Backpacking in Vietnam

We visited the biggest island, named Cat Ba in the Halong Bay. The Halong Bay is famous for its thousands of towering limestone islands . The bay's landscape is the result of over 500 million years of geological evolution, involving processes like underwater erosion, tectonic uplift, and complex karst formation. Today there are about 1600 islands in the bay. Floating through the waters is a surreal experience, kinda movie like. Lots of the islands look like they are hovering over the sea. We didn't have the best weather, I expect the effect to be even more when the sun is out. The possibilities to cycle and kayak through the landscape is fantastic.  There are over 1000 people living in the bay on boats. Some have small houses on the water, others have small boats. They catch fish, seafood and harvest shells. They neither have electricity or floating water. On the island Cat Ba there is the super touristic area with the harbour and the mountainside where only few tourists come. ...

Coming from Europe the city of Hanoi will be an overstimulation. It's crowdy, full, loud, colorful and full of interesting cultural differences. People are selling everything everywhere at any time. Like this restaurant on the sidewalk: This is crazy for us rushing to lidl on Saturday evening to get some food. Traffic is going completely crazy. It's impossible to show this in pictures or video, but crossing a street feels so risky in the beginning. Let's see if we get used by almost getting run over everytime. Rules are here mostly not strict and adapted to be convient. Meaning a train can go straight through the city, red light = green light, everything is a parking lot,... This makes a lot of things just so convient, but at the same time unpredictable. There is so much more to tell about Vietnam and facts you would never believe. Stay tuned for the next blogs about food, religion, accommodations, and strange internet policies.