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)



December 26th 2010 – Day 16

Christmas on an Island!!

It took three hours to Cat Ba Island, two buses and a fast boat. It was a bit awkward to get on the boat as you had to get on a car ferry and climb over the railings onto it, with our backpacks and rucksacks this was challenging.  Finally, we took another one hour ride on a bus across the island to Cat Ba Town.  The whole journey was not bad at all, we got to chat to other backpackers from France, Scotland & New Zealand picking up some hints and tips.  When we arrived in Cat Ba Town, our hotel was almost immediately opposite and again we were on the 4^th floor (getting used to those stairs at bit more).  We wasn’t expecting much as we only paid £4.30 per night but the room had two double beds, it was clean with a shower room, wifi, cable TV and a sea view if you looked over the rooftop of the building next door. 

The harbour was filled with boats and the streets  were lined with restaurants, hotels, pearl sellers and cheap massages (not the seedy type though).  After freshening up, we grabbed a bite to eat and took a stroll along the harbour until we found the bar (called the Flightless Bird)  run by a New Zealander who was on our bus. We met up with him and sipped loads of beer and chatted to him all night about Vietnam and it’s history and it’s customs.  It was a great night, we learned a lot about the Vietnamese wars and their relationship with China (didn’t realise they did not get on that well!).  We also met up with Mr Tong, recommended by Graham, the Kiwi as the best tour operator on the island so we said we would pop in and see him the next day.

The next morning, we were a little worse for wear (too many Tiger beers) and it took us a while to recover but we managed to get to a nice restaurant called the Green Mango for breakfast.  Waffle went for the American breakfast and I had delicious French toast made with brioche (big door stop wedges of brioche soaked in egg, fried and topped with cinnamon and icing sugar).  Great way to make us feel better!  We walked right along the harbour to a small beach in front of a large hotel,  As the sky was hazy, you could not see much of the karst landscapes but it looked a nice spot to wind down.  We had dinner at one of the Vietnamese restaurants by our hotel.  It was nice but we felt that the size and quality did not quite match to Hanoi and it was slightly more expensive.  We decided not to drink that night.

One day till Christmas so after our second breakfast at the Green Mango (because it was so nice and filling) we went to find Mr Tong’s tour shop (Cat Ba Ventures) and booked a boat excursion around Halong Bay for the next day and got him to book our train tickets to the Sapa Mountains (an eight hour journey by sleeper cab through the night from Hanoi) for the 28^th.  As there isn’t that much to do we ventured off to seek the secluded beaches.  There are three that are accessible walking from the town so we sat ourselves down on one of them.  Ahh...Christmas Eve and we were sitting on a beach....and to top it all we were going to spend Christmas Day on a boat around one of the World Heritage Sites, Halong Bay...As the night drew in the lights on the boats were turned on and filled the Harbour, not quite the Christmas lights we were used to but very nice all the same.

Christmas Day at last. 

We got up early and walked to Mr Tong’s office, we were a little early but his shutters were down and we remembered he told us he was going for a Christmas Eve buffet night the night before.  We wondered if he was hung over and wasn’t coming.  Eventually he did arrive, he was a little worse for wear but at least he made it.  To get to the boat we had to saddle up with two guys on motorbikes so we zipped along the island to Cat Beo Harbour...that got some fresh air in our lungs. We walked a plank to join about a dozen people already sitting on a smallish wooden boat.  The boat cruised past a floating fishing village and loads of the small striking islands this area is famous for.  The guides/crew could not speak English at all so as we pulled up to one of the larger islands (we presumed it was the surprise caves Mr Tong told us about) we all guessed we had to get off.  It turned out to be the caves which were very big and lit up with different coloured lights...it was full of stalagmites and stalactites...it was very beautiful. 

Getting back on the boat, lunch was served.  An array of tasty Vietnamese dishes cooked by a lady as we cruised the islands.  We went a little further and stopped again to get into kayaks to go round at your leisure for about an hour then off again to Monkey Island!  We were told not to get on that island as the monkeys (which are not native and have just been put on there for tourists) bite and scratch.  Remaining on the boat we watched the others get off and stroll along a small beach looking a little bored but no monkeys.  We were more entertained by our boat crew arguing with another boat crew as the two boat banged into each other.  

The tour finished at about 5pm so we had time to get ready and go for dinner (at the Green Mango again!).  Waffle ordered...wait for it...burger and fries, chocolate fondant with raspberry coulis, crème anglais and ice cream...and I had deep fried seafood with chips, mango sticky coconut rice with a mango shooter!  I know that doesn’t sound like a typical Christmas Day dinner, but it was delicious and we enjoyed every morsel!! 

We checked out at our hotel and did the reverse journey back to Hanoi (bus...boat...bus...bus!).  We didn’t pay much attention to the journey as we had done it before with the exception of our first witness to two traffic collisions on a major road.  Both involved motorcyclists.  The first was with a lorry, the cyclist was lying in the central reservation but we could not tell how badly he was injured.  The second, less than 30 minutes later was definitely serious.  The motorcycle was wedged, still upright in the back of a bus, and there was blood and stuff on the road...Waffle saw the man/woman’s face covered in blood and looked messed up.  He was sure that he saw the cyclist weaving between all the traffic some minutes before. An hour later we arrived back in Hanoi and to be honest, we have grown to love it already and were excited about being back.  Our hotel was more up market than the last one as we booked through laterooms and got a good deal on a 3 star hotel the other side of the lake.  We were on the 4^th floor again!  Paying just £5 more a night added the luxury of a softer (enormous) bed, tea/coffee machine, buffet breakfast, better toiletries, a large shower cubicle and a lift!!  If we were just on holiday we would be happy to pay this and more every night but we are on a tight budget so every penny saved helps us extend our trip (here’s the accountant in me...£5 extra spent on accommodation each day for a year is £1,825!!) but it is nice to take advantage of the facilities occasionally and it was Boxing Day. 

We collected our vouchers for the train tickets to Sapa and went to a seafood restaurant for dinner.  Another budget blowing meal at £25!  Unknowingly to us we ordered a strange selection of food apparently.  I was told by the waitress and again by the head waiter to order 2 of my appetisers instead of 1 as they were very small and no-one ever had just one.  Waffle had a very puzzled look by the waitress when he ordered fried rice with his garlic scallops main course.  As usual the food came in no particular order, we are getting used to that.  Stranger still, I believe that every member of staff including the chef came out to watch us eat!  One by one they walked around and peeked behind corners smiling before the next one did the rounds!!   We realised after our soups that Waffle had ordered an unnecessary portion of fried rice to his non-Asian meal (it sounded Asian on the menu) and I got my starter during his main course. ( As it turned out 1 appetizer for me would have been big enough so I didn’t understand the problem there). Waffle finally got his rice when he had finished eating.  It is going to take a bit of time getting used to the menus here, it is hard to decipher what comes with what and how much is enough...Getting quite handy with chopsticks though I must say! 

Tomorrow is another long day, checking out of the hotel after breakfast and our night train to Sapa isn’t until 9:50pm, we arrive in Lao Cai 40km south of Sapa at 5am the next morning...hope the beds on the train ain’t too hard!! 

Merry Christmas...

(more pictures on our Flickr pages)