Beauty, Serenity, Karaoke Dreams, and Girl on Girl???

The perfect bowl of Pho
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Day 2 of our Vietnam adventure begins with a traditional bowl of PHO for breakfast!  Wow! First time for me!  Normally, we have it for lunch or dinner. The VACO crew (Max's associates from Vietnam Accounting Company) (forgive me Max, if this is not right) picks us up in the company car, and we drive to what seemed like a pho place where the locals would eat, on a small kid table with seats 1 feet off the ground!  Oh my, I thought, wow, they really want to give us the real Hanoi experience. To my relief, we walked past the pho place, and right into the next door, that actually looked like a restaurant.  It was soooo delicious!  Soup was so clear, and non-oily, and just the right amount of everything!

Penis Rock...hee hee
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Our itinerary for the next 2 days brought us to the majestic province of Halong Bay. The VACO crew has been there numerous times, and they were came along to accompany us! It takes  2 hours by car, and they even hired a tour guide to talk to us!  Max was pretty good about talking to him, whereas i totally zonked out as soon as we get into the car!  I'm so Asian! Along the way, there is much too see, and since we were heading into rural areas, there are still many farmers in the rice fields, oxens pulling the wagon, old buildings, but the there also many new buildings and manufacturers coming in.  Many rice and vegetable fields are gone, and the people are now working in the factories. I saw many scooters carrying loads and loads of vegetable and cages, along with 3-4 people too! Amazing!  I enjoyed the ride to Halong Bay.

Majestic Halong Bay
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We arrived by 11 am, so we checked into the hotel first to freshen up!  I forget the name of the hotel, but it was 5-Stars (by their standards). After staying at Grand Hyatt Singapore, nothing will be 5 star to me again. By noon, we boarded a private chartered junk boat,,,,all 6 of us!!!  Normally these boats carry 48 people.  So, we had a lot of boat to ourselves.

There really is no right words to describe this place.  I would not be able to do it any justice. It is an vast area that contains over 3,000 little islands, and is protected by UNESCO as a naturaly heritage sight. It's very important for Vietnam to preserve this place, because it is absolutely breathtaking. Though the day was overcast, it was not misty, and we had very good weather considering it could have been raining. The VACO crew decided to play cards, as this is probably fairly boring to them.  For Max and I, we were enjoying the cruise into the heart of the bay. There are fishing villages floating in the waters, where the fisherman live, and they sell their cathes to the restaurants on shore.  There is even a school for the kids that live here!  They start at such a young age too. I saw a little 4-5 year old girl rowing a  boat! There are also fruit/snack boats that will row alongside our boat to sell us some goods. It's neat experience.  We had a seafood lunch on the boat, and eventually made it to a CAVERN, with stalagmites and stalagtites. I've been to some in California, but this one blew me away!  There were several chambers, and it was a sight to behold!  We saw a Penis Rock (pictures forthcoming), turle rock, a romantic couple).  The tour guide tells us there are so many islands, and so many still undiscovered caves!

Sung Sot Cavern
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We made it back for dinner, and met up with Madame and her girlfriends!  Way cute, and when you're around her, you know she's the boss! After a tasty dinner, the festivities continued, where we had karaoke, and massages scheduled for the evening.  For me, this is the ultimate Asian Business Entertainment!  Surreal, but what the hey, just go with it!

Never have I been to a karaoke bar!  This one was built within the hotel property, as well as our forthcoming massages. We ran into the hotel manager, whom knows the VACO crew. Seems like they are known everywhere! He invited us to his new karaoke rooms. Damn it was big!  The staff brought us more Chivas, fruit, and nuts, and plenty of sheet music! I was the timid one of the group.  The VACO crew was all over it! They were nice, and started with some American songs. Max was a gamer, and totally grabbed the mike, and sang some duet with one of the guys!  Eventually, they started picking some Vietnamese songs, and were they not serious about their music?  All of them,......eyes closed, mouths wide open, as if they were the stars! I kept getting pressured to sing a song. So I downed a few shots of Chivas, and sang A-Ha's 'TAKE ON ME"!  I'm sure VACO was mortified by my high pitch!  After the first song, it's not so bad. I wanted to sing everysong afterwards!

Karaoke Dreams
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By 10 pm, it was time for our "special" massages.  All the guys opted for a full body massage, as Max and I also did.  The rest of the girls picked a foot massage.  Weird enough that it was so late at night! Oh well, I guess that's how it works here! Go with the flow. So, I get to the room, and there stands a little Vietnamese girl wearing a short polyester nylon robe. I wait for her to step outside so that I may peel off the layers.  No such thing as she smiles at me, and motions for me to take if off. She's even helping me.  I wonder what's happening to Max? All right, so I just need to relax and enjoy the massage, and forget the fact that this woman is squeezing me all over! By the way, I have never had a female masseuse.  I have always requested for man massueses!  We have small talk so that I can relieve my uneasiness, only her English is limited to (name, how old, you American? ) and my Vietnamese is limited to (Pho, Cafe Sua Da, Bun Bo Hue, Cam On, bac,). All I could do is laugh at the situation.  As I lay on my stomach, almost falling asleep, next thing I know, she is massaging my shoulders, with her whole entire body sitting on top of me!!!! I felt her thighs touch my thighs!!! OMG!!!! My head popped up, and she asks..."Okay??" All I could do was nod...okay, okay. Truth be know, after awhile I started enjoying it! Hahahahah! It was an experience I won't forget for awhile!

I tipped my girl, and she was delirious!  Must be a tough living. Max, however, had some dispute with hers!  Apparently, her girl wanted more tip. One of the guys, even refused to tip his because he was not impressed with his girls hands!  The massage wasn't all the great, but I had fun with the mine, and next time I'll remember to ask for a man!

It's been a long day, memorable day in Halong Bay.

More Vietnam stories forthcoming!