Mike and I went to the Winchester Mystery House yesterday (henceforth called the Winchester House because calling it mysterious is stupid) and had a great time sneaking what photos we could! We tried not to go in with too many expectations, and since neither of us were expecting to tour a house filled with ghosts and spooky noises, I think we enjoyed it a lot more than the yelp reviewers. The house itself was actually smaller than I had imagined, most of the rooms are really quite small, and while it's not as "mysterious" as hyped, it's still a great old building with some very cool architectural details. Worth visiting if you're into Victorian architecture or kitschy tourist activities (which I SO am!).
I am terrible at this posting regularly blogging thing, so I am going to catch up in a series of backdated blogs. At least it will look like I'm good at schedules! A horse themed post. Both of these pictures are from Dalat. The first was taken while we were walking around the lake to the Dalat Florwe Garden. We were enjoying our walk (unbeknownst to me I was working up an epic sunburn) and randomly a horse appeared on the side of the road! The horse was just chillin, he was tied up on a long rope nibbling on some grass and there was no one around. It was very random. The second picture comes from inside the Flower Garden. This guy was walking around with the horse and for a small fee you could ay to sit on the horse and have your friends take your picture. I think it was a pretty slow day at the Garden, and this guy loked a little bored. Suffice to say, it was surreal to see a Vietnamese dude walking around a botanical garden towing a horse in western cowboy gear.
We took an overnight boat tour around Halong Bay on the 29th. We opted for a more expensive boat because it included kayaking the first day and a morning swim or hike on the second day. Our boat, the Marguerite Junk, felt like a setting in an Agatha Christie novel, especially after the crew brought a plate of fruit accompanied by a giant knife to each of our rooms after we checked in. The bay itself is beautiful, 1600+ small islands, each covered in a thick layer of jungle all surrounded by an eerily flat bay and enough mist to grey the distant islands out. We visited an "Amazing" (or "Surprising" depending on the translator) cave on one island and saw many rock formations inside which vaguely resembled bears, frogs, dragons, turtles, etc. After that we kayaked for a bit less than an hour, and visited a really cool cove sheltered almost entirely inside an island accessable only by small boat by going through a cave. I should note at this point, that our boat was full of a great many characters, my favorite being Tripod Man. Tripod Man was from Venezuela, and my first nickname for him was Red Shoe Guy necuae he was wearing an incredible pair of bright red leather slip on boat shoes. His real name however, had to be Tripod Man because he came equipped with a full size giant tripod and one tiny Canon point and shoot camera. Lugged that ebormpus tripod and that
We took a train up the coast from Danang to Hanoi yesterday, it was a pretty long train ride, over 12 hours, but very pretty. The tracks edge right along the coast so the view was pretty spectacular. We booked a soft sleeper compartment which had only 4 bunks, and about half an hour into the journey Miles looked under his bottom bunk and found 2 boxes of live pigeons! We thought maybe someone had forgotten them on a previous trip so we told one of the porters and a guy came and took the boxes away. Very strange! After we go into Hanoi we checked into a really crappy hotel and took some quick (and cold) showers then headed out to see if we could book a 2 day tour to Halong Bay. We were able to find what looks to be a pretty fun tour aboard a "luxury junk" through a reputable tour company recommended by Lonely Planet (Sinh Cafe). Then we ate some breakfast and checked into a better hotel. It's kind of amazing how much of a difference 5-10 dollars can make in the quality of a hotel room. After that we took a taxi out to the Temple of Literature, which was a scholarly institution built in 1070 as a center of learning and knowledge founded by Confucian scholars. The buildings are all in Chinese style architecture and the grounds were really well kept and relaxing. There was a huge school group of 12-13 year
We are in Hoi An now, got in yesterday morning bright at early after a night time train ride up the coast from Nha Trang. We took a bus out to Nha Trang the day before, and took the train out the same day, but we had enough time to check out the beach in Nha Trang and get caught out in a surprise downpour. The beach was beatiful, I can tell why Nha Trang is a popular scuba/snorkling destination, but we were only out for about 10 minutes before a crazy rainstorm came through and soaked us in less than a minute! We were able to book a night train up the coast to Hoi An, and as soon as we got on the train I took an Ambien to help me sleep, instead, it turns out that I am one of those people who gets the crazy side effects and it made me hallucinate like crazy! I think I slept but I was still really, really drugged in the morning and I can't really remember getting off the train or getting to our hotel here in Hoi An. (Miles and Leanne said that I really wanted to brush my teeth in the morning and I that I wandered around the train station toothbrush in hand looking for a bathroom.) I felt a lot better after we got into our hotel and I was able to take a nap while Miles & Leanne got some breakfast. After they got back from breakfast
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