Returning from Sapa, we had a free day in Hanoi. Then on Saturday, November, 8, we drove four hours to spend the day at Ha Long Bay. Ha Long Bay is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site composed of thousands of islands. We had lunch on a boat then we were able to go in doubles kayaks around the islands for an hour and a half. It felt like we were either on the set of Pirates of the Caribbean or the edge of the world; it was a really cool place. But, like most places in Vietnam, it is becoming extremely touristy. Near the floating village, there was a lot of trash in the water and there were a lot of resorts being built on the mainland. Hopefully, there will be more regulations to protect the area.
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| Floating village. |
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| Co Thanh, my professor, looking like she could become a pirate. |
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| Tourists kayaking and riding in boats. |
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| View from the front of my kayak. |
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| Eliza and Molly racing in their kayak. |
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| Ethan steering in the back. |
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| The entire class with Vy, our program assistant, and our professor Co Thanh. |
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| The crew. |
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| Me and Vy, our assistant program coordinator. |
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| A cave at one of the islands. |
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| Sunset on the boat headed back to the mainland. |
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| Sunset at the harbor. |
After seeing thousands of islands (well almost), we drove another four hours back to Hanoi. Usually, tourist spend the night on a boat instead of making Ha Long Bay into a day trip. The next morning, November 9, my class had breakfast and a discussion together. Then we started to split up because our ISP period officially started that afternoon! Where has the time gone?! I spent a few extra days in Hanoi with my friends at a backpacker's hostel before we said our good-byes. We met a lot of cool travelers from New Zealand, Australia, and England.
Last night, I took a night bus to Hue with Eliza and Molly. The bus was straight out of the seventies. There were three rows of narrow, tiny beds, top and bottom bunks, with two aisles. There were really big old tvs that were playing some tv channel that featured people wearing seventies clothing and singing weird disco remixes. Luckily, the tvs turned off after we started (which was at least an hour later than planned). We arrived around 9 a.m. Hue, where we will be living during our ISP period. I will be studying Hue cuisine, Eliza is studying sex education and helping to teach a class, and Molly is studying fortune telling. Out of all the places we visited, Hue is one of the quietest and rainiest (maybe besides the Mekong Delta). I miss the hustle and bustle of Hanoi already, but I'm sure we will find some fun things to do here. My internship at the restaurant starts tomorrow morning so that will be fun!
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