The Eye of Patrick

so my second post in two days, i am now on the boat trip back to the mainland and back to hanoi. it has been a fun and interesting experience that i have had the last two days. yesterday i woke up at 7 am because they decided to turn off the power to our fans and the temperature here has been plus 27 to 35 and very humid, so you can imagine that the room got very hot and humid quickly. so i had to get out of my bed and look forward to breakfast, the dinner the night before had not agreed with me so i was suffering as a result, so i did not eat the eggs or any boiled stuff, i just kept it to the toast. i realized may be it was a combination of the greesy food, large quantiy of soda drinks, and heat that combined to equal a killer force hehe….

but back to the trip, so after lunch we swiched to a smaller boat as we were going further into the waters and the big boat was going to go on another over nite trip. but we were switching to a hotel that evening so we did not require the large facalities. the boat took us to Cat ba island, it is the only populated island in halong bay, about half of cat ba island was declared a national park in 1986. when we got to the island we started walking, at first i thought this was the hike hehe, but i learnt about 30 minutes into the walk that it was the pre-hike hehe, we still were walking towards the point where we will start our hike. the screenry around us was beautiful, we had lagoos that were green and blue and the trees were lush green filled with the sounds of birds and other animals that populated the forst. but there was also a human presences there, to make the trip to the trekk place easier for people to get to they have decided to make a path made of stone, so while we were hiking they were drilling into a mountain and using that stone to make the road.

we finally got to the town that was located on the island, it was a small town and our tourguide told us that it was so poor of a town that the government had took up a collection to use the money to increase the standard of living in the region, they had built houses for the people and provided other monies for the community. this was nice to see.

the town was very small probably less then 200 people, their main industries were fishing and tourism. even though tourism was a major part of their industry they were some of the most kind people i have met on my travels in asia. it was around 11 am when we got there and the tour guide asked us whether we would like to go hike up a mountain, he told us it would be difficult as it had rained the night before and the ground was slippery, but i thought to myself i was in vietnam and i will probably only come here once for a long time, so i should enjoy everything as much as i can, so i decided to go on the tour and enjoy the climb. at first it was fairly easy and i thought to myself “what was he talking about this is not hard” but as we were climbing we ran into other tour guides and they told us that as we climb it would be more difficult to climb. i wanted to quit but everyone else did not want to, so i decided to continue on because i knew i would regret quiting later. so i countined climbing. near the top it got really difficult as it got more and more vertical. but finally after a hour or so we reached the time. the view was not that amazing, but that was ok as i did not climb the mountain for the view but for the experience of saying i had done it. but the view was great too, we were at the highest hill in the region and so we could see out to the entire island chain, and it was just picture perfect. as picture perfect as it was, we still needed to get down quickly as the other people who had not completed the climb were waiting in the village and we had to return for lunch.

so the way down was much more of a challenge then going up as the grown was slippery and as you were going down it would slip and the only directions that you could go were forward and backwards, and as a result of my poor footwear i did slip a few times. but the tour guide was funny, he said that in vietnam instead of asking how many times you fell they would ask you how many frogs you got, whether this was true or not, i got 3 frogs hehehe…. at first i did not think it would hurt, but that was not until the second day were it hurt.

the lunch in village was nice, except for the fact that it had been the same meal that we have been having for the last 3 days, and the same one that i have had on previous tours. so the flavour was loosing the enjoyment that it had before, plus i was not feeling to great so i could only eat the rice and some pinapple, so i did not feel to great. i talked with the two new people that i had met on the tour, the ones i talked about in my previous post, they were kind and stuff. we talked about fav. childhood tv shows hehe, it was interesting to see that in australia and canada and singapore that we all grew up on the same programs, though be it they may have been in different languages hehe….

after lunch we had to make our way back to the boat, we decided to walk back instead of taking the moterbikes, this was not a great idea hehe as i did not estimate the time it would take to reach the boat, i had thought it would only be like 10-20 minutes, but the combination of the mountain and the food and weather made the hike feel like a 2 hour hike hehe, near the end the end looked so near, but at the same time it was so far.

though the walk was long, it was a good experience as it gave me good time to talk to my tour guide, me and him had become good friends by that point. so we talked about our respective lives and he told me about his education and his family. he had a son that was only 1 year old. when my friend asked to see the picture, he said that it was vietnam custom not to take pictures of a child until he was atleast one year old, if you took pictures before that day then the child would not have a good future. which was interesting to know, and probbly good to know as then i knew not to take pictures of little kids hehe….

