Halong Bay - Day 11 & 12

(1/1/10-1/2/10)

I woke up at 6 am to make sure that no one else would be using the shower, since I was staying in a dorm and I knew several people were going on the same tour I was. I'd forgotten where I put my toiletries in my bag, and I was trying not to wake up anyone in the room, so I ended up having to take a shower without them.

Had my breakfast around 7 after I put my bigger bag into storage. I knew I'd be coming back to the same hostel since the tour I was going on was hosted by them. It was only an overnight trip, so I just had my smaller day pack with a change of clothes and the toiletries that I'd managed to find by the light of day. I checked my email, something I've realized I'm utterly addicted to, and waited until around 8:20 or so when we headed onto the bus, bright neon sombreros in hand (since the dock was crowded with foreigners we'd be able to find our group easily). It took us around 4 hours to get to the harbor. I was hoping by the time we got to the bay the weather would have cleared up a bit, but it was cloudy, overcast, and foggy. Not the best weather for sight-seeing, especially when half the view is reflected on the water.


So some people boarded a small boat to take us to the main ship, but it didn't fit everyone. Instead of the guide staying with the group on the shore, he went with the first group and didn't come back with the boat, either. It was a good thing we had our sombreros, otherwise I don't think the boat would have been able to find the rest of our group.

So we sat on top deck for a while once we'd boarded, where we were told lunch would be in 5 minutes. 20 minutes later we were told it was time to eat. Some people had itineraries that were given to them when they paid for the trip. I'm guessing I never got one because I paid online. It would have been useful, though, because I would have known to pack my long sleeve shirt and jacket. I was shivering just about the whole time on the boat.


After lunch we got assigned to our rooms, and were were told check out time was the next morning at 7:30am. Which seemed a bit strange to me since I was still going to be on board until at least after lunch the next day, and the people that were staying for three days (instead of the two that I'd booked) didn't leave much before lunch. My roommate's name was Sarah, and she seemed nice enough, especially since she offered to share the bottle of vodka that she'd snuck on board (of which I politely declined to partake).


At 3:30 the kayaks were brought to the boat and we followed the guide out to a cave. I didn't take my camera because I didn't think we'd be getting out of the boat, which was soaking wet, and it was sprinkling pretty hard when we boarded. Originally the guide told us to wear flip-flops and shorts because we'd be getting wet. I assumed this would be from the boats and just general being that close to water. I only brought one pair of jeans with me, which I just hoped would dry out by the next day. I was in a kayak with Sarah. I rowed in the back, partially because she'd never been in a canoe before, and partially because I'm a bit of a control freak and unless I know you, I want to be in charge of steering the boat.


We followed the guide as best we could to a cave, where we pulled the kayaks onto a rocky shore that was not at all conducive to flip-flops. I decided to just take my shoes off (I was wearing crocs) and carry them. Then the guide asked if anyone had brought a torch (or flashlight, for us Americans). He kept insisting that he had told us all to bring one, but everyone else insisted that he hadn't. I didn't have one to bring, so it wouldn't have mattered for me, but other people had them in their luggage. I think the next time I go traveling I'll bring one. There's been several times where one would have been helpful, especially during the winter when it gets dark so early.



So after trying to go into the cave and realizing that it was too dark, we headed back to the kayaks. I put my shoes back on about a minute too soon, and I slid on some rocks and cut my left elbow a bit.



So we headed out to where the guide said we could row through the mountains. Across from the cave was a real floating village, with peoples boats tied together. People were cooking on the boats, as well as sleeping. I really wish I'd had my camera at that point - the floating village was the coolest part of the bay. So then we paddled through a hold in the side of a rock into an enclosed lagoon of sorts. We just floated there for a while without the guide saying anything. After about 5 minutes he said we were still missing one boat. But we turned around and headed back to the main ship without waiting for them.



Turns out the two people on the missing boat had been following the wrong kayak group and had gotten lost. By the time we got back to the boat it was getting dark, and once I'd changed and taken pictures it was completely dark. And the two people in the boat were from two different countries, neither of whom spoke the same first language (though they both spoke English reasonably well enough). The lost boat had been asking people for help, but no one seemed interested in helping them. Finally a motorboat offered to bring them back to their boat, but once they got to our boat they wanted 500,000 dong (approx. $26) from each of them for picking them up. Diego refused to pay them on principal, and apparently the girl disappeared. Eventually one of the guys who worked for the hostel talked them down to 100,000 dong each (about $10 total), with the intention of getting his money back from the hostel once he docked.


I went to bed just after dinner that night. I was a bit tired from being up so early, and from the sounds of it, the rest of the night was a bunch of drinking (which wasn't free) and drinking games, so I wasn't that upset about missing it.

