Weird and/or Interesting Things That Happened In Our Vietnam Trip:
1. Getting scammed by a fruit vendor selling pineapples. This, we learned, was apparently a popular modus in the area.
2. Spending two nights in transit aboard sleeper buses with tiny cramped chair-bed half-breeds.
3. The hoard of noisy and energetic Vietnamese that entered the sleeper bus at night and woke all of us on board.
4. Seeing an assortment of things being carried on motorbikes: slaughtered pigs, a baby on a high chair, etc.
5. Waiting for a bus to bring us to either Hanoi or Ninh Binh City on the wrong side of the provincial road and out of desperation (we didn't know we were on the wrong side yet), attempting to hitch hike from there.
6. This shop of stuffed toys in Hanoi's Old Quarter:
7. Sharing a few beers and laughs with our newfound European friends in a "bar" in our little mountain town of Ta Van (our big group of young internationals were the only guests there).
8. Eating a three to four-dish meal under 10 minutes because we thought we were late for the bus from Sa Pa back to Hanoi. Turns out we weren't, and would now have to deal with a rocky bus ride down the mountain on bursting stomachs.
9. Going to the Van Long nature reserve in Ninh Binh expecting it to be a lively park full of monkeys and birds (based on Trip Advisor) but instead it was a rickety river boat ride past marshland in the quietest parts of the area. What happened to our 45,000 dong?
10. Arriving at the bus station early in the morning and having to wait by this "cafe" on the road with friendly Vietnamese taxi and motorbike drivers at 3 am.