Ethereal landscapes

Want to travel to someplace magical? Somewhere that feels like it belongs in The Lord of the Rings? Where Pan and Kong were filmed in misty waters? Seriously, Ha Long Bay is a true wonder of the world.

On the recommendation of a friend, Laura Bee, we booked two nights on the Treasure Junk to visit the bay. The ship turned out to be quite luxurious, and I even splurged on a suite with a private balcony. For three days, we dined on multiple courses of seafood and deliciously prepared Vietnamese dishes. We toured through a small fishing community, a fishing village that produces beautiful pearls, and a cave formed inside of limestone mountains. We kayaked through the calm waters to isolated beaches covered in untouched sands and shells.

Describing Ha Long Bay is difficult for me because I really felt that the place was buzzing with something magical. Mornings and evenings on the bay are misty and mysterious, with the mountains showing themselves as hazy forms into the horizon. We experienced (what we were told were rare) sunny days, making the kayaking trips feel refreshing as we soaked up the sun while winding around the unreal-feeling limestone protrusions. The foliage growing from these mountains were lush and exotic, all green with the occasional red leafed tree.

A new friend

I had read that Vietnam did not have a friendly culture, but that was not my experience. While not always smiley on the streets, all of the people at restaurants, shops, and our hotel were surprisingly helpful and kind to us bumbling tourists. Instead of giving a play by play of our two last days in Hanoi, I'll just let you look at some of the pictures and provide highlights of our interactions.

Riding the elevator down from our hotel room, two of the cleaning staff walked in with me. Everything in Hanoi is fast, except for the elevators. I smiled at the women as they looked shyly at me and then one woman beamed back, gesturing at my face and saying, “So beautiful, so tall.” I couldn’t help it, I chuckled and blushed. At five-foot-three, no one has ever told me I’m tall, but being a head and shoulders taller than most women here, I am a bit of giant.

In a different hotel staff related event, Donavan and I made a friend. Calling himself Leo, the young man from the front desk was friendly with us from day one. Making little jokes and teaching us phrases that we couldn’t pronounce properly for our lives. On our last night in Hanoi, he asked if we wanted to join him for a beer, which we agreed to of course; you don’t say “no” on vacation. He led us through the maze of streets to a small bar with metal tables and the usual rickety chairs. Lo and behold, he had brought us to drink the fresh beer that we had searched for vainly on a previous night. We chatted over the glasses of light beer and small cured meat rolls wrapped in leaves. He told us about his girlfriend and his plans to own a restaurant; we encouraged him. We told him about our assorted cats; we all laughed.

I asked him if his real name was Leo and he told me that it was actually Hung, but he calls himself Leo because it is astrology sign. We told Hung to visit us in the US, so maybe we can someday take a similar boozy picture at a hipster bar in Portland.

I met more cats and asked them to pose for a photo. I'll leave these right here.

A marathon of eating for $20

Our first full day in Hanoi was a heaping main course of foodie heaven, with sides of tourism and custom suiting.

We started our day with a complimentary breakfast of fresh fruit and beef pho soup with all of the fixings. This hotel has really nailed personalization in a way that impressed the marketer in me—even our plate said good morning to each of us by name. Donavan learned a valuable lesson from this breakfast that he would like to share—don’t touch hot peppers with your fingers and then pee. Apparently, he had an uncomfortable morning due to this slight misstep.

Once recovered, we headed out, but didn’t make it far before a small restaurant front where a woman was frying something delicious smelling wrapped in rice paper beckoned us. We ordered two of these spring roll looking items and were brought a mound of fresh herbs and lettuce, and a bowl of vinegary dipping sauce. This excellent discovery cost us about $4.

We rounded the corner to find the tailoring district and when I saw a front that had dresses I liked, popped in to get some pricing. The fabrics and the prices were right, so I picked out a charcoal cashmere and sent the store owner pictures of my desired suit from Pinterest using What’s App. I knew those hours of pinning on my style boards would pay off eventually. Donavan, not about to be left out, also got measured for a suit and dress shirts.

Since it had been at least an hour since our last meal, we headed back to a restaurant that we had been eying next to our hotel for a noodle dish with peanuts, beef, all laid in a flavorful broth. Bun bo nam bo—seriously my favorite dish so far, just thinking about how close it is to my hotel room makes me what to head down there right now. Honestly, this dish was life changing. Salty, a little sweet, with crunch from the peanut and fat from the beef, the perfect blend of everything I want in a savory dish. Two dishes of this, a water and beer came to $6; this is what we came here for.

As we pushed off, terribly satisfied and with no specific direction, we came across the second cat of the trip, the tiniest seal point kitten. While I was entranced, Donavan was bullied into buying donuts from a street vendor. He tried to buy just $1 worth and she pointed to his pocket, indicating that he needed to pull out some more money, so he bought 6 donuts for $2. This was quickly followed with a sandwich filled with grilled pork and chili sauce for another $1.

Comfortably full, we figured that we should walk off some of what we had been ingesting by doing some true tourist sightseeing. We grabbed a taxi and wandered around a couple of pagodas, a lake, and Ho Chi Minh’s palace and grounds.

For our last meal of the day, we found a dish that looked like tacos filled with bean sprouts, meat, and shrimp. Copying the locals, we rolled the herbs and fried goodness in rice paper, dipped them in a watery sauce, and crunched away. Our most expensive meal of the day, we paid $7 for this feast. These were a little on the heavy side, and our feet were hurting, so we headed back to the hotel.

Our full stomachs, plus our tired feet and some remaining jet-lag were the undoing of our plans to go see a night market. Instead we passed out in a full food oblivion.

A venture into Vietnam (and personal blog writing)

Once again Donavan and I have left the cat-infested comfort of our North Portland home for a curiosity voyage. Vietnam has lured us with the promise of beautiful landscapes, cities packed with interesting goods and people, and most of all, cheap and exotic foods. With only a flight into Hanoi, two nights at a hotel booked, and a flight out of Ho Chi Min City, we have the freedom to venture from the top of the country to the bottom in whatever pattern we desire over the next 15 days. The planning side of me is nervous, but the adventurous side couldn’t be more stoked!

This is not the first trip that we have taken where we blindly fly into a foreign city with only a few ideas about where we will end up, but it is the first that I am digitally documenting. Writing about my own experiences is not something that I am particularly deft at yet, but I have written so many articles professionally, that I’m hoping one about my own wanderings and musings will be well received.

I write to you comfortable and well-rested from our hotel room in the old quarter of Hanoi. The prior 48 hours were an exhausting blur of uncomfortable plane seats and rushing through airports, which left me delirious until we finally got a proper night of sleep last night. Even in my stupor, we were still able to venture out yesterday to try a fishy, salty bowl of noodles with crab and shrimp, and walk to a temple in the middle of a lake with lights that blinked on as the sun started to set, magically lighting up the incense smoke wafting throughout.

I’m not sure how we survived not being hit as we crossed the streets; while I had read that the city streets are bustling with scooters with no rules governing right-of-way, the actual experience of walking into a street brazenly hoping that no one will hit you is another thing.

Also, I saw my first Vietnamese cat of the trip.