Day 46!

I was exhausted yesterday so I tried going to bed early. But at 2:30am my stomach had other ideas.

After dealing with a fun bout of indigestion, I headed back to bed… but the roosters had other plans as they decided it was time to start singing!

I did end up falling in and out of sleep until around 9am when I got up and skipped breakfast to enjoy a morning of reading!

I’m thoroughly enjoying this book! It is super gripping and thrilling. Also what a pretty view to have while reading in the morning!

While I was relaxing there I was joined by a little friend!

The family of the homestay I’m staying at is very sweet and they have two young girls running around! This one is a goofball and is very cute.

At around 12:30pm I decided to head out into the town for food!

However, when I arrived yesterday, I pulled my bike all the way to the hostel… this was a mistake. So I had the challenging task of figuring out how I was going to get up the very steep road backwards.

I ended up finagling my bike far enough backwards to ride in neutral (and heavily using my breaks) the rest of the way down the steep road and was able to turn my bike around and then slowly crawl my way back up in second gear.

I put a restaurant into my Google maps and wove my way back down the road I took into town. But on my way to the restaurant I saw a place packed with locals, so I pulled over and ate there instead!

For 50,000 Dong, I had a big bowl of Bun Pho with beef and enjoyed a nice view of the lake!

I finished eating and didn’t want to head back to the hostel, especially after how much of a hassle it was.

So I found a nearby coffee shop where I got a blueberry tea and sat and read for 2 hours!

I started getting hungry again so I drove around town a little more and saw that they were setting up for a festival!

The sign said “Le Hoi Long Tong” which is one of the festivals in Ba Be. But Google says it’s celebrated January 31st. So I’m not sure why it’s happening now!

I then found the restaurant I was originally going to go to and had a nice plate of fried eggs with beef!

On my drive back to the hostel I stopped to take another picture of the lake from the winding road. This area is absolutely stunning and I’m very happy I stopped through for the day!

I then went back to reading at the hostel in the same spot as the morning. But quickly was interrupted with more chit chat with my new friend Femke!

Femke is super nice and we’ve had some nice chats over the past day and a half!

But a bit into chatting a group of kids went to play volleyball in the courts next to the hostel. So instead of just watching this time, I decided to go attempt to play some with them!

When I joined them they were just doing warm up hitting and I asked if I could hit with them!

They all giggled a bit but were happy to have me play along with them!

After about 30-40 minutes, they started playing some games and seemed to already have their teams figured out so I said thank you and headed back to the hostel for dinner!

It was pretty fun getting to play since I love volleyball so much. The kids turned out to be 13, so it was probably fair that I didn’t play a full game with them, but they were really talented and fun to watch!

It’s cool that the language barrier didn’t stop us from being able to interact and we could appreciate our shared love of the sport together!

At the hostel I was greeted with a feast for 50,000 Dong! As I’ve said, the hosts here are very kind and generous. After eating I paid for my food and room because I’ll be leaving in the morning.

In total, for two nights and two meals, I paid $11 for it all… that’s insane!

I said goodbye to Femke as I probably wouldn’t be seeing her again and went to my room for a very nice FaceTime with my friend Maddie!

It ended up being a noisy night. There was karaoke ringing through the neighborhood and some sort of concert happening just outside my window!

All a part of the authentic experience of staying in a homestay!

Tomorrow I’ll head out early and make my way to Cao Bang, where I plan to drop my bags off at my hostel and then make my way to the beautiful Ban Gioc Waterfall!

See you then!

– Elie