Laurie's World

This is our last full day of vacation that doesn’t involve travel.

We had a relatively slow start to our day but around 10am I decided to go out for a walk. Richie had some work to do, Troy was laying low and since I sometimes like to just wander aimlessly this was the perfect time. There is really no good way to keep track of where you are going or where you’ve been when out walking here for the first time (or until you get to know the place really). The roads are a twisty maze of small lanes that all end up looking pretty much the same when trying to navigate. The tried and true method of remembering 2 lefts, then a right (for example) don’t really work. And I have now accepted i may have a terrible sense of direction. So after a while when I was sure I’d made my way back towards the hotel and I was clearly at the edge of town (based on the rice paddy in front of me) I realized donething had gone terribly wrong with my navigation. No worries, I had a plan. Head back and look for a cafe, stop in, get an iced coffee, log on to wifi and get a map. Also important to note, My map reading abilities are quite limited plus I don’t know the name of the hotel off hand. So now I need to text Troy and get that info. Once I find and I Zoomed way in, I could see the street names. I’m glad I did that because based on the map alone, I would have sworn the road I was on was the correct road to get me back to hotel, but in fact it wasn’t. Regardless, I figured it out and was back to the hotel by shortly after noon. Richie and Alice were bobbing around in the pool, so I joined them, and shortly after Troy came down too. We stayed in the pool until 2pm when we thought Lunch would be a good idea. In fact we planned out the rest of the day. Lunch-massage-sunset cruise-supper. And that’s pretty much how it went.
We went to a local food place for lunch and Troy and Richie tried the “fresh beer” 3,000 dong (14 cents) for a mug of cold beer (brewed that morning presumably). We ordered a selection of local food including another cau lau for 30,000 dong ($1.50). I also ordered pumpkin soup (32,000 dong). The cau lau was ok, not quite as good as the night before. They used regular sliced pork, not braised pork belly, but it was still good enough for the price. Now the soup was disgusting. Can’t quite put my finger on it, but it was like glue with an odd bland flavour. Richie tried it too and agreed. I’ve had some really really good pumpkin soup in SE Asia, so this was unexpected. But it was $1.50, what do I care? When they came to clear the dishes she asked me about the soup, I told her “not good”. So she took it off the bill. Wow. I wasn’t expecting that actually.

Massage-amazing! Had the back/shoulder/head massage and since I was repeat customer she charged only 250,000 dong. Troy came with me this time. And it was one of the best massages I’ve ever had here.

Then after regrouping at the hotel we started to walk down to the old city so we could hire a boat for a sunset cruise. There are a tonne of boats down on the river that want offer a 30 minute or 60 minute boat ride. Longer too I suppose if you wanted. There are ancient ladies who have row boats or others with bigger motorized boats. Richie negotiates a 350,000 dong 60 minute cruise down the river on a colorful motorized boat. It was lovely, a beautiful ride and Alice gave me really nice snuggles, which made my day!

Unfortunately, Supper after the sunset cruise was a colossal disappointment. It started out with potential as I noticed on a sign that it was happy hour from 4-8pm. Troy had ordered a Singapore sling on the Halong Bay cruise and I thought it was very tasty, so when I saw it on the menu, I jumped at the opportunity to try another. They came out pretty quickly and were all pretty and red. First sip and I was like DEAR GAWD-that’s awful! It tasted like gasoline. Or at least what I think gasoline might taste like based on how it smells . Troy took a dip. Agreed with me. Richie took a sip and said “oh-that’s cheap alcohol” omg so gross. Can’t even imagine drinking this. So I track the waiter down (as he’s mostly disappeared) and tell him ” No good. Take away”. In all these years here, I’ve never sent anything back, but there was no way We were drinking these. I figured I was still paying for them (89,000 dong $4.50 for the two) but I just couldn’t smell them. The food took forever even by SE Asia standards and was missing rice and other things that we needed to ask for. All in all a colossal disappointment of a meal. But the good news was, they didn’t charge us for the two “Singapore slings” (AKA battery acid). I order cau lau for the third time in 2 days and it was meh at best. Just a mediocre meal all around…..