the boat then took us to the water, were we had the choice of going kayaking or swimming for a few hours. i chose to do both, first i got in the kayak and rowed to one of the little island and landed on a beach. the beach was very small may be 5 meters squared. but it was like your own private beach, and so i took advantage of it. i went for a swim, and floated in the water, held me breath to see how long i could stay in the water and did hand stands in it. also the cut on my feet got better as the water was salt water, so it helped to make things better. it was funny though, as i was rowing around i had took off my glasses , in the case i did fall in, i did not want ot loose them. but i could not see as a result, so when i was rowing i could see a boat and a line running along the water, and thought to myself that may be it was a fishing boat, it turns out it was, and i could have ran into a net hehe, that would have been a cultural experience that i would not have expected to feel.

after we all returned to the boat, we set sail for cat ba island, where we would spend one night. it was around 4 pm so the sun was not as bright, may be it was 5 i am not sure, but either way it was beautiful the water. the sun was going down and it was glimmering across the water, it was just the perfect image to end my boat trip.

i truely enjoyed my boat trip on the island, it was a once in a life time experience for me, as i had never slept on a boat and doubt i will do it again. the people i met on the boat were nice and kind people, though it took a while to get to know them, but when i did they were friendly and kind. the tour guide was seriously one of the most kind tour guides i have met in my life. when we were returning to ha noi he was so sweet and wished us and our family and friends a good life, i have heard this speech from many tour guides but he was the first one that i felt truely meant it. may be the food did not agree with me and i am still suffering as a result of it, but it was worth the experience, the pain is now, but as time passes you will be only left with the positive meomories. so here is to ha long bay, one of the teasures of vietnam, if you get the chance you should go there and stay in ha long bay, book it with ODC travel as they are a honest tour company.

take care,
love patrick
ps my father is here in hanoi!

hello,

firstly i decided to restart my journaling hehe, i got so caught him in not writting about the past that it seemed as a result i did not write about the present. so as a result, once i get back to canada i will do journal posting for china, but at the moment i will continue from where i am.

at the moment i am on a boat in ha long bay in vietnam, i decided to go on the tour as i was getting tired of the city of hanoi and i wanted a break to the country side. so i signed up for a 2 nite 3 day trip, the first nite, which is tonite we will sleep on a boat. then tomorrow we will stay in a hotel, i am not really sure what we will do hehe, the main reason that i signed up for this tour was i got the chance to sleep on a boat. i have never had the chance to do it in the past and i doubt i would get such a chance in the future, and it only costed 67 dollars for the whole trip, that includes all meals, entrance fees, transportation, accomdations, the only thing it does not cover is drinks. which is ok as even with the mark up the price of a coca-cola is less then a dollar.

so today i woke up at 6 something as i was worried i would miss the tour, but being vietnam, when you wake up early the tour is late and when you wake up late the tour is early hehe. so i had about a hour to kill before the actual tour came and i was not too happy about my hotel so i got to spend the first 20 minutes bitching about it. the first nite the AC did not work and so i asked for a fan, and they said they would fix it. the next day they could not fix it and i had to switch rooms, so then i said i paided for a AC room and i did not get it the first night, and he said but you did not say anything, i then went on how i had to wake up 7 flights of stairs atleast twice to get the fan and that even though his service was great, the room was not as advertised. then he said something about if he gave discount then he would have to pay for it, so i said then can i talk to the manager, and he said well your room is cheap 12 usd, so i can’t go any lower, but i can give you VAT (value added tax) off, so i will save like 15 percent, so i knew it was best to accept that and we moved along.

then just as i was about to give up on my tour, the tour guide came and picked us up, first we had to take a smaller bus to a place located outside of the city of hanoi as large buses are not able to enter hanoi during the day. when we got on to the second bus more people joined our tour and we were off, since arriving in china i have become used to long distance travel and this was 3 hours, so i just spaced out for that time, i can not even remember now what i thought about. but 3 hours later and one stop at a tourist rest stop we were at ha long bay. the bay was like vietnam, crowded and unorganized, so many people waiting to get on the many different types of boats. finally we got on our boat and we were off.

we first took the boat out a little ways to put our anker (sp?) down and have lunch. oh firstly because i am traveling alone, i get my own room and washroom, it is a nice set up except that there is no AC and i have only a fan for a couple hours at the nite hehe, but it is a nice room. i will show pictures later, it is great as i can go to the toliet and look out at the bay, i think it is the best view from a toliet in my life hehe.

but we started our lunch, i decided to say i would not eat seafood, just thought that it would be the safest as not all seafood agrees with me and i did not want to risk getting sick. so instead i got tofu in tommaotes hehe and fried eggs, and i ate the other meat dishes, which was nice, but i think the humidty combined with the hot temperature and the lack of cold drinks made for a horrible situation, where i got sick a little. so i did not eat as much as i usually do, but that is ok hehe i need to loose weight anyhow.

after lunch we continued on to a cave, it was a typical limestone cave, which i have seen many times in the past. but it was still amazing to see, looking at the cave and thinking of how long it would take to form the thing was astounding. the tour guide said it took approx 500 million years to discouver and that the cave was not opened till 1992, this was different then other caves that had been used during the vietnam war and were carved for that use. this cave was as natural as it could be. they had one rock that looked like a male body part and the tour guide started to make suggustive noises hehe, which was akward hehe, but still funny.

