Sapa

we left for sapa from hanoi at 8pm on the sleeper train to maximize our days there.  we had a four bed cabin (bunk beds) and shared it with two lovely young danish girls.  we chatted for a couple of hours (they had nearly perfect english) before we all turned in for the night.  roel and i slept like babies seeing as though we split a sleeping pill.

once we got off train (9 hours later) we had to take a mini bus to our resort for another hour up the mountain.  once again roel and i slept very well as the pill hadn't quite worn off.  thankfully so because it was very slow and winding barely wide enough for vehicles to pass each other.

when we got out of the vehicle roel was shivering violently.  it had dropped down to single digits that night.  we could see our breath in the hotel lobby.  haha  we requested a heater for our room when we realized they weren't automatically provided.  we had just enough time to settle in and shower before our tour guide was there to take us on our first trek!  she was a local girl who spoke very good english.  there were three couples.  almost as soon as we left we each had a sapa lady following us.  they were very committed and stayed with us for the entire hike (maybe 5 hours or so).  they each had a basket on their back full of various handmade sapa fabrics.  they were also wearing the traditional mung clothing.  actually, almost all the mung people still wear it.

roel fell in love with the clothing and fabrics.  once again, almost all hand made with hemp and also hand dyed.  many of the locals had permanently indigo coloured hands.

back to our hike...beautiful views of rice terraces, farm animals including pigs, water buffalo, chickens, etc.  running around us through the rice paddies.  it is the beggining of the dry season so they weren't flooded at the time.  but some parts were definitely muddy still.  they will plant their rice crop (only one a year in this area) in April/May when it becomes flooded enough.  in the mean time the woman either make clothing or are tourguides.  once it is time for field work they drop everything as each family survives off their yield until the next year.

when we got back from our hike we toured the markets in town.  roel was bombarded because he showed interest in trying everything on.  i just found a nice spot to sit and watched the frenzy from a distance.  they were quite upset when he didn't end up buying enything from them.

luckily the food included on our tour at the hotel was amazing.  we had an early night since we had a long day and another trek the next day.  we were very thankful for our electric blanket.  it was a COLD night again.  we slept fully clothed and then some.

the next morning we woke up to a pretty chilly room but not nearly as bad as the morning prior.  we grabbed a quick breakfast and went back up to the room to make sure we had everything together and packed because we had to check out as soon as we got back from this day's hike.  roel had the hotel send up a divine piece of cake with a candle in it because it was my 30th birthday.  where better to be and who better to be with?  life is good.

our hike was a lot of fun and more challening than the day before.  a lot of the same type of scenerey but it still had the awe inspiring impact.  we went down and up a mountain side encountering little villages along the way.  shot of village kids racing down the stairs.  main set of stairs is their main street.

we got back to our hotel in time to have a shower and have a vietnamese coffee in town.  it has a really neat feeling.  almost banff-ish but smaller with more character.  we caught the night train back to hanoi and shared our car with two young local business men who were extremely quiet and ekpt to themselves.  perfect roomies.

Hanoi

hellllo capitol city!  we were greeted with very cool weather and mist.  it felt freezing and fantastic!  this time we had a driver waiting with our name on it pre-paid by the hotel.  it was really nice not to have to worry about every step.

hanoi seems cleaner and more metropolitan than saigon which surprised me.  or maybe it just appears that way because everyone is dressed in long sleeves and pants with shoes.  we only have one night here before we take off on a two day three night tour to sapa in the mountains.  but we made use of the day thanks to roel.  if it was up to me i would have slept for the morning to feel 100% again.

we started off by going for a walk down the main shopping street.  roel had to stop about every 20 paces (he was shivering he was so cold) to look at the goods on display and do some haggling.  we ended up at some tour offices as recommended by lonely planet to pick out our tours.  we opted for sapa and halong bay tours.  we used hanoi as our homebase between our tours.  i'll expand on each tour in seperate blog entries after this one.

