Vietnam Part I - Hanoi, Halong Bay and Sapa

Some pictures of the journey can be found in picasa and facebook.

I woke up at 8 am after a six hours of restless and shallow, but not a sleepless night. I guess I was a bit worried because I didn't have a place to stove my excess luggage for the vacation period and we were leaving to the airport in one and half hour. Past night was also my last night in the NUS UTown Graduate Residence. In the morning I was calling through number of my friends to find out who had booked the accommodation over the vacation period and would be home around December 20th. And in the end I found one, just minutes before leaving to the taxi. Actually, when the taxi came, we still had to wait almost 15 minutes to for my Spanish roommate, again... but thats already quite normal, everyone knows that he'll get lost or etc.

And so, off to the airport. I shared a taxi with my traveling buddies to be for the next month. My Spanish roommate and two lovely girlfriends from Russia. We arrived to the airport just in time before closure of the check-in and boarded the plane just 5-10 minutes before takeoff. The flight took three and half hours, and actually I can't recall if was I sleeping or not, presumably I was. I can only recall my crazy Spanish friend using an orange plastic back tied to his ears to cover his eyes, so funky looking.

I had applied for visa before hand through an Vietnamese immigration site, but we got a bit screwed. We bought the multiple entry visas because the price difference between single entry was so ridiculous low, only 5 dollars. But after paying the tickets, we received the receipt and confirmation email which stated that

*Note:The fee you have paid is NOT included stamping fee at Vietnam airport: 25 USD for single entry and 50 USD for multiple entry.

and again we realized that nothing comes for free. After buying the visas, I also realized that Finns can actually go to Vietnam for fourteen (14) days for free without a visa like Russians. However, I ended up using the visa application, because I wanted a new cool looking visa into my passport instead of just a basic stamp.

Hanoi

On the flight, I also checked out a place for us to stay from the Lonely Planet, an affordable backpacker accommodation called Backpackers Hostel. After landing, we hailed a meter from the airport and drove to the Old Quarter of Hanoi to check in at the hostel. When arriving to the door a guy jumped at us and started asking about if we had a reservation which we didn't have, because otherwise it was full. He then offered to take us to a different hotel, just a bit further away which was supposedly part of the same group and we followed... We bargained the price of the room and also the trip plans he tried to offer. After an hour of discussion we ended up paying 222 USD each for a two days one night trip to Halong Bay, two days two nights trip to Sapa and a open bus tickets valid for month which we'll use to travel to south, all the way to Ho Chi Min (Saigon). The open buss tickets were perfect for us, we can jump off at any place we want and continue the trip later when we would like to advance.

The first night was spent in Hanoi, we walked around the Old Quarter for couple of hours, enjoyed some local cuisine with couple of beers on the side, and finally went to bed around midnight.

Halong Bay

We had a long day upon us, we woke up just before 7 am and headed down for breakfast. The ride from Hanoi to Halong harbor took around four and half hours with a 25 minute break at a tourist gift shop place, from where we bought these whole pineapples, the best ones I have ever had so far!

Not for the fainthearted... Also on the highway we saw an accident that had happened just a bit earlier; on the middle of the road there was a young lady lying under a mattress and a fallen scooter a bit further away. But unfortunately for us some guy just lifted the mattress to check her situation and we saw that all the guts and brains had spread over the pavement. There was no police or ambulance coming at that time, luckily there were at least some people decent enough to cover her remains with the mattress. May she rest in peace.

The girls had heard about the Halong Bay boat trips previously. They were told to be famous with backpackers partying overnight at the boats. There was about sixteen of us boarding the boat. First started to head out towards Halong Bay while enjoying a very good lunch. After lunch we visited the Halong Bay limestone caves which were quite beautiful, even though already a bit too touristic with all the lights and stuff for my taste.

After the caves we headed towards a floating village with at least fishermen and fish farmers living there beside the tourism workers. From the floating houses we rented some kayaks and paddled out to the sea to feel the views and the sea for almost an hour, the most amazing thing in a while! After the kayaking we continued towards one of the bigger inner islands, which actually had roads going inside. We anchored the boat there and enjoyed a really nice dinner. We were also given a permission to go to swim there, but the water didn't look so inviting in the cold ocean air after the sun had set. Almost everyone gave up sooner or later, we continued chilling at least till 1 am.

