MDubs' Summer of Travel: Cảm ơn, from the North

I'd like to start this post by thanking all of our friends who recommended we visit the northern region of Vietnam, because it's been spectacular. One thing we can't get over, though, is that Hanoi is considered the more laid back and slower city in Vietnam. This is crazy because there's nothing slow paced about this place!! It feels very much like New York City, but with less tourists and more locals. There are probably more "motorini" on one block than in all of Rome combined (a slight exaggeration, but not by much). And the sidewalks are more crowded than In & Out at lunch time. Still, it's awesome.

On Friday night, we went out in the "Bia Hoi" district, aka the neighborhood with the cheapest beer in the world. Imagine this: a street lined with small restaurants or food stations, with all of the patrons sitting in front on tiny stools. The streets are lined with rows and rows of these stools, and people sitting in them. Oh, and the beer is all less than 20,000 dong or 1 US Dollar (some as cheap as fifteen cents). At a couple different points in the night, a police truck came around, and all of the shop owners frantically started putting away some of the empty stools to clear the streets. Many of the locals knew the drill and stood up, to make it seem like they just happened to be standing around, not loitering in the middle of the street drinking beer. It was complete chaos, and extremely entertaining to watch.

Matt enjoying his Bia!

Tiny stools are perfect for little legs :)

Saturday, we did our best to fit in with the locals. We stumbled into a few coffee shops, one of them being a "secret cafe" that Matt found on Foursquare. I have no idea how he found it in real life, because the front looked like one of the many street vendors selling bags and clothing. He confidentially walked passed all of the items, down a narrow alley, and proceeded to climb the stairs in the back. I reluctantly followed, pretty sure that we were about to enter someone's house, or maybe worse. But sure enough, after a few flights of stairs, we walked into this run down room serving freshly brewed Vietnamese coffee! The room overlooked Hoan Kiem lake, so it was definitely a great find.

We explored the crowded streets a bit more, stopped for some pho chin (well done beef brisket pho), and then ended up at a beer garden by the lake to play cards while the sun set. (Note: this was attempt number two at playing cards. We tried playing earlier at Cong Cåphē but they told us we had to stop, and showed us the page in their menu which had pictures, crossed out in red, of people with weapons, pot, heroin and playing cards. Our bad.) While enjoying the views of the lake at dusk, we were approached by two 11-year-old locals, (ironically) named Tony & Tiger, who spent the next 15 minutes practicing their English by chatting with us. After the first 30 seconds, we knew they were in no way trying to scam us, and enjoyed exchanging funny stories with these very smart, entertaining kiddos.

The restaurant we were planning to eat dinner at was more expensive than we thought ($10 a person!! No thanks.) so guess where we ate?! Another pho place :) Actually, Matt was feeling a little pho'd out, so he had Bún bò Nam bô, while I happily enjoyed my fourth bowl of pho in 48 hours. We ended our night at The Rooftop, a bar/night club on the 19th floor with incredible views of the city. The DJ was pretty bomb too, so we're thinking about going back again before we leave.

Coconut ca phe, and our first attempt to play cards, at Cong Caphe

The "secret cafe" Matt found

St. Joseph's Cathedral, right next to where we're staying

Beer & springrolls with a Hoan Kiem view!

The Rooftop, 19th Floor overlooking all of Hanoi

Yesterday, we hopped on a bus to begin our overnight stay at Halong Bay. After a 3 hour ride, we, along with 20 other travelers from around the world, arrived on our small but quaint cruise ship. They served us lunch on the boat and we got to know our new, temporary neighbors: a sweet, newly married couple from Indonesia, two high school grads from Germany, five friends from Hong Kong, and 4 other couples from Belgium, France, Montreal and Chicago. Almost everyone had been traveling for at least a month, with the Chicago couple approaching their 11th month on the road. Maybe we'll stay abroad a bit longer? ;)

Our boat slowly made it into the heart of the Bay, and even though it was overcast, we were still able to enjoy the beauty of the 2000+ islands and caves. We disembarked to go kayaking and discovered that all the rowing Matt did Freshman year paid off--he's quite the kayaker! I, on the other hand, should have just stuck with being the coxswain because as soon as I took control of paddling, I rowed us onto a rock. Whoops! Luckily, our new friends from France bailed us out.

After kayaking, we took a tour through one of the caves, which may have been my favorite thing we've done the whole trip. Straight out of an episode from The Bachelorette (happy MTA Monday, Bachelor Nation!), this old, picturesque cave was lit up with a variety of colors, intricate detail, and offered great views of the Bay the more we ascended. Once we made it all the way back down, our tour guide, Thinh, took us to the beach where we spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and playing volleyball. Turns out the Californians were the best at both activities (okay, maybe only one of the Californians excelled at Volleyball...).

Back on the boat, we had dinner and took turns squid fishing. Or at least we tried to, unsuccessfully. Apparently, squid are more sneaky than even the other fish. We had a good night sleep in our little cabin, and woke up this morning to take a tour of an Oyster Farm. Who knew Vietnam was one of the leading pearl manufacturers in the world?! Back on our boat, we learned how to make Vietnamese spring rolls, and both earned an A+ from Thinh, who asked us to open a restaurant back in California so he could come visit and eat for free :) We taught some of our new friends how to play gin rummy, and learned how to play a German card game called something very inappropriate in English (ask me later if you're interested).

We're on our way back to Hanoi now, and will spend one more evening in that busy little city that never sleeps before departing to Bangkok tomorrow morning! Cam o'n for the fun, Vietnam!