It’s ok, because I was saving room for a 10,000 dong (50 cent) donut on the walk back to hotel anyway……

Firstly I want to say I am impressed with the breakfast at the hotel (Thuy Duong 3 Hotel). They had some very tasty options and really good fruit. And yummy yummy coffee! Can’t put a price on that. The coffee was so bad at the Sophia (hotel in Da Nang). I really had to persevere to get through it.

We didn’t do too much today. We went back to the Old City and focused on a couple things. #1 getting an egg coffee and #2 shopping!

#1: The egg coffee was recommended to us by Andy and Lily. I have yet to see this anywhere but hear it’s quite the coffee. It’s like a latte but has whipped egg yolks and sweetened condensed milk floating on the top. How could that be anything but delicious? We did manage to find a cafe with a chalkboard sign out front offering egg coffee. Richie and Vanna are 100% in. Troy manages to find ice cream on the menu, so there’s something for everyone. 😁
The girl asks me ” hot or cold” despite the fact that it’s 95 F out, I go for hot as I can’t imagine egg yolks on top of iced coffee. Vanna and Richie same same. It was delicious! I need to figure out how to make this at home…..

#2: shopping…..saved shopping for the last stop of the trip. This always presents with some amount of risk especially when it’s a new place and we don’t know the quality of the shopping. But in this instance we lucked out and there were plenty of opportunities to shop. Markets, shops, street vendors 👏👏. My negotiating skills aren’t what they used to be, but I’m certainly trying. The standard response here to my initial offers is pretty consistently a gut holding outburst of laughter. Really? Straight up funny am I? Then I pretty much always get to my number or very close. So how funny is that! Even found a new bag to carry home my treasures. I had been thinking about a bigger carry on that what I currently use. Especially if we are going to be “one bag” travelers, we need to maximize the carry on luggage, which we currently are not. So I got myself a (I’m sure) legitimate 50L Northface rolling backpack for 450,000 dong. (~$23). Filled it with other purchases and I’m on my way……

I managed to navigate my way back to where Richie and Troy were enjoying some time in a cafe while I shopped. Vanna, the nanny and Alice had gone back to the room so Alice could nap. We decided to try to find a Bahn My place that Troy had read about on TripAdvisor. Supposedly the best sandwich in Hoi An. We did find it and apparently so did every other tourist. It was called Madame Kahan the Bahn My Queen and we decided to wait it out as clearly the sandwiches must be worth it. There were no tables so we were loitering around the entrance and we grabbed a drink from the fridge. They “took our order” which equated to asking us what meat we wanted. Then they pointed at some stools – I guess they wanted us to sit? Was our pacing making them nervous? Regardless the line was continuing to build out into the street. I watched a guy going out and pay some money and I thought I heard the lady say “40” so when he turned around I asked him if the sandwiches were 40? He said “20” omg that’s a dollar. I’m sitting here watching them make sandwiches as fast as they can (the cart was out front- not hidden in the back) toasting fresh sub buns and stuffing them full of meat, veggies, sauce. How can this only be $1? So as we sit there, two tables of people get taken past us to sit at tables. Wait, what?? So Richie gets someone’s attention and says “hey-what about us?” “We’ve been waiting”…..they of course say “sorry sorry-ok-come in”. They take us to the back and try to put o a metal pop up table. It’s horribly unlevel, so they put it away and just present us with chairs cozied up next to another table (of strangers) 🙄ok, all in the name of a good cheap sandwich. We continue with our drinks and then they bring us our sandwiches. Still no table. Ok! Still assuming it’s going to be worth it. Enough suspense, the sandwich was totally worth it! Really good. I had about one bite left and a table opened up and believe it or not they moved us there. Yikes. Hardly worth it at that point, but we played along.

We got back to the hotel and after some time relaxing in the pool, I figured it was time for a massage. The guys decided to stay in the pool and drink beer. I had seen a massage place a couple doors down that looked good, so I made my way over there and lined myself up with a foot massage. It was fantastic….. massage is getting more expensive as we move along, this was 280,000 doing ($12 usd) for a one hour massage but this is less than hotel massage which is 290,000 dong for 45 minutes.

