Cruisin' through Saigon in the sea of motorbikes

Emily Taylor traveled in Southeast Asia this Summer. We are happy to share her second report:

Hello all, here's our story from week 2 in Vietnam/Cambodia...
(click to read about week 1)

We made it out of Siem Reap on a night bus headed back across the border from Cambodia to Vietnam. We had to get off the bus multiple times throughout the night to change buses and cross the border, only after Aaron busted a man who worked for the bus company going through people's bags, red-handed...SOB. Luckily our valuables were on us, but the man certainly went through our packs. We arrived back in Saigon in the morning and immediately went to the airport via moto which was a blast! There's not much like crusin' through crazy Saigon in the sea of motorbikes! Our flight to Hanoi was uneventful and we spent that afternoon looking for an honest travel agent to book us a tour on Ha Long Bay. We think we found one, but we're still not sure. Hanoi was better than we thought in the neat Old Quarter part of town, but extremely touristy.

The next day we set sail on Ha Long bay on a deluxe cruise. We sailed around all afternoon, kayaked around some floating fishing villages and explored the "Amazing Cave"...which was indeed amazing. A storm hit in the early evening and the chaos of plates and table cloths flying in the main cabin was cause enough for everyone to start pounding Tiger beers (the local brew).

Fun night on the boat with really fun people. Lots of Irish lasses, a few Aussies, a couple from Spain, and a man from Singapore with his "lady friend". That man, Richard, after many a drink, told Aaron he had a "lion nose" and would be very rich one day. Emily is sticking with Aaron like glue. Next morning we swam around the bay and cruised back to Hanoi where we almost immediately grabbed a night bus to the mountainous northern region of Vietnam, Sapa, where we are now.

We are on our second night here and thoroughly enjoying this absolutely beautiful place! Today we rented a motorbike and cruised around the countryside, up and down mountains and through small villages. The scenery was stunning and Aaron now deems himself an "expert motorbike driver"..hmm...

We have a few more days here including more motorbike cruising and the huge market on Saturday. We will then begin our journey down the coast back to Saigon.

Love,
Aaron & Emily

P.S. Aaron helped write this too.