Hanoi
I only stayed one night in Hanoi but the hostel I stayed at (Hanoi Backpackers Hostel) is what you hope all hostels are like if you’re under the age of 25. It was full of young people relaxing and traveling around South East Asia and had such a fun vibe. They had their own bar & restaurant and in the evening they ring a gong to alert the crowd that there’s a pub crawl about to start. Seeing as I’d slept in an airport the night before, going out was pretty much the last thing I wanted to do but I did go out for half an hour, just to make show I wasn’t a total party pooper. Just like in China the bar had dancers in it, and you feel really bad when inebriated male tourists start to harass them. I guess they’re used to it but it’s still not great to watch.
Halong Bay/ Cat ba Island
It’s low season in Halong Bay so Cat ba (an island in the middle of Halong Bay) was pretty deserted. There were lots of Chinese tourists and although they couldn’t speak english we had a heartwarming sing-a-long of the ABC song. Despite walking through the town and yelling “PARTY TONIGHT” no one was out past 9. There was one club open and when we went the only people who were there was a family who I think owned it, with their young children! As much fun as it is tearing it up with 5 year olds on the dance floor, it’s a little unsettling especially when they’re tottering around chugging red bull.
Hue
We were only in Hue for a day and we rented scooters to drive around. For someone who doesn’t drive a car and rarely bikes, learning to drive in a Vietnamese city was not the best idea (a scar on my ankle can attest to that). Turning is SCARY. So is going straight. Or above 30km/hr. Apart from that thought it was a relaxing experience (sarcasm). Even though it wasn’t my forte it was still awesome to have the freedom to go wherever you want. We ended up going to a rural area, passing women working in rice patties, and little housing enclaves ( by this time I admit I had retreated to sitting on the back of someone’s scooter). When we were here someone’s scooter ran out of gas so we took a temporary break to try and refill it. While the boys did that, I wandered around the houses, talking to children and trying to teach them to say Rebecca. We were about to leave when we heard a loud wailing coming from one of the homes- someone was singing karaoke. Naturally the next course of action was to casually walk up to the front door to peep in and then promptly be invited in to join the family. Even though we had no clue what they were singing it was still AWESOME. The people were so friendly and welcoming, they offered us all beer and chicken and prompted us to sing, laughing when we butchered both the song and the language. The craziest thing was that while we were in a random family home, in rural Vietnam, what should be the background for the Karaoke but TORONTO. And not even the CN Tower, which is popular enough I could understand, but City Hall…which isn’t famous at all! It was an awesome coincidence…go globalization!
