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Published: October 26th 2007
Idiots
The good news is...that even at the age of 31, Tim and I are still complete idiots together.Xin Chao!
Sorry Timothy...bus this entry is getting shafted and will be brief/lame in an effort to get current with my blogging. The overabundance of photos should make up for the lack of text though. I don't know why, but the blog entries that cover time when people have visited me have been the hardest to get done. They've been some of the best times, but for some reason I have a hard time translating that to a story. So to those who traveled 1/2 way around the world to visit me...apologies for not creating monumental blog stories about your efforts...I'm lame.
So I think when we last met, I was tired, hot, and robbed in Nha Trang, right? I've since replaced the camera...but after my short flight to Hanoi I was still tired and hot. No time for being tired though...it was Timmy-Time.
A short background on him visiting me. We had been trying to figure out a place to meet up and I suggested Vietnam. He looked into it and came across some opinions online that concerned him - being ripped off, robbed, crazy traffic, haggling the time, being bugged by locals selling/begging, etc. In my
all-encompassing knowledge of South East Asia I assured him that after Cambodia I'm sure there wouldn't be any problems.
Ripped-off...not so far
Robbed...whoops
Traffic...the very definition of insane...even more so when I got to Hanoi.
Haggling...not really any worse than expected
Bugged...a tad more than Thai/Camb...but not too much
Oh well...he was on his way already...can't turn him back at the airport just because I was robbed the night before and was amazed by the traffic in the Old Quarter of Hanoi. Tim, welcome to Vietnam.
The first day we took a walking tour of Hanoi to get a feel for the city & sites and to throw Tim into the Vietnamese atmosphere feet-first. This basically consisted of more crazy traffic...some somewhat lame sites...and shops galore. I did my best to train Tim to trust that despite the insanity of the traffic, the safest thing was to just walk across the street and not pay much attention to the traffic. They're amazingly skilled at avoiding you. The biggest risk is when I see a white guy cruising down the street in a motorbike...don't trust whitey...he likely doesn't know what he's doing.
Having both survived with all
Trying to Kill Ourselves Jumping Off the Boat
Tim survived b/c he actually has diving experience. I came pretty close to killing myself. our limbs intact we planned out the week and made all the necessary bookings. I've said that I'm not the biggest fan of tours, but I had heard so many good things about two places in Northern Vietnam that I figured we'd give them a shot. First up was Halong Bay.
"Where The Dragon Descends To The Sea" The next morning we headed out (seemingly with the rest of the people in Hanoi) to Halong Bay. We were pretty sure that most of Hanoi was coming along as the road was mostly just mini-buses loaded with folks going to Halong. In any case, we boarded our boat with about 15 other folks and headed off into the place where the dragon descends into the sea...or so they say.
And I suppose they say that because there are endless karst islands popping out of the sea everywhere we looked...and one could argue that it looks like the back/spine/spikes/whatever of a dragon. It really was quite a beautiful area.
The boat was a surprisingly well furnished large wooden boat that cruised at a max speed of SLOW, but got the job done. The job being...getting us to beautiful
places for swimming, walking through a cave, kayaking, etc.
We also spent some time on Cat Ba island and hiked through a national park up to a cool lookout tower. We all got quite sweaty and muddy while all the local guides amazingly seemed to not sweat and were perfectly clean after the hike.
All in all, Halong Bay was certainly one of the more beautiful areas I've been on these travels and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone thinking of a trip to Vietnam.
Sapa Back from Halong we had a couple of hours before getting picked up for the night train to Sapa up in the mountains of northern Vietnam. If Halong was where the dragon descended into the sea, perhaps Sapa is where the dragon fell asleep and had a bunch of rice paddies grow on his back.
After a crummy night of cramped sleep on our train and a shower at the hotel in the morning, we were teamed up with a few folks and led out of town for our trek by our 17 year old guide - Zen. She was a hilarious and trouble making local girl who
Kung Fu Fighting
An attempt for a fun photo...but the photographer botched it a bit. Just can't get good help these days...
But still mildly entertaining to me. had a solid enough command of English to become a guide rather than one of the zillions of swarming local women who want to sell you any number of "authentic" items - bags, bracelets, shirts, etc. I'm not sure that all the people of the H'Mong hill tribes go home at night and don all the stuff they tried to sell us...but that's their claim. And if you did end up buying something from one of them the others would surround you with "why you buy her you no buy me? you buy me too, ok?" No, not ok.
