sapa

another place i didn't get to go the last time i was in vietnam was sapa...there are two reasons travelers go to sapa; one, to see members of vietnam's minority tribes...and two, to go trekking...i got to do both...to get to sapa, i took a night train from hanoi to lao cai, the vietnamese of the side of the border with china...from there i took a minivan to sapa...the tour was supposed to start with breakfast at the hotel in sapa at 0800, but my train arrived later than expected, which means my minivan was late too...i arrived at the hotel after 0900, which was when the first trek was supposed to start...so i ate breakfast as fast as possible, taking some of it to go with me on the trek...i felt bad for the other people in my group, since they had to wait for me...but they didn't seem to mind...the day i arrived, it was sunny, and lovely...

my trek started at the hotel, and walked down, out of town toward catcat village...our guide is a member of the black hmong...tourism is one of the ways the tribes make a living now...from what i understand, they stopped wearing much of their traditional clothing, but then realized that's what tourists want to see...so now the "city" of sapa is filled with villagers wearing their traditional clothing...when our group started walking, a whole bunch of tribespeople walked with us...they tried to make friends with us, and everyone knew that they would try to sell stuff to us...the english they know is all related to tourists, but at least they've made the effort to learn...most of them know bits and pieces of a number of different languages...from this lookout point, we were able to look over the valley where catcat village is located...we could see the school, and some of the housing...

we could also see rice terraces...this wasn't the optimal season for seeing the terraces, but oh well...if i remember correctly, there is only one rice crop a year...

she was just sitting there, looking beautiful:)

this is typical housing in the village of catcat...according to our guide, only about 500 people live in the village...walking through, we saw random animals, but mostly houses with stalls set up selling stuff to tourists...i don't know how i feel about that...

and of course, there were super cute kids in the village...they're too young to know that they probably won't have an easy life...

at the "bottom" of the trek, we took a break at this waterfall...not surprisingly, there were places set up where people could order kabobs, drinks, and other trinkets...our guide told us we would have a 10 minute break...which of course ended up being closer to half an hour...

one of the places sold apple wine...

on the way back up to sapa, we saw the back side of the school...our guide said there are 42 students at this school, serving kids up to age 13...she called it a family school...she said that after that age, there are two options...one, to go to the school in sapa, and pay for it, or two, drop out of school and start earning money...sadly, most of the kids take option number 2...

after the hike, we had the rest of the day to explore the town of sapa...there isn't much to see...in the middle of town is a market catering entirely to tourists...nearly every stall sold the same thing, and all the vendors are aggressive...just in case that's not enough, there were ladies in the middle who walk up to you and try to get you while you're wandering...

underneath that pile of cloth in the middle is a little baby...who was just staring at the world...i have no idea who he/she belonged to, but i'm guessing all the women in this picture had half an eye on the baby...

the next day our group wasn't nearly as lucky with the weather...it was pea soup thick fog...we couldn't see a thing other than the road/trail in front of us, and not even much of that...

even petrol pumps need to be protected:)

at our first break on this trek, the boy was playing in the tree...i'm pretty sure he was walking with another group, as every trekking group has lots of villagers walking with them...

since i couldn't see any of the countryside, i spent the trek trying to take photos of the ladies...(i never did figure out where the men were)

the fog never did go away...

i spent a lot of time talking to a couple living in singapore, they're both originally from china...you can barely see the suspension bridge we crossed behind us...

it turned out there was a newer suspension bridge, from which i took this photo of the old suspension bridge...it's easy enough to see why the new bridge was built...

one of the beverage options at lunch...obviously, this wasn't the choice i made...

our guide is from this village...population 2600...

at the school in our guide's village, there are 52 students...again, it's a family school, serving only children up to age 13...

it goes w/out saying that i have no idea what was written on the board...

these indigo plants are where indigo dye comes from...the dye is used to make the dark blue of the black hmong people's clothing...

at the very end of the trek we waited by this bridge for a van that took us back to sapa...

