destination: halong city, vietnam

The bus finally comes to a grinding halt in what appears to be pretty close to the center of a charmingly small town built around a body of water and ascending up into the hills looking out over bay. Off in the distance, out on what appeared to be a peninsula, I could see the massive signs attached to the uber-classy high-rise hotels that surely began sprouting up on in the last five years or so.
Being the only westerner, I was the only one who got off at this stop because I assume the rest of the passengers were headed further along the coast, but the driver knew I wasn’t a local somehow, so he dropped me where I would most easily find a room, also known as where his buddy would be waiting for me to sell me a room.
Rapidly approaching me when I made my graceful exit from the bus, both legs and ass asleep, was a wiry Vietnamese guy, taller than most, with a mustache that would rival the best in the world. His English was very good and he, of course, had “a good room for good price.” Continuously assured that I would like the room and that if I didn’t like it I was free to go elsewhere to stay, he urged me to come in and have a look. So incredibly sick of these salesmen, but equally as tired and ready to lie down for a few minutes, I followed him into what turned out to be a really nice hotel. It was “his families” hotel, as they always are, and he had a big room on the fifth floor with a balcony, air conditioning, hot water, and two beds, only one of which I needed, for fifteen dollars. I scoffed at the nearly 300 percent increase from my ideal price range, and began playing the game, inevitably not making much headway and only getting him down to twelve dollars. The room was far and away the nicest I’d stayed on so far; with its mini-bar, comprised of two cans of coke and a few bags of pretzels, legitimately nice bathroom, unforgivingly hard beds, and marble flooring with actual air conditioning, the room was a couple hundred dollar room anywhere in the US, so the twelve dollars I paid was beginning to seem actually worth it.
After a solid and long awaited shower, returning, of course, to the same clothes I’d been in all day and much of the day before, and a quick catnap, I headed downstairs to grab some food. My immediacy to do so was thwarted by Mr. Mustachio who assumed correctly that I was in town with the intention of heading out through Halong Bay the next morning. We discussed prices, options, accommodations, the works, regarding cruising out through the bay and out to the largest of the 2,000 islands, Cat Ba Island. After all was said and done he ended up convincing me to go with a package that was 100 dollars. It sounded a bit pricey, but I was tired, eager to go eat, excited about the trip, and all things considered, it seemed like a good deal; my 100 dollars got me a boat ride out into the bay, two freshly cooked seafood meals on the boat, swimming and kayaking in the bay, a tour through a massive cave on one of the islands, sleeping overnight on the boat, fresh breakfast in the morning, more swimming, the rest of the way to the island, two nights stay with all meals covered on the island and a tour of the national wildlife park, and of course a ride back, with lunch, through the bay. That sounded like a hell of a lot of stuff for 100 dollars. Of course I later found out that people were getting the same deal for less than half that, but that’s beside the point; I got sold on it, simple as that.

nicest room in 5 weeks…