January 24th 2011 – Day 45

Same same, but different!



marble mountains



We checked out and left Danang for Hoi An.  It is only 30km away to Hoi An so we took a taxi.  On the way we stopped off at the Marble Mountains, which legend says was formed when a dragon laid an egg there and when it hatched the broken shells grew into the mountains!  Today though, it has been heavily excavated and much of the marble used is bought in from China but the marble work is still impressive all the same.  There are a few pagodas including another multi-tiered tower and caves that can be explored but we did not go to them.

We arrived in Hoi An, a historic trading port in the 16^th & 17^th Century by the afternoon.  After we settled in we walked into the ancient area by the river and it was easy to see why it is loved by many.  The streets are very quaint, the buildings are mainly painted yellow with French colonial style mahogany balconies and Chinese style roofing.  The humidity and daily floods taint the walls with dark damp patches which adds to the old look. 

A Japanese covered bridge crosses a small waterway in the old quarter and there are loads of characteristic buildings, so many that our eyes were everywhere!  The river is lined with boats of different sizes but they all have eyes painted on the front to protect them from the evil water serpents. 

There are over 400 tailor shops which is quite a few considering it is a small town, and every one you pass try to get you in.  The favourite saying in Vietnam is 'Same, same, but different' which we have heard many times especially here in Hoi An.  Many of the buildings have silk lanterns hanging around (you can see them being made in some of the shops) and unfortunately for us, on the 14^th day of every lunar month the town shuts off the electricity and the whole town is lit up with even more lanterns, we missed this by one day!  Still, they have plenty of lanterns around and were getting ready for the Tet New Year Festival so it was still very pretty at night, we didn’t feel like we missed much...

The night time became a romantic place to stroll along the river (avoiding the parts where the river rises above its banks and floods the streets each night) and the people are extremely welcoming. 

We ate at the local food quarter at a place owned by a Mr Linh and his family where his sister, Yip and her aunt Bai (not sure if spelling is correct) were overjoyed to say the least that we chose to eat at their stand.  Bai gave me a few dabs of methol oil to try that she had (it was dark green in a very small bottle that smelled like it had eucalyptus in as well which I thought may be a good mozy repellent too).  The food as usual was great, we tried the local dishes called ‘White Rose’ (pork and shrimp balls surrounded by a large soft noodle in the shape of a rose!) and ‘Cao Lao’ (fat noodles with pork and crispy squares that tasted like pork scratching, yummy).  Local beer is just 16 pence a pint too and rounded off the night nicely.

With water comes mosquitos, and we were bitten in the night even though we sprayed ourselves to stop them.  We woke up to big, itchy lumps on our legs that drove us mad for hours at a time.   

We walked out of Hoi An’s main area and passed people working in paddy fields and homes with chicken coops and cattle tied to stakes in the ground.  Everyone waves and says hello as you pass their homes so you really feel comfortable wandering out of the main areas.  We came to an open road a guessed we had gone as far on foot as we wanted to and walked back down a dirt track along the river.

Back in the town we stopped off for a bite to eat, the lady who owned the restaurant we tried recommended the fish in banana leaf and we were glad she did because it was excellent.   We heard drums close by as we ate which turned out to be a Buddhist shrine that had monks in orange gear and other people decked out in white clothes and white headbands (looked like they all had bandages due to head injuries!).  We eventually caved in and were drawn in to a tailors that was recommended to us...We both ended up ordering some clothes which we had to go back the next day for a fitting (too good to miss - we got tailored outfits including for our forthcoming wedding, even though the date isn’t set yet!).  Our clothes were adjusted and was ready for collection after just 48 hours of picking the design and fabric!

Before we collected our outfits we went for a cooking lesson.  This was a lot of fun, we had the restaurant to ourselves and we chose what we wanted to cook.  A lady demonstrated what to do and then we copied.  We chopped, mixed, stuffed and cooked (jotting down notes along the way) – Vietnamese fried spring rolls with pork and shrimps, whole fish stuffed with chilli and lemongrass wrapped in a banana leaf cooked on charcoal, stir fried vegetables in garlic and beef noodle soup.  After we cooked it, we ate it...it was delicious even though I do say myself (Waffles spring rolls were better than mine though)! 

