Halong Bay and Sapa

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September 14th 2006

Published: September 14th 2006

What a treat Halong Bay and Sapa were! Both very different but both spectacularly beautiful - after Hanoi it's like being in another place altogether. I don't think words can do either place justice - anyone who's been there will know what I mean - but I'll give it a go!

After just a few minutes from boarding the boat for Halong Bay you quickly realise how beautiful the area is. We sailed around for a few hours taking in the scenery, visited a cave (nothing to write home about), a river village (where they asked us to make a donation to develop the local school which was a very small hut on the river!) and a fish farm which had some type of shark, manta rays and eels. Then we sailed between the skarsts (rock formations that sit up out of the water) for ages and hardly saw another soul. We finally anchored for the night where we swam and went kayaking before dinner. I was very lucky to have another bunch of great people as company and we had a really good night on the boat. Next morning we set sail for Cat Ba - a coastal resort close to Halong Bay. Pretty much like an English seaside resort - so nothing special - but we went on a really good trek up the mountains (more like mountain climbing actually!) and well worth the trip just for that. In the afternoon I headed off to Monkey Island with a couple of people from our group. Someone had told me there weren't actually any monkeys but, they were wrong, because there was a small family of monkeys who were very mischeivious and very aggressive and actually bit one of the women in our group! It started off to be very amusing as they were stealing the clothes of people who were swimming - looking for food, they'd take out everything from the pockets and if they couldn't eat it, they'd throw it down in disgust. The woman who was bitten tried to coax her clothes back by offering them peanuts - and when she didn't give a peanut to the female quickly enough she bit the poor woman in the leg! She hadn't had a rabies jab so had to go off to the hospital pretty sharpish. She had 5 stitches, a tetanus injection and was put on a course of antibiotics for a week!

We stayed at Cat Ba overnight and headed back to Hanoi the next day.

Just a few hours in Hanoi and then I was off on the overnight train to Sapa. Arrived the next morning and headed up into Sapa town. The hotel was really nice, with fantastic views of the hills and mountains. We went on our first trek to Cat Cat village a couple of hours after arriving. I was hoping it wasn't going to be too tough as I was feeling really tired after the train journey. Thankfully, it wasn't too bad - and well worth it! Mostly Vietnamese live in Sapa town itself - but the highest population is made up from several ethnic tribes living in villages around it. They come to the daily and weekend markets mostly to sell the goods they make to locals and tourists. Some of them walk huge distances each morning from their villages - often taking several hours - and then they walk back again in the evening! Needless to say they are extremely fit and often walk with the trek guides helping the less than fit tourists climb up and down the hillsides, which can be very tricky I can tell you - but they're up and down them like mountaing goats! The Hmong people account for most of the population around Sapa - and are very distinctive in their dark blue traditional dress, which they weave and dye themselves. They pester you constantly to buy their handiwork from them, but they are such lovely people somehow it's not irritating - just entertaining. Cat Cat is a traditional Hmong village and we saw how they live and make their clothes which was really interesting.

We also stayed one night with a Xao family - another of the ethnic tribes who live in villages in the Sapa area. These people are much shyer than the Hmong and less visible around the town, but when you see them they are also very distinctive by the clothes they wear. There are different Xao tribes and the most distinctive are the Red Xao who you can't miss as they wear very extravagant bright red head dresses, adorned with tassles and silver coins - they look really great.

On the way to our family's village we stopped off for a drink at a sort of open communal area - where the adults meet to talk, the kids to play etc. We noticed a monkey chained up outside one of the buildings (something I hate to see). I asked why he was there and our guide told us that many of the tribes keep monkeys as pets. Unfortunately, they don't treat their pets quite the same way we do and it was obvious the monkey had been tied up for some while and was very distressed - it was actually showing signs of madness and I found it very upsetting to see it in such a bad way and not be able to do anything about it.