I got up at 6am the next day, but it was still cloudy so I couldn't see the sunrise. The people doing the 3-day trip got off the boat around 9:30, and the people that stayed on the island the night before (who had started their three day trip a day before we left) boarded the boat. Some of the guys decided to go swimming, but didn't last long as the water was pretty chilly.



I talked with some of the other people on the boat, walked around taking pictures, and headed to the galley at around 11 for lunch. It took us a few hours to get back to the mainland, and even though it was still overcast, you could at least see farther out than you could the day before.





We took the bus back the hostel, where I arranged for a taxi to take me to the airport that night. I took a shower and changed, and had dinner with one of the guys I had met on the boat. Shortly before I left I got my bag out of storage and checked my email once more. The flight back to Seoul was uneventful, and I got back to my own house around 7:30am on Sunday morning. Which gave me the whole day to upload, organize, and look through the 1054 pictures I took.

And that was the end of my first solo international trip. I enjoyed it so much that I'm planning another solo trip to Ukraine later this year (after which I'll join my friend and go to Prague and Germany). I have a new obsession. I'm no longer addicted to tattoos. I'm addicted to international travel.

Hanoi - Day 9 & 10

(12/31/09-1/2/10)

The plane landed fine in Hanoi, though I could smell that someone had gotten sick two seats behind me just before landing. The driver from the hostel was 20 minutes late picking me up, but at least he showed up. It was a bit cooler in Hanoi at 17C instead of the 25-30C it had been in Saigon.

The traffic was crazy here as well, and I had been thinking about getting a motorbike in Hanoi, but I saw two people fall off their bikes in the space of 15 minutes and they didn't even get hit. The hostel is near a rather busy part of town, so I checked in and then headed out to explore. The buildings here are really strange. It seems like when they put up buildings, they know that another building will be put practically touching the old one, so the fronts are rather ornate and finished well, but the sides are often just plain concrete without even a layer of paint.


There are some interesting little side restaurants and shops on the street where my hostel is, one of the most interesting was the pho place on the corner that had chicken heads on display. They did make a tasty meal, though.





I got a ticket for the 3:30 water puppet show, shopped around a bit to find some things for Logan, and then found a cafe near the theater to get a cup of coffee. The cafe overlooked the lake, which made for interesting people watching. The coffee in Vietnam is similar to that in Cambodia - they use sweetened condensed milk, so there's never a reason to add more sugar. It's almost too sweet for my taste, but the condensed milk makes it thicker and creamier, which is a nice texture.




There were a lot of people in the plaza near the theater. It seemed that part of the reason was there was a flower exhibition of sorts, which was less than impressive, as well as a large sign announcing the 1000th anniversary of Hanoi in 283 days.


The water puppet performance was very interesting. I had assumed that it would be something similar to marionettes, but it was far from it. The puppets were on long wooden poles that were attached to the bottoms. The puppeteers were behind a curtain in the water, and moved the puppets all around the pool of water. There were several stories told with the puppets. I couldn't understand any of the words or songs, but there was a little guide that was provided in English that gave a synopsis of each section.


At the very end they lifted the curtain so you could see how the puppets were moved, and then the puppeteers took a bow. It was a very entertaining show, and well worth the ticket price.



After I left the theater, I decided to do a walking tour of Hanoi. I had read that Hanoi and Saigon were high crime areas, so I was especially on my guard. I made it a point to look at my guide book only when absolutely necessary, and when I did it was away from intersections and off the road so that most people wouldn't notice me. I memorize street names and directions so that I would have to look at it less often, and I didn't walk slowly but with purpose to make it seem like I knew exactly where I was going.



The tour started off fine, and I was seeing some interesting side streets, though the actual destinations were less than impressive. For example, this lovely yellow building was one of the temples on the tour.



I got near the gate at the north end of the city, and I started walking onto smaller and smaller side streets. I thought some guy was following me, but I wasn't sure. About a minute later I turned my head around and he was right behind me with his hand on the outside of my backpack, and the small pocket was open. My heart started pounding as I turned all the way around and asked him repeatedly what he was doing and why my bag was open. He tried to hid his hand, so I grabbed it to see if there was something in his fist that he had taken from my bag, but there was nothing, and I didn't see anything in his pockets. I knew nothing important was in my front pocket except my notebook journal. The only thing he said in English was "Not me", so I finally let him go, after warning him never to come near me again.

I was fine while I was talking to him, kept a level head and didn't freak out. But as soon as he walked off, I could feel the adrenaline so I made a beeline back to my hostel. I was quite annoyed at the people who had been on the street that I had seen in my peripheral vision who had quite obviously witnessed this guy attempt to steal from me, and had done absolutely nothing to stop him or to help me.