We had made a plan to go to the Vietnamese water puppet show on Saturday night. It only plays 3 nights a week, so luckily one of those is when we are here. We walked down to the outdoor theatre and got our tickets 80,000 dong ($4). It started right on time at 6:30pm and was a 45 minute showcase of some very good storytelling and cultural information through puppets – in the water. It was very cool actually!

We wandered back to the old city for supper and ended up at a “BBQ” place where I decided to try some local food. Cau Lau. It’s a Hoi An specialty apparently. The noodles are handmade and it has greens and some flavouring and braised pork belly. It’s really good. Pleasantly surprised. And only 70,000 dong ($3.50). Hard to argue with that. Troy had pork ribs for 120,000 dong and was happy with his choice also.

That was a wrap for Saturday. Long day in the sun, time to go to bed….

Hoi An is just my speed. I think I’ve found my Vietnamese oasis.

We are staying at this really nice hotel that Richie arranged for us. Sometimes they book customers here apparently. I can see why. The building is lovely, there is a great pool, and the staff are very friendly. So I have to say the service industry in Vietnam has a few things nailed, and desk staff at hotels are consistently amongst the best we’ve experienced anywhere. Other than Night one at that airport hotel, we’ve been blown away by the quality of the service in Vietnam. Kiddos to them 👍

We got settled in and decided to head out to the Old City. Pretty much everywhere we go that has an Old City or Old Quarter, they end up being my favorite part. This one is no exception. You have to buy a $6 ticket per person to get in, but it is hood for the duration of our stay. And it’s mostly a walking city, pedal bikes allowed plus motorcycles for a couple small windows of time per day (to get goods in and out I presume) so it’s really much quieter, safer and more peaceful than a regular city street. It is a Unesco World Heritage site. So a very well preserved ancient city. There are several different sites to visit within the city that are included in the price of the entry ticket, museum, old houses, temples and bridge. There is a heavy Chinese influence but you can see French and other Asian influences as well. Of course there is plenty of food, shopping and local markets too. So what is not to love!

We had lunch (and I must confess to pizza- but it was mediocre at best-so won’t be falling for that again) then we spent the remainder of the afternoon wandering around and taking in the sights. We did find ourselves back at the hotel pool by 5ish to cool off and reset before heading out for supper. The highlight food wise of the day was supper. We saw a sign for a Thai restaurant in our afternoon wandering as. And Vanna is really missing Thai food, so we decided to give it a try. We made our way back for supper and ordered so much food I’m sure they couldn’t believe it. But everything looked so good. It was actually really good and while not cheap by Thai pricing, it was Certainly reasonable and got the cravings taken care of. I had massaman curry and troy had pad Thai and we shared some chicken wings.

Bellies full, we head back to hotel to call it a night and rest up as we have a full day in Hoi An to look forward to the next day 😉

We awoke to another beautiful sunny day in De Nang! Yay!!!!! Breakfast was once again mediocre (mostly due to the coffee being cold) but they did do a nice job with my omelette today.

How fun is that😉?

Richie, Vanna and Alice got in at 1am so we aren’t expecting them at breakfast too early. But they do come down around 8:45. Alice still sleeping, so they are taking turns. So good to see our old friends. The plan after eating is to take a walk down to the beach as they’ve not been here before and want to poke around. We took a nice walk and and then since our van was coming at 11 am to take us to Hoi An, we thought we best get back, pack up and check out. We had dropped off two pairs of troys shirts and two shirts to hotel laundry. That was returned nicely and cost 60,000 dong ($3usd). We had to do laundry twice in Vietnam at the hotel bcz I have yet to see street laundry here like in every other country we’ve been to. $3 was not too bad by hotel standards, but anywhere else I could have gotten 3 kilos done for that instead of 4 items 🙄  Note to self-bring more tide packets next time I come to Vietnam.

The shuttle ride was about 40 minutes and then voila we are in Hoi An. I already think I love it here. It’s the neatest little “world heritage site” town, with a very old history. There are tonnes of great shops and I know I’ll have fun doing my shopping here. Saved most of my shopping for last stop because of having to pay money for bags on these short haul Asian flights, and somehow we seem to be flying here a lot more this year than usual. I’ve already prebooked a second bag for our last flight to Bangkok, so I’m prepared! The hotel is awesome. Gorgeous pool and in a great part of town…..couldn’t be a better way to spend my last 3 nights of vacation.

