Harrow Sapa!

13th - 15th May - Hanoi

Well it won't surprise you to know that upon returning to Hanoi we were all rather shattered, battered, bruised and well in need of some serious recovery! Unfortunately, coming back from our escape to Halong also meant we would have to say goodbye to some of the mega friends we had made on the trip. First to go were Chets, Jabba, Rick and Lewis who were leaving the following day.

The following day, after the first decent night's sleep in a bed we'd had in a few days we were all feeling a little fresher. Wanting to do something fun with our day myself, Dai, Zara, Phil, Gary, Jim, Bel and Glenn decided to hit the Waterpark to wake us up and have a laugh in the Sunday sun. Apart from another harrowing taxi ride (driving wherever, WHENEVER...regardless of what's coming alongside you, or more often directly towards you), the waterpark was surprisingly impressive and we had a right laugh. There were about 7 or 8 decent slides, some of which you had to do in pairs, some which required tubes etc. Here's a pic of a few of them and who I think is me coming down one of the slides:

Les Slides

Weeeeeee!

After spending the afternoon going down all the slides, some multiple times, we headed back to the hostel. Fletch and Ash from Oz and Jim and Gary were the next few to leave the Halong bay crew so to see them off, myself, Bel, Glenn, Dai, Zara and Gunnar decided to join them on beer corner. Now I'm not just making this up, there is actually a place marked on the maps of Hanoi called "Beer Corner". Now it ain't nothing plush - it's basically an intersection of a few streets, where little restaurants put these tiny plastic chairs outside their establishments around make-shift tables. "Why would you choose to drink there?" I hear you express. Because the beers are 5,000 dong my friends. 5,000 dong is €0.19. Question answered? Okay. lets move on :)

We are not giants. They are midget stools!

We had a few drinks in beer corner, they ran out of beer (what do ya expect!) so we adjourned to a nearby bar to continue the farewell drinks. Yes, we were drinking purely to say goodbye to our friends ;) In this bar we made a discovery, which personally I believe rivals even CERN's recent Higgs particle revelation! That is the drink, which will be furthermore known as the Gunnar. Let me explain. We were all ordering our drinks, most of us naturally going for the cheapest drink on the menu when Gunnar orders a Gin and Redbull. The waiter looked at him with the same confusion as the rest of us. "Do you mean a gin and a separate can of red bull?" he asked. "No" Gunnar replied, "in the same glass". Appalled, and with reason we all thought, the waiter skulled away, no doubt questioning what kind of heathen would order such a concoction. We were all like "WTF Gunnar, who the hell drinks Gin and Redbull together?! "Oh just wait and see" he assured us. When it arrived, naturally we all had to sample this madness. What can I say - delicious. No lie - go out and order it next time you're feeling flush (this would probably cost near a tenner at home wha!)! We christened it "the Gunnar" because hell, only he would come up with this!

Gunnar, with "The Gunnar"

After a couple of drinks, we retired back to ole Hanoi Backpackers and crashed for the evening.

The following day I arranged to meet up with Bel and Glenn, the next two friends to head back home, for them, to Singapore. But before that we had planned a day of fun in Hanoi! I wanted to try out some good Hanoi street food, and the night before at beer corner, Bel mentioned that they had had some really good sticky gluttinous rice with pork in a place not too far fom our hotel. Well those of you who know me, a food that actually has "gluttinous" in its description had me hooked from the start! Zara and Dai also joined us for some food. To try and describe the meal - it came in a bowl, it was this special type of sticky rice that I hadn't had before - even in China, over which they put shredded maize, then sprinkled spring onions and your choice of meat - we went for pork - all topped with a fried egg! It was actually amazing!

Street food on the way!

Mightn't look much...but amazing!

After lunch, I headed off with Glenn and Bel for a little walking tour of our own of Hanoi. We wandered all over the city taking in different sights of the city. Some of my favouites were, this pic I took:

This guy is actually reading the daily paper! I thought this was brilliant. Basically that's just outside the local newspaper office, and they put up the daily newspaper on that board so that each day the people who I'm assuming may not be able to afford the newspaper can come and have a read of it!

Next up just a cool picture of this street that just sold lots of birds:

Next up, an amazing fruit stall - at this point I had sweet F.A. clue what most of these fruits were. Bel explained a good lot of them that she knew. There was everything from dragon fruit to rambutans, and loads others (now that I'm a further along in my travels I've tasted most of them - we really are deprived in Ireland / UK with our limited amount of interesting fruit!)

Whilst I'm on the food discoveries, this one's for my fellow caffeine fiends:

We walked all over Hanoi, and had a great time. I have to give kudos to Glenn for putting up with mine and Bel's magpie-esque attraction to any shops of interest! Especially when after visiting one bookshop in particular, we all spontaneously started humming this same cheesey Vietnamese song that had been on in the shop as we walked down the street! The one took a couple of days to remove from our brains! Here's the three of us taking a sitting break:

Yes I'm looking a little "special" in this one...

