Vietnam with Lionel

After almost four months of separation, I finally get to see Lionel again! He has prepared two weeks of city, culture, adventure, trekking, nature, sun and some rain too. Read on to see what we discovered in Vietnam, formerly part of Indochina. 

Hanoi

Hanoi is certainly the closest I get to “home” during my trip so far. Jose and Mai make sure of that. They live in the Hanoi suburbs in a very nice apartment in which the best food in the whole of Vietnam is being prepared, by José and Mai themselves! Fried tofu, vegetables, nems, delicious mushrooms, soup and other delicacies make out taste buds wriggle. Oh and the fruit, I have rarely seen and tasted so many interesting shapes and tastes. Hanoi is Lionel’s and my base during our two week trip in Vietnam. We go north, east, south, but we always come back to Hanoi in between, to get new energy, fresh clothes, and to fill up with smiles and kindness from our hosts. Jose is as a local here. Apart from being white, he bargains and drives his motorbike like the Vietnamese. We visit a few places in Hanoi too. The temple of Literature is a very nice one. Unfortunately I forgot the memory card to my camera at home so I don’t have any pictures. There are other nice temples too, one is even on an island on a little lake. There is supposed to be a turtle swimming around in the lake, but we don’t see it despite musing at the water for several minutes. José shows us some markets. I almost throw up when I see a decent sized dead dog without the head (you can still tell it’s a dog though) and with its fur burnt off…ready for Vietnamese cuisine. One day we go to the theater to see a water puppet show. The puppets are beautifully carved in wood and painted in bright colours. The story is also very beautiful; it tells the everyday life of Vietnamese people and also shows their beliefs and traditions. The puppeteers are actually themselves IN the water and they conduct the puppets with wooden sticks immersed in the water as well.

pictures Hanoi

Going to find the sun in Hué and Hoi An

Hanoi is not a bad city, but too big for our taste and the weather is also not so good; we decide to go south, to Hué first, then to Hoi An. Hué is the ancient imperial capital of Vietnam, and the imperial city is still standing on the other bank of the Perfume River with its citadel and gardens. There are even some elephants who witness of the past glory of the city. We only stay one night there, heading further south to catch some sun in Hoi An.

photos Hué

What a charming little city! Hoi An used to be an ancient trading port, and is still an important place for tourism and arts. A river runs through the city and we enjoy a trip on one of the boats that brings us out to see the fishing boats further out. The technique is very different from what we are used to. They have a huge round net that they throw up in the air and down on the water. The net sinks down and the fisherman then closes it round the fish that was swimming under the net. There are many places to visit in the area and we need to choose. Cam Kim sounds like the perfect place to spend a pleasant afternoon. A local ferry brings us there, with no other tourists, exactly what we hoped for! We explore the island on foot, wandering aimlessly around for a few hours.

photos Hoi An

On our last day, we book a tour to the ruins of My Son (pronounced Mi son), ancient temples constructed by the kings of Champa. The departure is at 5:30 in the morning by bus. Big is our surprise when we have to pay extra for the entrance to the ruins, and the price has almost doubled since…yesterday! We get into an argument but there is nothing to do, we have to pay if we want to enter (impossible to get the money back from the hotel too). It is worth it, the ruins are beautiful in the morning light. We reach the site exactly as the sun rises above one of the ruins…

photos My Son

Trekking in Sapa with the H’Mong

In Vietnam there are many ethnic minorities (over 50 in the whole country) and we went to meet some of them in the mountains up North, near Sapa. Sapa o’chau (http://www.sapaochau.org) is an organisation founded by a young H’mong woman. She helps educate young people from surrounding villages, trains them in English, guiding and cooking and offers them a job as tour guides for different treks which make it possible for us foreigners to discover their culture and traditions in a local and sustainable way.

We are lucky because there are no other participants to our trek so we get our guide and her trainee for ourselves. May has experience and she gladly shares all her stories and knowledge with us. Mr. Su is only 17 and accompanies us to learn from May. She reckons he can lead his own group in a year’s time. May and Su lead us through muddy rice fields and fog. We are not so lucky with the weather but May tells us there is supposed to be rice terraces and beautiful landscapes…behind the fog.

In the evening we stay at a homestay with a red Dao Family, another ethnic minority known for their expertise in medicinal plants. May cooks a delicious meal on open fire and we enjoy a herbal bath in a wooden barrel. The women gather around the fire to make embroideries to decorate their traditional dresses. The embroideries for one pair of pants take up to six months to make and the pants last three years! This is why as soon as the women have some spare time, they work on their handicrafts.

The next day the fog seems to have risen a bit, but it rains. At least we see the landscapes better. Before leaving the Homestay May performs a supposed-to-heal treatment on my throat. In fact, I have been coughing for about three weeks and the cough doesn’t want to disappear. She does it on her children, she says, so I let her try on me. It hurts so bad I don’t know if I should laugh or cry. Lionel has to leave the room as she pinches my throat again and again, and it leaves some serious marks (check out the picture in the Ha Long album) and the cough didn’t go away either… May then prepares some sticks for us to walk with. It is easier to keep our balance in the mud with the sticks and it prevents us from falling into it. The walk is shorter today and we return to Hanoi to José and Mai where they await us with another delicious meal.

photos Sapa

Quan Lan and Ha Long bay

Bai Tu Long Bay is less famous but has the same limestone rocks, less tourists and is as beautiful as Ha Long Bay or at least that is what we think. It is a bit more difficult to reach than its famous neighbour, but when we reach our 10$ “luxury” hotel on Quan Lan Island we don’t regret the extra hassle. There is a beach 13 km away from where we are staying and to reach it we rent a small motorbike. Nobody is there except some children playing on the beach and an eccentric all-in-white clad 75 year old from Nicaragua… The water is refreshing and the sun even makes a short appearance to encourage us. The evening meal at our hotel is delicious and we regret not staying longer in this little Paradise.

Departure at 6 in the morning with a local boat direction Ha Long city. We are the only foreigners aboard, again. The landscapes are beautiful! Look at the sun peeking out from behind the clouds. When we arrive in Bay Chai we see them, the tourists, and also the selling sharks trying to sell us cruises for 550.000 Dong. After doing some research, we find an official agency doing the same cruise for less than half the price. Half a day on Ha Long bay… We visit a floating village, some caves and most importantly, we plan our kayak tour for the next day. Our guide arranges everything, even a meal with a local family and the bus back to Hanoi. What a pleasant stay. The next day we leave the wharf in a local “ferry” full of local women playing cards and the men encouraging them. We return to the same floating village where we board our kayak. It is nice to paddle around on our own, we get to see more and at our own rhythm; a passage under a mountain, a rock that looks like a ship, two smaller rocks called two fighting cocks. After some hours of paddling we cannot resist the urge to plunge into the water, although it is not allowed (we were the only ones doing it but I thought it was because the water was cold…). Back to the village where the family awaits us with lunch. After eating they tell us to sleep, under a plastic tarpaulin. We do as they say and when we wake up, we are all surrounded by tourists coming to rent kayaks! Off we go, back to José and Mai, to say good bye to Vietnam, for now.

photos Quan Lan and Ha Long Bay

One Night in Bangkok

One night in Bangkok MUSIC

One night in Bangkok and the world’s your oyster! Thanks to Avneesh, Ashish’s best friend (with whom Kathi and I stayed in Varanasi), my night in Bangkok was very pleasant! No time to visit a lot of places, I arrived late in the afternoon and my plane was at 5 in the morning… Dinner and water pipe on the menu for us, in one of the tourist districts. I will have to come back to Thailand another time to see more.

photos Bangkok