The Fresh Mountain Air- Sapa

I took the night train from Hanoi to the Lao Cai Province in northern Vietnam and caught a bus up to Sapa. Sapa is a beautiful, cool, and misty city located in the Haong Lien Son Mountains close to the border with China. The hillsides are terraced with rice paddies and the local people (H'mong, Tay, Dao, etc.) are working both the fields and the tourists very hard. At first, I thought that it was wonderful the way they would come up to make small talk. However, by the 2,000th time I was asked "what your name...where you from...how old are you...you have boyfriend...you buy from me?" the charm wore off. Apart from the constant selling (which I don't really fault them for as I'd be doing the same thing if I were in their shoes), they do seem like really lovely people. The first day in Sapa I joined up with a small group and we hiked about 15 miles through the fields and, in the evening, settled in a small village at a local homestay. The host cooked up some amazing food and served some absolutely atrocious rice wine as well. That night, it poured down rain and, in the morning, it was determined that there was no way to easily get out of the village to the main road by foot as we would have essentially been trekking up steep mudslides. So, we set about the village recruiting enough motor bikes to get us out. The ride through the mountains on motorbike was fantastic! I definitely think that if I return to Vietnam I would like to see the country that way. Only next time, I'll be sure to find a helmet! (Sorry Mom, I know you're not happy about that part).

Halong Bay, Vietnam

No need to explain in words how fantastic this place is...

Hello Lady Motorbike?

Ah...Hanoi. This is a fantastic city with a ton of charm. I woke up early this morning and started my day at a very quaint french cafe overlooking Hoan Kiem Lake located in the Old Quarter of the city. As this was once a french colony (Indochine) there are many colonial style buildings in that part of the city. After my hour of bliss in the cafe, I set out to explore the city and proceeded to spend the larger part of the day either dodging motorbike traffic (basically to cross anywhere you need to walk out in traffic, hold your breath, and pray that the hordes of motorbikes will part like the red sea) or dodging requests to get a ride on said motorbike. After exploring the Old Quarter ad well as the Temple of Literature, I checked out the traditional water puppetry show, which I loved.

A full day in Hanoi has been interesting and action-packed, however I'm ready to venture out of here and made arrangements to do so. Tomorrow I leave for Halong Bay (which is something I'm most excited about) to sail and overnight upon a junk boat. I'll then come back to Hanoi for 3 hours and then proceed to leave for the mountains of northern Vietnam in Sapa where I'll have a few days hiking there. Once I get back to Hanoi from Sapa, I catch a flight out to Vientiane, Laos and I'm out of here. I like Vietnam so far and know I'll love it once I get out of this frenetic paced city.

Hanoi

Flying into Hanoi was gorgeous! From the airplane I had amazing views of the rice paddies, punctuated by the people working them in their conical shaped hats, meandering streams, and lush mountains to the north. I thought Hanoi must be this wonderfully idyllic place. I had a driver pick me up from the airport and within about five minutes on the freeway my first impression went flying out the window. I got into the car to discover my twenty-something, Vietnamese driver has a penchant for really loud techno music which made getting into the city almost a surreal experience as we whizzed by hordes of people on scooters (sometimes riding by twos or threes, and often schlepping along miscellaneous things such as cages full of chickens, pigs, or construction materials). I did arrive at my hostel safely. I managed to pick a very colorful place to stay, a veritable backpacker central complete with a packed rooftop bar that serves up some very cheap (and horrid tasting) beer which I'm drinking only because I'm dying of thirst (I'm sure there's bottled water around here somewhere, but beer is much easier to find).

In the two hours I've been in Vietnam so far, I'm thinking that I will like it. I was a bit indifferent about China. It's a nice place with interesting things to look at, but it didn't rock my world, so to speak, (except for the Great Wall) and hopefully Vietnam will be a bit more spectacular. Speaking about worlds getting rocked, I managed to miss the typhoon that hit the region by about a day. Should be nothing but blue skies for me!