One Final Note On Vietnam...

Be aware, throw away slang comments can cause unexpected results in Vietnam. For instance, avoid saying things like "Pig's Arse", or "Bollocks" in restaurants.

Cens0rsh1p

One last note on Vietnam.

I don't think that we had one bad thing to say about Vietnam in our blog, which is kind of ironic, because the Vietnamese government censors it.

We could not view it at all in Vietnam. We could write posts, but not view them.

I tried to write a post about this, but it was blocked by a filter, so I would like to take this opportunity to say that Vietnam is an amazing place, and so are the Vietnamese people.

We at FlashPackers respect the need to not spread lies and dissent about the glorious leaders, so I will talk about the weather outside.

The weather out side is predominantly crap, with a strong useless wanker front coming in from the north which will dominate the conditions for the foreseeable future. The formation you can see which is leading this group of useless wankers is what is known in meteorological circles as an officious twat.
We will watch this formation closely to see how it develops, but the current forecast is for shit to be raining on the population for some time.
The low point of this front is likely to cause interference with communications.

Vietnam Wrap Up

Well, we have been in Vietnam for over a month, which is not nearly enough, not even slightly, and we have been pretty slack with the blogging. But that's because we have been having too much fun to sit in front of a computer - which is a good thing :)
We leave for China in a few days (hopefully), so we thought we had better remedy the lack of posts and pictures. We have a bunch draft posts that we are working on, which will be appearing BELOW this one, so stay tuned :)

Sunburnt in Sapa

Sapa is a hill station, and a long time French resort, in Northern Vietnam set in amongst majestic rolling mountains between 1,800 and 3,100 metres above the sailors. We were lucky enough to stay there for four days while we waited for our Vietnamese visa extensions, and we were blessed by unseasonaly perfect weather. Sapa is notoriously the coldest place in Vietnam, but when we were there it was warm and sunny with clear blue skies during the day (hence the subject title), atmospheric misty mornings, and at dusk, the clouds descended over mountain ridge to cover the town like a blanket.

On our first day, we went for a walk in and around Sapa, through some rice paddies and rose orchards (ie. predominately in people's backyards), and enjoyed the lovely weather. After wandering around for 2 hours, a young H'Mong lad offered to lead us through the hills (... or, we presume that's what he was trying to say... we think he may have been a couple of skin heads short of a brawl, if you catch my drift, but a friendly kid none the less), so we followed him around for about a while. He would bound up the steep slopes like a mountain goat, and we would follow him like some out of breath and unfit lame-arsed foreigners. We paused to watch some kids splashing around in one of the rice paddy terraces, and after a short time, the two little boys came running up to meet us.

They loved looking over our shoulders at their digital world we were filming, and when we turned the camera onto them, they laughed and shouted and babbled to each other. We shared some of our honey coated sesame seed snacks with them, and enjoyed the stunning views.

Tim on the balcony of our guest house, Mountain View hotel, looking over the valley.

One of the typically picturesque houses we traipsed past on our walk.

Tiered rice paddies and one curious water buffalo.

The valley view looking back towards our hotel.

Seriously, how beautiful is that?

Another shot of the valley, what a shame it's such an ugly place. ;-)

A placid buffalo with massive horns that I was worried about at the time.

I came to realise that they were walking towards us because they thought we

were going to feed them.

Me with the gorgeous backdrop, looking up towards the hotel.

Tim with the same stunning backdrop.

The front gate where we met the young Black H'Mong boy who showed us around.

Some more tiered rice paddies - you can see one of the little boys in the left hand corner, running up to meet us.

The boy on the far right lead us around, and the other two little ones came to meet us.

There are lots of ethnic minorities in Sapa and the surrounding area, particularly the Black H'Mong people but there were also a couple of Dzao women amongst them. The balcony of our guest house gave us a great bird's eye view of them all trying to sell their wares to the polite but cornered tourists. All the ethnic minorities live in nearby villages and come into Sapa to sell their beautiful embroidered blankets, pillow covers, wall hangings, belts and also some interesting jewellery. There was a constant high pitched, sing-song sound track to Sapa from the H'Mong's: "Hello! you buy blanket from me? You buy blanket from me?", they were very persistent but very cute. Then, if you did buy something from them, a Dzao woman would come up and say, "You buy from H'Mong, now you buy blanket from me? I am Dzao we are from different village... you buy from H'Mong, now you buy pillow case from me?". When we were eating lunch one day in a restaurant, the most adorable old woman in Vietnam tentatively, at first, came in and started to show us her wares. She didn't speak a word of English, but still managed to get the point across that if we took a photo of her, we had to give her 5,000 dong. It was worth it though (we secretly took video footage as well... shhhh!). :)

The sweet old Black H'Mong woman pausing in her sales pitch for a photo.

