Hanoi Again

This morning John hopped on one of our host's cycles and biked two blocks down the road, in light rain, to get some more money out of an ATM. We didn't realise our host didn't take cards and got caught a little short, just before our taxi rolled up to take us to the airport. I wish I'd had the camera handy to take a photo of him surrounded by local cyclists.

We had a lovely chatty taxi driver for the trip to the airport. With limited public transport and difficulty of getting between transport hubs we've had to take the odd taxi on this trip. We normally opt for public bus, metro or whatever when we can.

Our short flight to Hanoi was uneventful and our taxi pick-up back to our same hotel in Hanoi was easy. We were warmly welcomed back by the hotel staff. Everyone is just so lovely. The first thing we did was find a filled roll (Vietnamese style banh mi) for lunch, then did a couple of reasonably brisk laps around the lake. It was nice to be feeling perkier and it was fun being back in Hanoi and amongst the chaos. Laps around the lake is a very popular pastime here, usually by the faster mobs before breakfast and the slower strollers in the afternoon. Even more enjoyable was I scored a REAL coffee for the first time in weeks. It tasted like a proper coffee should, and was still much less than a coffee will cost when we reach Melbourne.

The weather here is cold. 17 degrees in fact. The hotel staff say its been cold all week. Google says the weather in Melbourne today was 41 degrees, so I think we are in for a very big shock when we step off the plane in a few days' time.

We are now essentially biding our time before we head to Australia. 

At least she's got protection against dust!

We spent an amusing hour watching traffic today. There really are an unbelievable number of scooters in Hanoi. They are a constant stream all day, every day. Our taxi driver yesterday told us that there are 70 million motorbikes in Vietnam for 100 million people. Saw a record 5 people on one today, while four is quite common. Scooters are vastly underrated as utility vehicles in New Zealand. We have seen, amongst many other things...

• 6 beer kegs
• a 43" flatscreen TV (crossways) and another large appliance in boxes
• a washing machine in its box
• a giant sack of blown-up balloons
• mattresses - many
• 5 people (once)
• a breastfeeding child
• a small girl standing on the platform, reading a comic book propped on the handlebars
• 4 people (countless times)
• multiple sheets of glass

Another odd vehicle-related observance is that a significant number of cars have their bonnets left on the catch rather than fully closed. I even suspect that some have deliberately short bonnets to allow a bit of a gap at the front.

Water puppet show

We got to see the water puppet show this afternoon, and I was agreeably surprised. We were given seats very close to the back, but it was fine, although the legroom for me was so restricted that I had to jamb my knees in the "V" betweens the seats in front, and my feet couldn't even touch the ground! the puppets were very bright and well-worked through their 14 little items, and it was all accompanied by traditional speakers and a band.

Afterwards we went for a walk around the lake. We sat down for a bit, knowing that we would be mobbed by young Vietnamese students eager to test their English. All quite a laugh really.

Conversation practice

15 - 17 December - Sojourn in Hoi An

We have four full days here in Hoi An so are contemplating plenty of R and R. Instead of buzzing around taking in as many sights as we can, i. e. the norm for us, we plan to take it easy. Given we were in Hoi An nine years ago, and did some exploring then, we figure this should be achievable.  We enjoyed Hoi An hugely back then, and have been keen ever since to experience the appeal of this small ancient town again.

Hoi An is a lovely small scale town, especially after Hanoi

So, Day One here was a very relaxed one. The weather was partly cloudy, muggy and hot, so downing a cold beer on the waterfront seemed the best bet. The market was close by,  and this was one of the highlights for us last time. We wandered through,  taking in the large containers of wriggling fish, plucked (dead) chooks with their feet trussed high in the air, huge baskets displaying an array of leafy green veges, trays of freshly sliced rice noodles and stalls groaning with fruit.  As with all local markets, it was great fun to absorb the hustle and bustle.

The delicious greens that add to Vietnamese cuisine

The fish section of the market

Life hasn't changed all that much

Of course, we anticipated that Hoi An would have changed since we were here last, and certainly there are more waterfront stalls, boats for taking tourists out on the river and vastly more motorscooters clogging up the footpaths. It's great to see there are still lots of cyclos around, as we saw very very few in Hanoi. Last time we loved seeing the college girls cycling through the town wearing their gorgeous silk Ao Dai outfits (long ground length tunics with a split up the side and long wide-leg trousers), but we saw none. With their super slight figures, they look stunning. However, our host tells us they are still around, it's just that they cycle to school at 6.45am (way too early for us) and back at 11.15am (somehow we've missed seeing them).  It's good to know that the Ao Dai are still being worn. Thinking about it more, even if we had seen them, they would have been wrapped up in rain jackets.

