My best friends arrived in Thailand in early October to come visit me and go on an adventure in Northern Vietnam. A group of teachers I have met this year and my friends departed Saturday afternoon (after introducing my guests to Thai foot massage) for Hanoi. After a nice delay (typical of Air Asia) we arrived in Hanoi and were met by our driver. I decided that a tour was the best plan for our group of 6 so we didn’t waste time getting lost or fighting over what we wanted to see!
After my first taste of Vietnam’s traffic, we arrived at our hotel and went next door to grab a drink at a cool little pub. The next morning we were met by our tour guide Cha, and did a Hanoi city tour. We went to the Temple of Literature (the first University in Vietnam), Ho Chi Min Mausoleum, and Hanoi Prison (where John McCain was imprisoned for 9 years). The prison was really neat because the French built it, but then at one point the Vietnamese kept Americans imprisoned, and then the Americans also kept the Vietnamese imprisoned. Crazy! It was nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton". We had our first Vietnamese food which was quite good but lacking the Thai spice! The afternoon was spent at the Museum of Ethnology which was by far my favourite part of the day. That evening we went to a water puppet show. It was the creepiest and weirdest thing I have seen in a long time. The actors are in a tank of water behind a screen and they move their puppets through the water while scary music and song goes on. Very odd. All in all it was a nice day of sightseeing.
At night we were transferred to the train station to take an overnight train to Sapa, one of the Northern most cities. The train ride was quite interesting and I was extremely happy to be in “first class sleeper” though back home it may be considered third or fourth class. Haha.
Nine hours later we were picked up at the Lao Cai train station and took a one hour drive through the mountains up into Sapa. Our van was stopped once due to a herd of water buffalo crossing! The countryside looked a lot like Cinque Terra, Italy, very lush and farmland plots built into the side of the mountain.
When we got to Sapa we checked into a beautiful hotel on the edge of a mountain. The architecture was really neat as it was all of these old run down French colonial buildings. At any point in time you could have guessed you were somewhere in Europe.
We spent the next two days trekking through the mountains and visiting hill tribe villages. We saw the black Hmong villages and how the people lived. The girls do not go to school but they hike hours into Sapa to sell their handicraft. They wear traditional costume and get by on very little. The Vietnamese government actually pays for the Viet ethnic minorities health care and for them to attend school. There were some beautiful sights along the way and a gorgeous waterfall! One of the days we were hiking it started to rain really hard and the paths were limestone that was very slippery when wet. It would have taken us three hours to hike back up into Sapa and would have been quite dangerous. The solution? Hop on the back of motorbikes in one of the villages and motorbike up the mountain in the rain. SCARY but very fun! Sapa was my favourite place in Vietnam and it was the first time in months I have had to wear a sweatshirt. I had forgotten what it feels like to be cold!
We took the night train back to Hanoi and had a free day in the city. We wandered around the Old Quarter shops and markets and art galleries. I bought a very cool abstract Buddha head “painting” but it is made out of leaves and I got to meat the artist and see how it was done! We also stopped in a history museum and sat by the lake for a while. It started to rain while we were out and the worst of Vietnam came out. The traffic is insane as there are no rule, very few traffic lights and no pedestrian crossing ANYWHERE. There are motorbikes zipping in and out everywhere and everyone honks their horn constantly as a warning they are coming. You cross the street by taking a step in and walking slowly and steadily across while trying to make eye contact with every driver coming your way. They will dodge around you but it is important that you make no sudden movement of you will for sure get hit. How frightening! Honestly, the driving is so erratic…completely out of control. It makes Bangkok look like a country road. In the rain the streets become gross with street “sludge” and garbage and it is quite disgusting and dirty. After being caught in the rain one night walking back to our hotel I refused to go back out for dinner as I was covered in street sludge. I for sure got worms from that trip. (Side note: De-worming is advised every 3-6 months in SE Asia!). This experience ruined the city of Hanoi for me.
Early the next morning we went to the Perfume pagoda, a temple built into a cave. It was a couple of hour drive out of the city and then an hour row down a river. Oh and then another couple hour hike. Yes! I might finally be in shape. It was a cool sight to see and another nice hike. We ate lunch down at the base of the mountain by the river and this is the meal that I am convinced led me to get violently ill upon my return to Bangkok!
The last two of our trip were in Halong Bay, A UNESCO world heritage sight in the South China Sea. We had a private “junk” (boat) to ourselves, and a personal crew. We sailed through the thousands of islands on the turqoise water. We did some sea kayaking and went spelunking (the recreational sport of cave exploration…for all of you that didn’t know!) and swam in the South China Sea. We saw some floating houses and a school in these tiny little fishing villages (they actually live on the water year round) and went to a pearl farm. The food and drinks on the boat were delicious, as was the relaxing on the reclining chairs on the sun deck. It was a nice end to a great week. I dreaded going back to school on Monday, but thanks to my Vietnamese food poisoning I did not return for 4 days!
