Sapa, Vietnam

After a 12 hour overnight train ride on the Orient Express we rolled to the end of tracks in Lao Cai. Right on the Chinese border, Lao Cai is approximately 38km from the French hill station of mist shrouded Sapa.  Being a premier destination in North Western, the travelers stampeded their way off the train and filtered into the dozen or so mini busses and cabs waiting to escort us over the rice terraced mountains.



Phu

Once arriving in Sapa, we were greeted by our tour guide, Phu who was an adorable and cheerful young Vietnamese woman.  Given thirty minutes to freshen up we washed off the morning grim, changed into our trekking gear and grabbed a quick bite to eat before exploring the local market and setting out into the six hour expedition.  The weather was in our favor which we considered a stroke of luck from the travel gods considering the clouds had eclipsed the sky for the last two weeks.  The warm sunshine had dried the land making what could have been a mud slide tour a breath-taking trek.



Along with our informative leader, we were accompanied by a small group of H’Mong women who  stroll from their village approximately 8km away every morning in order to meet Phu and her new clusters of tourists.  There was one H’Mong woman dressed in her colorful traditional clothing per person ready to assist the not so graceful or familiar foreigners with the tricky descent.  As we hiked down the steep hills, they paraded ever so casually weaving cane through their weathered hand for future apparel and/or handmade crafts to sell.  The unwritten rule here is when the venture ends you buy a trinket.  This is how the village women create income for their families.  Todd and I made friends with Shura (Todd insists on referring to her as Shug) and Gha.  Both spoke fluent English keeping us entertained with their inquisitive conversation and making us tiny horse figurines out of bamboo leaves.  

Gha, far left and Shura, second on left 

 After a glorious day of sightseeing, it was back to the hotel to shower and get ready for the evening meal.  Dinner was bona fide tour cuisine with standard choices in set menus.  Eatable but nothing spectacular, however it did turn into quite a romantic setting of candle light when the entire town lost power at 6:30pm.  Luckily, kitchens in Vietnam use gas stoves or coals so even without electricity we were able to enjoy our main entrée and go back to our pitch black guesthouse with our bellies full. 

The power outage lasted the night and on throughout the next day which didn’t hinder us from another day of trekking.  Less fortunate on the second day, we awake to the typical forecast of mist and fog.  Two hours later we stopped to gaze at a waterfall that I can’t remember the name of probably because the more entertaining event at hand was Todd munching on a baby bird. He spotted the skinned fellers being cooked over blazing hot coats by an elder woman and couldn’t resist the temptation to sample a local delicacy.       

Overall, I was very glad Todd urged me to visit Sapa.  I remember looking through our travel books in the States and one of the most beautiful pictures was of the rice terraces in Vietnam.  I knew it was a biggie “MUST SEE” and now we can check it off our list!

Sapa Slide show

Halong Bay Slide side

Halong Bay, Vietnam (natural wonder)

Ha Long literally means “where the dragon descends into the sea”. Legend has it that a dragon used to live in the mountains and as it flew towards the coast line, its tail would plunge into the land and create vast crevasses and gouge out the land. As water filled the vast holes, all that was left was the bay and the giant limestone cliffs jetting out from what is now the Gulf of Tonkin. Halong Bay is beautiful, and sharing it with some new great friends made it even more memorable. Our new friends Francisco and Johanna from Switzerland and Paul and Emily from England joined us for the 3 days and 2 nights we spent out on Halong Bay on an overnight boat cruising tour of the bay and nearby Cat Ba island as well. The only way you can really experience this is via a boat tour and a guide.  Halong Bay is approximately 3 hours from Hanoi and requires a short mini-bus trip to get to the massive docks. Some 300 sleeping boats call this area home and run tours daily. It’s a massive tourist attraction to say the least, boats boats boats everywhere at the docks. Our boat was a nice big triple decker with sleeping cabins, restaurant and bar, and a sun deck on top.  Our sleeping cabins were very nice, with private bath, and even with hot water showers.

Over 3000 islands rise up from the emerald waters in this area and it is renowned for its spectacular views which we can easily understand now. It is being voted this year to potentially become one of the 7 wonders of the natural world. I’d say if it doesn’t end up being one, it’s gotta be high on the list still. It’s quite impressive and a must see if you visit Hanoi and the north of Vietnam.

We were lucky and got pretty good weather: 1 day with sun and clear skies and clear evenings and then just an OK weather day the 2nd with some mist and clouds and a little more gray. We did some exploring on T-Top island to get the highest view around.  From T-Top we could view “turtle island” from so high up, although we thought turtle island looked a bit more like a “plucked chicken island” :)

The pictures say it all and the slideshow will really help show what we experienced.(coming next) But possibly some of our best moments were just with our good friends, enjoying their company, swapping stories, eating, riding bikes, having several beers and last but not least- Karaoke late at night on the boat. Having good company on the boat really made this trip the tops. We may post a Karaoke video or two, although we are all quite the amateurs and mostly it was just some great goofy beer drinking fun. “Mr. Duc” our tour guide even got in on the action, he’s quite the singing buff.