A temple

Phuc Khien temple

It's been rather a shame that virtually our whole time here, except for the afternoon we arrived (when it was hot and sunny), has been either cloudy and threatening to rain, showery or bucketing down. Hence, our walks into town have had to be timed between showers when possible. It is currently heaving down and it looks too dire to risk heading out to find some lunch. Our homestay is about 10 minutes walk into the centre of town. On our wandering on Monday afternoon we tried one of the numerous little one-person run eateries.  It was so delicious, and the owner so nice, we've been back a number of times since. Of course, it's on the far side of town from us, but worth the walk in jackets and umbrellas. The dishes typically cost the equivalent of $NZ 2.00-3.00. Amazing.,

We have also been trying the local fresh beer (bia hoi) here. It's light, lowish alcohol and quite lagery. As little as NZ21c buys you a good-sized glassful. By contrast, a cup of tea is $NZ1.00, a Vietnamese coffee (filter) $NZ1.40 and an espresso (very hard to find) $NZ3.00. Not a difficult choice!

I've been averaging about one espresso/week, severe rationing on my part but of course not doing me any harm. John has more or less given up coffee altogether, even decaf, because his coffee intolerance/withdrawal seems to be getting more touchy.  Even just one decaf coffee one day, then none the next day, can make him feel seriously unwell. He's having to have the odd beer instead (darn) but also endless cups of tea.

With so much rain, our time here has pretty much been restricted to stepping out late morning to get some fresh air and perhaps look at a few shops, and then a noodle or similar lunch at our little eatery. Back for blogging and so on in the afternoon and then out again early evening. We've criss-crossed the town a number of times under cover of our umbrellas, dodging puddles and scooters. The footpaths are very often used for motorbike parking and for extended shop displays so mostly you end up walking on the road. Drivers are very good though, and tend to go slowly and weave in and around foot traffic very efficiently.

Hoi An can still be very green and peaceful

Hoi An is a town which thrives on its reputation not only as an intact ancient trade town with Japanese and Chinese influences, but also as a centre for tailoring. There are little shops offering tailor services bordering all the main streets, all displaying samples of their wares. Many tourists come to Hoi An to get clothes or shoes made up. Next-day or even same-day service is readily available. We are not tempted, but I have picked up some light everyday clothes from a few of the shops. Of course as soon as you pass their frontage the woman inside will immediately ask you in to have a look around. Even though you turn most down as graciously as you can, apart from a very few grouchy ones most are cheerful and smiley as you move on. We have very much enjoyed the bright and friendly vibe we have received while we've been in Vietnam, and Laos too for that matter. John definitely thinks that the Vietnamese seem happier and more positive than last time we were here, and we were pretty impressed with their determination to get over their still-recent wars and move on even then.

We love the Vietnamese attitude to 'just do it'. They are very enterprising, and seem to tackle anything anywhere, whether it be squeezing a tiny motorbike servicing workshop in between clothes shops, running one of the numerous mobile one-man (actually almost all one-woman) food wagons which provide full hot meals to passers-by, or hawkers selling their wares, e.g. hammocks. They definitely work hard.

A  typical mobile food stall

A very efficient boating system operates from the waterfront. There is always a large boat tied up at the wharf, loading passengers and cargo before setting off either up or down-river, with another heading back.  It is incredible how many motorbikes, cycles, baskets and people they can fit on. As soon as one boat sets off, another slips into its place. There is no fuss, just roll your bike up the plank, find somewhere to stand or sit and before you know it you are mid-stream. Similar to the way the traffic works on the roads, things just seem to mesh and get done, seemingly without any outside control. 

Cross-river ferry

Just imagine trying these sorts of informal methods in NZ, Australia, or any country where orderliness, political-correctness and 'structured-efficiencies' are the name of the game. I'm sure we can learn a grant deal from societies who don't worry about the right or wrong way of doing something, and just use their initiatives to make it work, hopefully safely most of the time. There is still an attitude here of "look out for yourself". Children are left to play by themselves, though they are clearly treasured.

Inside one of the many old houses Hoi An is blessed with

It's been a pity that it's been raining most of the time. We have enjoyed our nice big room, and have spent plenty of downtime reading, writing and catching up on things. We've sat and had the odd hot or cold drink every day, just people-watching. It's really been quite a good finale to this year of constant travelling.

Clearly our meal out on Thursday night didn't agree with us. We both felt distinctly unwell the following morning. Presumably proper food poisoning would have hit us earlier and worse, but maybe some bug that was working through our system. Breakfast didn't stay inside for long, and we skipped lunch, making do with just a banana during the afternoon. A small meal of rice with a few bits of chicken sufficed for dinner. However, we were fine again the following day, though feeling a little feeble. The weather brightened a little and there were only the odd light shower so we wandered around a bit to get some fresh air but spent most of the day resting up. We're ready to move on and head back to Hanoi. The countdown to seeing our family in Melbourne is in full swing.

Sunday 13 and Monday 14th - Hanoi and off to Hoi An

Having seen most of what we wanted to in Hanoi, on Sunday we simply relaxed. After breakfast we did a couple of laps of the lake. Sunday must be the day for formal weddings here, as there were half a dozen couples having photos taken, including one who for some reason had chosen to be photographed on a traffic island in the middle of a frenetic intersection. The men were all in formal Western suits, the women in Western white wedding dresses. It seems a pity when the ao dai local formal dresses are so beautiful.

