Hanoi and Ha Long Bay

Vietnam has been pretty awesome so far. It's a lot more inundated with foreigners than Malaysia which has been a double-edged sword. On one hand, I've met more people in just the few days I've been here versus the three weeks I was in Malaysia. The drawback however, is that the Vietnamese are quite organized is relieving foreign travelers of their money. It's also seems pretty difficult to travel independently. It takes a little creativity to stay off the tourist conveyer belt but I guess I should appreciate the ease of travel here.

It took me a few days of debating but I decided to take another organized tour; this time to Ha Long Bay. The weather has been bad and I've a lot of horror stories about the tour operators and mediocre reports about the experience in general so I was a little hesitant to not only commit my money but myself on a boat with strangers. Luckily, it was a really fun experience (I think we were pretty lucky with the tour operator).

On the first day, we got picked up at our hostel and began the long (and bumpy)  bus ride to Ha Long city. We had lunch on the boat while slowly cruising through the karst formations. We stopped at a cave named "Surprising Cave" and then a floating village to pick up kayaks. I totally blundered through that experience. First, I steered us into a boat full of Chinese tourists who began to chant "Reverse! Reverse!" and when we successfully did that we received a warm applause. Five minutes later, I unsuccessfully dodged a peddler's boat. She glared at me but immediately offered to sell me seashells. After my last collision into a rock we figured out how to control the kayak and explored the nearby islands.

Afterwards, it was plunge time. We climbed onto the edge of the boat and took about a 20 foot drop from the top of the boat to the water surface. Lots of fun!

The next morning, we were on Cat Ba island where we were unknowingly ascending a steep mountain. It's kind of amazing I didn't kill myself and more amazing at how skilled Vietnamese tourists are at trekking. I'm afraid of heights and unskilled at any form of outdoor activity so I think there were some narrow escapes. Of course, I was covered in mud and by the end but a lot of other people (especially Vietnamese tourists) made it out with barely a drop of sweat or flick of mud on them.