so, i guess the last time i write was in hoi an. a lot of shit has happened since then and some miles have been put up. we are now in ha noi by way of ninh binh. our last day in hoi an we had some tailored pants made, i had some like hippie pants made and charlie had some like parachute pants made. they are pretty cool and comfortable plus we talked the lady down quite a bit. she originally wanted to charge me something like 400,000 dong; but we talked her into 420,000 for two pair, so it was like 12 dollars a piece. not bad for some custom shit. anyway, we were glad to get out of hoi an as it had too much of a touristy feel to it, even though that marble moutain was sick. so we caught the bus to ha noi. charlie was so cramped and uncomfortable within a few hours and we spoke with this kid from belgium who said he was getting off the bus in ninh binh and we had heard about some cool shit to do there so that became our new destination en route.
we got there about 5 in the morning after about a 15 hour bus ride with no place to stay and pretty much no plan. luckily, there are usually like 100 motorbikes and taxis waiting. here, one dude, saying we could rent in his motel across the street for 5 bucks a night. worked for us. the cool shit we had heard about was that it was like halong bay on land. halong bay is a crazy bay full of islands that just jutt out of the water, with apparently a bunch of caves as well. the particular national park we went to was call Trang An. charlie's got a bunch of pictures here:
https://plus.google.com/100425108117169097988?hl=en&tab=h#photos/103796131705116769000/albums/5670695812952437393.
it was seriously cool, amazing, and beautiful. what was also really great is that we had a canadian from vietnam in our little boat for the tour. he kind of interpreted everything the lady rowing the boat spoke about. it was pretty cool. the area had been used 3 times in the history of vietnam as a place of refuge for the emperor when the mongolians attacked. being that the place is surrounded by massive rock moutians and swamps, i'd say it was a good place. we were sure to be told that the vietnamese defeated the mongolains all three times they attacked. each time they made refuge, a different emperor would build a different base camp and temples to pray at. these left some pretty cool ass temples surrounded this surreal landscape. we learned that some of the temples that we were seeing were about 1000 years old. pretty cool stuff. check out the photos, as i can't even begin to describe what it looked like. as i walking around the place, i kept wandering off, into keeping pace with the walking, what i would eat later, and all of these banal thoughts; i had to stop myself and really take a look around. this is what i had come here for to see this different and strange landscape; row boating through caves under enormous rock mountians and seeing far east buddists temples. it was really amazing and i was so glad that i could get out of my own head and just appreciate where it is that i am and are doing and really be happy in the moment. check out charlies photos, is all i can say; i'll try to post some later but for the time being i have no way to get them up.
so after this tour, we went and got some lunch. hahaha, it was just a normal lunch of chicken and rice, not some weird shit this time; and went to hoa lu. hoa lu is one the ancient capitals of vietnam and was pretty cool. it was in the same landscape as trang an so surround by the same type of moutains and swamps. i am not sure of how old it is and there were not many people to guide you around as it was pretty shit weather out. we did get to climb another mountain to look over the whole city and that was pretty cool.
as we got back to ninh binh and it was rush hour. our motorbike skills had to quickly engage as it was pretty mad. luckily we made it through and had to have a few beers to amp down. after that we went to go have noodle soup at a place we had breakfast at the day before. the dude running it was crazy and loved us because we had hit his tobacco bong. seriously they are all over the north, at kiosks, at shops for sale and people just ripping them all over. we had to tried it, right, we're here. so he loved us and was teaching us how to hit it the best and just straight speaking vietnames at us. we had no clue but kept laughing and smiling because he would and he was so full of enthusiasm. so we were gunna go back for dinner. dude feed us pho and both of us were thinking how jealous christian would be that we're just macing pho day after day and how delicious it always is. this was super good and we learned that the old dude ran the shop with his wife and two sons and was so proud of his family. it was really pretty cool. we hit the pipe again, just to make sure our technique was okay and then he was trying to rush us out; we thought saying he was going to shut down and sleep for the night. we had shots of rice wine with his son and then broke out... to chuch with this old dude. now, here we are in vietnam after a crazy day doing this sick tour, motorbiking our asses off, putting back some beers, hitting the tobacco bong with this dude, taking rice wine shots with his son and this guy takes us to saturday night mass. it was a trip. we had no clue what was going on, where he was taking us... and it's to mass. hahah, we both stayed as we felt out of respect and spoke about how it had been years since we'd been. it was sobering, like the moment i'd had earlier at the park; here i am and i can't believe what i'm doing. it was cool though, and we were both pretty happy that this old guy had shared that with us.
we left the next day to catch the local bus to ha noi. the local bus was pretty scary. dudes trying to pass like 4 trucks with another semi heading straight at us and motorbikes on all sides. i've said it before and i'll say it again, i am waiting to see a crash. i don't want to, but i think it has to happen. i see like 15 near, and i mean near, misses walking two blocks. haven't seen it yet though. it had been pretty hazy in ninh binh and we both commented on it but couldn't decide what from. on the way to ha noi we saw some massive strip mining on the sides of the freeway (if you could call it that) and some concrete plants, maybe. anyway, a shit ton of people drying rice in their drive ways straight on the asphalt on the side of the road and all i could think was i'll probably be eating that later. garbage fires on the side of the road as well, blocking out all site for the drivers. bathrooms with no toliets just holes in the ground, the shower and the toliet with no divider, construction workers in flip flops, for a while on the drive all i could think about were the bigger differences between our cultures. by the time we got to ha noi, i had decided the haze was pollution. it's pretty hazy here as well. it might be gross, but i know by the fact that my buggers are black. now i know why they are all wearing face masks when they drive.
despite that, i am enjoying ha noi. i went for a good run around the big lake in town, hoan kiem; and we both got lost for hours on our own. we haven't been doing too much here, just walking around and taking it easy. drinking bia hoi's for 5000 dong a piece, so that's like a quarter. there is a whole section of the tourist part of town were you can go to all of these kiosks and drink them from kegs. charlie is getting his india visa from the place here in town; that takes like 5 days, so i am breaking off to take a tour of halong bay while he holds it down here for a couple of days. i'm pretty excited, it's like a 3 day/two night tour where one night i'll get to sleep on the boat and another in some bungalows on monkey island. it's weird walking around ha noi knowing my parents were here only a few years ago and maybe they have walked down the same streets or ate the same street meat, i know pops would. but they both really wanted me to do halong bay so there i'll be tomorrow and i'm sure it'll be great.
hopefully some fucking pictures soon!
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