Scooters are everywhere, often parked in rows with a minder to sort the parking

We lunched at a local pho shop on a corner, where as always we were the subject of some curiosity. A little bit of sorting and shuffling meant we could leave some of our gear at the hotel to be picked up later, and our travel packs were lighter and more manageable - they turned out to be down to 15kg. We have 30 available on Emirates, but the local Vietnamese flights have a 20kg limit.

We'd exhausted our desired items of the restaurant we'd been going to, so we tried another just around the corner, and had a delicious meal. The Vietnamese food tends to be like Thai or Laotian food, but with the flavours a little more subdued and the freshness of the ingredients showing through more. We have to say that the food in Northern Vietnam has been less tasty than we remembered from our trip through the south 9 years ago.

Electrical cabling here is something special to see

We had prebooked most of our transfers so we could avoid the bunfight of airport taxis, and keep costs more sensible - pre-booked transfers tend to be cheaper than locally chosen taxis, more than buses (if they exist), comfortably less than hotel-booked transfers, and very easy. It is very pleasant having somebody waiting at the airport with a sign.

Monday was a pretty easy day of travelling and arrival in Hoi An. We had chosen to revisit it, as we had so enjoyed it on our previous trip. When we got downstairs for our airport transfer to Hanoi Airport, one of the company's staff was waiting for us with a bag of documents to drop off to the driver in Da Nang. She also asked us to take with us a suitcase that another passenger had left behind in Hanoi. We've seen too many Border Control TV programmes to risk carrying somebody else's gear, so politely refused. This was all accepted in very good grace.

The airport run isn't very exciting. However I do enjoy the Vietnamese buildings. There is a legacy here of rates being charged based on the length of the frontage. This meant that buildings went up and not out, and they still do. As a town planner Karen likes the good use of valuable land. A typical house anywhere but villages is at least three stories tall, and up to 6. They are very narrow, normally just a single room wide, so living in Vietnam in an affluent person's home means an awful lot of stair climbing. The range of styles is awesome - from sort-of traditional to unashamedly modern, often in a revised Art Deco or Modernist way. 

A selection of houses

On arrival in Hoi An after our transfer from the nearest airport, Da Nang, we found the Green Coco Homestay was very pleasant. There were cheap beers in the fridge, so we were able to relax on the patio as the sun set behind the ever-present clouds watching the two types of bats, tiny and small, flitting about.

Saturday 12th in Hanoi - Citadel

A little bit of a lie-in this morning and then up for breakfast. On today's agenda were the ancient citadel and flag tower, Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum and museum, One Pillar Pagoda, the wreck of a B52 bomber in a lake and then Tran Quoc Pagoda.Yesterday we walked 17km, today was a little less than that at 12km, but we were pretty knackered by the end of it. The weather has warmed up and it is very muggy, about 26 degrees, with low cloud or fog hugging the city. It's pretty hot work covering the distances on foot, but, as you know, we will always walk when we can.

On foot there's so much to see, and we often go through non-touristy areas which have all sorts of things to see. Like all of SE Asia, there's an immense industry of repair and re-use. Everywhere there are little shops where special frames are welded for carrying things on motorbikes, or repairing bicycles. Industrial parts don't get tossed when their original use has finished - they are retasked into something else.

Re-use of electric motors

We started with a walk to the old citadel, which had housed the rulers of Vietnam for some centuries. We got waylaid by Karen's desire for a good espresso. They have been hard to find, and we have largely given up. Not only are they hard to find, but they are quite expensive - double that of a beer - and not all that good. The standard coffee here is Vietnamese ca phe, which is made in an individual filter system for each glass. The place we stopped was in a street full of beautiful colonial buildings, and possibly catered to an upmarket clientele, judging by the people there. They were in the most part 
well-heeled women out having a coffee morning. Thankfully the coffee lived up to Karen's desire!

The citadel was an interesting area. It had been well-filled with special buildings, temples and the like, but the French decided it was a good place for their garrison and command headquarters, so bowled the lot. Rather sad. There was very little left, but across the road was a very large archaeological dig under cover. The Vietnamese Army took the area over in the 1950s, and it became their headquarters for the American war. By now it was lunchtime, so we sat and ate banana baguettes.

Beautiful ceramic roof fittings

Next stop was Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum. We had decided not to go and see HCM himself, as we would have had to be there at the crack of dawn, and we were not all that keen anyway. The mausoleum is quite a distinctive building. Off to the side of it is a very small pagoda, unique for the single column it sits on. From there through a sketchy-feeling area to Huu Tiep Lake where a B52 bomber was brought down in the "American War". Lake is a generous term, as it is more of a pond. All the same, quite an emotive place and worth the long walk.

