Cute kiddie on motorbike

The kids and toddlers learn how to hang on very quickly...early on.
I see it all over Hanoi.

Trekking out to Ninh Binh

We took the tour bus about 3 hours outside of Hanoi into the countryside to visit the city of Ninh Binh. I didn't learn this until today but my grandparents are from a small town near here. It's where they both grew up, met and got married. It's also where my mom was born. In the early '50s they fled to South Vietnam after the Commies took over. It's the first time my mom's been back since she was 2. I can't imagine ever leaving here...



We all took boats out into the mountains. I can't really begin to describe how amazing they were rowing through these and going into the grottos.



My favorite part of this trip so far...

Rowing down river in Ninh Binh

Mommie Dearest...


And me...

One of the ancient temples in Ninh Binh

A shot of iguana, anyone?

This was not found in some scary yellow-neck part of Vietnam. We ate at a really high-end expensive restaurant in Hanoi and they had some interesting rice wine-infused, ummm, IGUANA. The owners swore up and down a shot of that infused wine actually is good for you and your health somehow. As adventurous as I am trying to be on this trip, needless to say, I passed...

Fashion boutiques in Hanoi

These are a few I spied by our hotel when I was walking around today. I mean, they pretty much describe us Asians...NO?

Me on mountain after my crazy religious experience

WORN OUT!

Kid on mountain

Everyone is selling something in Vietnam. And up on the mountain, I spied this adorable kid selling baby turtles. He doesn't look too thrilled...

Boating up to Chua Huong: Religious fervor in the mountains

We boated up to these mountain ranges yesterday...It was ridiculously breaktaking. A lot of Buddhists make the "pilgramage" up to these mountains to visit temples and pagodas and pray. It was like a freakin' circus up there after we docked.



This dude in the boat next to us rowed 30 people by himself! And I felt bad that a little old lady rowed 10 of us all the way down the river by herself...for an hour!



A view from the cable car that we had to take to get up to part of one of the mountains. It's like something out of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon!

Getting enlightened on the mountains

Docked the boat. Hiked up the mountain. It was insane with people everywhere selling food, wares, etc. Many people buy gifts to offer at the temple. Like all these gold trinkets and faux gold flowers.



We decided to visit the main "temple" called the Perfume Pagoda. I wasn't sure what to expect, but when we looked down, I was blown away at the THOUSANDS of people buzzing around this cave (YOU HAVE TO CLICK ON THE PIC BELOW TO SEE HOW ENORMOUS THIS THING WAS). People were chanting, praying, wailing, crying, speaking in tongues. It was ridiculously loud, noisy, pushy, unorganized, crazy.



People would leave their gifts and pray to rocks.



My favorite was this kid who had his little tray ready to offer up to the gods: incense, fake money and CHOCO-PIE to leave at one of the altars. My family got freaked out at the overcrowding and went somewhere else, but I stayed for a bit, turned up FLEET FOXES on my iPOD and had my own religious experience.

Stop the presses: I ATE SEAFOOD!

So after a long crazy day of hiking on mountains, boating down rivers, sitting in the car for hours on end...I was starving.

My family decided to check out a hole-in-the-wall by the hotel and the first thing I noticed was this sign. "YOU HAVE GOT TO BE EFFIN KIDDING ME?" I thought to myself. For those of you who know me well, know I DO NOT eat seafood. "Well, we can pick you up KFC on the way back to the hotel," my aunt reassured me.



When they brought out this broiling clay pot with chunks of fish and greens, I dove right in. Since Vietnam is known for their amazing seafood, I had to let my hair down...and it was delicious.

Hanoi at dusk.

Bustling with motorbikes...never ending honking...

Natural caves in HaLong Bay

As if those mountains in HaLong we visited yesterday weren't fabulous enough on the outside, we actually docked at a couple and hiked up INTO the beautiful caves, illuminated by flourescents everywhere inside.

I couldn't help but think about what my quickest escape route would be though if one of those meat hungry humanoid predators from THE DESCENT were to jump out at any minute...

Turn away if you are vegetarian

OKAY OKAY before you get all up in arms over this, let's keep in mind that you would probably see the SAME damn thing if you were up in the Appalachians or somewhere in the redneck backwoods of America...

We headed up to some mountain ranges today and checked out all the wares and I spied stall after stalls just like this (we were in the COUNTRYSIDE). Not sure what all the critters were, but I did see some baby Bambis and foxes and the like...and the spotted thing on the right?

Baby cougar meat kabob anyone???

Outside my hotel this morning

You have to really click on the photo to enlarge it to see the expressions...

The Price is Right!

Vietnamese PRICE IS RIGHT is just as cool as American PRICE IS RIGHT...



Except the prizes are stuff like king sized mattresses instead of Mazda Miatas...

HaLong Bay's boat people

Fishing for lunch

For our "seafood" lunch, part of the experience was visiting the boat people out on HaLong Bay to actually GET the food. They spend their lives living on boats out on the bay and make their living by selling the seafood they catch. Our guide told us they are a close knit community who rarely dock on land. At night one of the boats even turns into a bar/disco?!

My family chose some crazy looking seafood to eat, but they said it was good.



BEFORE:




AFTER:

Self

HaLong Bay

WOW. We spent most of the day in a junk (boat) cruising around these. There are HUNDREDS of them scattered along the Quang Ninh province in Northern Vietnam.



Had my iPod on and at one point COLDPLAY's Viva La Vida started to play, I got a little overwhelmed and my eyes started to well up. I know, I'm dramatic. It really was breathtaking!

Vietnamese Food 101

OKAY, so I've totally become one of those annoying Asian tourists who take pictures of all their food at every meal.

For breakfast, my two fave things in the world - a big bowl of PHO soup and BAN CUON, flat rice noodles stuffed with meat with fish sauce all over it. YUMMMMM. The rest of the day? I wasn't so adventurous (Sorry Bill Addison). We took a boat out to Halong Bay - where the moutain islands are in the Pacific and we actually bought our seafood from the boat people out there and had it cooked for lunch.



Crabs for lunch. Picked out by my family. My aunt gave me some power bars.



Dinner. Escargot. I passed.

Noodle stations!

I. FREAKIN. Love. Vietnamese. Food.

At lunch today, I headed straight to the noodle station. Yummerssssss. I left out the veggies and bean sprouts of course. I slurped down the meaty broth and rice noodles quick!

Visiting old ass structures

We visited a whole bunch of temples today. This one in Hanoi has been around since the 1000s??? I should've written it down.

Our guide said that we had to rub the Buddha??? feet for good luck. So I rubbed it like multiple times and made wishes...like it was a genie bottle.

We also visited the "Literature Temple" which happened to be the very first University in Vietnam built in 1070. I'm just chillin' at one of the doors.

Vietnamese desserts are colorful

But I had no idea what any of it was...so I was too afraid to try any of it. They're really pretty though!

Laugh for the day

Spotted this in the window of a wedding dress shop...

A wedding album titled ROMANTIC FEELINGS.

Vietnamese school children love ice cream