Tag Archive: the drift


Formaldehyde, Glutaraldehyde, Methanol, Ethanol

Filed Under: Vietnam
Mar.06, 2010

Well, Hanoi part 2. We had a day to spend until our train leaves later today at 11:00pm. We loaded up on free breakfast and then hit the streets on the bikes. The Drift was really nice in letting us keep our bags here free, and still use the free bikes. I am currently using the free computers now (at 6:30pm) even though we checked out at 9:00 this morning. Amy and Jen are off to use the showers for free too. Very nice experience here over all, too bad you can’t bring a hostel with you on the trip.

We checked out Ho Chi Min at the Mausoleum, it was quite something and hard to imagine what is going through the heads of the throngs of locals and school children on field trips showing up to see the body of their revolutionary leader. I didn’t really even know what I was thinking as I walked by his body.

We rode back to pick up David and then we headed off to grab some food and run some errands. We then checked out the Vietnam War/Army Museum which was closed for lunch earlier when we tried to see it. It was quite something, maybe the best one of the 3 we have seen here. There was a preserved prison where they kept prisoners of war which we wanted to see, but never had a chance as things close so early here.

Since then, we have come back, and Alex and David had traveled off to Hoi An and Laos respectively. We are also going to Hoi An, so we might see Alex again there. We caught a movie in the movie room at The Drift, and I think plans are to go for dinner after and maybe ride swans around the lake it they are still open. Tomorrow afternoon will be the start of a new adventure. Hoi An is an old port city (I think still used) and should be neat to see. We might stay a couple days and just rent bikes or scooters so we can see things at our own pace.

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Ha Long Bay Trip – Day 3

Filed Under: Vietnam
Mar.05, 2010

Another earlier than usual morning for us. Breakfast was bread with jam, not really going to keep us going too long… but oh well. We then drove back to the boat, and there was a whole new group of people on it. At this point, we had kind of been exhausted of constantly meeting new people and just sort of sat there and played cards. At one point, the boat came along another floating village and we had an opportunity to kayak (for $2.50) a couple of caves. We went for it, figuring “when would we get an opportunity to kayak caves in Ha Long Bay again.”

Luckily for us, only our small group of four and one other couple did it. The caves are more like short tunnels which lead to a huge enclosed bay. The mountains of the island around you formed a circle and there were flower petals on the water. With only 3 boats in there it was a really special experience. Word is some Jackie Chan movie had a scene filmed in one of them but I couldn’t really understand the guide and I couldn’t find it myself. Then it was food and travel back to The Drift. There was this big deal with the tour guide at the end. Another case were some one got themselves out of a tip. We are a little out of the old core, so I guess they didn’t want to drop us off at the hostel, even though that is part of the package, and everyone else on the bus was dropped off. He was just losing it, and the bus driver was screaming too. We just stayed calm and told him he could drop us off at the train station or the hostel, either is fine with us, but we were not getting off until that was done, and eventually it was done. He was never happy about it though. It is really funny because all the guide books talk about how you should never lose your temper in Asian countries as after you lose face (freak out), they will lose respect for you, and you will get no where… but they lost it and then some.

We headed off to get train tickets out of Hanoi. We couldn’t get sleeper seats for the 14 hour ride, but we got some soft seats, which should be enough for us. We are used to long travels at this point. We had some dinner at the place that we were trying to find the first night in Hanoi and it was nice. Then we headed back for an earlier night so we could wake up early enough to see the Ho Chi Min Mausoleum tomorrow. We also met up with Alex (who was the girl on the boat with us) who said she would like to come as well.

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The Amazing Race

Filed Under: Laos, Vietnam
Mar.01, 2010

We squish back into the bus, drive for a while, hit the border, go through the checks upon checks, visa, passport, form, passport, bags, bags, passport, passport, load the bus, get off the bus… it was very involved.

There were three old French people and they eventually gave up when we stopped for food and charted a mini-bus privately from some guy who was eating in the restaurant. We drove through what seemed like an endless city just on and on and on. I would fall asleep for a couple minutes, only to wake up as large parts of my body were senseless and numb. Amy and I ended up in some ridiculous positions trying to keep each other comfortable.

To make the title make sense, parts of the trip I recognized from out of the Amazing Race. It was kind of a double take for me. Anyways, to make a long ride short, we got to the bus station in Hanoi… eventually got a semi-legit cab, were followed to the hostel by a creepy guide that liked lonesome sally (to much to write but I will remember to tell you later.) The place is called The Drift, and it was suggested to us by a guy at the bus station in Laos. We got a 2 nights for one deal, which no matter the quality made it worth while.

We checked it out, the rooms were amazing. There was another Canadian already in the room. We headed out for some food had Italian of all things (we couldn’t find the place we were originally looking for.) Amy and I went for a sauna massage without knowing what it really was and ended up confused and laughing afterwards. Then it was time for sleep!

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