... the sales pitch continues...

I did really like that belt, but unfortunately, we only had 5,000 dong left.

On our second day, we decided to walk down to the nearby H'Mong village called Cat Cat, which is an easy 3km stroll down a well marked path. At the beginning of our journey, we bumped into two young H'Mong girls (both around 12 years old) who asked whether we were going to Cat Cat... and then just tagged along with us, much to our delight. Their English was reasonably good and so we talked about our respective families, pointed out the animals we saw along the way, asking if they ate that too, playing with them etc., but it was just really nice having Chi and Leelee accompany us.

We met the girls at the beginning of the trail to Cat Cat.

Leelee (left) and Chi (right) were our companions for the day.

Cat Cat itself wasn't all that great, but I guess we only saw the touristy part (ie. the odd stall selling blankets/pillow cases etc.) and not where the H'Mong actually live, but there was a lovely waterfall there which we admired for a while. Chi ran down to it and was shrieking with joy as she jumped from rock to rock until she reached the base of the waterfall - she would periodically turn around and wave at us and babble to Leelee.

As we were walking back up to Sapa along a sun dappled stone path, lined with palm fronds and lush greenery, Chi started to sing a H'Mong song in her beautiful voice - definitely a moment we won't ever, ever forget.

A view of one of the old stone buildings from the bridge, with a stall selling ethnic wares beneath it.

Some pictures of the lovely waterfall.

Me, totally enchanted by the girls, precariously balancing on a stone wall overlooking the waterfall.

The view on the way down to Cat Cat.

Another photo of me, Leelee and Chi on the way down to Cat Cat.

On our third day in Sapa (Wednesday), we decided to hire a moto and go for a ride around the area (an old Russian clanker with a gearbox that was noisier than the engine - and the engine was loud enough). We bought a completely useless map which had Mt Fansipan (the largest mountain by far in the area) in totally the wrong place by a looooong way, and completely omitted major roads. But not knowing where we are going has never stopped us before, and so we set off towards Lai Chau (probably).

To get to Lai Chau, you have to go over the Tram Ton pass, which at 1,900m is the highest mountain pass in Vietnam... and bugger me, it's windy. We stopped at one point to take some photos, but I was literally being blown over. To tell you the truth, I was shitting myself when we were back on the bike, because in some areas as we were getting blown around quite a bit.

The view from part of the Tram Ton pass.

Me, struggling to stand up to the strong gully winds.

Tim looking out over the pass, and probably worrying silently about our petrol situation.

After a time, we came across the silver waterfall, which is another big tourist attraction and looked like a bit of a yawn, so we kept going up the mountain. It was only after we stopped to check the map (a true exercise in futility) a little further on, that we also double-checked the fuel and were slightly worried to see that there was only a couple of litres left. Now, we probably would have been fine, but you always feel uneasy when you have less than a full or near full tank. We decided to push on to Lai Chau, in neutral gear with the engine off to conserve petrol (it was all down hill anyway, all 30k's of it!), and hope they had a petrol station there so we could make it back up the mountain. It all worked out in the end sort of... we bought fuel at double the value from an elated farmer (probably 2 kms short of the Lai Chau petrol station), and made it back to Sapa before dark. On the trip back up the mountain, I took lots of video footage and photos from the back of the bike - it was truly, truly stunning. :)

Not only was the view stunning, one of the local trees was in bloom, so the fresh mountain air tinged with exotic floral scents. I could try to describe it to you all, but it would just cheapen it... if you could bottle it, you would be an instant millionaire (and I don't mean in Vietnamese dong). :)

Once we arrived back in Sapa, we drove straight to Baguette & Chocolate, which is another amazing business set up for, and run by, former street kids to give them a leg up in the service industry. I can tell you from experience, there is nothing better than coming in from a long ride on a bike, with freezing hands and face, and drinking one of their mugs of hot chocolate (made from real chocolate). Hhmmmmm....