View from my balcony……

TTFN

We walked a long LONG  way yesterday so felt completely justified in renting motorbikes today. These are the priciest bikes we yet encountered at 220,000 dong (close to $10usd) per day per bike. But the alternative we are tossing around is going to the cable car which will be close to a $100usd day and I’m sure I won’t enjoy it nearly as much. So bikes it is. We get them from our hotel which we have decided is always the best plan if it’s an option. After sunsscreening up (a little bit of horse already being put of the barn there-but why make it worse) we head off for the hills. I am sure they call them mountains, but they really are just hills. We didn’t know this before heading out but the area we went to is actually called monkey mountain. We should have seen lots of monkeys running around, but except for one small glimpse of a monkey by Troy, we didn’t see any, there were Jeeps running around the narrow roads taking tourists who I am sure paid a lot of money and one guy leaned out and yelled at us as we passed “WHERE ARE THE MONKEYS?? I am sure I don’t know. It was a great ride and we were out for 4-5 hours!

We did pass an Australian guy (I think) whose bike had broken down. The throttle cable snapped and he was going no where. Fortunately for him a nice Vietnamese couple stopped and was already trying to talk to him when we came by. She was saying something and gesturing a lot. We didn’t know what she was saying so I flagged down another guy and asked him if he spoke English “a little” he said. He translated enough to let us know that she was saying push it to the top of the hill and then coast down the mountain to town. So those of you who read my blog know I’ve been in this situation also. Started a long way from town with a broken down bike. Now my situation was self inflicted of course but no more or less frustrating. So the older gentleman of the couple rode his bike a ways up the hill, walked back down and started pushing with the guy. He was about to expire, so Troy parked his bike and pushed up the second half of the hill. Having got him to the the top, he said he was fine and was going to coast as far as he could. I gave him a bottle of water and we parted ways. Us going further up the mountain and he coasting off. We did another 20 minute shift or so of driving down dead end roads before we realized we had exhausted our exploration and needed to head back the same way the guy had gone. We drove a long way down and the whole way all I could think of was that he had it soooooo much luckier than I did in Laos two years ago. I didn’t have nearly as much coasting as he. Although I would say our temperatures were similar. We got almost all the way to the turn off where we were going to head to the other side of the peninsula when we finally came to the first hill he would have encountered and there were two different young Vietnamese men with their flip flop feet on each side of his bike (one on a tail pipe😳) pushing him up the hill. Sooooo not their first rodeo…..they got him to the top and then he went left coasting back to Da Nang and we headed right. But good to know he got at least that far. And for the most part my faith in the Vietnamese people is at least partially restored.

So off we go despite the ominous clouds I see building up in front of us. The day has been mosRly sunny and really really hot. So the cloud cover is not totally unwelcome. But it is a little grey, but regardless we persevere. And the view of the ocean from up high is truly spectacular and worth the risk, but then it’s like someone turned the lights down and then the rain started. The good news is that is is still very hot, somaside from being wet, I wasn’t cold! We navigated our way around the peninsula and back to De Nang. We are very proud of ourselves. At some point the check engine light started flashing on Troy’s bike and the were large amounts of black smoke coming out of his tail pipe. But it didn’t kaputz on him and it got him back to town, so we weren’t that guy having to push the bike 15 Km’s back to town.

We were exhausted and hungry, so after parking the bikes and refreshing ourselves in the room briefly, we headed out to supper. Still can’t get my brain wrapped around Vietnamese food so for the second day in a row, we had Indian food. Really good Indian food from a different place. Off to bed at a decent hour though because Ritchie, Vanna and Alice are coming tonight and we are all heading to Hoi An tomorrow.

