Day 10: Hanoi to Hue

After returning to Hanoi, we were taking the overnight train to a city called Hue. We were sharing a sleeping compartment with Rob and Michelle, the younger Australian couple, and Rob had the bright idea to buy a case of beer to bring on. We found one in our neighborhood for about $10.

It was a small compartment and there wasn't much to do, so we just sat and talked for hours while digging into the beer. We started stacking the cans on the window sill, and a pyramid (or beeramid, if you will) was the next logical step. At that point, it also became necessary to finish all the beer, which we did before going to bed. Starting with a row of 9, we needed just one more to complete the beeramid, so we borrowed one from Wayne in the cabin next door.

I stabilized the beeramid and was pretty proud of my engineering effort, so when Rob bet me 100,000 dong that the beeramid wouldn't be standing by morning, I took it. Only 15 minutes later, as we were getting ready to go to sleep, the train approached a stop. Rob must have paid the driver because he came to a wrenching halt, and our nicely built beeramid came crashing down. As Dee put it, it was the sound of 100,000 dong hitting the floor.

Day 9: Halong Bay

On our last day in Hanoi, we met the group that we would be traveling with in Vietnam and Cambodia. We went through an Australian travel agency called Intrepid that does many small group trips, and our group has seven people including ourselves. There's a younger Australian couple and an older Australian couple and their daughter, and we all get along well.

The next day, we took a bus trip east to Halong Bay, a 600 square mile bay with about 3000 islands. We boarded a nice houseboat that we had all to ourselves, and headed out into the bay. I had never seen anything like it - there were lush, steep islands jutting out of the water all around us, and the bay seemed to go on forever. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

After a tasty lunch and several hours of lounging on the roof deck taking in the scenery, we ended up at a cave high on one of the islands. We docked and took the stairs up to the cave, which was quite large and had many beautiful formations. Apparently, it is still growing, due to water that drips in from rainstorms and a small lake at the top of the island.

We left right as the sun was sinking and traveled to our resting place for the night among the islands. The water was really warm, and many of us enjoyed a swim in the dark, which was very satisfying. The boys took turns jumping off the top of the boat, about a 20 foot drop, which I really enjoyed. My attempt at a dive almost ended in disaster when I rotated a little too much, but I managed to avoid landing on my back.

After another tasty meal, we relaxed on the roof with some beers and watched the stars, and then retired to our separate rooms to sleep. I highly recommend Halong Bay to everyone, and I could imagine spending even more time exploring this beautiful area.

A Trip to the Post Office

Our first day in Hanoi, we decided to go to the post office to send home the wood carving we bought in Bali, along with some books and clothes that we decided we didn't need. We walked from the hotel to Hoan Kiem Lake, a big lake in the middle of the city with a nice bridge to a temple.
The post office was a large government building on the eastern side of the lake, and we walked up to the counter marked international parcels. The woman there said that shipping by air would be 1 month and by sea would take 3 months. That's a slow plane! Either way, we would need to unwrap our carving and bring a box to put everything in.

We carefully undid the good wrapping job they had done in Bali until she could see that it was indeed wood, and redid it to get it ready for sending. "Where can we get a box?" we asked. "You can buy it from a store." "Where?" She gave me some vague directions to a store nearby, so I set out with a mental image of what size box I would need. Why the main post office in Hanoi doesn't sell boxes is beyond me.

Dee stayed behind as I walked looking for a store, though I wasn't sure what kind of store. Eventually, I came across a book store, which I figured would be able to help me. "Do you speak English?" Not really. I pointed to a box on the shelf and said that I needed a box, knowing that she would have no idea what I meant. She said something to an assistant, who came back with a book. Thinking that she thought I wanted the book that was in the box I pointed to, I shook my head and continued to try to explain. However, I realized suddenly that they had brought me a Vietnamese - English dictionary. The bookstore turned out to be a good call. I opened to "box" and pointed, and they seemed to understand. I moved my hands to signify how big it should be, and the assistant went back to search.

He returned with a slightly ratty used box that nonetheless looked workable, unless it was too small for our purposes. They were willing to give me the box for free, so I returned to the post office hoping I was done asking people for a box in a language I don't speak. The wrapped wood carving just barely fit, and the box was literally the perfect size to fit all of the items we wanted to send home. With about a whole roll of tape to shore up the box, we were good to go.

Our helper weighed the box and informed us that it would be 1,560,000 dong to ship by air (about $95) or less than half that by boat. I had just over 1.5 million dong on me, and 3 months seemed excessive, so we settled on air. We filled out the appropriate forms, giving our address at least 4 times, gave our money, and hoped for the best.

Hello Vietnam (Day 7-8: Hanoi)

Well, if it was chaos we were loking for, we got plenty of it as soon as we arrived in Hanoi. The taxi ride into the city was full of honking and passing, and the streets of the city were filled with cars, motorbikes, bicycles, cyclos, pedestrians, and general mayhem that after Bali seemed greatly magnified. The streets are filled with commerce from stores and street vendors, often spilling onto the sidewalks and even the streets. It took us a day or so to get used to it, but we've grown quite fond of the lively cities during our time in Vietnam.

