Vietnam

Well it's official friends...I have been to the most beautiful place on earth. Where might you ask? Halong Bay, Vietnam. Halong Bay lies just off the coast of Northern Vietnam. It is a collection of mostly inaccessible limestone islands (1,969 according to our local guide). Two friends and I went there for about two and a half days. We took a two day, one night private boat trip out into the bay in which we independently kayaked throughout the bay, ate fresh seafood for every meal, and just enjoyed being in the bay. Halong Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is one of the nominees for the New 7 Wonders of the World. It was an amazing few days with landscape that will be very hard to top in my mind.

After Halong, we spent a day and a half in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. Hanoi has a very cool feel to it as it has a lot of Chinese influence mixed with Vietnamese culture. We stayed in the "Old Quarter" of Hanoi which has one of the strongest and most prominent Chinese influences. We visited a Confucius university which was started in the 11th century. While classes have stopped at the university, the continue to hold graduations of other area universities on the grounds. Hanoi is definitely a city I wish I could spend more time in, and hope to go back to one day.

Vietnam is a very intriguing place for someone from the West. Even though it has a communist government, it runs it's economy under a more capitalist mindset (much like China). This has led to a surge in the economy of Vietnam in the past few years. You have amazing juxtapositions of people harvesting rice patties while in the shade of giant billboards advertising many different products (we actually saw this on the way to the airport). The most exciting, chaotic, and sometime terrifying part of being in Vietnam is the traffic. I have never been anywhere with such crazy traffic (and remember that I have been to three African countries). EVERYONE who lives in or near cities owns a motorbike. Cars are very expensive, so motorbikes are the main form of transportation. I had the privileged of being able to drive a motorbike for a day while I was there and it was quite an experience! All in all, it was a great little vacation. If you would like to see some pictures from the trip you can follow this link to an album I have posted on facebook.

Peace and love.