Once I got back to the hostel, I felt much better, but I decided I wasn't going to venture out on my own again. I hung around the hostel where people were starting to get ready for that night, which was New Year's Eve. We were told there was going to be a party on the roof of the hostel, and that in order to attend we had to wear a mask. The hostel provided supplies and we had to make our own mask. So I grabbed a drink and set about making a pretty cool mask out of paper and paint and rubber bands, which I still have hanging in my apartment.



The party was crowded but fun. Around 9pm we moved to another bar wearing bright sombreros, but that was crowded too, so when I heard a couple say they were heading back to the hostel, I asked if I could go with them (since I wasn't ABOUT to walk by myself at night). We had dinner at the chicken-head place, and then I headed upstairs to go to sleep. I knew it was New Year's Eve, but I'd celebrated enough, I was tired, and I had to be up early the next day for our tour of Halong Bay.

Tokyo! Part 1 (well overdue)

We flew out of Gimpo airport early Saturday afternoon, 12/27. Apparently if you fly into Haneda airport in Tokyo from Korea, you have to leave from Gimpo, and if you fly into Narita Airport (the larger of the two Japanese airports), you leave from Incheon (the larger of the two Korean airports). When we arrived at the airport, we decided to go through security first, and then find some breakfast. It's a good thing we did, because Kathryn hadn't updated her visa, and as we were going through immigration (which is always a slightly harrowing affair), she was asked to go purchase a single entry pass so she could leave and come back. Dayna and I didn't know this until after she came back from a room with one door and no windows, so we were very glad it was something a little bit of won was able to take care of.

The flight itself was uneventful - we had a nice lunch served on the 90 minute flight, and landed in Haneda. We had decided not to check our bags so that we wouldn't have to wait for them at the baggage claim, so we headed to immigration, and then to purchase our train tickets. Our plan was to spend the night in Tokyo, and then leave the next day for Kyoto, where we had booked a hostel for two nights. We had spent quite a bit of time researching train tickets, and had found a cheaper alternative to the Shinkansen train - the bullet train that connects most of the country. The Shinkansen would have cost us about 28,000 yen each (about $280), while the train tickets we purchased were only 23,000 yen for all three of us (about $77). After getting our tickets, we got a map of the Tokyo subway (SO confusing!), and directions on how to get to our hostel in Asakusa.

While looking at the rather daunting ticket machine, a man came up to us and asked, in English, if we needed help. We gladly told him yes, and he helped us buy our tickets, and even made sure we got on the right train. The metro in Tokyo is similar to the one in Seoul, but slightly smaller, and much quieter.

Dayna and her luggage inside a Tokyo metro car

It's illegal to talk on your cellphone on the metro, and there are signs everywhere reminding you to turn off your cell phone (not even just silence it!). It's very clean, and there are signs in the station to remind you not to drink and ride:

A polite sign reminding you to "please do it at home". Get drunk and pass out, that is.

We arrived in the early evening, and were thrilled with what we saw as soon as we got off the subway. The metro entrances are often well hidden in Tokyo, and are sometimes under buildings or in side streets, and not marked with large signs announcing their presence. The stop in Asakusa could easily be mistaken for the entrance to the mechanical room of a building, and it dumped us out onto a side street in what is considered "Old Tokyo", or Shitamachi.

We were greeted within 5 minutes by a group of jinricksha drivers who wanted to take us on a riding tour of Asakusa for only 2,000 yen for 10 minutes. We politely declined, since we wanted to check into our hostel, and $20 is a bit much for ten minutes (and the rickshas only take 2 and there were 3 of us).

Jinrickshas near our hostel.

We had very detailed directions to the hostel, and were amazed by the buildings and people that we saw as we walked.

Kathryn and Dayna in front of the Kaminarimon in Asakusa

We headed towards the Senso-ji, which is a temple that, according to legend, houses an image of the Buddhist goddess of mercy - Kannon. There was a large red gate that we had to walk by called the Kaminarimon, or Thunder Gate, next to a 5 story pagoda that I fell in love with. Past the gate was a small garden, with statues, a koi pond, and small shrine-like structures. Our directions then took us through a market street called Nakamise-dori, with just about every type of Japanese souvenir imaginable.

Nakamise-dori

We got slightly lost when we were looking for the amusement park, since it was not what we would have considered the western version of such things. But our timing was perfect, because when we finally found it and were walking by, there was a ninja street show being performed that looked like something out of an anime cartoon. We watched for a few minutes (not understanding any of what they were saying of course), before continuing towards our hostel.

Everybody was ninja fighting!

The people at our hostel were very nice, and gave us our sheets and instructions on how to get to the room. This was the first hostel I've ever been in. The costs are kept down because many of the conveniences of a standard hotel are absent, such as your bed being made for you, a private bathroom, or even private rooms. We happened to have a 4 bed room to ourselves for the night.

Yay bunk beds! Kathryn was more happy about it than she looks.

