Good Morning Vietnam!

So here we go again on the fun adventures of Korea :) Please, contain your excitement ;) Well, this past week has been rather exciting to say the least. It was Chuseok Mon-Wed, therefore we had a little vacation time...much needed. There was much fun that needed to be had. Enda and I took off to Vietnam on Saturday morning and were able to stay there until midnight on Wednesday...trying to enjoy the last possible second of our vacation away from Bupyeong. I'll begin the play by play of the journey...yay! :) If you get bored with reading the blog, you can at least look at the pictures and hopefully you can enjoy them :)

First and foremost, I have to say that Vietnamese children are extremely beautiful...gorgeous big eyes and wonderful smooth skin. Anyways, you will realize my infatuation with them as you go through this entry.

Vietnam is a very interesting country. It's a dream spot of backpackers...everything is extremely cheap! The food costs maybe $3 for a full meal...coke is about $0.45 for a bottle etc...I love it! Our hostel was about $5 for a night. amazing :)

When we first arrived, the myriad of motorcycles caught me of guard for sure! I was definitely scared to cross the street...I actually closed my eyes one time...just crossing my fingers that no one would hit me...crazy stuff for sure. Everyone has mopeds. They are rather cheap to buy...maybe $500 for an okay one (an imported one from Korea/Taiwan etc...might cost about a grand or so...) It was great to see parents waiting to pick up their children from school on the moped...lol ahh...good times.

So, we got there on Saturday and spent the day just wandering around Hanoi (the Old Quarter). We then took off early Sunday morning to Handspan. We planned to do a 3 day kayaking adventure...We took a 3-4 hour bus ride to Halong Bay which was enjoyable. It was great to get out of the city for sure! I really enjoyed this area. It hasn't been too built up with hotels or tourist attractions which I find rare nowadays. I kind of hope it stays this way for awhile...unfortunately we can already see some new places where hotels are going to be built.

There were only 8 of us on the tour which was nice. We got on a boat which was gorgeous and set out for Halong Bay by ship :) Yay! It was gorgeous weather as well so we were able to do a little sun bathing on the top of the boat. Halong Bay is has over 3,000 limestone karsts. I believe is was admitted as World's Natural Heritage by UNESCO and is on the nomination list for one of the new 7 Wonders...:) (TBD in 2008)

Anyways, it was gorgeous as you can see...we were able to go swimming during sunset...very surreal...nature is so breathtaking...

We spent the night on board and were planning on going kayaking all day Monday...well low and behold what gets in our way...oh yes...a typhoon...those darn typhoons...so we had to turn our boat around and head back to the bay...oi....a very sad day for me and the rest of the crew.
On the bright side though, we had an extra unplanned day and a half before us. We decided to take the overnight train to Sapa. It's about an 8 hour train ride...costing us a total of $6 each i believe...or something ridiculously cheap :) granted the toilets weren't the most wonderful experience to see but beggars can't be choosers! :)

Sapa was raining as well, but nonetheless it was gorgeous. Vietnam is such an agricultural society...the rice fields are breathtaking...the people are hard-working, laid back people that have the most winning smiles...honestly! When they flash their smiles it's hard to say no to them :) Here are some more pics from Sapa...

The women in the picture are obviously Sapa natives. I was trying on some traditional outfits (like they are wearing). They were giving me advice as to what other accessories I should wear with the garments. It was rather random. They just showed up at the door and were watching me try on an outfit. The little girl in front had great English and was my translator :) (I eventually did end up buying part of the outfit :)

I have a ton more pics but I'm currently rather computer illiterate, so if you are interested in seeing the rest of them, they are on my flickr account :)

Must hit the sack for the night...if any of you have a chance, I highly recommend visiting Vietnam... :)