I arrived in Hue, and found nothing really to write home about. Though walking back from dinner, I heard someone call “Lauren!”, something I am not at all accustomed to hearing these days, and turned around to see my friends Adam and Allison from Nha Trang. I sat down and hung out with them for a while before heading to bed.

The next day I excitedly boarded my first train of the trip, an over-night journey to my final destination in Vietnam, Hanoi. Two folks recognized me from Greenfields, the backpackers’ haven in Hoi An, and so began my travels with Dan and Molly from the UK. I entered my cabin and was greeted by Dana from Canada, and Dan from Australia. After a few moments of discussion, I realized that Dan was the guy with the troublesome bladder from the overnight bus ride to Nha Trang. Small world.

The train ride was much more expensive than the bus, but was so worth it. The views were spectacular as we cut through deserted areas where the roads didn’t follow, mountainsides, coast lines, salt fields, and over rivers and valleys.

Once the sun went down, the beer cart came around, and we bought a few “333’s”, one of the cheap beers here, and waited for our food. We waited and waited, and nothing came, so Dana and I trecked from one end of the train all the way to the back looking for the kitchen (this was a time when I was glad to be a “NYer”, my subway legs served me well). We went through the 6 berth rooms, and then to the 3rd class where locals were haphazardly spread across chairs and suitcases trying to sleep. They were out of food, but they gave us some soup, which turned out to be quite good.

We jumped off the train during one stop to grab more beer, and invited Dan and Molly to join us for a game of Zilch. I taught everyone the game, and they caught on quickly (Katie, you would have been proud), with Dan somehow rolling 6 5’s at once to win the game. I had never, in all my Zilch years, seen that happen.

Sleeping on the train was a really fun experience, though did give me a few nightmares from the strange sounds passing in the night. We woke up at 5:45 in Hanoi, and were greeted by taxi drivers who were all too happy to pull one over on us by driving around the city pretending to know where our hostel was, when they in fact had no clue. We got dropped off in the Old Quarter in the middle of nowhere, but thanks to a few Germans, were able to find our way to our Hostel. Luckily, we only partially got ripped off. Other travelers who had similar bad cab experiences paid as much as 2.5 times more.

We arrived at Hanoi Backpacker’s Hostel, and immediately booked a tour to Halong Bay for the following morning. I toured around Hanoi, decided I loved it, and that I would skip a tour to Sapa in the north so that I could spend a few days here (that, and the Sapa tour would require a lot of hiking, and my knee is still not fully functional).

The Halong Bay tour was quite possibly the highlight of all my travels in Vietnam. Anyone coming here MUST must must take a tour of the bay. The views are breathtaking and cruising around on the ‘junk’ boats is a very cool experience. Luckily, Dan, Molly, and I ended up being teamed with a fun group of people who all got along quite well. Aside from Halong Bay in general, another highlight of the trip was meeting a wonderfully inspiring family of 6 who were traveling around the world for a year together. Seeing (amazingly well behaved) kids ranging from 4 to 14 fully enjoying the backpacker experience, and (amazingly not stressed out) parents who were also thrilled to be traveling gave me hope that my traveling days might need not end if I decide to have children. Any one interested should definitely check out their website (www.sixintheworld.com).

The first day of the tour, we headed out onto the bay, passing by huge rocky islands jetting straight out of the water. We stopped at a harbor with enormous caves reaching back far into the side of the cliffs, and later stopped on a sandy beach for a swim. After sunset, we arrived at our stopping point for the night, and began jumping off of the 2nd story of the boat into the water below. Women in small boats trying to sell beer, oreos, and other goodies, gathered around the boat, and counted “One Two THREE!” for each person diving into the water.

We all ate dinner together and later played cards and tried to solve toothpick puzzles that a guy named Andy from the UK set up for us… It’s a bit difficult to explain, but I’ll have a new bar trick for when I get home. Afterwards, we all retired to our nice cabins below where we slept for the night.

I woke up to watch the sunrise over the bay at 5:30 because, uh, that’s when the tour guide said the sun would rise. However, the sun rose at 6:30, so I sat patiently watching the bay come to life over the course of an hour. The sunrise was pretty cool and worth the wait (see pictures). After a short nap, I ate breakfast and headed to the 3rd story of the boat for slightly more daring jumps into Halong Bay.

We arrived around noon at a magnificent, quiet beach with only 7 bungalos, a restaurant, a pool table, a volleyball court, and a bunch of kayaks. The bungalos were incredible, complete with decks and beanbag chairs out front, and lounge chairs and umbrellas were set on the beach. I took out a kayak and toodled around on my own for an hour and a half. The weather was perfect, the views were amazing, and the experience of being completely alone out on the water was one that I will not soon forget.

That night we barbequed on the beach and were treated to free wine while we discussed politics and differences in healthcare between our many countries. Andy and I retired to our shared bungalos and slept under mosquito nets (which, Meredith and Katie, was not as bad as sleeping in hammocks in Tikal, but it came close). Molly and I got up the next morning to watch another spectacular sunrise over the cliffs, and then we all boarded the first of 2 boats we’d take through the choppy surf and rain back to the dock. We traveled all day, and arrived back in Hanoi in the evening, where a group of us headed out for some Bia Hoi…