Northern Vietnam, rainy season

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I suppose it's obvious that if I hang around in S.E. Asia for long enough I'm eventually going to hit the rainy season.

I didn't anticipate this being a particular issue since most of my experiences involve a few hours of downpour swiftly followed by the resumption of normal sunny service.

I was wrong.

As soon as August came in it was like a switch was thrown and the rains began.

There was no gentle introduction.

The rains came in swiftly and heavily, producing 3 or 4 days of unremitting deluge then a brief respite then more days of consistent and persistent rainfall.

Our hearts went out to all the time limited travelers who had to stick to a timetable to make it work.

Fortunately, our schedule was somewhat more flexible, and we had a new umbrella.



Traveling in Southern Vietnam was almost like a vector, always heading to the next place.

Northern Vietnam requires a radial strategy since all roads lead to Hanoi.

In total we probably spent about 2 weeks in Hanoi between our other trips. Luckily it is a pleasant place to hang out, centred around a small lake with some shady cafes.


Before arriving in Hanoi we stopped over at Tam Coc, an area with a landscape of karst rocky outcrops rising from the plain, as also found in southern Thailand.

At Tam Coc much of the land is flooded to form a natural lake around the karst bases.

Tourists sit in little galvanized steel canoes and are paddled around the waterways on a 2 hour route. It was a very serene journey. The £1.65 fixed price shared between the 2 lady rowers seemed a tad paltry for the effort.


In Hanoi it was time for Linda to 'do her roots', so we traipsed around for some hair dye.

Back in the room she knew as soon as the gunky mess was applied that it was going wrong. After the wash out she presented with a hair colour somewhere between blue and purple and was not pleased.

Under cover of darkness we went to a different shop and bought another brand. This ended up with a sort of brushed gunmetal silver gray which she decided to make do with for a while. It lightened up with each wash and after letting her hair rest for a week she tried again, ending up somewhere between dark blonde, gold and brown.

This was deemed satisfactory. Hurrah.


With all this time in Hanoi we got to know the city quite well, at least the Old Quarter where we were staying.

Most days we spent some time around the central lake, but we also headed off in various directions to see the sights.

There were a number of museums within walking distance though we found that generally the walk was more interesting than the destination.

One day we went to the mausoleum where the body of 'Uncle' Ho Chi Minh is embalmed for viewing.

The mausoleum building is exactly as you might expect it. A large rectangular brick structure straight out of a Soviet picture book. I hope the architect didn't win any prizes.

When we arrived we discovered that viewing finishes at about 10.30am, so we were too late. I knew our chances of coming back in time were slim. These days Linda point blank refuses to get out of bed before 9am unless there's a bus or plane to catch. Then there's the make up regime.

Not even the prospect of witnessing the decomposition-inhibited corpse of a long dead communist revolutionary leader would entice her to rise before the allotted hour.



Whilst we are still in Hanoi, here are 3 interesting things about Vietnam.


WORLDS CHEAPEST BEER

Bia Hoi, or fresh beer is brewed locally and sold on the pavement and in cafes.

The cheapest we have seen it is at around 7p for a tankard or 15p for a litre.

A lager beer, it is very acceptable and our unseasoned palates cannot tell it apart it apart from the local brands.

Along with the possible Worlds Cheapest cigarettes, you would think that Vietnam would be on the must-visit list of many a bon-viveur.


WEASEL POO COFFEE

Unbelievably, someone, somewhere, discovered that if you pass coffee beans through the digestive tract of a weasel, they can be recovered with their own distinctive flavour and aroma.

As is the way of these things, this became a delicacy amongst the Vietnamese people and now it can be bought by the kilo at markets up and down the land. It is about twice the price of normal coffee.

In the tradition of journalistic excellence I purchased a cupful and can tell you that it is extremely bitter with a nasty acrid aftertaste, unlike ordinary Vietnamese coffee, which is absolutely superb.

I imagine that in some country villages there are thousands and thousands of captive weasels being force-fed coffee beans and having their poo harvested and refined. Haven't seen it mentioned on any tours though.


THE WRITTEN WORD

In written Vietnamese all the words are of one syllable.

Hanoi is actually called Ha Noi, and Vietnam is called Viet Nam.

Nam means man, which is easy to remember when looking for the toilets.

The single syllable method was invented by a European using roman script a few hundred years ago and soon superceded the previous character notation.




We took the overnight sleeper train to Sapa, a small market town in the mountains just south of the Chinese border.

Our hotel room looked across onto a mountain range including Fansipan, at 3143m the country's highest peak.

Too many hours were spent sitting in leatherette armchairs in front of our bay windows, watching the rise and fall of the clouds against the mountain backdrop, gathering and depositing their voluminous charge.

Mountain people from the surrounding villages come into town to give tourists the hard sell and even the toughest resolve wilts under the barrage of shoulder bags and cushion covers.

There are a number of ethnic groups living in the mountains, those closest to Sapa come from the Black Hmong and Red Zhou people, distinguishable by their traditional dress.

After a few days the hard sell wore off and we began to get to know some of the people on a personal level.

It is a true travel experience to be sitting in a café having a coffee and a chat with a fully regaled tribal lady.

We managed to visit a couple of mountain villages and hired a jeep for a day to check out a mountain pass.

Sapa was also a different culinary experience from elsewhere. We could dine out on venison and wild pig with a couple of beers for around £3.


Back in Hanoi we wanted to wait for the weather to clear before we headed back to the coast.

We waited a week before a rain-free day prompted us to go to Halong Bay.

Halong Bay is one of Vietnam's premier tourist attractions. It is a large bay studded with about 1500 of these karst structures towering out of the sea.

Big tourist boats chug around the bay on 5 hour tours with stops at interesting caves.

We stayed on Catba Island where there are some nice beaches to sit on weather permitting. (In our case 2 days out of 6).

Returning to the docks the road crosses the middle of the island through an area of seemingly untouched wilderness.

The rain was torrential, but we could see the clouds hugging the surrounding peaks and racing across the verdant slopes.

“Not very scenic, is it”, said Linda, “Nothing but mountains and forests”.



So ends our trip to Vietnam. The only country where even the man on the banknote is smiling.

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