Vietnam: long and long overdue- my apologies

After almost a week in Vietnam, I still feel like I'm trying to figure this place out. The changes between here and the rest of souteast Asia have proven to be much more prominant than our previous country-hoping experiences. The dong is around 19,000 to 1 USD and the food mostly consists of rice and noodle soup (com and pho) so that's easy enough, but the people and the architecture and the overall feeling towards the westerner is completely different here.

The written language uses Latin letters but is spoken in tones like the rest of Asia. The buildings are mostly built from concrete and tend to be tall and slender and have various colored walls and tiles. And the people here... well... they are still a mystery to me. In general, they seem to be more pushy, less personal, and more likely to rip you off. I think their livelihood depends on tourism but they hate the tourists (which i can totally empathize with coming from a year of dealing with bay area kids on our mountain or on our lake in Tahoe). But we have been overcharged, yelled at and even grabbed since being here and have felt purely disrespected. On the other hand, there have been a few people that seem to, genuinley, be some of the nicest people we have met in all of Asia thus far. So we aren't too sure what to think quite yet. Oh! and the driving here is sheer, white-knuckle craziness. Red lights are regarded as yield signs and everyone's horn is beyond overused (especially irritating when everyone has 'pimp my ride'-ed their car/bike with horns that sing songs or play different tones). I think I have felt more on edge in these last 7 days than the whole of my trip combined... but I am in no rush to leave- I am curious and intriqued and am excited to see what the rest of this country has in store for me. Just have to cowboy up...

Hanoi:

We arrived in Hanoi after dark and after a grueling 36 hours of travel time on overcrowded buses, waits for repairs, and a very hectic border crossing soooo, to say that I wasn't quite a bucket of sunshine is probably a huge understatement. After a nerve-racking taxi drive from the bus station, we finally arrive in the old quarter. The place we were looking to stay at was full so we wander outside to be bombarded by a few hotel owners. One tells us that he has a room- $6 each, hot water, free wifi, free breakfast, very nice, follow me please. So we follow. The room IS very nice and even has a huge tub and flatscreen tv. Put down our stuff and tell the guy we will take it- 6 dollars each, right? Well no, this one is actually $9 each because it's our deluxe room. K, well we don't need deluxe so show us to your 6 dollar room please. Well, excuse me my friend, I'm sorry but we have no 6 dollar rooms left. Ok well we followed you here because you told us six dollars so we pay that or go. Okay my friend, you stay tomorrow and we will give you six dollars tomorrow night but tonight 9 dollars, okay? This goes on for about five minutes- we agree $7 tonight, $6 tomorrow night. Fine fine. Settle in and get a knock on the door two minutes later: excuse me my friend, I am the manager- there is a problem with the water in this room, can you move to another one upstairs? Fine. Walk up to our new room which is the same minus the big bath tub. Whatever. There is a lamp on our bed stand with the cord completely cut and the mini fridge has two bottles of water that are half drunk... This, we learn quickly, is the way things work here in Vietnam. Get the hot water finally on and running, argue with the lads some more as their wifi is not working, and just give up and grab a delicious sandwich from the most honest woman in all of Hanoi (seriously, after a week I can still say the sandwhich lady is one of the nicest people here!), and go back to watch some television and veg while watching two year old project runway episodes (such a treat!).

The next day is spent exploring the city after sleeping in and grabbing our free breakfast of white bread and bananas. The city is actually quite nice once you gain your bearings a bit- which is cake once you locate the lake and are able to use that as your default landmark. The old quarter is filled with old European-looking buildings, food carts and mini markets and blocks of stores- there is a long block of rice makers, an entire block of christmas decorations, a block of dentists and even a block of stores that all sell coffins. There are a million and a half motorcycles and vehichles-all who lay on their horns CONSTANTLY!! (No joke... It is absolutely maddening how much these people use their horns), and crossing the roads is a daunting task but just has to be done slowly and very consiously- frogger style- as people do not stop for you but will drive around you.

We went to go look at an old prison/museum nearby that was actually the place where John McCain and other POW were held. It was a bizarre experience. I'm sure that everything is shown with a heavy bias, but they showed pictures and told stories about shooting down all of the B-52s and other American fighter planes, saving the soilders and taking them to this prison. They then showed all these pictures of the Americans playing basketball and volleyball and having a Christmas feast and their own chickens they took care of and ate- it honestly looked like summer camp. Meanwhile, they show you how the Vietnamese prisoners that were held in the prison were tourtured and held in isolation. Wierd. Saha and I then went and found some street food where we were fed half as much and charged twice the price- we felt like victims of racism! When we tried to object, the woman just started screaming at us and shoved her three chubby fingers in our faces screaming 'thirty! thirty! thirty! thirty!'- it was Jerry springer like the way this woman was arguing with us- she wouldn't let us get a single word in as she just repeated the same word over and over again. Annoyed and hating the world, we paid and went back to the room to decompress.

