hebebarlow

A boat trip to Ha Long Bay

A trip to Vietnam could never be called complete without visiting the amazing location that is Ha Long Bay! ‘Halong’ translates as ‘where the dragon descends into the sea’, with local legend stating that the landscape was created when a mountain dragon raced towards the coast, its tail gouging out the landscape as it moved. When the dragon dived into the sea the whole area was filled with water, producing the amazing scenery seen today. As a great lover of magical creation myths, I happen to prefer this story much more to the scientific explanation of erosion!

Just over 100 miles from Hanoi, Ha Long Bay is a great place to visit for a couple of days, although a day trip is also possible. Personally I wouldn’t advise it as I think a day trip doesn’t give you enough time to truly see the area, and plus, you’d miss the sunset and sunrise! The area was designated a World Heritage Site in 1994 and after seeing it, it’s not difficult to understand why!

Having been to Ha Long Bay before, I knew that one day there wasn’t really enough time to see this site. There are a huge number of boat trips which pick you up in Hanoi and then allow you to spend one or two nights in the bay on the boat itself. I did a load of research looking at reviews and other travel blogs, and eventually came across ‘Lily’s travel Agency’ which I would absolutely recommend to anybody who wants a reasonable price for this trip. The company offers a small variety of boats for different costs, depending on the size of the boat and the activities included. As a group travelling on a student budget, this was by far the best option we came across.

We chose the boat that cost £65 ($85) and I think this was one of the best decisions of the entire trip! Part of the package included being transported to and front Ha Long Bay, which is quite a relief as it’s a reasonable distance to travel on public transport. The boat we sailed on wasn’t massive, which I personally preferred since a bigger boat simply means more people! Meals were included in the price of the trip, as was a free bottle of water. The only additional cost was for any drinks you had, but obviously these were pretty cheap.

And so our adventure began! e sailed out into the Bay, and you begin to realise just how many other ships are there as well! I couldn’t help but worry that maybe there would be too many and our experience would somehow be ruined by crowds etc. But in reality, Ha Long Bay is such a large place that you don’t really notice other people in the slightest! Our first activity of the trip was climbing to the top of one of the tallest mountains in the area. This was a totally optional activity and wasn’t that tall in reality since it was only a few hundred steps. I will admit however, that it’s a lot of stairs to deal with in the heat and the humidity! But in my personal opinion, completely worth the sweat. If that’s not something that you want to do, there was a gorgeous little beach at the bottom of the path and the water was incredible – especially after all that exercise!

We were then taken to see a cave complex. The boat provided a tour guide who took us around the caves, explaining what each of the rock formations was called and what it was supposed to look like. It’s amazing to me how many animal shapes can apparently be spotted within one cave! The whole system was lit up with crazy lighting which made it feel as though we were walking through a live action version of ET or some strange alien planet.

In the early evening we also had the option to kayak around the Bay. There was a guide showing us a rough route (which was probably a good thing since most of the rock formations looked pretty similar to me!) although we could of course just go off on our own. It was a really relaxing way to explore part of the Bay, and it also gave us a different perspective than of the boat! I did take my g0-pro with me but sadly I am, as of now, unable to upload the photos onto anything. But hopefully I can change that soon!

What we thought was brilliant about this tour was that everything I have mentioned was included in the price of the trip. It’s always a bit of a worry that there might be some hidden costs whilst on the trip, but we were happy to learn that for once this wasn’t the case!

One of the questions i’ve been asked when telling people about this trip is what was my favourite part? And for once, that’s an easy question to answer! Watching the sunset, and getting up at the crack of dawn to watch the sunrise (which people find quite surprising considering that i’m not really a morning person). You hear people describing something as ‘magical’, but in this case it truly was. The kind of awe inspiring, goose bump raising experience I personally think every traveller is after.

On our second (and final) day of the trip we were taken to see a floating pearl farm. Our guide took us around the complex and explained each step of the process of how the farmers grow the pearls. It was actually surprisingly interesting! We were even given access to the room where the workers place an artificial piece of ‘sand’ into the oyster to attempt to stimulate the growth of a pearl. Admittedly the smell in the room wasn’t particularly pleasant but it was amazing to watch how delicate a process it is! We also had time to have a look around their shop, although sadly I decided that since I’m on quite a tight budget this summer buying pearl jewellery probably wasn’t the best decision I could be making!