Warning Signs Of Possible Travel Addiction:
The faint smell of sewage combined with car exhaust is mildly intoxicating.
You believe that souvenirs are fleeting, whereas a good scar is a better story and will last a lifetime.
Each time you cross something off your list of countries/experiences, you replace it with at least 10 new items.
Someone smells really REALLY bad. You look around and realize that nobody else is there.
You can sleep on bags of rice.
You like to sleep on bags of rice.
Plump, toothless middle-aged Lao women begin to remind you of your mother.
Dodging cars, motorbikes, pushcarts and livestock is your only form of cardio.
Shaving your head seems like a really great idea. And you’re a woman.
As your bungalow is burning down because of the citronella candle that you left burning unattended, you rush in to save the most important possession in the world: your earplugs.
You can say “Here, kitty, kitty . . .” in at least five languages.
At some point, you have considered using your copy of Lonely Planet for one or more of the following: a) sunblock b) a pillow c) a dating tool d) toilet paper e) rolling paper.

I hit 6 (maybe 7) of these….you guess which ones. 😂😂😂

Not much to report today. Was up way too late last night working on the schedule for next week at George’s, so thought I might sleep in. But rest assured I was wide awake at a little after 6am. That’s ok, I was having a weird dream anyway and wanted it to end.
Breakfast at the Sophia Boutique was average. They had bacon, which is always a treat. Sometimes, I get tired of just eggs. And wow was the coffee strong! A coupe of cups later I was ready to rock and roll. Ok, full disclosure I may have had more than a couple. But in all fairness they are small cups.
Around 10 am troy and I decide it was time to head out and discover what Da Nang has to offer. We are a couple blocks from the beach so we headed there first. The beach was gorgeous. It’s a 30 km white sand beach that stretches forever (ok well 30 km seems like forever). There were a lot of people down there, but mostly gathered in the swimming areas marked safe. I guess the rip tides are bad so they mark some areas unsafe. Not sure who decides this and/or how they “know”. But never the less, there were clearly marked areas and people were abiding by the signs. We walked quite a ways-for about an hour or more I suppose before turning around and heading back. Keeping a mindful eye for a place where we can get a frothy drink (or water). We found just such a place and went up to a patio area where most people were having full meals but we just ordered pop and fruit plate. It was 1:30 pm so we just needed something light. So we could save ourselves for something bigger and better.
After that we decided to head away from beach and over the dragon bridge in search of the market. It took quite a while, we we found it. It was a colossal disappointment – small and no street food, bit I did find some ground coffee. Something about mouse coffee? I’ll have to look this up. It appears to be a “thing”. I’ll keep you posted when I find out.

So now it’s 3 and we are definitely hungry, so this becomes a serious search for food. We end up at the mall (air con!!!) and at the food court where we get fresh spring rolls, lemonade and coffee. We used to call these “salad rolls”. They call them something else here so we are adjusting our language to be more authentic 😉Some time in the air con was welcome as it is not directly sunny today but it is high 80s and really muggy, so our outdoor walk has us appreciating some air con.

It rains a little while we are insides, but in the time we hang out, it passes. So we start the trek back to the hotel. It takes us past another mall, and we notice that they have a cineplex. Hey! Maybe we will catch a movie. We’ve never done that here before. After we decided that none of the 8 movies they are running work for us, and that large popcorn and 2 pops here is $4 (instead of $40 like at home) we move on but not before just straight up enjoying the smell of movie theatre popcorn-which appears to be universally awesome. In our wandering around this mall, the noteworthy thing to mention is that there was an indoor skating rink. With legit ice and everything. And the best part is that it was busy…..pics forthcoming. Lots of kids and young adults out there skating around. It was like West Edmonton Mall😂😂

After all that we made our way back to the hotel. It’s 6:42, so I need to start thinking about the next meal I suppose…..

Not sure what we will do tomorrow. Maybe rent motorbikes (but they are $10/day) or maybe a pedal bike (that is free from hotel). It’s really all weather depending ☀️ or ☔️ – we will see.

So glad we did the 2 night Halong Bay trip instead of the 1 night. One night would have just been way too fast. It’s not like we saw or did anything particularly amazing on the middle day, but it allowed for a more relaxed pace. It’s kind of a fuss to get to Halong Bay. It’s a 3.5 hour shuttle ride each way and of course checking I and out of a hotel/cruise ship or whatever for one might is always a pain. We had plenty of relaxation yesterday so we ready for today being busy morning plus what will undoubtably end up as long travel day.