The beds were very comfortable, the blankets warm, and the room small but serviceable. There was a kitchen and a common room on the main floor, and computers you could use for a fee. We were starving, so after stashing our stuff in the room, we headed out for something to eat.

Wandering around looking for food made me feel like I had when I first arrived in Korea. I had no idea how to read the writing on the menus posted outside, and unless there was a picture of each item, we passed by with hardly a second glance. We probably roamed around for about 20 minutes before finally finding a place that we thought we could order from. It was a small Indian restaurant, and the one man working there spoke a little English. He took our drinks, made our meal, and even consented to having his picture taken.

Kathryn's looking at our Japan book, and Dayna's just looking strange at dinner.

My yummy fried rice.

After dinner, we had planned on going back to the Nakamise-dori to do a bit of window shopping, but it had closed down for the night. We did get to see quite a few traditional Japanese paintings on the metal doors that were covering all the shops.

Geisha painting in Nakamise-dori

We were also pleasantly surprised by how well lit the Senso-ji was lit up at night, and we took tons of pictures that look just like the ones from our travel guide. (By the way, if you ever travel to another country, I highly recommend using a Lonely Planet book. I've used one for almost everywhere I've gone in Korea. They're helpful, accurate, easy to follow, and they're meant for the single traveller on a budget, but mention family outings and higher priced items, too.)

Senso-ji area at night

We headed back to our hostel around 9 or 10, and noticed the rather odd and brightly painted graffiti on the walls near where we were staying.

Dayna and I in front of the colorful paintings by our hostel

There were also tons of bikes lined up against the walls. We couldn't figure out if they were rented, or for personal use, or community bikes, but the all looked the same and there was a security man who was policing the area and making sure they were all lined up just-so.

A bunch of bikes lined up, with our hostel in the background

But as we were heading back towards our hostel, we met a semi-creepy man, who decided to talk to us. We tried to keep walking, and kept our answers brief, if we answered at all. He asked us where we were staying, and Kathryn answered "we're not sure", even though we were a stone's throw from the entrance of our hostel. He mentioned he was staying there (oops!), and we just sort of nodded and kept walking. Which is how we came across the seediest, gaudiest, coolest looking "love motel" I've ever seen. The prices were listed outside by the hour, or by the night.

Askakusa's version of a love motel

After a sufficient time gawking at the hotel (and my semi-brave trek down the steps to see inside, only to be frightened away by an automated talking door and a couple coming out of the elevator), we headed back in for the night, easily avoiding our creepy neighbor.

The next morning we woke up leisurely around 8am, and checked out of the hostel. They were kind enough to let us check out, and then store our bags downstairs while we wandered around Asakusa. We planned on seeing a bit of the area, and then heading to Kyoto, where we had booked two nights at a hostel. We explored the area around Senso-ji for about an hour.

A temple roof and Buddhist statue near Senso-ji

Smoking is not allowed while you're walking on the street. You have to stand by one of these bins, and put your cigarette but inside when you're done. Everyone that we saw seemed to abide by these:

Smoking bins

We saw a tourist information center, so we headed inside to find out where we could catch the train we had tickets for to get to Kyoto. After a short wait, we spoke to the man and woman behind the counter, who laughed because apparently someone had been in earlier with the same tickets we had with the same question, and they weren't able to find any information for them. They suggested we try a travel agent down the street. The travel agent was closed, so we headed back to the tourist center. After a much longer wait, we were becoming a bit impatient with the long-winded people in front of us and the lack of staff (where had the nice man gone?). When it was finally our turn again, we convinced the woman to let us use her computer to find the exact name of the train we were trying to find. Well, it turns out that the tickets we had were for a train that takes 9 hours to get from Tokyo to Kyoto. Since we were only going to be there two days, this pretty much made the tickets worthless to us - why travel somewhere for 18 hours when you're going to be there less than 48 hours?

I felt really bad about this, because the trains had been my responsibility to research and book, and I had found this "great deal", but had apparently missed the whole 9 hour part (instead of the two hours that the Shinkansen train takes). Kathryn had booked our first hostel, and Dayna had booked the hostels in Kyoto. I suppose if I had known before hand our trip wouldn't have been much different than it turned out to be because the Shinkansen was so far out of our budget range that we would have just decided ahead of time to stay in Tokyo. I confirmed online that we would be able to get a refund on the tickets, so long as they weren't used, and we thanked the woman for letting us use her computer and then left.

So we headed back to the hostel with the small hope of finding an open room there, but as we expected they were fully booked for the night. We asked to be put on the waiting list, and then Kathryn and I started looking through the Japan book for something to do that day in the area while Dayna made a call to our hostel that we had planned on staying in on our last night. Luckily they had a few rooms available, so we picked up our luggage from downstairs, took our names off the waiting list, and headed out to the maze known as the Tokyo subway.