February 6, 2012

• Vietnam Part 3: The Road to Ha Long Bay.

  Early in the morning, we ventured out on the bus ride out to Ha Long Bay. The guide worked for my mom’s cousin’s son-in-law’s travel agency and chatted with us on the 3+ hour trip out to the bay.

  

  Every morning, we would eat breakfast in the small hotel dining room. They had pancakes, but they were a bit strange- a little more like a slightly sweet crepe rather than the fluffy America counterpart.

  

  The hotel’s pho was not bad, a decent broth though you generally don’t get as generous a serving of meat as you do out in the States- in this case it was a few thin slices of chicken.

  

  The power lines right outside our hotel. This is pretty much how the electrical lines are organized all over Vietnam. I would just give up if I were an electrician.

  

  On the way there and on the way back, the buses stopped at tourist traps to let the riders off for a break. These were mainly to let people off to use the restroom, but they usually contained silk or jade goods for sale, as well as fairly unappealing food and snacks.

  

  

  

  Oddly, one of my pet peeves is when people make that whole “asians eat dogs” joke. It’s really unfunny and the equivalent to, say, you having chickens in your yard and a black person comes over and you’re all, “HURR HURR YOU BETTER NOT FRY AND EAT IT.” I mean, seriously, if you’re going to be non-PC, at LEAST be clever about it. And yet, here we are- a restaurant that sells dog. It’s not even that common- you see it more in the countryside and I don’t remember seeing it in the city at all. My parents told me there’s an old saying in Vietnam that goes something like, “Cho di ra mien bac, heo di ra mien nam” which translates roughly into dogs get sent to the north, pigs get sent to the south.

  

  Like I had mentioned- houses get more floors added on top rather than expanded.

  

  Ron Swanson: “Encapsulate the spirit of melancholy. Easy. Boom, a sad desk. Boom, sad wall. It’s art. Anything is anything.”

  

  Anyway, back to the story. As we boarded the boats to the bay, it poured a freezing rain across the docks. We settled down into our boat.

  

  It’s actually kind of neat looking at out the sheer number of boats out here, like an old time armada.

  

  They started out serving a light meal on the boat on the way to Ha Long Bay. I’ll spare you the pictures and put them on facebook instead.

  

  

  The boat’s interior.

  

  Fortunately by the time we made it to the bay, the rain had cleared up and the formerly rough waves settled to much calmer waters in the bay.

  • 12:03 am
  • 4 Comments