Catch Up

Sorry for the sporadic blog entries. We've been racing time as of late, trying to see as much of Vietnam as possible before our 30 day visa runs out. The countdown is now T-minus 16 days.

After our motorcycle trip in Sapa in the North we headed to Hanoi (btw mom, they fill you up with gas and oil at the same time when you drive a shitty old Russian motorcycle-- they just pour both into the gas tank at the same time and shake it around). Hanoi was, well, busy. I loved it! We took an overnight train which arrived in Hanoi around 4:30 a.m. Of course there was nothing open, and nearly every guide book we had read warned travelers of the rip-off scams that people do to weary travelers arriving in the early morning hours. Mostly they just drive you around in circles before dropping you off to a hotel that will later pay the taxi driver commission for giving them business. It was hilarious to look around the train station after all the locals had hopped into a cab and all that were left was a large group of around 20 or so foreigners huddled together, too scared to attempt a taxi ride, but not sure what the alternative would be. Apparently they had read the same warning as us.

Luckily, we had a master plan. Share a taxi with 2 other people (hey, if we're 'ginna get ripped off anyway, we might as well split the cost with others) and get dropped of near the general vicinity of where hotels are located. Turns out it wasn't as genius a plan as we had hoped. We forgot to compensate for the fact that absolutely nothing would be open at that hour. We ended up wandering the streets for a while until we stumbled upon an open street vendor selling pho', and ate our breakfast while we watched the city wake up. It was a great way to start. You can't imagine the transformation the streets of the Old District in Hanoi make changing from zero occupancy to being literally packed full of motor-bikes and pedestrians.

We found a great little hotel right near all the action and posted up for 3 days, exploring the city, eating, and dodging motor-bikes. We also managed to find a theater playing the new James Bond movie and got our Hollywood/pop culture fix :)

The women in my family may be surprised to hear that I didn't buy any clothes in Hanoi, despite all my years of training as a Fjeld! We did buy 2 silk sleeping bag liners (of questionable quality) and ditched the heavy sheets we've been carrying around with us, which was good. Not that I've become a saint and rejected all worldly possessions...I'm mostly saving it for Hoi An. All the other travelers we've met say it's the place to have clothing tailored for you. Even Shane is thinking of having a suite made, though I keep telling him that Amish Men with beards like his just wear suspenders to work the fields :)

From Hanoi we wanted to go to Halong Bay. Again there were dozens of warnings to watch out for rip-offs. We decided to skip the Lonely Planet's advice of booking a tour of the Bay from Hanoi and took a local bus on our own, figuring out the details along the way. It worked out surprisingly well! The only problem was being overcharged for our bus tickets (sidenote: when the women selling tickets to you says "I'll give you a deal but don't tell ANYONE else how much you pay because it's WAY less than usual, the joke is on you, dumbass).

Once we arrived at Cat Ba Island in Halong Bay we booked a really great overnight boat trip which was supposed to be for 4 people, but the 2 others bailed out at the last minute and Shane and I had a whole boat to ourselves with a crew to serve us yummy sea-food meals as we cruised around the Bay. The first day entailed lots for cruising around, swimming to small island beaches, kayaking through cool little hidden caves, and eating fresh fish. It was awesome! That night we slept on the boat and were so grateful for our new silk sleeping bad liners because there was a bit of a cockroach problem, and we were happy to have a place to hide.

The next day, our little private tour came to an abrupt end when we realized we had been sold off to another boat which had about 9 other people on it already. I guess the crew decided that they were loosing too much money on us and radioed in for some help. So we packed our things and hopped aboard with a bunch of Germans. Even though it ended prematurely, the day of privacy was well worth the cost. What a great experience! We ended up cruising around with the new boat for the rest of the day doing more of the same, before heading back to Cat Ba island in the evening.

The next day we did a hike through the national park on the island. It was so beautiful! It's accurately described as a scene straight out of Jurassic Park, with tons of lush vegetation covering steep limestone karst formations. The guide said we trekked 18 kilometers, but it felt more like half that. Either way it was great. We had lunch in a local village about 3 hours in to the trek and finished at another end of the island, taking a boat back to the main harbor.

That was yesterday, and today we took a bus to a small city called Ninh Binh, just south of where we were in Halong Bay. The surrounding countryside is supposed to be amazing here, but the weather kind of sucks at the moment, and we're thinking of leaving tomorrow evening on an overnight bus to head further south. Right now the plan is roughly:

-head to Hoi An, a beach town about 12 hours south of here for a few days
-from there go to Danang, a mountain town to do some hiking
-hop on a train toward Saigon, or HMC and explore the city for a few days before moving over to Cambodia.

Any suggestions?

Here are the latest pictures

Vietnam