we bought tickets  for the 5pm water puppetry show.  it is an old art form that rice farmers used to use on flooded rice paddocks to entertain each other.  it was pretty lame by today's standards but the mechanics behind it were a little mind boggling to figure out. 
the puppet masters coming out for a bow after the show.  they are standing in waist deep water hidden behind the background during the performance.

we managed to get in a walk around hoan kiem lake which the city is centered around before the show.  roel said it reminded him of a very tiny central park in some ways.  it just seemed alive and where the action was at.  we got a coffee from a shop overlooking the park from the fourth floor patio.  beuatiful lights around the lake with many restaruants and cafes to choose from.

on day two we went to the ho chi minh mausoleum. i didn't know what a mauseleum was! ha i thought it was just a fancy burial site. i now understand all the security precautions. it was actually a little unnerving - all the checks we had to go through. a soldier in uniform tapped me on the arm because i had one hand in my pocket as we went through the complex (a no-no). it was one looong single file line that moved at a steady pace. if you stopped or slowed down an armed gurad would race towards you blowing a whistle.

it was fascinating to see a perfectly preserved body that died back in 1969. apparently hi chi minh's body goes to russia for three months of the year for restoration. the grounds also had his personal residences and different artifacts and points of interest. such as his badminton court and car collection. ho chi minh is considered the father and reunification leader of the country for those unfamiliar with him.

in the afternoon we took a cab across town to the major theatre complex (tiny compared to what north americans are used to). the only movie playing at the right time that we hadn't seen was percy jackson and the lightning thief. a terrible movie. the good news is that the experience only cost us $15 including tickets, popcorn, m&m's and two soft drinks. it was also a great cultural experience as most of the young adults who filled the audience were there to learn english. every line was repeated over and over. haha it would have been annoying anywhere else but we found it quite amusing.  we found an interesting shop in the mall.  this one's for you peter:

oh and roel found his favourite vietnamese restaurant that we managed to somehow eat at three times in about 30 hours!  the next morning we left for our sapa tour.  good thing roel had bought a thermal long sleeve shirt at the mall.  it gets pretty chilly in sapa at night.  it was an inner struggle as he purchased for function, not fashion.  as my dad said over a game of golf (card game) at christmas, 'i had to retrain your mother over a number of years after we got married'.  hahaha 
roel chowing down on the second floor at our restaurant.  balcony through the door behind him.

when we got back to hanoi from sapa we went out to a gay friendly bar we had read about on the internet.  they played good music and had a fun crowd.  a good mix of locals and foreigners that were all pretty friendly and chatty.  the only thing missing was a dance floor.  it was more a stand and socialize kinda place.  we went to a cool lounge off an alley with some fellow travellers from england and italy to cap off the night.  it was off to halong bay the next morning!

when we got back from the halong bay tour we had dinner out at our favourite restaurant again and relaxed in the room after.  the next day was our last free day in vietnam.  we had big plans but were mostly just exhausted from the previous tours.  we ended up back at the same movie theatre and saw alice in wonderland.  a really fun movie and another great vision by tim burton.

the next day we fly out to koh samui in thaland via bangkok.  good thing we don't have to leave the airport in bangkok...we can avoid the political demonstrations.  looking forward to some cheap relaxing beach time!  first i will write about our tours.

Halong Bay by Ghost Ship

we had one night in hanoi again between our sapa and halong bay tours. the next morning we got up early to catch our transportation from hanoi to halong city on the coast. about a three hour van ride. we were greeted by our tour guide (steven) once we got to the pier area. he informed us we had to wait for one more couple before we boarded the ship. everyone else had been directed elsewhere because they had booked different boats and tours.

