Vietnam!

We arrived in Hanoi just a few days before Christmas. My first thought in the city was DEAR GOD! I had to literally close my eyes in the cab ride to the hotel because I thought for sure we were going to get in an accident any moment). The motorbikes here are insane, not only are there 2 million of them in a city of 4 million people, but they swerve all over the road, all of them honking simutaneously that it almost makes me relate the honking of horns now to this chaotic city. Try crossing the road and its like playing that old computer game frogger, but its your life that is at risk! The trick is to walk slowly across the road and don't stop, look the motorists straight in the eye so you know they see you and they will veer around you (you hope!). I'm used to it now, which is crazy to believe because even Aurelia can attest that I love the green man (the one that tells you when it is safe to cross the road).

We got out the city soon enough for a 3 day trip out on Halong Bay which means lake of the ascending dragon for its similar looking landscape. It was soooo much fun and the views were gorgeous the entire time we were out on the water. There were a group of 10 of us on the boat. The first day we went to visit a cave out on the water called "surprising cave" which was really interesting....it went on forever! We hiked up to the top of a pogoda on another island, and then went kayaking later that day. Aurelia and I both decided that we shouldn't be kayaking partners (they were 2 person kayaks) since our Stockholm canoing zig-zagging disaster in the summer. :)

We had a great dinner on the boat and then we anchored and slept. The next morning we got up and did a 2 hour hike in Cat Ba National Park. This was no easy hike lemme tell ya, I'm happy i wore good shoes for it! I've never hiked in a jungle before, it was so fun to be surrounded (even above!) by such lush greenery everywhere. We then went for a swim and another kayaking adventure where we docked ourselves on a sandy beach and found some gorgeous shells and coral.

We had the evening to ourselves on Cat Ba Island where we would be sleeping in a hotel. It being Christmas Eve that night, our whole group decided to go out for dinner together. It was soooo yummy, even though we were missing out on Christmas Eve dinner at home (which I'm sure was delicious!) it didn't feel so bad since we were having a delicious dinner on an island on the South China Sea.

The next morning we sailed back to the mainland and had a nice Christmas dinner in Hanoi.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas at home! Missed all of you!