Hanoi and Halong Bay

Hanoi has been a lot of fun. I spent new years here and regrouped up with a lot of the gang from Nha Trang as well. The city is much more interesting that HCMC in my opinion. I feel like there is so much more organization and character to it. The old quarter is sectioned off almost perfectly by streets with certain streets housing certain types of vendors. See the photos below and you'll see what I mean.

http://picasaweb.google.com/spencerlane/HanoiHalongBay?feat=directlink

There is a street/district for everything you could think of. Even Karaoke bars, which there will never be any shortage of...I met up with Jason Tobin, a friend and expat from Cambridge and he showed me some good local food places. We had some Bun Cha - which is a soup (fish sauce and water with sliced apples, cucumbers, pears, pho, and grilled pork. THis is topped with fresh herbs and lettuce that clearly tastes as though it was picked that day. The specific spot we stopped at, the lady working there has been cooking on that corner for over 55 years. Now that is some serious consistency - her daughter now helps her.

For dinner, Jason and I went to his favorite Cha Ca - cooked whitefish- spot in town. This again, was an amazing meal consisting of pho noodles peanuts, and curried whitefish cooked in front of us with fresh greens on top. I';m salivating now thinking about it...After we hit a few bars, he pulled out another winner with some Banh My! THis is some grilled chicken in a baguette with pate and butter. The perfect drunken munchie food. Also, a good skill that i brought to S.E. Asia - pool. THe vietnamese love their pool tables and it has been quite enjoyable getting some good competition. The same goes for ping pong and fooseball. Thanks again goes right back to Pine Crest Boys dorm for all of the countless ours of playing these games rather than studying :)

After New years, Adam and I decided we wanted to take a trip to Halong Bay. We did the 3 day tour with a stay on a legit "Junk" and a night on a private island. The group was about 25 and we all had a great time. Activities included rock climbing, wakeboarding, kayaking, volleyball, ping pong, and of course drinking. My contribution to the party was introducing everyone to the wonderful game of beer pong. THe aussi's and Kiwi's loved it! I can now tell their accents apart!

We Kayaked into caves, climbed through caves, visited floating villages, and slept in little wall-less bungalows. I;m still amazed that mosquitos haven't zero'd in on the location of these islands as it seems like it would be one of those places where the beauty of a place could be ruined by the bugs, but there were no bugs at all!

The food was awesome and the coffee sweet, but strong. We headed back on the 3rd day and got back to Hanoi at 5pm just in time for me to buy a ticket to Laos. I head there tomorrow!