Hanoi, Vietnam: the morning market, mystic Halong Bay, and the coolest NYE of my life!

I've been dreaming about going to Halong Bay for a long time.  I was so happy this morning when the day was finally here.

I woke up at 6AM, showered and got ready.  Hang knocked on my door about 6:40AM to ask if I wanted breakfast.  I told her that that would be great and she said she would wait downstairs for me.

I am amazed anew each time I stay with a couchsurfing host for they all go out of their way for me!  Hang is on holiday and got up so early just to drive me to my tour!  She could have let me take a taxi!



She took out a helmet for me and took her motorbike outside.  I sat behind her with my arms around her waist and we drove not even a minute to a neighborhood restaurant.  Hang asked me what I eat and I said, "I'll have what you're having!  I'll eat anything!"  We ordered Pho, pronounced, "fuh".  Its a noodle soup with spring onions, and beef.  It was very good!  It was so nice to have on a cold day and so clean in taste.

 Hang with a bowl of Pho

I'll digress to say I wasn't a fan of Cambodia food.  It seemed like everything in Cambodia was fried.  I broke out in hundreds of pimples and I often felt really yuck inside after eating.  It was really nice to have a healthy Vietnamese dish.


We were short on time so we quickly ate.  Then Hang paid for my meal!  We got back on her motorbike and drove into the city.  This time, I had my eyes open! :D

WOW.  What an expereince.  The things I have seen with my own eyes here in Vietnam!  We passed by a market selling headless chicked that had been defeatherd, and right by it, dog.  It is unmistakably a dog.  It wasn't chopped up.  It looked like it was skinned and then roasted so you could see its leathrly skin cooked to the color brown.  Its face had been untouched.  It looked like it was barkingi n fact.  When I saw it my jaw dropped and stayed dropped.  I always thought this was something people made up about the Vietnamese!  I've heard the Taco Bell jokes, that beef burritores are so cheap because its really cat meat, and such.  I didn't think they actually ate dog!

The second site that shocked me was seeing a lady sitting infront of a large bowl peeling back the skin of a frog.  She pulled it back in one piece and I saw the skin separate showing the grey body of the frog underneath.

All the vendors sit on the road in these little plastic chairs.  They are they kind of chairs you see in a pediatricians office meant for kids to sit on.  They are aobut 1 foot high and have such a small area for you to sit on.  They sit on these chair on the side of the road and prepare their food for the market or just sit down to have their meal.

Hang had difficulty finding the place and I felt bad that she felt so bad.  It was really my fault that we left late. She kept saying, "I'm so sorry!"  and I told her, "No, its okay!".  I was told the driver would pick me up at the office hotel at 7:30AM.  It was about 7:45AM.  I could only hope that Vietnamese time was like Jamaican time.

After asking for directions from several people, we found the hotel.  I ran inside to see if the drive had come for me already.  He hadn't!  I came back out smiling and told Hang.  I told her I'd text her when I got back from the tour.

The driver, who said to call him Thomas, came shortly after.  He told me a bit about the Old Quarter, which is the section of the city we were in.  Several homes in the Old Quater have been there since the 20th century!

After picking up the other passengers, we rode to the Bay, about 3 hours away.  It started as a cloudly day but we we so lucky that the skies cleared a bit.

I met a Singaporean family who was very kind and sat with them on the boat during lunch.  Then we took smaller boats to expolre the caves.  We also had the option of taking a kayak but I've read stories about the strong currents in the bays on travelblogs so I decided to go in the boat instead.

The bay was breathtaking.  It was so peaceful and calming so see the large limestone cliffs jut out of the water and to see the background of limestone cliffs.

 We then walked through a cave.


I texted Hang when I got near the hotel but she said she was sorry she couldn't pick me up becaue it was too cold.  I took a taxi to her place and when I got there was greeted by 2 of her friends!  We walked in her neighborhood and found a restaurant   Again, they were so incredibly kind!  They kept asking me what Vietnamese food I've tried, and what I would like to try.  They ordered duck and chao, a rice/soup dish.

 Fang, Hang's friend, and Long at dinner

 Hang and I 

Chao

They asked if i had duck egg before.  I said, "No, but I've had chicken eggs."  "How different could it be?" I wondered!  Here's the picture!

Large blood vessels covered the egg!  I looked at Fang and said, "So, I just eat it?"  Haha, what a question!  He sprinkled some salt on it for me, and then broke a piece off with is spoon.  The first piece seemed to be the white of the egg.  It was very hard, but tasted like an egg.  I told him, it was good, but a little hard.  He then took the spoon, and cut into the center of the egg.   I could see a formed duck inside with feet!  Its like they wait for the duck to start growing and then cook the egg!

Hang, Long, and her friend would just giggle and giggle.  I have to say I felt a bit awkward since I didn't understand the jokes and they didn't speak much English.  Hang said, "You don't have to eat it!"  I took a piece of the yolk.  It tasted like a chicken yoke.

I asked them what American food they've tried.  They said, "We only eat Vietnamese food".  Fair enough.  I said, "Have you ever had a hamburger?"  They looked at me with blank faces.  I did my best to explain what a hamburger was.  It was then I started laughing and felt I could relate better to when they were laughing at me earlier.   Having dinner with someone who has never eaten food you eat every day is inherently hilarious if they stare at it like it's an alien, take pictures of it, poke at it with a spoon, and ask, "Do I just eat it?".  Can you imagine if someone acted that way at dinner with a slice of pizza, or chicken wings?  Its not offensive, its just very comical!  I told them that tomorrow I want to find a touristy area that sells Western food and buy them hamburgers!

After the egg, I said I was full and asked how much the meal was.  I was the only one who ate since they already had dinner.  Fang got up to pay.  "No, really, I've got it!" I said,  But he refused to let me pay!

As we walked back to Hang's house, I told Fang that I've eaten worms when I was in Namibia.  He said, "In 1945, people were very poor in this country and they had to eat worms, insects and anything they could find".  He told me about the French invasion of Vietnam in the 1940s.  I asked why France invaded and he said it was because the Vietnamese government was very weak.  He said there was a coup and Vietnam regained power.  He then asked what I knew about the Vietnam War.  I told him, I know it from the American perspective.  I said, "From what I understand, Russian was helping Vietnam spread communism and American was afraid communism would spread throughout Asia, so it fought against the Vietcong".  He told me that that was the American story.  I had expected as much!  I wish I could have understood him better but he told me that America sided with the French for reason that go back in history, and fought against the Vietnamese.  I wish I could have learned more but we arrived at Hang's house.

Hang and her friends had been in the middle of a board game, Cá ngựa.  It has 4 players, each has a different color horse.  There are 4 horses for each player.   You roll a dice, and have to roll a 6 in order to start moving your horse.  You have to move your horse it around the whole board without someone else landing on your same square.  I didn't roll many 6's and was sure I was going to loose.  Then Fang and I came down to the last two players, and we were both 1 square away, when I rolled a 3 and won.  Then Fang had to drink a cup of water for loosing.

 

Playing Ca ngua at Hang's house

Hang's phone alarmed when it was midnight.  We said Happy New Year.