Hanoi Slide Show

Hanoi, Vietnam (new country)

We decided to skip the 24hr bus ride into Vietnam from Laos and took the plane. 1 ½ hour later (terrific), we arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam (capital of the north). Some 9 million people, and I think everyone rides a scooter. It is CRAZY TRAFFIC here, sheesh. And we thought Bangkok was crowded. We grabbed a taxi with our new friends Francisco and Johanna (from Geneva, Switzerland) and headed to our hotel. Geez, did I mention there’s a lot of traffic here. I’ve never tried crossing a street and just walking real slowly across and letting the traffic of scooters just flow around you. No stop lights, no stop signs, no divider lines, just free flowing traffic, never-ending day and night. Something to get used to, that’s for sure.

Hanoi is the capital of the Socalist Republic of Vietnam. It's a city of lakes, shaded boulevards, embassies and holy shrines dedicated to the late, great Ho Chi Minh.   The attractive center of Hanoi is built around Hoan Kiem Lake.  Just to the north of the lake is the "Old Quarter" which is the area we stayed.  Lots of narrow streets and tourists all seem to base themselves around here.

Hanoi as well became our base, as we planned tours to Halong Bay and the city of Sapa from here. Both are about 3 hours from Hanoi and pretty much require a planned tour guide to really experience these areas. More on these coming soon.

Hanoi Highlights

• Cool city but I don’t think we’re big fans of this much congestion.

• Thang Long Water Puppets Theatre Show (pretty cute and something to see, wish our nieces Grace and Abbie could have been with us for this, puppets would dance and perform on top of the water and squirt and splash around)

• Great dinners out with our new friends: Paul and Emily, and Franciso and Johanna (best times)

• Amazing Pork Ribs at our favorite lunch place “New Day Café”

          o Address: 72 Ma May (in the Old Quarter), a must visit, seriously good, seriously cheap

• Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum

• The city lake in the Old Quarter (beautiful)

• Learning to navigate every intersection as swarms of scooters work around you.

OK, more posts coming soon, lots of amazing experiences in Halong Bay and Sapa and Vietnam.

Shout out to my brother Brent, for being such a good dad and taking his two great daughters to the 1950's style Daddy Daughter Dance this past weekend in KY!  We know they had fun.

Vientienne, Capital City of Laos

Yeahhhh, much better. Since we’re not sick and no longer on a bad bus ride, we’re happy without doing anything. Luckily Vientienne is turning out quite nice. The capital city has been a fun relief of the last week. We got a decent hostel in a good location and the city is easily explored by foot and bicycle although quite large. There’s a nice walkway down by the Mekong River here as well, even went jogging some here. We spent 3 days exploring some impressive sights, eating some good food (including actual charcoal grilled pork ribs---I had them twice :) and hitting some fun bars for some pretty solid American Music by a Laos rock band. Nothing unusual happened here. The weather was pleasant all 3 days and we got a little re-charging to our batteries here and some picture taking as usual.

victory monument in Vietiane, Laos

We're flying to Vietnam now, excited to see this country that American history and war movies has shown so much about.  Laos Airlines will get us there in a quick 1.25 hrs.

pre-boarding the plane to Hanoi (well worth the money to avoid a 24 hr bus ride)

Luang Probang and Vientiane in Laos

Quite simply the %&*#s bus ride ever.

Luang Prabang to Vientienne requires a bus ride, or flying, you’re only two options. Flights were $80, bus tickets $15. You get there in a plane in 1 hour, you get there in a bus in 8 hours. Since we’re in no hurry and we heard the scenery is amazing on the bus ride, we chose the bus. Damn…. bad mistake.

Where do I start?? 8am bus terminal, we’re there on time and comfortably sitting in our seats prepared for some reading and scenery views and a little sleep. 1 hour into the bus ride, everyone (about 40 passengers) begin realizing that the air-vents are not pumping out cold air, just fan air, and its warm.  It's 95 degrees today.  The road gets into the mountains and starts bending, bending, bending, and the views become awe-striking but a bit frightening considering we’re 1 foot from the edge at times and the drop offs are 3,000 ft straight down (I tell Christina to stop looking). 3 hours in, we’re all profusely sweating and stuck to our seats looking for options- NONE. We stop for a soda on the top of the mountain for 5 minutes and a quick bathroom break. Fresh Air!!!! Whewwwww.