We collected our clothes and dropped them off at the hotel and had a rest for a while.  We ate at the local food quarter one more time at a stall next to the first one we went to.  Bai fromMr Linh's came up to me and gave me a hug and some more perfumed oil to put behind my ears! She kept shaking my hand, smiling and patting me on the back for ages...the folk here seem very affectionate.

The next day we went on a trip to My Son which is a collection of about 70 Cham Towers built over 1,000 years ago.  The Cham structures were built by Hindus from India and include statues of gods  – Shiva, Vishnu & Apsara etc.  




relics with hole where bomb dropped in 1969

 Our guide (who was a really funny character - very loud, abrubtly spoken and told amusing tales) told us that in 1969, the Yanks bombed this area believing that the Viet Cong were hiding there so only a few structures remained intact.  His father was a VC and said that he was one too!  After he ridiculed the Americans at war for always getting it wrong he asked if  there were Americans on the tour (Not many put their hands up)!  

After we spent a couple of hours walking around (avoiding the mined areas) we took a boat back to Hoi An, stopping off at a village that specialised in carpentry – there they were making boats, huge mahogany statues and mother of pearl inlayed furniture.  The woodwork was very intricate and some used their feet to hold the wood as they worked.

Our last full day in Hoi An and yet another power cut for 12 hours this time (lost count how many now).  Luckily, the generators allow the internet to work in the reception so we went down and booked 2 hotels in Ho Chi Minh City (one cheap for a week and one for the Tet  New Year a bit more up market with a swimming pool - 4 1/2 star so we are hoping it is good).  

us with our new found friends Yip & Bai
(me wearing the shawl Bai gave me earlier)

Waffle fancied a beef hotpot (cooked at the table) at our favourite local food stall so we went there again and as we walked past the other stalls (about 25 of them) one lady asked us to eat at her stall.  We said we were eating at Mr Linh's at the other end and before we knew it the message was passed down the stalls to let everyone know we were going there!  (Even though they are all individual stalls, they all help each other and do not fight for competition, they even help each other with the food!).  As we got to Mr Linh's, Bai greeted us with open arms and gave us more presents to take away...I had already been given a pashmina shawl earlier in the day by her and Waffle now was given 2 silk ties.  It did not stop there either, as we ate our food she then pushed 2 small boxes into my hand which turned out to be bottles of the perfumed oil she had been dabbing on me everytime she saw me.  Then she bought some sugared peanuts from a street hawker and put some in a dish for us and at the end of our meal she gave us some fruit.  They made us feel very at home there and to see this hospitality was extremely humbling and very sweet. As we had chatted to them about their family we found out that Yip's husband works long hours as a chef in a local hotel for only about £46 per month! 

From today it’s going to be hot, hot, hot...yippee!!  We fly teatime with Jetstar Airways for just £15 each...just hope it isn’t like Ryanair but it is only for 1 1/4 hours.  We will be sad to leave this town, it is so beautiful and the people have been very friendly...we will have some great memories of our stay here...

(all our photos have moved to our 'Windows Live' account as we maxed out the flickr pictures on our free account!)

 so here is the link to the latest ones on Windows live - Hoi An pictures

January 17th 2011 – Day 38

No dice!

Waffle at war museum

The outer part of the Citadel was a little disappointing.  The streets were nowhere near as interesting as in Hanoi and had little to offer tourists, maybe Hanoi has spoilt us a little but we expected the streets to have ancient buildings being as though it was an ancient city!  The only thing that we came across of interest was the war museum which had US army tanks and artillery from the ‘American War’ from 1965 to 1973 (or as we know it, the Vietnam War). 

Remedy for a headache maybe?

