Day 29 of 100: Leaving Hanoi on a day that doesnt exit in calendar !!!!



Lynn and I got our own spa appointment today. I was determined to have my hair cut today in Hanoi. Do you wanna check out the before and after photos?


Before Hair Cut



After Hair Cut



Since i finished my hair cut earlier, i was walking around Hanoi a bit for some last minute shopping. Guest whom i bumped into? My boat jumping buddies from the halong bay tour!!!




My boat-jumping buddies (Joe, Rachel, Rob, Jerome & me)

 I was supposed to fly to Singapore tonite with Tiger Airways. My first time with this budget airline but i got my 3.5 hours flight for US$2. Yes $2 for my ticket but $75 for the taxes.....hahahha..but compared to what we use to pay in Canada, it is still very cheap, eh? Problem today was after i said goodbye to Lynn and took and an hour taxi to the airport, i realized my flight was delayed from 9pm to 4am. WHAT? Luckily the check-in counter was opened so at least i can check in my luggage. I decided to took and hour taxi back to Hanoi hotel and sleep there for 3 hours then took an hour taxi back to the airport at 1:45am. By the time i arrived at the airport, it was almost 3am. May be because the immigration officer was too sleepy. Today is Sept 30, 2010. He picked up the stamp and switch the date by one. So I got the stamp to prove that i left Hanoi on Sept 31,2010....AHHHHHHHH....i left Hanoi on a date that doesn’t exit...LOL..

Immigration Officer stamped Sept 31, 2010...LOL...



Day 26 of 100: Halong Bay

We arrived at the kangaroo cafe very early in the morning for the halong bay tour. Pretty interesting group we had in the tour. In addition to Lynn and me, we had Robert & Rachel from UK, Joe from US, Jerome from France, a family of 4 from Melbourne, Oz and 4 friends traveling from Malaysia. Not much interaction at the beginning of the 5-hour coach ride from Hanoi to halong bay. The traffic was really bad and it probably took us more than 1.5 hrs to get out of the city. Of course, you would expect the normal washroom and shopping breaks the tour guide would take you.

Finally we arrived in halong bay and we are on the boat. First time we have to be face-to-face around a long table for lunch and it was a bit awkward at the beginning. Be honest, i havnt joined a tour for a long time so it has been a while that we need to “fight” for food with “strangers”...

Halong Bay

on the Junk boat

Famous Halong Bay

AMAZING CAVE

In the afternoon, the boat arrived at the Amazing cave. At the beginning, the cave was kinda small and nothing really amazing about it. When we moved to the 2nd and 3rd caves, the size are getting bigger and bigger. Even though there were color lights to shine on the limestones, it wasn’t THAT amazing. However, when i started to look at the pictures i took, wow....all the color came out nicely and I just cannot believe my eyes. See pictures below and i was really amazed with the pics.




Jumping from the boat..."if you jump, i jump.."
In the afternoon, the boat was staying in a relatively calm harbour. My tour-mates started jumping from the boat. They started to jump from the 1st (lower) level but they moved on to the top of the boat (3rd level). I’m a slow starter so I started low but eventually graduated at the 2nd level. It was very fun and people from other boats started to think we were crazy!...Seems like we were the only boat in the area that people kept on jumping.

My boat jumping buddies: Rob, Rachel, Joe, Jerome & me

At nite, the captained had to start the engine so that there was electricity overnite. My room was the closest to the engine room. However, I couldn’t stand the smell of the gasoline so i volunteered to sleep on the deck. It turned out to be a wonderful way to experience halong bay. It wasn’t hot at nite, it wasn’t humid. With the sea breeze, it was just perfect. Also, the junk boat was in the middle of the sea and far from civilization. I could see the sky full of stars at night. I didn’t really want to fall asleep as i felt amazingly good in the setting.