Hello to everyone!
I'm in Vientiene, Laos right now enjoying the relative (compared to Vietnam) peace and quiet of this beautiful country after enduring what must be the worst bus journey yet...a 27 hour gruelathon from Hanoi to Vientiene...a true hell on wheels.
But first, the final events from Vietnam...
In Hanoi, met a great guy (Matt) from Montana - we all went out for a sketchy meal of the local fare and drank too much bia hoi (fresh beer) - you can just sit on the street corners here in Hanoi and order draft beers for 1500 dong (about 10 cents). Needless to say, I didn't feel that well the next morning which was a perfect way to start a ride in a Russian army jeep (real one) over some of the worst roads I've ever experienced. Let's just say that the first morning was not fun..."harrowing" would actually be the word I would use. I'm pretty sure Chris (our third person on the tour and all-around great travel companion) thought I was just a mute until the next day.
The Sapa area was definitely the highlight of Northern Vietnam for me. We trekked for three days/two nights and stayed in the home of the local (ethnic minority) people each night. The first day we hiked from Sapa to Ta Van - mostly passing through the area inhabited by the Black Hmong tribe. It was very, very muddy (and cold) and I managed to greatly impress two of the local boys by falling on my ass while descending a steep hill - oddly enough they were going much faster than our little group but then slowed down so they could watch me climb down the rest of the slippery area (that would be all of it).
The Hmong kids were fantastic. Many of the girls sell crafts to the tourists so their English is actually quite good - our guide told us that many of the Hmong kids do not speak Vietnamese...just English and Hmong. We met a fantastic group of little girls in TaVan - they were just SO cute and fun - when a ten year old named Ping was asking me why I wasn't married, I asked her why SHE wasn't married and she simply responded "I'm TEN! That's why." I may yet come home with an adopted child. They walked us through the entire village and then were waiting the next morning to walk us out of the village and send us off - granted the whole point is for us to buy things - but it was just fun to be able to communicate and talk to them...even if it did cost me buying a bracelet. When I put the pictures up from Sapa, it's worth checking out - all of the hill tribe women dress in traditional clothes still - so many colors.
From the Northwest, we went back to Hanoi and then to Halong Bay. Halong Bay is quite beautiful but very similar to the Krabi area of Thailand. Limestone karst formations (think James Bond Island again in Golden Gun) in a huge Bay - over 2000 islands. The trip was fun - we met Ian from Oakland and inaugurated the "Leisure Club"...a bit of a joke considering the sun broke for exactly twenty minutes during the three day trip. But we dutifully took all the mandatory vacation pics: "lounging on wet deck chairs on the boat", "sitting on the beach in 40 degree (F) weather", and of course the classic "Ian walking out of a water cave after capsizing kayak"... Our guide decided that we were capable of kayaking through a very low head-space, very dark, strong counter-current cave so we could see the lagoon on the other side. Now...I don't want to chalk everything up to unsafe conditions...but I would have to say only 30% of the difficulty stems from our own incompetence in the kayaks. I don't think anyone came out of the cave without some consequences:
1. Most suffered cuts on their hands.
2. One couple will need marriage counseling
3. Ian and our "guide in training" capsized in the cave - the guide then tried to bail the water out of the kayak in the pitch darkness. Then took Ian's suggestion to leave the cave before righting the kayak but didn't set any direction while the other people on the tour gave the capsize victims dry/warm clothes. He made a joke about being hungry and then joked with Ian about charging him 10 Million dollars for his dry jacket. Funny...we were just thinking in the US we would be taking pictures to fully support the impending lawsuit. Instead we took pictures so Ian could laugh about the experience later. Finally the guide capsized his own kayak while climbing back in b/c he was unwilling to ask someone to steady his kayak . Really a wonderful lesson - "Crisis Management: What not to do." We did meet really fantastic people including a couple from the UK - Deb & Dave - that are traveling for 7-10 months and we're hoping to meet up with in India.
Finally - the bus ride. We got on the bus at 7:30pm in Hanoi and got off the bus at 10:30 pm the next day in Vientiene. Along the way, many facts became clear...and this is all true:
1. The bus was a local bus...we stopped for passengers and/or cargo at least twice an hour and often had to drive about 5 mph while looking for the next pick-up.
2. Some of the cargo was seafood products. It smelled.
3. Some of the cargo was something labeled "feed" and wrapped in small plastic packages. At one point we had to walk on this two foot high"aisle" when getting out of the bus.
4. We changed tires on two separate occasions during the trip after blow-outs on the road.
5. The family that ran this "private bus" certainly didn't cater to it's passengers. All stops for the bathroom were on the side of the road. Yes...for the girls too. Drop trou and go.
6. In the cargo hold was a live chicken in a mesh bag. Everytime we stopped and opened the cargo hold it fell onto the side of the road.
7. At the lunch stop, Deanna and I actually watched a cock-fight with very animated spectators betting.
8. Before the Lao border, the driver/crew actually taped some of the plastic packages (in #3) to the underside of the wheel well. There was also a compartment underneath one of the steps when climbing into the bus that they filled with these containers and screwed the top back onto the step.
9. It is my sincere belief that this bus smuggled drugs across the Vietnam/Laos border.
10. The people were incredibly rude - once we crossed the border and we were "home free" they didn't have to keep up the pretense of making us happy.
11. At every government checkpoint, a man would get out and give a "gift" to the guard. When any authorities did get on the bus, we kept hearing "falang" (which means foreigner...I think we were pawns in the "you can't make these foreigners wait while you search the bus" game) Near Vientiene, we actually got chased down by government officials on a motorbike. Three separate batches of cash were handed from the lady in charge to the official. Corruption? Yes.
12. Coming into Vientiene, we picked up local folks making their way into town. Three were drunk. An old man passed out in the seat in front of Deanna.
13. At the end of the trip, we were dropped off significantly north of Vientiene - we think b/c they didn't want to pass any more government stops. They were actually yelling at us to get off the bus. I thought there would be a fight.
Kind of funny. Kind of scary. It's clear we were being used in a scheme and just unfortunate that it was our first impression of Laos - which has been great in the two days following the ride.
I hope everyone is well...more on our continuing adventures when something happens! Laos seems SO laid back...
Monday, January 17, 2005
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
01/05/05: Safe and sound and thanks to everyone for asking...
Hello everyone -
First I just want to assure everyone that we're safe and sound and currently in Hanoi, Vietnam. We are both quite moved at how many emails came through asking after our well being - we're lucky to have so many great friends. Thanks so much to everyone.
The tsunami was quite scary - not in the fact that we were personally in any jeopardy...but more in the realization that so many of the people we had met in our travels have been affected. One gentlemen from the US ran a scuba outfit on Ko Phi Phi and had gone out of his way to help us out. We saw him being interviewed on BBC News saying that he didn't know where many of his employees and friends were. It's just so sad...but people here are getting on with their lives (being relatively unaffected). Right now we're still planning on visiting India but perhaps not the deep south as we had originally thought.
We did manage to have a wonderful Christmas and New Year's despite the tragedy. After leaving Dalat, we traveled to the wonderful city of Hoi An. Where I got totally sucked in and got clothes made. It is just SO cheap and everything is custom made to fit. First, they give you a catalog where you can just pick anything you want made...or a magazine or picture printed from the internet...or you could just point to anyone walking by and ask them to copy the clothes...or even just drawing something on a napkin. Then they take at least 30 measurements and the whole time they're saying how nice a pair of grey pants would work with that shirt you're buying. At first it was one suit for me...and then another...and some shirts...and a pair of shoes... I don't think I've worn a suit since 1997 much less nice clothes on a daily basis. You'll have to read Deanna's blog for her account, but let's just say that we are now hauling around a brand new huge duffelbag in addition to our (extremely heavy) backpacks. Oh...Hoi An was also quite beautiful...old French buildings and a lot of Chinese style architecture.
From there, we went to Hue. Hue was...what's the best word for it...cold. Bitterly cold. And raining. For the entire time we were there. Good idea: Going out with some new friends for a great dinner and drinks for New Years. Bad idea: Taking a motorbike tour for six hours in the rain. It was freezing cold. I'm still not warm. One highlight of Hue was a restaurant we went to where the owner is deaf and just signs everything to you as you are ordering (it works...). The food was great and what was interesting is that the restaurant was called "Lac Thanh"...but in true Vietnamese fashion success breeds imitators so next door there was "Lac Thienh" and yet a third similarly named...all with deaf waiters.
And now we're in Hanoi. It's incredible. The city is so historic and bustling with activity. We're staying in the Old Quarter and it's just great. Traditionally all the streets were named for what the merchants sold/did on that street. And it's still fairly true today. Interestingly our hotel is on Hang Bac - the gravestone street. We literally walk by the artisans making funeral plaques, etc... and in true merchandising fashion they use celebrity pictures on some of the plaques to sell their wares. Deanna took a picture of the Britney Spears funeral plaque...perhaps to mark the end of Britney's career.
There is just so much going on in Hanoi. We went to see Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. You file in and get to see the perfectly preserved body with a soft white light shining on him. It's pretty amazing, a little creepy, and since he's dressed in all-white Deanna and I both independently decided that he looked a bit like Col. Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame. It's a weird experience, but he is a national communist hero and I guess they follow the tradition of Lenin and Mao.
The other stunner about Hanoi. It's cold. I've now bought (in addition to the Hoi An stuff) a new winter jacket, long pants, and gloves. Deanna bought me a fantastic winter hat in Dalat so I should be fully outfitted shortly. I only brought two pairs of long pants on the trip and I threw one away in Bangkok thinking "when am I ever going to need TWO pairs of long pants?". Fast forward to now when I'm thinking 2005 will the "the year of no showering". Did I mention our room in Hanoi doesn't have heat? Ugh. One more question to ask.