halong bay

one of the places i didn't get to go the last time i was in vietnam is also one of the most well-known areas in vietnam, halong bay...i ate breakfast, checked out of my hotel, and was picked up by the tour bus, near the start of all the pickups...i got a seat near the front of the bus, which is always important to me, given my tendency to end up with motion sickness...

boarding the boat:)

it's a four hour drive from hanoi to get to the port where everyone gets on a boat...not surprisingly, there was a stop about halfway through, at a (huge) place where we could buy snacks and souvenirs...tons and tons of tour buses stopped at this place, there was nothing else anywhere close...i always wonder how many people actually buy stuff (other than food i mean) at these places...during the bus ride i figured out where most of the others were from, it was fun to listen to the conversations...there were two other american girls sitting in the back, and i learned that they were also teaching in korea...they didn't stop talking the entire bus ride, and their voices carried...i was once told that i'm the loudest person a certain someone knows, so now, everytime i hear people who are louder, i laugh and wonder what that original person would think...(does that make sense to anyone but me?)...also on the bus were three dutch, a spaniard, and i've forgotten who else...the american girls dominated the conversation...the guide tried to teach us a few things to say, but the only one i remembered was "thank you"...it sounded like 'gom eun' to me...
at the port, our guide collected our passports, and went to get our boat tickets...there were a lot of people milling around, so the whole area was rather confusing...when he came back with the tickets, he handed those out, as well as our passports...this was when he told us that our tour included everything but drinks, and that there would be drinks available for purchase on the boat...he also told us that if we brought drinks on the boat from other sources that we'd have to pay a service fee...i HATE when those sorts of things are told to the guests when it's too late to do anything about it...that's not what i signed up for, and i wasn't inclined to "obey"...

we got on the boat, and he gave a longer speech, telling us the schedule for the rest of the day...he also introduced the captain, and gave us a few details about the boat...(where it was built, how much it cost, etc)...after the speech we were checked into our rooms, i ended up sharing with one of the dutch girls...then lunch was served...5 or 6 courses? it was great food, i enjoyed every bite...and ate way too much, of course...i was sitting at a table with the three dutch folks, so the conversation was in both languages...

after lunch was over everyone went outside and relaxed, enjoying the scenery...it was sooo nice to lay in the sun and just watch the world go by...who doesn't like this kind of scenery? it wasn't as stunning as i expected, but still absolutely lovely...two hours after leaving the dock, the boat arrived at a cave...

i've forgotten the name of it, which can probably be found in my guidebook...not surprisingly, our boat arrived about the same time as every other boat, which meant the area was uber crowded...yuck...howeva, i knew going in that halong bay would be busy, and that i wasn't going somewhere secret...our guide bought our tickets, we got off the boat and walked up the stairs...the cave isn't at water level, you have to walk up about 50 stairs (give or take) to get to the entrance...and it's not a spelunking kind of cave...the caverns were HUGE, there were pathways through the whole thing...

 our guide told the group various facts about the cave, like how old it is, how big it is, how many people see the cave, etc...at least, i assume he did, i wasn't paying much attention to him...many areas were lit with coloured lights, i tried to get a few good photos...i kept getting distracted by photo opportunities, and ended up behind most of the group, but oh well...i reasoned to myself that i wasn't missing much...i've seen a fair number of caves, and i've never heard anything super different from "this cave has been around for a long time"...hee hee...

eventually we all got out and gathered together to get back on a smaller boat...(this smaller boat took us from the big boat to the cave earlier)...the smaller boat then took us to an area where we could go kayaking...think recreational kayaking, like you did at summer camp years ago...not kayaking on whitewater rapids where you need a skirt...i ended up in a boat with an aussie girl, we had fun paddling around for 45 minutes...when we brought our kayak back to the kayak place we were losing light, fast...

halong bay isn't mountainous exactly, but when the sun goes behind one of the karsts, you don't see much anymore...the american girls were 15 minutes late bringing back their kayak, and since it was chilly by that point, people weren't happy...they apologized, saying they didn't know what time they were supposed to come back...the little boat took us all back to our big boat...just after getting back on the big boat, ladies rowing boats filled with snacks and drinks rowed up to the big boat and tried to get us to buy stuff...

