“It’s not the destination, but the journey that matters.” I
have really tried to be one of those people that enjoy the journey as much as
the destination. But I cant. And to be honest, I hate the actual means of
traveling. Buses, trains, planes, Id be okay if I never had to be on one again.
I’m the little kid in the backseat asking if we are there yet. And we never
are. BUT as much as I hate traveling, I have to say, that’s where the best
stories are made. More on this later.
Along the way in our travels I heard a man refer to one of
his friends as a ninja traveler. Someone who always knows what to do. When to
do it. How to do it. One of those travelers where things always go smoothly.
I’m not sure if this so called ninja traveler exists. I don’t know what it
would take for me to become a ninja traveler. But I do know one thing, and if
you have read this blog very much so do you. And that is that I am not a ninja
traveler. In fact I’m the opposite. When things can go wrong, they typically
do.
Let me tell you a story about the beginning of our trip…
Place: Vietnam
Our journey started in the capital city of Hanoi. It took about 2 minutes being in the
airport to realize this place was different. This was no Taiwan. People
here live life just a little differently than the rest of the world.
We stayed 5 or so days in Vietnam, so I decided that I should
exchange $300usd. In my mind, this might not be enough. In reality, it was way
too much. $300=$6,573,000 Vietnamese Dong. The stack on money they handed me would
not fit into my wallet. I must have had at least 80 bills. And yes, their money
is called dong.
After becoming a multi-millionaire we got into the cab that
was taking us to our hostel. For anyone traveling to Vietnam, a taxi ride will tell you
everything you need to know. They don’t use lanes, they don’t have stoplights,
they go as fast as traffic will allow. In short, they have no rules. But what
they do use (or overuse) are their horns. They honk every single time they go
by another car, or cross an intersection, or breath. You cannot stand on the
side of the road for more than a couple seconds without hearing someone honk. I
hate it.
But finally we made it to our hostel, which was located in
the famous old quarter. The French occupied Vietnam so all of their buildings
are very pretty, but not well maintained. Our first meal was street-side cook your own BBQ
complete with the ubiquitous Tiger beer. Everywhere you look you find places
exactly like this. Plastic stools on the side of the street with people huddled together sharing a meal
or some drinks or just watching the world go by. And in Vietnam, it
goes by fast.
The next day we toured the old quarter before heading to Halong bay. This trip is where my non ninja traveling skills were on display.
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| The Coffee on this trip was epic. This may have been the best. |
Once upon a time I thought Taiwan had crazy traffic
Our plan was to take the 1:20 bus. But, of course, they were not running that bus on that day. So we took another bus to a different town. This town is known for scamming white people. Let the journey begin.
We ran out of the bus station to catch the bus as it was leaving. We get on the bus. It cost Vietnamese people 100,000. It cost us 200,000. Okay whatever. For some reason my senses were heightened the entire bus ride. I didn’t trust anyone. So after a very long, crowded, and loud (honking) bus ride we made it to Halong city.
*Side note about Vietnam. They don’t have trash cans. The literally throw their trash anywhere they want. The filthiest place I can imagine.
Next we took a taxi to the dock. This is where it gets good.
We needed to take a ferry to the island we were staying on. But there were no more ferries for that day. So we went around and asked random fisherman to take us to the island but they were charging way too much. So we settled on a sketchy, small, unlit, fishing boat. We overpaid, but we had no choice. This boat was a glorified john boat with wooden planks going across the floor. The boat didn’t go more than 4mph in the pitch dark. The only lights we could see were the blue glowing algae in the water as the rocks in Halong bay were towering over us. Very creepy feeling. The engine only quit running once, I was surprised. After an hour or two boat ride we made it to an unlit, deserted dock. Okay now what? We were still miles from our hotel. At the end of the dock there was a house/resort/idk what. So we talked one of the people who lived there to take us to the island. It was late, he wanted to get home, so naturally he drove fast…really fast. Of course the roads were curvy and narrow.
But finally we made it to our hotel. Day 1 was in the books, and I was exhausted!
Sorry if this wasn’t very good and was long. I’ve been really tired since getting back. I’ll finish posting about our Vietnam adventure later this week. I have too many pictures and stories to try and cram all of Vietnam into one post.
Traffic just sort of glides around you.
