Halong till we get back to Hanoi?

Well.

THAT was an adventure.

We made it back to Hanoi yesterday afternoon, in the rain, crammed in a 14-person van with babies on our laps on the bumpiest roads yet. All we wanted when we got back here was room service and a hot shower.

Halong Bay is beautiful. (Ray will try to upload photos later today if we can borrow Dan's laptop; otherwise, we'll post them when we get home.) It really is something to see.

But the trip...I guess it was about what we expected, but we didn't know that "deluxe" included cockroaches.

The ship, or junk, was very quaint but definitely not up to American safety codes, and Loc has really come out of his shell, so I spent the whole trip chasing him around the deck and keeping him from getting too close to the railing.

We set sail on a really hot morning, and after an hour and a half, we disembarked along with dozens of other boats, at one of the rock formations, which has a cave. One of the dads stayed on the boat with sleeping baby Nina, but the rest of us trekked onshore and then started a vertical hike up the side of the rock with babies on our backs in hellacious heat.

The cave was really cool -- better than Luray -- but not well lit on the paths, and slippery, and oh, about 120 degrees inside. We'd be winding our way through these narrow slippery paths into the belly of the cave, making plans to spot each other if someone slipped and dropped a baby. But amazing rock formations.

When we descended back to the shoreline, it was "high tide," they told us, so we had to wade through knee-deep water on the little boardwalk back to the boat. And the junks were so crammed in to the dock area that you had to duck under bows. As we were wading and dealing with wriggling kids, one boat crashed right through the dock railing in front of us. Then we had a climb a ladder made out of pipe to get back on the boat.

It was hilarious. In its own screwed-up way.

Then we tooled around the bay some more with stops for kayaking (Ray did it) and swimming (no one did, given the amount of diesel dumped in the bay by all these junks, the boat traffic, and the garbage).

The food on board was okay but not great, the crew not that interested in giving us a tour, but the cabins were actually pretty roomy -- two twin beds and plenty of room to move around. And largish private bathrooms with showers.

Oh, except that I'm forgetting the cockroaches. Yes, in the bed, on the walls, generally enjoying their cruise on Halong Bay as well. One family's room was a little more infested than the others', which led to The Best Line of the Trip.

When Lu complained to one of the crew about the roaches in her room and how did they expect her to sleep in there with her baby, the crewman said, "Oh, don't worry Madame. As soon as the AC comes on and we cut the engines, they run right to the kitchen."

Nice.

So, that family passed the night wearing bandanas over their ears, socks tucked into pants, 3 or 4 layers, and a tent made out of a sheet. And all the lights on. We only saw a few roaches in our room and were so exhausted we didn't worry about it. I was more worried about Loc getting out of the room in the middle of the night, so despite double-bolting and chain locking the door, I slept with my hand around Houdini's ankle.

The next day, it rained all day, which gave the rock formations a mystical, ethereal quality, like we were in some enchanted Tolkien land. I'm joking, of course. It was pretty miserable on board, we could only look out windows, the crew was watching TV instead of giving us a tour, breakfast was inedible (although I didn't see any roaches in my "omelet"). All we wanted to do was get back to Hanoi at that point.

We got back to Halong Harbor, had to walk a few blocks in the rain with all of our luggage
to a restaurant for lunch -- this time, really crappy tourist food -- then crammed in the van with 8 other people for the three-hour ride back to Hanoi.

We were all glad we did this excursion -- roaches and all, because it makes for a good story and it really was something to see -- but the Somerset with its Soviet-era decorating style was looking pretty good.

Also, while Loc was generally well-behaved if a bit energetic for a boat, there was an incident with him. He bit me, twice. One just looks like a hickey on my shoulder, but the other one actually broke the skin. I don't know what to make of this -- he wasn't angry or upset. He was just rough-housing with me -- jumping up in my arms and bonking his head against me, which he loves to do, and then he just CHOMPED.

This has led to his new nickname, Chucky, among our group.

The second time he did it, in the van on the way back, I yelled, "No," and pushed him off of me, which led to a really amazing tantrum with huge tears and screams that thankfully had everyone in the van laughing at the theatrics. So we'll see if he got the message.

Today's our last day in Hanoi, then we leave early tomorrow for the airport. Finally!! I can't wait to get on that plane to come home. Today we're going to visit the Hanoi Hilton to see John McCain's cell, and we're going to the Old Quarter for some last-minute souvenir shopping.

I can't believe we're finally ready to leave Vietnam. It has truly been amazing. This blog doesn't cover half of the sights and things we've experienced. We've been on sensory overload since we touched down in Saigon two weeks ago.

Now I'm off to meet my boys for breakfast, then out into the traffic and noise of Hanoi.