We moved on to the village where we were spending the night and met the family consisting of nan, grandad, their son, his wife and their two young sons. They didn't speak much English so we had to go through our guide to ask questions. They were a good example of an average Xao family. We had dinner with them and then shortly after we finished eating, at about 8.30, they disappeared. 2 guys were staying in the house with me and the 3 of us got chatting to an Australian girl, Janelle, who was staying on her own with the family next door. We decided that the family in our house must have gone to bed and as it was also all quiet in the house next door we assumed that family had also done the same. So we chatted on for a bit and then thought that it would be polite for us all to go to bed as the families probably had to be up early the next day. So we all went to bed - it was about 9 by this time - only to be woken up a few hours later by the family coming back after a night out in the village! Our guide told us the next day that they thought we were all very strange going to bed so early!

My luck of having good people with me ran out on this part of the trip as, apart from the Australian girl who was good fun - the two guys staying with me were the most boring people ever - and to make it worse, one of them snored really loudly and I didn't get a wink of sleep all night! We laughed about it the next morning, but I wasn't amused really as we had a long uphill trek ahead of us back to Sapa town and I was not feeling that great (we'd also drunk quite a lot of rice wine with the family the night before which wasn't helping either so can't blame him entirely!).

On the way back to Sapa we visited a Red Xao family house. They were eating their lunch when we arrived - mum and dad and their 6 kids. Our guide was explaining what was in the house and how they lived and suchlike while they were eating. Then we noticed a young girl sitting in the corner with her back to the family eating her lunch by herself. Our guide explained that this was the wife of one of the sons who was sitting at the main table with the family - but as the father was present and she was 'just the daughter in law' she couldn't sit with them to eat her lunch! No need to tell you what I thought about that!

After heading back to the hotel we had a couple of hours before taking the train back to Hanoi - so a few of us hopped on the back of motorbike taxis and went to take a look at the Vietnam/Chinese border crossing, which was only a few minutes away from the station. Although it was dark it was only a few hundred feet between the countries (you can walk across as well as drive) so you could see the buildings on China's side all lit up and hear some very loud music blaring out from the bars. It would have been great to have seen it in daylight but it was a good way to kill some time!

Then it was time to catch the train. I headed off to find my carriage which I was going to be sharing with 3 strangers (the same as on the way up). To my horror I discovered that I was going to be sharing with the snorer from the Xao village! I nearly cried!! I felt really bad but I had to tell him that I couldn't take another night of not sleeping and would check to see if I could change cabins - which thankfully I did do. He took it all in good spirit and we wished each other well the next morning when we arrived back in Hanoi! (I slept like a baby!).

It was such a great trip. The amazing scenery in the north has to be seen to be believed, and it just went on and on - every time you turned a corner, there were more beautiful sights to see - it was almost too much for your senses to take it all in.

Anyway, then it was back to Hanoi with a bump - traffic, noise, hustling - although Ihave to say once I'd been back for a couple of days, I actually got used to it and began to quite like it. I'd seen all the sights I wanted to see though so moved on to Hue, where I am now.

Once again, I took the overnight bus - and although it was much, much better than the one I took from Laos to Hanoi, it was still an uncomfortable 16 hour journey and probably the last overnight bus I'll take out of choice!

Hue (pronounced Hwey) is in the middle of Vietnam, a little inland from the coast. It's much gentler than Hanoi, and the people seem really nice - it's a bit like Laos. I'm staying in a really lovely hotel. My room is fab - 2 big beds, air con, satelllite TV, mini bar, lovely bathroom with all the little extras you get in good hotels - all for $20 a night - can't be bad!! I've even been able to dry my hair with a hair dryer for the first time in about 3 months - what a treat!

I'm going off to see some of the remains of the Vietnam war - the tunnels and suchlike on Saturday plus there are other interesting sights to see here which I'll take a look at before moving on on Sunday.

I'm signing off rather abruptly now as there's a huge creepy crawly on the floor by my feet and I don't like the look of it!........

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