Farewell to Bali

On our last night in Bali, we had a beautiful meal cooked just for us down near the water at sunset. The food was incredible and used many local ingredients in innovative ways. It was the perfect, peaceful ending to our stay, and it gave us energy to meet the chaos in the cities of Vietnam.

Day 4-6: Bali (Alila Manggis)

On Sunday, November 18, we transferred from our hotel in the hills to another Alila hotel on the beach in eastern Bali. Before we left, we did a trek through the rice paddies and down into one of the forested valleys. It was good hike with a tough steep drop, a river crossing, and a steep climb back up, but we were rewarded with a beautiful picnic lunch overlooking the fields.

The new hotel is just as nice as the last one, with a beautiful view of the ocean replacing the view of the valley. We did take a slight step down in our accommodations, but with the view from our deck being the picture here, we can't complain at all.

On Monday, our "experience" was called Paradise Lost by the Sea. In the morning, we were taken by motorized outrigger to a spot on the other end of the bay that has great snorkeling. The coral was plentiful, colorful, and shallow, and we saw lots of great fish. When we got back, the staff drove us out to a hidden white sand beach, where we got to enjoy another fabulous picnic lunch on cushions under an umbrella, and an afternoon lounging on the beach and swimming in the warm ocean.

Today, we got up early to go on a trek called High Trek to Heaven. The hike began halfway up a mountain called Lempuyang near Bali's highest volcano, Gunung Agung, and it basically went straight up the mountain for an hour and a half until we reached the temple at the top at 4000 feet. The Hindus believe in worshipping the gods at the highest point, so praying often involves some exercise. It was a tough and steep hike, probably the hardest Dee has done since her knee injury, but she did very well. When we reached the temple, we put on sarongs so that we could go inside. A group was just sitting down to pray, and they asked us to join them. Our guide presented an offering, and we sat and got blessed by the holy water as everyone prayed. We took a different route back, down many stairs, and ended at the amazing temple pictured here, with serpent creatures guarding the stairs up to the prayer area. The bodies of the serpents formed the undulating railing of the stairs. With the view of the volcano behind it, it was quite magnificent.



This is our last full day in Bali, and we are a little sad to leave. This is a beautiful island, and the people are gentle, friendly, and very hardworking. We would recommend it to anyone, whether you are interested in relaxing on the beach, trekking, surfing, diving, or experiencing a great traditional culture. Of course, we are looking forward to our travels in Vietnam, but it has been a great beginning here in Bali. We end tonight with a meal cooked by the chef at Alila Manggis specifically for us, using many local ingredients and flavors. We can't wait!

Day 1-3: Bali (Alila Ubud)

After the usual crazy day before a long trip, Dee and I made it to the airport for our 12:15am flight on Wednesday (really Tuesday night). It was a 13 hour trip to Taipei, 2 hours at the airport there, another 5 hours to Bali, and an hour drive to our hotel, and when we got there, it was Thursday afternoon. Still, probably because we slept well on the first leg, it didn't actually seem that long.


Our hotel here, Alila Ubud, is in a beautiful and peaceful spot along a ridge overlooking a lush valley. We decided to begin our trip luxuriously, so we got a suite with a wrap-around deck and views of the valley and distant mountains. We spent the afternoon settling in, sitting on the deck, and checking out the grounds of the hotel.

Later in the afternoon, as I was reading from our guidebook, I noticed something our of the corner of my eye and looked up to see a monkey staring at me from right outside the window. We're at the edge of a monkey forest here, and we've seen monkeys sitting in the trees and playing in the grass at the hotel. Soon, one monkey turned into three, and they all jumped onto the railing of our deck. Not bad for our first day. We crawled into bed that night very satisfied but exhausted.

The next morning, our leisure concierge (like I said, we're starting in style) took us on a tour of the surroundings to see aspects of the Balinese Lifestyle. In one of the villages, he saw that the community was gathering for a cock fight and stopped so that we could check it out. We were a bit apprehensive, but we figured it would be rude to say no. It turned out to be really interesting, because this was very much an all-community social gathering, with men gathered around the ring gambling and cheering, and women further out selling food. Apparently, communities put these on to raise money couple of times a year on special occasions (this was for the temple anniversary). I don't mean to be glorifying the practice, but it's always different when you see it from the inside. The fights are really not as brutal as you might expect, and the loser is killed quickly right there and cooked that night.

From there, we drove through the rice paddies, visited a public temple, had lunch with a view of the volcano, which is still occasionally active, went inside a Balinese family compound, and saw Balinese artists creating intricate wood carvings and silver jewelry. At night, the hotel had arranged a cocktail party and special dinner down by the pool, complete with gamelan music and Balinese dancing.





On Saturday, we got to ride an elephant. Sumatran elephants are the smallest species of elephant, but they are still quite big. Our elephant, Melanie, did a great job showing us the park, where they rescue elephants who can't survive in the wild and try to teach people about their plight.

After the ride, there was a show, where the elephants showed off their skills, including dunking a basketball. For the last trick, one of the elephants sprayed water into the crowd. Dee was standing directly in front and got completely soaked.