Well, now that I’m back in Yizhou and my internet seems to be working fairly well at the moment, I thought I’d take a few minutes to tell you about my week holiday in Vietnam.

To begin with, Vietnam is beautiful, at least the limited parts of it that I saw. The buildings are colorful and have quite a bit of character. They are really very different from the buildings here in Yizhou and in this part of China as a whole. The buildings here are mostly dull browns and grays and very square and standard looking. Although the trees and mountains in Vietnam were similar to Yizhou, the man-made structures were a change of scenery. They had a French feel to them, which makes sense since the French controled Vietnam for a period of time.

We spent the first few days in the capital- Hanoi. There was plenty to see, do, and eat in Hanoi. I had a really good time. We even went to see a show at the Hanoi Opera House. Although, I will admit, the show was not quite my style. It was interesting- it was called “Vietnam Songs” and it was basically people on stage dancing and singing to Vietnamese songs. I suppose that I was expecting something a bit more traditional and I was expecting live music instead of people singing along to prerecorded instrumental tracks. Still, it was an interesting experience. Kyle and I met a couple of cute little Vietnamese girls who came into our box at the opera house to talk to us. I think they were 8 and 10 or so and they were adorable.

We visited museums, did the obligatory shopping, ate some French food and some Vietnamese food, and soaked up the sun. Probably soaked up a bit too much sun, I must say.

Then, the four of us spent a couple of days and one night on a boat in Ha Long Bay. It was spectacular. As Kate pointed out, it looked the way Yizhou probably would if it completely flooded and all you could see were the mountain tops.

We visited a cave which was a strange experience. It was huge and amazing, but also filled with colored lights just like the caves in Guilin and elsewhere in China. I love the caves, but the colored lights give it a strangly fake feel.

After that it was back to Hanoi to see what we had missed before. The art museum and the famous prison were our big visits for the end of our time there. They were certainly worthwhile and very interesting.

The entire holiday was absolutely fantastic. I would definitely recommend a vacation in Northern Vietnam to anyone who’s looking for somewhere to go!