So there you have it, our trip to Ha Long Bay! It was one of our most expensive day trips, but it is something that I would 100% recommend to anyone travelling to the country (in case you hadn’t already guessed). It is unlike anything I have seen anywhere in Vietnam, or the rest of the world. Even if you’re not particularly interested in geography, or swimming, or any of the activities i’ve mentioned in this post you should still go. It is quite simply, stunning. Sitting on one of the deck chairs, listening to my music and watching the scenery sail by, was one of the most peaceful and beautiful things I have ever done.

“Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” – Mary Ritter Beard

Vietnamese Water Puppets!

Well anybody who visits Vietnam must see one thing in particular – the water puppet show!

A little bit of history about the show. Water puppetry dates back to around the 11th century in Vietnam. It’s thought to have originated in Northern Vietnam in villages along the Red River Delta. The tradition started when rice paddy fields became flooded and villagers would produce their own entertainment. The villagers would stand in waist-deep water with their puppets on long bamboo poles, performing shows to the rest of the village. Whilst puppetry may be a traditional art form in Asia, Vietnamese water puppetry is a unique version of it!

The show is, in my opinion, a definite must for all visitors to the country! Watching in English does have the downside of not understanding the musical lyrics, or the plot lines for the individual puppets, and going from the reaction of the local audience members, it seems that there are often jokes which you miss. But really, that doesn’t matter. Experience traditional Vietnamese music live is amazing and for the most part you can either guess what is going on in the show or it doesn’t really matter. You can simple sit back and enjoy a show totally unlike anything you have ever seen before! Even though this was my second time seeing the show I stilled loved every moment, and it’s definitely something that can appeal to all age groups.

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” Marcel Proust

And so the adventure began…

Once again I seem to have managed to get horrendously behind in my blog posts! And yet once again I have my excuses. Bad wifi connection in more hostels than I want to remember, a VPN that refused to work, TEFL paperwork to fill out, a dissertation to start reading for. But now that I have some additional free time and some of those excuses have been completed it’s time to start catching up!

The adventure this year began in Hanoi, Vietnam! The journey over took around 24 hours and three flights, so by the end of it I was very glad to reach our first hotel. Once again I’ve gone through trusty Hostel World to find all my accommodation and once again things seem to have worked out pretty well. In Hanoi we stayed at ‘Hanoi Old Town Hotel’ which I would definitely recommend. Cheap, free breakfast, nice clean rooms, towels provided and really helpful staff, so overall a really good place to stay.

Our first evening we simply went out for a quick meal and then all collapsed into bed – although with the six hour time difference from England we quickly found that sleep wasn’t as easy to get as we were hoping!

Our first full day in Hanoi began with a visit to see Hoan Kiem Lake, and the beautiful bridge there. We then walked around the lake up to Hoa Lo Prison. A tip for anyone visiting Hanoi, the tour books and websites all told us that the prison would be closed on a Monday. However, since Monday was our only day in Hanoi we decided to visit anyway to see if it was open by any chance – and it was! I can’t be sure that this means it’s always open on a Monday, but this does make me wary of information to do with opening times.

Hoa Lo Prison, also known as the Hanoi Hilton is one of those places where it’s incredibly interesting to see, and yet you feel as though you shouldn’t enjoy seeing it. A piece of history that shows the terrible way that the locals were treated by the French. There are signs there in English which is helpful for learning about the history, although of course these do present a very Vietnamese view of events and act as political propaganda. But it’s definitely a site I think everyone should see whilst in the city.

Our next stop of the day was to the Temple of Literature. This is a gorgeous Temple of Confucius built in 1070, and became Vietnam’s first national university. It’s a beautiful building to walk around and the history of the site is amazing to me.

I was last in Vietnam with my family when I was 17 years old. This temple is one of the things that I remember most clearly from my visit then and going back them reminded me exactly why that is. Maybe I simply like Temples, maybe there’s something about it being a Temple of Literature specifically that interests me. Whatever it is, I know that this is one of the first places I will always think of when I think about Vietnam!