After leaving the Citadel we walked along the river lined with dragon boats.  The original dragon boats were used in masses along the river at festival times but these ones were just used to take tourists to some of the pagodas further down the river, a bit of a tourist trap to be honest.  Shops faced the river which had some interesting medicine shops selling all kinds of herbs and animals cured in large jars – frogs, snakes, ginseng roots etc.  They looked like some kind of mad scientist’s laboratory.

train track through Hue

The next day we decided to find the train station on our side of the river.  We got our tickets, seats 1 & 2 on coach 1 on the 14^th (sounds simple but I will explain more later!).   To our surprise we found the south side of the river had some better streets to amble along, they seemed more like what we expected in the citadel and were peppered with pagodas. 

tower at Tu Dam Pagoda

There was one (Tu Dam Pagoda) which is used by the monks for training today and has a multi-tiered high tower which is the official symbol of Hue.  Each tier is said to represent the stages of ascension to heaven by Buddha.  Here, a monk burned himself in 1963 in protest to the oppressive administration (not the monk however who drove the famous blue Austin to Saigon to set himself alight also in 1963 though).  A smaller river crossed through this area with a local food market to one side including live birds in small baskets (brings a new image of ‘chicken in a basket’!).  

'chicken in a basket'

We ate at a recommended local restaurant called Nina’s Cafe in the evening.  This was hidden in a backstreet, it had a roof but no walls!  The food was very tasty and larger portions than some of the restaurants so we were very stuffed by the end of it.  Huge bowls of rice soup, squid with pineapple, grilled minced pork wraps, spring rolls, shrimps in garlic...and the obligatory sticky rice of course! 

Back at the hotel, I had a bit of a mishap...all the bathrooms have a shower hose next to the toilet which I wanted to use to wash away our muddy footprints.  As I tried to pick it up the shower head broke off and freezing cold water jetted up spraying all over the bathroom and me with no tap to turn it off!  Waffle came to my rescue after he heard me shouting him in panic and turned off the main water tap to the room.  I looked like a drowned rat!  Waffle told the receptionist what had happened, a guy then zipped off on a motorbike and returned with a replacement hose and it was fixed in a jiffy.

So, the day of the train...We boarded the train, coach 1 and looked for seats 1 & 2...The coach was very narrow and we had our big backpacks on that made it very difficult to manoeuvre.  The first seats were 63 & 64 then 3 & 4, 5 & 6 etc.   So where were our seats?  We were being pushed forward by the locals (they always push and pull, you have to get used to that) and the numbers just kept going up, we got about 3/4 ‘s of the way down the carriage when the ticket inspector saw our tickets and pointed back the way we came!  We turned around, knocking people over with our backpacks and edged our way passed people coming from the opposite direction back to the start...The same inspector, now behind us looked at our tickets again and point back the way we came...we were getting very agitated and hot at this point and an old lady pushed Waffle out the way making him very annoyed.  We had no choice but to turn around again and go back up the carriage.  Eventually we found our seats next to 61 & 62, how crazy is that!  A local guy helped us put our bags up on the racks which were full by that time and we finally got to sit down.  There was a family in front of us with several large shopping bags full of food enough to feed the whole carriage, they did not stop eating all the way!  The couple next to us who could not speak any English at all also found this amusing and they tried to chat with us along the way, laughing about the hungry family and trying to find out where we were going etc.  They also got the food trolley guy to show us the food he had hidden under newspapers so that we could eat (a favourite Vietnamese pastime).  He showed us a nice chicken drumstick and said ‘Chicken?’ so we said OK...he then put the drumstick back and passed us 2 very small roasted birds about the size of quails with heads and claws still attached!  Not quite the drumsticks we thought we were going to have.  This is something we are still trying to get used to..however much you think you understand what to expect i.e. seat numbers and food etc, it is always a surprise!  Just as we were about to eat, the train went through a long tunnel and plunged us into complete darkness.  The ride took us through several long dark tunnels and popped out the other side exposing some stunning views of the coast and the mountains and we could see the weather changing, getting sunnier!

football on streets of Danang

 We arrived at Danang and the sun was shining as we walked towards our hotel stopping off along the way for a coffee and to check our map.  Eventually we got to our hotel which was styled in a Louis XIV French style with ornate plasterwork, vintage telephones and chandeliers, very nice!  At breakfast a man who looked like Charles Bronson (although loads here seem to resemble Charles Bronson around the city – we have spotted at least 5 lookalikes!) passed us the menu in Vietnamese with a crude English translation that was amusing and confusing – what is bread sunny, wheat incited and waivers?  As it turns out bread sunny is a baguette and two fried eggs, waiver is a beef egg noodle soup and we haven’t found out what wheat incited is but we know it has beef in it! 

Danang bridge at night

Danang isn’t really a tourist area, it is a large city that was used by the US Army for R & R during the war with beaches stretching all the way to Hoi An and loads of wide streets full of tailors, electricals, and all manner of shops.  At night the streets are filled with light displays like Blackpool, I guess this is in preparation for Tet New Year.  The bridge is lit up as well but these lights look more permanent and makes an evening stroll along the river very pleasant.

Central Vietnam has a Cham community still in existence (The ancient Cham empire from 1,600 years ago is Hindu influenced which is apparent in the statues and artwork seen in some of the restaurants and some temples).  We went to a museum in Danang containing many artefacts depicting Hindu type gods, demons and dancing girls. 









how long is that trailer!!



The day we chose to go to the beach was not the best of days weather wise.  We crossed the bridge and headed to the coast but as we got closer the rain started to beat down.  From what we saw, it was lined with palm trees (not much else) and the waves looked good for surfing but we didn’t stay around and trudged back to the city soaking wet.  On the way back we saw a guy on a motorbike towing a 40ft trailer with a corrugated metal sheet on it... it’s amazing what and how they transport stuff here! 

There is a large supermarket near our hotel so we thought we would do a bit of local food shopping!  We bought some precooked meals and a roast chicken to snack on.  It gave us chance to see what they eat at home although the chocolates are poor and the cakes are worse, I do miss Cadbury’s chocolates...

One thing we are noticing is how much more friendly they as we move more south are (even though they are still friendly in the north) but on the other hand how little English is spoken here as well.  The people and especially all the children say hello and wave but they can’t understand us at all! We have had our 7^th power cut since we arrived in Vietnam and had to walked down to breakfast on the 2^nd floor in the dark on some floors, we are on the 7^th!  We intended to stay in after breakfast to book a flight to Ho Chi Minh City ready for the Tet New Year but as we have no internet I thought I would write our blog until it comes back on. We are off to Hoi An for about a week tomorrow (only 30km away) but we wanted to book the flight today as travelling is busy this time of year so I hope it comes back on soon, we have been running on generators all morning.

Power is back on now so we are going to book our flights online before we go out around town...

January 10th 2011 – Day 31

Tribes to Imperials, A 1,000km Journey South



Our last look at the Tribal Villagers in Sapa



The last few days at Sapa the weather hadn’t changed all but the occasional lift in the clouds for a few minutes.  We just wandered the backstreets of Sapa and at night enjoyed the fantastic food in the cosy restaurants. Hidden away in the backstreets was the local market, geared more towards food and provisions for the local people.  It was possible to choose food from some stalls and they would cook it for you, various butchered meat (including the heads which helped identify them) lay on big tables and fish swam in small tanks ready for the chop.  Stalls were tightly packed with masses of edible stuff half of which we hadn’t got a clue what they was!  As we squeezed through the market different smells filled the air, incense, spices and fish sauce etc.  



Cute puppy guarding the door!



One of the backstreets led us down passed small homes on to a narrow muddy and rocky track, we ventured off to see where it led...the best path back had two big dogs who didn’t look too happy with us (not the one in the picture by the way, he was just cute) so we had to find another way back (muddier and steeper) but we managed! Not far from our hotel we ate at an Indian restaurant with some really tasty food, the only down side was the price (nearly double other restaurants!) but it was a nice change from our usual cuisine though. 

