Vietnam!

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After only one day in Hanoi spent at the Museum of Ethnology I was on an over night train north to Sapa. Being my first train ride in South East Asia and having a language barrier with the lady that booked my ticket I had the most interesting train ride of my life. When I said that I did not want a sleeper train I thought that I would have a regular seat comparable to that of a charter bus…I definitely thought wrong. I got on the train 30 minutes early and it was me and two Vietnamese guys. One of the guys came over and talked to me and I was a little nervous at first because the Lonely Planet always warns you with worst case scenario stories while traveling. Also, Vietnamese do not have any personal space and my bubble was definitely invaded. After a shaky start I pulled myself together with the arrival of more people on the train and I had a great experience for two hours attempting to communicate with the people around me. At 11 pm the conductor came through and asked if I wanted a sleeper train. I took him up on the offer and I'm pretty sure he just pocketed the money.

Sapa would be absolutely beautiful - if there was no fog! It is located in the mountains with many hill tribes living there. On the hills are their rice fields which are absolutely beautiful. We spent two days walking through and visiting different villages with everyone shouting, "You buy from me!" On the second day I had a lady walk with me the entire way and at the end she tried to guilt trip me into buying from her. I felt a little guilty but I didn't ask her to stay by me and I didn't want any of her crafts.

While waiting for the train to return to Hanoi we took the 3 km walk to the Chinese border hoping to get a foot on the other side. Unfortunately you need a visa for that so I can say I have seen China but have not entered.

I arrived back in Hanoi at 5 am and at 8am I left for Halong Bay. Halong Bay would be absolutely beautiful if it weren't for all of the tourism through there. We spent the first day and night on a boat and visited two caves. With all the colored lights in the background I felt a little like we were at Epcot and it wasn't real. Following this we took a cruise around the surrounding islands.

In the morning we woke up at 6:30 to go Kayaking. There was a community of fishermen living on homemade house boats near where we were kayaking - that is a completely different life! Following this we cruised to Cat Ba Island and went for a 2 hour hike up the mountain. The top had a rusty old tower so you could get even better views - I went up but came down very quickly 😊 We had a guide who couldn't speak English but was acting like a monkey, catching butterflies, and trying to jump out and scare us. He kept us very amused.

There were three beaches on the island so we spent the afternoon swimming and hanging out on the beach. The following day we cruised to another fishing village and went to two more caves!

I returned to Hanoi and spent the following day there wandering around town and going to the Ho Chi Minh Complex where I had my photo taken with every Japanese tourist in sight. From Hanoi I headed to Hoi An where I subsequently had an entire new wardrobe created for me and shipped home. It will be a nice surprise in 3-4 months when the slow boat arrives. I stayed three nights in Hoi An, a nice low key town, not doing too much besides a trip to My Son holy grounds.

After a brief scuffle with the tour bus people, I ended up paying more money for a sleeper bus to HCMC (Saigon) which actually turned out to be the best mode of transportation I have taken so far. A little over 24 hours later I arrived in HCMC and booked a tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels for the following day. The tunnels were great, even though they aren't the real ones. Westerners would not fit into the actual tunnel according to our guide. I don't know how the Viet Kong managed to live in those tunnels. I went into one that was 7 meters long, had to be on my hands and feet crawling and was nervous that I wasn't going to make it out of there. The tunnels had an extra eerie feeling by being in the jungle and having a shooting range on site. I felt like we were right in the war.

The following day I took a two day tour of the Mekong Delta which ended with a boat ride to Phnom Phen. The tour was sort of a disaster with the boat breaking down, long lines and complete chaos but I've learned that low expectations help make everything better. The high point of the tour was definitely the coconut candy factory with the free samples. I was going to buy packs of the candy to bring home for everyone but knowing myself the candy wouldn't make it. The trip ended with a long boat ride to Cambodia where we stopped in a fishing village during a new year celebration. Let's just say the kids were adorable!

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