Sapa

Immediately after getting back to Hanoi from our Halong Bay tour we boarded a night train to Sapa, a small mountain town near the China border in the north.  There are a number of indigenous tribes up there that all cultivate rice on these terraced rice fields, making the mountainsides quite picturesque. 

Here was the view from our nice hotel, the Cat Cat View Hotel.  It was very relaxing after our bumpy sleeper train without much sleep. 

Many of the above-mentioned indigenous tribes leave their villages each day to hock their goods to helpless tourists such as ourselves in town.  As soon as we arrived by van from the train station a hoard of women and girls started running after us, saying hello and asking us where we were from.  Little did we know they were being quite tactical - they were laying the groundwork for later saleswomanship.  When we left the hotel for lunch, they accompanied us up to the restaurant without trying to sell anything.  But then they waited outside the restaurant for an hour and as soon as we exited they started saying we had to buy everything from them since they had known us the longest.  This is Kate and her mom getting mobbed by these women.  When Kate finally refused to buy anything, one woman yelled at her, "Kate, you no good!"  Ruthless.

 After a night in the hotel we headed out on a trek to do a homestay in one of the indigenous villages.  This is Kate and her mom getting helped down the mudddy (VERY MUDDY) trail.  We did 13 km through two villages, led by our fearless local guide, Chi, a 21 year old who married at age 12.  She lived in one of the villages.

 Rice fields down in the valley.  Water buffalo are used to plow the fields - huge animals that were cool to see up close.  But that meant they also left huge pies all over the trails; had to be careful not to step in those steaming piles. 

These were the guides that helped Kate and her mom down the muddy slopes.  They're not very tall...

This was our host lady.  She made us an amazing meal - one of our top three for sure this trip.  She also force fed us (really twisting my arm) homemade rice wine.  We had to do a certain cheer before every shot.  It was quite entertaining.

And "More," she would say.  So again we'd sing the Vietnamese toast and drink more.  We made it 'till about 8:30 p.m. that night before hitting the hay. 

OK, that was Sapa, the only place we actually wore our fleeces and pants we dragged halfway across the world.  Until next post....

Halong Bay - f'n paradise

Our next stop was probably our favorite in Vietnam. Duncan the geologist tells me that Halong Bay is an example of karst topography - it consists of a thousand or so limestone islands. One of the most beautiful places either of us has ever been...yet. You totally feel like you have suddenly been cast in Pirates of the Caribbean or something.

It is quite difficult and no less expensive to get yourself to Halong Bay and navigate the islands on your own, so we booked one of those "somebody does everything for you" tours for 2 nights. I am usually skeptical of such tours - they make me think of old people and a guide with a flag leading helpless tourists around - but we didn't really have a choice and we picked an awesome tour. We stayed the first night on a boat with with about 12 other people after kayaking amidst the islands and floating villages around them and checking out a huge cave during the day. They even let is jump from the top deck of the boat (see pictures below), which added another notch to our list of "things they let you do in Vietnam that they would never let you do in the US". The evening ended with dinner and forced kareoke - apparently this is the main form of entertainment in Vietnam . Luckily we had a crazy Russian couple on our boat that had drank several bottles of wine and vodka throughout the day and they broke the ice by being the first singers. Here are the pcis from the first night on the boat:

 Jumping off the boat....I would like to mention that I was the only girl with the guts to do it.

The second day we left the boat and went to Cat Ba Island, one of the islands in Halong Bay, and did a two hour hikei in the National Park there in which we were promised that we would get views of all of Halong Bay from the top which we did not but oh well. Then we headed to our own private island - Monkey Island - where the 30 or people on the tour had the whole island to ourselves and bungalows on the beach. Truly paradise. A few of us went exploring the island to find monkeys and we discovered that the monkeys on this island have drinking problems. They would attack at the sight of a beer can and when they got their hands on one...well, you can see the pictures below.

The beach on Monkey Island.

Moonlight over Halong Bay.

Hue

Onto Hue, just a couple weeks late.  Doing our best to catch up while we're here in Thailand on a lazy island. 

We took a scenic train ride up the coast from Danang to Hue, a 2.5 hour journey along the coast, rising up into the lush hillsides and then back down among the banana trees.  Just seeing the thick foliage this close made us think how impossible it would've been to walk those hills, much less fight in them.  Kate said in quite a serious manner, "I'd be lost. I think I'd just sit down and give up."  She might have been able to get out of it to begin with, I think...