The train journey back to Hanoi was not as good as the first, the air-conditioning was a bit erratic blurting out hot air for a few minutes then freezing cold the next for 11 hours.  As we were in the top bunks the air blew right at us so we did not sleep so well.  Feeling very tired we returned to our hotel in Hanoi (Asia Palace) by 5am.  We were greeted by a man who was kipping on the floor of the reception, he let us in and went back to 'bed'!  Later, the Director, Quinn, let us freshen up in a room before the check in time and gave us a free breakfast while we waited for our room to be cleaned.  Every time we met Quinn he always offered us good advice, he was very friendly and even bought Waffle 5 packets of cigarettes as a gift when we left. This hotel and the staff are excellent! 

 

war memorabilia
 for sale along river



The train to Hue was about US$48 each so we opted for the sleeper bus instead at a third of the price...it was a 14 ½ hour drive from 7pm through the night.  After reading some bad reviews about some companies who do this run we opted for Hoang Long buses.  It turned out to be a good choice.  The bus had 3 rows of small bunk beds that can be adjusted so you sit up in bed and there were some LCD TV’s as well (with a Jackie Chan film on...surprise, surprise!).  The bus stopped a couple of times and changed drivers so Waffle had chance to smoke.  The roads were bumpy at times but we managed to sleep for most of it.  The driver turned on Vietnamese pop music at 6.15am which bewildered us for 15 minutes until we realised was our alarm call to get up for breakfast shortly after at a road side cafe (we didn’t know this was included in the price).  Another 3 hours later we arrived at Hue bus terminal. 



Dragon boat to take tourists up the Perfume River in Hue

Still trying to save more money we walked to our hotel with our rucksacks so when we got there we were glad of a welcome cup of tea and a sit down in the reception while they checked us in.  Our room was big (a refreshing change from Hanoi’s small rooms) and had a balcony.  At £10 a night with buffet breakfast, we were very happy.  We were in the new part of the city to the south of the river where the streets were wide and the traffic less busy but most of the attractions were on the other side.

The first day we were there we rested then stayed on the south side of the river for a typical Hue menu on a restaurant/art gallery!  Similar to Hanoi dishes but there were some new dishes to try like tasty Banh khoai (beansprouts and prawns wrapped in crepe and fried served with peanut sauce) and a ‘Hue soup’ for dessert.  This the waiter told me, had potatoes in...yummy? No, not one of their best dishes as a Westerner.  It was a gloop that tasted like sweetened mashed potato.  It possible had red kidney beans in which made it a deep red colour.
  

Entrance to Imperial Citadel



The next day we crossed one of the bridges to the north of the City, where we were confronted by the Ancient Citadel. We paid to enter the Citadel and spent hours walking through the war and fire damaged complex which was once home to the Imperial Emperors.   A lot of the buildings have been destroyed and although they have rebuilt some of them you could clearly see bullet holes in the walls that remained and relics of buildings not restored.  It was drizzly midday (as Hue is one of the wettest Cities in Asia we expected it) but we carried on through the Citadel and it’s gardens/courtyards. 



It is apparently similar to the Forbidden Palace in Beijing (we will find out later on this trip) and was the Vietnam’s administrative centre. Entry to the Citadel was through secured gates depending on status as to which one they would use such as the  Senior mandarins, court officers and civil servants would have entered by the ‘Ngo Mon’ (noon gate) the main gate.  We strolled through the courtyards and saw the Thai Hoa Palace (throne hall) where the Emperor would meet foreign rulers and and other dignitaries. 

Imperial headdresses

Centrally is the ‘Tu Cam Thanh’ (Forbidden Purple City now just a grassy area destroyed by fire) where only members of the royal family, the Emperor’s concubines, senior mandarins and officers were allowed. Inside was various palaces and the Emperor’s private apartments but you would have to use your imagination.  






