I remember when I first got to Vietnam thinking, man a whole 2 1/2 months until my parents and Nadia visit! Well, that came and went! Insane! As I promised, I am including my parents in my blog (not sure why they were so adamant about it, do they think they are now blog-celebrities? I don't think my blog is that popular ... ). Anyway, it was really fun having them visit, especially because their travel agent set up some REALLY sweet trips. [Side note - while writing this I turned and looked out the window to my office and I can very clearly see a man peeing next to a tree. While he might think this was a good hiding spot, this is a city. He's on a major road, and he's hiding from no one. Really guy?! Really?]
Back to my vacation. I met the parents in Hanoi, a short 2 hour plane ride north. I checked into my little hotel which boasted the cheapest rooms in the city. While I assume this was true ($15/night) that did not reflect the quality of the room. While it was very simple and small, it had everything I could want - a bed, an AC, a bathroom, a minibar, and even a TV. Meanwhile, I then walked down to my parents fancy-shmancy hotel where someone opened the door for me and the elevator talked to you. Whatever....! We walked to dinner at a nice Vietnamese restaurant and had some delicious food and wine (of course, no dinner is complete without wine when dining with the Palin's). Then we had an after-dinner glass of wine (obviously) at the hotel - okay there's one bonus of their fancy hotel.
Another advantage of their hotel - breakfast buffet! Actually, my hotel also had a breakfast buffet but I was not brave enough to see what I get for $15/night. I opted for the nicer hotel in this case as well. After breakfast we explored Hanoi a bit - it was nuts. I know I live in a huge city of around 11 million people (depending on the day), but Hanoi just felt so claustrophobic and crowded in a way that Saigon does not. There were some very pretty parts, I liked the lakes we passed by and the parks were cute. Overall, I'm glad I live in Saigon. After our explorations we met our tour guide, Ruby, who my parents basically wanted to adopt. He was a great tour guide - he knew his stuff and was extremely nice, friendly, and accommodating (too much, at times). We got in our jumbo van (could have fit about 12 people in there but it was just 3 of us!) and headed to Ninh Binh.
So I didn't know too much about Ninh Binh aside from what I read in my parent's itinerary but it was beautiful. Actually, I'm somewhat confused as to whether or not we were actually in Ninh Binh the whole time but wherever we were around there was beautiful. Starting with our resort. Holy crap. When we first arrived we were all, "Oh, we can rent bikes and explore the area and bla bla bla". Then, we walked into our little resort community and we were like, nah, let's just stay here ... forever. The pictures might give you a bit of a hint into how freakin' awesome this place was. We just hit the pool bar and didn't leave, basically. Compared to Hanoi it was so quiet and tranquil, we were in heaven. Especially my non-city dwelling parents.
We did a bicycle tour around the countryside, through fields and next to water buffalo. School children were riding by us and literally every minute a kid was saying "hello!" to us as we drove by. It was pretty adorable. Then, we went to a local family's house and learned how to make spring rolls. That's probably all they trusted us to make. The lady chopped vegetables like a professionally trained chef. Meanwhile, mom and I were a little slower, though we cook all the time too! We asked the girl where she learned to cook. They told us that girls had to learn to cook so they would be better wives, basically. Welp, I guess I won't be a very good wife with my poor knife skills!
We had an insane amount of food at lunch. I tried not to let all of the fish go to waste by sneaking some of it to this adorable kitten that quickly became my new best friend. Then, we rode our bikes back and hopped on a little boat and went through some caves and eventually took a very long sanpen (the type of boat, might be spelled wrong...) ride back to where our van was parked. It was quiet and amazingly scenic. I have NO idea how the one guy paddled us all the way without stopping. That guy must have been in some stellar shape. I would have died. Americans are heavy, after all!
After spending some more time being rich and fancy at our resort we had to leave the next morning for Halong Bay! Not too disappointing, however, as we had a very luxurious cruise here as well. We feasted and had drinks on the roof of the boat in the bay surrounded by limestone cliffs. We also got to kayak around a fishing village. It blew my mind how these people live in floating houses in the middle of nowhere. So sheltered!
Since we were clearly on a fancy cruise, the rest of the travelers were older (older than me, at least) so I called our cruise the Senior Citizen cruise. Not completely accurate, however, as we met a nice German couple who weren't that old and some Australian ladies who were all down to party a little later than the rest of them (old folks!). We stayed up until a whopping 12:00am or so! This actually was quite late as we had to wake up at the crack of dawn for breakfast and Tai Chi on the roof. I must say, I don't quite get Tai Chi but it was pretty hilarious.
Another breakfast buffet! While Kath and Bruce complained about having so many large breakfasts, I loaded up my plate(s) and enjoyed the spread. I don't think I'd ever say no to a breakfast buffet, especially not on a boat. Shortly after we returned to land and had to head back to reality, well, at least I did. We headed to the airport where I had to wait an extra 2 hours or so since my flight was later than my parents. Luckily, I had a book to read on my Kindle (not anymore! ugh ... that story will come later).
Anyway, enough babble. Here's some pics:
