Entry #6

We've been in Vietnam just over a week now. At first glance, it doesn't appear drastically different from China. Given a few days, we've noticed we're in a very different country. We arrived in Hanoi on a sunny afternoon with bright blue sky. By the time we'd retrieved our bags, gone through customs, and exchanged our Hong Kong dollars for Vietnamese Dong, and found a minibus from the airport to Hanoi's Old Quarter, the skies had completely opened up. By the time our bus dropped us near the hotel, 45 minutes later, it had stopped raining, but the streets were full of water.

On our first full day in Hanoi, we bussed it to the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology where we saw exhibits of Vietnamese art and everyday objects, Vietnam's cultural diversity, and an exhibition on life in Hanoi under the Vietnamese Subsidy Economy from 1975-1986, which was particularly interesting. Later that evening, we took in a performance of traditional Vietnamese water puppetry (roi huoc), which was developed in Northern Vietnam over 1000 years ago by rice farmers.

Early the next morning, we began our series of tours. Unlike China, we have found traveling on our own more challenging in Vietnam. Tours are easy to join and are often cheaper than making the trip on our own. On our arrival in Hanoi, we booked two tours straight away.

A trip to Halong Bay was our first tour. Ha long means 'where the dragon descends into the sea,' and the Bay contains more than 3000 islands rising from the Gulf of Tonkin. The islands are made of karst, and are very similar to the rock formations we saw in Guilin and Yangshuo, but rising out of the ocean rather than a river valley. According to my Lonely Planet, Halong Bay is another UNESCO World Heritage Site, but according to some travellers we've met, it is in danger of losing this title because of the amount of pollution tourism contributes to the waters of the Bay. Irrespective of its status as a World Heritage Site, Halong Bay is beautiful.

Our tour included one night aboard a 'junk' on the water, one night in a hotel on Cat Ba island, some kayaking, meals, and transportation. Admittedly, it was nice to not have to worry about finding hotels or restaurants, and to have everything taken care of for us for a few days. It seemed like hundreds of nearly identical tours were coming and going from the port at Halong City daily. The weather was gorgeous: sunny and very hot. We climbed through a cave (kind of corny with the colored lights illuminating the stalactites and stalagmites), swam in the tepid water off the junk, and ate fresh seafood the first day. On day 2, we climbed a mountain on Cat Ba island (half of which is a national park) and sea kayaked in the Bay. We took a boat and bus back to Hanoi after a night on Cat Ba island, and boarded our overnight train to Lao Cai that evening to start our second tour - to Sapa to do some trekking through the villages of local Hill Tribes.

Although our travel agent had booked a soft sleeper to Lao Cai for us, the train car we were assigned to was actually a hard sleeper. Far different from a Chinese hard sleeper, our car resembled a cage. Mesh-covered windows open to the outside and a metal fan provided our 'air conditioning.' A swipe of the hand over our berths removed a layer of gray grime. There must have been a shortage of soft sleepers available, because every traveler in our car seemed horrified by the conditions, complaining that they had paid for air conditioning. Jen and I opted for humor, knowing that we'd survive to tell the story.

Sapa was a nice retreat from the heat of Hanoi and Halong Bay. Sapa town is a French Hill Station built in 1922. It's nestled in Hanoi's highest mountains, the Hoang Lien Mountain range, and is home to a number of Hill Tribes. We were supposed to begin our trek the morning of our arrival, but the rain postponed our departure by one day. It was nice to have the first day to rest up and clean up after our sleepless train ride, however.

We began our trek from the hotel the next morning with 6 other travelers, our guide, and a whole gang of girls from the Black H'mong tribe who would accompany us along the path to their village in hopes of selling us their goods upon arrival. They were adorable, very chatty, and the friendliest Vietnamese people we've met. Their questions didn't vary much beyond "What's your name?," "How old are you?," "How many brothers and sisters?," but their English skills - picked up almost entirely from tourists - were remarkable. As the trail got muddier, more slippery, and steeper, they'd offer their hands and help the tourists navigate the tricky slopes. These kids, some as young as 4 and 6, never have any trouble walking through the slippery mud. We had lunch at the first village, but not before the incessant question popped up: "You buy from me?" Making a promise to buy only from the two that helped me - Lha, 19 and with Ham, her first baby, strapped to her back, and Sea, 12 - I got off fairly easily, spending only 80,000 dong total on a bracelet and earrings. Most of the tourists in our group ended up spending 300,000 dong or more. Although that seems like a lot, Vietnam will make you an instant millionaire: one US dollar will buy just over 16,000 VND.

We arrived at our homestay not long after lunch and were able to take off our mud-soaked shoes. We were almost immediately approached by more women selling more goods: bracelets, earrings, belts, bags, pillow cases, sheets. I found myself buying some traditional pants off an old woman of the Red Dzay minority. A steal at just over $10, I didn't get the impression that tourists are often interested in them. My pants were pretty well coated in mud, however, and I hadn't brought anything else.

We spent a nice evening chatting with our tour guide and other travellers and slept in the loft of our hosts house on foam mattresses with delightfully thick blankets and mosquito nets. The morning was spectacular: clear, blue sky and the sweet singsong voices "You buy from me?" starting just after breakfast. Also just after breakfast: the downpour. Our group opted for a shortcut to the main road. Once there, we still hiked to a beautiful waterfall, through a small village full of children and water buffalo. We passed a few hours playing cards with an Australian couple at our lunch spot before heading back to Sapa for showers and dinner. We caught our bus back to Lao Cai and were pleasantly surprised to have a soft sleeper with which to compare our previous hard sleeper.

Back in Hanoi, we await an overnight bus to take us down Vietnam's coastline to Hue, where we'll spend one night. Here's hoping that the overnight bus in Vietnam is better than the one in China!