Yes, sitting break. No joke this particular day was definitely the most humid day I have experienced whilst travelling so far. It was mental. Hanoi in itself was horrendously humid causing you to sweat just by existing. In Hanoi, you'd have a shower and before you've even dried yourself you're already sweating, hard to really feel clean! It was crazy, but this day was by far the worst. Hence the big shiny head on me above. Glenn and Bel seem to be pulling it off a 'lil better than me!

After our walk I returned to the hostel to live in the cold shower for about an hour. That night we returned to beer corner, but this time we left before the beer did. Knowing that the following day we would be heading to Sapa to begin our trek, we all had an early night after saying farewell to Bel and Glenn, and crashed for our last night in Hanoi Backpackers Hostel.

The following day, after catching up on some writing (this thing doesn't write itself unfortunately), and Zara and Dai decided to check out the Army Museum. There were lots of aircraft and remnants from Vietnam's wartorn history but to be honest the place wasn't very well laid out and it was hard to fathom which wars the various items on show were from. The most exciting part of the trip there would actually have to be the transport. Now if I haven't mentioned it already, Vietnam and particularly Hanoi is swarmed with motorbikes. It's not cars you have to look out for on the roads, its the bikes. You see whole families riding on one little moto. So when we decided to go to the Army Museum, we decided screw it, we'll take a moto taxi. Now Zara and Dai had already ridden a moto in Thailand but for me this was venturing into the unknown. I was bricking it! Nevermind the fact that I hadn't been on the back of a moto before but in Hanoi the motos rule the road, and it's a constant game of cat and mouse between the drivers for whose right of way it is! So this journey was a bit daunting. However, it had to be done, so on I hopped with my driver, and off we went. Well. Much like jumping in the sea it turned out to be a hoot! I loved zipping around, weaving in and around the traffic, a total thrill! This experience totally outshone the army itself, which should say a lot!

That evening we would depart Hanoi to head to an area in north Vietnam known as Sapa where we would be going on a two day trek. After the hectic week we'd just had between Hanoi itself and Halong bay we thought a good trek out in the fresh mountain air would do us the world of  good and give us a chance to see some of the beautiful Vietnam scenery. To get to Sapa we took an overnight train to Lao Cai.

Back on the night trains!

16th - 17th May - Sapa, Northern Vietnam

We arrived into Lao Cai at 5.30am. From there we were met by our tour who brought us on the bus journey to Sapa town from where we would begin our trek. We stopped off at a local hotel, where we had time to to have a cold shower out the back of the hotel! Oh this is the luxurious life I'm living folks, don't you worry! After our rustic shower, the group got together and we met our guide - Hien. He was a nice Vietnamese guy around 30ish. He explained the route we would be going. The first day we would trek for 12 kilometres. That night we would stay with a local family where we would have dinner that evening also. Then the next day we would trek for 6km. Our group for the two day trek consisted of 11 people - there was me, Zara and Dai, 2 Canadian girls - Jill and Silvi, 3 Canadian guys - Yonni, Zach and Jason (remember whaat I said about the Canadian infiltration of SE Asia!), a German guy called Sylvain and 2 Danish girls - Tenna and Anna.

Sapa is a popular location for people to go trekking because, apart from the amazing scenery it is also home to 4 different ethnic minorities of Vietnam - Hmong, Dao, Tay, Giay and a small number of Xa Pho people. These minorities still live traditional lives in this area of Vietnam. As we setted off from the hotel, and walked through Sapa town to make our way into the hillsides where we would be trekking we were approached by a group of ladies in traditional dress from what I *THINK* was the Dao ethnicity. They started talking to us - they had limited English, and just asked us a few standard questions about where we're from, and what age we are etc. We soon realised these ladies were going to walk with us for the whole trek. At first we were a bit dubious, as no doubt they would want something for this - but my god, did we need these ladies help as the day went on...

The lady, or girl I should say, who walked with me was called Tone (well that's what it sounded like - that's definitely not the correct spelling) and she carried a baby tied around her back! She was only 28 I think, and this was her second child. She told me that we would reach her village by lunchtime. She said that each day she walks the 8ish kilometres to Sapa town from her village, then does the trek route back - all to make a little bit of money each day from tourists like us. She told me that they make all their own clothes - here's a pic of some of the ladies who joined us on the trek:

They're not big smilers...

Anywhoo, once we moved off the road into the dirt-tracks of the hillsides, we soon realised that we would definitely benefit from the company of these little, yet mightily strong ladies. They held our hand as we slid along mud tracks going deeper and deeper into the Vietnamese countryside. And I mean it was SLIPPY! As it had recently rained the dirt tracks were really muddy, so especially on the downhill parts, it was messy to say the least! I, naturally fell on my arse numerous times - much to my lady Tone's delight! ha ha ha!

