and then, the sun set.

The sunset accompanied by sun downers did not disappoint. Sunset was shortly followed by a five course meal after setting anchor for the night. We were entertained by a rather spectacular lightening storm in the distance, not to mention the oh so sexy Chinese business man strip show at the table next to us, which was provoked by either some kind of strip-meal game, a piece of clothing per course, or some correlation between body temperature and ability to scoff food and skull wine at a rate that would give a normal person indigestion before entree... Needless to say eyes were firmly focused on the sea for fear of what the slightly overweight (I am being kind here), gluttonous group would do to my appetite. 

The meal was, for the large part delicious, the soup course, however, ended up on my lap. Many of you are aware of my feelings towards soup, but this was by no means a form of protest on my part. It was all together a rather unfortunate incident. Firstly because it was hot. Really hot. Bright red burnt thigh hot. Secondly, in my attempt at economic packing I had only brought one pair of shorts.

This economic packing was not limited to Halong Bay. I only brought one pair of shorts to Vietnam... Jeans, June, 35 degrees, and a rather high humidity percentage, equals one serious faux pas. A faux pas that is amplified by living in a country where the average females' leg comes to my mid thigh, as wide as my calf at best and waist I could likely wrap my two hands around. I will not be buying shorts anytime soon it seems.

Thankfully the typhoon is rolling through Hanoi this weekend. Not that jeans and 72 hours of continuously heavy rain is in any way more appropriate, but it has cooled down some. Furthermore, thankfully we are not in Halong this weekend as we would have missed this...

ha long continued...

To be honest, we snapped off a LOT of photos given we were only in Halong Bay for one night. I suppose this is no surprise when the view surrounding you is stunning...

floating fishermen

Throughout Ha Long there are small floating villages scattered throughout sheltered alcoves created by clusters of islets. Whilst they seem to have transformed somewhat into tourist attraction, they are incredibly colourful floating housing and small boats, they seem to still fish, and just when you thought you might have escaped them... they still have dogs barking away...
A lady rowed us through the village and nearby islands which made for an incredibly picturesque and peaceful passage. The ladies were incredibly skilled at rowing with narrow planks of wood.

ha long bay...

Ha Long Bay is a rather well known UNESCO World Heritage site that you may have heard off... and if you have not visited yourself, then seen in one of the many James Bond films it has featured in (apparently?!?). It is about 150km east of Hanoi, although I had to google this as the 4 hour drive had warped my perception somewhat, it is a sloooow drive at 40km and hour. 

Halong Bay is essentially thousands of limestone isles jutting out of the green green sea. It is also filled with floating villages, fishermen, DOGS... and most unfortunately coal ships (more on that later). It has supposedly been around some 500 million years in the making, 1553km in area and has 1960 islets.  It is quite simply spectacular and the small islands rising out of the ocean as far as you can see is quite something, floating past the islands is also a rather awesome sight. 

Fortunately we had perfect weather, escaping the heat and avoiding storms, slightly cloudy making it perfect to relax on the top deck of the boat and marvel at the view with a cheeky gin and tonic. Or three.

cruisin all weekend long

This weekend we made it away for a short break to the much acclaimed Ha Long Bay for a two day cruise. Tough times I know. A deceptively long drive of four hours, for the relatively short distance...was an ever interesting passing through small roadside villages and rice paddies, patch worked across the countryside.


Once aboard the Bhaya Ship, lunch, a seafood buffet was promptly served as we cruised our way out of the port and alongside the famous limestone isles.   

torrential.

twenty minutes ago it was sunny. blue skies, clear and still. then it got dark. very dark. and windy. blowing more dust, branches and garbage around the streets than make it possible to see. signs and motor cyclists falling over everywhere on the roads.

today i was home. i was prepared. i was prepared because yesterday we were not. yesterday we finished volleyball. it was getting dark because it was 7.30 at night. then it got windy. and then we got wet. wet like we had jumped fully clothed into a swimming pool. we drove very slowly, heads down battering through the rain. turns out rain can be very painful on a motorbike. 

when we got home we realised that we left the windows open. now we live in a swimming pool. i exaggerate. a wading pool perhaps. many towels later. lesson learned. the windows are shut. 

*i wrote this post, then the internet went down. then the power went out JUST as i put dinner in the oven. hmmm. it is four hours later. we have eaten and it is still raining.

**this photo does little justice for how heavily it was raining nor how much the apartment shakes with each clap of thunder, although i admit this may say more about construction in vietnam than the storm.

not my son

It was not all good food and poolside relaxing in Hoi An, we managed to fit some historical/cultural touring into our veeeery hectic schedule and it was well worth the effort. Originally we planned a self guided adventure to My Son - Vietnam's Cham Hindu Temples and according to Lonely Planet their response to Cambodia's Angkor Wat... I think that perhaps the author had not been to either My Son or Angor Wat. 

When we discovered that it was a mere $5 to go on a tour, it seemed worthwhile to get on the bus and let someone else worry about driving us there. This did mean that we also had our very own local guide...our very own comedian for the whole day long, this was yet another highlight of Vietnamese tourism. Bless, he did try hard, and when he didn't get a laugh the first time, he just kept repeating until we worked out we were supposed to be laughing and obliged... Example, explaining the sites name, "Not my son, not your son, maybe your son who knows, meeee son it means beautiful mountain". It really made me wonder if there was some tourist who did think that there was some sort of paternal significance to the site which the tour guide found so utterly hilarious he has continued to share this inside joke every tour since.

Fortunately, we were allowed time to explore the site by ourselves and whilst not the most well preserved Hindu temples we have visited, it was incredibly interesting to visit. They do constitute a UNESCO World Heritage, but insider word has it that is receives the least attention and funding of any in Vietnam. It was also apparently very well preserved between the French discovering it in 1898 with a bit of restoration involved until it was bombed to large ruin by the Americans in 1969. For the large part it is ruin, but, perhaps it has been a while since we have been to an archeological/temple/cultural heritage site, it is still beautiful... in a ruins kind of way. The plants and trees growing from the temple structures seem somehow better than what could be the alternative attempts at restoration...given these seem to involve moving any sculpture inside and using plain red brick to rebuild the general shape of the temple.

My Son is a group of Hindu temples constructed between the 4th and 13th centuries by the Champa people, there are still remnants of Hindu gods, American bombs and worship temples in the valley. Beautiful mountains surround the valley, lush greenery makes the red stone temples all the more prominent and stunning. NOW I want to go to Angkor Wat... or even better, Bagan.