Sapa was "sup-pah"

Our night train from Hanoi to Lao Cai (then a car ride to Sapa) will be one to go into our book of "worst travel rides." We got to the train station early and got a really good dinner at a random spot we saw people crowd at. When we walked to our track and saw the train, Jamie got a little worried seeing the wooden benches. We were told that our seats were sleeping beds for the 9hr ride. Luckily they were when we got to our car.

Our cabin housed 6 beds and both Jamie and I got the top bunk. The unrecognizable stench was the least of our worry. The thin mattresses and beddings provided felt and smelled like they belonged to a hobo. A cockroach was also caught by a friend we met as we waited for the train to leave. As we were settling down to drift to sleep and away from reality, we realized the AC was on full blast and we were shivering. Jamie and I felt it out for we were on the 3rd bunk literally 5inches away from the AC duct. I wrapped my clothes around my exposed skin and threw the provided blanket over me.

The tossing and turning wasn't ideal for a night's rest. The train conductor doesn't believe in a slow, smooth stop. I could deal with the movement, but I kept awaken by the stuffiness and Heat, yes heat, in the cabin! It turned out, they have shut off the AC and the heat created in the cabin was unbearable with the cabin door closed! Also from what I remembered from science class, heat rises! Eventually, we opened the cabin door for some airflow, and the airflow that we got were from the bathroom. Ahhh!!!! The both of us probably got 4hrs sleep, top.

The 1hr ride to Sapa was better. The view was nice and we started seeing ethnic minorities. We met our tour guide and discussed pricing and we were off on our hike. "Lai" Let us store our bags at his small studio. Don't let the word "studio" give you any false impression of its luxury. "lai" is a Vietnamese Hmong and so communication was fairly easy. He was very nice and knowledgable about Sapa and the different villages he took us around. The sights around the mountains and different villages were amazing that we regret our photography skills cannot capture. There were plenty of dogs and farm animals to pet and hold. I got my hands on so many mangy puppies that I cannot count. I took pictures with most of them, so later I could start a collection of me holding puppies. Jamie stated his mantra of holding a piglet, and he got to. The mother pig started being aggressive and squealed as her pig was being touched, and our brave tour guide had to fend her back with his water bottle. I did not witness this because I was distracted by the many puppies. 

The trek probably took us 7-8hrs. We had a wonderful moment where we sat on a waterfall overlooking downward to the rice patties below. There's a video of it on Jamie's Facebook, as well as his piglet photo. We're now making our long trek toward Laos and typing has proven difficult on this very bumpy road. The scene outside our window is amazing as well, but seeing that there no guardrails frightens us a little. We just don't look down. We miss everyone and whenever you comment or write to us, it helps a lot. Oh and please don't judge us so harshly on our informal writing as we write these entries in transit and when tired

Sent from my iPad

The new 7th wonder of the world!

Halong Bay, what an amazing place!

We decided to let the experts organize this trip, and booked a 2 day and 1 night excursion. For what we experienced the $57 was nothing! Even if this is more than 3x the cost we have become accustomed to thus far.

The first day began by making our way from Hanoi by bus for 3 hours to the bay. From there we boarded our ship with about 15 other folks and set off into the bay. Lunch was ready for us as soon as the boat began moving and consisted of simple but tasty vietnamese food, mostly seafood.

Kayaking, exploring a large cave, and watching the thousands of islands all around us was just the tip of the fun for the day. I even got to jump off the top of the boat into the water! Ngoc was to much of a baby to try, but he enjoyed watching me.

That night we had a great dinner and spent time sharing stories with the other guests on the boat. After a few beers we headed back to our room. We played cards and listened the the water and boats playing music around us. It was a peaceful night and we slept like babies!

The next morning we woke up the the beautiful surroundings and almost compete silence. The day was spent on the deck of the boat soaking in the sun and enjoying the views. We had a quick ride with a smaller boat that took us through caves and to more secluded areas not accessible by the larger boats.

Day 2 was not quite as fun filled as the first, but we had time to relax and soak it all in. Our guides took us back to shore and we had the squished and painful ride back to smoggy Hanoi. In the end we were glad we made the trip out, but glad to be back on the road, ready for our next destination!

Sorry for the lack of detail on this one, we just wanted to get the last details of Vietnam out before we hit Laos. Ngoc will be posting photos of our journey to and in Sapa today. Yet another beautiful trek to add to our memories.

Time to hit the road!

My freaking feet are always wet whenever I use the bathroom!

Wrapping our last week here in vietnam, Jamie and I are doing Ha Long bay and Sapa. With no pressure on time, we decided to do a 2-day 1-night cruise on Ha long bay which includes kayaking and cave exploration. This is our first organized tour and of course, we are surrounded with English speakers. The rest stops they bring us to are filled with handmade artworks and not only are the art beautiful, the prices are also beautiful. $2 for a bar of Snickers.