Everyone is bitching, we paid for the VIP you know, top line. To make matters worse there are no windows. The coach is designed for viewing so it has large plexiglass windows with no seams for rolling down a window, basically a sweat box on wheels. We struggle back in and saddle up for a dreaded 5 more hours, knowing that there’s a lunch break in there somewhere and we could breath again.

3 more hours go by, we stop for lunch, repeat breathing, drinking water, eating as many ice creams as possible in 30 minutes. Get back on the bus, and start sweating more. We’re hoping 2 hours more and this hell will be over, WRONG, that 8 hour bus ride, now becomes 11 since the driver is going a bit slower we’re told.
What??? *&)&#)(*(@#&)(*#@&)(@#&

This sucks. We tough out another 5 hours after lunch, shoot me please, and finally get to Vientienne, about as grumpy, sticky, sweaty, and exhausted as I could imagine after a bus ride. Multiply that x 40 other passengers feeling exactly the same way.

So 11 hours later, we’re 3 lbs lighter, cranky from our sugar/ice cream downer, sticky, a bit pissed as well (I heard a few people say they’d write letters to the bus line telling them about this experience, we laughed like that would possibly do any good) plus it’s now dark and finding a guest house in a strange city at dark gets just a bit more uncomfortable as well.

We did high-five each other and praised how we’d chalk this experience up and use it in the future to easily compare the next time we may be a bit uncomfortable. Travel sometimes it appears is not all glamorous. Christina joked that it was an experience and I just complained (hey, it gave me something to do :)
We did make it to Vientiane and are just excited to be off the bus and in a new city no longer sick, ready to explore and eat and drink.

Pic of VIP bus from Hell.

make sure the a/c works before getting on these for 11-14 hrs.

Into Laos (Luang Prabang)

Well, Christina is pumped, we reached another country and she gets to sew a new patch on her pack! Yeahhh. And I’m pumped because we finally became multi-millionaires today!!!! Yep that’s right, simply exchange a few hundred US dollars into Lao Kip and you too will be a million-kip-onaire.
Exchange rate $1 = $8,000 kip.

Laos so far has turned out with mixed emotions for us, unfortunately we both got sick after our first night in Luang Prabang, likely due to dinner in the street market we suspect.
Upon arriving that night, we headed down a very very busy alley with all types of food vendors and tourists eating huge plates of food. Turns out you could basically go buffet style, choose from all types of tubs of rice, noodles, veggies, etc. and then hand the plate to the lady and she’d stir fry it up for you right there (cost $10,000 kip, about $1.20).  We could both easily eat off this enormous dish. Well, the next day Christina says she’s not feeling well but she toughs it out and we do a bit of exploring up to the temple hill overlooking the town (great view, impressive). After that, she’s feeling a bit worse so we head back to our guest house to chill out. We made the bad decision of not getting an air conditioned room this time since it had been cold at nights lately (bad mistake), the days were smouldering hot and uncomfortable in the room to say the least. Christina got sick and threw up and had the poo poos also. Not good. The next day she’s not feeling much better and then I start getting ill also. We both tough it out one more day in our non-air-con room thinking it will pass soon and start taking some medicine we brought for just this case. One day later, Christina is a bit better and I can’t stand the heat, so we move guesthouses, still ill. Thank God for Oudom Souk Guesthouse, the little place was right around the corner, much much better, cleaner, nicer, had air/con, private bath, hot shower, and lucky lucky English HBO on the tele (our savior). We spent 2 more days here recovering, trying to get a bit of food in us and getting over stomach cramping and sucking all the air/con down we could and watching a ton of bad but English HBO movies. Ugghhhhhhh!

So after about 5 days, we’ve basically spent in Luang Prabang, we got to see the night market and trek up a hill/temple (That Phu Si & Wat Tham Phu Si) and that’s about it. We were anxious to get back on our feet and get moving. Luckily symptoms passed and by day 6 we felt better to try it out.

We rented a moped and off we rode to check out the nearby famous waterfall-Kuang Si.  There was also a bear reserve there. Glad we did that, by far the best waterfall I’ve seen in my life to this point. Beautiful clear topaz water, chilly but not ice cold and pool after pool of areas you could explore and swim in while working your way towards the “Fall” itself. We probably spent 4 hours here exploring and I did a few small cliff jumps and swung off a great rope swing into the water they had rigged up. We got some wonderful pics of this place and really had an enjoyable day finally. The moped ride out through the hill country to get there was awesome as well. AND nobody got sick!!!! Yeahhhhhh.

We grabbed a fun authentic Indian meal that night and explored Luang Prabang on the scooter more but not really finding too many more highlights outside of the impressive night market. Went ahead and booked VIP bus tickets for our 10 hour bus ride the next day to Vientienne, Laos (the capital city).