**note of interest is that my new hairdresser here in calgary is from halong city. :)

**another note of interest: roel decided that he wanted to do this trip in the luxury boat since we have been staying at lower end places for a while now. we paid big bucks for our 24 hour trip!

our fellow tourmates arrived and steven brought us to our private boat. wait a minute...what?! just four of us on the boat?? i thought we booked a big cruise ship. steven said that since there were only four of us they had upgraded us to a private boat seeing as though it's cheaper for the tour operator. we were very excited. five employees and four guests. haha!
unfortunately the old english couple we were with were NOT happy and refused to let the ship depart because they had no interest in spending time on the small boat. they wanted the big boat or a refund. after almost two hours of haggling (while roel and i were on the upper deck enjoying the best seafood of our lives) we were told we were moving to the big boat.

we couldn't believe it. four of us for a giant junk boat which takes over 40 employees to operate when at capacity (i would guess there were about 20-25 employees on board for our cruise). an adventure already and we hadn't even left the harbour.

back to our meal on the small ship first: one whole fresh crab each with a salty citrus dipping sauce, a squid and veggie stir fry which was so good i can't even describe, a very large and tasty grilled fresh fish (i was too busy stuffing my face to ask what kind it was), spring rolls, fresh shrimp...we couldn't move after that feast. best food ever.

back to the big boat...once the ship started moving we ran around each level like little kids exploring a church after a sunday fundraising lunch. we couldn't stop laughing...it was just so bizarre. a whole ship almost entirely to ourselves! we settled on the top deck and just lay on the loungers looking at the jigsaw cutout limestone cliffs jutting out from the south china sea imagining how it would have looked as deep sea underwater millions of years ago.

after we had a chance to settle in steven offered to take us on a quick kayak tour. our beloved travel companions were older and not in shape to join us. we were fine with that. if we had to choose trip highlights this definitely makes top 5. this is an instance where pictures can't possibly do justice.













when we got back to the mothership it was a chance for us to jump in the water. it was a brilliant green with a slightly milky quality which i'm sure is an effect of all the limestone. it was colder than the ocean in vancouver in summer. that's pretty cold. same body of water that we swam in in mui ne and nha trang (see earlier posts) but different climate and currents. the crew gathered round to watch the crazy tourists jump in..at the time we didn't know these waters were jellyfish infested. steven told us after as he didn't want to dampen our spirits. he was watching us from the top of the ship scouting for any in the vicinity. at the time we were wondering why he was perched so attentively. haha


we had a great dinner later. fancy presentation, 5 gourmet courses. another highlight. after dark steven got us from our room and we tried our luck at squid fishing from the back of the boat (same place we swam from). the crew set-up a giant spotlight into the water (apparently this attracts the squid) and we kept dipping our lines in and out of the water. steven caught one but we were empty handed.

we were early to bed and woke up in time for morning thai chai on the upper deck and then had a great breakfast. we were on our way to the 'amazing cave'. mountains of limestone on the outside, hollowed out caverns on the inside. full of tourists from other cruises but definitely worth the stop. the cave was backlit with different coloured lights. pretty and almost kitschy.

after we taxi'd back to our ship we were bound for land. we made our connecting ride back to hanoi where we would have two more nights before flying to thailand.

Hue

only a 4 hour bus ride away we arrived at hue at about noon.  i know i've said alot about it being hot in the past but THIS was the warmest.  haha  we got absolutely blasted once we stepped off the bus by the heat and everyone trying to sell something.  this is the first time i lost it, it was just too much this time.  the good news is is that it worked and i had a few feet buffer around me so i could see where the driver had thrown my pack on the sidewalk.

we walked to our hotel about 10 mins away (we are getting pretty good at this navigating thing in new places without proper maps!).  after we dumped our bags at the guesthouse we went to eat down the street and had pizza.  sometimes you just gotta have some familiar food.  this pizza was actually really good!  we would go back for more another day.  we just went back to the room after because it was too warm to even think of doing anything.

the next morning we signed up for an all day tour of the tombs and thien mu pagoda.  there were a few other things thrown in as well but they aren't worth mentioning and were created solely for the people on these types of tours.

our tour bus stopped at three tombs of the nguyen dynasty.  they were all pretty big and impressive with man made lakes and canals on the grounds.  they were also all quite similar.  you couldn't get up close to the tombs themselves.

one of these things is not like the others...

