Hanoi - the Halong bay trip

Laos had been amazing, I literally couldn't have asked for a better month of my life, the fun, the people and the weather made it a really cool experience and every time I think of Laos or someone asks me what it was like I still get butterflies and all giddy about it.So I left sunny Laos, hopped on a plane and flew into Hanoi (Northern Vietnam), I didn't know much about Vietnam but I honestly didn't expect my first experience there to be so different from what I had experienced everywhere else.The main issue I had was the weather, I rocked up presuming as it was neighbors with the boiling hot countries of Cambodia and Laos that Vietnam would be no different, I came off the plane in my denim mini skirt, tank top and flip flops to find myself in a climate close to home if not worse! It was 10 degrees and pouring down with rain, everyone in the airport was in full coats, hats and shoes - I looked like a right fool! By the time I got to my hostel I was shaking and desperately trying to tug my hoody out of my jam packed back pack, that's when I met two girls who would later become very good friends of mine, the delightful Canadian duo that is Hannah and Amber, who welcomed me in with Hannah saying "oh you're the girl from our plane, I remember thinking that you were either brave, stupid or both" (confused face from me) "you know? Because of your outfit!" ah how sweet.Anyway we spent that night mainly in the hostel keeping warm, however we did pop out to get dinner, which came in the form of one of my fave Asian dishes so far - Pho (pronounced fuh I think?) it's basically noodle and beef soup which comes with a plate of dressing such as coriander, hoi sin sauce and bean sprouts which you throw in until you get the soup just how you like it - and I LOVED IT! I became obsessed with it in the end eating at least one bowl a day if not more! Cheap, easy to find everywhere in Vietnam and really delicious.

Day 2 In Hanoi was spent having a look around the city, it was raining and cold but me and my new friends refused to let it keep us in doors so we donned our warmest clothes consisting of basically everything long in our bags, bought rain coats which made us look like giant condoms and off we went.I like Hanoi, in the rain its quite European (I later found out that in the sun its extremely Vietnamese, its weird how weather can change a place so much), but a lot of the time its hard to enjoy it because of the amount of near death experiences your having, that's right within my first 24 hours I had witnessed the famous Vietnamese roads, known for its lack of pedestrian crossings and therefore its high volumes of tourists white in the face and shaking from trying to cross in amongst maniac drivers.At one point during our road crossing experiences Ambers nerves gave way and in a small state of panic she froze in the middle of the road and just screamed at all the bikes coming at her, I had to dodge my way back and then drag her to safety.
Apart from seeing the turtles in the lake and wondering around the city we did tick off one of the must do's in Hanoi, we went to see the Water Puppet show! Its known as a long standing Vietnamese cultural tradition and although it began with local people entertaining each other in the rice fields the Vietnamese aren't barmy enough to make tourists wade through the rice fields to witness it, oh no there is a theatre (saying that the seats are made for tiny Asian people and even I had to wedge myself in with my knees to one side just to fit).The water puppets were interesting to say the least, its kind of erm well its - it's just weird basically, nothing is in English but you can follow the narrative of most of the scenes, my fave was two puppet cows having an argument - me and Amber sat there pretending to be interpreters for this particular scene, I'm guessing from the Asian people around me's disapproving looks that our version of the scenario wasn't quite spot on but never the less we had fun.
At the end of the day its puppets dancing in water?!And it was oddly enjoyable.
The rest of our evening was spent hunting for an Irish pub as it was St Paddy's day, it ended with me and the girls dancing and rapping to beyonce in a shop whilst buying beers to go and drink back at the hostel - how rock n roll are we?!

