An Education (Part 5)

Holla! Que pasa?!?

Bet you never thought I'd be speaking Spanish in Vietnam, me neither. After two nights in Hanoi City we hopped onto a junk and cruised out to Halong Bay. We quickly befriended three spanish guys (who only spoke spanish) and lina translated while we practiced our year 2 spanish skills, which we quickly realized are shit. However, for not understanding each other we all got along really well. At night we told bi-lingual ghost stories and did english/ spanish karaoke battles. During the day we visited an amazing cave, went hiking (but it was more like mountain climbing - i would define it as extreme hiking), visited aggressive monkeys, and relaxed on the beach in one of the most beautiful places in the world. If you were only able to see one place in Vietnam, I would say see Halong Bay, it has outshone every other sight Vietnam has to offer by a long shot and is absolutely spectacular.

We've been taking it easy the past few days and just enjoying Hanoi City. The food is gourmet and amazing here due to the French influence. Today we had a girls spa day, I spoiled myself and it was awesome. Tomorrow we head out to Hoi Bin for a night to visit one of Lina's friends. Then we will be back to Hanoi the next day and hopefully meet up with our spanish friends for a lovely snake dinner. Yes, you read that correctly and I'm still on the fence about it.

Interesting things about Vietnam...

1. I guess it's a major fad for women to wear jeans and heels - everywhere - market, airport, shopping, you will always see women in jeans and heels.

2. Similarly, I could easily create a whole picture album dedicated to cute Asian babies in animal hoodies and beanies, they are all wearing them and are completely adorable!

3. It's a much more conservative country than Cambodia. I've heard a lot of differences in culture (like if a woman gets a divorce here she's considered ruined) but don't go off that, it's only what I've heard so I'm not sure how accurate it is. I will only say from observance, it is more conservative.

Pic 1 - Lina and Hillary kayaking in Halong Bay
Pic 2 - View from the top (side note: I hiked that in sandals - it was a bad idea)
Pic 3 - Halong Bay and boats

Jillian aka Jilly, Jillybean, Jillypet, J-Bones, J-Dilla, and sometimes Crab Cakes