the day also included a boat ride to thien mu pagoda.  a beautiful pagoda with a lovely garden.  we had to pay for it though.  you think riding on a covered boat would be cool and refreshing but the air was thick and stagnant.  i suppose it helps you enjoy the destination more? 

the next day we switched to a nicer hotel with a pool.  we spent the day doing odd things like goign to the post office, checking out a market, watching tv in the air conditioning.  i love off days!  i think i'm beginning to miss a sense of a homebase.  i am not nearly done travelling yet, but every once and a while i miss not having a home to come to.  but i know that will come soon enough.  can't wait to do that with roel.

next up was the citadel.  it is a former imperial city (1804) along a river that was later heavily bombed by the americans (surprise).  so a lot of the buildings are no longer there.  but what is there is fascninating.  there is a moat within the moated perimeter which sections off the imperial enclosure which is home to the forbidden purple city which was reserved for the private life of the emporer.  the most intersting place on the grounds was the emporer's reading pagoda and garden courtyard.

the queen mom also had a huge pad with a big stone courtyard and an activities area that had a number of cool buildings.  there .  they are doing a great job with all the restoration work at the citadel.  we've seen a lot at this point and you can tell they are actually making an effort with this one.

after hue we would fly to hanoi, the capitol of vietnam.  we have been warned so many times about watching our money and how nasty it can be there.  you know we'll be watching our cab driver even more closely thsi time.

Hoi An

we landed in hoi an relatively early.  the hotel was supposed to have a driver waiting for us but no such luck.
a cabbie ended up letting us use his cell phone to get a hold of our hotel to see what was happening.  a few phone calls later the hotel told us to use this driver.  (keep in mind there were a few fake phone calls the driver placed to our hotel so iw asn't sure what was true).  a little leary we agreed on a price (250 dong) and stepped into the cab.

when we got to the hotel the driver demanded 350 dong instead of the 250 we agreed to.  50 extra for the phone use and an additional 50 for no getting us there alive?  i gave him 300 and said i would pay for phone (i was like whatever at this point) but that was it.  he was NOT happy with that.

the hotel would not step in so i went inside and asked them what they would do.  they told us to just go to our room and ignore him.  when i waved roel over (he was waiting by the cab) the driver stood in front of him and pushed him back. the employees found this funny....us not so much.  after some further coaching from the front desk i went down to the the guy and said he could have 20 more or he gets nothing.  i was ready to rumble at this point if he pushed again.  he took it, grumbled something and went off.  welcome to hoi an!

ironically enough this ended up being our favourite stop so far in vietnam.  a very charming town.  heavily shaped by the french.  narrow streets with some beautiful old buildings and multi level restaurants with balconies open to the streets.  the only downside is that it was mid thirties or more everyday with very high humidity of course.  luckily we found a new resort about a 10 min walk from the centre of town that had two less desirable rooms near the lobby for really cheap.  beautiful pool area and amazing buffet breakfast included.  this buffet was heaven sent.  it gave us real clean food to start our day.  invaluable. 

another interesting thing to note is that this is the first place that didn't understand why we wanted one queen bed instead of two singles.  they were very nice people and thought they were doing us a favour.  eventually they put it together and had a good giggle and were perfectly fine with it.  haha  most places don't even think twice about us sharing a bed.

finding relief from the sun in the alley on a HOT day.

very relaxed dining along the river that ran through town.  lined with restaurants and coloutful lights along each bank.  this is the bridge that connects the two banks.  it's still lit up from tet (vietnamese version of chinese new year).

hoi an is also the capitol of tailor made anything.  we both designed shoes in the morning and picked them up at night for $15/pair.  not the best quality but they're really cute and were a lot of fun to design.  sorry, no pictures.  you'll have to come and visit us to see them!  roel also got swim shorts made in anticipation of our time on the beach in thailand.

