*Transcribed Journal Entry Day 08* 27.12.2010

I set my alarm for a 06h00 wake-up to be able to catch the sunrise over  Ha Long Bay.  Philippe and I made it to the top deck around 06h15, we woke up Faiz as well.  Complete silence and tranquility.  Not another boat anywhere near us, the sun already risen but the crescent moon still visible in the sky.  We take in the surroundings until breakfast which was served at 08h00.  A small fishing boat passes by dropping its nets then speeds off, a Vietnamese woman also rows through a nearby channel then disappears leaving our boat completely alone. 

After our breakfast, we settle our bar tabs, check out of our rooms and make way back to the harbour.  Almost half of the passengers switch to another boat as they've taken a 2 night package.  When we make it back to the harbour we drop anchor and wait about 30 minutes for the small ferry to take us back to land.  We split into different groups according to where our hotels are, and have lunch in Ha Long City before the 3.5 hour drive back to Ha Noi.


We saw 2 accidents on the highway back, one between 2 scooters head-on.  It looked quite serious as there was a pretty big pool of blood on the ground.  By the time we drove past though, the drivers were likely already taken to the hospital.  Thit Cho (Dog) restaurants seem to be present in every village we pass through.  Other common scenes included bonfires in farming fields, people walking down the side of the freeway, cars driving in reverse on the freeway, a horse on the side of the freeway, a scooter driver making a U-turn in the middle of a bridge.  I've come to the belief that nothing surprises the Vietnamese people.  This is truly a land of anything goes.

Upon making our way into the city, we have 4.5 hours to kill before meeting up with the others so we took to the streets to check out the markets and a place to eat.  The markets again disappointed however we all agreed to find some street food to be able to get an authentic taste of Vietnam.  We stroll by a Pho vendor who's doing brisk business, they have about 40 seats, and we decide to get some Pho Bo (Beef Pho).  At 20,000 Dong ($1.00) we get a hearty bowl complete with a Chinese doughnut to dip in the broth.  This was perhaps my best bowl of Pho so far in Vietnam.  Afterwards with still an hour and a half to kill, we find an Aussie bar/travel agency called the Kangaroo Cafe.  Run by an Aussie since 1994, they run a restaurant but also organize tours.  We grab a beer and I also got a homemade yogurt with honey, both costing 50,000 Dong ($2.50).

We make our way to the main post office to meet with all the others, in total we're 9 to fit in a 7 seater SUV.  4 across in both rows of seats, I'm up against the window with no legroom, a hard metal object I have to balance my right butt cheek on and shotty suspension for the 90 minute ride back to the orphanage.  At 100,000 Dong ($5.00) each though, you can't complain too much!!!

The big disappointment of the night unfortunately was right at the end.  Getting back to our room, Jin is the first to realize that she has money missing from her bag.  Ville has his mp3 player taken too and Philippe had some medicine taken.  Luckily nothing of mine was taken.  Its halfway through this that Kien realizes that although the door was locked, it wasn't locked properly and there was a pretty easy way to get in.  I'm glad in any event that I took all my valuables with me over the weekend!