The following day we were up and out early as it was the first of our 3 day Halong Bay tour - I was really kind of excited as I have seen pics of Halong Bay and I really wanted to see if it's as beautiful as the pictures make it out to be? It is! Believe me even in the rain it was beautiful, after a short 4 hour bus me, Hannah, Amber and about 15 other people hopped onto our boat which would not only be our transport for the day but also our hotel for the evening. The boat sailed right into the middle of Halong Bay, straight through the giant limestone rocks which jut out of the water which are covered in a beautiful green moss making it look quite fairy tale like and a lot less menacing.After a spot of lunch and a mingle with our fellow guests we hopped off the boat and headed for a cave which was beautiful inside, the limestone has eroded away to form caverns all connected by walkways and then it has started to rebuild again by forming stalagmite and stalactites, our really funny tour guide pointed out some of the formations which he believed looked like certain images such as elephants, a bride and groom (my fave as it looked like the couple from Tim Burtons The Corpse Bride) and the most popular formation which looked like an erect penis - beautiful lol. After our cave experience it was time for some light exercise as in the 12 degree weather we all stripped down to shorts and t-shirt and jumped into kayaks to have a paddle around the floating villiages.I shared my Kayak with Amber and we paddled off to check out the local store (a woman in a boat displaying lots of biscuits and crisps) the atm (a man sat in a hut that's floating in the the middle of the bay) and said hello to the locals who were thrilled we had learnt the lingo and happily said hello back from their floating houses.We got back on the boat quite cold and wet but still happy and it was announced that some crazy woman had asked if she could jump off of the roof of the boat? The captain said yes and so she asked if anyone would like to join her - who on earth would jump off of the roof into freezing cold water? I WOULD! It was a brilliant adrenaline rush as I plunged into the icey water and made my hot shower later all the more satisfying.

That night, me and the girls made friends with a brother and sister who were on the boat - they are both incredibly different and from what they mentioned gave me the impression that they are from that rare kind of amazing family where each child has a different and yet equally amazing talent, Henry was going to Stanford university but had spent a lot of time volunteering in Africa (he was only 19) and his sister was studying art history at NYC.All 5 of us spent the evening playing cards and drinking on the boat well into the night until it was time for us to go to bed.The following day we said goodbye to half of the group who were doing the short tour (this included our new sibling friends) and we headed to Monkey island for the rest of the day but first we had activity hour.Yes that's right in our ali baba trousers and 10 million layers of t-shirts, tank tops and hoodies making us look like the michalin man me and the girls headed out on the oldest mountain bikes ever, mine hade no breaks and made a very eerie yet annoying squeeking noise scaring off all wild life within a 10 kilometer radius, ambers bike kept randomly changing gear especially when going up or down hills and Hannah ended up pushing her part of the way because she swore it wasn't going straight but oddly veering off into the hedges every time she tried to catch up with the group.We cycled to a mountain and went inside to see a weird relic from the war in the form of the remnants of a hospital built to house injured soldiers, we walked around using torches to see where we were going whilst I freaked out Hannah telling her blair witch style stories.Luckily as we were leaving the mountain the sun broke through the clouds and me and the girls starting jumping up and down clapping, everyone thought we were still drunk, we were just happy that our afternoon on the island would be bathed in sun - perfect weather to sleep off our hangovers on the beach J We also made a visit to the monkey part of monkey island which involved a climb up the rocky side of the mountain and down onto the beach on the other side - this meant a lot of cuts and bruises and many many grazed knees.The island was beautiful and made all the more special due to the fact we had it all to ourselves.That night was karaoke night, there was about 12 of us staying at the resort, 5 of us did karaoke and 3 were me, Amber and Hannah - we were basically singing to ourselves! We had a great PG night of fun though, a highlight being when the 3 of us got up and showed everyone how its done by singing Dancing Queen as well as doing a full made up on the spot dance routine - we flowed enthusiasm and got everyone (the other 2 people plus 2 members of staff) dancing.

Day 3 and we went back to the boat in Halong Bay for another look around and a spot of lunch before we headed back to Hanoi where the sun was now out and the city was buzzing with people, the street sellers were out, there were locals eating pho on little stools in the street and I was lapping it all up.I liked Hanoi, it was busy but what city isn't? I cant really explain what I liked about it as nothing really stands out as being special I guess but it just has a feel about it that appealed to me.

Hanoi and Halong bay were a great little introduction to Vietnam I learnt some history, ate some Pho and got to see the city at its best and worst …. I also witnessed the weird little water puppets.The best part of it though was meeting Hannah and Amber, crap weather could have ruined my time in Hanoi but their funny ways brought me through it and I loved every minute - I was really pleased when after the briefest conversation it was decided that I would travel a bit longer with them and we would head down the coast together.Our first Vietnamese sleeper bus lay ahead and so did stop number 2 which was Hue.