The second day we headed east to the UNESCO site Ha Long Bay on a really comfortable sleeper bus, the easiest four hours we've (Ben) had on public transportation. It was a bit unclear as to where we were supposed to get off the bus, aided by the helpful suggestion of manager of the Blue Hanoi Inn hotel who said "don't worry about it" in a serious, not at all rude manner when we asked where exactly it takes us. It wasn't the answer we were looking for, but we are always down for an adventure, so we went along with it.
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Upon arrival at said destination, we were instructed to depart the bus. There didn't appear to be any rhyme or reason why it was only the two of who were directed off, nor did there appear to be any bus stop in the vicinity, so Nadine made quite a stink with the bus driver and the assistant. Of course they don't speak a lick of English, so communication was lost. Taxi drivers were salivating at the two white folks about to depart, so we were hesitant to get assuming, it was another tourist set up where the bus driver calls ahead and tells his taxi buddies that he will drop off two whiteys in the middle of nowhere, who are now forced to employ the services of overpriced taxis. Fortunately for us, we are somewhat street smart and found a local bus to take us the rest of the way.
Finally we found ourselves in the middle of the modern city of Ha Long City. We hadn't booked a hotel in advance because the online sites didn't offer too many promising places, so we walked through the town, stopped for some lunch, and began our quest for a bed and a roof. Our first stop was The Confetti Hotel, which had decent reviews, as well as sharing a name with the Bialostozky changarro- mom and pop store. Productos Confetti
We arrived there and the sound of construction coming from right next door was unbarable. We decided to walk the streets of Ha Long hoping to get lucky, and we did! We found a nice boutique hotel, Draha Halong Hotel.
Next to the hotel we walked to Poem Mountain, which by all internet accounts had the most beautiful view in the area. Unfortunately, tourists are no longer allowed to climb the mountain for safety reason. Instead of giving up we decided to go around and try to get up another way, to no avail, but we did end up at the local fish market.
In Ha Long Bay, most tourists book 2 or 3 day cruises for several hundreds of dollars to maneuver through the 1,600 islands in the area. For us, we decided against it for several reasons. #1 - In the next two months, we will be visiting the Thai beaches and the 7,641 islands of the Philippines #2 - We are going on two cruises in the next two months #3 - We can stretch our money more than an overpriced boat ride. For example, our cruise in two weeks from now is 6 day/6 night trip for $299 per person (inside cabin). The Ha Long Bay cruises cost more than that for only 1 night, two days. We choose the later. Instead, we found a local fisherwoman to take us on a brief 30 minute ride in her paddle boat for 100,000 Dong, roughly $4. Not quite as luxurious or glamorous, but we had fun.
We used our handy Google Translate translate app to ask the lady about her family and the people that live on the banks of the islands of Ha Long Bay. We learned a new word "đẹp" meaning beautiful. We also learned the lady had four boys and one girl, or maybe not. No way of really knowing. We put on some traditional Vietnamese music on Spotify and settled in the for budget tour.
We ended the evening at a local Vietnamese restaurant, Tomboss's Quán 51 Lê Thánh Tông, we ordered Nem Lui, a dish made from finely ground beef and pork, plus shredded pork skin, fat, garlic, sugar and fish sauce which are shaped into sausages around stalks of lemon grass, grilled over charcoal until its flavors spread all over. To eat Nem Lui, you need rice paper to put the Nem Lui in, then add a slice of pineapple, cucumber, carrot, cold rice vermicelli and herb. The rice paper wraps around the ingredients and dipped into special sauce made from peanuts, butter, sesame, shrimp paste, and shallots. It was spicy yet satisfying.
The next morning we had the hotel breakfast, Vietnamese Noodles!! Noodles for breakfast! Madness!
Via the Grab app we hailed a cabbie who was somewhat technologically advanced. He connected the Google Translate app to his car and was communicating with us through it.
The conversation began harmless enough, inquiring innocuously about our origins and calling America a "free and economically safe" country. We knew his niceties would come to end soon though. As with everyone in Southeast Asia, we could feel the sales pitch coming. A translation error resulted in him asking if he wanted to go to the side of the road..!!
He followed up with questions about whether we had toured the city, where on the beach we were going, and if we wanted to hire him to personally drive us all the way to Hanoi, at a mere cost of 5x that of the bus. We can't blame him, or anyone else really, for trying to offer us a service, but we can do with the fake politeness.
Our destination was the beach, and no persuasion could move us off this. We ended up on a secluded beach with a Dep view of the Ha Long Bay.
After a few hours of beachING and tanning we walked to the nearest town and boarded a bus back to Hanoi.
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