Vietnam Day 7 - 3/7/09

After another overnight train, we arrived at 5am in Hanoi, but had to go immediately to the Handspan travel office for our tour to Ha Long Bay that left at 8am. This was a VERY Long day with the back-to-back travels and the most exhausting of our trip, but it was definitely worth fitting into our schedule. It was about a 3.5 hour drive to Ha Long bay where we took a boat into the bay for a 4 hour tour. We were very surprised at the amount of boats in the harbor for tours. The guide estimated about 400 boats dock daily to take visitors into the bay.

Even more surprisingly, our boat would probably have held 40 people comfortably, but ended up with just the 7 people on our tour. We first stopped off at a cave, that is one of the largest in the region and then back to the boat for lunch. They served a very good lunch which consisted of some of the local seafood: whole prawns, spring rolls, calamari, fish and fruit. The remainder of the trip we spent cruising around the bay, which is known for the thousands of limestone formations that come out of the sea.

Vietnam - Day 5 & 6 - 3/5/09-3/6/09

The train arrived around 5am and our guide took us to our hotel in Sapa and we had a few hours for breakfast and a shower.

We then hiked down through the mountains to the Cat Cat Village where many H'Mong people live. Stacy bought a hiking stick from a child. Joe SHOULD have bought one because he slipped & fell into a terrace. Stacy had the privilege of cleaning his only pair of jeans that night. We got to see how they live and work. Their fields are set up on terraces in order to be able to farm in the mountains and was very peaceful there. At the end of the tour we walked down to a local waterfall before hiking back up to Sapa.

This terrace is full of a plant used to dye clothing red...

The second day in Sapa, we hiked down to 3 villages. Just before we left Sapa, there were several H’Mong women waiting outside of our travel agency’s office. We thought they were there to sell us some goods like they had the day before, but they were actually there to help escort the tourists through the mountains and to their village of Lao Cai. This was kind of a nuisance at first, but we soon realized that the terrain was very slippery and in some parts hard to maneuver. Both of us had a few spots that we nearly slipped, but the H’Mong were right there to help guide us to the more stable spots. In fact, there were times when they were taking the rough spots themselves (wearing rubber shoes with a baby on their back) and holding our lunch in order to help get us along safely. We were very thankful they were there and ended up buying some goods from them when we arrived at their village.

When we arrived in their village, there was a funeral ceremony going on. This was very rare and they celebrate this very differently than we do. It lasts for 3 days and the 3rd day, they sacrifice a Buffalo and celebrate the individual’s life. Each year afterwards, they meet on the anniversary of the death and all the family members from the surrounding villages will meet where the individual died to celebrate. On the 3rd, anniversary, they sacrifice another buffalo in celebration. We snapped this picture before we knew it was a funeral (and weren't supposed to photograph it).

From there we went on to another village that had a different ethnic minority – The Dzao. They are the women in the pictures wearing the red hats. They were having a wedding celebration in their village, which was interesting as well. All the men were inside celebrating and drinking rice wine and the women all gathered outside as they are not permitted to drink as the men do.

At the end of the day, we went back up to Sapa for a few hours before we had to take another overnight train back to Hanoi.

Vietnam - Day 4 - 3/4/09

We spent most of the today touring the Old Quarter and some other sights. There wasn't much difference between Saigon and Hanoi and we were getting a bit sick of the crowds, so we ended up seeing a movie in the afternoon. Not surprisingly, Jim Carrey movies are just as bad in Vietnam as they are at home:)

Dried Fish in the market - Rocky & Duke would have loved it here!

We found a nice lunch spot that overlooked the lake (and the neverending traffic) and had very large beers.

At 8:00 last night we made it to the Handspan tour office where we took an overnight train to Sapa. Joe didn't exactly fit on the bed. Ambien was definitely our friend for the night :)

Vietnam - Day 3 - 3/3/09

Today we visited the Cu Chi Tunnels. This is an underground network of about 100 miles of tunnels that the Vietnamese used during the war. It was very interesting what they did, but we had mixed feelings about seeing this from their perspective. They used alot of medi-evil traps where alot of the soldiers would fall through the bamboo traps and fall on poison coated bamboo spikes and also had many other types of traps that were hidden for the soldiers to fall in and get caught up in. At the end of the tour, we got to see some of the secret entrances to the tunnels and crawl through a section. The 1st level is barely big enough to crawl through on your hands an knees and the 2nd level is only big enough to crawl through, which we didn't go into. They also had a 3rd level that had alot of the kitchens.

