Yes. It is October, and the first holiday week has already flown by.
Yet somehow my holiday doesn't yet feel complete until I post pictures... even when I should be sleeping. So, while they upload PAINFULLY SLOWLY I guess I'll write. So here's some bits of thought.
September was FAST. And for about the 3rd year in a row by the time the holiday arrived I was ready to stay home and rest, but as we all know, rest can be done elsewhere, so when in Asia one must TRAVEL!
My brother arrived in China 4 days before the holiday began - the final member of my family to come and visit me in China :) I am loved!! So after he had some time to get over jet-lag and explore my neighborhood a little we were off to Hanoi, Vietnam!
I had 6 full days there... not quite every day of my holiday, but for one city it was more than enough time. We explored the city for the first couple days and had a painfully hard time choosing what tour to take to HaLong Bay. Prices range from $60 to nearly $200 and of course every agent tells you that the $60 one is bad. My head hurt, so instead of deciding I slept! In the end we made a choice and it was GREAT! But turns out the HaLong Bay tours are VERY popular and there are many many many boats to choose from, as we saw when we were out sailing amongst many other boats.
HaLong bay is gorgeous and far better than any city holiday by far! We saw a cave, did some kayaking, slept on the boat, jumped off the boat, hiked a mountain, relaxed on a beach, slept in a bungalow, and fun stuff like that :)
One of many highlights was on our last day back of small boat ride, small bus ride, big boat ride, big bus ride. It happened as it was DUMPING rain and we were attempting to board our second boat ride. (suspense building...!) The small boat transporting us to our big boat was getting closer, and we were a large group of people huddled with our large bags trying not to get soaked by the rain, which was pretty much impossible. And just when we were almost docked, the boat we were in stopped working and started drifted slowly away from our destination. So as we drifted and drifted in the middle of the downpour, the solution was clear... one of the small Vietnanese men working on the big boat stripped to his tighty whities and jumped in, swimming towards us with a big rope. BUT the rope wasn't long enough, which meant that our lone boat driver also needed to strip down and jump in with his rope and meet halfway. SUCCESS! They looped the ropes together, and after a nice little swim we made it to safety. I WISH I had pictures to share, but for now you'll just have to imagine.
We did a little hike up the highest peak on Cat Ba island. Our tour guide was a Vietnamese man we were told was called "Monkey Man"... yes, true fact. And his wife, none other than Mrs Monkey. Why? Well turns out he's pretty good at swings from vines and posing for pictures like a monkey, by choice of course. We would hike, and they would race ahead of us and then fan us as we walked past. Can't say I've had someone do that before!
I left my brother in Vietnam and I'm back in China and back to work tomorrow... soon. But I am thankful (because it's good to be thankful, especially when it's Canadian Thanksgiving back home!) for catching an earlier connecting flight home and arriving with half my weekend left in Dalian! Yeah for 2 workouts, clean laundry, a new haircolor with less grey (boooooooo grey! and yes, it's sadly true) and soon to be complete updates :)
Well done reading if you finished! ;) Oh AND, I finished another book and started another. I am just a little proud of myself for reading. bahaaa!
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!
Yet somehow my holiday doesn't yet feel complete until I post pictures... even when I should be sleeping. So, while they upload PAINFULLY SLOWLY I guess I'll write. So here's some bits of thought.
September was FAST. And for about the 3rd year in a row by the time the holiday arrived I was ready to stay home and rest, but as we all know, rest can be done elsewhere, so when in Asia one must TRAVEL!
My brother arrived in China 4 days before the holiday began - the final member of my family to come and visit me in China :) I am loved!! So after he had some time to get over jet-lag and explore my neighborhood a little we were off to Hanoi, Vietnam!
I had 6 full days there... not quite every day of my holiday, but for one city it was more than enough time. We explored the city for the first couple days and had a painfully hard time choosing what tour to take to HaLong Bay. Prices range from $60 to nearly $200 and of course every agent tells you that the $60 one is bad. My head hurt, so instead of deciding I slept! In the end we made a choice and it was GREAT! But turns out the HaLong Bay tours are VERY popular and there are many many many boats to choose from, as we saw when we were out sailing amongst many other boats.
HaLong bay is gorgeous and far better than any city holiday by far! We saw a cave, did some kayaking, slept on the boat, jumped off the boat, hiked a mountain, relaxed on a beach, slept in a bungalow, and fun stuff like that :)
One of many highlights was on our last day back of small boat ride, small bus ride, big boat ride, big bus ride. It happened as it was DUMPING rain and we were attempting to board our second boat ride. (suspense building...!) The small boat transporting us to our big boat was getting closer, and we were a large group of people huddled with our large bags trying not to get soaked by the rain, which was pretty much impossible. And just when we were almost docked, the boat we were in stopped working and started drifted slowly away from our destination. So as we drifted and drifted in the middle of the downpour, the solution was clear... one of the small Vietnanese men working on the big boat stripped to his tighty whities and jumped in, swimming towards us with a big rope. BUT the rope wasn't long enough, which meant that our lone boat driver also needed to strip down and jump in with his rope and meet halfway. SUCCESS! They looped the ropes together, and after a nice little swim we made it to safety. I WISH I had pictures to share, but for now you'll just have to imagine.
I left my brother in Vietnam and I'm back in China and back to work tomorrow... soon. But I am thankful (because it's good to be thankful, especially when it's Canadian Thanksgiving back home!) for catching an earlier connecting flight home and arriving with half my weekend left in Dalian! Yeah for 2 workouts, clean laundry, a new haircolor with less grey (boooooooo grey! and yes, it's sadly true) and soon to be complete updates :)
Well done reading if you finished! ;) Oh AND, I finished another book and started another. I am just a little proud of myself for reading. bahaaa!
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!
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