then we returned to the boat and sailed into the bay and settled down for the nite and i hung out on the top of the boat, i was too shy to talk to other people so i finished a book and studied my japanese, plus got started on some of my postcards. but i was getting lazy and tired so i could not study japanese so i decided to take my computer out and download my pictures and then finally one of the other tourist noticed and asked about it, and i showed her some of my pictures. i was finally happy to have that ice broken and now i can talk more freely, the light was getting dark so everyone went inside to read and such. i noticed her and another girl playing backgammon and asked if they were and they asked if i wanted to join and i decide. it had been ages since i played last so i was rusty at first, but once we got going i started to pick up steam and as a result was doing well, that being until dinner was served.

i am the odd person out, so i have to sit at the table of 3, during lunch the people who are all from denmark ignored me and as a result i felt out of place, and was not looking forward to dinner. but then after the meal was over they started to talk to me, you know asking all the travelers questions, where you from, where you going and where have you been, which was good as it provided a start fo rmore discussion. they asked about japan and if they ate sushi all the time hehe, i think that is the most common question about japan hehe, i said yes they eat sushi, but they have many other type of foods that are just as yummy. i also shared a bottle of red wine with them, which was nice as i had not had a good glass of wine in ages, as the wine in china was strange and burnt my throat hehe….

after dinner we retired to another table to play a game of cards, the typical game of having the higher card and playing it before somoene else could play a higher card. i was exhausted so i was not that sharp and only finished around the middle rank compared to other people, which was fine hehe….

the people on my tour are nice, i am getting used to superfical converstation, and not asking people for their e-mail, as i realized i have enough of a problem e-mailing the people i know, i don’t need to be adding more people hehe…. except if i meet someone i want to be friends with for a while.

i will go to sleep now, i must wake up early tomorrow.

take care,

love patrick

Hello,

I know I have not been updating my journal lately, but blame it on the fact I am lazy and the lack of internet access. But that is a good thing as it means i am out there enjoying myself. I will try to update my whole trip based on the places.

June 4th - Beijing -

I arrive in Beijing from my flight from Tokyo, it was on ANA. Wow i must say that is one of the best airlines I have flown in my life hehe. May be that is the result of living in Canada and having a horrible carrier like Air Canada. But this airline was amazing, they had the little TVs on the back of the seats and you could start and stop the movie and games, this is something that even Air Canada’s Business class does not have always.

I arrive in Beijing and I meet a kid from Norway, we talk for a bit on the way to the hostel. This was an interesting experience as we both had come off full year exchanges, his was in China and mine in Japan. After our talk I realized how happy i was to go to Japan as the quality of his program was not that great, and this was a comment that i heard from many different people who went to China on exchange. I met my friends from Kanasai Gaidai that i was planning to see, and we did a short walk around Beijing before going to bed.

Beijing - Day 2 -

I decided that it was best that i woke up early, so i set my alarm for 8 am thinking it would be a good time to wake up and see the sights of Beijing. But i am staying in hostels and as a result the person who was staying in my dorm was snoring. I have heard snoring before and this was the loudest ever, it sounded like a freight train going by, so i tossed and i turned until i had to turn on my music to sleep and I was able to get to sleep another 1 hour until 7ish, at what point I decided to just wake up and go see the sights.

I headed towards tiananmen square to see the square, Mao’s body and the forbidden city. The square has been marked in western view of China ever since 1989 and the day I went was the 15th annivasary of it. But the square is really not that special, it is a wide open space that stretches for a long while and has a lot of government offices and such. But really nothing amazing, but I went and lined up for the Mao’s tomb as it was something i wanted to do. The line was not too long, but as i was waiting in line a chinese man come up to me and directed me to get out of line as i had to put my bags away, while getting pulled out of line, i met another womeon there who was from England. We talked as we put our stuff in to storage, but the guy demanded money and she opened her wallet and he took out 100 yuen and ran, which is like 15 dollars, i felt bad so i agreed to pay half of it, but still it was not good experience. Though he did help us move up in line, so it was not totally bad.

Then we went and saw Mao’s Body, it was an eery experience, as I think this was the first time in my life I had seen a dead body before and to see all these chinese people walk by was strange as many of them had flowers. Me and my friend thought that was strange as it looked like they just resold them, and later my chinese friends agree. But Mao’s body looked like he was plastic, he did not look real anymore. When you look at him, it is hard to imagine all the things he has done, he was responsible for the birth of modern china, and he did many bad things, and there he was right in front of me. But we could not take pictures. I think if you are in Beijing and visit Tinanmen square you should make a trip to Mao and see it, it does not take too long.

I will stop here, and cont next time with Forbidden city,

sorry for no pictures yet,
take care,
Patrick