Cat Ba

For our vacation/honeymoon, Steve and I took a trip to Cat Ba - a beautiful island conveniently located less than an hour from our town. And was it beautiful. This is also where Halong Bay is, which has recently been made on of the 7 wonders of the world. We explored caves, went on a boat ride out in the bay, ate some delicious food, and visited Monkey Island (can you guess what kind of animals we saw there?). Yeah, they're cute, but it's best to take heed of the signs warning against getting too close to the monkeys. We witnessed a monkey attack first hand, and let me tell you, it did not look pleasant.

The Sh*ts

Because I know everyone's dying to know about this....
Suprisingly enough neither me or Steve have gotten anywhere near sick yet. And we've eaten at some pretty questionable places (i.e. the post below). Actually, come to think of it, pretty much everywhere is questionable. I was almost positive that I would have several bacterial colonies living somewhere in my intestines by now, but so far I appear to be bacteria-free. Yay! Good thing we brought so many damn anti-diarrheals.

What the @$%! Did I Just Eat?

Snails. Quite the bargain, too. You can get 6 beers and a whole bowl full of 'em for 30,000 dong (less than 2 bucks). And, save for the few that had a bit of..um..grit in them (ewww), they weren't all that bad. Of course the delicious sauce you drown them helps a bit.

Chuc Mung Nam Moi!

Although it's already after Tet now, I haven't been able to blog about pre-Tet yet, which as far as I can tell involves many many parties. The first of which was our work party. No offense to any of my former coworkers who may be reading this, but it was quite possibly the best work party ever. They took us to a restaurant near the school, began serving food and pouring shots, and never stopped with either. The food here is delicious, and lucky enough for me the girl I was sitting next to insisted on preparing all my food for me (it was lucky cuz honestly I would have had no idea how to eat it if she hadn't). Then there was booze. Let me fill you in on something no one told me: women here don't drink. Ever. And, well, I do. So basically, I amused the hell out of everyone there. (I was worried that it might be offensive or something, but thankfully it appears not to be.) Steve told a few of our impressed male coworkers that where I'm from (Russia) they drink Vodka like water, and so from that (and the fact that we were basically drinking everyone under the table) came our new nicknames - Mr and Mrs Water. Finally the neverending food and alcohol eventually ceased, and the party ended as all good parties should - with karaoke. And with Steve singing a duet with our very professional-asian-businessman boss, arms around shoulders and everything (and I do believe it was a Lionel Richie song). Yes, I'm still kicking myself for forgetting my camera. So instead of some awesome blackmail-worthy pictures, here's a random pic of a karaoke joint instead. I'm pretty sure hoi hop means hip hop.