First impressions...

We drove for 6 hours and then the bus stopped at 1am. After a bit of research, we found out that we were at the border of Vietnam, but the border didn't open until 7am. So they parked the bus and I tried to sleep. I experienced a feeling I had almost forgotten about....being cold! I was so cold, there were dogs barking and babies crying...that there was no way I was getting any sleep that night! We were woken up by some yelling and were given the signal to go inside to get our passports stamped. We waited in this dungy, bug infested, smoke filled, crowded room for an hour, watching people with bags of passports cut in front of us and I could see that there was a bit of money stashed on top...I assumed so theirs would get done first. We then saw this humungous spider crawling on the counter and I almost lost it! We finally got stamped and then had to trek about half a mile "across" the border to another building, get stamped again, our stuff looked at and finally sent on our way. We still had 14 hours in the bus to look forward to! It was a stunning landscape before us! It was comprable to northern Laos with its magnificent, lush mountains and valleys. Even though I had got maybe 1 hour of sleep that night, I couldn't open my eyes wide enough to soak up all this amazing beauty before me.

The farmers speckled across the rice fields was beautiful to me.

We met some great people on our ride. A couple originally from Zimbabwe that now live in the UK and then Ben, who was from South Africa and also living in the UK.

We finally arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam. Once we got rested we ventured out to a history museum which I was quite excited about because I don't feel I'm very knowledgeable about the Vietnam war and history of Vietnam. On the way there we were going to grab lunch. In the window of one of the restaurants was this next picture....which made us make the easy decision to keep walking!

I felt the museum was a bit hard to follow. I think it expected you to have alot of background knowledge, which we didn't. It was still interesting none the less. Next we headed to Hao Lo prison, where Americans were held during the war. It was quite interesting to hear their side of the story...which was obviously a bit different from the American version. It raised alot of questions internally as to what was the real truth and facts behind the war and what happened and why it happened. There were numerous documents and pictures that claimed very good treatment of the American prisioners. They said they told their story to the Americans and then the Americans felt bad and saw their wrong and regretted what they did and changed their thoughts, ways and viewpoints.  All the pictures they had of the prisioners they looked so happy! It said that they let the prisioners celebrate Christmas and decorate their cells. Not saying that the Americans were totally innocent in everything, but it did sound a bit sugar coated! There was alot of stuff about John McCain being a prisioner of war there. It also said that when the prisioners were released they were given souveniers....to remember their good times? Again, it was an interesting angle to read about. It made me want to learn more about the Vietnam war.

These next 2 pictures I was going to send home to my dear mother...but I didn't think she would find it quite as humorous as I did!

This next picture looks fake, but I promise it's real! It is taken in Hanoi, Vietnam in front of the center lake.

I had an interesting conversation with someone about how if the whole world lived as extravagently as the rest of us, that there wouldn't be enough resources to go around. Would we have to change our way of living if all of a sudden some of these poor countries decided that they wanted to improve their lives (according to most peoples standards) and have a life style more like the rest of us (with all our accessories and living in excess)? Or we would we just continue on and not change our lifestyle?

The traffic in Hanoi rivals Bangkok....and that's nothing to brag about! Our new friend Ben said, "I found that if you just don't look, you won't get hit!" I did not heed that piece of advice. I did find it more safe to travel in groups when crossing the street. Scary stuff!

We ventured off to Ha Long Bay for a few days for a boat trip and some trekking. We trekked up this mountain on Cat Ba Island. It was quite the strenuous journey, but as you will see in my next pictures and from my sweat, that it was well worth the effort!

That afternoon we took a boat across the bay to Monkey Island, which we found to only inhabit a few monkey! I was a bit disappointed! Yet again though, the hikes and views were worth it!