After the news yesterday that a “storm was coming”, I was certainly on high alert for changes in the weather last night. While there was a strong current and/or maybe winds, I don’t think it was any worse than the night prior. Woke up at 5:20am to a beautiful sunrise. Colour and everything….way better than the day before’s sunrise that couldn’t be called anything due to clouds and rain. So we were to be at breakfast promptly at 7am as we needed to be ready for our cave trip at 7:45am. Tom (new guide-Kent went home with yesterday’s crew) told us that we would be leaving earlier than normal to shore because indeed the was concern about a storm. But we were still fine at the hour and would be carrying on as normal with the itinerary. Awesome….

The tender took us to the cave location and EVERY OTHER BOAT perhaps on the planet was there trying to dock to get their passengers into that cave. Yikes. And it was super windy. Some very loud claps of rolling thunder got our attention. Took us several minutes to park and even at that no one would love so we had to tie up to the back of another boat and use theirs to get to shore. They looked none too happy about it, but they also barged into a small spot in front of us when we were there first, so I guess you reap what you sow.

The cave was average and we had to wait in a long line to get in. Tom said there was about 500 people in the cave (based on how many boats he saw) so we should wait a minute or so to go up. Ok, good advice! He entertained us with some fun facts about Halong Bay while we waited. Once we got the go ahead, it took quite a while to get I bcz the line was very slow moving. The out was the same as the in, so this caused a fair amount of congestion on some very sketchy stairs. Regardless we did make our way up and in. We have really seen some spectacular caves in Thailand, so we are not easily impressed. And there were just so many people, it was challenging to enjoy the true splendor of the cave with all the pushy Chinese and French people…..common courtesy literally escapes them obviously. It was an average outing, like I said mostly because we have been able to enjoy caves with far fewer tourists and fuss. Back to th transfer boat that returned us to Starlight by 9am. We no sooner get our feet on board and the onslaught of rain starts. Complete downpour. Man that timing could not have been better. 30 more notes to pack up and turn in our Key, then we get to lounge about while they prepare brunch. The streak,back has already started and it was the great cruise ship movement. All you can see in front and behind was cruise ships heading back to port.

Lunch was spectacular (again) so much delicious food. It was my first time having ostrich. Such a large plate of food, but I couldn’t bear to think an ostrich had been killed in vain, so I did my best to finish it. Another 7 course meal done, we were stuffed but not so full we couldn’t eat the sliver of mango custard cake they brought us at the end. 😉

Pulled up to port and they shuffled us to shore. A very short wait at the depot and we were getting on our shuttle van with Tom. There were 2 additional people joining and Tom introduced them. One was another guide and the over was a cruise bartender. The government has shut down all Halong Bay cruises (the are ~500 cruise ships) for tomorrow due to the weather concerns. So they are shuttling all the staff back to Hanoi for a day off. Yikes…..we got lucky didn’t we?? Now we just need our flight to Da Nang to get off the ground before the storm hits…..I’d hate to have to spend the night (or even extra hours) in the Hanoi airport unnecessarily.

The shuttle ride was uneventful, the taxi met us at the predetermined ” intersection” to grab us from the shuttle that goes into Hanoi and take the other road to the airport. Pretty slick system they have set up. And as always, it always works out. I’m now sitting here at the airport blogging, we were 5 hours early for our flight. But that’s just how it works out sometimes. We asked about changing to earlier flight and for 800,000 dong EACH they would put us on a 5pm flight. And given that the tickets only cost 660,000 dong to start with, we passed.

11:34pm-arrives safe and sound in De Nang. It’s very late and it’s been a very long day. Off to bed-exploring tomorrow!

