ANA AND ANDY, HANOI, VIETNAM. 10 FEBRUARY 2014

He we go again! New country, language, currency and most importantly new menus! :) We arrived in Hanoi after a short uneventful flight and made our way out of Hanoi airport to the hustle of mini buses waiting to ferry you into town.

We were in all around 19 people crammed into a 16 seater mini bus :) Cosy to say the least and Andy got an immediate introduction to the small plastic Asian stool which was his seat for the trip. I had a guy who kept falling asleep on me one side and another who kept touching my arm on the other- so would've preferred Andys makeshift seat! Out of the bus and on a corner somewhere in Vietnam. We called upon google maps (which to this point have been the best and most used resource on our travels, even over the universal sink plug, reading material and dry shampoo!) to help us to our hotel.

Hanoi old quarter where we are staying is pretty busy and the roads are all hidden away so you can't find them too easily :) But we made it to Hotel Charming (which it certainly was) to be greeted by a very warm and friendly team, some warm towels and a plate of fruit! The Vietnamese hospitality industry certainly is looking good (our room had en-suite, PC, flat screen tv, free toiletries, tea making facilities and had breakfast included all for £12 per night) so far!

We headed out that evening for our first bowl of Pho Bo (beef with noodle soup) which is one of the traditional Vietnamese dishes eaten at anytime of day- anywhere!

Pho Bo - a Vietnamese staple at anytime of day :)

We headed to Hoan Kiem Lake after to catch the locals doing their evening exercises. Many people walking and stretching in the park but also dancing! Music systems set up and little groups of older Vietnamese all dancing along, including a gang of women doing some aerobics on the corner of a street by a bank!

The lake at night. The locals do group exercise whilst I just carry 3 litres of water to work on the gun show!

We were truly inspired to move our big fat western butts and got up the next morning for a run!  We ran to and around the lake, all in all only around 30 mind but a good start to the day :) Pho for breakfast back at the hotel and time to explore!

We headed our to get our bearings, find the river and learn how to cross the city roads- Vietnamese style which pretty much means walk into the traffic at a steady pace and hope for the best! The motorbikes, cycles, cyclos and taxis will make their way around you :) We stopped for our first local coffee in a tiny ca-phe for cafe den (aka black coffee). This is like a thick chocolately style coffee which is very strong and one step either up or down from an espresso. Great introduction though and you also get served a pot or glass of tea with it too...

Ready...

Steady....

Go!

Victory dance for still being alive :)

Tea always gets served with coffee! 

Busy Hanoi markets on every street corner

Butchering street style!

Just because she's wearing the hat ;)

Cafe Den

After exploring the local area we'd planned to visit a little further out the next day. So we headed out of the city to the Museum of Ethnology. Great insight into Vietnamese people, customs and ethnic tribes. We needed to do our homework as are heading to Sapa in the next couple of days.

Ah... This is the type of house we get to stay in with the local tribes, I wonder if a hairdryer and airconditioning is provided...

We needed some food and being away from the main city found it hard to figure what-was-what! So we stopped at a street place, pointed at some noodle looking soup and say down. The girl bought our dishes over and neither of us were convinced we were not eating something we want to avoid (namely dog, turtle and animal 'bits').  We ate the food anyway and looked up our menu when we got back to the hotel (no dog! Yippee).

The mystery pot, your guess is as good as mine! 

After some culture and education we decided to continue our search in Hanoi for a netbook. Was certainly more of an activity for Andy as I just waited outside whilst he went in and was all techy... No luck this time again, seems as though netbooks have all been banished to e-bay.

After a mammoth day walking (yes, it's long enough for me to comment on!) we treated ourselves to dinner at a restaurant ran by 7th place Vietnam Masterchef! Great food, tried a few more local dishes and beer and all for under £5.

This time the menu is in English

Best Pho in town!

Next day we had booked ourselves an overnight train to Sapa. Sapa is in Northern Vietnam and home to mountains, rice fields and several ethnic minority tribes. A well visited tourist trap but a beautiful place to explore and meet the locals.

During the day we headed to see the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum and museum. Gave us an opportunity to learn a little more about Uncle Ho' and the Vietnamese history. Was a bit tricky to take much in- even though it's all in English- as not so much information but a display of patriotism and adoration for Ho Chi Minh. This guy has his face on everything! Street corners, money, shrines, coffee shops and whatever the Vietnamese can print him on. If he was still around today I reckon he'd have more followers on Twitter than Lady Ga Ga! That's if he'd allow continuous access to social networking :)

Uncle Ho in his final resting place

A bronze statue masquerading as uncle ho

One pillar pagoda

Temple on the lake. Offerings include money, intense, fruit, more money and the Vietnamese version of wagon wheels (Choco Pies)

Orderly traffic

We headed to the station to catch our deluxe sleeper train to Sapa around 7pm. Private train operators run certain carriages for tourists heading to Sapa so they're pretty plush and the price reflects that ! Certainly not local prices for us to get there. Whilst waiting for the train, and only 10 mins or so after dinner Andy headed out to get 'train snacks'. This consisted of a bottle of water and small pack of biscuits, oh and a kebab that he'd managed to swallow between the stand and the platform! A Vietnamese Mr Kebab, so Southsea Mr Kebab has a counterpart here :)

This is for you Mr P - Vietnamese Mr Kebab

Water and flowers, luxury

Overnight train journey was more luxurious than India as we were given bottled water and a pot plant as decoration, oh and the fact that we didn't see rats running between our carriage! We arrived in Sapa around 6am so off the train and onto a mini bus to take everyone higher into the mountains. We'd decided to trek with a company called Sapa O'Chau (O'Chau being the H'mong language for thank you) who work with the local ethnic communities by employing local people and putting profits back into schools and education for young minority people. Sounds good right... Well they were closed when we arrived so we sought shelter in the rain at a nearby hotel until the place opened. They redeemed themselves by having Yorkshire Tea on the menu :)

Ah, so you're closed! We will wait outside then

We were met by mo, our guide for the 2 day 1 night trek and introduced ourselves. We set off immediately from their office/cafe and began our Sapa trek in the mist and rain.  Mo is a local guide from the H'mong local village in Lao Chai, she's around 30 and has two children (a girl and a boy) and lives with her husband.  We start our walk surrounded by women with baskets in traditional dress, not saying much but just walking alongside us.  We continue our walk out of town and into the villages by which time we've been introduced to the wet clay rice fields and the slippy tracks!  After a while we shake off some of the other groups and the women carrying their baskets but there is one woman who remains with the 3 of us.

Mo

Me, Mo and our unwanted 3rd wheel

Mo takes us on a 12km trek through the local area and introduces us to the rice fields, farms and ways of the local people.  We stop for lunch in a small place in the middle of what seems nowhere to find some teachers on  their break playing cards for cash! We eat some noodle soup and are harangued by some small children to buy some textile goods - of which we politely decline- and are on our way.

A short time later we heard Mo cry out - it was because she had seen a buffalo that a family was keeping for their livelihood get loose in their vegetable field. The buffalo was trapped and wanted to get out so destroyed the fence doing it - Mo seemed a little distressed on behalf of the family as it would take ages to repair the damage and they may have lost some of their food supplies...

Let me out!

Coming through...out of the way!

We continue through the fields, balancing precariously on the terraces and trying to see where we are heading, it's so misty that it is tricky to see ahead but also very slippy so my eyes were on my feet alot!

                                                        Foggy but still an amazing view

Ana chatting with 3 little pigs. Maybe about huffing and puffing?

                                                            Erm... Excuse me please!

                                                         Oh and Andy came along too :)

 I slipped over at least twice, the first time pretty spectacularly with a good 5m slide down on my bum with both Mo and the odd lady who is accompanying us racing to try and pick me up (both of whom weigh less than half of me!).  It's pretty miserable sliding in clay and even in good walking shoes my tread fills up with clay and then becomes slippy again.  Mo was wearing wellington boots ($4 apparently!) and had her hands in her pockets the whole way! We had walking boots and I was at some points using both hands and feet to get around!

                                                  Clay covered bum, Sapas winter season look

We finally get rid of the old lady following us, it transpires that the local women follow the trekkers with an aim to sell them stuff.  This lady tagged onto the wrong customers with us as we are still yet to buy any sort of tat/merchandise, especially as I now have a smaller bag.  We manage to get away with a cotton bracelet and 20,000 dong (60p) lighter we say farewell to her.

We arrive at our homestay for the night and find that the lady who was meant to be hosting us is out of town at a local party! So Mo starts a fire, I start sorting out my clay covered self and Andy got a spot next to the fire awaiting it's warmth.  The fireplace is huge and has many different animal parts left hanging over it to smoke, am sure there were a few legs but couldn't tell you what the rest was.

Our abode for the night

Now what dried animal is that...

Clay semi removed and settled in Mo introduces us to Mai, who is coming to help look after us.  Mai brings her son and then around 800 other small children pop in and out of the house over the course of the next few hours. They are all relatives of Mai and the lady who owns the house- but who is having too much of a good time at the party to come and see us! Over the next couple of hours between Mai, Mo and the young lad they make us a feast!  We are not allowed to help and are entertained by the kids who are mesmerised by watching some dodgy DVD's of Vietnamese pop singers and small children dressed as adults... yes I was thinking a little odd too!

                 We could have been bashing drums and doing the YMCA and they wouldn't have noticed...

Then the banquet arrived, there were at least 6 different dishes with plenty to go around (see photo) all washed down with some rice wine - poky stuff! Mais husband arrived at the end of the meal and joined us too.  Full of good home cooking it was time for bed.  We were the only people staying in the house that evening so had the whole place to ourselves.  It was a good place with only a few bits of the wall/exterior missing (namely near our bed on the floor) so it was chuffing freezing! We took extra blankets and made a little den underneath a mozzie net and went to sleep.

                                                 So that's Andy sorted, where's mine?!

Up the next day to a mountain of pancakes for breakfast! There were at least 15 on the plate for just us two!! We of course made a good dent in the pile but even with our massive appetites we didn't eat them all (although if we were at home or not being watched then Andy would've definitely finished them off!).  Full of pancakes and tea we set off back into the terraces for another 12km walk ahead.  The weather had cleared up a bit for todays walk and therefore we could see much more of Sapa - it's beautiful.  Even though we were there in winter it is certainly a very special place to be and can only imagine the hard work and graft that has gone into farming this land for hundreds of years.

                                              We could see a little more the next day

Andy (or shall we say Trevor) and 'little'Mo

                                                                     Just two locals

                                                                    Bamboo forest

Our final destination is lunch which is at a place ran by Mos sisters husband, you got it...  We then met a very luxury car to take us back into Sapa town.  Back in town we had a little stroll and had a few hours before our minibus back to Lao Cai to catch the overnight train back to Hanoi. In this short time we saw a young man crash his bike into the back of a bus! He collapsed on the floor with blood all over his face. Our initial reaction was to try and get medical attention, this was not the concern of the locals! Andy ran into a local hotel where the receptionist also didn't seem worried either! The guy got up off the floor and this was enough to stop any concern as the hotel guy comes across with Andy and a wadge of napkins, the guy calls his brother and apparently all is well...

Following this we visited the local market to watch the locals buy and sell everything from live crabs to dead geese.

                                                        The three muddy musketeers

                                                   Something tells me she's done this before

Arrived back at the Charming hotel early doors (about 5am) and woke up the guys in reception, picked up our packs and headed to a spare room for a couple of hours kip, needed as we were heading out on a bus to Halong bay in 3 or 4 hours so was good to freshen up and crash.

When we dragged ourselves out of bed a few hours later I (Andy) started packing a smaller bag for our Halong bay trip. This was when I noticed a gaping hole in the top of my pack, looks like it had been burnt through, on investigation there was a hole inside too, whilst the bags were stored at the hotel a bloody rat had eaten its way into the top and through my supply of Malarone ( anti malarial meds at 2.50 per tablet!) and into my main pack, thankfully it had stopped there to make a nest from the cardboard and foil and didn't get into the liners holding clothes and kit but I am still pretty miffed, this is a great pack and it's been eaten by a rat. I raised it with the hotel and we got breakfast for free but the Malarone alone was worth more than our entire stay so a small consolation. They apologised profusely and assured us our bags would be stored upstairs when we went to Halong, a real shame as the hotel itself is awesome.

                                                There's a rat in my bag, what am I gonna do?!

Probably the worlds first super Malaria proof rodent.

Luckily we bought some duct tape in Nepal for emergency fixes. Andys bag now has a plaster over its war wound :) 

We packed, ate another delicious pho breakfast and got picked up for our 3 hour journey to Halong bay. The journey got off to an amusing start as the bus went round a series of hotels to pick up passengers, after a pickup from one hotel we drove off and 2 mins in the guide realised he had picked up the wrong person and kicked them off to walk back to their hotel and wait for another bus to Halong bay!

It was at this point I realise our guide was a little odd. He introduced himself to the bus and asked if we knew Osama bin Laden, not a promising start, his point was that he could say for sure that there were no terrorists in Vietnam but that there might be traffic jams, this kind of humour set the tone for what was a painful bus journey with crap jokes and awkward humour all the way, if we were going to be late then it was our destiny to be late!

we arrived at Halong bay on schedule (it must have been our destiny) and got shepherded onto a tender to take us to our boat for the 2 day cruise.

                                                All aboard the Halong bay comedy cruise

On board we were served lunch at dining tables sat with another couple of Danish guys and a guy from Germany (Julien), and we're getting to know each other when the guide comes over and tells the Julien to move as he's on his own! At this point I would have told him to p#@* off as he was pretty abrupt, but Julien moved tables and a Singaporean couple were moved to our table. Good food laid on by the crew as we chugged into the bay, really misty and cold but I think it added to the atmosphere of being amongst the limestone formations as they loomed out of the mist so it did not spoil the experience.

                                                                   Captain Rotton

 After lunch were were shown to our cabins. Our 'deluxe' cabin (identical to all of the others) was upstairs just off the dining room, supposedly further from the engine, it was still pretty noisy bit the room itself was pretty nice with a good bathroom and shower and a comfy bed.

                                                              Comfortable cabin - wood themed

The boat took us to our first porting call at Sung Sot cave, this is an incredible cave on the inside of one of the larger limestone outcrops, the formations inside we're incredible. I think the coloured lighting and attempts to make out specific shapes in the rocks are unecessary, and if anything detract from what is an amazing natural formation but it wasn't to hard to see past except for the bloody guide insisting on us being in certain places at certain times and trying to point out comedy shapes and scenes in the rock. Just rubbish, shut up and let us wander around you idiot! Also on entering this attraction we were introduced to the ridiculous dance of the tickets. The tour included some sort of combo entry ticket to many attractions. We would line up at the gate to an attraction, be given a ticket by the guide, have the ticket stamped and immediately pass it back to the guide, comedy, pointless and a big fat waste of time. Still, the cave was cool!

Look what I found lurking in the cave! 

Our guide had great delight in showing us this! 

But not so much this, his history of the caves was a little sketchy...

Back to the boat, then on to a canoeing spot. Ana and I were packed into a 2 person kayak and heading into a little cove formed by the 'hidden cave' this was a cool experience drifting under the tunnel in silence with only the sound of bats and monkeys playing on the rocks. It was pretty awesome for a couple of hours (with no guide!). Back to the boat for a scheduled dinner, we even got a knock at the door as we were 1 min late! There was a selection of evening activities, karaoke or learning to squid fish! Even though it was raining outside... we all piled outside, the guide seemed far too keen on the karaoke!  A successful expedition, 1 squid caught between 6 people after 90 mins of aimlessly dangling a baitless hook. Although I did get some beers in to do it properly!

Andy has taken to this fishing malarkey very well!

Julian was the only one of us who caught a sqiud

Next morning we chugged back to the harbour and jumped on the bus back to Hanoi, fortunately our guide departed with another group and we had peace and quiet on the trip back...

Boats on the bay

Picturesque limestone

Bye bye Halong

Mysterious Misty Mountains

Got the bus back to Hanoi, was a pretty smooth and uneventful ride now that our guide was no longer with us, we have also now made a pact not to book any package tours unless we absolutley have to!

Back to Charming hotel to settle in and spend our last night in Hanoi, we headed out to check out the local history museum, had a highlands coffee overlooking the traffic chaos and wandered around Hoan Kiem lake.

Later that evening jumped on our overnight train on to Hue...more from their soon!