Vietnam

I know its been a while since I've posted, but traveling really takes it out of you. In the past two weeks I have been to three new countries. Although I want to keep this blog in chronological order, it's just not going to happen. I have loads to tell you all about the Philippines and Cambodia, but I'm now in Vietnam and finally have some time to breathe, so I want to share the past few days with you.

I arrived in Hanoi on Sunday Feb 20th, and it took all of about 3 hours to discover I really do not like the city. I couldn't wait to plan a trip out of there. So my friend and I booked a trip to Halong Bay, which is a bay with thousands of limestone isles. We booked the trip with our hostel so there were with many other backpackers and young people on the boat, which made for a good trip. We spent the night out on the Bay on a boat called the Jolly Roger, and did a two hour kayaking trip around the bay which was AMAZING. After Halong Bay my friend and I tried to reschedule our flights, and head down to Siagon, but the cost outweighed the benefit so we decided to jump on a local bus and drive two hours south to a town called  Nim Bihn.
The real adventure started when we arrived at the bus terminal, and immediately  men started pulling are arms towards these buses. We attempted to find anyone who could tell us how to buy tickets, and got a lot of pointing towards the buses. We finally got on a buss, with more people pushing us and every time we asked if this was the bus to Nim Bihn, they just shook their heads and smiled, which I'm guessing means that we were saying the town wrong and they were just saying yes to get us to stop asking questions. So, we sat like uncomfortable cattle in the back of a bus as people stared at us in surprise that we were taking local transportation. At first it was a bit scary then I figured the worst that happens is we head to a different town, get a hotel and jump on a bus the next day to somewhere else. About an hour and a half into the drive we stop for a break. Once again, our whiteness attracts all the stares of the locals as we get off the buss in an attempt to use one of the most disgusting toilets I've had to visit in all of Asia, thus far. Back on the bus and about 30 minutes later, we get yelled at by the driver to come to the front of the bus (which of course is him just pointing at us and signalling us forward), and once the door is opened, we are all but pushed of the slow moving bus in a town we are told is Nim Bihn.
After a bit of walking we found a hostel, checked out the rooms, and decided it is good enough for now so we stay. Since this is a small town, the market mainly consists of food, very little clothes shops, and a welcome change, no tourist shops. As we're nearing the end of the market area, we come to the 'fresh food' section. Live chickens, fish, fresh vegetables, and to my surprise, a cooked dog. I'll spare you all on the detail of what exactly it looked like but I did look back about 20 times as I couldn't believe I was starting at an actual dog. As bad as it sounds, it was not as horrible as I thought it would be. Also, I assume its not as common to eat dogs since I saw about 20 women with chickens, another 10 selling fish, and only one with the dog. Of course as I was walking back to the hostel, I started realizing how many dogs were tied up, and have now decided to not eat meat while I'm staying in this town.