Our host at the Binh Minh Sunrise I hotel in Hue was likely the nicest, most bubbly lady in the entire country.  She laughed at everything she said and we said.  Bubbly at 6 a.m., bubbly at 10:30 p.m., impressive really.  We rented bikes to see some of the city's cites, including the old Citadel (Hue was the capital of Vietnam's empire for a while) and a big pagoda, which was known as the Eiffel Tower of Vietnam (why bother with these stupid comparisons, because Eiffel Tower it was not).  The Citadel was the subject of a huge battle in the war, with the Americans finally recapturing it at high cost.  But anyway, on the bike ride (pictured below), we crossed a VERY narrow bridge that was for bikes and motorbikes.  Seriously, there was only 6 inches on each side of the end of the handlebars, if that.  Mrs. Rubert was doing great until she actually looked down, at which time she bounced of either railing, incurring numerous minor contusions.  The worst part was that she had no choice but to go onward, the rest of the 150 yards, because no one could pass her and there was a pileup of honking motorbikes and bicyclists.  She managed and will be sure to remember that story for a while. 

And because Hue was the capital for a long period, there are a number of insanely elaborate tombs dedicated to the emperors that ruled there.  We chartered a boat to cruise the Perfume River down to one of the most ornate tombs (pictured).  We also got a neat pic of a little bicycler passing by the Pagoda, a really old one (the Eiffel Tower). 

That night I got to meet up with my college buddy, Currie, who is living there teaching English.  It was fun checking out the ex-pat scene there and riding tandem on a motorbike with another man. 

Ok, last thing, we left Hue on a plane up to Hanoi, and this has happened to us a few times.  We get our boarding passes checked, heading out the tunnel, down some stairs and out onto the tarmac.  The plane is, no joke, 75 feet away, but there is a bus waiting for us.  We slowly pile on, and finally when the bus is full its doors close and it drives us all of 50 feet closer to the plane.  And this is the ONLY plane at the airport... it was quite comical; even in the litigious U.S. we would just cone off a path the plane if it was that far away.  Wierd. 

Ok, that's it, next post tomorrow... I promise (maybe).

And in response to the calls for more Kate pictures, I will do my best; however, there is quite a thick filter on pics that she gives the OK to, so even when we take hundreds, only a few she finds suitable.  Probably not surprising. 

Yay, another site, thrilling!...

 First elephant siting.

 Hanging in the Citadel.

Some dead important person... on the way leading up the the place just in front of the gate to the gate of his final resting place.  1 km in total was his tomb.

Kate has a way with the little ones. Daughter of our boat driver.

Like Mother like daughter... both SO excited to be finally in bed, and in their silk DreamSacs. 

Hoi An - "Buy something..."

Let me first apologize to our readers--all four of you--for not posting in quite a while.  We have had crappy internet/computer access, but we can't be falling behind like this, can we? 

After leaving Mui Ne, we flew up to Danang, where we stayed in a roach motel (literally, Kate had one on the floor next to her side of the bed in the morning) and got the hell out of dodge as soon as possible, taking a taxi down the 26km of China Beach (where the GIs got R&R during the war) to Hoi An.  I decided to count how many times our driver honked his horn during the 45 minute drive.  After 14 honks in the first minute, I decided, fuck that.  Honking is HUGE in Vietnam; if you weren't able to block out the sound you might go crazy. 

Hoi An is a really quaint little fishing village with narrow streets and a bustling market.  It used to be a big trading city, but since the river silted up in the 19th Century shippers went elsewhere and the town was frozen in time, not modernizing whatsoever.  We stayed in an old Chinese-style house that has been converted into a 6 room hotel (I'm pictured below on the John, if I can manage to post pics).  Our first morning waking up there we arose at 5:30 to go check out the market as it came to life.  No other tourists were awake so it was pretty neat.  Usually hounded by locals to buy things, we were actually completely ignored; we were just getting in there way--one old man actually hit Kate on the arm, shoeing her out of his path.  And the aromas were amazing: a blend of fruit, sweat, raw meat, flowers, fire smoke, cigarettes, and cooking vegetables, which we smelled at once separately and mixed together. 

Hoi An is also known for its good but cheap tailors.  It's a place a boy like me can go pretend to be a man.  I got two tailored suits and a shirt made for me overnight, and then a nice shave - all for, relatively, next to nothing.  You can have anything made for you--just show them a picture in a magazine, tell them color and size, and their extended families (or whomever) whizzes off to make it for you then and there.  They also sell a ton of worthless crap in the town too, and perhaps our favorite quote of the trip thus far was when we were passing a woman on our way to dinner.  She sounded so sad and desperate, pleading with us: "Buy something!"  She had apparently given up trying to guess our tastes, not pointing us to this knick-knack or that, just commanding us to buy something, anything.  We have since been repeating this in an Asian accent ad nauseum. 

