Week 9

Week 9

Where We Went:  Hanoi + Cat Ba Island/Ha Long Bay

Funniest Thing We Did:  Uber couldn’t find us.  We finally found him and he yelled at us in Vietnamese and cancelled the ride.  The circumstances made it hilarious.  

Craziest Thing We Did:  Walk through traffic in Hanoi and try not to get hit by a car or one of the 4 million (actual fact) motorbikes in the city.

Best Thing We Did:  Our boat ride through Lan Ha/Ha Long Bay was beautiful.  We kayaked through caves that let out into beautiful, isolated lagoons, watched monkeys play and swam from the boat to secluded beaches.  Gorgeous!

Tastiest Thing We Did:  Bahn Mi sandwiches and Vietnamese coffee - basically espresso with condensed milk stirred in.  Yum!​

Dumbest Thing We Did:  Check in at an airbnb on the 5th floor of a building, in the excruciating heat, and carry our bags up there, only to find the the AC wasn’t enough to cool the room down so we ended up checking out and finding a hotel with an elevator.  Live and learn!

Coolest thing we Learned: The word “Ma” in Vietnamese means SIX different things when you apply each of the six different tones used in this “difficult to learn” language.  It means mother, ghost, tomb, horse, and a few others.

Biggest Surprise:  Roasted dog.

Other Updates:

• Rented our first motorbike and took a day trip to three beaches
• Got some really amazing views of the 2,000 plus islands in this bay
• SIM cards with 8.5 gigs cost only $4
• Got 4 Bahn Mi Sandwiches for $1 each
• Beer is $.67
• Uber rides are only a dollar
• Went to the prison where John McCain was held during the Vietnam War
• Adam got sick, Chelsea read 3 books