HaNoi .. where are you going? You want moto?

Us getting suckered in the first few hours in Hanoi. We really really overpaid for those bananas!

Hanoi! S.E. Asia, we’ve arrived! We landed at the airport, made it through customs without any hassles and even passed the medical thermo-imaging camera. Turns out neither of us has a fever, although there is a chance we’re simply immune to it all and we’re passively spreading it around the world with us. As we came out of the security gates, we looked face to face with our first welcoming party of the trip. He didn’t have a fresh fruit basket, but there was a new car with good AC waiting for us. Once we had finally gotten money from the ATM (the fourth ATM we found would finally give us some money) we were on our way. As it was 03:30 in the morning when we arrived in Hanoi, we were off straight to bed and didn’t wake up until late in the morning. However, before we could go to sleep we suffered our first of many times that we were ripped off in Hanoi. Through a series of miscommunications with the night clerk and the taxi driver, and errors on our part (we blame the lack of sleep) we ended up leaving the check in desk of our hotel with much less money in our pockets than we should have.

After waking up and sorting out the previous nights’ debacle with the hotel’s night clerk (we got back all the money owed to us), we were on our way! Our first interaction with the street vendors was to be suckered into getting our pictures taken holding a traditional basket(s) and wearing a hat. Afterwards we ‘bought’ some bananas that we didn’t want for a supremely over inflated price. We took a few minutes inside a café to reorient ourselves and get our game plan together to ensure we weren’t taken advantage of so easily again. The rest of the first day in Hanoi was spent getting a feel for Vietnam and the city. We walked around the lake in the old quarter, around the many small side streets, all of which are flooded with motorcycles, bicycles and cars, not to mention the thousands of people. The people in Vietnam drive like maniacs, far more crazy than anywhere we have seen yet. Mysteriously they manage while being crazy to avoid actually hitting each other (usually anyways). We managed to stop into many of the travel agencies to ask about the tours they offered and tried to get a feel for the best prices and best options. In Hanoi, and apparently throughout S.E. Asia, there are literally backpacker districts that are filled with hotels, hostels, travel agencies and other tourist services. Almost every shop operates as a travel agency, even if their main business is as a restaurant. Although there are so many of them, you think the prices would be quite cheap, but it seems that they also work in unison to keep the prices as high as possible. The prices in these areas, while cheap compared to Canadian or European prices are still extremely high compared to the price a local would pay outside of the tourist area. That night, we managed to find ourselves in the middle of the National day celebrations. It was the 55th anniversary of the communist party in Vietnam. With Hanoi being the capital, there were many celebrations that were going on and the streets were even more crowded than on a normal day. We watched some of the festivities, but as it was in China, no foreigners were allowed in the main square so we watched from a big screen TV a few blocks away. While we were standing waiting for the ceremony to start we were approached by a man who claimed to be with the media. He took our picture, asked our names and asked us to write a statement about our feelings for the ceremony and Vietnam in general. It was our first time to be interviewed on our trip! We tried to take a picture of his credentials, but he wouldn’t let us take any photos of him. But, as he walked away, we made sure to snap a few pictures anyways.

The next day we went to one of the most famous sights in Hanoi, the Temple of Literature which trained the most brilliant minds for the last thousand years. The temple was dedicated to educating people not only in scholastic endeavours but also to make them better people, emphasizing morality and ethics. All that remains now are some courtyards as well as ceremonious buildings and statues. Many of these buildings have only been rebuilt in 2000. There are large monuments, carried on the backs of turtle statues that have the names of all of the students to the ‘university’ engraved on them. It was really relaxing to get away from all the noise of the city and to walk through a garden, trees and only have a few people around us. Later in the day we booked our three tours from three different companies. We had to shuffle things around since one of the tours wasn’t available when we were hoping to go, so instead of having one more day to spend in Hanoi we were off to Halong Bay.

Halong bay!

We had to wake up early the next day to get to the tour office at 8 and soon boarded the bus for a 3 hour ride to Halong Bay, to get on our boat. We took a water taxi to the Junk (that is what they call the houseboat). The junk was pretty nice. We got our own bedroom with a toilet and shower. Although like the other shower’s we’ve seen in Vietnam, it is only a showerhead in the same room as the sink and toilet with a common drain in the floor. We were starving and only had a bit of time to enjoy the scenery of the bay before lunch was served. We were expecting regular Vietnamese food but instead we got a feast! Lunch was steamed sand crab with a delicious salt and lime dip, grilled shrimp, rice, chicken and vegetables and fruit for desert. After lunch we went kayaking exploring nearby bat caves and the hills. It was so nice to be away from crowds again, listening to the water and birds. It was also a bit sad to see the state of the water; there was styrofoam, plastic bottles, bags and various other garbage floating around. As Halong Bay is a protected UNESCO world heritage site, and in the open ocean it gives you an idea just how much garbage is floating around in our oceans. After kayaking we had the chance to swim in ocean around the boat. It has been a long time since we had a chance to swim in the ocean, so we took every advantage. We spent the evening enjoying another feast, with an amazing spread just the same as lunch. Our boat sadly lacked any charisma or activities in the evening, so all of us passengers organized a game of poker with chips we made out of paper, beer can tabs and toothpicks. We were warned that night that there would be a storm coming in, more the remnants of a typhoon that had just hit the Philippines. All of the boats in Halong bay had to seek shelter in an isolated cove to avoid the high winds.