On the Thursday, we hired the bike again for the morning as we were heading back to Hanoi by overnight train that night. We spent the day roaming around the surrounding country side trying to get into the ethnic villages by taking the odd dirt track. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't, but mainly we were just awestruck by the scenery. I was also awestruck by this ridiculous dog with a humiliating haircut... poor thing... have a look for yourselves!

I think the poor thing knows how stupid it looks.

Right before our bus to Lau Cai was leaving, I bought some of the beautiful earrings that the H'Mong girls all wear... one from Leelee and one from Chi. We ended up paying way more than what they were worth, but it's easily justified by the time we spent with them the previous day. Both of the girls were being very sweet and clinging onto my arms and saying to Tim and I things like, "Will you remember me? If you come back will you remember our names?". We were both sad to leave Sapa, and I would love to go back through the area some time soon.

Hanging Around in Hanoi

Hanoi has had some serious funk rubbed on it.

After a long and reasonably pleasant over night train ride from Hue (which was delayed by 4.5 hours), we finally arrived in Hanoi on Saturday the 5th of February, very early in the morning. We chose to stay at Thu Giang guest house which is run by a friendly family and their five daughters and is set down a quiet little lane way in the Old Quarter - the aptly named ancient section of the city, with a mix of French colonial, Chinese, and old Vietnamese influenced architecture.

A typical street in Hanoi's old quarter.

A typical French colonial style house.

Tim, with one of the many temples scattered around the old quarter in the background.

Part of the ornate doors from the temple that sits on Hoan Kien lake.

The plaster dogs that guard the ornate doors from the temple that sits on Hoan Kien lake
... in plaster, as in life.

The Turtle tower that sits gloomily at the other end of the lake from the plaster dogs, that
guard the temple on Hoan Kiem, in the old quarter.

Hanoi's old quarter is where all the funk is rubbed. It is basically an intricate network of laneways stuffed full of little shops selling everything from carved gravestones, to mattresses, to tourist crap, to religious paraphenalia, to bia hoi (fresh beer... more on that later), to ladders, to cheap and tasty Vietnamese food.
Since the 13th century, each of the streets were named after what was sold on that particular street, and while the products have changed, their names have remained. So our guest house lane way, was just off "silk" road and nearby was "string instruments", "cotton" and "chicken" roads. We have a favourite coffee place that we always go to (serving great coffee with sweet milk and is furnished with 'midgets revenge' tables & chairs spilling out onto the pavement), which is at the intersection of "fans" and "wooden bowls". There is nothing better than sitting with the locals and watching the ridiculous driving spectacle that is moto vs taxi drivers in Vietnam, whilst trying to use the small amount of phrases that we have learnt.

This is the intersection at "fans" and "wooden bowls"

I would like to be able to tell you all that we visited some of the many interesting museums and galleries in Hanoi but we were just happy wandering around and soaking up the atmosphere. It's the kind of place you could live in, really, and we have met many an ex-pat who has set themselves up in a plush apartment by teaching English at exclusive schools, with plenty of cash to spare.
One definite benefit of living here would be that you could go for your daily coffee fix, and get your food shopping done at the same time... because if you wait long enough, a woman will walk by selling almost everything on your list. Truly, a lazy persons' dream come true.

Then of course, there is the food. It's varied and fantastic. We have a favourite noodle place that serves a huge steaming bowl of beef & rice noodles for $1US - add lots of chili sauce and hey presto! - a hearty lunch for bugger all. This morning, Tim and I ate at a different shop and tried this soup that we had seen throngs of Vietnamese pigging out on... it turns out it's actually a rice porridge with fried garlic, mint and... eel! Very tasty, but probably not the best thing to eat first thing in the morning!

Sweet and sour pork ribs with Tiger beers - so good!!

Instead of paying between 10,000 and 15,000 dong for a bottle of beer, Tim and I would often go to bia hoi stalls where you can get a pint for as little as 2,000 dong. In Hanoi, the quality of the bia hoi is much better than in Saigon, so it costs 4,000 dong per pint - which is around 30 cents Aussie! Bia hoi is sold everywhere here, but only until about 10.30pm, maybe midnight if there's still lots of people there.

