Well Vietnam definitely had its ups and downs during its first week. I was so happy to finally be in Hanoi after such a long journey to get there (10 hour bus ride followed by an hour walk in a city who's name I cannot and do not wish to remember, and then another 2 hour bus ride on a sleeper bus we just happened to stumble upon!) It was quite the journey though a fun one with fun people, I also did my first boarder crossing by land out here. 
Hanoi was great and I liked it so much more than Bangkok. Its quite a large city and all the noises and people reminded me of home; though on a whole nother level of busy and crowded. The street there were crazy and I had a blast driving around on them with my new motorbike I bought from a fellow backpacker. The first few days were spent exploring, shopping, drinking and meeting new people. The hostel I was at offered free beer during certain parts of the day so I took advantage of that. It was a beer called Beer Hoi. Its very cheap as it is brewed fresh everyday and you have to drink it quick or it loses the alcohol. Im not quite sure how that works.
I had my first challenge and downside of Vietnam when my phone was stolen so that was very frusterating. I got a new one the next day but pictures were lost and it was just one more added expense. After that I was pretty ready to get out of Hanoi. Another big part of the city and the country is so many people try to rip you off and you must barter for everything. Even water at times! With all this it was time to move on to the next destination. It should have been an easy drive up to Halong Bay on the scooter yet we were unaware that we could not take the scooters on the main highway so we had to go off course. After about 1.5 hours I also lost my buddy and had to find my way to the bay myself. What should have been a 4 hour trip maximum turned out to be 7hrs and I stupidly did not eat and only drank 1.5 liters of water all day. When I finally did get food it did not agree with my stomach and I spent all of the next day in bed.
Upon my recovery we went on an overnight cruise on the bay which started out poorly but we made the most of it and ended up having quite a good time. We got to kayak, tour a cave, fish for squid and just enjoy the beauty around us. Once we got back from the cruise we got out stuff, loaded it on the bikes and caught the ferry to Cat Ba Island. Here was another beautiful place and I met up with a Hungarian girl I had met in Laos. Its always fun when you see old travel buddies and get to meet up again. Cat Ba City was a small city so we saw it all very quickly. One of the coolest things I did was deep sea solo climbing. This means you free climb (no ropes) up the rock face and just jump off into the waters below. It was such a great time, but it was a lot more intimidating than cliff jumping. Unfortunately that night I had some bad beef and once again was stuck in bed all of the next day. Luckily for me the Hungarian girl put on her mommy mode and got me snacks and water and helped me with my recovery. Because of this I was unable to explore the island further but what can ya do? Gotta stay healthy. The next day it was time to go. I drove away to my next location after taking 2 ferries back to the mainland. It was quite fun. 
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