Happy with Halong

I'm on a boat. Again. This time in Halong Bay. It's as beautiful as advertised, but first let me rewind and pick up where we last left off...

- scootering with proper shoes and pants feels 86% more safer , which is good because 60km/h feels 212% faster than 40 did. We never did hit the highway though. I was getting the hang of scootering, outside a few near misses (okay a lot), but it was actually the cold and rain that prevented us from doing it. So we settled for a hike to Lotus Cave on Monkey Mountain that's right in Kaohsiung. Not just a clever name, we spotted many a monkey.

- next day was new years eve, but also a bit chilly so we stayed indoors and got ourselves some hot pot. Stupidly, I faaaa-rrried the top of my mouth with some molten taro. We're talking instant blistering and still losing skin a couple days later. Delicious though. Even the blood cake wasn't too bad. We also hit the "gold class" theater for a movie, then brought in the new year 15 hours early whilst partying on a boat. Nothing too crazy, but I think I did high-5 everyone on board and wrestled the steering wheel from the captain for a bit. Good times.

- up at the crack of dawn the next morning to catch the high speed train back to Taipei just in time to fly to Hanoi. It was a rough, rough day. Enough said.

- Hanoi was very cool. So different than Taiwan, it served up visual delights for the eye everywhere we looked. Tall, skinny buildings with red brick roofs, half grey, half painted in bright colors. Lush green rice paddies filled with asian-sombrero-wearing workers and livestock gave way to narrow city streets, with throngs of people and traffic moving about the shops and homes. I was immediately lamenting thay we'd only have 1 evening there, but a couple hours walking in the traffic was all I ended up needing. I've crossed some crazy streets in my day but never with such a multitude of scooters. Eventually figured out the trick is to not make eye contact. Once the driver knows you know he's coming, avoiding impact is your responsibility. Don't let him see the whites of your eyes, and that job is squarely on his shoulders, which he'll do perfectly well so long as you maintain a steady pace and make no sudden movements.

- we walked around the old quarter hunting for Pho for a couple hours, but couldn't find anything appealing. Then we passed an old lady sitting on the sidewalk with a huge steaming pot of... something... and piles of random food stuffs around her. Strewn along either side of her were tiny plastic tables and even tinier plastic stools, some with locals eagerly devouring bowls of the somethings. "Christine, I think I just found what I want for supper". She was hesitant, but I made eye contact with the lady who barked the apparently only English word she knows - "sit" - and it was on. Rice noodles, tomatoes, onions, chilies, and what I think was tofu skins and pork but could have been anything really... Not sure if it was the food or the experience that made it so good, but it was fantastic and filling. And only $1.50 each. Which was probably still double what the locals pay.

- got picked up bright and early this morning for our overnight cruise in Halong Bay. I won't even bother trying to describe it, and I'm sure the pictures I'll post will massacre its beauty even worse, especially since it's overcast and I can only post pics from my phone. Much better ones to come when I'm back home. In the meantime, plan to come see it for yourself.

- We had a great group on board, enjoyed an amazing kayaking trip around a couple of the 1969 islands together, watching the crew squid fishing, eating some great food, and, as I type, trying to figure out this Asian version of parcheesi. Which strangely, my iPhone knew how to autocorrect. Well played Apple. Well played.



Back to Hanoi airport tomorrow, which if we don't hit any traffic on the 4 hour drive we should be able to just, and I mean JUST, catch our flight to Luang Prabang. That's where the thermostat will start getting cranked, but we are looking forward to slowing our pace and settling in somewhere for a few days. Can't wait!

Cam Ung for reading.