The B52 in Huu Tiep Lake

Tran Quoc Pagoda on Ho Tay Lake

Back to the hotel was via Tran Quoc Pagoda on Ho Tay Lake. The lake was rather gross - totally green and murky. All the same, there were plenty of people out fishing. We decided there and then not to have any more fish from the restaurants! The small pagoda complex was quite special, sitting on a mini peninsula out into the lake. On the way back we watched a group of idiot team-bonding workers overrun a fisherwoman's net with their swan paddleboats. She was livid, and it took the paddleboat man a good quarter hour to disentangle the mess. The fisherwoman was in a tiny coracle-like boat, and rowed with little shaftless hand paddles - something we've never seen before.

Back we went home for a laid-back evening.

Friday 11th in Hanoi - Museums and Ballet

At the airport some days ago, we had seen that we would be in Hanoi while The Nutcracker Ballet is having a two night season here, so the first thing we did this morning was head over to the Opera House to book two seats. We bought the mid-price ones, at the equivalent of only NZ$28. We were pretty excited about seeing another ballet (the last one was Swan Lake in the Sydney Opera House).

Today was to be a serious walking expedition. After leaving the Opera House we found our way towards the Hoa Lo Prison. This was built by the French in 1896 and held thousands of Vietnamese until they were liberated by their fellow countrymen in 1954. It was pretty grim, and our opinion of the French and they way they treated the prisoners was very low. We wonder how French tourists must feel when they visit the place, and there are a lot of French tourists here. After the Vietnamese took over Hanoi, they used the prison to hold American pilots shot down during the 1960s and 1970s war with America. Though the information in the prison certainly contains an amount of propaganda, the photos show the Americans were treated far more humanely than the Vietnamese had been by the French.

The prison is a fairly sobering place. From there we headed towards the Vietnamese Women's Museum. This held wonderful displays and information about the various ethnic minorities, family life, women's role and traditional crafts. Again, like the prison, it was well worth the visit. We had hoped to get back to our hotel mid-afternoon so we could have a bit of down time, catch up on the blog and so on but only managed to arrive back, rather weary, just before 5pm. 

Don't you love the warning sign for a missing manhole cover?

We decided to go 'upmarket' for a meal out tonight, paying NZ$5 for a main instead of $2-3 at a restaurant that also does cooking classes. The meal was very nice, especially the morning glory (stir-fried water spinach and garlic) that we remembered so well from our trip to South Vietnam 9 years ago. Unfortunately we had to bolt everything down a bit and rush to get to the Opera House by 7.30pm. Of course we had our Opera House-going clothes on - slightly less traveller-looking than our everyday outfit, but not by much. It didn't matter. There wasn't a dress code.

Our experience with ballet is not huge. We caught Swan Lake at the Sydney Opera House when we were there with Bella years ago, so were very much looking forward to seeing what the National Vietnam Opera and Ballet company would bring us. Unfortunately, we were disappointed. Even though our tickets were mid-range, and we were in a small box slightly elevated above the main floor, we were in the back row of 3, with the seats all level instead of sloping, and with a column cutting off the view of one side of the stage. Looking around, some of the other boxes had even worse views and we even saw some people turn up, see where their seats were, and simply leave. In our case, the two seats in front of us were occupied by children so their heads weren't too high, but I ended up standing the whole time anyway, leaning against the side of the box. John took the seat immediately next to me and had a reasonable view. The performance was less than 1.5 hrs long, including intermission, so I didn't have to stand up for too long.

Look at the size of the lead man!

However, we were also disappointed with the ballet itself. We were expecting a live orchestra but instead it was piped music, with very tinny sound quality. The set was very drab. The members of the ballet were on average, just average, but the lead man was brilliant and put on a stunning performance, showing how much better he was than everyone else. We watched him closely while he was on stage.The synchronisation of the rest of the crew was off far too often. It was a shame that the whole deal was less than what we had hoped but nevertheless it was still fun to have gone, seen the ballet, the costumes and experienced the whole thing. At the price we paid, it was still good value, but we would rather have paid more and got more.

The Opera House is set in one of the more flash parts of Hanoi, and the Christmas lights on the way home were sometimes spectacular. Hanoi really embraces Christmas. It seems incongruous in a communist/taoist society, but decoration is everywhere - in shops, hotels, restaurants and cafes.

Xmas lighting

9 & 10 Dec- Ha Long Bay

We had bought a (fake) Ikea bag the night before our boat trip so we could take it, instead of our two larger wheelie bags, as the boat company's advice was to keep baggage size to a minimum. We dropped our main bags into storage and jumped on the bus. We were first on, and the bus proceeded to loop around the old quarter picking up clients here and there. The driver was excellent. The Old Quarter is impossible. Narrow, clogged by traffic and commerce and people. A bus driver apparently needs 10 years driving experience to be let loose in it.

The trip out to Halong Bay was rather long - 4 hours all up. It was broken by a 25-minute stop halfway, at a huge tourist trap store. We were dropped on one side and had to work our way across through embroidery, furniture, stone-carving, jewellery and snacks. I imagine the prices were absurd - one packet of snacks was three times what we had bought an identical one for the previous day. The driving was less awful than our Bac Ha to Lao Cai trip, but was by no means pleasant. A 2-lane road only means 2 official lanes, but clearly there are room for 3, and perhaps more if it is only motorbikes you are passing. 10,000 people die on Vietnam's roads each year, and it is not hard to see why.