Apart from the slipping and mud, the views were amazing. Most of the countryside is covered in paddyfields for harvesting rice - although these looked a lot different to those I'd seen around Yangshuo in China. Here's just a few shots of the scenery we soaked up during our trek:

Man plowing his rice with a water buffalo

We stopped in Lao Chai to have lunch. This was where we would say goodbye to all of the lovely ladies, without whose help we would have undoubtedly ended up on our asses a lot more frequently. They didn't ask for money but instead opened up the big baskets they'd been carrying on their backs and tried to sell us some of their crafts. We all bought little wristbands, and I also bought some earings they had made. Others bought little purses and bags. It was a good experience walking with them and getting to speak and spend time with their minority up close.

After lunch, we continued our trek for another 6km. This was a lot easier than the morning's trek as the path was more gravelly and less slippy - still the sun was hot! As Sapa is located in a mountainous region, it's a lot cooler than in Hanoi, so when we set off on our trek it was quite cool and cloudy. However when we all sat down for lunch, we realised the sun had come and bitten us on the ass - lots of sunburn on display.

By the afternoon it was no longer hiding and was beaming down on us! By the time we reached our homestay, where we would be spending the night we were delighted to find out there was a lake just down from the house and all 11 of us descended upon it to cool down for an hour!

We were staying with a local family. They had a separate wooden building beside their main home - which was a simple building, which had two floors. On the top floor, where we would all be sleeping in one large room, they had lots of thin matresses with mosquito nets over them - there was one for each of us. Simple lodgings, but perfectly adequate. After we returned from literally "chilling" in the lake, we sat down for dinner.

The food was really really good! Much like China - the food is simple - either a vegetable or meat stirfried with a few flavours but it's so good! We had noodle dishes, rice dishes, tofu dishes, chicken, pork - we had lots!

Lady of the house preparing dinner

After dinner we thought, in our naiivty, that we would have a couple of beers and hit the hay. Well, it seems the man of the house had different ideas! We were all just sitting around after dinner when all of a sudden out he pops with what look like two water bottles "Rice Wine - DRINK" he demands! Well we couldn't be rude, so as he lined up a shot for each of us, we just all looked at each other, and just took the shot! Trust me it wasn't nice - but hey at least we haven't been rude, and we all obliged! Oh well, as if that was it! Sure the second we drank it the bottles appeared again! Long story short - about 3 shots later we'd finally drank all his rice wine and he was delighted!! As for the rest of us - well it kicked us up a gear or two I'll say that!

Trekkin group - post rice wine

It was around this time that we started playing games! It was all fairly tame until Dai remembered this game he had played before - now I'm a bit hazy on the rules, but all I know is the forfeits were to get your face painted - with SOOT! It all went downhill from here... here's some photographic evidence...

Zara, Jill and Me

Yoni, Hien, Jason and Jill

Nobody escaped unscathed!

The night turned out to be such a laugh and the whole group got on like a house on fire! Still, we had more a-trekkin to do the following day, so I was...wait for it... THE FIRST PERSON TO GO TO BED...at 11pm! Well there's a first time for everything right...

The following morning, we woke up albeit tired, feeling good and looking forward to the day ahead. For breakfast, we were given pancakes with banana, lime and condensed milk! Oh yes that's one thing I should mention. In Cambodia, and throughout a lot of Asia - they don't use UHT or regular milk (never mind me and my skimmed wha!), they use condensed milk - in everything! So if you order a white coffee it will come with a blob of condensed milk sitting in the bottom of the cup and when you stir the coffee it turns it milky - and incredibly sweet! So although this seemed like an odd concoction of ingredients to have with pancakes we were plesantly surprised and used them to fuel the trek ahead!

As we set off on day two, the first 30mins were by far the toughest as it was all uphill - and steep! After this intitial climb, we trekked for a few kilometres through a bamboo forrest - which was acually a lot easier, as although what was udnderfoot was tricky at times and still steep, we were able to hold onto the trees for balance! When we emerged from the forrest we reached a waterfall. Because of the time of year there wasn't a lot of water but the views were amazing! Here's a few pics:

After getting to the top of the waterfall, we took a different route back and before you know it we were finished our trek. We had a simple lunch of Pho - Vietnamese dish of noodle soup with vegtables before a van came to pick us up and bring us back to Sapa town. We returned to the hotel where we showered before beginning the trek the day previously and freshened up before getting some food, and returning to Lao Cai where we once again boarded aan overnight train back to Hanoi. It was an amazing couple of days made better by a great group of people. Definitely something I'd recommend people making time for if travelling around Vietnam.