After the tour, we went back to Saigon until our flight to Hanoi. We got to our hotel around midnight to find a strange empty room attached to ours that looked as if it was falling apart. After closer listening, we heard a couple dozen rats in there so we decided to check out and find another hotel that was a bit nicer!

Vietnam - Day 2 - 3/2/09

The second day we visited the Mekong Delta. It is a few hours outside of Siagon. On the drive down we stopped to look at a rice field. It looks very similar to a wheat field!

About half way through the drive we stopped at a rest area that was privatly owned. Everyone in the country calls the restroom the "Happy Place" because you go there and afterwards you feel happy. This rest stop was like nothing I have ever seen... absoloutely beautiful!!!

The Mekong Delta is famous for the floating markets. People arrive in boats from all over the country to sell their goods. The put an example of what they are selling high up on a poll for everyone to see. There boats have eyes painted on the front to scare away the sea monsters.

We witnessed many of the locals at work. They work very hard and only earn about 1-2 USD/day. We saw demonstrations of them making pop rice (like popcorn), coconut candy, rice paper, and bricks.

We had lunch at a “rich house.” During the war they had to bury the intricate wood working parts of their house because they would be ruined. Parts have been restored due to termite damage. There was WAY too much food at lunch, multiple courses. Started with veggie soup, mostly tasted like corn. Then they brought a whole fish. They helped us to wrap pieces of the fish in rice paper with cucumber, star fruit, and pineapple. Then they brought us fried sticks (we don’t know what they were). Then they brought huge prawns. Then we had Vietnamese pork and rice. Then they brought finger bananas and grapefruit. After lunch we walked around the houses’ fruit and fish farms.

After lunch we almost got stuck on the delta. The tide went down and we had to turn around. We visited a brick factory... where they didn’t really want us to be visiting

After getting off the boat we visited a Temple. Here they worship a combination of Buddhism, Catholic, Toaism, Confucianism. Worship the left eye b/c it is closer to the heart.

We saw the very dangerous result of car vs. cyclo on the way back to Saigon. The car won.

After arriving back in Saigon we were exhausted... still not recovered from the long flight. Stacy took a long nap and we (of course) took advantage of the wonderful happy hour, with food and drink, at the Marriott hotel. After the nap we went to a London bar/restaurant called The Underground. We had surprisingly good beer & pizza. We met a guy in the hotel elevator the noticed Joe’s KC Royals t-shirt. He questioned us, saying “Royals? You don’t see that too often.” He was actually from KC. His jaw dropped when we said that we lived in Parkville. He was from Lenexa and was actually staying in the room next to ours.

Vietnam - Day 1 - 3/1/09

We slept in very late the day after arriving in Vietnam. It was lunch time already so we headed to Pho 2000. This is the place that President Clinton ate while he was here a few years ago. The food was delicious and CHEAP. This whole meal was about $4 USD

We also went to the Behn Thang Market that day, which is similar to the City Market where people come to sell fruits, clothing, and anything else they want to sell. This area was pretty crazy as the pathways were only a few feet wide and the merchants were pretty aggressive in trying to get people to buy from them. At one of the shops, we saw they were selling "snake wine", which is pretty common here. It is a liquor that is about 30-40% alcohol and they put a whole Cobra and a Scorpion in the bottle with it.

After browsing the market we went to the War Remnants Museum. They had a lot of the old US planes, tanks, and bombs that were used in the Vietnam War. Inside, there were a lot of pictures and stories of what occurred during the war from Vietnam's perspective, which was pretty interesting.

We walked around the city a little more and then relaxed by the rooftop pool the rest of the afternoon.

p.s. Today was my birthday. The hotel remembered (from our passport information). There were roses in the room for me. This wasn't something Joe requested either :)