Ha Giang Excursion

Early on in our stay here in Hanoi I had been told by one of my teacher friends about a motorcycle trip he had taken to Ha Giang, the furthest north province in Vietnam. He told me that the trip was the most amazing thing he had done here in Vietnam. He said that the most beautiful parts of Vietnam were along this loop around Ha Giang province. Needless to say I felt compelled to make the journey and I was more than happy to know that Brigitte wasn’t going to let me go by myself.

We planned for the trip to take five days but we gave ourselves one extra day just in case the unexpected happened. We planned to take the overnight train to Lao Cai as not only a way to save time but also because we were planning on driving back to Hanoi from Ha Giang and we wanted to avoid driving the same route twice. This ended up being a great idea because the roads and landscapes from Lao Cai to Ha Giang were absolutely beautiful.

Day 1

Lao Cai to Ha Giang

We arrived in Lao Cai at about 6:30am on Monday morning. We got our bikes off the

This particular road was amazing. On either side were the greenest rice paddies I had ever seen.

train(a task that I had been dreading) without any hitches. We found the nearest place to grab an egg sandwich and some coffee and we set off for Ha Giang.

The first day was flawless. We made great time, stopping regularly to take in the scenery and an occasional roadside meal.

 

 

 

 

 

Day 2

I marked where we stopped to sleep in yellow

Ha Giang was a beautiful laid back city. The city itself has a river running through it and is surrounded by mountains. We woke up and made our way to a travel office to buy our passes for the rest of the trip. I don’t exactly remember the cost but it wasn’t very expensive. You need to buy a pass or else you won’t be allowed to stay anywhere to sleep and the police will probably take your bike and kick you out.

After another great breakfast we headed up into the mountains. Again we stopped so many times because of the scenery. It was absolutely amazing.

Our goal was to drive to Yen Minh to sleep for the night but due to a minor malfunction on my bike we only made it as far as Tam Son. Tam Son was a quiet town with just one main street running down the middle. We found a nice place to stay for the night and since the following day would be a long ride we decided to go to sleep fairly early.

Day 3

We took off from Tam Son early in the morning on our way to Meo Vac which is the final destination of the loop. This drive was unbelievable. Here are some pictures because I can’t really do this any justice with my words.

We found a great little hotel and decided to drop off our stuff and head back out on my motorcycle so that Brigitte could ride and take some pictures. We found a trail that broke off from the main road and decided to do some exploring. (I highlighted our path in yellow on the map) We actually almost made to the Chinese border but were stopped by construction that was impossible to pass.

Back in Meo Vac we went walking around looking for some food and maybe a beer. We found a nice little place and sat down to ENJOY a nice cold beer (our intentions were to enjoy this beer).

Unfortunately for us there was a group of Vietnamese men and women in the back celebrating their soldier friend’s promotion. Our attempts to enjoy our beer were foiled by being forced to slam our beers as fast as we could. This soldier walked up to us, cheers, then kept forcing us to race him to the bottom of a full beer. Now, I like a good challenge ever once in awhile but after having driven a motorbike all day long, without much food or water, I wasn’t exactly super excited about this show of hospitality. There is also a tendency amongst a group of Vietnamese men that once you have drunk with one, you must drink with all of them. This meant racing three more beers. After that Brig and I decided we should walk around a bit and find some place a little more low key.

I will spare you the rest of the detail (most of them I don’t really remember) but I do recall at one point eating duck head. Oh and Brig made a boyfriend, Viet.

Yummmm Duck head!

Day 4

The next day was supposed to be our longest leg of the trip. I had set some lofty goals of making it past Ha Giang and almost all the way to Hanoi. However, it was not meant to be.

Brigitte and I both woke up in quite the haze from the night before. We got a bowl of pho on our way out of town and headed back. We didn’t quite make it as far as I had hoped but looking back we did extremely well considering the state I was in.

Day 5

We got up around 8:30am, got some breakfast and got on the road. We had been driving for about 2-3 hours when all of a sudden my sock feels wet. I looked down and saw that gas was just pouring all over my leg. I pulled to the side of the road but couldn’t figure out where the gas was coming from. All the hoses were in place. So I wheeled it to the nearest mechanics where we found a small hole in the actual gas tank. It was in a very difficult place so he couldn’t find anything to patch it with, so instead he just built me another gas tank. I continued the rest of my trip with a 3 gallon jug strapped to the seat behind me as my gas tank. When I pulled into the bike rental place they weren’t even upset, they were just impressed at the handy work.

