Category: Living Simply

Note: if you ever come here, book with La Pinta cruise to Halong Bay. It is 5 star and unbelievable service.

A tour I booked before I left was to Halong Bay, which is along the coast. Three are 1969 karst islands there. The karst topography was created from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum over time. The drainage systems created sinkholes and caves as a result. The remaining rock is quartzite.

They picked us up from our hotel in the old quarter in Hanoi. The 3 hour bus ride was in a very comfortable coach bus (WiFi, charger port…).

At the harbor, we boarded a ferry to take us to the boat.

Our room was ready after we finished the elaborate lunch and we were given some time to talk around and settle. Balcony to sit and look at the scenery was incredible as week as the amenities of the room.

We met to take the ferry to an outfitter boat that had kayaks ready for us. We kayaked for about an hour around the karst islands and learned about the history of halong Bay and the lives of people there. There is one island where people live: cat bau island and also in floating fishing villages.

When we were done kayaking, we could swim. It was only 20 meters deep but I am not a strong swimmer. After the assurance of the crew and other passengers they would save me, I decided to brave even more and go to the top of the ferry and jump off into the water. For some people that is no big deal but I am also afraid of heights! I did it and loved it. The salt water made you very buoyant so it was not an effort to swim. Every time though I was nervous. I am so glad I bought a go pro the day before we left Hanoi. I jumped once with someone filming me and another time holding the go pro.

After we returned there was time for a shower and then a 6 course dinner.

But before dinner there was a cooking class on how to make a spring roll. I’ve been doing it wrong. You wet a towel and you massage the spring roll paper while on the towel, turning it over and massaging the other side. It does not get completely pliable. You fill it and roll starting at one end and tucking the sides in. And then it ends up perfect. Who knew?

Dinner. So much food. Afterwards we could go squid fishing. I actually caught one and it squirted water as I pulled it up but it got away. One more lives another day!

This squid was caught from a member of the crew.

The next morning we woke early to view areas of the bay as the sun was rising. Beautiful.

We ate breakfast and then it was time to board the ferry to one of the floating fishing villages. From there we boarded bamboo boats that were piloted by a villager through the caves under one of the karst islands. They are very skilled as they maneuver through the stalactites in the cave.

Here is a fast tour of the bamboo boat tour through the caves :

Afterwards we had another six course meal: stir fry veggies with rice crackers, fried squid, fish, sticky rice with stir fry cabbage/carrots and stir fry prawns, flan with mango.

We then checked out and boarded the ferry to go back to the harbour and board the bus. I had a fantastic time and hated to leave. If you ever go to vietnam you must do this tour. La pinta cruise was the best.

The past week was pretty emotional. I woke up in China to news that my dad had passed away. I was able to get a flight within 4 hours which my school pays for bereavement.

It was good to see my kids, brother and sister in law, and my mom. It is hard to believe he is gone.

Helping my brother move his shop equipment, I remembered so much about the vise on his bench. I used to help him with work or when he was helping me fix something of mine.

While I was home I ran a 5k with my daughter as that is how we work through things.

In time the regrets and the good things I remember will be worked through.

My apartment has a Japanese toilet which is a bidet. However, it is variable about what you will be using when you are out. I learned quickly that you carry wipes or a pack of tissue to use. They do not flush paper as it clogs systems. Many toilets are squatty potties. A large hole in the floor where you squat to do your business. Then you flush. Handicapped bathrooms have Western toilets.

Here in Thailand they have squatty potties you but you use buckets of water to flush. Where there are Western toilets you will see this sign :

Funny.

At the hotel the western toilets have a spray hose for the bidet.

I am sure I have yet more to see.

There are many funny things you see in the grocery stores here. Of course to outsiders in the US that is also true. Mostly is the combination of flavours or how the original title is translated.

This was just a stroll down the chip aisle. I actually did buy the seaweed flavour. What I haven’t bought is the bags of dried shrimp mixed with nuts. But I probably will in the future.

Occasionally someone on we chat will share a picture from translator where the English translation is written over top of the Chinese symbols. These are hilarious and end up with everyone sharing from wherever they are. If I can figure out where these are saved I will share them.

I have been biking to school and taking a trip on most weekends since I bought my bike. There are bike paths along the river and beside some major roads, but where I bike to school does not always have that. It can be a little dicey but riding with others brings safety in numbers. It is actually tougher to get around the other bikers and pedestrians as it seems that anything goes with them and they don’t follow any rule.

Here are a few images from the bike rides. Exercise classes (usually Qi Gong) and dancing you can see in the parks and under the bridges.

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To get on the bridges you need to sometime take stairs. They have a ramp on part of the stairs where you push your bike up as you walk. Sometimes it is in the middle and others it is on both sides. Here you can see the not very wide ramp along the side. It actually is pretty ingenous, does not take much space, and is efficient. You can see the ramps both on the left and the right.