We opted for some alone time so split up- Saha going out to explore while I phoned home. After some much needed phone convos with my loves back home, I felt rejuvinated enough to try this city again. Walking around aimlessly in my typical 'in a new city' fashion was actually quite nice... once you learn to drown out the honking and not get offended when people push by you on the streets, you start enjoying it more. It was Saturday evening at this time and I passed 17 pairs of brides and grooms all taking professional pictures by the lake- so silly to see when two couples are taking pictures literally five feet from one another- also interesting to see the different styles of dresses the girls were wearing: some had more traditional red Asian dresses on, others had the white fluffy dresses we are used to and some wore dresses that were beaded and colored like prom dresses.

The rest of our time was spent mostly wandering, eating sandwiches daily from our sandwich lady, sipping vietnamese coffee with condensed milk, researching our next destination and taking advantage of the free wifi and western television shows, so it wasn't all bad by any means. It was just an interesting mix of people and experiences I came across all along the way though. There was one girl who came up to me as I was walking around the lake who wanted to practice her english with me. Her name was Yan and she was a student and wanted help with her 'American English' since she was only taught 'english english' so we sat and chatted for a good bit before heading our seperate ways. Thought I came across a similar situation the next day when two young girls stopped me as I was crossing the road and asked me where I was from. As they started talking to me, they told me they were students and they were doing something for the red cross (selling toothpicks I thought they said bit I saw no toothpicks?) so that they could study? I was so confused and trying to ask them more questions about what they were trying to raise money for as they started touching my earrings and rings and saying 'oh so pretty... Very expensive... Beautiful... Expensive'. I'm not sure if these girls were really trying to raise money for a good cause or not but I knew they wanted my money- which they were pointing out I could afford with so much 'expensive' jewlery. I apologized and said my no thank yous and suddenly turned from 'friend' to 'foe' as the girls were just giving me death glares as I walked away. Add them to the list of 'people that were mean to us in vietnam' list. There was the restaraunt that charged us for napkins and the bakery lady that straight up ignored us, but there was also the girl that befriended Saha and showed her around all day and the guy who helped us to cross the street, so it's just a grab bag of personalities and outcomes here in Hanoi.

Sapa:

We arrive in Sapa half asleep and pretty fricken cold around 7am. Our overnight bus had nice big seats and pushy drivers that would occasionally grab and move us or scream at us or play karaeoke music at 3 am- but overall, it was not too bad (we have gotten used to the abuse already). Checked into a guesthouse and laid down for a bit longer before getting up for some breakfast. Found a good little spot in the heart of the town and ended up running into my kiwi friend, Joel, as he was having breakfast as well. Spent the rest of the day walking around in the little town, taking in the views and booking a trek for the following day.

This little town is absolutely gorgeous. Built up along the side of a mountain, the streets and old buildings look down into the valley below where numerous villages live and work on the terraced rice paddies. There are taller mountains above and a heavy fog every morning, but the sunshine was strong once it cleared the clouds and the temperature was perfect. Due to the heavy increase in tourism, many of the villagers come up and sell their handicrafts around the town center- thus, there are women everywhere dressed in the traditional black skirt/shorts with their leg wraps and red or green headscarf and huge loop earrings that make their earlobes sag. It is great to see the traditional dress and culture still alive, but it is also a bit disheartening as they are only dressed that way to sell to tourists. They are relentless, these little old village ladies and young girls decked out in traditional gear. They will follow you around asking you 'hello, what is your nameee?', 'hello, where are you frommm?', 'hello, buy from meee?' and when you answer 'no thank you' they follow with 'yes thank you'. I had one woman who followed and talked to me for a half hour before she finally gave up on me and left. There are great little shops and galleries in Sapa but even more food and gifts are sold on the streets- fresh fruit and veg being sold on the stairs, a whole market for meat and fish, an infinite amount of vendors selling pho and fried balls of goodness, hidden rooms with silks and earrings, and countless stores selling North Face and Columbia jackets (bought myself a North Face fleece for a whooping $11).

Got up the next morning and put on all of our warmest clothes for the trek and met up with our tour guide after a quick breakfast. Our guide, Zin, is a little ball of fire. She is 25 and has three kids- she used to live in the first village we came upon first but she is now part of her husband's village- the one we were staying the night at. She has been leading treks since she was 12 and she gets a lot of heat from her parents for now being 'too western' as she wears jeans and puffy coats instead of the traditional clothes. She thinks she should have let her parents arrange her marriage because now she is stuck with her husband who she swears is crazy. I love this girl- standing at least a foot and a half below me, she has two years on me and a life experience completely opposite of mine... Despite our life differences though, she is really no different from us- same same but different.