We made it back to Hanoi a little later than expected but safe. This trip was definitely the coolest thing I have done in Vietnam. The ride itself is unbelievable and the people and sights we saw just made it an experience that I will never forget.

My favorite picture

A day in Hanoi…

Hello folks,

I owe a blog about our trip to Hanoi, and I will get to that, but I had a funny day and I want to share.

It was Tuesday.  Which means I leave at around 6:30am to travel over the bridge and teach two classes at Ai Mo Primary.

My class doesn’t actually start until 8, but the traffic is crazy and I like to spend some time with my little cafe lady.  Sadly, I don’t have a picture of her…yet, but she is lovely and we exchange language and laughs.  Then it’s off to my class.  A few months ago, I was asked to take on these two classes in addition to my normal adult-weekday, children-sunday schedule.   I was delighted to take this offer, as I have been covering “schoolslink” classes anytime I could.  Schoolslink is a part of Language Link that sends teachers to public and private schools all over the city.  I learned about the program a little late, and therefore could not teach for them full time because they needed me to stay much longer than my original contract.  By a stroke of luck they were in a spot and I got in

It’s hands-down my favorite part of the week.  The kids are adorable,  classes are fun and I wish I could stay the whole day.

I try not to have favorites, but Nam is mine.  This face.  And he’s always trying to hold my hands.  I can’t even explain to you what he does to my day.

At 9:30, I leave Ai Mo in a cloud of kids screaming, “hello hello” and usually go to the gym.  Today, I wanted to run a few errands before yoga so I headed into the old quarter.

I rent a bike from a sweet little lady on Ta Hien.  Her english is pretty good and I usually stop in once a month for oil changes and such.  Today I arrived and explained, at length, the problem with my brakes, or lack of.  You see, brakes are vital to driving period, but especially in Hanoi.  I can say that I’d probably rather lose my back tire than my brakes so this stop was an important one.  I added at the end, that my right signal light wasn’t working either.  A man appeared, whisked my bike away and I was told it would be :30.  I sat at a cafe (yes more coffee) and read my book.  :45 minutes later I strolled back over to Ta Hien and she told me it would be only a little longer.  I didn’t mind at all because I didn’t have anywhere pressing to be and also there was a steady stream of fruit coming for my enjoyment.  While I was waiting, I noticed an ancient looking man inside their apartment.  He was intently writing in a children’s notebook with a purple marker.  This was the done with the intensity that made me dream he was a famous Vietnamese philosopher writing his opus.  Another :30 passed and I asked what he was doing.  ”Writing”, yeah I got that but what?  She laughed and said, “We don’t know, he does this all day long”.  It was her father.

Shortly after, my bike returned and her husband showed me (quite proudly) how well the lights were working.  He grunted something and pointed to the brakes so I figured we were good to go.  Next stop: find a cover for my iphone.

The phone shop where I thought I might find said item was only about :5 away.  It didn’t take me half that distance to realize I could signal the hell out of a turn but nothing had been done to my brakes.  Of course, I am now faced with the inconvenience of driving back and going through all of this again.  5 months ago I would have been irate.  It makes me laugh now.  I’m sure there is some explanation for this, but to me, in my Western way of thinking I just don’t understand.  I don’t own this bike and fully intend to return it in February-so wouldn’t be in the owner’s best interest to prioritize the fixing of brakes over the turn signal?  Specially as one look at me could ascertain that I am no pro motorcycle driver and certainly cannot stop with my feet.  Sigh. I’ll deal with it tomorrow.

