Contiki Day 11 (Final day: Back to Hanoi)

I DON’T WANT TO LEAVE VIETNAM, EVER. Okay, I wouldn’t want to leave ever if all my other favourites could come join me here, to be fair.

But, unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. Luckily, we had a chance to go to the caves this morning before it had to end. The caves are beautiful, and I highly recommend it – especially if you’ve never been to caves before. It’s pretty cool. We had brunch on the boat, and then made our way back on our mini boat to the bus. Stopped at the silk place/rest stop again, and then back to our hotel in Hanoi.

It’s our last night all together, which is always so sad. It still amazes me how close you can get to people in just a few weeks, but I’m so grateful to have had the chance again to make new friends from all over the world and to have learnt so much from them. Lee gave us a few more tips for things to do around Hanoi if we’re hanging out a couple more days (chocolate buffet, hello…) and we booked tickets for the Water Puppets too.

Our final dinner was to be at Green Mango (like the other one we went to for drinks). The food was really good (I had fresh spring rolls, and seafood noodles), but the venue was a bit dark, and all in all I think everyone was just a bit depro it was all over. The service was also suuuuper slow, and the food is not cheap, but at least we were all together.

After dinner, Lee went off to get her tattoo with the promise that we would say goodbye to her in the morning if we didn’t see her at the bar later.  There were a couple of goodbyes at the restaurant (I’m not gonna lie, I teared up a bit) and then most of us headed off to the Hangover Bar for our last night out. Umm… I can understand why it’s called the Hangover Bar; they were selling fish bowls and all sorts of things. Not feeling 100% I gave drinking a skip, and enjoyed just being with my people, but when more party-crazy people started arriving, my vibe started dying a bit, and I just wasn’t really in the mood for that scene (oh, how things have changed haha) and yeah I really was feeling sad with all the goodbyes.
Luckily, Katie and I did get a chance to run around and make sure we got photos with everyone from the family who was there. Some of us will still be around tomorrow, so we will arrange to have dinner together somewhere then. Everyone’s sort of shifting hotels and stuff, so we’re all over the place, but luckily restaurants stay in the same areas! I took the goodbyes a lot harder this time around than in Europe, but I’m really glad I have Katie with me, and that we still have a few more days to adventure in Vietnam before we have to head home.

Contiki Day 10: Halong Bay

Buffet breakfast time – yes another one, but no pancakes L but there were super amazing mini bread rolls with jam in the middle. Little known fact, as its pretty poorly advertised, but you can order eggs and omelettes. We just need to take overnight bags for the boat, and our normal luggage will stay behind in the hotel. Quick walk to meet the bus – upfront of the pack obvs, to ensure I got a double seat for myself as did almost everyone… We had a bit of a bus trip to get out to Halong Bay, so it was time to get comfy, and enjoy the last of the scenery of Vietnam (and sleep, because busses do that to me).

We stopped at a rest stop for snacks (pringles, hello) and were pleasantly surprised at the beautiful silk art available there, all created by hand by the disabled people who are employed by the centre. I didn’t even bother looking too much at first, other than noticing that they were super pretty, but then Katie found some that were not fully embroidered (they were just silk pictures on a blank background) which actually turned out to be affordable, so I got myself one as a gift for me. Worth a look if you are at all into art and pretty things, or want a special gift for someone at home.

We hopped back on the bus, and a bit of a drive later arrived at our boat for the night – okay, technically we arrived at our small transport boat which is took us to our boat. Life vests and safety first kids…

On board the boat we had time to relax a bit, hand our alcohol in behind the bar (because there’s a special deal made with the boat crew for this) and then had to all be in the dining area for lunch. As lunch is served family style, they don’t start bringing your food to your table until EVERYONE is sitting. Lunch was a seafood feast, complete with freshly steamed prawns (yummy!) I had a Hanoi beer (like Saigon, but from Hanoi). We had time to unpack a bit after lunch, lay around on the deck and start to appreciate the insane beauty that is Halong Bay. I can try to explain it, but I really don’t have the words (even three months later). The pictures don’t do it justice. Everyone should go there.