Our trek starts out down the steps of the Cat Cat village and through little shacks set up for the tourist- shamen medicine men doing their dance for a chunk of dong, a weaving demonstration that ends in a shop, and we are starting to get worried that this is what our two days are going to look like. Fortunately, we got off the beaten path rather quickly and started heading to the more remote villages. We walked down the valley and along these rice paddies that are just absolutely mind blowing really. The way they make these terraces and how they don't just wash away is a mystery to me- the terraces follow the curves of the mountains in a fashion that reminds me of Dr. Sueses' 'Oh the Places You'll Go'. And the scenery around these curving rice fields is astounding as well- lush, green mountains up above and a winding, clear river below us. There are animals everywhere and they all have little babies with them- baby water buffaloes, baby chickens, baby pigs, baby dogs and cats- it's like those childrens books 'baby farm animals' I used to read to River and Daisy.

We went from one village to another, walking through more rice paddies and streams along the way and ate lunch in a nice and shady spot along the river (as it was actually hot by 10am) and continued along. Near the end of the trek, Zin actually took us up and into a funeral service that was taking place. She assured us it was okay and led us up more terraces to where the hoard of people all dressed in black were. Apparently funerals are a six day event and today was the sixth day. For the first five days, the body is propped up in the house he/she lived in as family and friends are invited in to say their goodbyes and give their blessings. On the sixth day, the body is burried and a celebration-of-sorts takes place. Walking in, we were greeted by a girl throwing up and a whole buffalo killed, skinned and ready to be cooked and eaten. Everywhere we looked, people were pissed out of their brains. Apparently drinking rice whiskey since the early hours of the morning, these people were well beyond hammered by mid afternoon. To be honest, I hated being there- I know their culture is not as private as ours but I still felt it was a bit sick to be sitting there observing all this when we had no relation at all to anyone there. I finally had to get out of there after a few people were snapping pictures of an old man crying over the coffin- just not where I wanted to be at the moment. We walked just a couple minutes down the road and settled into our homestay around 5 or so. Had some tea and coffee, some fresh lemons- picked right off the tree- dipped in sugar (you eat the rhine and all here- delicious!), and hung around the common area as the sun went down. It got chilly as soon as the sun dissapeared so we all layered on our warm clothes and went into the kitchen to help with dinner. Though there were 5 of us now (2 people drove motorbikes there and one other Dutch guy was with us the whole time), we didn't get to participate as much as we just tried to stay out of the way as Zin and the mama did their thing in the kitchen. The end result of our helping/staying out of the way was a feast of veg soup, tofu with tomatoes, chicken, pork, cabbage stir fry, a side of fries, and rice. Before we eat, we all cheers with a shot of rice whiskey and finish just about every morsal of the dinner we prepared. The night ended with much conversation, some psychadellic karaeoke movies, and some seed-chewing. I started feeling really bad really quickly (like food poisioning coming on) and of course had no meds with me. Zin, however, gave me this spicy seed called something like carmal that was apparently used to treat all kinds of 'bad stomach'. So her, Saha and I all sat cuddled underneath a big blanket and chewed these little seeds that made your mouth burn like you were eating raw ginger and, wouldn't you know, I felt a hundred percent better within the hour- I need to bring some of this stuff wherever I go!

Morning comes and brings another beautiful day which we begin with a heap of banana pancake/crepes and powdered coffee. There is less walking today but it is a bit more hairy in spots- overall though, it is just as beautiful and filled with all kinds of farm animals and cute little kids (I honestly think that the kids in sapa are by far the most gorgeous beings I have yet to interact with- Elena you were right). We stopped at a waterfall for a bit and then continued upto another neighboring village. Here, Zin shows us into the house of a little old hunched-back woman and her three grandchildren. It is here where we are told to sit down and were not allowed to do anything to help- this little old woman was so hospitible: getting up and grabbing saha's hand and leading her over to a chair with a smile. The granddaughters (who were 12 and 13 but looked more like 9 and 10) helped to sautee the veggies that Zin chopped as the grandmother kept on feeding the fire. We were served noodle soup with veggies a few minutes later and an apple and pear cut up for dessert- it was perfect! We sat and chatted with the little old lady for a bit as Zin played translator and I loved every minute of it. I think you find the most genuine love from these old women and men we come across. They tend to know little to no English, but they always seem to radiate the most amazing energy- it is never an act, there are no alternative motives- it's just pure old-age love. And it makes me excited about being old some day...