I’m in the phone store.  I have been here before and know that 1) the staff don’t speak much english and 2) if you need help you have to stand in front of the expensive phones as if you want to buy one.  I used these tactics to successfully engage an unassuming young woman and took out my iphone.  I used hand signals to get the idea across that I wanted a clear plastic cover for the screen and she nodded and went over to a case.  YES!! I thought, this is going to be so smooth.  She brings me over to a table and starts unwrapping the plastic.  ”Oh cool, I guess she’s going to put it on for me as well.”, I think.  Also at this point, I should mention the cover costs $3.  We figure out immediately that the cover sold does not fit my now-ancient phone.  My mind immediately runs through several other store options, calculating distances and lunchtime traffic to determine if I can get there and back to West lake for my yoga class.  While I’m thinking, the saleswoman has already obtained a marker and scissors.  When I look down she is tracing the outline of the phone screen and it becomes clear what she intends to do.  About :15 later I have a custom-sized iphone cover.  I’m sorry, but you just don’t get that kind of service in Best Buy.

For the past few months, I have absolutely, hands-down, loved Hanoi.  Most of you who know me, know this is a very strong statement.  I have learned a lot, but mostly just to chill out a little bit, be more patient and “don’t worry about it”.  I saw this flowchart (below) a while back and it flashes into my head several times a day.  If someday, I’m buried, I want it on my tombstone or maybe a new tattoo? (just kidding, Mom)

It’s only when you stop fretting, that you can really get into the groove of living here.  It’s so amazing.  I am truly blessed.

…and to top it all off, I got to try ice cream spaghetti this evening.

wait, ice cream spaghetti?

xoBrig

Cambodia

So, what are you going to do with less than one day in Siem Reap, Cambodia? This is the question we asked ourselves as we pulled into the bus station at 2:15am on Saturday morning, knowing that we had to board a plane back to Hanoi at 4:00pm that same day. While in Siem Reap it was a necessity to see the temples at Angkor Wat.

Unfortunately because of our lack of time we had walk through the Angkor Wat without a tour guide. The history and the stories behind the architecture and the carvings are absolutely unbelievable. So it was a disappointing that we couldn’t have someone explaining in detail some of the most amazing things I have ever seen.

        Some of these hallways had to be 100 yards at least. Adorning the walls of these halls were meticulous carvings of warriors and horses in battle.

Angkor Wat is the largest temple complex but there are lots of smaller temples nearby. Pictured to the right is a face from one of these temples. This temple has around 300 of these carved faces. The faces were all hand carved and somehow look identical.

Personally my favorite temple area was the Ta Prohm temple. This temple area has been left to nature. Over hundreds of years the trees have grown on top of and out of the rock in the most remarkable ways.

 

 

 

Angkor Wat was remarkable. I would recommend a trip to Siem Reap to any traveler. My only advice would be to give yourself more than one day.

Laos…contd.

We met Mr. Sat on the truck to Don Det.  He has one of the kindest faces I’ve ever seen and immediately any anxiety I had about this ride disappeared.  He knew enough english to chat a bit along the ride and when he learned about our lack of plans, he graciously offered to help us out.  We were dropped at a restaurant which seemed to be abandoned except for some boats and some very curious kids.

Mr. Sat seemed to have many friends.  A friend to take us over to the island on his boat.  A friend to put us up in his bungalow.  A friend to make us lunch.  It was a little overwhelming after all the planning and seeking we had been doing to suddenly have everything become so…well, easy.

Once we got to Don Det Mr. Sat explained he had to get over to his home island and we’d be in good hands with Mr. Li.  Understatement of the year!  Over some beers and lunch we met Mr. Li, who after his father passed, helped to run the guesthouse to make ends meet and help his mother.  I know I must sound like a gushing lunatic, but these people and their immediate warm generosity I cannot put into words.  This post may very well turn into rambling nonsense for pages but I will still never be able to get across how it felt to be taken in by Mr. Li, his island and his family.

So getting on with it, we made plans for him to take us to see some waterfalls and his family’s island the next day.  We settled into some cards and our hammocks for the rest of that afternoon.

As promised, Mr. Li took us to the island the next day on his boat…

We saw the biggest waterfall in Asia,

some fresh water dolphins, and ate some fish with the locals.

An extraordinary day by any measure but then….we met Papa Ki.

This is the only video clip I managed to capture and unfortunately other pictures of the legend elude me at the moment (I’ll update, promise).   Mr. Ki is the patriarch of the local island from which Mr. Li grew up.  This island has about 200 families.