we did a day trip to my son.  it was an important site as far as the war was conerned (one of the areas the US made little progress in).  lack of progress partly attributed to the fact they thought the VC were hiding in old ruins (they weren't).  more importanly this sight is home to the most extensive remains of the cham empire (7 AD).  they are now an ethnic minority that originally came from java (indonesia).  the cham people were originally hindu (most now live in the mekong delta ..we were there already!.. and are buddhist).
much of the ruins are now in even further ruins due to the extensive bombimg during the war. 
roel posing with a large linga. (very important male part in hindu worship)

we also went to the marble mountains for a morning trip before it got too warm for the day.  aptly named, they are huge slabs of marble that used to be islands in the ocean - now mountains on land.  beautiful hiking with marble steps carved from the mountain, amazing caves with giant religious carvings, pagodas and courtyards along the hike as well.  at one point we even found a little hole at the end of a cave that led to a beautiful lookout point to the coast.

enough for hoi an.  i have to catch up on my posts!!

More Beach in Nha Trang

we took the sleeper bus to nha trang which is a beach resort city five hours north up the coast from mui ne.

this bus was sick. like roel said it smelled of feet. full of stinky backpackers. apparently it's only cool to wear dirty clothes and have bad b.o. roel and i constantly find ourselves stuck somehwere between backpacker and regular tourist.

we arrived at about 6am and walked from the drop-off to our hotel. our hotel was adequate. about a 10 minute walk to the beach and the main restaurant drag.

we spent a bit of time at the beach each day and also managed some sightseeing. roel has broken out into a heat rash all over that seems to be ok as long as we stay dry and cool during the heat of the day.  we've had some laid-back afternoons.

nothing too exciting at this stop as it's mainly a beach resort city. the street vendors are relentless here (on the beach as well). hard to feel totally relaxed when you are bombarded every couple of minutes.

we saw a few local kids splashing each other in the ocean (they had just arrived on their bikes). i told one of them to splash roel using hand motions while roel's back was turned. he was hesitant but i ended up helping out and in no time it was four against one. hehe i could tell that they were more comfortable when the white guy stepped away so i went to the shore and took a few pictures. a cute moment.

we went to a local aquarium (pretty amatuer but fascinating nonetheless. there was a large room dedicated to pickled/bottled (what word am i looking for?) specimens including a huge sea cow, seahorses, squid, etc. a solemn and creepy vibe with the sun lighting up the room through the jars. like a stained glass effect in a big empty church.

we were also going to take a cable car to an island off the shore to see the best view of the area but once we got to it we figured out that it was owned by an amusement park on the island and they had changed the rules so that it was also mandatory to buy tickets to visit the park for the day.  it was no longer just $8 to ride back and forth.  grr  waste of a morning to get there!

we saw the po nagar cham towers which were used for worship by hindus, built between 7 and 12 centuries.  we also stopped in at long son pagoda where you can also find a giant seated buddha.
notice the little white head on top of the pagoda in the distance.  that's the giant buddha you have to hike up to.

it was a good stop to just relax. we ended up booking a flight for our next stop. the bus was to take 12 hours vs a 55 minute flight. the buses are way to small for my legs and shoulders so it as well worth the $45 dollar ticket each.

at this point i am almsot two weeks behind on blogging.  eek!  they may get a lot briefer.

Mui Ne Beach Getaway

**big thanks to everyone who has checked out the blog.  i started tracking traffic about a month and a half ago and have just surpassed 1,000 visits!  very cool.  helps motivate me to keep recording our travels.**

i've been SUPER frustrated with the computers around here. one of our memory cards from the camera somehow became corrupted. grr one of the internet cafes was able to burn a copy of the pictures but couldn't fix the card.  i also haven't been able to log into my blogging account for over a week because the connections all time out with this website for some reason.  i'm currently in a vietnamese post office.

let us continue...
once again we left bright and early. this time our destination was mui ne. one of the less developed beach towns accessible by the average tourist. we aren't exactly blazing any new trails. definitely something to be said for doing that but it takes a lot of time and energy in this part of the world. we thought a month in vietnam was a long time but we are feeling rushed already!
the drive was somewhat painful since it took almost twice as long as the posted time with stops here and there on our non-stop bus. something we have come to expect. most of the way we travelled on a one lane highway with the driver sitting on the horn informing motorcyclists to move it or lose it. as we got within about 30 mins of mui ne we could see the blue green ocean peeking through the trees and increasingly mountainous landscape.

