Ha Ha Halong Bay

Twas the day after Christmas, and all through the hotel not a creature was stirring not even early morning boxing day shoppers!!!

Well I have to say that the invention of hot water is an absolutely marvelous thing.  It's crazy how much you can take something as simple as this for granted!!  I had my first hot shower in a week today and wow, it felt GREAT!  There weren't any curtains (european style shower) but that didn't matter, just having the ability to control how hot you want the water was good enough!!  Oh that, and a proper bed too!!!

Christmas day was very eventful and one that I think I will never forget in my life.  We woke up around 7:30am and already the kids had been up for over an hour cleaning the orphanage from top to bottom in preparation for the Christmas party.  Quickly I got ready, packed my bags for the weekend and made a few phone calls back home for Christmas.  Somehow the key for the breakfast room was lost, so we wasted a lot of time waiting around for someone to open the door for us and by the time it got opened, it was too late to eat.  Kids from a nearby orphanage had already made their way our orphanage, and everyone was pretty much ready for the show to begin.  We had a few last minute preparations to make, and then the director started things off.  We had several groups of kids come up to the stage and perform various different Vietnamese song and dance routines, and there were a few routines done by the kids from the other orphanage.  The other orphanage was a 'regular' orphanage in that none of the kids were handicapped.  There was one boy, in his early teens who peformed two Vietnamese songs solo, and he was pretty amazing!  There were also a few choreographed dance numbers too which were pretty fun to watch.  We got up on stage 3 times as well to sing our songs with the kids, and then Enrico made a grand entrance at the end dressed up as Santa Claus and we all went through the crowd handing out cookies and candies to everyone there.

Right after the show, we all headed out into the nearby village for a quick Vietnamese Christmas lunch of Pho Bo (at my request :)!!!!!)
Many of the volunteers weren't too keen, as was I, as we ended up eating at a roadside restaurant, and well, hmm... proper hygiene isn't really a strongpoint at these type of restaurants.  Nevertheless, when in Vietnam....  I figure we've been eating pretty sketchy at the orphanage too, and anyways, the Vietnamese volunteers were eating no problem, so I figure my stomach can handle it now that I've gotten acclimatized to the food situation here a la my stomach bug from last week.

It was pretty cool all the same, as the Pho vat's were right next to us, and I was able to see the making of pho from start to finish.  First they start off by putting the noodles in the bowl, the place the beef on top.  We had combo pre-cooked and raw beef together.  Then they put the green onions on top of the beef, and then they take the bowl over to the broth vat and place a couple of big ladels of broth on top and voila, there's your Pho Bo!!!

After we were all done, we climbed into two taxis that took us to the bus station (roadside sign) and we headed into Hanoi.  From the Hanoi bus station, we took another taxi to the Hanoi Atlantic Hotel (Hostelling International) where we tried to get a mixed dorm room as we are 5 to stay here. 

Philippe from Liege, Ville from Tampere and I are going to Halong Bay together and staying overnight on a Chinese Junk (type of boat) and then coming back to Hanoi Monday afternoon.  Jin and Yeon-Soo from Seoul are also coming to Halong Bay but just for the day, they want to spend more time in Hanoi so they are just doing a day trip.  Enrico from Milan, Yasuto from Osaka, and Pooseung Seoul are taking an overnight train to the mountain town of Sa Pa this weekend as their weekend excursion.

Back to the hostel, so we tried to book the dorm room the day before, however Jin's internet connection crapped out right when she was trying to pay, so it never went through, so we showed up here yesterday and there weren't any dorm's available for all 5 of us, so we had to split up:  the two girls stayed in the dorm room, and us three guys got the private room with 3 beds and private bathroom all to ourselves for an exorbitant $9US a night (breakfast included!!)  After we checked in, we went out exploring the city.  We walked to the main area around the Lake in the Old Quarter, then decided we were all hungry so upon my recommendation for the restaurant I ate at here last week, returned for a nice Christmas dinner all together.  My Christmas meal included Chicken fried rice, Onion Soup - And for those of you at work who know how much of a French Onion Soup connoiseur I am, this soup was not even in the same league!!!  It was puree'd onions....
Anyways, for me the best part of our Christmas dinner was dessert....  Since it was a French-Vietnamese restaurant, they had crepes on the menu, and I decided to try a mango chocolate crepe with Vietnamese Iced coffee of course!!!

After our group dinner, Enrico and the guys had to head off to the train station, so we bade them farewell, and the 5 Halong Bayers decided to walk around the Lake and check out the Notre Dame cathedral.  (I was happy to do this as I missed it on my day in Hanoi the week previous).  When we got to the church, I was impressed at its presence.  Very grand in stature, very well kept up, and beautifully decorated for Christmas.  There was an amazing Nativity scene in the front area, complete with 2 cascading waterfalls, and at the back of the church behind the Apse, there was another Nativity scene which was one where you could get to up close. 

We then headed out to the Night Market for some bargain hunting, which unfortunately didn't arise for me.  But Philippe was able to snag up a North Face backpack for the insane price of $5.50 CDN...  We did however fill up on some street snacks, Philippe and I getting a Vietnamese style pizza and me also getting a chocolate brownie for about a dollar in total.

Back at the hostel we ended the night watching the tail end of Jurassic Park before dozing off to sleep.

Today we head to Halong Bay in about an hour and will get back to Hanoi Monday afternoon around 4pm.

I hope everyone back home had a great Christmas, and I look forward to catching up with you all in less than a week now!!!  I have over 1000 photo's already!!!!!

Take care,


Jeremy