One sad thing to see was the number of schoolkids on electric scooters. We presume it is a bit is a status symbol to ride to and from school on an electric scooter rather than an ordinary bike, though perhaps it is a matter of distance.

The guide, Cuong, was very good. We got a whole load of information on the way out, including that Hanoi was a city of 8 million people, and amazingly, 4 million motorbikes. Saigon has 12 million commuter motorbikes each day! Car taxes are 200% to discourage their purchase.

Karst through the mist

Approaching Halong Bay we could see the amazing karst hills out to sea in all directions. We had no idea they were quite so widespread. Into Halong Bay harbour we passed a huge ferris wheel and gondola towers under construction. At the harbour we hopped out of the bus, and were quickly transferred out to the cruise boat in a smaller boat, while the previous day's tour were shuffled onto our bus. It's quite a business.

The madness of Halong Bay tour boats

Our cabin was very pleasant - nice bed, lovely bathroom, and a small balcony. There was even a bowl of fruit to say sorry for having been changed to a new vessel from our booked one. We had arrived on board at 12:30, and lunch was under way at 1pm.

Our boat - Viola Cruises

A pleasant group of 13 on board. An Argentinian couple (kept to themselves the whole trip), a Darwin army family, a young couple, one single and a mother-daughter, these all North American. The food was excellent. The boat was meanwhile chugging out into the bay, passing dozens of gorgeous islands. Unfortunately the weather refused to play ball. As it has been for days, it was extremely hazy. Objects even only 50 metres away were distinctly hazy. Our first stop was at an island with a huge cave system. It is probably the biggest cave we have been in, and was distinguished by being bone-dry rather than the standard cave fare of mustiness and slippery footing. Some interesting formations, particularly the roof of the cave which had clearly been wave-eroded, then subsequently left high and dry. Quite spectacular to be inside.

Amazing scenery on the way out

Cave interior

Back to our boat, then it anchored off another island where we climbed over 400 steps to the top for some great views of the surrounding bays. The Aussies swam, but the water temperature was marginal as it is winter here now, and we were not tempted. Back onto the boat where we were given a glass of red wine. Our first glass of wine for what seems like months, and we would have been better off not having it at all - sweet and awful. We are looking forward to some Aussie reds in Melbourne. However, it was a nice extra for the company to organise wine and cake for everyone prior to dinner.

No shortage of cruise boats, but it didn't feel too crowded

The group got on really well and I found it invigorating to be chatting with young people, discussing their views on technology, life and society. It was also fun having the two small children on board, 4 and 5 years respectively. They added their own exuberance to the group. Their parents were an Aussie army guy, who had married an East Timorese when he was serving there. They were a nice couple, currently based in Darwin. The American couple consisted of an American guy from Boston and a Filipino/American woman from Seattle, both into IT/marketing. We are so used to seeing a mix of cultures in relationships or as local residents now that if you see two 'Europeans' together it looks quite unusual. They just stand out glaringly as tourists. Like us I guess!

It made me realise how little we mix with younger people, either in France or elsewhere.  It's an energy I'd love to be more of a part of. When we are all staying at Bella's in Melbourne Alastair will be bringing two friends with him between Xmas and New Year, and I think we have around 15 (mostly youngies) for Xmas Day. It will be a lot of fun. 

Dinner was over the top. The chef excelled himself with beautifully presented dishes, including a peacock and a rooster formed with carved vegetables, then sea bass in a fine carrot net. Cuong then showed us a range of card and other tricks, very professional, then explained them. Even with explanation it was still near impossible to get them to work right. There was a threat of karaoke, which neither of us could face, so we headed off to bed at 9:30, followed almost immediately by everybody else. A number of the others had recently travelled by overnight train or bus and were pretty bushed.

We set alarms for the morning so we could get to the tai chi session run on the top deck at 6:30am, along with a good third of the other 50 boats in the harbour. Being our first time trying it, we made a bit of a hash, but it was fun all the same. An early breakfast, then the boat headed to one of the floating villages where there was a choice of kayaking or sitting on a bamboo boat. We chose the latter, as my back doesn't enjoy kayaking. It must be a strange life out there in floating houses - they even have a floating school building.

We had about an hour of time to ourselves while the boat was heading back to harbour. They require the rooms vacated by 9:30 so the cleaning crew, who have been aboard the whole time, can get them all cleaned up by 12:30 when the next guests file on board. It's very much a production-line, but thankfully doesn't feel it. The chef then gave a lesson on carrot flowers and net making. He's very skilled, and although we might try it sometime, we don't expect the same success! Everyone had a go at making fresh spring rolls, and these were a taster before yet another very impressive lunch.