their prices were way cheaper than the big boat...they were pretty persistent, but i didn't want anything, so i was good at ignoring them...a few folks did buy from rowboat ladies, and that's when one of the big boat waiters came out and handed them a laminated paper that said how much they had to pay as the service fee: $8 for a bottle of wine, $1 for soft drinks and cans of beer!!! how ridiculous is that? i said it was ridiculous, AND that we hadn't been told about this 'service fee' before the tour started, and he told me to be quiet...i told him that i would not, and that he shouldn't tell me to be quiet, because i'm the customer...he said the boat had drinks, so we didn't need to buy from the rowboat ladies...i told him the big boat drink prices were ridiculous ($1 for a small bottle of water on the big boat, vs less than 50 cents for a big bottle of water in hanoi) so it wasn't a service to the customers at all...i don't think anyone paid the service fee, because it was such a ridiculous amount, and we all felt the whole thing to be underhanded...first, in not telling any of the guests that the fee existed, and second in not telling how much it was until after people bought stuff off the rowboat ladies...
anywho, after that was dinner, another 5 or 6 course meal...YUM...when we all finished  eating and the plates/food had been cleared, our guide turned on the karaoke machine...he seemed oblivious to the massive feedback, though the rest of us were covering our ears...one of the american chickies seemed keen to sing all night long, the rest of us didn't care...i stayed for a little while, then went to my cabin and read for a while before sleeping...the chick i shared with came in not too much later, having stayed up drinking with her friends...about an hour later, she puked...whoops!! fortunately, nothing other than her sheets got dirty...i'm sure the housekeepers enjoyed the smell...whoops...

the next morning my cabin partner slept and slept and slept, i woke up early (0600 local time) and changed quietly, the went out to the deck to wait for breakfast to be served...in keeping with what had happened at every previous meal, it was served later than the time they told us...oh well...also in keeping with every previous meal, there was a lot of food, and it was good...i continued to overeat...hee hee...we weren't able to get into the dining room at all early, because that's where the boat staff slept...after breakfast everyone checked out of the rooms...the boat then 'drove' through more of the bay, which was again nice and relaxing...after another hour or so, all of us on the 3 day/2 night tour got off the big boat and switched onto a smaller boat...those on the 2 day/1 night tour stayed on the big boat, which then made it's way back to the original port...the smaller boat then went for an hour to cat ba island...it's an island in the bay that has a national park...we got off the boat, and got on bicycles that were conveniently waiting for us...i remembered to check my tires and my brakes before taking off, thank goodness...

the ride went around part of cat ba island, which has it's own national park...the bikes were one speed cruisers, not exactly built for speed...one of the ladies in the group is really into triathlons, and does a lot of riding at home in/around london (she's an aussie) so this bike wasn't exactly up to par...hee hee...there were a few hills, which were probably only challenging because the bikes weren't exactly speedy...our guide paused several times, so no one ever got too out of breath...

 the ride took us through a couple really small villages...surprisingly, as we rode through, no one tried to sell us anything...at least, not that i was aware...that was a nice difference from the rest of the country...who can resist taking a photo of one of the super cute kids we saw? she didn't talk at all, she just looked...

after riding one way, everyone took a break...well, sorta...i didn't feel the need to buy a drink or any food, so i went walking...the ladies i walked with were both aussie, including the one i mentioned previously...this trip was a catch up for them, they hadn't seen each other for three years, though they had both previously worked together at a hospital...they're physio therapists...they get to work out while at work, how awesome is that? the triathlete and i kept getting into discussions about gadgets and races and training in general...

eventually this boat took us to our hotel on cat ba island...i had the choice of staying in a bungalow, which sounded rustic, and during this trip, i was over that...as we dropped off those who had chosen the bungalows, i was glad i had gone for the hotel...the bungalow was on a nice beach, but it was small, and there was no where else to go...the benefit i would've had if i had stayed there would've been a lot more area in which to swim...there wasn't a decent swimming area in cat ba town, which is where my hotel was located...a bay filled with boats...the triathlete did find a small swimming area, but was creeped out by the locals watching her swim, so she was only in the water for 15 minutes...i walked around cat ba town with the other aussie...we strolled through a local market (which was definitely for locals, as no one tried to sell us anything, and we were just stared at more than anything) and of course i spotted a bakery...i think there is some part of my genetic makeup that never misses a bakery...lol...we both bought treats, she shared with the triathlete...i was thinking only of myself, and of course bought more than i should've...lol...