Life for us in Vietnam has been simple and near stress free. Here, Jamie is everyone's friend and as a "friend" they want him to buy cigarette lighters and ride on their motorbike. He's very popular with the locals and constantly get waves and "hello's" from kids. For me, the sun rays has found a familiar skin texture to exposure and by the 2nd week, im as dark as a local. Paired with a pair of sandals, tourists started taking pictures of me and touch my hair. The locals here constantly ask me either if I'm a Vietnamese tutor, or where I go to school for language, or if I'm a tour guide for Jamie. Now I have started saying "hello" to tourists and offer them tour plans.

On a serious note, it doesn't seem like Vietnamese people travel as much here as Americans travel in the States. Maybe they just don't have the money or that they take for granted what they have in their backyard. What I've appreciated most here is the how creative and simple the children are. It reminds me of when I was living here and how it was so exciting just to play outside. A good day is when chained dogs have been harassed and general havoc have been created throughout the neighborhood. If You want to go fishing, collect a few branches and ask the the lady down the street for a piece of mesh and you got a fishing net! Give us a can and we'd be happy playing "slap the can" with our worn out slippers. The only tv that was available was at our neighbor down the street. With no invitation, my siblings and i would crowd in their house to watch Russian tv shows with Vietnamese subs. Oh, we were dirty dirty kids! I still see the same excitement and dirt on these kids and that's one thing I'm glad haven't changed about Vietnam.

The Pictures are of Hue and some details of the Imperial Palace. The last two are taken in Hanoi. A Water puppet show that Jamie had a hard time staying awake for and a cute alley with Vietnam next top model. Next stop, Sapa and then out of Vietnam to Laos. I am a lil hesitant about the language,'so hopefully some sign language will be useful. What I miss most about America: a bathtub and shower unit where the whole bathroom floor isn't wet after someone showers.

From Ha Noi on foot

Fast forward 4 days...We've found our way back to a somewhat normal lifestyle from the ups and downs of the road. This is much thanks to Ngoc's connections here, which have brought us a beautiful free apartment to live in for as long as we wish!

We arrived last Saturday night from Hue by plane. Quickly we made our way to a reasonably priced hotel. This got us through the night and the next before our new accommodations were available.

The apartment is a room in a wonderful 4 story house. There is a dual covered roof deck where one side is used as a laundry room and the other for plants and a leisure area with couches and such. In the house lives 1 Australian guy, 1 British woman, 1 French woman, a fellow New Yorker, and Ngoc's friend of a friend who is Vietnamese.

The house is gigantic with each person paying only $200 a month for a room. Keep in mind the rooms are about the size of our entire apartment in NYC. Another plus is that it is located out of the center of the city off of many small side streets. We wake up to the birds chirping and I'm not talking about the usual rooster crowing that we have grown used to! Its only after the peace and quiet we see the down side to the location...

Hanoi is a bustling urban city with over 6.5 million people. It is a bit more developed than Saigon, but there are similarities all around. Dirt, smog, trash, and standing water are just a normal part of life here, but infrastructure seems a bit more together. Motor bikes clog the tight streets and there never seems to be a direct path to any single location.

We've taken these challenges in stride however. For example, our home location. A silent boycott on the potential for multiple $5 cab rides has been agreed to by both Ngoc and I. Instead, we take the 25 cent public bus. We feel no shame in the fact that 99% of the people on these buses are under 16 years old and going to school or elderly. For this price why aren't others choosing this option? A few reasons really, but we don't mind waiting for 20 minutes to save $4.50 each way, or mind enduring a mad crowd physically fighting their way on and off the bus, or having to chase after countless busses that don't seem to think they are a a bus stop. We experience this every day in New York! No... We are getting the deal of the century! Another plus is that in nearly a week we have not witnessed even one other white person on the busses. This makes it even more fun for me when receiving smiles and laughs from the patrons when I asked for our 2 tickets in Vietnamese... Hai ve...

The city is a challenging one to walk, but we've shown it that with training in NYC, it can't beat us. From Ho Chi Minh's tomb to the numerous lakes in and around the city center, we have walked all of it. No cabs, no huggie bikes , no xi chlo...just our tired and sore feet!

This is how we've spent our days n Hanoi so far. Roaming around, finding a nice place for food, roaming further, eating more, shopping, looking for dogs, checking out boys. Much like New York really, and we even went to a mall and saw a Vietnamese gay film. Is been nice, but we are getting too comfortable. We must move on!

Tomorrow we have one more day to catch our breath before hitting the road. Friday morning we leave bright and early for Halong Bay where we will kayak in the bay, explore the limestone caves, and sleep on a boat (in a bed and private room of course). After our previous flop attempting to organize our own boat adventure, we went to a tour group to put it all together for us.

We arrive back to Hanoi Saturday night and will have one last night night in the apartment before heading west to Sapa in the Northern mountains. From there we will move west to LAOS! Wish us luck!

