Month: November 2017

Hanoi, Masterpiece Trip 2017, Vietnam

Flowers, Bridges, & Missing Trains (Hanoi Day Four)

Neeners

When we first checked into the hotel they had told us specifically about two tours: one food tour and one early morning flower market tour. We had already scheduled a food tour and we debated for several days on whether we should do the flower market tour. The problem was it started at 5:30 a.m., because the flower market is from midnight until 6 a.m.. With only one day left, we decided to bite the bullet and do the tour. They were a bit surprised. It ended up being a private tour, because nobody really wants to get up at the buttcrack of dawn. No sane people, at least.

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Masterpiece Trip 2017, Naka Island, Vietnam

Naka Island -> Hanoi (Transfer Day)

Neeners

We got up, had breakfast, and checked out. We didn’t see kitty again, but I had left some meat out for her the night before. Hopefully she got it because a) it was raining very hard, and b) I don’t like to think I accidentally fed the snake. They had us hit the gong once for ‘goodbye’ and away we went back on the boat to the mainland. We had the same efficient boat driver who helped us find our taxi and got us on our way. This time our driver was very cautious and there wasn’t any music. He was also more expensive. Safety has a price, and that price is 150 baht.

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Masterpiece Trip 2017, Naka Island, Thailand

Naka Island Review/Summary

Neeners

Because we did almost nothing for four days (and it was bliss), I’m condensing everything into one post. I’m doing this the same way I did the Wakatobi post, with a few comments/pics.

⅓ of Naka Island is owned by the resort. They have bikes that you can use to ride around and go to a nice-ish beach, or explore the nearby village. We didn’t do that. It was either hot & humid, or I was lazy. I just wanted to relax. Our villa was number 45, which had the best view, but out of 60-something villas was the 3rd furthest away from the restaurants. It was still under a 10 minute walk, with a couple small inclines. They had golf cart transfer service that we used at the beginning of the stay until I figured out we really weren’t that far away.

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Masterpiece Trip 2017, Naka Island, Thailand

Chiang Mai -> Naka Island (Transfer Day)

Neeners

As luck would have it, our flight to Phuket was a little after 6AM, which meant the cab had to get us at 4:30 a.m. We had not gotten to bed early the night before; there were occasional firecrackers from the festival and we had come back later than expected thanks to the goofed up dinner. Ah well. We could catch a nap on the plane.

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Chiang Mai, Masterpiece Trip 2017, Thailand

Tuk Tuk Tours (Chiang Mai Day Three)

Neeners

While it’s next to impossible to follow-up two great days (ellies, lanterns) with anything that doesn’t pale it comparison, I gave it my best shot by booking a full day tuk tuk tour. Paul, the driver, had gotten great reviews and English was his first language because I believe he’s from either England or the US. Not positive, actually, I just know he’s farang. I emailed him a couple of days before the tour, which I scheduled months earlier, since I hadn’t heard anything from him and I wanted to confirm. I’m glad I did as he bailed and we would have been sitting there waiting in the lobby of the hotel for lord only knows how long. From his email it sounded like he had lost his assistant and everything was very disorganized — he didn’t even have our tour on record (the email thread clearly showed it, though). He said he had a fever and was on medicine, but if he felt better the next day he could give us the tour and we should be fine as long as we didn’t touch hands. What now? We have another month left of this trip, so I’m not taking any chances going on a tour with a sick person. Sorry, not sorry. It was a really weird exchange and just from that alone I wouldn’t recommend him; he was pretty unprofessional.

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