We also rented bikes for the day and headed out the 4km to the beach.  Quite nice - it seems the weather has been favoring us, as it's always sunny when we're on the ocean, yet pleasantly cloudy when we're in the cities.  When we were parking our bikes at the beach a funny thing happened.  Kate watched as a cockroach climbed up the pants of the man who was taking our bikes.  Boy did he freak out! (Can you blame him?)  Everyone around, including us, thought it was hysterical as the man unbuckled his pants and starting shaking epiliptically (word?). 

Pics, baby:

Our old Chinese-style room.  And then me taking a disturbed BM... not a lot of privacy back in the day, apparently.

Some ladies taking a snooze.

Shave.  When I make it big I'm never shaving myself again!   And the suits...

Mui Ne - beach town

It was certainly nice to get out of the buzz and bustle of Saigon to the beautiful Vietnam beaches.  We took a bus to Mui Ne, a small town 4 hours northeast of HCMC.  Mrs. Rubert made quite the friend on the bus.  She sat next to a young Vietnamese woman who insisted on talking the entire 4 hours.  She asked many many questions, including "What time do you go to bed at night in America?" and "Do you like brown skin?" (women over here stay covered up to remain as white as possible).  She also insisted that Mrs. Rubert try the unidentifiable foods the girl picked up at a roadside stop.  The girl eventually asked if she could stay with Mrs. Rubert in Mui Ne.  And wouldn't you know it, but we get back on the bus to return to Saigon two days later and who is in the seat next to Mrs. Rubert? Yup, her bus buddy.  More weird foods that must be sampled, more questions, etc.

What else?  The sun was super intense, but luckily it wasn't always out, as it rained hard (very hard) every afternoon.  Not much else to tell, really, just totally relaxing. 

I could probably say more, but I'm tired.  Some pics:

The Mekong Delta

The Mekong River starts in China and flows through Burma, Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia, before it enters Vietnam and then the South China Sea.  The Delta is a large area of wetlands with estuaries, canals, floating markets, and rice fields.  We took a tour down there for the day.

But first, an addendum to yesterday's post regarding the millions of motorbikes here. (Literally. There are 5 million motorbikes in Saigon, one for every two people).  As my Saigonese counterpart, Tho (our 27 year old tour guide), said:  "No motorbike, no girlfriend."

And that made me think about how I never really got any action until I got a car.  So, it's universal: you need the wheels to get the girls.

Ok, our trip down to the delta was pretty cool.  We sampled honey/kumquat tea at a bee farm.  Kate wasn't too relaxed there since she's allergic, but she persevered.  We also sampled locally made coconut candy on an island, and it was so f'in delicious. Ambrosia.  We got to get a canoe ride while wearing those conical rice paddy hats.  And last but definitely not least, we got to drink snake wine (pictured below).  The venom from this king cobra gives the wine medicinal powers, including a natural male enhancement quality.  It's true, I'll have to sleep with an ice pack in my shorts tonight, since Mrs. Rubert's here and all...

Tomorrow we're off to the beautiful beaches.  Rough life.

That is all.  Enjoy the pics.

Dunc
p.s., The people of Saigon all call it "Saigon," whereas everyone else in the country calls it Ho Chi Minh City.  The official name has only been in place since 1955, but "Saigon" has been the name for over 300 years.

Oh, and btw, it's the rainy season...

HCMC aka Saigon

Ho Chi Minh City in two words: motorbikes and muggy.

Man, it is like there is a motorbike convention here 24/7/365. They're everywhere, even on the sidewalks. You're never safe!  At every stoplight there is an army of bikers waiting to run you down.  Of course, most intersections don't have stoplights, or any other apparent form of traffic regulation for that matter, so walking here is really a tricky game, a game of life and death.  Whenever possible, we grouped together with other  tourists to cross streets in phalanx formation.  I'm hoping to put up a pic of these biker hoards, but we'll see if that works.

And the heat/humidity. Brutal. We sweated right through every layer, especially in the indoor market that reeked of raw meat.  Good thing I was wearing Under Armor.  (We will protect this house!)  This really is the tropics, with really wild tropical fruits at all the stands.  I guess that's all I can say about the mugginess, because sweat is sweat; we all know it, and we all don't like it.

We checked out the War Remnants Museum, all about the atrocities of the Vietnam War.  It was pretty horrifying, especially the stuff about the birth defects from Agent Orange.  And the stories of the killing of women and children in such a methodical way really makes you rethink your ideas of humanity.  I'm reading Dispatches right now, by Michael Herr, which I highly recommend for anyone interested in the war history.

OK, that's all for now, but in an attempt to not leave you in such a depressing way, I'll try to post a pic of these crazy motorbikers, many wearing dentists masks.  It's fricken hysterical.