Okay. So next up we take a fabulous 6 day trip through Northwest Vietnam. We're excited...we ride in a 4WD jeep through some rough terrain and then end up in Sapa where we'll trek and stay with some of the ethnic minority hill tribes around that area. We're doing our best to get a "true" experience...there's only three people on our tour and we'll be staying in homestays. We'll see... After that, we take a two day trip to Halong Bay and then back to Hanoi for a 20 hour bus ride to Vientiene - finally entering Laos! At this rate, we should be home well before next Christmas.
Best to everyone and thanks again for all your concerns and holiday wishes.
First I just want to assure everyone that we're safe and sound and currently in Hanoi, Vietnam. We are both quite moved at how many emails came through asking after our well being - we're lucky to have so many great friends. Thanks so much to everyone.
The tsunami was quite scary - not in the fact that we were personally in any jeopardy...but more in the realization that so many of the people we had met in our travels have been affected. One gentlemen from the US ran a scuba outfit on Ko Phi Phi and had gone out of his way to help us out. We saw him being interviewed on BBC News saying that he didn't know where many of his employees and friends were. It's just so sad...but people here are getting on with their lives (being relatively unaffected). Right now we're still planning on visiting India but perhaps not the deep south as we had originally thought.
We did manage to have a wonderful Christmas and New Year's despite the tragedy. After leaving Dalat, we traveled to the wonderful city of Hoi An. Where I got totally sucked in and got clothes made. It is just SO cheap and everything is custom made to fit. First, they give you a catalog where you can just pick anything you want made...or a magazine or picture printed from the internet...or you could just point to anyone walking by and ask them to copy the clothes...or even just drawing something on a napkin. Then they take at least 30 measurements and the whole time they're saying how nice a pair of grey pants would work with that shirt you're buying. At first it was one suit for me...and then another...and some shirts...and a pair of shoes... I don't think I've worn a suit since 1997 much less nice clothes on a daily basis. You'll have to read Deanna's blog for her account, but let's just say that we are now hauling around a brand new huge duffelbag in addition to our (extremely heavy) backpacks. Oh...Hoi An was also quite beautiful...old French buildings and a lot of Chinese style architecture.
From there, we went to Hue. Hue was...what's the best word for it...cold. Bitterly cold. And raining. For the entire time we were there. Good idea: Going out with some new friends for a great dinner and drinks for New Years. Bad idea: Taking a motorbike tour for six hours in the rain. It was freezing cold. I'm still not warm. One highlight of Hue was a restaurant we went to where the owner is deaf and just signs everything to you as you are ordering (it works...). The food was great and what was interesting is that the restaurant was called "Lac Thanh"...but in true Vietnamese fashion success breeds imitators so next door there was "Lac Thienh" and yet a third similarly named...all with deaf waiters.
And now we're in Hanoi. It's incredible. The city is so historic and bustling with activity. We're staying in the Old Quarter and it's just great. Traditionally all the streets were named for what the merchants sold/did on that street. And it's still fairly true today. Interestingly our hotel is on Hang Bac - the gravestone street. We literally walk by the artisans making funeral plaques, etc... and in true merchandising fashion they use celebrity pictures on some of the plaques to sell their wares. Deanna took a picture of the Britney Spears funeral plaque...perhaps to mark the end of Britney's career.
There is just so much going on in Hanoi. We went to see Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. You file in and get to see the perfectly preserved body with a soft white light shining on him. It's pretty amazing, a little creepy, and since he's dressed in all-white Deanna and I both independently decided that he looked a bit like Col. Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame. It's a weird experience, but he is a national communist hero and I guess they follow the tradition of Lenin and Mao.
The other stunner about Hanoi. It's cold. I've now bought (in addition to the Hoi An stuff) a new winter jacket, long pants, and gloves. Deanna bought me a fantastic winter hat in Dalat so I should be fully outfitted shortly. I only brought two pairs of long pants on the trip and I threw one away in Bangkok thinking "when am I ever going to need TWO pairs of long pants?". Fast forward to now when I'm thinking 2005 will the "the year of no showering". Did I mention our room in Hanoi doesn't have heat? Ugh. One more question to ask.
Okay. So next up we take a fabulous 6 day trip through Northwest Vietnam. We're excited...we ride in a 4WD jeep through some rough terrain and then end up in Sapa where we'll trek and stay with some of the ethnic minority hill tribes around that area. We're doing our best to get a "true" experience...there's only three people on our tour and we'll be staying in homestays. We'll see... After that, we take a two day trip to Halong Bay and then back to Hanoi for a 20 hour bus ride to Vientiene - finally entering Laos! At this rate, we should be home well before next Christmas.
Best to everyone and thanks again for all your concerns and holiday wishes.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)