Hanoi Round 1

I arrived in Vietnam and spent a couple days in the city, I think it might have been the busiest city I stayed in on this trip. I tried my first banh mi day one… honestly it wasn’t very good so at least every single one I had after that was much better. I went on a walking tour and got to see some of the city, we went to a traditional home, tried some egg coffee, walked the streets, visited Hoa Lo prison and got shown some tourist attractions to check out. The prison was very educational and I learned a lot about Vietnam’s history, it’s a nice museum and would definitely recommend to others. The tree is an almond tree that was important to the prisoners there for its resources and also used as a meeting place to discuss thoughts and ideas. The next picture is an example of the sewers that some prisoners managed to escape through in the 50s.

Cat Ba

Went on a 2 day tour of Cat Ba and some of the surrounding area. It was cloudy (smoky?) out but the water was still pretty. There were some really nice people on my boat and we had a great time. I lost most of my photos from this week when my phone got taken but I still have the photos from my camera. We went kayaking, swimming and had a little cooking class. The food was really good and I got to try a variety of different things.

Went on a nice hike (that I didn’t know about) the second day after a morning bike ride around the island. We explored some caves and I had a nice dinner at my hotel. What wasn’t so nice was I’m pretty sure I had a sinus infection at the time and I had so much pressure in my head. For some reason the elevation gain of the hike made me feel better and I felt bad again once we were down. Another day or so and I felt better again though!

Hanoi Round 2

Came back to Hanoi for a couple more days, first night back and I saw some of my friends I met in Laos before they headed out to do the Ha Giang Loop! The next day my friends from Canada came to Hanoi and we were reunited. Love these girls. We had some fun exploring the city, trying food and goofing off. We bought some funny jackets and sunglasses to do the Ha Giang Loop together. Before we got our night bus we went and checked out the train street, definitely a little close. Mya and I decided to touch the train as it was going by lol.

Ha Giang Loop

We took a sleeper bus up to Ha Giang, I got a great sleep but we got in at 4 in the morning and had to be up a few hours later. We learned how to drive our bikes and then we were off! Kind of, because we didn’t have international drivers licenses they had drivers take us for the first half of the day so we wouldn’t have any trouble with the police. (It’s a 1,500,000 Dong fine). But after that we were off! We went on a hike up to some more caves (I saw more caves in 6 weeks than I ever thought I’d see in my life) The views were beautiful up there, it was also more of a climbing a million stairs situation than a hike. We went back to our homestay where we swam, had some food and made some Australian friends. There was also lots of Karaoke, they definitely love their Karaoke in Asia.

Pretty sure I messed up the order of these photos but that’s fine. We covered a lot of ground on day 2, although Ali and I technically did the most. Since we got lost and ended up in some random village, thank goodness for phones! We visited a castle, the Lung Cu flag point (so many stairs), I bought a broken ice cream and we visited the Chinese border (Close enough). Also lots more Karaoke!

Our last day didn’t start out too bad but the weather turned out not very good. It rained, it was foggy and you couldn’t see more than 6ft in front of you. Still fun though! In the morning we took a boat tour, our Aussie friends didn’t handle the cold very well so we helped at least one of them out (Slide 6). We got back to Ha Giang, had some dinner and caught our sleeper bus back to Hanoi.

Hanoi Final Round

Honestly it would have been the perfect last night of my trip if everything had of gone right. We got back from the loop, got some sleep and then headed out for the day. We checked out the note coffee and left some messages for other travellers. We tried foods, ate at our favourite pho place, shopped, we even got a hotel for the night so we could goof off and hang out together without 10 other people. (Having a private bathroom and robes made us feel like queens after weeks of sharing rooms and bathrooms). I got to see a bunch of my friends I made over the weeks including my favourite Dutchies! Unfortunately I wasn’t paying enough attention and my bag got stolen, so no more phone and wallet.

But why would I panic? I still had my passport and flight information! Theeeen Air Canada came in again, apparently because of my flight issues at the beginning of my trip my flight had been voided. So I had to get back to my friends before they left the hotel and I was on my own, fortunately I made it in time. So with help from my friends and family back home I was able to get new tickets home but I was stuck in Vietnam for a couple extra days.

Home

So I got to have one last Pho and flew to Singapore. Had a layover there so I explored their airport and then flew to Seattle where Dad and Grandpa picked me up and drove me back home. Where I stayed for half an hour before getting in my truck and driving 1600km to work, I made it from Vietnam to Fort McMurray in under 60 hours. I could have done better if my body would just run on 0 sleep. At least it was a pretty drive, not too much snow and I got Timmies!