These are two different bia hoi stalls are directly opposite each other... perfect.

A beer snacks (ie. dishes for boozing) menu at another one of the bia hoi stalls we stopped at
... chicken's chitterling cock's testicles, anyone?

On Monday the 20th of February we will be heading up to Nanning in China (another overland border crossing - I can't wait!!) and we are very excited about that, but at the same time, quite sad at leaving Vietnam.

On that note, if you happen to be heading into China from Hanoi, we highly recommend exchanging dong into yuan at the jewellery stores here, as they obviously don't pay as much attention to the exchange rate... as much as, say, banks would. Yesterday, Tim realised, while on the internet, that the yuan had increased in value over the previous hour. So we raced out and found the first unsuspecting jeweller that we could, and exchanged a considerable amount of dong into Chinese yuan at better than market rates!

Me in my new hat... nice, huh?

Tet in Hoi An

We arrived in Hoi An, just in time for Tet, on the night of the 28th of January after a long bus ride from Nha Trang (a complete shit hole which gets good reviews for some reason). The town was chockers with people everywhere buying last minute gifts, flowers and of course food for Tet. It was a really vibrant atmosphere, which we couldn't participate in unfortunately as we were so tired... we figured there would be more of this kind of celebration over the next couple of days.
Sadly, this was not the case, and over the next four days Hoi An was basically a ghost town as most of the restaurants and shops closed. In some ways, it was a great time to visit Hoi An because we could wander around the UNESCO World Heritage listed town and take photos of all the old buildings and homes.

One of the many beautiful old lane ways.

Deserted streets on the Tet holiday.

These two kids were dancing and playing with a mini dragon costume in the streets,
they put on a real show for the camera!

We spent a couple of nights at Minh Ah Ancient guest house, right next to the bustling (but closed for Tet) markets. It's a beautiful old Chinese style place, run by a family, and we had a room with a little 'midgets revenge' balcony, replete with little 'midgets revenge' table and chairs, that looked over a lovely courtyard with a well. This is where we enjoyed our Tet celebration breakfast, which I detailed in the post titled, Chuc Mung Nam Moi.

The front of Minh Ah guest house, with the Tet tree for good luck.

It was always a struggle to get onto the balcony, but we enjoyed lots of coffees on it anyway.

Tet celebration breakfast - Chuc Mung Nam Moi!

Hoi An is also famous for tailoring suits and you can even get shoes made to fit! I couldn't resist, and ended up getting some flat shoes with go faster stripes in a red chinese silk pattern made for me... I love them. We were both looking into getting some suits made up for our new jobs in London, but the tailors all had a week off due to Tet, so we couldn't in the end.

"... there's no place like home, there's no place like home..."

Quite appropriately in the new year of the dog, we stumbled across the cutest dog in existence called Lulu owned by a local family... I'm sure they didn't mind us playing with it every time we walked past their house, after all, foreigners are lucky aren't they?!? Here's a photo of me holding her, but it doesn't really do it justice - she was a little ball of soft, fluffy, wiggling fat. :)

Aawwww....

Just as we were leaving Hoi An, we came across a couple of awesome restaurants that served authentic Vietnamese food at seriously cheap prices. Of course, we couldn't go there before because of everything closing over bloody Tet, but we did get to experience a couple of their set 4 course lunches which were delicious. One of these places was Cafe 96, and it also ran some excellent cooking courses that we couldn't do (Tet!!) but looked like great fun, especially considering you could chose which taste sensations you wanted to learn to make from their menu.

The owner of Cafe 96 was very kind to us, and the food was excellent.

Apparently, every year, the river swells and floods all the homes and shops facing it
... including Cafe 96. It's nice and peaceful in this photo though.

A particular Hoi An specialty is Cau Lau - thick egg noodles in special stock, with pork and softened bean shoots, plus fresh mint and lettuce. You can only get the real thing in Hoi An as they get the water for the stock from a particular well that has a dead pig in it to flavour the water. Maybe not... but they do always use the water from that well.

We spent most of our time wandering around looking at the beautiful architecture... here are some more examples of it. Atmospheric Hoi An was one of my/our/everyone's favourite places in Vietnam and we heartily endorse it!