Still plenty of locals doing what they have done for centuries

The islands were spectacular. They extend in every direction as far as you can see, which given the haze was less than normal. Really worth the long drive to come and see. Halong Bay has certainly been a major highlight of the trip for me. I'm a geomorphologist (landform enthusiast) at heart, and just loved getting close up and personal as we cruised close by some of the islands.  There are over 2000 of them in Halong Bay alone. They're similar, but different, to the limestone country we have seen offshore of Thailand and in the Guilin/Li River region of southern China.

The trip back was just the same as the trip out. A different tourist trap, but really no different at all. We were dropped at our previous hotel where we collected our bags, reassembled them, and walked the short distance to our new home for the next four nights, the Hanoi 3B Hotel. This was a little disappointing, as the balcony we had chosen was minimal, and didn't even possess a seat. Thankfully the room itself is fine, and on a value for money scale it can't be faulted. Our first hotel was part of the Halong Bay package so that is why we stayed there. The staff were exceptionally nice, but so are the ones in this hotel. In fact everyone seems to be very welcoming, friendly and smiling. As we've walk around the streets, particularly the Old Quarter where we are based, we've noticed that the local inhabitants tend to be very cheery, always chatting with others, sharing jokes and meals and are quite cuddly with each other. Even when we are approached by women to buy some of the fruit they have in their baskets, they are still mostly cheery even when you politely decline. It's not something we remember from our previous visit to Vietnam, when they were certainly pleasant, but not so cheerful.

We were pretty bushed by the time we got set up in our new digs, even though we napped quite well on the busy ride back to Hanoi. A quick meal and then to bed.

7 & 8 Dec- Bac Ha to Hanoi

We were able to have a easier day today. When we made our bookings, we opted to spend two nights in Bac Ha, instead of rushing off to the next place. This gave us the option of doing a bit more trekking if we wanted to, and gave a bit of leeway if the weather was bad. After yesterday's effort, we felt we'd had a pretty good look around the villages and town. Our hotel owner said Monday was a very quiet day and we didn't need to check out until 3pm when we were taking the last bus back to Lao Cai, to catch the overnight train.

We wanted to get to the train in plenty of time to make sure we were given the correct train tickets this time. Hence a 3pm bus, a 2-hour drive and arrival at Lao Cai at 5pm seemed very generous for a 9pm train departure.

We had enjoyed the bus drive up to Bac Ha, stopping here and there to collect villagers, drop off others, deliver goods to workshops and so on. The hotel owner ensured the bus picked us up outside our hotel for the normal cost of 60,000VND (about NZ$4). Instead of a mid-size bus it was one of the numerous mini-vans that ply up and down between the towns. He collected us a little early at 2:50pm, then spent the next 3/4 hr collecting lots of other people from other parts of town. In the end we had 21 people (including the driver), one baby and plenty of bulky luggage in the van. The latter is licenced to carry 16 total, but 2 of those seats were unavailable, being filled with luggage. We were getting rather annoyed at the number he was intent on squeezing in and the time it took, particularly when he picked up 3 older men who were obviously seriously pickled, presumably on the local rice wine. Two of them bundled into the very back seat, where I was scared they were going to throw up all over our backpacks. Thankfully they just went to sleep, and the one that did throw up was sitting well away from us, nearer the front.

The 40min drive down the mountainside wasn't too bad, the driver taking it reasonably gently (though it didn't stop the throwing up). However, once he got onto the valley floor the driver decided he had time to make up and put his foot down. We were constantly passing bikes, cars, trucks and water-buffalo. John and I were both counting the road markers as we went past, ticking off each kilometre and counting down the time until we arrived in Lao Cai. The driver also had Vietnamese music playing at full level, so we really felt we were taking a drubbing. However, whenever he was on the phone he slowed down and also turned down the music, and thankfully he was on his mobile a huge proportion of time!! In fact, we reckon he had about 40 individual phone calls during the 1.5 hr trip.

He was too soon to be called to account though. As we pulled into Lao Cai two motorcycle police made him pull over and took photographs of his licence plate as he unloaded some passengers. Even though a few had got off on the trip down the valley, he was still overloaded. He had to follow the police to their station where he no doubt had to give some details and was issued with a fine. He was not a happy chappy when he came back to the van. Thankfully it was only about 4 blocks until the train station and John and I could unpeel out of the van and take our leave. A most unpleasant and scary trip. We settled our nerves with a beer.

Next, we trundled our bags to a hotel adjacent to the train station to exchange our voucher for two train tickets. We checked all the details on the tickets and made sure they were for the correct train. Everything looked fine, except the tickets were in the names of two other people. We queried this with two people at different counters and they both said "no problem, it doesn't matter". So, it looks as though the scams with train tickets is pretty widespread, with passenger lists getting tweaked every which way. However, we were pretty certain we had tickets for the right train this time.

We had a light meal and boarded the train with 30 minutes to spare. We were sharing our 4 berth cabin with a young French couple. It did turn out to be better than the one we had been scammed out of, but not very much. The trip was pretty good. This time John slept better than I did. All too soon we got a knock on the door to let us know we were about to pull into Hanoi train station. Everyone stumbled out of the train at about 5:20am, bleary eyed and weighed down with heavy backpacks. It was pretty easy to get ourselves out to the front and find a taxi from one of the reputable taxi companies, instead of being nabbed by one of the myriad of taxi drivers trying to get your attention, and with cars that we knew were likely to have extra-fast meters.

