During our last days in Vietnam, we decided to join a tour to Halong Bay. Halong Bay is supposed to be beautiful. Actually, it is stunning! When I was in Vietnam the first time, almost 5 years ago, I had gone there with my parents. I was spoiled on that holiday: the weather was amazing, the views were spectacular, we were on our own little bounty island, I got a tan!

This time, the weather looked nothing like the image I had of it. It was grey and raining and as we drove further towards the coast…the weather didn’t change. Lying on the sun deck was not going to be an option this time. Still, we were grateful to be there, and even in the mist, you can appreciate the beauty of it.

We got on the ‘black pearl junk’, our hostel’s boat, got lunch and checked into our rooms. A Vietnamese guide named Zummy (later we discovered his name was Jimmy) entertained us (very very very enthusiastically) throughout the trip. He was really skinny, his hair looked like it hadn’t been washed in a few weeks and it was combed all the way from the right side to his left (probably to cover up some bald parts?). And although the pamphlet of our tour said we would have an English speaking guide, the English he spoke didn’t sound like any English I had heard before. T’s became S’s, V’s became B’s, and it seemed as if he made up words, right there on the spot: A new language had developed itself on the coast of Vietnam and it’s called Zummynese!

 Occasionally we could understand some words, but those words put together, made no sense at all. When we were visiting a cave for example; which according to him was ‘an amazing cabe’. He explained more about this ‘amazing cabe’ and the war, and something about a woman and a baby and then something about a sheep(?). Inside, he would tell us what the rock formations looked like. ‘This one is a bear, or maybe it’s a lion’. He didn’t really know and then he said you had to have a ‘ghost image’, which I guess meant: ‘a good imagination’. We laughed our asses of! The entire time he was talking, his head was bopping from one side to another, left, right, up and down… like those little dogs you put on your dashboard. To the three of us, this tour was already a success! (zummy in the picture below!)

After the ‘amazing cabe’, dinner was served and after this…the highlight of our evening: Karaoke! Zummy was really excited about this and chose one hit after another: daddy cool, my heart will go on, YMCA, Abba and of course, he and a few of the crew members sang some Vietnamese songs. Our company wasn’t that excited about singing karaoke and to be honest, neither was I. I have the singing talent of a cat during mating season, if you know what I mean. And even if I were to sing, I would have to have a decent amount of alcohol in my blood. Nevertheless, some people actually were enthusiastic and Cynthia even sang a backstreet boys song! Liz and I did the backing vocals 😉 It was all very funny and awkward at the same time 🙂

The next day we headed back towards the docks, passing by amazing islands with bizarre names and eventually took a bus back to Hanoi. By 5PM, we were in our hostel, ready to enjoy our last night in Vietnam by spending our last Vietnamese Dong’s on the night market, which, this time, was actually there! It’s funny how shopping can make a girl happy! 🙂

On Saturday, we took our bus back to China, sad to leave this really cool and beautiful country behind. Once passed the border, we immediately noticed we were back in China. No more smiles, no more English, no more helping hands, no more delicious and very cheap western food (yes, we ate a lot of pizza, please don’t judge!), no more ‘la vache qui rit’ for breakfast, no more baguettes…only weird Chinese logic and this very typical Chinese smell.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed china and the year I’ve spent here and am grateful for everything I’ve seen and experienced. But compared to Vietnam, China is like the lady behind the counter at the store who’s had a very bad day and doesn’t want to help you and can’t seem to smile any longer. The Vietnamese were so friendly to us, always trying to help us, never impolite or rude, even trying to speak English. So, the three of us were kind of bummed to be back in China. But then, as I was sitting on the bus towards my dorm, complaining to myself about being back, a car drove by. Inside, two little Chinese girls were smiling and waving at me… well, maybe china isn’t that bad. 🙂

Magali