true story in Vietnam

"When I get sad, I stop being sad and be awesome instead. True Story"

...yes they made a shirt that said that, and yes we bought them.

What began as a short series of unfortunate events mainly consisting of visa issues turned out to be a wonderful trip to Vietnam. We attempted to fly into Hanoi on Thursday but then ended up standing in the airport as we watched our plane fly away because apparently we didn't have the correct paperwork...so off to the Vietnam immigration office we went. Long story short, it sucked, but we got it figured out and we were on our way bright and early at 5 am Friday morning. We got to Hanoi and stayed at, well I forget the name of it hotel, and wandered around town. Oona and I witnesses a little accident, the fence in front of the cathedral will ever be the same again. Then Saturday we woke up and headed to Halong Bay. The van left even my with little leg room and the road was like and Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland...except it lasted for 3 hours. Not complaining though because we laughed about it and it was well worth it. Oh and our tour guide confirmed the rumors...they eat dog in Vietnam. We decided that the shocks on the car were made out of old bed springs. We got to the harbor and got on a boat and headed towards the islands. It was so amazing. Then we went on an adventure through a cave where we saw the "monkey/frog rock" and the wonderful speedo man.

Meet Speedo Man.

He though that a speedo and long shirt was and appropriate outfit, we did too. And Stig wore his matching shirt if full support.

Afterwards we were able to kayak through the Bay at sunset, it was perfect. That night was Carson's 21st birthday. That went from low expectations, to sneaking through windows, getting caught, and eventually led to major karaoke and a wonderful party with a 27 year old couple from London and two older couples from Australia and Ireland...it ended up being such a ridiculous and entertaining night. The next morning we woke up and jumped off the top of the boat and then headed back to Hanoi. Halong bay was absolutely breathtaking beautiful. The next couple days in Hanoi we went and saw the Museum of Literature, ate wonderful food and spent too much money. The city streets are crazy and packed with thousands of motor bikes, deciding to cross that street was a little gamble with your life. And the things they manage to carry on there motor bikes is seriously amazing. We saw one with a fridge AND microwave, another had a person carrying a coat rack, one with a ladder, and there were so many others. The last night we stayed at Central Backpackers Hostel and it was really nice, I would definitely go back and stay there. The last night we hung out with some of the others from the Hostel, signed their wall and then wandered the town until we came across a place that was open to feed us. We ordered way too much food, and ate it all. That was a fun meal with our topic of discussion ranging from men who wear pink, danish news, to an argument about whether garlic is a type of onion (an agreement on this still hasn't been reached). Wonderful trip!

Vietnam, we will meet again.