 after the walk/bakery stop/swimming the three of us rested up before dinner...also choosing the hotel were two aussie boys, but they'd spent most of the tour drinking, so we weren't expecting them to be on time...as it turned out, they didn't show up for dinner at all...which was a mistake on their part, as the food was the best of the entire tour...the same 5 or 6 course meal as usual, all of it great food...breakfast the next morning was lovely as well...a buffet with LOTS of options...fruit, rice, porridge, fried eggs, soup, etc...i ate...too much...again...the boys did make it to breakfast:)
after breakfast we checked out, and got back on the boat...just before boarding i bought blueberry ice cream flavoured oreos...i'd seen them around, and just because i thought the flavour sounded interesting, i figured i should try them...oreos aren't something i crave very often, and i wasn't craving them at this point either, but i wanted to try the flavour...they were good...from there, the boat went by to pick up the folks at the bungalows (the three dutch and the two loud americans)...from there we rode about an hour, then transferred to a bigger boat, just like the one we'd been on earlier in the tour...that boat took us back to the original port in halong bay...and from there, we all got back on the bus, and "enjoyed" the ride back to hanoi...over all, i enjoyed the tour, and i'm glad i did it...but halong bay didn't stun me like i expected...i'm probably just jaded...the best part of it all was being on the "roof" of the boat, and just relaxing as it cruised through the bay...soooo nice:)

welcome back to hanoi and the perfume pagoda

i didn't know exactly where i should go for my winter holidays, i ended up deciding on vietnam...for the third time...my flight to vietnam was christmas day, and this was one of the decorations in the seoul/incheon airport...korea is only 25% christian, but the country definitely gets into the secular aspects of the holiday...there are decorations everywhere...the airport was busy, but efficient, as always...the flight to hanoi was just under 5 hours, a smooth flight...since i was in the second row of the economy cabin, i was able to get off the plane rather quickly, even catching up to the first class businessmen before they got to immigration...immigration  went quickly, and then i got to stand at the baggage carousel for ages and ages...baggage claim is the great equalizer in travel...everyone has to wait, it's just luck when you get your stuff...i waited almost 45 minutes!!
from the airport i took a minibus to hanoi (the airport is 35km outside hanoi) which took an hour...it was a reminder of the craziness of vietnamese traffic...traffic in vietnam never stops, and i rarely saw traffic lights...most people ride motorbikes, and there are a few cars...even at four way intersections, there still are rarely lights!...but i didn't see any accidents, so i guess it works for the vietnamese...as soon as i got off the minibus there was a tout who wanted me to get a room at his hotel...he had a brochure, and the photos looked decent enough...the price he quoted was also the amount i was okay with spending, and he said he'd take me there for free...all of it sounded okay to me, so i got on the back of his motorbike, and off we went...it didn't take long to get to the hotel, and the room was fine, so i checked in...

my next task was to book a couple tours...since i'm a guidebook freak i had spent time reading it on the plane, and had come up with a tentative itinerary...there are TONS of travel agencies and most of them offer the same tours, so i could've shopped around a bit more, but the numbers i was given at the first place were okay, so i went for it...for boxing day i booked a tour to the perfume pagoda, which is a day trip from hanoi...starting the day after that, i booked a tour to halong bay...having those booked, i started walking around town...i walked through a temple that seemed mostly deserted...i don't know which temple it was, whether it was mentioned anywhere or not...there seemed to be some construction going on, but there was still an room with stuff in it...(i don't know what that room is called?)