Ok. The the “being up for Thai chi at 6:30am” was a total joke. I was up at 5:45am but not because I had any intention of Thai chi. It was merely because I didn’t pull the drapes (intentionally) so I could see the view when I woke up. But of course the light coming in woke me a little on the early side. But we did have to be up and at breakfast by 7am, so it was all good planning in my opinion. When I first looked out upon waking, it was quite foggy/misty or something like that. Not rain but certainly not clear. By 6:15 it has cleared substantially and I was holding high hopes for improving conditions. I was the first to get into the dining room as I was excited about the coffee. All the food you can imagine is included in this cruise, but it’s a set menu style so we have to buy all drinks, including water. Yikes. Went round and round with the staff at supper last night to try to get a jug of water, but to no avail. I pay $1.50 for each bottle of water I want. BUT what I did get out of this conversation last night was that breakfast is a buffet style so coffee is no charge. So I’m going to drink my body weight in coffee (that’s my plan).
Breakfast was good, challenging to get a fried egg-the competition with the Chinese tourists was stiff. They will just push you out of the way and to be honest we are just plain out numbered…at 7:35am Kent came by and told Steph, Lilly and Andy they had to be ready to go in 10 minutes. Their cage trip was scheduled for 7:45am yikes. Good byes in 10 minutes 😥as we would be gone on our day trip kayaking before they returned from theirs. Boo. Hard to say good bye to new friends, but we have exchanged information and will stay in touch. Stephanie should be in Seattle sometime in the next couple of weeks for a day or two so we will have a chance to see her again on home turf before she heads to Minnesota.

So us and one other (Chinese) family are the only people on this boat that are staying for the second day. So we gather a the back of the boat and wait for our day trip boat to pick us up. We see the wander off and come back with water. Hmmmmm. Those folks figure out how to score the free water?? So Troy follows suit and learns that there is a lady a a desk that will give you water if you ask. So he and I both score a free bottle. Then we get on the day boat and they give us a plastic bag with water for the day (I presume). Yay!!!!! Prolly water for the whole group, but when none of the other passengers come get any, I fill my day bag at the end of the trip so I’m covered for Joe. I have a stash of at least 6 bottles now. 😂😂

We cruised out somewhere in the bay, the weather took a turn for the worse. Lots of thunder and the rain started. BOO!!!!!!

The plan was for kayaking. And quite a lengthy kayak trip at that. But they gave us rain ponchos (aka-body condom) and sent us off. It was wet but not cold, so as much as I was sort of dreading it, I’m glad I did it. It was really scenic and tranquil. Lots of garbage in the water though. So sad. All plastic and styrofoam. And I know now what plastic is doing to our oceans and our fish and it is really bad!! On the way back we saw a coupe guys on a flat bottomed boat scooping garbage out of the ocean, and collecting it in bags. Nice initiative…have not seen that in other countries. But on the other hand, I think this is close to the most garbage I have seen in water anywhere in 9 years here too, so it seems fitting they would do something about it.

A lunch was presented that was WAY too much food! There was only 8 of us on the boat (we had stopped to pick up a couple from the Calypso – and guess who it was?? The crazy lady that insisted on being downgraded to a smaller boat) when we were out kayaking, they set two tables – for 4. So give me that the other family was 4, Troy deduced that we would be sitting with the crazy people for lunch. Sure enough we were. Sam and Dan, and man were they odd. I don’t know what their story is, they are not together, but they travel together, he is clearly gay and she is clearly crazy. He’s American with a house in Hollywood and she’s from south Africa. She is a freelance graphic artist, he has been pre-tired for a year and a half (looked mid to late 30s at the Most) anyway, it was the oddest one sided conversation we have ever had with people we have met while traveling. When the crew served the fruit for dessert, they slid an envelope onto the table that asked for a happy tip. So we had to listen to them prattle back and forth about who had money, they had no money, what did he do with the “pocket change” she gave him? He gave it back….etc etc. They said they needed to go up top bcz crazy lady gets seasick, so they walked off and left us with the envelope. Troy says to me “how are they going to pay for the beer?” No idea……I wasn’t going to front them, and they didn’t ask….

After the physicality of the kayaking 😂😂I somehow felt I deserved a nap on the way back, so I did, not much to report from the inside of my eyelids…..

Back to the starlight by 3pm and we had the boat to ourselves as the new passengers picked up while were on day trip must have all been in their cabins? When they made the announcement for fishing trip/Kayaking we passed and decided to just stay stretched out on the loungers on the sun deck as it has now started to be quite nice. Not full sun, but bright enough to very pleasant!

