Vietnam: Part Two

The next am we headed off to Hoi An on a big tourist jammed bus. We have been trying to avoid these on all costs but it was only a 45 minute ride and was a third of the cost of taking a private car or taxi. We immediately loved Hoi An and found it to be very similar to our favourite town in Bali-Ubud. It was quite touristy but being the only non-vietnamese for over a week and therefore quite the spectical, we welcomed other foreigners. The town is in  between the ocean and a big river and is quite beautiful! At night the restaurants and stores light up along the river and there are hundreds of lanterns everywhere-prettiest town at night that we had been to! Such a quaint and cute feeling about this town-we knew we were going to enjoy this! Hoi An is also known for their hundreds of tailoring shops where you can design and make clothes for extremely affordable prices! We didn't initially think we were going to take advantage of this offer but decided that we couldn't pass it up! Soooo, we ended up having numerous custom made items that we shipped home: two winter coats (pea-coats), two linen pants for me, a suit for Jordan and a dress for me! We stocked up! :) The tailors made these items incredibly fast with the coats being made in roughly 10 hours and my dress being made in 4 (from concept to delivery). 

We also rented a couple of bikes and toured around the town, biking out to the beach and around the enormous rice paddies. The afternoon was spent wandering around all the shops and fruit markets and also taking a little scoot up the river in a rickety old boat paddled by a very old but happy Vietnamese woman! It was a great experience and we were able to get some  great shots of the town from the river. The next day we rented a motorbike (best way to travel!) and headed to My Son (produced me-sun)- a collection of temples and ruins. Quite interesting and very very old. The bike ride there and back was around 1.5 hours and we had a blast! On the way to My Son we noticed that a man had fallen off his bike on a pathway between rice paddies. He was lying on his back with his head down the hill. We stopped the bike and ran over to help him. At first I thought maybe he had had a heart attack but once we got there, I realized right away that the guy was just wasted! He had done a backwards somersault into the rice paddy and was completely covered in mud. He couldn't stand up by himself so Jordan grabbed his hand and literally hauled him up the hill. We think he was just the local drunk because a couple of people poked their  heads down the lane way but didn't do anything. We decided to just let him stumble his way back to his place while leaving the bike where it was. Needless to say we had quite the laugh after and were just happy the guy was ok!

After spending our last night in Hoi An we took a minibus to the Danang Airport and flew to northern Vietnam to a place called Hanoi. After our flight and checking into our hotel we decided to do some bargain hunting for a boat cruise through Halong Bay which is roughly a five hour bus ride from Hanoi. After going to tens of shops/hotels and trying to get the best deal possible, we settled on a three day/two night cruise on the Dragon Cruise boat for roughly $125 each. This was the most expensive side trip we had done but after lots of research and recommendations to not skimp out (what you pay for is what you get), we left around 7 am the next morning. We were on our boat just after 1pm  and enjoying a delicious seafood lunch while cruising through Halong Bay. Our room was surprisingly beautiful (we were not used to having the actual product look just like it did in the pictures!!). We had a queen size bed with a beautiful view out onto the bay with tens of little islands surrounding-absolutely stunning. There were roughly 18 of us on the boat but we had sat at the table seating six and ended up making some friends with young Australian honeymooners and another couple for England and Wales. The Aussies were around the age of my sister and her husband and we got on so well. They reminded us so much of Sar and Rob that I actually got a little bit homesick (and homesick for Australia too!!). 

After lunch we hopped into the small passenger boat that we had been hauling with us and headed over to Ti-Top island to climb the mountain to see the beautiful view of Halong Bay. The hike was chalkas- filled with so so many tourists but the view at the top, and the pictures we got, were so worth it. After Ti-Top we headed to a cave (either Amazing cave or Spectacular cave...I forget the name). Wowza. This cave was MASSIVE! It was also filled to the brim with tourists...I mean lineups to get through this thing. The amount of people actually ruined the experience for me but nevertheless, it was still an amazing cave to see. After the cave we headed to a little spot where you could kayak if you wanted to around this little island (while dodging all of the passenger boats). We and a few others (including the Aussies) decided to skip it as the next day was a full day of kayaking and it was also freezing cold!). Instead, a woman in a fishing boat was selling cold drinks and so we all ended up buying a couple of beers each. The cruise that we were on was charging absurd prices for drinks so we decided to take advantage. We also had bought a $2 bottle of vodka before we left (which surprisingly was very good....it had been a while since I had vodka-bad past experiences if ya know what I mean)! Anywho, after a delicious seafood buffet the six of us headed to the roof and started dipping into the drinks that we had bought onshore. We bought mixer (sprite) from the boat but decided to keep our own alcohol hush hush. Not too soon after we bought the sprite we started noticing some employees popping their heads over the stairs peeping to see if we had brought our own alcohol. Apparently there was a sign that said if you bring your own alcohol they charge you $10 for each bottle but they never informed us about it personally and didn't say anything when they were sneaking around trying to spy on us so we continued. It was nice to let loose and have some fun with some new friends and swap travel stories.