It was time for kayaking then, which is one of the optionals. I highly recommend this to everyone – even if you’re not a person who does kayaking, or is particularly fond of the water, find a good partner to get on the kayak with and GO. You wear a life vest the entire time (well, you’re supposed to) and as the bay is a national park, you are not allowed to swim in it. This makes the kayaking very peaceful, and we only had one pair that I know of who tipped over. Katie and I got a bit of a rhythm going and found our groove and managed to (fairly successfully) navigate the waters. There is a bit of cave you can go through and then you end up in this lake/grotto surrounded by these islands and it’s just pure magic. We even got to see the wild monkeys! Once some of the group had got bored and headed back, there were only a few of us and our boats left and the complete silence and peace was just indescribable. It was so amazing to have the sun on our bodies, and this still water around us. Not to sound dramatic or anything, but it’s like you can feel there some big secret there and the air just whistles with this knowledge it has, and maybe wants you to find out.
We slowly headed back to the boat, where we relaxed some more. A bit later in the afternoon there was the chance to go with the small boat to the beach. A few of us took this opportunity, and also hiked up the hill there. The view from the top is breathtaking, and well worth the huffing and puffing of the steps to get there (I forgot we’d be climbing to the top at that point and literally only had my bikini on and a towel around me, because, beach). Couple of super happy snaps at the top, a bit of lying around on the sand, and a quick “swim” in the sea – I really only went up to like my knees coz it wasn’t a very big swimming area – and we grudgingly made our way back to the boat. But it was sundowner time, so that sort of made up for it. (PS thanks to the Contiki family for most of these pics, as I didn’t even have my phone with me)

After sundowners, it was time to get ready for the pirate party, so off we went. A bit of dramatic eyeliner, some makeshift scars (and a bit of time spent making the boys up too) and it was party time. But first it was dinner – more amazing seafood including DEEP FRIED SQUID BALLS which were life. Fun fact – the barmen keep your alcohol for you behind the bar. You write your name/room number on it, and maybe leave a trinket on it to make it easy to spot, and you leave your livers in their hands. Their hands are not capable – their plan is to destroy your liver. Apparently the guys on the boat don’t really agree with mix, so we were basically drinking a single mix with vodka at one point… Oops…
Anyway because we’re pirates, and it was a pirate party, and it’s Contiki I won’t go into too much detail about the evening in an attempt to save some dignity, but I will say the following: I can apparently rap Eminem like a boss; Karaoke is a crazy amount of fun; partying on a boat with your new friends from around the world is probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever done; pirate puns are endless; and you may end up lying on the deck chairs wishing you never had to leave and that everyone you love could just join you there …

Contiki Day 9: Hue to Hanoi

This morning we had our final Contiki-organised flight from Hue to Hanoi. Can’t believe we’re down to our last few days – it caught me by surprise again! On landing in Hue, we made our way to our bus and our first stop for the day was the Temple of Literature. Interestingly, according to Wikipedia, this is not the correct name for it, and it is in fact a Temple of Confucius (more like confusion if I’ve been calling it the wrong thing all along…)

The temple was built in 1070 and was/is home to the first Vietnamese National university. And it’s pretty. My first thought on walking in was the beautiful entrances once again. The arches and bridges are always so detailed, and the gardens are just lovely and so green! Walking through one of the courtyards, you can see hedges which are shaped like the zodiac animals (some of them took a while to recognise, but to be fair it can’t be easy to make a rat out of a bush), and other pretty trees and lanterns, and towers.

