Video produced/edited by Xavier

Hello, my fellow Texans!

Today I woke up at 4:45 am to pack up my clothes for our next hotel in Hanoi, and to eat breakfast before our long trip to Ha Long Bay! We all are so so so excited to go there because of the beautiful scenery there. We quickly got into the van and headed onto our 3 hour mini road trip! When there is a mini road trip, of course you gotta nap the whole way! 

When we officially arrived in Ha Long Bay, it was actually chilly outside, in fact, foggy, too. But no worries, we got told it would clear up in a few hours. When I saw our boat, I knew it would be an amazing time. The boat had 2 floors; The top floor being an outside lounge area with metal seating, and the 1st floor being a dining room with comfy chairs. Our first stop was this massive cave. This cave contained limestone, a lot of erosion on the ceiling, and deposition everywhere. Plus, this cave is all natural.. it is not man-made at all. The depositions had shapes that looked like animals, such as frog, walrus, and turtle, plus a shaped Buddha. We toured there for about 30 minutes and then got onto our boat for the next stop. The next stop was Ti Top Island! This island had a small beach, and a mountain where it had stairs so you could walk all the way up to the top for the view of Ha Long Bay. First, we went up to the top of the mountain for the view, and let me tell you. it is a whole workout going up there. After we all took pictures up there and just being in the moment, we went back down to go to the beach. When we arrived, we just walked up to the water and collected some sea shells. The reason why we did not swim is because the water is one of the most polluted waters in the world. Boats have toilets, and how they drain all the feces and urine out is by letting them out in their ocean. Plus, there is a lot of trash spread out there. so, no thanks to swimming there! When some of us collected shells, Jennifer warned us that when we go through the airport, the security might pull us out because we were not really allowed to bring “natural things” from Vietnam. 

After this stop, we went back onto our boat for lunch! They served us seafood. The food was oysters, clam, fried octopus, white rice, fish, crawfish, asparagus, and watermelon. To be completely honest, the clams were actually my favorite podiums of food for this whole meal. I literally devoured 2 big bowls of clams with Tamara. After we ate all the clams, we were told that the women in Vietnam are more likely to love clams more than men do. I also tried out oysters and fried octopus for the first time, and it was not that bad that I even got a second! After eating lunch, we headed back to the place where we got our boat. On the way back, I learned that the individual mountains in Ha Long Bay have limestone in them, so when there is an earthquake, the mountains will stay secure. Overall i give this tour experience a 10/10. I learned many new things and even liked the food that I thought I wouldn’t eat! 

The next place we are going to is the traditional Vietnamese water puppet show. We got into our van for another 3-hour drive, slept, and chatted with each other. On the way there, I literally saw a humongous cow being walked by a man down the busy street. This is definitely something you don’t see in America. Once we arrived at the water puppet show, we bought tickets. The show starts at 6:30, and we have 15 minutes to spare before the show. Our tour guide, Do, walked us right down the street to the original egg coffee shop. We tried out the egg coffee, but some of us got it hot, and some of us got it cold. I got a cold egg coffee, and it tasted absolutely amazing; not even words could describe it. After the coffee shop, we went back just in time for the water puppet show.

The water puppet show was actually pretty entertaining for me because the music matched the actions, and the actions were fascinating. Some of the history behind the water puppet show was the Sword Lake and the Battle of China. One of the shows related to the Sword Lake was the boat trip of emperor Le Loi. The water puppet show first opened with people by the side playing music by using instruments. Then there were the 2 dragons spitting water, and then their lights turned off as the dragons switched to spitting fire. I thought that was pretty cool. There were a total of 17 shows. This, in total, was an hour. We all enjoyed watching that. 

After that, we went to dinner. We all decided to eat at Banh Mi 25. Banh Mi is one of my favorite foods in Vietnam. It is sort of a sub bread toasted with the meat of your choice and vegetables in there. I picked out the chicken and avocado one, and it was so delicious. I definitely rate it 20/10. After dinner, we all craved for some ice cream so we stopped by the ice cream shop and chilled until our van picked us up. The ice cream was definitely delicious, and ended my meal perfectly. 

Then, we were right on our way to our last temporary home in Vietnam!!! The Airbnb is so nice; it has a decent-sized room with a TV, mini kitchen, dining area, nice showers, and beds. There was even a rooftop pool! So some of us swam there for a short time and some of us just chilled in our rooms. This is definitely what we needed for the last few days in Vietnam. After settling down, we all went to bed so comfortably. Goodnight, my people! 

Savannah