DAYS 82-116: VIETNAM

H A  L O N G  B A Y ,  V I E T N A M — H A L O N G B A Y , V I E T N A M

I thought we would have gotten used to bus travel in southeast Asia. We had been on buses that broke down, had our seats given away in front of us, gotten shoved into isles jam-packed with cargo, and had things stolen from right underneath our seats. We have winced as bus drivers wedged, braked, and barreled through oncoming traffic.

I thought we would have gotten used to bouncing from cheap hotel room to cheap hotel room. We had slept on mattresses so thin the coils dug into our backs, shown up to hostels only to find out we had accidentally booked the wrong night, and checked into $4 barack style bunk beds at 3 o'clock in the morning. The later wasn’t even me being cheap, it was our only option that night.

I thought we would have gotten used to the food. We had watched cats make themselves comfortable on kitchen counter tops in Thailand, stomached two weeks of Sherpa-style noodles in the Himalaya tea houses, and survived egg-induced food poisoning in Laos. And had eaten rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner throughout it all.

But the truth is, we were exhausted after over 100 days of travel. Tired of cleaning our laundry in hotel room sinks. Tired of ten hour bus rides. And really tired of all the rice. We needed a break and were thankful that we had booked a return trip home for Christmas. We spent the last two weeks in the midwest getting spoiled by our families, eating comfort food, and sleeping in cushy beds. We also took a break from blog writing so we hope that the few sentences and pictures below will give you a glimpse of our amazing time in Vietnam...

We spent our first few days in Da Nang, a large coastal city in the center of Vietnam strolling the streets between rain showers and drinking 30 cent coffees. We toured the ancient city of Hoi An by a flat bottomed wooden canoe and got tipsy off 40 cent beers. We then traveled north to Hanoi, Vietnam's capital city, spending most of our time dodging traffic in its Old Quarter and exploring war museums. Our favorite place, and where we spent the majority of our time, in Vietnam was on Cat Ba Island in Ha Long Bay. We kayaked hidden lagoons, hiked, climbed, and watched the sun set from the balcony of our $10/night hotel room. I even tried deep water soloing. And our final days were spent hiking amongst farming villages in Sapa, a town just south of the China border.

Upon returning home the most common question I received was, “What was your favorite place?” And I think I gave a different answer in response each time. Some places were easier on travelers, others had better food, some had more pleasant weather. Pretty much everywhere we went was beautiful. Although the Himalayas definitely stand out in that category. That is, unless your a beach person, because Ha Long Bay in Vietnam and Thai Islands were pretty spectacular too. The thing about travel is that it's not the places but the experiences. It’s the bus rides, the cheap hotels and the food. And it's experiencing it all with my wife. But who knows. Maybe my favorite place is yet to come. Happy New Year.

-Brad