The temple is divided into a few different courtyards, each with some sort of unique focus. The one had a central pond, surrounded by the buildings and their beautiful tiled roofs (I’m a sucker for terracotta tiles). As can be expected, a fake graduation photo ceremony was taking place while we were there, so lots of excitement from the students and balloons. There are sections dedicated to alters of previous scholars and those who have graduated from the university. The one temple is the one found on the 100 000 VND note, so that was cool. As you pass through there are also a lot of different artefacts around, bonsai trees, and it was very interesting to watch people with their rituals for certain statues, such as rubbing the chest of the crane, and the head of the turtle.

From the Temple we went on to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. Katie and I plan to come back here in our last few days – apparently it is something you need to do on your visit to Vietnam. It has very specific opening times, rules, and also gets super busy, which I guess is why we don’t go with Contiki? We saw a couple of other parliament buildings and residences, and Dan engaged in a (shirtless, obviously) sit up competition with some random guy – I’m not convinced the guy even knew he was competing. Haha. Then back to the bus, to make our way to our hotel. The streets in the part of town we are staying (and where all the good stuff happens) are pretty narrow, and also super busy, so the bus cannot make its way directly to the hotel. We had to hop off the bus, grab our bags, and make a walk to the hotel itself – only about 10 minutes, and you can see how good we have all gotten at crossing streets (STICKY RICE).

The hotel is in two buildings across the street from each other. Katie and I got a room in the one across from the main foyer, and while the bathroom was pretty nice (especially the shower), the room (while not bas itself) smelled like an ashtray due to the fact that we had a window that opened onto a central opening and presumably the ashtray of the building. But, we took it in our stride as always (little did we know how we would eventually find ourselves wishing for the ashtray room in a few days’ time…) Tonight is a free night, and we had a chance to meet Lee in the foyer for a chat and for suggestions on what to do. We also have a mission for the night which is to stock up on alcohol if we want for the boat for Halong Bay, and snacks, and to get stuff for the pirate party we will be having.
Katie and I decided we wanted to have a fairly quiet night, get our stuff done and find something nice to eat, because we know that the boat party is going to be INSANE. So we started off to do this, bumped into some of the girls, all went along together and then realised we all had slightly different ideas in mind for the evening, so ended up splitting up again. Katie and I looked for some shirts and when we weren’t finding anything in the main shops that wasn’t ridiculously priced (and when I started to get a bit hangry) we made the choice to go find food. Luckily we ended up finding shirts at the flea market for next to nothing, so score one for us! (Helpful tip: consider bringing your own plain white shirt from home on Contiki (any Contiki) because turns out you always need one). Firstly, we wanted to go to the Vietnamese restaurant at the restaurant block (a massive like seven story building filled with restaurants across from the lake) but they were expensive so we decided we would go there our last night. We then decided on Korean BBQ and got as far a sitting down before remembering we would need to cook our own food, and finally giving up, and then finding refuge in the Italian restaurant (ah, pizza and pasta – my safe place). Friend date night (that’s what we were having after all; I was having serious boyfriend withdrawals haha) must involve wine so we had some wine, and each put away a pizza – they were super tasty. The view was beautiful too. We knew we wanted ice cream too (what’s date night without dessert?) but needed to find markers for the party too, so with full stomachs we made that our next mission. Turns out that finding markers is not the easiest thing to do, especially in a country where you need to use a lot of gesturing to explain what you are looking for. Eventually we found the hardware street – have I mentioned that everything in Hanoi is divided into streets basically? Statue street, shoe street, jewellery street – and found ourselves some blue and black markers. It was then time to buy snacks, alcohol (whyyyyy did we forget our bottle in Hoi An) and ice cream and then back to the hotel for the night.

Back at the hotel we found cute pictures online to copy for our shirts, and Katie being the awesome artist that she is set to work on our designs. Things we learnt on date night:

• It is possible to get accidentally high on permanent marker fumes
• Number one did happen to us
• Our shirts turned out super cool
• Friends that you can have date night with are hard to come by, and when you find them you should hang on tight

HALONG BAY TOMORROW AND I CANNOT WAIT!