10 days is not nearly enough to see Vietnam. Joe and I arrived in Hanoi on the 20th and we feel like we have been in a rush ever since. We spent one day and two nights in Hanoi. Unfortunately, the day we spent in Hanoi was a Monday and no museums are open on Monday. We spent the day walking around the outside of museums and taking pictures of them. Lucky for me the Temple of Literature was open and I was able to walk around there for a little while.
Early the next morning, we took a bus to Halong Bay. The islands and the water are absloutely beautiful. We went to some sub par caves (they were way too touristed and somewhat destroyed because of it) and then stayed on the boat for the rest of the day and night. We were able to see the most beautiful sunsets ever and then spent the night in the boat. All would have been good and well had our boat not drifted over the course of the night and crashed into another boat, waking everyone up at 12:30am (yes, I go to bed early now...) with the crunch of wood and then the blast of noise from the engine relocating the boat. Obviously, I did not get much sleep that night...
The next morning, we had an early breakfast (too early for only getting a few hours of sleep) and then set out explore Cat Ba island. This wasn't so exciting, but we did get to hang out with a nice Vietnamese family that gave us snacks of cucumbers and sticky rice wine. I think I had a little buzz from the glasses of wine ;) That stuff goes down easy and then kicks you in the ass. Later we went kayaking and saturated all of our clothes with salt water. All the activities from the day plus the lack of sleep from the night before equals early bedtime in the nicest place we have stayed in Southeast Asia.
We headed back to motorbike chaos of Hanoi the next day after a quick swim in the warm, crystal clear water of Halong Bay. Neither of us were really looking forward to hanging out in the crazy city so we decided to catch the overnight bus to Hue. BAD IDEA. This ride was the most uncomfortable bus ride I have taken thus far. Joe and I had to sit in a seat together... Joe doesn't fit in these seats. He's about twice the size of any Vietnamese man we have seen. This combined with the unsettling ride thanks to our crazy bus driver made for quite the memorable (not in a good way) trip.
We arrived 14 hours later in Hue and immediately set out on finding a place to eat and sleep. After this, showers were definitely in order and then we started our tourist activities. (As I said before, things are a little rushed due to lack of time.) We took the boat ride down the Perfume River and checked out one of the tombs from an ancient emperor and then the temple and pagoda. It was interesting but time consuming trip and we made it back to the Imperial city (a place I really wanted to see) about 15 minutes before it closed. Needless to say, we looked at it from the outside...
Again, from lack of sleep, Joe and I retired early. I almost fell asleep eating dinner at 6.
We are now in Hoi An. This city is a little bit of a relief from the rest of Vietnam we have experienced so far. The people here are a little more laid back and the city has a small percentage of the motorbikes that we have seen in the others. We even braved riding bicycles because it's not quite so scary. We walked around and checked out the city a little taking care of business for the rest of our trip in the meantime. I am having two dresses made at one of the hundreds of silk tailor shops here, which is why we are hanging out at an internet cafe instead of slugging down beers on the side of the river. They should be done soon for the first fitting really soon and being the girly girl I am sometimes, I'm super excited.
Hopefully, the rest of Vietnam is as it has been here in Hoi An because we are back to completely enjoying our trip again...
