Ha Long Bay and Hanoi

For the past few days we’ve been in northern Vietnam, and what a pleasant surprise it has been!  Prior to our trip, I booked a one-night stay at Charming Hotel on-line.  I found this hotel on Trip Advisor and reviews really emphasized their genuine attitude and superb customer service.  Boy were they right!  They even saved us about a 100,000 Dong ($10) on our cab ride from the airport.

While in Hanoi, we took a cruise with Galaxy Cruise lines in Ha Long Bay, one of the seven natural wonders of the world!  Ha Long Bay consists of almost 2,000 mountains protruding out of the bay.  It was incredible!  We even took a stroll through one of the largest limestone caves in the world called the “Surprise Cave.”  It’s called that because the first “chamber” you walk into is relatively small, but the next two chambers are enormous!  Apparently, it was discovered by two French FEMALE explorers!  Can you imagine how amazing that would be to uncover a ginormous limestone cave?!

After visiting the cave we went kayaking in the Bay which is also considered the South China Sea, and later went swimming.  Not just swimming though, we jumped off of the very top of our boat, at least 20 feet high!  There have been few times in my life where I’ve been as scared as I was when I jumped off that daggone boat.  At first I planned on holding my nose, but when I was in the air my body went into panic mode and I started flailing my arms as I fell into the water.  Luckily the water was nice and warm so it was a relief when my feet crashed into the water. 

Afterwards we had a fantastic dinner and finished the night off with squid fishing (didn’t catch anything though) and karaoke.  There were only about 14-16 passengers on this boat; a Vietnamese family of about eight, Eric and I, a New Zealander, and a British couple.  Alex, from New Zealand and Val and George (from England) really made this trip extra-good, especially after a night of singing… I Will Survive, Mountain Roads, a song about Sheila, Sweet Caroline, and some beautiful Vietnamese love songs, our karaoke night was a blast and really put this trip on a pedestal.  Although, I must admit, our Vietnamese boat staff pretty much blew us (the Westerners) out of the water in regards to talent, but we were most definitely the life of the party; dancing and carrying on till the crew told us to go to bed!

Back in Hanoi we had the opportunity to venture about with our new found friend, Long (his name means dragon king in Vietnamese, how sweet is that?!).  Long took us to the best ice cream shop in Hanoi, Kem Trang Tien.  Trang Tien has only one flavor of actual ice cream, vanilla.  But this wasn’t your average vanilla bean flavor you get in the States.  This vanilla tasted like a pina colada!  It was sooo good we had one of those and were so enamored with the new flavor that we tried three of their fudge popsicle assortments; coconut milk, green bean, and the com rice flavor.  They kind of tasted like Indian burfi sweets.  Yummy!

One of the neatest adventures we went on with Long was ironically on Long Bien bridge, a 100 year-old bridge extending about two miles.  Our last night in Hanoi, Long took us for a walk along the wooden boarded sidewalk atop this crazy long bridge, and we found a pleasant surprise just as we approached the middle of the bridge above the river.  Many young people were gathered along the railing sitting on bamboo mats.  They were playing cards, sipping on iced dracontomelon tea, and just enjoying each other’s company.  We decided to join them for a bit and bought a few glasses of this Vietnamese iced tea made of up small balls of sweetish, sourish fruit called dracontomelon.  It was delicious and tasted like an exotic version of lemonade with mini melon balls in it.  We sat there for a while and left while a child around four years old started busting a move to Michael Jackson.  (I joined in a bit, but didn’t want to take the spotlight away from that little sweetie!)

We spent the night traipsing around the Old Quarter and ended the night with some sweets, including a red dragon fruit smoothie!  No joke!

Our last day was started bright and early at Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum.  Now I didn’t know what a Mausoleum was before this, so just to fill you in a bit, this was essentially a memorial or shrine for the infamous Vietnamese leader during the first part of the Vietnam War, Ho Chi Minh.  Vietnam’s most famous city, Saigon, was actually renamed Ho Chi Minh City because it was this leader’s favorite city.  Anyone looking to rename Chicago to Obama City?  That’s what this would essentially be like doing. 

Ok, I’m exaggerating it’s a bit different.  I’m no expert on the Vietnam War, but Ho Chi Minh was the Communist leader of the North leading the Communists to eventually win the war.  From conversations with Vietnamese who are living in Vietnam, it seems like he is highly admired for his good nature and caring attitude.  In fact, he’s commonly known as Uncle Ho to the Vietnamese. 

In the Mausoleum, we walked through the room where his preserved body lies.  It was like walking through the funeral of a highly revered individual, except no one was crying, everyone was completely silent, and did not take their eyes off of Ho Chi Minh’s preserved body lying in the middle of the room.  Even I was pretty mesmerized by this lifeless body just lying there in the middle of the room. 

This was an odd experience because throughout my life I’ve heard about how bad Communism is and here I see so many people admiring this Communist leader, even willingly calling him Uncle Ho.  Both young and old generations were doing so.  In these circumstances, it’s very easy to forget why Communism is disliked by Democratic societies.

Just a few days prior to going to Hanoi, we had met a French traveler who has been living in Vietnam for the past six years.  He was the one who had strongly encouraged us to go to the Mausoleum, largely because, he said, in Vietnam it doesn’t seem like it is Communist society, but you are reminded by the Communist mindset when you venture into that room just by experiencing the silence that runs through the walls as hundreds of people pass by Uncle Ho's body… and by seeing the soldiers adorned in white uniforms, standing like porcelain dolls at each corner of the bed Uncle Ho lies in.  I’m not gonna lie, it was a tad bit creepy in that room, and my experience there as well as at the War Remnants museum in Ho Chi Minh City have given me a new appreciation and understanding of the horrors the war soldiers endured during the war.

Afterwards, we explored Ho Chi Minh’s Presidential Palace and almost got pummeled by mangoes dropping from trees on the appropriately named, Mango Road.  We tried all kinds of street foods from Eel Mien noodle soup to Bun Cha, a northern Vietnamese specialty composed of rice noodles, pork patties, and the freshest mint leaves, weed-ish herbs, beansprouts, lime, and chili sauce.  Honestly, it was like we just pulled up an entire herbal garden in a plate!

Lastly, we really put our negotiating skills to work while buying three paintings…  looking forward to having a place where we can proudly put our new home additions on display.