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Published: February 3rd 2007
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By the fire
Inside a Red Zao's house in Sapa Hi everybody,
Well its been a while. We are still in Vietnam though, but have made our way almost all the way down its length to a little seaside town (or rather street) called Mui Ne. And at last we have found some sun!!! This is a cause of great joy and celebration as up until now, save for one day of sunshine in Hoi An it has been cold and wet and grey.
So what have we been up to I hear you ask....
...Well we started off in dense fog in Sapa, where you could barely see your feet and I got horribly ill. We think I caught some bug through the air conditioning on the night train up there and the cold and wet weather didn't help. But that aside, Sapa was fantastic. Though a bit of a shame as it is famed for its vistas and obviously we couldn't see any of it. I missed out on the first day due to illness, but Rich and the guide went to one of the local Black Hmong villages where they were invited to join sunday lunch. Drank vast quantities of rice whisky and also got
offered a soup of pigs blood with bits floating in it (apparently vegetables I am being told over my shoulder). I am assuming the rice whisky was responsible for Rich's gesture of bringing me back a indigo flower which he produced at the door of our hotel, having got me out of my sick bed. It was still much appreciated though.
The next day we did get to meet lots of ethinic hill tribes, including the Red Zao and Black Hmong which was pretty different from other stuff we have done. Quite entertaining as you are immediately pounced on as you enter the village by hoards of women hawking their goods. They then proceed to follow you for the rest of the day until you finally relent and bought something! But we were invited into a couple of peoples homes which was interesting and sat around the fire and chatted about their lives and how they live. They regularly carry 40 to 50 kilos on their backs from the fields to the markets, pretty incredible as our bags weigh 20 kilos and personally that's seriously heavy! They also speak very good English, all learnt from tourists.
After Sapa
Rich lunching with the Black Hmong
A very male only affair! I am told ladies were allowed in the building, just not at the table...... it was Halong Bay where the sun occasionally broke through the clouds, but again it was misty which was a shame, but our junk was fantastic, apart from our fellow travellers who I didn't warm to. Not least because of one guy, the size of a small truck, who trained people in Iraq in SWAT tactics, who had 'SEARCH AND DESTROY' tattooed across his chest (in a very fancy font I might add). Also his party trick was to eat a glass! I don't think i need to say anymore...!
After Halong it was another overnight train journey to Hue. Where we stayed in a fantastic hostel, more hotel which had free DVDs to borrow from a massive selection in reception. Which came in handy as i was still pretty ill and it was mostly raining! The staff were really friendly and taught us (or mainly Rich) some Vietnamese phrases. So he can now say 'Sweet Dreams' to any of you who would like him to. We also did a city tour which mostly involved visiting tombs of various kings of Vietnam (of which there were only 13 and after about the 5th they were powerless under the French
colonisation). We learnt their varying numbers of concubines which was useful to know and obviously fairly important to their power and popularity. Not least the gay king who only had 12 concubines and one son. Apparently he was not very popular - too few concubines...
Then it was onto Hoi An - oh my god the tailors, I wish I had been more prepared...! Like all the other tourists we found ourselves getting carried away with the novelty of having clothes made to fit and spent a small fortune, despite everthing being fairly cheap - how did that happen! The other great thing about Hoi An was that the standard of food improved vastly, as up until then we had been struggling with the cuisine. This was probably not helped by the fact that whilst in Sapa and Halong it was all inclusive and breafast, lunch and dinner consisted of the same buffet meal. The choice was particularly limited if you didn't eat fish, tofu, mock meat or even chips with sugar on them!!! Still not sure if that was a mistake or intentional. And by the way, what is it with the obsession with tofu - its gross...
Sapa kids
The girl in orange was definately in the running for young salesperson of the year award. but we did meet some nice Malaysians who were happy to swap our tofu for their chicken, result!
We did yet another cooking course - where we learnt great skills in vegetable carving - sod it if I could get a cucumber to look like a fan! Or for that matter a tomato a rose - but personally I'd much rather eat my food than mess about with it. But there was some excitement as two snakes decided to join the class and our guide was dispached to dispach them so to speak. Which he did successfully and even offered Rich some at lunch, including drinking the blood taken from the still beating heart - which he declined. Thank god otherwise I wouldn't be going anywhere near him, weirdo!
The other thing about Hoi An that Rich is most keen for me to mention is the numerous ladies standing on street corners offering all number of services from manicures, pedicures and even fannycures...! All for only $1 - bargin!
So now, we are in Mui Ne, we decided to give Nha Trang and Dalat a miss, for one reason or another, mainly lack of funds and a
need to just chill for a while, and I have to say Mui Ne is a very good place for both. We are staying here a few more days, then its onto Saigon for just a couple of days, absolutely no shopping, but maybe a few museums as we haven't done too much of the war related tourist attractions. I did read 'The Girl in the Picture' though, based on that famous photograph of the girl running after being burned by a napalm bomb. Its the story of her and her families life before and after the war. It is really interesting, though very sad.
Well folkes, that's about all from us. Hope to get lots of comments and news from u'all back home. Not long till we return now, get your party hats on for end of March, though we definately aren't paying cos we're broke. Boo hoo I hear you all cry. Don't worry we dont want any sympathy, just the odd beer here or there bought for us that's all....!!
Here's some more photos.
Hen gap lai (see you later)
Loads of love Rach and Rich xxxxxxxxxx
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Carl and Chiara
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Drink!
You guys are a bad influence on us- even from the other side of the world- we've been alcohol soaked for weeks now and it's starting to get silly! Luca's been on the Whiskey and has had some spectacular falls! We'll sober up swiftly so that we can resume upon your return ;-). Take care guys