somewhere in the guidebook i'd also read that vietnam is known for water puppets...it sounded interesting, and there is a water puppet theatre in hanoi, so i wandered in that direction, intending to book something for later in the evening, or even the next evening...i got there at 1645, and it turned out there was a show at 1700...convenient...i had a "first class" ticket, though the seat wasnt really all that good...plus, there was a tall guy who's bald head seemed to end up in nearly all the photos i took...ugh...anywho, the show was 45mins, and i enjoyed it...i think everyone in the audience did...we were all trying to take photos, but almost none of mine turned out well...(which didn't surprise me, as it was indoors, and fairly dark)...oh well...
after the show i wandered around the old quarter for a while...it's an area with some french architecture, a LOT of street food, a lot of budget hotels, and shops of  all sorts...these gates are on the lake, leading to a small temple...

good times...i ended up having pho for dinner, a typical vietnamese soup...i love sitting down at a street stall and having food appear in front of me...YUM...after wandering a bit more i found a bakery, complete with chocolate mousse...again, YUM...a few goodies came with me back to my hotel...
early the next morning (well, not that early, it was 0745) i was picked up for my tour to the perfume pagoda...a bit over an hour later, the minibus was finally on it's way out of hanoi...i was the first to be picked up, which meant i got a good seat, but it also meant i had to be patient while the minibus went around and around, picking up the other tourtakers...an hour later, we stopped for a potty break, or so it was called...the stop just happened to be at a place full of souvenirs and snacks, and there were three other minivans stopping there as well...as everyone piled out of the minivan (we were scrunched in pretty tight) ladies selling fruit came up and tried to get people to buy...rather aggressively, i might add...another hour later, we got to a river...a 10 minute break to do i don't know what, then we got into rowboats...

not rowboats like we have in the states, but vietnamese rowboats...shallow, thin, and long...six of us in each boat, as well as a lady rower...the ladies rowed us an hour up the river, rowing forwards, not backwards as we would've expected...it was interesting to watch...the boat ride along the river was pretty, and we saw people doing a lot of manual labor along the way...

after the boats pulled up at a dock, we got off, and walked about 100m to a lunch place...clearly, this place is primarily there to serve tourists coming to the pagoda...tofu, fish, cabbage, rice, chicken...it was a lot of food...from there we started walking up to the pagoda...there were a lot of steps...not surprisingly, it wasn't just one pagoda...on the way up i stopped at a couple pagodas/shrines on the way to the top...

fun times with photos, at least i tried to get a few  good ones...at the top i saw our guide, who had ridden the cable car up...he made it seem as though i was running really late, though it didn't seem late to me...at the top, the biggest pagoda is inside a big cave...there were several shrines inside, and as far as i could see, that was the only place photos weren't supposed to be taken...

then i  started going back down, which only took half the time...partly because i was concerned about time, partly because i was moving a lot faster, and partly because i wasn't stopping for any photos...the steps were regularly spaced, which was nice both on the way up, and on the way down...as i got back down to the bottom, i found the rest of the group, minus a few people who were still coming down...eventually everyone was together, so we returned to the boats...

according to our guide, by this point we were already over an hour later than normal...oops...we figured it was his fault as much as anyone else's...the stops the bus made weren't stops any of us would've chosen, and they added up to more than an hour...plus, the pickup in the morning took foreva and was terribly inefficient...anywho, we got in the boats, and headed back down the river...

the water didn't seem to be moving much, so i don't know whether we got back any faster...after we got off the boats the guide told us we should tip the ladies who rowed us, saying that they had worked hard...knowing that the vietnamese don't normally tip, and tipping is generally only prevalent among foreign tourists, this annoyed me...i hate required tips...i gave her some money, but she demanded more!!! (10x the amount!!)...um, no thank you...i was amazed that she was so up front about how much she wanted from each of us...she tried to hand back the money i gave her, insisting that i give her more...so i took the money, and started to put it back in my wallet, and close my wallet...she didn't like that either, and then accepted what i had originally given her...how rude...

the bus ride back into the city was definitely faster, yay!! i got off the bus before it got to my hotel, but that was just because i was motion sick, and needed "fresh" air...
i stopped at the same bakery as the night before, picking up some treats...yum...another night back in my hotel room, watching movies, etc...i love day trips:)