Day one of the two day trek took us out of town and into the mountains with amazing views of all the picturesque rice paddies. It was nice to be in another climate that was a minor escape from the oppressive heat of the low-lands. And stopping periodically for snacks of sugar cane was a nice addition too.
I hadn't been aware of it, but apparently we had signed up for a home-stay rather than a hotel during this gig. I preferred it that way, but I really didn't remember having talked about that with the booking dude. In
Our Reward for a Day of Hiking
Though I'm not sure I'd say it was all that hard earned...it was still enjoyable. any case, we got to Ta Van and cruised up to a house for the night...only to discover that some of the folks from our Halong tour were there as well. I guess all us travelers are just too predictable and bound to the defined track at times. Thankfully, they were some entertaining Aussies and added to the fun that night...which included Zen quickly getting rather tipsy on rice wine and us also playing cards with little local kids. Good fun in all.
One of the more interesting notes from this place was a sign on the door proclaiming that Ta Van was part of Vietnam's first WiMax trial system. To the non-geeks out there, that means that they have a system to deliver high speed wireless internet to this village. WiMax was also the system/product that I had been working on at Motorola for the past year. Odd to see a trial system in place in this tiny village in the hills.
The second day brought us a bunch more amazing views, a waterfall, and a recognition that I'm not in such great shape anymore.
We got back to the hotel in time to shower and
to head off for a couple of hours on rented motorbikes. As I've said before, these are some of my favorite experiences and Tim was dying to get on one of these bad boys. Once again, the uber-cheap moto-rental experience put a smile on my face and capped off a great trip to Sapa. Tim was like a kid with a new toy the entire 2 hours.
Back to the train station (which was only 500m from China) and we ran into the Aussies again and had another crummy night of sleep on the way back to Hanoi.
Our hotel had a car waiting for us at the Hanoi train station when we arrived at 4:30am or so. The problem was that when back at the hotel they informed us that they wouldn't have a room until noon. So they vacated their beds (and by "beds" I mean the lobby floor) and insisted that we rest there...I was tired enough and used to odd sleeping arrangements, so I laid down and passed out. I'm not sure Tim was so thrilled with it and just sat in a chair. So now I've also slept on the floor of a
I'm Huge
A local lady...who was one of the smallest people I've ever seen. hotel lobby. Sweet.
Well...the time soon came for Timothy to head back to the States and for me to continue on with the journey. It was great to hang out with him and to have a week to act like the teenage idiot boys that we are at heart.
Some final notes on Vietnam:
- After Tim left I spent my last day in Hanoi at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and Museum. The mausoleum was nuts...a super long line (a couple of blocks long)...multiple security checkpoints...leaving all cameras & electronics outside...and then silently filing past a glass case that contained the embalmed body of Ho Chi Minh. It was eerie. He's been dead since 1969...it's just strange to display a body like that. Especially since he had wished for a low-key burial. After the odd waxy looking body, I figured that I should hit the museum. I wasn't really feeling like it, but the old "I'm all the way in Vietnam, I have to see it" thing kicked in. It turns out that it's not a particularly exciting museum and my tank was really on empty...no desire at all to see anything cultural.
- Ho's name
Yummy Sugarcane
A nice snack while hiking in Sapa is one of many that he had for himself. "Ho Chi Minh" means "The Bringer of Light." I had some Vietnamese tell me that they wouldn't be able to do anything if it weren't for good old Uncle Ho. One claimed that they wouldn't even have money if it weren't for him. I asked why he thought that to be the case and he pointed to the notes...which all have his picture on them...so I guess he was sorta right...they wouldn't have
that particular money if it weren't for Ho.
- The hill tribe experience was only sorta authentic feeling. There was the authentic part of it...meaning that there were a bunch of folks working in the rice fields at all times. But the tourism there has added a whole new element to the area. The home we stayed at had travelers there every night or two...one house had a satellite dish...there were the ladies selling all their junk...many folks spoke varying levels of English...and most of all, there was a freaking WiMax system there. Two worlds colliding...
- It's a really young country. Approximately 65%!o(MISSING)f the population is under the age of 30. And many of
them are heading to the cities...making them even more insane.
- Since it's communist here, there is a notable absence of monks walking around. I had gotten used to seeing a bunch of orange-clad dudes with no hair cruising around.
Well...like I said...this entry was lame...though I still somehow managed to ramble for a while. I'll try to get back up to speed with the entries that follow.
Marc
Oh - and a follow up note on my comments in the last blog about being travel-weary. Yeah, I still am. Hanging with Tim re-energized me a bit, but as you read in my lack of desire for the museum...I'm still a wee bit worn out. I plan to address that issue this coming week.
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