Kayaking on Halong bay

Our beach bungalo in Halong bay

The next day we were off to the deserted island to spend a night in a beach bungalow and explore an amazing cave in the area. But as we departed the tour guide told us that the typhoon that hit the Philippines was going to make it dangerous to be out on the water in Halong Bay, so we would have to stay put. Sure enough it was windy and raining and the refurbished fishing boat that was taking us to the island had to fight some pretty big swells. We arrived wet and cold and realized that we really didn’t pack well for this, we only brought beach weather clothes and t-shirts thinking we would be hot. Oops. Luckily the bungalows had sarongs for guests so we used those to wrap our shoulders and the staff brought out extra towels so you could cover yourself with them as well. In the evening we had a very nice dinner, shrimp the size of your hand and more wonderful seafood dishes. We played poker after supper again, and the place even had some type of plastic chips we could use to bet with! The storm just kept going and going. The staff had a large steel wok that they filled with coals and used as a fireplace to keep us warm, it was very nice, almost like a campfire. We slept peacefully with the rain beating down on the roof and the ocean waves right outside our door, it was a very nice way to fall asleep and to wake up to. The next morning we were hoping that things had cleared up as we were supposed to leave at noon. The rain was pounding down and the winds were still howling and at breakfast time our guide told us that we would not be able to leave the island because none of the transport boats were running, all boat activity was suspended by the government because of the storm. So another day on the island, it would have been nice if it was sunny and warm! Instead we had a day of napping, reading by the ‘fire’ and another card game in the evening before heading to bed. The next day we were finally able to leave. Our guide called our hotel and rescheduled our trip to Sapa in the north of Vietnam for us. As we had to spend the extra night on the island, we would have missed our night train and the tour. A few boat rides and a bus ride later we were back at our hotel with enough time to shower grab some dinner and head for the train station for our night train to Sapa.

The northern mountains and rice paddies around Sapa

We got into to Lao Cai at 05:30 in the morning and then took a bus up and up the foggy, winding roads to Sapa an area high in the mountains where one can still observe remote village people and their way of life. As soon as we got to the hotel our bus was attacked by at least 10 village girls wearing traditional dresses wanting to sell us things that they made. It wasn’t like a vendors’ stall, but more like an aggressive mob trying to rob you! We went into the hotel quickly and checked in and got a voucher for breakfast. We only had an hour before our tour left on our first half day of trekking. While we were waiting for the trek to start, we watched as these young girls who were dressed in their traditional outfits happily texting away or calling friends. You could see that under their ‘costumes’ they had more normal western-style clothes on. As it turned out one of the local village women would be our tour guide for the next two days. Our first day of hiking was to a village called Cat Cat. This village was only a short hike ( 3 km) from the hotel and was close enough to the town of Sapa that the way that the people lived was not so different than those in Sapa. They had a good display of the way that the people of the area used to live, showing how they made clothes, statues, different local drinks and how they milled corn and rice. However we had the feeling that a lot of the town was there more for show than actually observing their way of life. Many of the towns in the area and in many other areas of Vietnam offer a chance for a ’homestay’ where you go to the village and live in a home with the local people. You are only expected to pay a very nominal fee, and they in turn give you a chance to see the way that they really live their lives. Normally these types of treks involve a longer stay in the area as you have to hike to villages that are farther away from the main centers of transportation. After a cool and extremely humid night at the hotel (we were literally right in the clouds) we were off again early in the morning for a 6 km hike to the more distant village of Ta Phin. This hike took us out of the city into a much more remote area where there were many rice paddies and smaller villages. In all of the small villages, the newest and largest buildings seem to be the school(s) and to a lesser degree the hospital(s). The government ensures that elementary school (to age 13) is provided, even for the villages for all the children for free. In the villages that we visited, all of the children seemed to speak relatively good English, which they attributed to both the schools and to the tourists who visit the area. Both of the treks that we went on were guided by a local woman. Along the way, we were accompanied by a hoard of other local women. For the first ¾ of the trip, they were there chat and to help us out if we needed a hand down the slopes or anything else. Then as the trek was coming to an end, the sales pitches would start, and they ask you to buy something from them. On each of the days, we bought a few small items from one or two of the ladies who had travelled all day with us. We had been warned about children who come along on tours and ask for money for things like this and the dangers of buying from them because it often keeps them out of school, where they would get a better chance to escape from this kind of a life. All of the girls on the trek were older and had completed their school, but couldn’t afford to attend high school or college. On the second day, the lady who was most by our side throughout was actually 50 years old and helped Ewa for a good portion of the very slippery steep hillsides.