I'm sure there will be more posts before Laos so keep an eye out. Halong will offer us possibly the best photos yet, just wait!

Extra credit #3

Sunset in Nha Trang on our first night there. This is a glimpse of the mountain that has been undeveloped with resorts. We asked a taxi driver if there was a way for us to hike up there and he thought we were crazy and suggested that we visit the nearby water park.

Still in nha trang, we boycotted the organized tour groups offered everywhere we went. Instead we woke up early to go down to the pier to haggle. This was Jamie's idea to find a "some guy with a boat" to take us on a private tour. The smarty was right and we found a man with a boat. We were let down after we realized we couldn't dock into any of the 4 private islands without paying a fee. We were offered to jump into the ocean to wade around but we refused after seeing floating plastic bags and other unidentifable objects.

The last two are of Hoi An. It's a city known for its tailorshops, shoemaking, and handmade lanterns. After sunset, the laterns are lit along the canal. This would've been a great place to sit if it weren't for the solicitors.

No, I will not ride in your boat

Yes, we did give in and splurge for a resort in Nha Trang. It wasn't because we couldn't deal with not having shower curtain or even the sanitary condition of these other places. When we arrived in Nha TrAng, we realized how commercialized the place has gotten and got frustrated that we couldn't sit on a nice beach without paying. The beaches and islands have been taken over and privatized to cater to foreign travellers and that frustrated us.

It didn't take much convincing for me to agree to the resort. Jamie said it'd be my birthday gift and when else are we going to be able to afford something this nice? We had our own bungalow with a front porch, an outdoor shower/jacuzzi, two swimming pools, and a private beach to lay on! Yes, we do realize our hypocrisy as we basked in our luxury!

We were sad to leave our resort but were excited to head to Hoi An; which were said to be a "heritage site." It was an 11hr overnight ride where about half of the passengers on board were white. It was entertaining to be someone who could understand everything that were being said while watching the charade unfolding in front of me. The ride was pretty crazy and I feared that our bus would flip every time it turned. The only thing that got me through it was my need to sleep.

Hoi An was disappointing as well. It was filled with a lot of tourist and everything that was sold were cliche touristy things. All the vendor spoke some sort of English and we were constantly harassed to buy some lanterns or ride in someone's boat. We felt like we were walking through new york chinatown, and that wasnt the experience we wanted.

We are now en-route to Hue and the rain set in. Just one day in Hue and we will fly to Hanoi where we has one connection. Hopefully the next few places we go will be more interesting. During these past four days, Jamie has picked up the Vietnamese card game of "tieng ten" most commonly played during "nhau" sessions. Pictures of nha trang n hoi an in next post

Birthday nhau-ing part one

Let me start by apologizing for taking such a long time to post. I was so taken aback by Ngoc's recent post that I was quiet sure I would not be able to capture our times as he did. Luckily for all, he has harassed me enough to write a post while we travel by bus from Hoi An to Hue whether I want took not.

The photos above are from Ngoc's birthday night in Dalat last weekend. Somehow we didn't post these with the previous posts from Dalat! The night was spent with family in their living room. Ngoc and I were both quiet excited to be having a REAL nhau in Vietnam.

During the day we were sent off by the two eldest women of the house hold so they cold gather food and prepare dinner for everyone. We took the kids to see some waterfalls in the mountains. When we arrived back there was only a few simple tasks that I let ngoc assist with. I was more concerned about making sure the beer was cooled in time and that I would not have to drink my beer with ice again!

The night went perfectly. The floor was cleared and cleaned, news paper put down to sit on,many plates and utensils brought out. Course by course we ate, and drank, and ate, and ate, and drank, and laughed, and ate....you get the idea

The dishes were simple and traditional snacks for this kind of event, but the seafood was purchased special for ngoc. Dalat is in the middle of the mountains far from the sea, so you can imagine this was truly a special treat.

We had spring rolls that we rolled by hand with beef, green papaya salad, and other veggies. Fried egg rolls, steamed crabs, and giant prawns. The men washed this down with about 6 beers each, mmmMmmMMM....

I was prepared for this kind of night after the many times with Ngoc's family in Oakland. I've seen this Vietnamese pastime in its extremes and it's not always pretty, but with the right crowd, a loving family, and great food it makes for evenings that are not soon forgotten.

Actually, all of these factors are not even necessary for a great nhau. Hell, just last night we only had great food and each other on plastic chairs on the sidewalk and it was a great time. Sometimes it is the simplest of things that bring us such happiness. Whether it is spending my high school years in jen's garage doing nothing but acting goofy and making up stories, the times in Philly with Or and Sum playing with the cats and listening to music, or taking a long walk through the city on any random Sunday night for no particular reason. These are the moments in my life I've learned to cherish.

Ngoc will sharing next with part two of his birthday extravaganza. We decided to go to the other extreme and stay at a fancy resort for one night after arriving in Nha Trang...so much for the money saved by traveling on a shoe string! Just wait for the photos!

Love to all