They farm, they fish and they drink Lao Lao.  Lots of Lao Lao.

Pay close attention to the pan of William’s face in the video.  He is not alone.  Papa Ki made it his mission to keep the Lao Lao flowing at all times, but that’s not all.  In the first few hours after we had met something happened and Papa Ki sort of well…adopted

us.   There was no end to his hugs or his contagious laughter.  He was like no person I have ever met.   Tears come to my eyes just thinking about the next 2 days we spent on that island and perhaps that is why it’s taken me this long to write about this experience.  I know I could have easily stayed and never come back and for that I am thankful to have had William’s voice of reason (although he felt the same way).  I have never felt about anywhere else I’ve been the way I feel about this island and I know it’s only a matter of time before I’m pulled back.

That concludes our adventures in Laos really.  We had a tearful goodbye at the train depot and crossed the border to Cambodia the next day.  William will write more on that soonish.  As always, check out our flickr site for more pictures.

 Sôhk Dee Der.  Brigitte

We went to Laos…months ago…

..which makes me an irresponsible blog-owner, but I’m just going to claim that it’s taken me that long to really digest that trip.  And that wouldn’t be a lie.

It all started when our friend Devin proposed we go with her in conjunction with a work trip she was taking to Cambodia.  After several caffeine-fueled cafe sessions we had a rough itinerary (which was hardly followed), plane tickets and vacation time approved from work.  My knowledge of Laos was based upon a few documentaries, lonely planet books and tales of backpacker’s with injuries and awful Laos tubing tank tops.  I didn’t know where this trip would take us but I was ready to see and certainly to get out of Hanoi for a bit.  We flew into Luang Prabang  and the landing was probably the most memorable I have experienced.  It was like we were dropping straight into the jungle, a kind of environment I had only seen in movies and it took my breath away.

The city was beautiful and we spend 2 days trying the local food and wandering about.  Oh and there was a lot of  time spent at a certain waterfall.

I felt a difference in the atmosphere straight away.  Much more relaxed and natural compared to the chaos we came from.  The Mekong seems to be present everywhere we went in Laos.  A force of nature that feeds the land and the people.  I’ve always been sort of hypnotized by powerful bodies of water and this was no exception.

We woke up at 5am on our last morning in LP to see the monks make their daily pilgrimage to the temple.  We spent the next few days on buses heading south to Vientiane (the capital) where we didn’t stay long, on our way to Vang Vien.

I still have really mixed feelings about this part of the trip.  For the readers who aren’t familiar with Laos, Vang Vien has become a backpacker’s destination.  Most of the town has been converted to accommodate an influx of intoxicated 20-somethings who want nothing more than to float down the river, wasted in inner tubes and lay in bars watching American Tv shows and ingesting any type of drugs they can get their hands on.   It didn’t take Devin, William and I too long before we realized we wouldn’t want to stay here long so we decided to try the famous “tubing” and get out the next day.  Here’s the thing, Vang Vien is not a nice town, you can see the weariness and disgust in the people’s faces and I’ve seldom felt so ashamed to be just another backpacker traipsing through their town to have my fun and leave it behind.  Perhaps its the amazing view of the surrounding mountains that creates such a stark contrast with the town itself.  While we had fun on the river and a good time playing card games over pizza and beers in our go-to restaurant, I can’t say that anywhere I’ve been so far has made me feel quite so sad.

After Vang Vien, I think we all agreed without having to say anything aloud, that we wanted to stay off the backpacking trail.  So that is exactly what we did.  A pass took us further south, where we decided to skip over Pakse and head straight for Don Det and 4,000 islands.

I’d like to just make a comment here about the buses we had been taking.  You can fly within Laos, but it’s expensive and a few bucks will get you a seat/bed on a night bus taking you to any major destination.  There are many advantages/disadvantages to taking this type of transport.  You may find yourself sharing your tiny sleeping bunk with a stranger, bugs or bodily fluids.  The driver goes fast…I mean, real fast so it’s better to sleep as much as possible so you don’t have to think about your chances of dying at break-neck speeds in a country where I never saw a hospital, even if that sleep is pharmaceutically induced.  We also learned that you can never expect the bus to be somewhere at the time it is scheduled.   In the course of our trip we were probably on a bus that broke down 8 times and once while crossing to Cambodia we were stopped for 2 hours because a truck had gone right over a bridge we were about to cross.  And we did…cross that bridge, the first vehicle to cross that bridge in fact was ours, and I held William’s hand and my breath the whole time.