The rest of the trek is down the valley and up the other side to the one and only road. We get to chat with a few beautiful children before our old army jeep comes and picks us up and drives us back to town. Shower up and grab some food and hop on our overnight bus back to Hanoi- this one is not so nice and played karaeoke music the ENTIRE ride back. It is pretty funny to see the cultural differences that appear when you ride a local overnight bus. Take, for example, how it is acceptable to blast music all night or how it is actually 'cool' to listen to ALL of your phone ringtones for all to hear (even at 4 am) or how it is okay to cough or sneeze without covering your mouth. So yea, got back to Hanoi around 5am with less than three hours of sleep under my belt and sat on the steps of a backpackers with other fellow nightbussers and truly lived up to the name 'freeloader' till a few shops opened up and we went to grab a much-needed VN coffee with condensed milk.

Halong Bay:

So I won't go into too much detail here as a lot of my typing about this will be bitching and moaning but it's one of those great 'learn from my mistakes' stories if you ever come to VN.

Basically, we had it worked out with one company to book 2 days/1 night everything included to halong bay. Stay the night on a boat, kayak in the morning, cruise around both days and then come back. She told us to come before 10 and there would be no problem- we could leave that same day. Show up at 8:30am after our bus ride and book, pay and then find out the boat is full so we will stay in a hotel and no kayaking because there won't be time. Okay, money back please. We have only 15 mins before all the tours leave so go across the street and get a similar story: boat full but you can go kayaking today instead- fine, sign us up. Pay a few dollars more and hop on a bus that is waiting for us. Three hours on this overcrowded bus later (minus the one stop at the 'tourist stopover' located in the middle of no where that sells everything for 3x the price) we arrive at halplong city. Sit around for a good bit and then get ushered into one of many boats lined up on the harbor. Drop our bags and eat an okay lunch with Saha and a new group of Isrealis we have met (Isrealis traveling in a large group??? surprise surprise!). Things are looking up.

The bay here is really beautiful and we are lucky to have a clear and sunny day to see it all. There are thousands of these huge limestone islands jutting out of the ocean and they are all grandeous and lush with vegetation. The scenery here is almost exactly like that of Phang gna that Andy and I got to explore last month.

We continue to cruise for a bit after lunch and then all hop off the boat to tour two caves set on a little island. We all head up the stairs inside the first cave. This cave is massive and really is quite impressive but is covered in rainbow colored lighting. Oh my god, it is atrochious (spelling?) what they did to this beautiful natural phenomonon. Once you get past looking at the tacky multi-colored lighting, you start to see where they drilled in wiring and paved a path and added eighteen hundred metal trash cans shaped as penguins and dolphins (?). I'm not sure I would exactly call it Eco-tourism as much as I would call it Disneyland-like. The next cave was smaller and not so lit up so that was sweet but we just took a quick peek before hoping on the boat again. Cruised around for a bit and then made a little pit stop so that Saha and I could do our kayaking- which was definitely the highlight of the whole trip. We were only given 30 minutes, but that gave us plenty of time to check out these two massive caves-of-sorts. We paddled into these small tunnels that led into a sort of crater that opened up into a large pool and no open to the sky up above- both were almost perfect circles. I didn't want to get back on to our big, touristy ship but the entire crew was waiting for us so we reluctantly got back on. More cruising for a bit until we reached Cat Ba island. This is a huge island in the middle of Halong Bay that has a road system, an established town and many hotels and guest houses for those who want to stay on the island. We got driven over to our guesthouse and cleaned up a bit before dinner- which was exactly like lunch. The huge group of Isrealis were there with us as well so they all put on a mini Chuanaka candle lighting and sang all the songs that came along with it. Then bed.

The next day was entirely frustrating as we were shuffled from one form of transportation to the next. Bus, wait, more bus, wait, boat, wait, off the boat, wait, bus, wait, lunch, wait, bus, bus, bus.... So irritating! This is why I haven't taken tours before on this trip and this is why I will be avoiding them like the plauge for the remainder of my travels: I hate not being in control, I do not like being herded like cows from one place to the next, I do not like the way they treated us and I was pissed we paid for a 2 day tour when the entire second day was us just getting moved from point A to point B. If any of y'all decide to come do Halong Bay, I would suggest doing it by yourself if you have the time and/or take a tour organized through a backpackers so it's a guarenteed party- we talked to other kids who did the same trip but were wasted the entire time and they loved it.... Looking back, I think a few brews could have really helped to alter my mood a bit and may have made that whole second day a bit more enjoyable.

Either way, Halong Bay was beautiful, the weather was great and we all made it back safe with all our luggage in tow- I should stop with the complaining and be grateful for the wonderful oppurtunity instead.

Next step:

Got a hotel room last night in Hanoi and are spending the day around the city before catching the night bus to Hue and then Hoi An. It is funny because we hated this city for the first couple days and were convinced that everyone was mean, but now we almost feel a sense of 'being home'- we know our way around, we know which places will try to rip us off and we always have our sandwich lady!