Then after the down is so new people went off, we truly had the whole place to ourselves!

Passed on the spring roll cooking today, but sure got in on the eating, and oh ya…..decided to get into happy hour today. Just sitting down to supper now. Food food food. We will do this meal and then probably just head off to bed. Apparently there is another storm coming so we have to head back to port a few minutes early tomorrow morning. Need to be back in port by 11 apparently.

TTFN

Driving along on our way to Halong Bay and Dai gets a phone call. After he gets off the phone he turns to us and says that on the second day of our trip, airAsia tour is coming to our boat and there will be many Chinese tourists. Would we like a complimentary upgrade to the Starlight cruise? Bigger boat, bigger too , sun deck, better amenities. 5 star. We are currently booked for Oriental Sailing 3star. We are like heck ya! He emplaned they are concerned we won’t be happy on original tour because Chinese tourists are very loud and bake a lot of noise 😂😂😂. Shocking information-not. We see this everywhere. Chinese tourists are notoriously difficult to be around for a wide variety of reasons. So the travel gods are looking out for us. Or Ritchie maybe OR they just saw our Caucasian names with “Canada” after it and knew that would not make us happy to be sandwiched on a tiny boat with lord knows how many Chinese tourists. Regardless we get to be on a much nicer boat (almost twice the price) for same $. Yay!!!!!!!!! After the room upgrade last night, we are on a roll here the likes of which we haven’t seen since 2009 when we were here either all four kids.

Oh yeah and the sun is shining bright and hot, so I am cautiously optimistic about the weather. 🙏

As it turns out it is gorgeous for the rest of the day. I grab as many chances to sit in the sun as I can between getting on the boat at 12:30 and when the sun goes down. You just never know how long it will last…..

The agenda for this cruise is pretty well set. Lunch at 1:20pm, activity (either going to fishing village or kayaking) at 3:30, back at 5 to freshen up and happy hour starts, spring roll cooking class at 6:15, supper at 7pm.
Lunch was amazing! So much excellent food. 7 courses….when we booked, we told them no fish for Troy and no fish or seafood for me. So sometimes when you get picky, you get subpar options. This was not the case here. The alternative dishes are very very good, so I’m happy I’m not eating from the sea today.
After lunch I spent some time chatting with the couple at the table next to us. Andy and Lily. As fate would have it, they are from the US and they are both educators. So we had lots in common and talked right up until the 3:30 call for the Fishing village. Tory was up on the top deck taking pictures and met a gal Stephanie, who was also from he US and works in the tech industry. She lived in Seattle for 6 years before spending 4 years in CA, and has been traveling SE Asia for 5 months. She goes home to Minnesota on Wednesday.
We chose the fishing village tour 3:30 as we have kayaking as our defined day 2 activity. We got on the transfer boat and it quickly whisked us off to a small dock where there were lots of nice elderly ladies waiting to paddle us through the village in their rowboats. It was hot and sunny. I finally feel like I’m in paradise. I have pictures, will upload when I am getting stronger internet.
Andy, lily and step all went kayaking as they are on the one night tour so don’t get to do the stuff we are doing tomorrow. So we parted ways briefly, but we’re all back together for happy hour at 5. We hung out and had fun with the cooking class, then ate supper together (moved some table to be together-pretty sure that didn’t make us too popular) and continue to chat well into the evening. Around 11pm in fact. Now that really late (specially considering we have to up and at Thai Chi on the sun deck at 6:30 am😂😂😂). But it was wonderful to make new friends and I learned all about the education system in New York City. (Spoiler alert-very very different than WA state).

Alsoo the boat is AMAZING…..couldn’t be happier with the upgrade. There was another couple that was upgraded and the woman had a major hissy fit. Apparently she specifically wanted to be on a small boat. Why would you ever want that?? Anyway, she a,an aged to get herself and her travel companion off the boat and moved to a small boat.  Am going to keep my eyes peeled for them, bcz that boat was the one we were supposed to be on and we likely will see it looked somewhere around here with all the multitude of other cruise boats.

Well off to bed as tomorrow will be a very busy day…..