The Many Adventures of Ashley Rae: And So It Begins: Vietnam

After a one day delay, the month long adventure through Southeast Asia began in Vietnam. After spending the last 3 days in Haoi we are getting ready to depart for Cambodia via Ho Chi Minh City. I'm not gonna lie, I have absolutely loved every single second of my time in Hanoi...except maybe the 2+ hours it took to get through immigration and customs.

The hostel we are staying at, Central Backpackers Hostel, is incredibly awesome. It is extremely budget friendly but not a stinkhole either. For 5 bucks a night I've had a comfortable bed to sleep in, a hot shower, free beer, and a very accomodating staff taking care of me. We are right in the heart of everything that is great about Hanoi. The Old French Quarter is only a couple blocks away as is Hoan Kiem Lake.

One major positive of Vietnam is everything is SOO CHEAP! I don't think I ever spent more than $3 for a meal, $2 for a beer, or $5 for an activity. I really don't understand how everything back home is so expensive. I swear, I can live for a year in Asia for the same cost of living at home for a month. And I can probably live just as comfortably and healthier here also. That is what I call "winning".

So I'm going to give a hole lump sum of my time in Hanoi in this one post.

The first day we got here around noon. We checked into the hostel and relaxed for a couple hours because it had been a long night of traveling and airports and we both needed a rest. We then took off to find the lake but went the wrong way and got a little lost. We did find a lake (the wrong one, and much smaller) and eventually we figured our way back to the right area and to the actual Hoan Kiem Lake. Another great thing about Hanoi is that there are cafes on practically every corner. Every couple hours we would stop somewhere to get a snack, smoothie, or coffee. Vietnamese iced coffee is one of the most delicious things I have ever had. There is also a super yummy dipping sauce that is served with most meals that is to die for. I have also had some pretty good smoothies too. Man, I love this city for the smoothies alone. We went out for dinner that first night with a girl staying in our dorm room. We found a street stall serving pho and it was pretty tasty. That's another great thing about traveling...there are people from all over the world here and really, everyone just becomes your friend. You can strike up a conversation with someone and sit there for 2 hours talking and at the end of it realize you might not know that person's name, but you know their story. It's been great.

The second day we had a bit of a history day. We went to the Hoa Lo Prison (also known as the "Hanoi Hilton"). It was used first for Vietnamese prisoners who were against French colonization and then for US pilots that were captured during the Vietnamese war. It was quite eye opening for me as an American to see a different perspective on the war in Vietnam. There are so many things that I never learned in school that was talked about at the prison turned museum. It was also a rather somber event seeing how the Vietnamese revolutionaries were treated in the prison. The museum had a section all about the US pilots who were kept there. They had some items that belonged to John McCain as well as other POWs. That was pretty cool to see. We also went to the Vietnam History Museum. While that was also cool, it was also kind of a bust. Most of the exhibits were all pretty ancient stuff and there wasn't any modern history information. There was however a very cool exhibit all about lamps. That may sound weird, but there were some very intricate and beautifully made lamps. I've also always been fond of seeing all of the carving works. Whether its wood or stone, some of these works are just jaw-dropping. The minute detail put into these pieces of art are stunning.

In the evening, we went to a Water Puppet Show. These are very popular in Hanoi as they are an ancient art form of entertainment. The show is so cool. I don't know how they manage to move these marionette type puppets under water, but they do. And the music was also very beautiful. It all just felt very authentic. One very nice thing about Hanoi compared to my time in Guiyang is that there is so much English here. While watching the show, they had subtitles in English so I actually knew what was going on and what the significance was behind the different performances of the puppets.

Thursday was definitely my favorite day in Hanoi. We went out to Halong Bay to celebrate Amber's birthday. The bay was simply stunning. After a 3 hour bus ride through rain, we arrived at the coast to mostly clear skies and sunshine. The tour included a boat ride around the bay (which included a very delicious lunch!), kayaking in the bay for a short while, a tour through two different caves that are in the bay, and basically a lot of time soaking up the sun. We spent most of the day with a group of Irish folks who were part of our tour. There were also a few people from Australia and New Zealand. The day turned out to be so beautiful and the sights were just great. It was exactly what this California/beach deprived girl needed. Though we didn't get time to swim or spend much time in the water, it was great to just see the ocean. When we got dropped off at our hostel after the tour, we discovered we were actually dropped off at our hostel. So we wandered around lost for a little while when we stumbled upon the Bubble Bar. We would have walked right on past if it weren't for the beautiful sign saying "America Day: Free Beer 8-10" so of course we had to do our patriotic duty and celebrate America Day with a free Biere Larue beer (ps, its super good beer if you haven't had it). We then had some delicious pho for dinner with a guy from Florida that we met. All-in-all, it was a successful 4th of July.

Now today we are preparing to leave Hanoi and head down south to HCMC. It will only be a short stopover in Vietnam's largest city as tomorrow morning we are making our way into Cambodia. Though my time in Vietnam has been brief, it has definitely been great. I can't wait until I have the opportunity to come back and stay for longer. I also really want an opportunity to see more of Vietnam. It has been a great place with wonderful, friendly people, delicious food and drinks, and just greatness all around.