Inside the Imperial Citadel



We were shattered!  Our legs were aching as we made our way back to the hotel.  Thinking we had covered the Citadel we wondered where else other than the tombs just outside of Hue we could explore, until we reviewed the map and realised that we had only walked the Imperial Citadel!  Basically, there is a huge walled citadel where most of Hue’s residents live and work and in that is the Imperial Citadel and within that is the Forbidden Purple City (only the latter two we had explored so far)...A citadel within a citadel within a citadel!  So, tomorrow we are off to see more...



Bullet holes?

  

One of the damaged internal gateways



(see more pictures on our flickr pages)

January 1st 2011 – Day 22

Up in the clouds...

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!!

Our breakfast at Asia Palace  was fantastic...plenty of choice on the buffet both western and Vietnamese dishes.   We chatted to two young local guys,( one was a Director of the hotel!) who gave us advice on places to see in the country and told us we could leave some of our stuff there while we went to Sapa.  So after brekkie we rearranged our backpacks and took out a few kilos of stuff we didn’t need for the next few days and checked out.  We decided that as we had to return once more to Hanoi we would come back to this hotel too.  It was great to be back in Hanoi...we love it...we spent most of the day ambling around the lake and the up market shopping malls selling western stuff like Gucci and Armani and the unusual but hugely expensive Ginseng for sale at about £200 a box! (not that we had the money to buy any of it).

Back at the hotel they arranged for the taxi to the train station at 8pm which came in less than a minute, so we set off.  It was a bit confusing when we got to the station as we had to find the place that exchanged our vouchers for real train tickets and there were masses of people everywhere but eventually we found the ticket booth sidled between the main station and the building to the platforms.  The train was in so we climbed onboard the coach 5 (numbered on our tickets) at platform 7.  Our tickets said we were in berths 11 and 12 which turned out to be top bunks with storage for our backpacks above the door.  The beds were firm but comfortable.  An elderly lady had the bunk below Waffle and a middle aged man below mine, both Vietnamese and friendly.  We were excited, like kids that had never been on a train before!  We set off dead on time, passing the streets we had walked before.  Eventually we both nodded off to sleep.

I woke up briefly a couple of times but Waffle was out like a light...8 hours later the old lady banged Waffles bunk from below to let us know we had arrived so we grabbed our stuff and stepped onto the dark, misty, cold platform feeling quite refreshed.  A woman was holding our names on a board for us to join her minibus to Sapa.  The views as day broke were breath taking...We drove along winding roads through the Lao Cai Province for 1 ½ hours passing waterfalls cascading into muddy yellow rivers, rice paddy fields rippling down the mountains like waves and the occasional small thatched house with buffalo grazing along side.  As we travelled higher up the mountains we broke through the clouds which lay flat like huge lakes of white mist between the mountain ranges and blue skies.  The red sun shone hazily rising from behind one of the peeks...These views are the most spectacular ones I have seen! 

Arriving in Sapa the local tribes woman swamped the minibus trying to sell their blankets and silverware.  Each one wearing the colours and costume specific to their own native tribe which apparently is not a tourist gimmick, they do actually wear it all the time!  Being firm but not rude we said no and entered our home for the next 6 days.  We were staying in a cheap guesthouse about 50 metres from all the hotels and main areas...a young girl named Bich checked us in showed us our room and told us we could go for breakfast when we were ready.  Our room was very basic but with a balcony overlooking the mountains, and directly in front of us was Fansipan Mountain (nicknamed ‘Fancy Pants Mountain’ by Waffle!), the highest mountain in Indochina.  By the time we settled in and went for breakfast the clouds swept across hiding the view completely and as we ate our warming beef noodle broth the clouds blew gently through the windows into where we were seated...

After breakfast we walked into town which was larger than I expected.  The scenery changed quickly as the mist and clouds moved around.  The chill in the air disappeared as the day progressed and the sky  turned to a clear bright blue.  We walked around Sapa Lake (which I called Swan Lake as there were swan shaped boats for hire!). There were restaurants, cafés and bakeries selling hot chocolate, baguettes and French style cakes.   It reminded us of scenery in Central Europe with lakeside chalets, French Colonial buildings set around mountain ranges.  It was very beautiful...A small market run by the miniority tribal folk centres Sapa daily selling trinkets, knives, bow and arrows, silk ware and intricate carvings in stone etc.  


