Hanoi Part II and Sapa - "You so friendly!"

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After our beautiful yet rather hassly trip to Halong Bay, we had a few days back in Hanoi before heading towards the mountains. We (unintentionally) spent a decent amount of time getting lost, an easily achieved task in Hanoi where despite the streets being organised by trade, said streets all look very similar and are called Hang Bo, Hang Buom, Hang Bac, Hang Bong, you name it, it probably exists.

Anyway, after getting our bearings back, we once more braved the crazy traffic and made our way to Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum complex. Being the day before his birthday, the place was absolutely crampacked with locals, tourists and school trips. After standing in line for a rather long time and being told when to move forward and when to stop, much to the hilarity of the children around us who kept trying to touch us behind our backs, we were allowed into the mausoleum where we saw Ho himself, in his glass coffin - a pretty surreal site to say the least! The complex is also home to Ho's office and house and whilst we wandered around we were pounced on several times by eager fans to have our pictures taken and get hugged and tapped on the bottom! On the way back, we were also shoved out of the way by a grumpy street salesman and chased down the street by a shoe polisher shouting at us that our shoes were "no good"!

Other activities in Hanoi included attending a hilarious water puppetry performance, going to see Pirates of the Carribbean 4 in 3D with a bunch of teenagers and buying Katrina a traditional hat which has already proved to serve multiple purposes from sun-shielding and rain protection to basket and badminton racket!

To get away from the city and avoid the political speeches blaring out of the loud speakers, we booked a day trip to Hoa Lu Pagoda and Tam Coc where the leisurely boat ride through rice paddies and dark caves was very pleasant. We may however have unwittingly eaten dog at the buffet lunch!

Finally, we chose the lovely hill station of Sapa in the North West of the country as our last destination in Vietnam. After the worst bus journey so far (yes this was possible!), we arrived bleary-eyed in the cute little town amidst thick fog. After wandering around the market and dodging the many persistent old ladies trying to sell you stuff, we agreed to visit the village of two lovely H'mong girls we met so we hopped onto the back of a couple of motorbikes and off we went, up and down bumpy tracks with absolutely stunning views of the valley. We got dropped off a little walk away and made our way down towards the basic yet idyllic little house. After being shown many photos and meeting the many children, we sat down and got to business - buying (more) jewellery! A wonderful experience.

The next day, feeling a little more confident re motos, we hired two (with drivers) to take us up the windy, foggy roads to the beautiful Silver Waterfalls where you get to walk up along the cascading water, across a bridge and back down the other side. We then drove on a little to the Tram Ton Pass at 2000m, marking the border between 2 regions - Lau Cai and Lau Chau. Supposedly a great view point, but unfortunately due to the weather, all we could see was fog - it really felt like the end of the world! Upon our rather cold and damp return to town, we decided to warm ourselves up with a bowl of local potato and cream soup followed by grilled chamois (deer)!

With one final day in Hanoi where we hope to visit the Tran Quoc Pagoda on the lake, we will say Xin Chao for now!

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