Ha Long Bay

So I just arrived back from an excursion to Ha Long Bay which is in the running to be one of the seven wonders of the world. It was an organized trip so I came with a group of backpackers and got to know some good people. We came on a small boat and got to sleep one night on it which I've never done before. The next day we got to go rock-climbing on these isolated beaches which was amazing. I haven't rockclimbed in 9 months so it felt incredible to be able to do it. The highlight was when we did deep sea cliff climbing where the boat drops you on a cliff face over the sea and you just climb up it til you fall off. Only a couple people and I did it since it looks pretty freaky, but I'm so glad I did because it was such an amazing feeling! I got to about 15-20 feet up and then I just jumped since I didn't want to fall off really high at a weird angle, which would be a bit painful. Some people took pictures and I can't believe that's me! I think my entire rock-climbing career is downhill from here..

In any case, so things have looked up since feeling absolutely frazzled before in Hanoi. I met a english girl the day before I left for Ha Long Bay so we wandered the crazy streets of Hanoi together. We went to the Prison Museum where John McCain had been held during the Vietnam War. It was basically a tribute to the communists that had been held there in the french colonial period, but they also had an exhibit of the American POWs which was quite ridiculous since they stated that they gave the prisoners the best treatment possible and put up pictures of them playing sports and painting pictures. It basically looked like a club med where they forgot to mention that they fit "torture" in the itinerary between the basketball and bingo hours. They also listed prisoners there as if they were alumni, like a "where they are now!" piece. I read John McCain's description of the experience which was anything but warm and fuzzy. In any case, the Americans probably didn't treat vietnamese POWs so great, but the exhibit just seemed a bit ridiculous. In any case, I'm leaving Hanoi today for Hue!