They woke us up bright and early at 6:30 for an enormous breakfast at 7. Then everyone kayaked around a fishing village we had pulled into. I wasn’t feeling so hot, so I stayed behind and slept. B & K pulled their kayak by our room after a while and yelled at me to come out.
They had made a little friend who was selling shells from her boat and wanting to practice her English. I chatted with her and her friends for a while.
B & K weren’t loving the kayaking as they felt they were invading the personal space of the villagers who were going about their everyday lives. They came back early, and we all hung out on the end of the boat for a while. Later another 7 course lunch was served, but after so many meals of crazy amounts of food, we could barely get it down. We headed back to Hanoi on yet another bumpy, honky, slightly frightening from the crazy passing on our 2 lane road bus ride.
Once we got back around 4 pm, Boston and I went to find a travel agency to buy some plane tickets we couldn’t do online. On the way, we noticed an open air restaurant packed with locals. While I wasn’t up for eating or smelling food just yet, I told Boston to bring Kavita there for dinner. I stayed home and did some work while they went back a few hours later and got some true local flavor.
Without even asking, they were served two beers. While there were parts of the menu that had English translations, the waitress quickly told them that those were not being served anymore. After a lot of gesturing, “Bring me what he’s having”, they got some beef tail soup. FYI: this was the type of place where animal naughty parts were on the menu. Pointing and gesturing was a risky move. After a while of being stared at as the only non-Vietnamese in the place, a couple of young men called them over to hang out. Once the place noticed they were friendly, 15 more guys come over with 1 lone girl who acted as translator. A lively conversation ensued including Boston almost getting into an arm wrestling match, and Kavita, of course, getting hit on. I can’t take this girl anywhere! The most exciting part of the story is that Boston achieved his goal for the evening with Kavita….using….a….PUBLIC RESTROOM!! TWICE!! And the funniest part is that it was a squat toilet and even the staff at the restaurant was laughing at the thought of her going in there. Maybe it was the beer consumption or maybe the fun locals loosened her up, but either way Vietnam must be a special place for this to have taken place.
More Pics of Hanoi (start with #27)
More Pics of Halong Bay (start with #28)
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