It was only a short taxi ride to our hotel and cost the grand sum of NZ$4. We arrived at 6am. Not surprisingly our room was not ready, but we got a cheery welcome and the receptionist said that we could get into our room at 11am, instead of having to wait until the usual 12 or 1pm. So, back out into the dark, though the city was already on the move. Fruit and vege markets were in full swing on some of the streets and plenty of people were already having breakfast at the numerous sidewalk soup stalls that set up anywhere and everywhere.

We wandered to the nearby lake and joined the mobs walking around it. In fact we did 3 laps, and managed to while away nearly two hours. It was fun watching the 100s of people doing their own version of exercising, whether it was classes of tai chi, individuals doing stretches, runners, power walkers and every variation in between. There were plenty of old men and women sitting or standing and stretching. They seemed a pretty fit bunch. It was impressive.

Early morning stretches

We found a place to have some breakfast and filled in a bit more time. We knocked off another 1.5 hours by getting a haircut each. We were both well overdue. We'd run out of time before leaving Ceret and didn't like the chances of getting short back and sides (for both of us) in northern Laos. In the end, I didn't fare too much better in Hanoi. The hair salon looked good, the young lad who cut my hair spent an hour and was very intense. Irrespective of asking for it not as short as in the photo I gave him, I still managed to get a super short cut, as always seems to happen. However, it seems to have turned out well in the end, just a little on the short side. John's short back and sides looks really good.

Hooray, at 11am we got a lovely room in our hotel. We had to stay in this one because it came as part of the 2-day/1-night/1-night Halong Bay boat trip we had booked. As we settled in we got a call from reception to say a man from the cruise company was here to see us. It turns out that the boat we were due to go on tomorrow is required to be in a maritime exercise, or something, tomorrow. Or so he said. Instead, we have been offered the same cruise on a boat from another cruise line. It seems to be just the same deal, same itinerary etc, but perhaps of a higher standard than ours. We said yes.

A bike is not necessarily for transporting people

So, instead of catching up on a little sleep, we were still feeling OK and decided to do some more wandering. We succumbed to tiredness at around 3pm and came back for a few hours kip. We can leave our big packs here while we are away for the next two days, so we've repacked our gear so we just take a few small bags with us for the overnighter on the boat.

It is so nice to be back in amongst city life in Vietnam. We had loved Ho Chi Minh City 9 years ago and are finding Hanoi just as bright, busy and chaotic. The number of motorbikes and scooters here must be phenomenal. There is still the odd cyclo to be seen but sadly I guess their days are virtually over. We can sit for ages just watching how the traffic merges from all directions at an intersection and somehow gets calmly spat out the other end unscathed. People just stroll across large intersections, or slowly push wheelbarrows laden with wares, seemingly oblivious to the traffic coming at them from all directions. It just works. The speed is low, everyone lets everyone else just slip in and around them, a short honk lets others know where you are and everyone seems to mesh seamlessly. Those who decry Asian drivers should see how good they are here.

Mad loads are still everywhere

Another amazing sight are the sidewalk eateries. They are mobile, totally self-contained, usually with just one attendant, who mixes all the pre-prepared veges and noodles into a soup for you. It has all arrived in 2 baskets on the ends of a bamboo pole. Everywhere you look there are business people and others sitting down on tiny little plastic stools, hunched over a steaming bowl, eating breakfast on the way to work. There must be hundreds of people eating breakfast this way just in the block on our street alone.

Breakfast on the footpath

We looked up TripAdvisor for recommendations for dinner, and chose one not far from our hotel. We sat down, got handed a remarkably restricted menu, and waited. About one minute later we got some bowls of very sticky rice topped with in one case just pork, and in the other a mix of meats. The pork was in the form of a very solid sausage or meat roll, which appeared to have been fried, then cut up. Quite odd, and not altogether to our tastes. We were a little surprised, as it didn't appear to match the reviews. Later we worked out that this restaurant comes in three parts - the cheapy we had sat in, a takeaway slightly more upmarket one next door, and a proper restaurant upstairs. No harm done!

It's now 10pm and time for bed. We have an early start in the morning with a 7:40am pick-up for the 4 hour drive to the coast.

Sun 6 Dec: Bac Ha Market and Village Trek

We must have got our alarms sorted, as they got us up in time for breakfast and the Bac Ha Minorities Market. The hotel is properly full, though we think this only happens on Saturday night with tourists only coming for the Sunday market, and disappearing back to Sapa or Hanoi the same day.