“Traveling isn’t something you’re good at. It’s something you do. Like breathing.” Gayle Foreman

Summer travels 2016

Oh dear, my attempt to ‘brush off the cobwebs’ didn’t go very well! In my defence, university and exams essentially dominated my life for the last few months and so everything else had to wait its turn. Unfortunately, this did mean that I didn’t ever write about my trip to Italy in Easter. After up to eight hours of walking around studying historical sites and museums each day, returning home to cook dinner, write up my notes, work on my essay, and attempting some revision, blogging was honestly the last thing on my mind.

13048077_1145786725465906_4129983557289522084_o — Maybe at some point i’ll catch up with my Italy trip!?

But now it’s the summer! Which means that whilst I will still be busy, I should (crossed fingers) be able to write far more than I have previously. At least that’s the plan…

Summer travels begin this year on Saturday. Well, to be precise, they begin at 3:05 pm when my plane leaves English soil (hopefully!) First I’ll be flying to Vietnam, which I will be exploring with three university friends. We will be visiting Hanoi, Hue, Danang, Hoi An, Nha Trang, and Ho Chi Minh, as well as a trip to Ha Long Bay. We will then be travelling into Cambodia and are visiting Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. Sadly, that’s where I have to cut short travels with my friends and won’t be seeing the rest of Cambodia or Thailand. On the other hand, I am flying over to Shanghai to work as an English teacher for around two months so I think that that can be forgiven! And besides, I’m determined to explore Asia again soon.

13457804_10209584911244690_70730058_n — My summer travels…

As for China, my travel plans still really remain a mystery. As I said I’m working in Shanghai for two months, and at the end of the trip I know that i’ll be spending about five days in Yangshuo which I am so excited about it’s kind of absurd. I’ll be flying back from Hong Kong and thanks to some very generous family friends who have offered me their spare bedroom, it looks like i’ll be exploring the city for about a week! But the rest of my time in China is still waiting to be organised.

In all honesty, i’m not sure how much time i’ll have to do my blog whilst I’m out there as I am technically working, but I’m determined to do as much as I can. So stay tuned and even if I don’t write much, my instagram will always have new things to see!

“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.” – Terry Pratchet

Study Tour

As I mentioned in my previous post, this Easter I am going to be spending 15 days in Italy. I actually have my university course to thank for this opportunity. I’m going because of something called ‘Study Tour’. This involves deciding on an essay topic that you want to look at, and then travelling to the location associated with this question. Essentially, you’re supposed to come up with a topic that you couldn’t write about unless you really saw things for yourself. For my question, I’ve decided to go to Rome. In a way it’s quite lucky that I wanted to go here, as due to the political situation Egypt has been unavailable for the last few years, and as of this year Turkey is also banned.

As well as simply loving the Romans, I am also a massive movie fan! A dream job would be to be involved in the historical accuracy of films and TV series. Consequently, an obvious choice was to write an essay which someone combined these two loves. I decided to look at whether the film Gladiator is accurate in its physical portrayal of the Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, and whether it is accurate in its depiction of the Emperor Commodus’s interactions with the Colosseum. Romans, gladiators and films – what’s not to love!!!

One of the reasons I fell in love with Ancient History to begin with!

Obviously this is why I’m going to Italy. There I will be visiting Rome, Ostia, and also Naples to look at Museums and sites etc. An added bonus for this trip is that the University actually gives us some money to do this (although sadly we do also have to contribute a little bit of money ourselves). I’m travelling with a group of four other girls – who in fact happen to be the course mates I’m incredibly close with which is really nice. It’s actually going to be one of the first times that I’ve travelled abroad with a group of people I know incredibly well as normally with my adventures I’ve gone without really knowing anybody at all!

Over the last couple of months we’ve booked our flights, found an apartment in Rome (once again I can’t help but feel so grateful that Hostel World exists) and we’ve created an itinerary of all the places that we want to visit in each of the cities. One of the slightly difficult things about the Italian Museum websites is that they often don’t tell you exactly which exhibits they have, so that will be slightly interesting!