Since I bought my bike I also had them put on a rack over the rear tire and bought one pannier messenger bag that can clip to the side or be tied down on top which gives me better options than to put everything in a backpack on my back. It was incredibly cheap with both costing a total of $40 USD.

A few weeks ago I went to the plant market with one of the seasoned teachers. It is easy to find someone who will help you here when you are looking for something. You pass on your information. Since I had never taken long metro rides this was something I also wanted to do. This is a big place and any tips for getting around is great.

On the way to the market we saw a fruit stall that had fresh coconut. They crack open the top so you can drink (I took it home to scrape out the coconut later).

There is a market for everything here. The plant market is huge and took hours to only look at a small amount of it. I went with three others and we were each looking for something specific. For me, I wanted a few succulents for my apartment but also wanted to grow leafy vegetables. I looked around for some time and found the places I wanted to buy from then set out to get those items at the last minute as they were pretty heavy.

Here are the succulents and planter I bought:

It seemed that we would not be getting on the metro with everything as it all had to go through an xray before we could enter so we called a DIDI (like Uber here). We manage to fill the trunk and also fit the tree that one person bought in the back seat with us. That person in the front seat bought some of the most beautiful orchids I have seen.

My plants are starting to grow. I am not sure exactly what I planted but have seen these greens at the wet market and eventually will translate the packages (though translations are never exact).

I have a second planter and those are taking a little longer to come up. As a capricorn, we love to dig our hands in dirt!

Not as exciting as you would think! I traveled to Hong Kong for a NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards) workshop with some of the other science teachers at my school. It was held at the Hong Kong International School. It was quite a weekend for many reasons.

I purchased lunch at school instead of packing lunch as usual and decided on a salad even though I have had some mild tummy troubles with the salad before. Anyone who has traveled in this part of the world knows that it can be a little dicey but you get used to it. Definitely not adjusting on that front. This time, I was really ill. I began throwing up an hour before we were due to leave and was still sick in the taxt about 5 minutes from the train terminal. The test was getting through the entrance where they have a quarantine point. I was able to make it, wondered it I should have even gone in the first place, but knew that I would feel better tomorrow.

I slept on the train, went straight to the hotel and went to bed. I did feel a bit better the next day though eating food still made me queasy. Sunday I felt great (and very rested.) Here is a view of the Harbour from my hotel room:

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It was a great workshop and Hong Kong International school is beautiful. There is this great light display where students can create patterns. It is quite soothing! Their faculty room is very relaxing with lots of spaces.

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After the first day, I took an Uber to the base of the mountain and went up to Victoria Peak via tram to overlook Hong Kong. It was very cloudy and found out that it is cloudy most of the time anyway. It has been raining quite a bit here as well. Still amazing view and the pictures do not do it justice.

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At the top are a variety of shops and restaurants. I ate at Bubba Gumps Shrimp as it was at the top and had the best view. I was able to sit at the bar and watch the lights start to turn on over Hong Kong.

Afterwards I took the tram back down and an Uber back to the hotel. I walked along Harbour Street to see what was around and then back to the hotel.

After the workshop we had to get straight to the train station but had a 1.5 hour wait for the train. We upgraded our tickets from a scvcalper for 100 rmb. Totally worth it and finally made it home. I will be back in mid October for APAC cross country but probably not much time then either to explore. Will definitely come back with the kids and explore more in December.

On Friday, the other cross country coach and I scoped out the area for the team retreat. It took 3 hours by car. The hotel was very basic. One thing I notice is that all of the beds here are hard. That bed was even harder than the bed at my apartment. This would be considered a rural area and we attracted many stares while we were there. Many restaurants and stores close down at 7 or 8 so sometimes difficult to find food when you are traveling. I ordered a pizza and it had durian on it. It wasn’t too bad but I had an upset stomach from the drive so really did not eat that night.

The only great thing about the room was the steam shower. It was wonderful.

The next morning we went on a 10k run/walk and then a 5k run/walk. We needed to find the best route to take approx. 21 students on. Also during the retreat are team building activities including running bracelets fo cord that ties them as a team.

During the run/walk I snapped a variety of pictures of the countryside. The mountains are amazing. So many of the people farm and they work really hard daily. I spotted a water buffalo in the field on the longest run.

In the middle of the fields I saw a temple. That is a rice paddy in front of it.

The high step to get into the threshold is to keep the bad spirits out. They glide low while good spirits glide higher. When you cross over the threshold you are not to step on that threshold step. Doing so would mean you are standing on the shoulders of the spirits.

More water buffalo…

There will be fields and wilderness and then out of nowehere a grouping of houses. It actually reminds me a little of Western PA. Windy roads, hills, a variety of types of roads…

I think this might be a restaurant…

Breakfast after the run was great! Eggs in wide rice noodles, fried dough, there were pork dumplings I did not eat but I did have a great warm tofu drink. Street food is the best.

Unfortunately I cannot go to the retreat. I will be in Hong Kong for a science workshop. That will be exciting too. This was a fast trip to scope out the area and am glad to experience a rural area outside of Guangzhou!