One of these buses dropped us off at a station outside Pakse and we were left without a clue.  Thank god for Devin’s xeroxed copy of a Lonely Planet we realized we were only about 2 hours from Si Phan Don.  We grabbed a few beer Laos and tried to decide what to do.  First of all, there are many places to stay.  Going with our “take the un-beaten” path approach we decided on  Don Det as it seemed to be the more chilled out option.  After 2 days on a bus, you want chilled out.  Then, there was the dilemma of figuring out how we were supposed to get there.  There wasn’t another westerner in sight and I was getting a little freaked out by the women offering me bird fetuses as a snack.  None of the buses had any signs indicating they were going our way so we did what I’ve learned to do in these situations; stand in one place and look clueless.  As I’m sure you can imagine that took a lot of effort.  Not long after, a grinning man came up, pointed to his truck and said something that sounded like Don Det.  We shrugged and gave a collective ”why not” and hopped on a service truck heading to what we hoped were 4,000 islands with some eggs, cement and a few locals.

At this point you may raise an eyebrow and say, “Brigitte, are you really making wise decisions over there? ”   I can confidently say, “Yes I am.”  This is SE asia and unless you’re here to experience it you can’t fully understand.   It can be a dangerous place but so was Chicago.   You to learn that to live here, you must accept a level of risk and more times than not everything works out perfectly fine.  We could have waited to take a “safer” means of transport I suppose, but then we wouldn’t have met Mr. Sat…..

To be continued.

Wandering about Hanoi…

In recent days, I’ve been watching old episodes of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, to acquaint myself with our upcoming Laos itinerary and simultaneously realizing we haven’t scratched the surface of Hanoi’s unique culinary offerings.  But we’re trying…really hard.side note: these pictures were all from the same day.  While trying a great new dish on William’s recommendation, we met the Minister of Food Safety (of something like that) for Vietnam.  It was reassuring that he was eating right alongside us on the street and made sure we paid a decent price for our doughnuts.  What a gent!

Not that you need another another reason to eat on the street in Hanoi.  It’s really the best way to go.  Cheap, yummy and you meet the best people.  Restaurant dining is often a let-down but I’m never disappointed streetside.  The people watching is fantastic!

Brilliant parking dudes with matching hair!

A battery-operated motorbike for children. They start them out young here.

Another observation we’ve made (since the first days) is the hilarity of t-shirts you see here in the city.  English t-shirts.  That is t-shirts worn by all ages of Vietnamese with english phrases that range from bizarre, nonsensical and bring you to tears comedic.  My explanation for some of these is two part: 1)T-shirts that actually exist in the US are somehow brought here and seen as just another t-shirt, no matter what the words actually mean.  2) Throughout Vietnam you find menus, signs, articles and prose in almost every form that were once obviously vietnamese, chucked through an online instant translator and what was spit out is hardly, well, a translation.  If you’ve ever used google translate for anything other than simple words, you probably know what I mean.

There origin isn’t really important.  These t-shirts give William and I hours of amusement driving through traffic to get a glimpse of a phrase or word hidden under a bag strap.  I’ve started collecting them, first in my mind, then my notebook and now I’m creating a separate page here to share them.  I wish I had photos as in some cases, the child/adult wearing them is the best part.  I’ll try harder in that are.  In the meantime, here is what I have and can recollect so far:

-”The most beautiful lady in nature”  -Old quarter, a teenage boy on the back of a motorbike.

-”If you think 8 seconds is fast, you should see me on Sunday” -20-something woman on motorbike in Tay Ho.

-”If you aint’ cowboy, you ain’t shit” -8 year old boy at Language Link

-”Insert name here” on a neon crucifix-10 year old boy at Language Link

-”Sniffing glue won’t keep a family together” on a Hello Kitty shirt in the Old Quarter

and my personal favorite….seen on an 8 year old girl at school.  Grey t-shirt, cute ruffled

sleeves and a huge beer mug in the center.