Now everything has been planned out it’s just a case of counting down the days until I can finish term, go home and pack for my next adventure. The last time I was in Italy was with a school trip during my GCSE’s. It’s certainly going to be interesting trying to find our way around the city by ourselves without any help! I have to admit, I’ll also be interested to see if I view the city differently knowing so much more about its history than most of the other places I’ve visited. Whatever happens, I just can’t wait to be abroad and back on another adventure again!

“You get educated by traveling.” – Solange Knowles

Dusting off the cobwebs

Well, it’s official, my work on my blog has quite simply been non-existence for a while now. I must confess there’s a variety of reasons for this. Lack of travel, the busyness of uni work and life, and I suppose a degree of laziness as well. In truth, after spending my days reading and writing for my course, writing an article on here is one of the last things on my mind.

But here is my attempt to change that!

At the moment I’m beginning to get excited for my next adventure abroad – Italy!!! I’m currently counting down the days until I get to spend just over two weeks in this amazing county. In what may sound like a rather spoilt confession, I worked out that between my time in America last summer and Italy this Easter it will have been the longest I’ve gone without being abroad in years!

But that’s not the only thing that I’ve got to look forward to at the moment. I’ve also applied and been accepted to work in China this summer teaching English. I don’t know exactly where yet, or how long for, but I won’t lie… I am incredibly excited. But that’s for another post.

For now, I suppose this is just the start of a resolution to try and write here a little bit more often, to make it more of a habit rather than just an occasional occurrence! I won’t promise anything of course, but let’s see how it goes!

“Travel while you’re young and able. Don’t worry about the money, just make it work. Experience is far more valuable than money will ever be.” – Unknown

Bring back the owls

12212552_10207906129436194_1742051800_n For anyone who was in Birmingham between July and September, you may have spotted some strange new additions to the streets. If unfortunately you don’t know what I’m referring to, then you must have missed the ‘Big Hoot’, the city’s biggest public art event!

Over the summer, Birmingham was home to 89 owl statues and 122 owlets, all decorated in different designs by a number of artists. The statues were incredibly diverse, ranging from a Tutankhamen owl, to an ‘owl and the pussy cat’ tribute, to a Doctor Who owl! The statues were spread over the city’s 10 districts, and could be found in a range of different locations – even in the middle of my university campus! Sadly I never had the chance to take part in the trail to see as many owls as I could, as on the 15th of October the owls went under the hammer for charity. However, I can’t feel too sad about that as they did manage to raise an amazing £508,035! 12233144_10207906125876105_1610943136_n If you want to see for yourself what all the fuss is about, check out their homepage – there are some amazing pictures of all the different owls that could be found around the city.

http://thebighoot.co.uk

I absolutely love events like this, and I truly am sad that the owls are no longer around. I always find that art events like this make the city somehow feel more alive, or maybe that’s simply because people are out looking at the new attractions. Whatever the reasoning behind it, the owls were a beautiful and colourful (if not a little crazy) addition to the city and I can’t help but feel like something is missing now. I can’t help but hope that Birmingham city will decide to do another art display soon!

A different type of adventure!

I’m not sure if I’ve previously said this, but for most of the year I’m a full-time student. I’m currently in my second year studying Ancient History at the University of Birmingham. For those who aren’t certain what this means exactly, Ancient History looks at the Romans, the Ancient Greeks, the Ancient Egyptians and the civilisations of Western Asia – although this year I’m beginning to specialise more on the topic of the Romans.

Now on the one hand, I could simply limit my blogging to when I go abroad (in my case this would mean outside of the UK). However, I don’t want to do this. I personally believe that you can explore your own country just the same as you would a foreign one. Every single time I visit somewhere new in this amazing country, that is me exploring another small corner of the world. And besides, some people who read my blog don’t even live in England, so for them it truly is still ‘foreign’. On top of that, I don’t like the idea of going months on end without writing anything here – which sadly could potentially happen if I only wrote about my adventures outside of England (one of the disadvantages of being a poor student). So I hope you enjoy my writings about England. I’m sure there will be quite a few posts about Birmingham, but hopefully i’ll be able to do some travelling and see some other places as well!

