After a quick cup of tea, we ventured off our boat for our last Halong Bay excursion. Just minutes away from where we had anchored were the “Amazing Caves”! That is the actual translation from Vietnamese. And, amazing they were! We climbed about 150 steps up to the mouth of this “network” of 3 caves, each one larger than the next. I felt as if I were inside the moon! The ceiling looked like the surface of the moon and there were craters and stalagmites and stalagtites everywhere!All this was created by the rain that makes its way in through the rocks. The stalagtites and –mites grow about 1 cm every 100 years! The caves are so big that 5000 Vietnamese lived in these caves, during the war with the French!
We returned to our boat, packed up and had breakfast while we headed to the dock in Halong City for our drive back to Hanoi.
It was nice to return to the Metropole, which is such a beautiful hotel. The kids couldn’t wait to go swimming and after watching them for a little while I headed to The Hair Workshop to have my hair washed and blown dry and to have a manicure!
My 5 minute cab ride cost $18,000 Dong which converts to just less than $1.00! I ended up giving the driver a 100% tip!! The best part about getting your hair washed in Asian countries (at least here and in China!) is the 20 minute scalp massage. Worth the $15.00! We are definitely not spending much money on this trip!
I returned in time for us all to head out to dinner via cyclo. These are pedicabs big enough for 2 people and they are a great way to get a real feel for Hanoi. ($4.00 round trip – about 30 minutes total). We had asked our guide to recommend a casual and non-touristy Vietnamese restaurant, which is exactly what he did!
As we climbed 3 narrow flights of stairs to the al fresco roof level of Highway 4, we were able to see all the frenetic action in the kitchen. We sat on mats around our table as we ate the most delicious food! Fortunately the menu was in English as well as Vietnamese for 2 reasons. First, our waitress didn’t speak English. Second, we were able to avoid dishes like pig’s ear, cow intestine, locusts, fighting cock, etc!!
Hudson however, being the only brave one of the bunch, ordered roasted crickets with lemon leaves! He ate 5 or 6 and then got creeped out!! I tried the leaves, which were delicious. We were the only Americans at the restaurant, which added to this being our favorite dining experience so far!
We returned to the hotel again via the cyclos, which had waited for us. Our “drivers” brought us back along the “scenic route”, being sure to point out many of the beautiful buildings with French colonial architecture. My favorite was the opera house
Going to bed now, invigorated from such a fun night in Hanoi!
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