Local women from around Sapa, northern vietnam

After our hiking on the second day we had a quick cold shower at the hotel in their guest facilities (small rooms in the back for people leaving on the night trains) and we were off back on the bus down the mountain to Lao Cai. We mentioned earlier that the people in Vietnam drive like maniacs, and it was no where more evident as we barrelled down the mountain, through fog in the dark, on the one-lane road while cars and motorbikes dodged around each other in a frantic hurry to get to their destinations. We arrived safe and sound in Lao Cai, with the 4 other travellers we had met on our treks. We settled down for few beers to wait out the 2 hours until our train ride back to HaNoi. After the long and bumpy night we headed back at 05:20 in the morning to the hotel to grab our main packs and check back into our room. The train to Lao Cai is nice, clean and decently priced., but it isn’t very smooth at all. During the past two excursions we left our backpacks locked together in the lobby of the hotel. The hotel isn’t really a hotel, but more like a very basic hostel, with only private rooms. We weren’t sure that our stuff would still be there when we got back, but it was. A quick shower, breakfast and coffee later and we were off to meet up with another guide for our next trekking adventure.

This time we were off to Cuc Phoung national park, which is the oldest national park in Vietnam. We thought that we would be on a group tour, but it turned out that this time we were on a tour with only the two of us, and a personal driver and a guide. Pulling out of the city we couldn’t help but feel a little out of place having our own private tour. Even though our money goes a long way in S.E. Asia, it still doesn’t seem right to have as much buying power from our money as we do. The national park is a little over two hours by car outside the city so we were able to catch up on our sleep on the way. On the road through the national park, to the location where we would hike it was only a small narrow one-lane road and the driver seemed to be travelling little fast for the hills and curves, but we assumed that he knew exactly what he was doing. Chad was about to ask if it was only a one-way road, when out from around one of the corners came a very large pink tourist bus. We both skidded so a halt on the edges of the road, only a little more than a foot away from the bus. From that moment on, the driver was a lot more careful. Our trek through the national park was another great hike. It was ~8km of old growth forest with some great climbs and beautiful scenery. We saw a lot of butterflies, spiders and some interesting insects. We were only able to see a couple of small birds and no other animals of any kind. The guide told us that to see them you would have to do the two day trek and stay the night in the national park as most of the animals do not come out until after dark. For a lot of the trek we had to keep a slower pace, or stop frequently to let the guide catch up. He was suffering from a bit of a cold and had a harder time than we did on the hike and he kept apologizing to us for being slow. After the hike we went to the endangered primate rescue center. Normally the center does not allow tourist groups to enter, but as we were a small group, our guide had arranged for us to have a quick visit. The center was the main reason why we went on this tour, and we were a little disappointed that it was so short. However, our disappointment was due to our expectations of the center and not for the work that they are trying to accomplish. They are breeding primates (~ 25 species of monkeys, gibbons and other primates) and then reintroducing them into semi-wild habitats, and eventually release them back into the forests of Vietnam and other surrounding countries. It is a long process for them to breed groups of primates large enough to reintroduce them into the wild with any chance of surviving. We left from the primate center and began the long drive back to Hanoi and along the way we ran into a large, insanely hectic traffic jam as many people were returning to the city for the new work week.

Our jungle walk through Cuc Phuong national park

Our last night and last day in Hanoi we spent trying to catch up on sleep, uploading our pictures to the internet and relaxing. It had been a busy 6 days of busses, boats, trains and trekking and we tired ourselves out. On our last day in Hanoi we had a few moments of culture shock and a few even more brief moments of being overwhelmed by our situation. We chatted together about the past 5.5 months of travelling and we both agreed that we were missing family, friends, and all the beautiful things that go along with a permanent home (like your own bed, bathroom and kitchen!). We are still enjoying ourselves and we want to keep on travelling; there are many more experiences that we are looking forward to. With those thoughts we packed up our bags and headed off in the taxi for another overnight train ride to the city of Hue.

A few thoughts on Vietnam so far:
-It seems strange, but when any restaurant or hotel does good, there are a bunch of others that spring up within a few hundred meters, who also copy the name and the general description of the original. We experienced this, where we were told to go to the Hanoi 1 restaurant. We tried two of them, and then found out that the original, that was supposed to be the best, simply shut the doors because of the impostors. The two we tried were alright, but not great, that’s for sure!
- Just about everyone is out to get money from you. They are more than willing to get you to partake in their scams, or simply try their best to charge you more than you ’should’ pay. This goes for the hotels, taxis, shop keepers, everyone. Generally we have decided that we’re going to pay more than we should, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as these people have it much worse off than we do, we’re just going to try to limit the extravagance of being ripped off.
- For some reason everyone keeps their doors open, all the time. Many people can be seen setting up their beds in the common area of their store, with a half dozen kids jumping on the mattress.
-Despite everyone who is trying to rip you off, they are always smiling at you and are so very friendly.
- It seems that everyone with a motor bike assumes you want a ride somewhere. They are often the people who try the hardest to get you to ‘buy’ their services for a trip.

written by

ECRadventure on October 18, 2009 from Hanoi, Vietnam

from the travel blog: ECRadventure's Travel Blog

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