The day before we headed out for spring break, my tooth fell out. No, really, it fell out. So, I had to find a dentist relatively quickly. Come to find out, this was a crown that I had done in Turkey and the dentist did not attach it properly. My tooth is very small and the integrity of it is possibly compromised, so the dentist sealed it and we will make a plan when I get back. At least, I can eat and function normally.
So, we had this crazy idea to go to Vietnam and Cambodia for spring break. I started researching and we chose a tour for about 16 days. I have two weeks off and my partner, Simon requested leave from work. Since I am cheap, we chose to take three flights because we thought we had plenty of time. We chose low-budget airlines instead of the major expensive ones. Of course, they nickel and dime you, but I thought we could save some money and spend it on other things.
Our first flight was from Dubai to Channai, India. We arrived at the airport in plenty of time and went straight to the lounge. The nice thing about credit cards in the UAE is that they usually include lounge benefits. Simon's card gets us into even more lounges. The flight was fully booked, of course and there were lots of young, rowdy Irish teachers on the flight. The longer the flight got the more drunk they got and annoyed us. These millennials are something else. We managed to get through the flight and arrived in Channai. However, once we got there, the flight crew told us to remain on the flight and of course, I needed to use the bathroom and I was hungry. So, they herded us like cattle through the airport to ship some of the immigration process, but nothing was communicated to us. They even told us to stand in a single file line. I was pretty much fit to be tied at that point. Eventually, we got through security in single gender lines and waited for our flight to Singapore. The flight to Singapore was uneventful and immigration was really easy to navigate. We had to pull our luggage and recheck it, so we did all of that and had time to spare, so we tried some different food.
The flight to Vietnam was uneventful except I changed seats halfway through because there were some empty seats and I couldn't sleep and then I was missing in action, which scared Simon half to death. Whoops! The visa was quick and efficient and we found the person picking us up. We did notice that the guy that helped us in the airport didn't seem to understand much English and neither did the guy that picked us up. We had better luck at the hotel, though. The rooms are adequate and the food is fresh. The exchange rate is 23,000 Vietnamese Dong per $1, so this is going to get interesting. The calculations are really difficult to manage, but we will figure it out. Tomorrow we have a cruise on the River. We are really excited about the cruise.
The tour company picked us up at 7:30 and we met four other people in our group. Everyone was from the UK, but lived in different parts of the world and were all over 60. We loved talking with them and getting to know them along the way. On the way to Ha Long Bay, we stopped at a several places included a place where disabled people created embroidery. Of course, we had to buy a few pieces because the craftsmanship was utterly amazing. It is our hope that the money is going to them. We also took pictures with each artist. Afterwards, we stopped in Hai Duong Province where they make cultured pearls. I never knew how they were made, but it involved a very interesting process with seeding the ovaries, etc. I didn't ask many questions about that process.
After the stops, we arrived at Lavender Cruises and boarded our one night cruise. There were ten other people on board including two guys from Germany, a family from France/New Zealand, a couple from Czech, and two girls from the Phillipines. Everyone was really nice and friendly. We were given a quick drink, a briefing, and then shown to our cabins. After checking in, we had a nice seafood lunch with a few beers. The first activity was kayaking followed by a visit to Table Top Mountain. The kayaking was quite short and honestly, I just took video while Simon paddled. I know I am super lazy, but it was fantastic. Then, we headed off to the mountain to climb thousands of stairs to a look out point. I am still out of shape, but it was worth the view. Once we came down, we began to notice all of the trash and pollution. The place was teaming with tourists and we have virtually spoiled the place. I feel sad that we didn't come earlier when the place was in a much more natural shape.
After the activities and much needed showers, we came back to have a full seafood dinner and drinks. The food was fresh and abundant, although Simon could have dealt with having less seafood, but I was in heaven. I love all of the weird seafood including crab, shrimp, and fish. I was in food heaven. After dinner, I relaxed while Simon did some squid fishing. He caught two squid, but no one else caught any. I think he had the magic touch. When he caught the first one, I saw the spray of ink and didn't realize the squid still had ink in it. When we pulled it off the hook, my shirt was sprayed with ink. I guess it was a bit of a souvenior. After squid fishing, we headed to bed and crashed.
The next morning, we got up for breakfast and headed out to visit the beautiful Hang Sung Sot cave. The translation in English is "surprising cave" and the cave definitely surprised us. It didn't look like much when we came up to the island, but the cave was absolutely huge. Once again, the operation was a well-oiled machine with many tourists coming in and out in an orderly fashion. We spent about an hour in the caves and then headed back to check out of the boat so they could clean the rooms to get ready for the next round. We relaxed on the sun deck while our lunch was cooked and watched the beautiful rock formations float past us as we headed back to the harbor. The scenery was breathtaking, but again, very polluted because of us. We arrived back to the harbor and it was amazing to watch everyone dump their trash and laundry in these small little boats that ferried us back and forth. Everything works with amazing efficiency as they ready for the next group.
We arrived at the harbor, met up with our original crew and headed back to Hanoi. Once we arrived back at our hotel, we relazed, had dinner and decided to walk around a bit. The city is small, but bustling with motorbikes and people. It is a smaller city, but there are 7.782 million people who live here, according to Google, so I don't classify it too small. We had a good walk around the neighborhood and stopped for a beer on the corner to do some people watching. The people are incredibly friendly and often said hi to us. My favorite was watching all of the motorbikes. They came in every fashion with riders to match...young, old, short, tall, helmets, no helmets. Even babies were on the bikes. It was definitely organized chaos. Afterwards, we had a walk back to the hotel and enjoyed a few beers on the rooftop. This is only day 2! I can't wait to see what happens tomorrow!
