd. Anyway, that night the boat exploded with a giant party. Most of the backpackers on this trip were 20-26, and clearly the boats are used to this, cause they had packed plenty of alcohol to go around. I tried to stay awake for as much of it as I could, made some friends with a few of the British and Irish. Finally jet lag caught up with me and I crashed hard.