Author: melisajohnson

We have been in Singapore for a few days now. It is nice to relax and just take some time to do nothing.

Yesterday we went to Chinatown and did a bit of shopping. Today we are going to explore downtown and take a boat cruise along the river.

This morning we visited an ancient town called Duong Lam. It is located about 1 1/2 hours from Hanoi.

Once we arrived we walked into the town and collected our bicycles. We biked along alleys and enjoyed lunch in a 400 year old home.

Then we cycled out to a temple. Passing farm fields and animals.

We passed through the market and community center in the before returning our bicycles and heading back to Hanoi.

This is my last morning on the boat and I am going to miss it. Unfortunately my quiet time is quickly coming to an end as the boats are starting to move around and you hear the sounds of engines vs birds.

It is so sad that these tours are going to be coming to an end in 2025 as the government says they are “not safe” for tourist. They are building some big hotels at the port and want people to sleep there and only come out for day tours. I think there was a few bribes paid…

We went on a tour of a more developed fishing village this morning. They have started a small fish farm as well as pearl farm. They have also started living on small floating houses. It is amazing to see what the tourism dollars have provided the people with.

Some of the homes were a gift from a US university that taught them some basics about fish farming.

Now it is a slow cruise back to the cruise dock to wait for our bus back to Hanoi.

This morning I was up early and enjoyed listening to the birds and watching the fisherman out on their boats. It was so peaceful! Everyone slowly got up on the boat and we enjoyed some tea while watching the boats pass by. We enjoyed a great breakfast and then headed off to collect our kayaks.

We kayaked for quite a long time and enjoyed some beautiful views.

We saw some small fishing communities and learned a bit about them. One really good thing is some of the tour companies have partnered with them and collect their trash and what they pick up from the ocean in exchange for goods they cannot get on the water (flour, sugar etc). It has made such a difference as they look for trash to pick up now.

We stoped on a bridge between two islands that is only accessible during low tide.

Then we went over to a little cove for a swim. Unfortunately the bottom contains fairly sharp pieces of rock and most of us got some minor cuts. Richard was even lucky enough to get a sort of dead jelly fish tentacle around his ankle, but no harm was done.

On the kayaks back we went through a few caves.

Once back at the boat we had some time to relax before our beach BBQ.

It was nice to sit on the beach, but a bit hot and really sad to see how much trash washed up. Our guide picked up several bags while we were eating, but as we were leaving more was washing up.

We then relaxed on the boat as we headed to a cave to explore and then had a spring roll cooking class before our final dinner on the boat. The crew made some decorations just for us as well.

We arrived at the terminal and were grouped by our boats. Our boat is very small with only 4 rooms so we have 6 other passengers with us and about 4 crew. I was a little surprised to find out we were not going to Ha Long but also happy as it is full of tourists. Instead we are in Bai Tu Long. Which they call the baby dragons. We cruised for a few hours to get to our spot to anchor. The views were amazing.

It is hard to describe just how beautiful this place is! I think this is hands down the most beautiful place I have ever seen.

We got into our kayaks and went into a cave that is accessible only a few times a year. On the other side was an amazing lagoon. We paddled around and then went back through the cave to get out.

After that is was some free time on the boat followed by dinner and bed!

We are cruising along in our luxury van, which I have to admit is pretty comfy, for our journey to pick up our junk boat. It looks like it even has WiFi!

I have observed a few things about driving in Vietnam

• Road lines- it seems they just drive where they want… no need to stay in the painted lanes
• Road signs- these seem to be more of a suggestion than a requirement here. Stop if you like at the junction or just go right through, it is up to you!
• Indicators- I actually don’t believe that cars come with them over here. Nobody seems to ever indicate where they are going… they just go.
• Honking the horn seems to cure all problems.
• And if in doubt the biggest vehicle wins

We are off to Ha Long Bay today for a 3 day/2 night sail!

It is about a 3 1/2 hour road trip to get to the bay, we are in a luxury van… we will see what that means in this part of the world!

This post is a little late, but we got the photos from our food tour. We ate so much food we didn’t even need dinner yesterday!

Our first stop was some sort of papaya noodles with some stuff on them. It was one of our favorite items. We also ate a quail which was also surprisingly good.

I think here we had some noodle bowl and our first beer in Vietnam at this place.

This was one of my favorite foods it was an egg pancake sort of thing with shrimp and vegetables inside. Then you wrapped it in rice paper with some fresh lettuce.

These were our burgers made from worms. They were actually really nice!

Next we had some coffee with egg in it. (I had hot chocolate with an egg). Once again surprisingly good!

We finished in the French area of town the was made famous as president Obama ate here.

We got up early this morning and went to the flower and vegetable markets.

We were up early for the markets however it was the slow time for the markets as the busy time for the markets is around 2 am!

What I found interesting was how they individually wrapped the roses… could you imagine the time it would take?

After the flower markets we headed to the vegetable markets. They were still very busy from our view, but our guide said they were pretty much over for the day!

They load up their bikes as they can only carry loads like this until 6 am. Now we were a little confused if it was always illegal to carry loads like this or if they could only do it at night and early morning as the police were astill asleep. Once the police are awake and working they would give the driver a ticket for doing this.

It was a great morning and we are so glad we were up early to see the city wake up!

We spent our last day in Siem Reap relaxing!

First we had a long breakfast at a great coffee shop

Then we went out for a walk around town and found an eclectic little French place for a drink.

After we headed to the airport and finally found a place that had a jug of beer. It was on the menu everyplace, but every time we asked they said they didn’t have it! The beer didn’t taste any better in the jug…

We took off on time and landed in Hanoi around 8 pm last night.