on the night train

After Halong Bay, and an afternoon wandering about in Hanoi, we took an overnight train up to Sapa, for some cooler tempertures and a bit of trekking.

from the train

Pulling to Lao Cai about 6 am, on the way to Sapa. Sapa is a pretty little town located in the Tonkinese mountains surrounded by terraced rice fields, and just a few miles from the Chinese border.

misty sapa

There has been a request for more pho, (beef and noodle breakfast soup) and I am afraid this is as close as its gonna get. A picture taken after eating pho, after getting off the night train. The best pho it seems is gone by about 9:00am, so you got to get up early to get the good stuff. I am not much of a beefeater, but I figured I had to go for the real thing. Fortunatly, pho is always served with a packet of tissues, I dont know why, but they were handy for disposing off strange bits I couldnt stomach.

mountain road

We went up to Sapa to do some trekking, and I wish we could have done more, we did get in a couple of good afternoon walks, walking from village to village, that were spectacular. Getting off the main drags, small as they might be, it was nice to be largely ignored as farmers went about their work in the rice fields.

wallowing water buff

flower maung

In Vietnam the Sapa area is famous for being home to several different ethnic minorities. Mainly the 4 kinds of Maung people who are differentiated by thier dress. There are, as we were told countless time, the black maung, the red maung, the wind maung (who, as thier name might suggest, we never saw ) and the flower maung, who boast the most colorful garb.

shave at the sunday market

Laundry Day

Our last couple days were getting very hot indeed, and the heavy layered dress of the Flower Maung women does not make many allowances for the heat.

Tranh plays Asturias

The long wait for the night train back to Hanoi.

Halong Bay

After a few days in Hanoi we headed up to Halong Bay, which in Vietnamese means ' Land of the Descending Dragon'. As one legend has it during battles with China (which is quite close) the gods sent a family of dragons to the bay who spit out jewels and jade that turned into islands protecting the land. Jewels and jade are an apt metaphor. The bay is some 1,500 kilometers in the Gulf of Tonkin, and has nearly 2,000 limestone islands, many covered in thick jungle. We spent 4 days touring the area by boat and kayak. The kayaking is amazing, as you can paddle around tiny islands, past fishing villages, through narrow caves and passages to hidden lakes and lagoons. Though I am sure it will, surprisingly kayaking has yet to catch on, so much of the time we had vast areas to explore on our own.

wee isle

fish shop

We had fresh seafood for lunch and dinner every day on the boat. Amazing. The tenderest stirfried squid, little langostine type lobster, whole shrimp spring rolls. (Breakfast on the other hand was white bread, 2 little blocks 'vache qui rie' cheese-spread and cucumber - most Vietnamese people have beef and noodle soup for breakfast) One afternoon we went with the chef to the 'fish farm' unaware that we would be choosing the fate of a few unlucky crabs. Fortunatly the crew thought this a mans job, and I could ponder the giant cuttlefish while Owain passed the death sentances. There are several floating villages in Halong bay, home to the fisherpeople that can be seen crossing huge areas of water in simple row boats.

later that night

Mr Tranh

We had a bit of a party the last night, the crew sharing in the crab feast and many toasts of wine and the treacherous rice wine all around with Mr Tranh, our kayaking guide, acting as translator. The more verbose our toasts became, the noticeably shorter the translations.

O on deck

We had the entire boat to ourselves, which was so nice, and totally affordable. We ate downstairs where the captain and the cook mainly kept to themselves, squidfishing or watching football or "Who Wants to be a $3,500-aire" on a jerry rigged television. Our bedroom, one of two, was upstairs, but most of our time when not kayaking was spent on the deck.

docking

The Vietnamese rules of the road and the rules of the bay (he with the most persistant horn wins) seem much the same. Which can be a bit intimidating in a kayak. On a couple of occasion we had to paddle hard and fast to clear the way.

cave boaters

Many of the islands have eroded away to produce caves leading to hidden lagoons surrounded by towering walls of jungle only accessible by small boat or kayak. We went for a swim here, the water was clean emerald green and birds called to each other from either side of the lake.

bus stop, Hanoi

friday night, hanoi

french restuarant, hanoi

why we dont eat dog

Traffic in Hanoi is phenomenly bad. As has been mentioned before. There are very few traffic lights, millions of motorcycles as well as cars, trucks, and bycycles, and each intersection is an insane test of wills, where everyone piles blindly in the frey at top speed eyes straight ahead, and somehow, though not always, comes out the other side alive. Forcing others of the road is not merely commen, it is essential. As one guide we met said, "Driving is the most dangerous job in Vietnam, that is why we dont eat dog in the first half of the lunar month, bad luck. " Right then.

tuk tuk

tuk-tuks. public transportation laotian style. half motorcylce, half flat bed truck, all good.