we arrived early afternoon in the heat of the day without accoms. so we suited up with our packs and a tote bag a piece along the main (the only) street. we stopped in at a few that had been recommended but they were full. we ended up taking a recommendation by our faithful lonely planet book (which happened to be the bus stop we started at). man did we score! ended up on the ground floor room closest to the beach. we fell asleep and woke up to the waves. about 10 paces to the sand and the beautiful emerald south china sea.

we jumped in as soon as we managed to find our swim shorts in our packs. the hotel also had a nice centre courtyard with heated pool. not bad for $25 a night. hehe

the next day we hired a driver and jeep for the day to take us to the main sights of the area:
a fishing village, red canyon/dunes, white dunes and a creek randomly named the fairy stream.

the fishing village was just a stop along the highway for a photo op. the only thing that didn't quite make it as picturesque as you might think is the fact that yards and yards of fish were drying along the breaker wall below us. we shot and ran.

the red canyon was amazing. it has been carved out by water finding its way to the ocean during heavy rainfalls. the sand was very fine and a vibrant rusty orange colour. you could break off pieces of the wall and watch it turn to powder in your hand. it was also a billion degrees inside the canyon. we climbed the walls at one point to get some air and take a peek at the prairie like landscape that stretched out forever with the ocean as backdrop. we were on our own which gave it a magical and more adventurous feeling. our driver stayed back at the jeep for a snooze.

next up was the white dunes. definitely the highlight (other than the beach) at mui ne. pictures don't even come close to capturing the size and vastness. we rented sheets of plastic (crazy carpets for you crazy canucks) for a dollar and took a crack at sliding down some of them. my runs were really slow and not that much fun. sand in parts i didn't know i had by the end of it all. more like mud seeing as though i was sweating like a pig. good thing the beauty was enough to distract me for most of the time. the sliding was more work than it was worth for my part. roel on the other hand had a different shape of plastic to slide on and the technique to match! he picked up some good speed and hollered all the way. haha it was much fun watching. you know how i said it was hot in the canyon? i was wrong. oh my. imagine being in a desert with really high humidity. they recommend you don't were sandals because the sand gets even too warm for them. the heat really kicks in when you're trying to get up some of the steeper dunes to get a birds eye view...every step you take brings you half a step back. it's like going up a down escalator that's going double time inside of a broiling oven.

lastly we saw the fairy river. it's a small creek about ankle deep (up to waist in some parts so had to watch your step). you start near the beach and walk your way up until you hit a small waterfall. the walk up is stunning. you have red and white banks/cliffs on one side and green vegetation on the other. water comes from out of nowhere. literally out of the side of the sandy wall and feeds into the stream. the stream is warm and made up of a variety of colours dependant on what colour the wall is at the source of water. make sense? i'll just show you a picture...

side note: i saw a long water snake a few yards ahead of me. roel has a real snake phobia so lucky i was in front. he already stepped on a sharp rock and was worried he would lose his foot (yes, really). hahaha i didn't confirm or deny i saw a snake until we were back at the jeep. ;)

on our last day there we stayed inside until lunch watching the olympics and recovering from the heat exhaustion from the prior day. cheered on the canadian women's hockey team as they won gold! another shout out to the canadian men's curling and hockey teams!!! goldgoldgold! the way it should be. americans please don't be too bitter about the hockey ok? keep in mind that you have run away with the medal count and us canadians are lucky to get any medals at the summer olympics. thanks.

we hit the beach again in the afternoon and had a long late dinner before we took a night bus to nha trang. note: don't take the night bus unless you have something to knock you out. luckily we did. i was the guinea pig (roel didn't take them). it was an anti-anxiety prescribed by his doctor that's supposed to help you sleep very soundly. i forget the name - it ends in 'pam'. only downside is that i felt groggy for a half day after. definitely going back to the meds for the trip from melbourne to la in may.