“Beauty is in the eye of the BEER holder”.

Seriously…

In other news,  we found an indoor climbing gym here in Vietnam.  It’s a blast!

As we’re transitioning to the summer, many of my classes are sadly (and not so sadly) ending.  Just in case you forgot how darn cute these kids are, here’s a reminder.

The Three Musketeers!

Van Trang has somehow managed to combine the words; teacher, Brigitte and something that sounds like "urchin" to address me.

Anh loves it when I color with her. She tells me everything I do is "beautiful".

Straight outta Ha noi.

It’s that time again…overdue of course, but I’m on my second cà phê sữa đá which (if you don’t know, you should) means I’m highly caffeinated and ready to do this!  As you know, we went to Tam Dao on a motorbike, but soon after I took advantage of a few days off and bussed it to Cat Ba, an island in Halong Bay, where my friend Joe works as a climbing guide for a pretty rad company-slopony (which I’m linking because if you ever find yourself on this island and feel the need for an adrenalin fix; these are the people to talk to).

Joe and I took motorbikes out to a beautiful valley where we had lunch with a local family and got ready to hit some rock….which I did quite literally.  I definetly don’t consider myself one of those people who are good at everything; far from it in fact.  But I do love mountains and I LOVE climbing things so somehow that equation just worked out in my mind.  I by no means thought rock climbing would be easy…I just had no idea how hard it would be.  To spare the gruesome details, I tried my very best…getting up a few routes and Joe was a huge help.  On the third, I felt my knee slip (dislocate) a bit on an awkward hold and decided to give it a rest for the day.  I know I’ll be back to it some day and I’ll have to if I want to reach some of the mountain climbing goals I’m setting for myself.  Fortunately, Hanoi has just opened an indoor climbing wall so I think I’ll cut my teeth on that for a bit and see how I do.

The second day, my friend Rim came and joined us on the island.  We had a glorious day visiting beaches with Joe.  I can’t quite explain how refreshing it was to get away from honking horns and crowded streets to a nearly deserted beach and spend time with two great friends.  Joe is the only western woman living on the whole island.  She works with 5 other guys-so I’m sure the girl-time was appreciated by her as well.

For the first time since we arrived, I’m starting to feel comfortable.  No doubt I’m still baffled by the way of life in some form every day, but I’m starting to feel more like Brig and it’s a good thing.  To be honest, I hesitated writing new blogs a month back because I was afraid they would be negative and because I know the people I love and care about most are reading this I was afraid of putting Ha noi and my experience here in a bad light.  I’ve since lifted out of this (it had a lot to do with the weather improving tremendously and receiving some correspondence from amazing friends ) and I feel almost ashamed to recount some of my thoughts at that point.  The reality is, I am beyond fortunate to have this experience.  I love my kids and the classes I teach.   I would have never imagined that a job I am beginning to love so much would allow me to do all that I have even so early in this adventure.  I don’t think I’ve had this much time to dream, read and plan in my life and it’s doing good things for my soul.  Sure, my paycheck is a bit less than what I’m used to and I am having serious cravings for ranch dressing and baking but…the other day I spent about 4 hours making at least 15 lbs. of play-doh.  Play-doh!  The kids at Blue Dragon were out of their minds!  Apparently you can get play-doh, but it comes in small amounts and is very expensive.  We made elephants, frogs and various other animals for about 2 hours and I think for that time we all forgot about everything else.  Check out CNN’s Heroes as the BDF’s founder is nominated this year and the film crew got some footage of me teaching the art class.

You know what else get’s me through any blues I might have?  Bún Bò Nam Bộ.  I could eat it every day and thankfully William and Roison feel the same way.  Easily my favorite dish in Hanoi.

Last week Elise, another teacher, and I went horseback riding.  Yes, you can do that here in Hanoi.  We drove out to a weird beachy area by the river.  It was only about 10 minutes from my house but we may as well have been in a jungle.  The horses were well-taken care of which made me feel better about the whole thing but the area was really strange.  Nevertheless, I got a little fix which was long overdue and reminded me that while I may not be a natural at climbing sheer rock faces, I do feel at home on a horse.

till next time….

Brig