The next day we hopped onto another smaller day-tripping boat that we used as a base for kayaking. It was very overcast, rainy and freezing but we decided that regardless of the crappy weather we were still going to take advantage of the events planned. We spent the morning kayaking and then due to poor organization on the boats part, had to wait nearly 2.5 hours while another group went out and did the same tour. We were soaked and cold waiting on the boat. If you wanted a hot beverage to warm you up, it would have cost a couple of dollars and we just weren't having it. If they were going to make us wait in the freezing cold for 2.5 hours (and not even let us go back on the kayaks to get our blood moving), they should have at least offered us hot drinks.  Needless to say the whole group was quite...pissed...but there was nothing that we could do about it. We enjoyed an ok seafood lunch (most of it fried) and headed to a pearl farm.   The pearl farm, as suspected, was a tourist trap and we were there for nearly 2 hours. We were bored and cold and just wanted to head back to our cruise boat to have hot showers and change clothes. Eventually we were back in our room and thawing out while waiting for dinner. Dinner was another seafood buffet and dessert consisted of small hunks of watermelon. We ended up heading to our rooms and crashing around 8:30 after an exhausting and cold day. 

The next morning we were booted out of our rooms by 8:30 and had to wait 3 hours out in the dining room until we got back to shore (we were a bit peeved with that because we had anticipated some morning activities...three days of activities turned into only 1.5 of activities)...not the happiest campers. When we arrived back on shore we headed to a big hall where we were to be served our final meal as a group. The food was okay but just as we were finishing up one of the Aussies spotted a giant rat running across the floor....giant. We decided we had had it and left ASAP. Oh, and before we left I decided to use the restrooms which turned out to be just a row of toilets with no doors (just blinders)...so in order to go you had to walk past all these women. I managed to grab the only 'normal' closed door toilet but it was still very very awkward. Needless to say, we were happy to get the hell outta there! After a four hour bus ride back to Hanoi we crashed in our hotel and decided to book a flight to HCMC for the next night. 

Vietnam was quite the experience and we were able to gain an understanding of the culture that Lukie was born in to. It is certainly different to Canadian culture but we were really happy that we got to experience it. Just before I finish up, I wanted to mention that the orphanage in Ba Ria that Luke was at for the first few months of his life, he had some wonderful nannies that took care of him and the other babies. Four years ago we were sent an email with some pictures attached showing us the beautiful baby boy that would soon be apart of our family. In one of the pictures were two of the nannies that took care of Luke. Since that day we have had the picture of Lukie and his nannies up in his room and show it to him constantly. He knows that those were the ladies that took care of him when he was a baby! 

When we arrived at the orphanage I had no hopes that I would be able to meet the nannies but to my surprise one of them was still there! I knew the language barrier would be tough so I had downloaded tonnes of pictures of Luke both when he was at the orphanage and now so that I could try and explain that he was adopted here four years ago and this is what he looks like now. I showed the picture to one of the first nannies that greeted us and right away her eyes lit up and she kept saying Thinh, Thinh, Thinh! This was Luke's vietnamese name (that is now part of his middle name). She had recognized him and herself in the picture and it was the sweetest thing I'd ever seen. Tears came to my eyes and I just so happy that I was able to meet one of these nannies that we had seen in the picture hanging in Lukie's room everyday. Before we left the orphanage we made sure to get a picture with her and give her a big hug! We told Luke later, via Skype, that we had met the lady that had looked after him when he was a baby (the same lady that he sees in the picture) and a big smile came across his face. 

It will be years before he is able to fully understand the country and culture that he was born into but when that time comes, I'm very thankful that I will be able to help him come to grasps with it. Being at the orphanage made me so thankful that we have Lukie in our lives and I can't imagine what life would be like without him. Like I always tell Lukie (and he finishes the sentence)..."Kikki...loves you so so much"!