So LPrabang was worth seeing, I’d recommend, particularly the waterfall, and the temple/hill, and the beautiful night market. I don’t suspect we’d stay 7 days again though, it’s more of a 2-3 day town, but unfortunately we wasted 5 laid up in the room recovering, but oh well, guess that’s part of the travel deal sometimes. Maybe wouldn’t recommend the $1.20 enormous plate of food in the alley either 

OK- we’re off to the capital, Vientienne, hoping for better luck!

C looking dashing in her turqoise helmet

night market food buffet



at temple mount (That Phu Si) in Luang Prabang, overlooking city



C at Kuang Si waterfall

cowabunga

C at the night market in Luang Prabang

I want to be a kip-o-naire, so freakin bad. Buy all of the things I never had....

Journey down Mekong River to Laos (Luang Prabang)

Slow boat down the Mekong, crossing into Laos


It takes about 3 days to get from Pai, Thailand to Luang Prabang, Laos. We left Pai at 8pm and hopped on board a mini-bus with about 10 other passengers. If I forgot to mention, the road to Pai is infamous for having exactly 762 hairpin turns (and it really does), so we took that same road back out of Pai, tried to doze in and out of sleep as much as possible on the 7 hour mini-bus ride to the border town of Chang Khong where we would then cross over into Laos. We got in Chang Khong about 3:30am (whewww), hopped out and crashed at a little guesthouse they had waiting for all us passengers. We slept about 3 hours, woke up, showered and grabbed breakfast at 7am. We were then transported to the border in the back of a pickup truck and prepared to cross the Mekong River to Laos to get our Visas. We jumped on board a little rowboat with a small motor and touted across the river, got out and spent a couple hours trying to figure out how to get our Visas, pay for our Visas, what line to wait in for our Visa, etc. We then headed on a tuk tuk about 3 more miles to where the loading area was for the slow boat that would then finally take us the 2 days to reach Luang Prabang. We were a bit concerned with the slow boat as we heard the seats were quite hard and we should even pick up pillows of our own to provide some extra comfort. But we found it not bad at all, the seats appeared removed from buses and reclined and were quite comfortable actually. Pleasantly surprised. We spent the first day on the slow boat going about 8 hours down the Mekong, the boat held about 70 other passengers. We read, ate some snacks and just soaked in the spectacular views. The Mekong is as wide as the Ohio in many places and yet thins considerably in others, but I’d say it’s about ½ the width of the Ohio in most parts and pretty smooth with a little mix of small churning water and rapids here and there. It was great! One of the best things we’ve done so far, beautiful and smooth ride and right on the water just cruising along (probably 15 mph or so). We stopped as it reached nightfall around 7pm at a small river town called Pak Bhan, where we all got out and grabbed a guest house for the night to get some rest and dinner. We watched the moon rise over the Mekong and had dinner that night on a guest house balcony restaurant. It was by far for one of the most picturesque moments we’ve witnessed: Very mountainous, with the Mekong below, jungle everywhere else along the mountains and the moonlight hitting the running Mekong river. Awesome!

We grabbed a quick breakfast that morning and boarded back on the slow boat for about another 8 hours to reach Luang Prabang, deeper within Laos. The boat that day was a bit more crowded, not quite as comfortable as the day before, but not bad. We both read a lot that day, snapped a few pics, and just enjoyed the ride. It’s just a much better experience, although slower, to get somewhere, but it really beats the hell out of a bus ride in my opinion. We got to Luang Prabang around 5pm, lugged our gear up the riverbank slope and trodded through the market to find a cheap guesthouse for the night.

Slow Boat down the Mekong River- CHECK!

Definitely something we were planning on doing and it was worth doing again. I really thought my brother Brent would have enjoyed this couple days a lot, right up his alley. Slide show coming next.

1,111 Buddhist Monks, descend on Pai

We happened to be lucky enough to have stayed in Pai the week 1,111 Buddhist Monks come to town to take up food donations and such for the year.  This is primarily how they survive, by just the donations from people.  Tip (our guesthouse owner) told us that by giving certain things it ensures good karma and blessings for your next life.  If you gave food- you will be blessed with never being hungry, water- never thirsty, candles- enlightenment and bright ideas, etc.   We gave oranges- I guess we’ll have a juicy, sticky sweet next life J    Glad we got to see and appreciate this.  It’s humbling to see spiritual leaders completely devoted to their way of life, relying totally upon the goodwill of people for their complete support (I can’t say I saw one with a suit or nice watch on or snappy shoes, and none seemed to be driving nice cars)- great perspective for us to experience.