“Travel. As much as you can. As far as you can. As long as you can. Life’s not meant to be lived in one place.” – Unknown

Home again

Well, this post officially marks the end of my American adventures of the summer 2015. As i’m writing this i’ve now been home for about a month, and I still can’t quite believe it’s been that long since I was on the other side Atlantic! My time spent in America was truly amazing. I won’t lie, I had some low times as well as the highs, both those memories mean just as much to me. There were times at Camp when I just wanted to quit and go home, and even times whilst travelling when part of me wished that I could just be curled up at home on the sofa watching tv with my family.

But that’s one of the things that I love about travelling. It shows you what’s important, what you miss when you don’t have it. It shows you how incredible the world can be, and yet also points out the things that you love about home that maybe you never noticed before, or don’t appreciate enough. But perhaps most importantly, this summer opened up my eyes once again to how beautiful the world is. To how big and full of adventure it is, and it reminded me that there is a whole world just waiting to be explored.

“You will never be completely at home again, because part of your heart always will be elsewhere. That is the price you pay for the richness of loving and knowing people in more than one place.” Miriam Adeney

Key West – my last American adventure

Now that the trip was officially over, I still had one more full day in Miami. I decided to go on an adventure to Key West. Thankfully, it was easily organised through the hostel I was staying in. They had a big book full of companies organising days out at the front desk, and they simply phoned them and booked me a place on the trip!

The day started at 7am since it was around a three hour drive down to Key West. The driver was lovely, welcoming all of us and giving us information over the loudspeaker about the area we were driving through. On the bus he told us about the different activities which were available once we arrived, and we were able to sign up to anything which took our fancy.

I decided to go on a three hour snorkelling trip. The boat ride took about an hour as we heading out to a coral reef, which turned out to actually be the third largest in the world. I have to admit, I didn’t realise that America even had a coral reef! We then had about an hour during which we were able to swim around if we wanted to. Whilst waiting at the harbour I had bought a waterproof case for my iPhone to try and take some photos in case there were some really cool fish etc. Unfortunately, I had some difficultly with it – such as the phone not responding all the time to my touch, and the photos weren’t as good as I would have liked (although this is probably due to the fact that i’m a perfectionist) but it’s still a purchase I’m very happy I made.

As we sailed to and roof the reef the views were absolutely breathtaking, and it was amazingly peaceful just floating about for an hour. I only snorkelled for about half the time available, although I found this plenty. The rest of the time I spent just looking out at the view of the ocean and the other boats which were nearby. This is definitely a trip I would recommend to others. The staff were incredibly friendly and answered all of our questions as best they could. There were drinks included in the price which was a big relief since it was so unbelievably hot! And of course I inevitably got chatting to some of the other people on the trip, which is always nice.

Once back on shore I decided to walk down to Point 0. This is literally the southernmost point in the United States of America. There’s a concrete marker which was established in 1983 marking the spot, which in all honestly is the only thing that really marks the spot out. The views of the ocean were stunning though, and it’s something that I think is just a bit different to be able to say that you’ve done. Also, it’s now something else that I can tick off my wanderlust bucket list, which is always a plus for me! Unsurprisingly this is one of the most visited and photographed parts of Key West.

Key West was truly gorgeous. Just walking down the street to Point 0 there were so many different things to look at. There were art displays, beautiful gnarly trees which looked like something an artist would dream up, random tricks with sea shells stuck all over it! In many ways it was exactly how I imagined an American sea-side town to be. The houses had the old fashioned, brightly coloured shutters, there were knackered looking trucks driving around everywhere and even chickens running wild across the streets!

Key West was, in a word, incredible. It was perhaps one of my favourite days of the my entire time in America and is certainly one that I seem to talk about the most. I’m so happy that I decided to go on this day out instead of simply sitting on the Miami beaches (although, that would also have been a lovely way to spend the day). It was a fantastic way to spend my last day in America, and is something I would 100% recommend to anyone who asks me.

We travel, some of us forever, to seek other places, other lives, other souls” – Anais Nin