wishing for better days in Hanoi/Halong Bay

It's 8am, I've slept 3 hours, and the bus is late to pick us up for our halong bay tour. Vietnam doesn't have the same kind of tour service as the other countries. You pay less and you can expect a lot less. It's more of a 'I wonder how bad this is going to be' type of experience with every tour I've been on in Vietnam. This one delivers as promised - bad, with a side of everything-is-too-crowded, and a touch of 'why-are-we-standing-and-waiting-again?'. ah Vietnam. I don't know if it's lack of sleep and I'm cranky or if Vietnam really is just... 

It's raining. The bus ride is long. We stand forever at the crowded dock before were herded onto a crappy boat and fed a crappy lunch. Everyone on the boat is over 60. Sho and Mike buy a bottle of cheap whiskey to ease the dreariness and I proceed to read 1,394,849 pages of my book.. while striking an asian pose

We go to an amazing cave.. made awful by bright blue, yellow, purple, and pink lights. It didn't look natural.. and it was a shame. So we drank a beer instead.

We arrived at cat ba island. I expected the worst. it's bad, but not as bad as I thought. we check into a hotel in which tripadvisor users absolutely hate. the power goes out. splendid.

we roam the streets looking for something to do. it's an eerie scene. there are people standing outside- everywhere. hundreds and hundreds of people- spilling into the streets. all Vietnamese. I'm tired of following around the boys. I'm not looking to get drunk and nor am I looking for girls. I find a handsome Frenchman my age named Pierre and he tags along and keeps me company with his travel stories.

If I could click my heels three times and be home I would. I'm getting tired of Vietnam. In the last 36 hours the locals are rude, I'm getting ripped off by every vendor, Ive been staying in awful hotels and not sleeping, and I haven't had a meal that looked appetizing.

click click click.

damn still here.