The wake up was around 7 to 8 am. After the breakfast some of the others went swimming while we were jumping flips and tricks from the boat railing. We got back to the shore around noon and headed for lunch at Halong City. Around 5.30 pm we reached Hanoi and our Hai Nam hostel. We spent the next couple of hours wandering through the city while looking for a book store. I bought some allergic medicine and we also bought some fruits to go, and actually I found this small foot stall on the street that sold local döner kebab, it was like a pita kebab inside a paquet - just perfect!

After 8 pm we were picked up for the night train to Lao Cai and Sapa. We were promised our own cabin for four but we ended up in a six person prison cell. I didn't think it was that bad, but I'm quite good in adapting. The train departed at 9.50 pm and we arrived to Lao Cai at 6.30 am after a somewhat rested night. From there we continued 35 kilometers more with bus to Sapa through snaking mountain roads. We enjoyed our breakfast at Sapa Summit Hotel. At 9 am we were assigned with our guide to be, a young lady called Si from the Black H'Mong tribe. For the trekking we got a small, but very nice addition to our group. We were accompanied by one Danish girl, Serbian-Spanish guy and an older Swiss lady.

Sapa Trekking - day 1

And so we started trekking towards the villages and the home stay cottage in Black H'Mong tribe. After descending three hours and crossing the gorge with the main river, we then arrived to one of the bigger villages of the Black H'Mong tribe. There we enjoyed our lunch and visited one primary school, where nowadays they actually teach English for the children. Our guide told that she had learned her English speaking skill just from the tourists. On the way down we gazed upon on some of the most beautiful views before enjoying a lunch in the village, and after lunch continued to another village a bit further away for the home stay.

The views on the way down were amazing, snaking mountain rivers and vast rice terraces ascending to the mountains and reaching the clouds. I tried to capture them with my camera, but one really can't imagine the whole feeling through a lens. We arrived to the home stay around 2 or 3 pm. There we first enjoyed some local green tea and after that just walked around for two hours circling in and out the village and roaming the close by trails. They also served us some fries with fresh garlic which was very nice from them. We also saw lots of kids returning from the school with donated Unicef backpacks.

Around 6.30 pm we enjoyed a perfect Vietnamese dinner with the host family of the host stay. The food was amazing, it varied from different dishes of tofu to chicken and pork, from rice spring rolls to fried vegetables and cabbage salad etc followed by some self made rice wine - which in my opinion was one of the most nice ones to drink. After the dinner we started chilling out together, listen some reggae from my laptop and play some card games together. We also tried and actually managed to take some pictures of the stars after the sun had set. Around 11 pm we all called it as night and hit the sack.

Sapa Trekking - day 2

After a well rested night, maybe the best one in a long while, we finally woke and got up around 9 am. The host family had prepared a breakfast for us consisting pancakes served with running honey and bananas, muy bien! After the breakfast we packed our bags and got ready for the journey ahead. We knew it wasn't going to be as long as the first day, but we hoped that the views would be different and the route a bit harsher.

We had a decision to make: up to the mountains or continuing by the contour towards bamboo forest, another village and a waterfall. Because of all the smog gathered and a high possibility of rain, we decided not to risk going to the mountains.


The trails of the second day were amazing, we spent the day walking across rice terraces, jumping over descending mountain rivers and trying to find a steady ground while ascending and descending muddy trails. Everyone except me dipped themselves or their shoes in the muddy rice terrace fields. We also trekked our way through the bamboo forest. I also crossed this very old and squeaky suspension bridge over the river gorge with my Spanish friend. The trail to the bridge was the first clue to realize that it wasn't used anymore, it was the steepest mountainside without any footage and secondly because the bridge was actually closed with rusty barbwire from the end we entered. But we managed to throw the backpacks over and to squeeze ourselves through it.

After crossing to the other side of the gorge we climbed up a while to catch a lunch before a bus ride back to the Sapa Summit Hotel. Here I had the best noodle soup I have ever had, and of course I added some more chili to spice it up, or it just might be that I had a proper appetite after the days of walking. We showered at the Summit Hotel, visited the village and markets of Sapa before dining and taking the bus to Lao Cai to catch another night train back to Hanoi.

Back in Hanoi

The night train arrived to the Hanoi station around 5.15 am, from there we shared a taxi and dropped the Serbian-Spanish guy at the bus station before continuing to our tour hotel, Hai Nam. There we refreshed ourselves a bit before visiting the Vietnam's founders, president Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum and palace area. I wouldn't had though that it would actually be impressive to see preserved remains or body of someone, but it was.

The rest of the day was spend wandering around for six hours just exploring the city and the views before catching the open buss at 8pm towards south.