 Walking around the town is difficult to do alone...small woman and children follow you everywhere you go. An old lady seems to have taken to me and has caught me a few times, she always looks happy and laughs a lot as she chats but I know she just wants to sell me something. 


As the evening drew in the mist rejoined the town and it’s streets, reducing visibility to about 50 metres.  We found a restaurant with an inviting log fire in the centre and hunkered down for a Malaysian curry and sizzling pork with chilli and lemongrass served on a hot skillet.  Returning to our room we turned on the electric bar heater as the night got quite chilly and doubled up the duvets (the balcony door is very warped and doesn’t close properly at the top, a gap you could put your finger through!).



The nights are cold so all the windows were covered in condensation in the morning.  Standing on the balcony we watched our views go from totally clear to a complete cloud cover in about 20 seconds! 

Went to the bakery for a coffee and a chocolate tart for lunch. My old lady friend joined us again for a walk and a chat!  Waffle had 5 children walking with him for about half an hour asking now and then ‘buy from me...buy from me’ (their English is very good and are polite but it can get a bit annoying after a while) so we tried to escape from them by going into the Tourist Information Office...  They were still outside after 20 minutes so he told them to go away...!  Got a map of the area to do some trekking to the local villages and waterfalls on our own over the next few days.

Got a motorbike!!  We decided to explore the area by motorbike so we hired one from our hotel for US$7 a day.  The first place we went to was Cat Cat village, you have to pay 30-60p to enter a village to help support them or to pay for their gold teeth they all seem to have!  The road there was winding and steep downwards with great views of the valley below.  We came to a dead end for our bike with a suspension bridge leading to a small waterfall which conveniently had a coffee hut so we stopped there to review our map and grab a coffee. 

Trying to go back up the steep path down proved a little difficult with our low powered bike and us fatties which was highly amusing to the locals!! (I had to get off and walk as Waffle struggled to get it uphill)...Once we got about 50 metres I got back on and we rode off down road to another village. 

The roads got narrower and rougher, we bounced along through the village of Sin Chai. Children were playing and various farmyard animals grazed by the roadside including what we think were Vietnamese pot bellied pigs.  A boy was riding a buffalo but when I got my camera out he slide down the other side and hid.  We rode back to the hotel for a quick stop and planned our next run to Ta Phin to the north. 

This was home to the H’mong and Dao Tribes.  .  It was great on the motorbike...just the two of us and no other tourists to be shuffled along with on the excursions they offer here.  We occasionally saw the tourists looking very breathless walking up the steep roads with a guide and at Ta Phin the tourists that arrived by minibus were herded like cattle through the village and told to hurry up.  This village was larger and more geared for tourism, the villagers persisted with trying to sell their wares but as a new bus arrived they stormed that and left us alone. 

Still eager to carry on we then rode to Thac Bac Silver Waterfall.  This was a long ride and the mist started to appear on the landscape chilling our fingers but it was worth it.  The waterfall wasn’t that spectacular, quite high but only a few feet wide but the ride was the best bit for us.  It would be dark soon so we set off back to the hotel ready for a bit of a warm and then dinner.

 New Years Eve was very misty with no visibility at all for the whole day so after an excellent meal bought some rice vodka, red bull and a few indulgent cakes from the patisserie.  We just crashed out on the bed watching movies, pigging out and drinking the new year in...that is after the 1 hour power cut when we drank by torchlight (knew it would come in handy!).  Power cuts happen all the time as we are finding out but they are only for a short time.

It’s New Years Day 1/1/11...and it’s still thick of mist around us so we haven’t got any plans today other than booking our train back to Hanoi and on again to Hue in a few days, the ancient capital city with a lot of military history so Waffle will love that...

CHUC' MUNG` NAM MOI'

(Happy New Year in Vietnamese).

(more pictures on our Flickr pages)