When last I wrote, I was feeling the pull of home, but hoping to enjoy the last days of our trip, which we mostly managed to do.
We did several day trips to sites near Hanoi. What I learned is that Hanoi tour operators will drive you 2-3 hours out of the city, give you about 15 minutes to visit the actual attraction, feed you lunch, and then drive you 2-3 hours back to the city, driving at terrifying speeds to beat the rush hour traffic. I’m exagerating, but only slightly. Sometimes you get 30 minutes to visit the attraction.
After that, we headed to Halong Bay–another 3 hour bus trip. I was feeling pretty miserable most of the way there, but, eventually, our boat set down anchor in a cove and we jumped off to go swimming in the bay. The next day, we kayaked and swam in the morning, then sailed to other parts of the bay, swam some more, ate lunch, and then headed back to the cove for another night at sea. We headed back to Hanoi on the third day, and spent the next day and a half doing final shopping and visiting the Vietnam Ethnology Museum, which is a must see. We also got a foot massage in Hanoi, which actually includes a full body massage; that had to have been the most violent massage I’ve ever had–I thought she was going to twist my head off–but it was certainly a cultural experience.
On the 1st, we flew to Hong Kong, which I think is a good transitional city on the way back to the US. As I commented on FB, it’s like New York, only everything’s in Chinese with English sub-titles. Still Asian-y (the Circle K serves Chinese noodles and dumplings), but very, very Western (we saw Starbucks and 7-11s everywhere). We saw not a single motorbike or cyclo and rarely heard a horn honking.
We spent the 2nd taking in some sights: saw the Reunification Flag Raising Cermony, took the tram up to the top of Victoria Peak, and took a ferry across Victoria Harbor. We didn’t see as much as we would have liked, though, because I felt terrible all day: dizzy, weak, slightly nauseous, and downright exhausted. I’ve been dealing with “stomach issues” for the last week, and I think that plus the late night before got to me.
Finally, back to the airport to check in, watch movies on the plane, and land in California before we took off from Hong Kong. We crossed the International Date Line, so we took off from Hong Kong around 4:30 pm on the 2nd and landed in California at 1:30 pm on the 2nd. Kind of like having a do-over for the second part of the day.
We had another short flight to our home airport, where friends picked us up, took us to dinner, and then, finally, home.
On the last day in Hanoi, as we were heading back to our hotel from the ethnology museum, I got a reminder that, as much as I felt like I’d seen and done enought, I’d only scratched the surface of Vietnam. As we rode through the city in our taxi, we passed a city park where a group of men were watching a cock fight. A cock fight! Right there in the middle of the city! I only caught a glimpse of it–I think I had to take a few seconds to process the visuals, by which point we were well past the scene–which is pretty much how I feel about Vietnam.
So, even though we’re home now, I’m going to keep posting about our travels here. I’ll include pictures in posts from now on, and I’m going to try to write more reflectively–less a catalogue of our travels and more of an analysis of what I’ve learned.
For now, it’s time to start sorting through the mail and figuring out why the cable doesn’t work: I need to catch up on Mad Men!
