Hanoi, Vietnam

We've been in Hanoi for one week now and have seen so much. We recently got back from a 3 day trip to Halong Bay which was great. Our guide told us there were almost 2,000 mountains/ islands that make up the bay. Our weather the 3 days wasn't the greatest, pretty cold and drizzling the first and last day but nice the second. Our trip started by boarding our boat (or as they call them a "junk") called the Lotus Sail. There were 10 of us in our group including another couple from Iowa. We got to tour a cave the first day, stayed on the boat that night and headed to Cat Ba Island on day 2. Once there, we went to the National Park and hiked up a mountain and then climbed up an observatory deck to see the entire island from the highest peak. After that we checked into our hotel and took a boat to Monkey Island where we were greeted by hungry and greedy monkeys. One guy had a bag of Goldfish crackers that a monkey grabbed right out of his hand. Another guy had a monkey grab onto his jacket and climb up him to get his oreo cookies. Our of fear, the guy threw them out of his hand and the monkey took off. After witnessing that, Josh and I walked with a few rocks in hand!

Now that we're back in Hanoi, we've spent one day visiting local craft villages where they make birdcages out of bamboo, conical hats and a silk village where they produce silk. It should've been very interesting but the only village where they were actually working was the birdcage village.

Today we're just relaxing around the city spending time in a coffee shop (Gloria Jean's!) doing some shopping and reading in our hotel room. We've needed a day like this since we've been on the go everyday since our last day on Santorini. Tomorrow we're taking a day tour to Tam Coc where we'll board a small boat and float down a snake-like river through 3 caves and back. The pictures look pretty cool and it was a cheap tour. Then on Thursday we're heading down to Cuc Phuong National Park where we'll spend a night and do some hiking before heading to the bus station. From there we plan on making our way south toward Ho Chi Minh City, taking stops along the way in a few cities to have some beach time.