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Published: August 6th 2008
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Two Boys and Pink Buffalo
Sounds like a good title for a children's book. May 31, 2008 - June 9, 2008
We arrived in Hanoi after a sweet one hour ride on a Vietnam Airlines jet. We'd heard too many horror stories about the 24 hour bus journey from Vientiane to Hanoi, so we decided to buy our way out of that headache.
When the city bus dropped us downtown, we ran into our first and biggest hurdle in Hanoi - crossing the road. We'd heard about this terrifying right of passage from other travelers and we received lots of advice on how to tackle the challenge -
close your eyes and just walk. We stood on the corner of the street with our backpacks on and and just stared at the street for a few minutes. Although we only needed to cross three lanes of traffic, there were about 20 lanes of motorcycles within those 3 lanes. There were thousands of motorcycles coming at us ... I mean it, THOUSANDS. You've never seen so many motorcycles in your life and you've never seen so many stylish plastic (read: useless) motorcycle helmets! Chris and I paused for a few minutes before trying to cross. Then we went through the following process a few
Hanoi at Night
This was one of the many lakes in Hanoi. times:
1. Chris would start to cross the road;
2. I'd chicken out while still holding his hand;
3. Chris would be suddenly stopped and jerked back while standing in the street; and
4. Chris would jump back on the curb and shaken and angry with me.
Eventually, I just took a deep breath and walked slowly at a consistent pace across the road gripping Chris' hand all the way. The motorcycles just zoomed around us, avoiding us in the chaos without a second thought. It was actually really easy! Once we made it to the other side, though, Chris and I were no longer speaking!
After finding a hotel, taking a shower and sitting down at a restaurant for some Vietnamese food, Chris and I were friends again. This often happens when we arrive in a hectic city. We're usually tired and hungry and we we have to quickly orient ourselves, walk around and find a hotel all while carrying our heavy backpacks. We can get a little short with each other. We hadn't had a "new city meltdown" since India because Northern Thailand and Laos were very small laidback towns, but Vietnam reminded us of
Uncle Ho Posters
There were posters featuring Uncle Ho all over Vietnam. As the leader of the Vietnamese independence movement and communist revolution, Ho Chi Minh is still a central figure in everyday life nearly 40 years after his death. India for this and other reasons.
We spent our time in Hanoi visiting museums, learning about Ho Chi Minh, and taking in the sights - we really enjoyed this city. We spent quite awhile searching out some great pho. Pho is Vietnamese beef noodle soup and is one of our favourite meals at home (we probably have at least 3 bowls of pho per week!). We were so excited to hit Vietnam so that we could have some really good Pho. We found that the Canadian version of the food was a lot nicer than the authentic soup (at least on our budget) due to the higher quality of ingredients at home. That said, we did find a few street stands that had great soup (I just left the beef in the bowl).
Another great part of Hanoi street life were the Bia Hoi bars. These little shops served very bad but very cheap keg beer (3,000 Dong per cup - $0.20) right on the streets. What was fun was that you could just pull up a little plastic children's chair and begin chatting with whoever was around. These shops were frequented by locals and of course the
all the budget backpackers who are magnetically attracted to cheap beer.
We arranged a trip out to Halong Bay with a local hostel (Hanoi Backpackers Hostel) that was recommended by another traveler. Halong Bay was simply beautiful and sort of reminded us of the Canadian west coast with all the islands sprinkled in the sea. We toured the Bay in a Chinese Junk-Style Boat with 20 or so other travelers and in the late afternoon we went out in kayaks and did our own exploring. After a swim we all got dressed for dinner and headed to the dining room. Our boat was really nice and Chris and I were one of the lucky few who had one of the nicer rooms with a private balcony - it pays to be a "couple" sometimes. After dinner the party started with a little karaoke! No surprise that Chris brought down the house (or at least he likes to think he did).
We met this really fantastic couple from New Zealand, Andrea and Ed. It was Ed's birthday and to celebrate, Ed wanted to jump off the roof of the boat naked (contrary to very explicit instructions that this was
not allowed). The night ended when Ed jumped off the boat and didn't surface for a very long time - long enough for Chris to climb down the boat and start swimming around looking for him and for the crew to get out the life preservers and dingy. Chris eventually found Ed behind the boat calling to Andrea to get him his shorts. Happy Birthday Ed, you scared the shit out of all of us!
Our trip to Halong Bay ended with an overnight stay on Cat Ba Island, which is the only inhabited island in Halong Bay. Here we spent some time at the beach ate dinner with our new friends from the boat trip and ended the night off with some snake wine (I think it's rice wine but it has a whole cobra in the bottle).
After returning to Hanoi, we almost immediately set out again for Sapa. Sapa is a beautiful hillstation in Northern Vietnam, very near the Chinese border. We came here to see the green rice terraces and meet some of the indigenous people of the area. Luckily, we were also in store for some great food! Great food is so important
on a trip like this. I may not remember all of the temples I've seen, but I will remember every good meal I've had because really great food is so rare (at least at our budget).
On the first day in Sapa, we took a long walk on a stone path around the rice terraces and villages outside of Sapa. The views were absolutely stunning - we probably took 2GB of pictures in that one afternoon. The next day, though, we rented a motorbike and made our way to some other villages further outside the town. We met so many lovely people on our journey through the hills. Little girls in traditional dress on the side of the road who were making themselves umbrellas from the big flat leaves of a tree, some women of the Red Dzao tribe who gave us directions when we were lost, some members of the Black Hmong tribe who greeted us when we arrived at their village. All of these wonderful encounters ended with the same words ... "you buy from me?" There was one very awkward incident when I decided to buy some traditional handicrafts from the Red Dzao tribe and some
Red Dzao and Black Hmong
Everyone's friends now that we've purchased from them all! Hmong women saw this and asked, "how come you buy from Dzao and not Hmong?". This led to a high pressure sales tactic where they suggested I was playing favourites between tribes. I bought a pair of Hmong earrings to prove I liked both tribes equally. Sucker!!
So, Vietnam is the only place we've gone where we booked a flight out. There was a seat sale with Air Asia, so we had a deadline - only 3 weeks in Vietnam. We moved on quickly to Ninh Binh (pronounced Ning Bing) to see the "Halong Bay on the Rice Fields". We scooted around the area on a motorbike and took pictures of as many Vietnamese farmers in the fields wearing the conical straw hat. I loved that so many Vietnamese people actually wear that hat - even in the cities. I think it's so pretty.
So far Vietnam was greener, prettier, and more interesting than I'd hoped. So many people told us that Vietnam was a nightmare and some even suggested we skip the country entirely. Other than a few scams and hassles that we've been confronted with, Vietnam has been great and has offered more personality than other
SE Asian countries. We'll see what the south brings us ...
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UNDERWAY
Jim & Ann Blanchard
Laughing our heads off
Hey you two, Could'nt help but chuckle at your Viet Nam street crossing adventure. We had exactly the same experence in May/June while in Saigon and Hanoi. We also found Halong Bay interesting but would rather see Barkley Sound again. The Canadian San Juans have been our cruising destination for many years. Do you ever go to Chemanis (sp) ? We enjoy that destination as well. Stay safe, Jim & Ann in Leavenworth, Wa.