We were down at the market quite early, and many stalls were still finishing their set-up. It certainly is a big affair. There are sections for eating, veges and fruit, clothes, random goods, minorities souvenirs, livestock, meat and a separate section for minorities to sell their own clothing to each other. We started at the meat section, where buffalo and pigs were being carved up, and fish were flapping around in buckets or pools. Behind this was the livestock section, with an area of nice healthy buffalo on sale. Quite a few puppies, a few pigs in sacks, and plenty of poultry. This are sold by weight, so a couple of nice roosters might be bundled together, flapping and squawking, and be set on scales in a big feathery ball to determine their value.

Tobacco and pipes

We had no desire for further souvenirs although much is really attractive, our house is full already, so were not much help to the sellers. Back in the minorities section, there was good trade going on, so it seems that the local dress will not be disappearing for some time yet. Each row had different colours and patterns, presumably a different group or subgroup. Funny to see the matching blue gumboots laid out in the blue section. We found that we had completed the rounds in an hour, so had plenty of time left before our trek to do some catching up on the blog and so on.

The trek went well. We left at 11am, our guide with a backpack of picnic lunch, and us with warm clothes and water. The weather managed to behave itself. We'd had quite a lot of cold drizzle until then, but we had only a few tiny spits of rain for our trek. First stop was a Hmong (the main minority of this area) royal palace. The French supported royalty here and had built a small palace in the 30s for the king. It looked in poor shape, but had actually been renovated earlier this year. It was now back to being stained - a measure of the humid and mostly warm climate we imagine.

Hmong palace

Still for local whiskey, made from corn.

Off into the hills and a steepish climb along a road for a quick visit to a huge orchid farm, where the Chinese (from China) had put in 3.5 million dollars to grow orchid blossoms for export back to China. There was some kind of event on, with myriad cars having passed us to get to the farm, which also had a function centre. Again quite clear that the management here is Vietnamese, and the help is minorities.

Out a bit further and we were properly in farmland. This was where our guide had grown up, with a minorities mother and a Vietnamese father. He is the only boy of his village who had left, and was doing work for a while to save up for another year at university. We soon heard some music, which turned out to be a small group at a funeral. Our guide offered to take us down to the funeral, but we felt this would be far too intrusive and refused. As we were about to leave, somebody came up the path with a bundle on his back, which turned out to be a person all covered up in a rug and in bad shape. He or she was eventually bundled onto the back of a motorbike and presumably taken home - we had left by then, not wanting to intrude. We later learned from our guide that it is traditional for the family to stand non-stop beside the deceased for 2 nights and 3 days, if you can do it, so perhaps what we had seen was a collapsed mourner.

Onward through the fields. Rice can only be grown in summer here, versus up to 3 crops in the south, and there is a huge range of brassica species instead. We moved on to another village, friends I think of the guide, where we were ushered into a home for a cup of green tea. Our picnic lunch was brought out (bread, tomatoes, cheese segments, etc) and we tucked in. It was all a little surreal. The family of the house came in and sat down around us, passed us tea and made conversation with each other. They were totally at ease with us being guests in their home despite a total language barrier. Father had a funny fat bamboo water-pipe into which he, and our guide a couple of times, put in a tiny knob of raw tobacco, lit it with a lighter and took a single puff.

Some beautiful scenery

The rest of the trek consisted of a large loop through the lands surrounding Bac Ha. I think we went through 4 different minorities villages, though there seemed to be few people at home. We had hoped to see people in their traditional dress, but maybe at home they don't wear it as much, or maybe they were all still at the market. That was a little disappointing, but the lovely scenery which we hadn't expected made up for it.

This winter's firewood all ready

At one point we came across a buffalo being slaughtered. All very efficient, but Health and Safety would have been a little concerned back in New Zealand.

As we headed back closer to Bac Ha, we started coming across more tribespeople. They are tiny, really tiny. At one point Karen was right beside one, and she only came up to Karen's upper arm. I'm guessing the women are 1.2m or 4 foot tall. Oddly, we saw very few men at all. The women were out on the roads lugging huge bundles of grass for their animals. The children are out collecting firewood or kindling. Most Vietnamese marry around 20, but the minorities can be married as young as 12 or 13 for the girls (but more commonly 15), but they don't start having families straight away.

Heading home from market

Most families have just one water buffalo according to our guide. He was a nice guy. Very gentle and unassuming, like many of the North Vietnamese. The children have been delightful, often running out with bunches of flowers to give to Karen, accompanied by lots of "hello"s. They love practicing the few words of English they know.

Up until about 10 years ago the villagers all made their way to market on water buffalo or horses, now their are motorbikes everywhere. It's made a huge difference to their lives. Apparently you can buy one or two cheap motorbikes for the price of one good water buffalo. They don't buy Chinese branded bikes because they historically dislike the Chinese but the bikes they do buy are Japanese branded but made in China.

We were well and truly ready to sit down by the time we got back to our hotel at about 3.30pm. A can of beer for 70c went down a treat, even though the weather was still cold. After a rest (are we getting old or what) we went to a little eatery just down the road. All the restaurants here sell the same food, basically a variation on noodle soup or fried rice. For just a few dollars a dish you it is very good value but not particularly flavoursome.

We slept very well!!