On the Road with Brent & Erika

Sapa

Sometimes in travelling you don't always get what you bargain for. We do our best to get by without getting cheated, but we were not successful as we left China for Vietnam. Here's what we paid for: a direct sleeper bus (with the nice comfortable beds) from Guilin to the border leaving at 6:50 p.m., arriving around noon the following day. Here's what we ended up with: an overcrowded, non-sleeper bus leaving at 10:30 p.m., with people sitting on plastic stools in the aisle. And it was not direct! We arrived at a bus station at 3:30 a.m. and were told to sleep on the turned-off bus in the parking lot until 8:00 when we would get on another non-sleeper bus. What a rip-off and disappointment! Oh well, I guess if that's the worst rip-off we experience, that's not too bad. And we made it safely to Vietnam despite having to sleep stretched out across the bus aisles in the wee hours of the morning. Plus Brent made it out of China with no problems this time around even with his questionable passport photo!


Unfortunately, this is the only picture we have from this misadventure, but hopefully my atrocious, bird's-nest hair the morning after says it all.

Over the last week, we have been stationed in Hanoi-the former headquarters of Ho Chi Minh and the Communist North. The city bustles with an unreal amount of motorbikes, sometimes with four people piled on one bike! And there are very few traffic signals in the city, so the intersections are a constant flow of bikes from all directions. To cross the street, you have to inch out, make eye contact, and walk at a steady pace. The drivers then manage to skillfully swerve around the pedestrians. Scary, but we got used to it sort of.


Many women use these smocks to cover up every possible inch of skin to stay as pale as possible.


Busy Hanoi intersection

We've been in the Old Quarter for about three days and have been amused by the blending of public and private space in this crowded area. Shop fronts seem like living rooms, old men walk around in pajamas, and the sidewalks are an extension of the home where families eat meals and generally hang around. We've walked around the weekend market, seen another pickled Communist leader (this time Ho Chi Minh), visited two museums and did a lot of shopping. We all agreed that Hanoi has been nice.


Here's an example of some classic Hanoi pajama fashion.


These conical hat and shoulder bar ladies can be seen all over town carrying their goods.


Old man enjoying his paper on the balcony


These boys are burning fake money on the sidewalk to give to their ancestors in the afterlife.

We took a three-day trip to Halong Bay where we slept on a boat cruising around the over 3,000 limestone islands jutting out of the bay. We hiked in a national park on the largest island and went for a crazy sea kayaking adventure. We weren't quite sure what to expect from the kayaking, but seeing as I was wearing jean capris and a t-shirt, I certainly wasn't expecting anything too crazy. I thought a nice, gentle trip gliding around the surrounding cliffs is what we would get. Instead our "guide" (a questionable title) put us in kayaks with zero instructions, and we set out following him over choppy, rolling waves in the open sea. There are many details to the story, but suffice it to say, we ended up capsized, completely dumped out in the water close to the beach! And our guide hardly helped us through all of that! So when we stopped at this unsightly beach with trash everywhere, I was in a bad mood to say the least. After that bit of drama, we left the beach and kayaked peacefully for about two more hours through a nice fishing village in calmer waters. We were then able to laugh at the situation. However, since I had only packed my one pair of jeans for this three-day trip, I was forced to go around Halong Bay the rest of the time in my short sleeping shorts (showing off my white legs contrasted with my once-blistered, now overly-tanned knees!).


Ricky and me on our boat


Sunset on Halong Bay


Looking tired on our hike in Cat Ba National Park


Notice the one dry spot on Ricky's shirt at the top of the lookout tower


Starting our kayak adventure - dry at this point before our overturn


I look so mad here in my wet jeans it makes me laugh.


Floating fishing village


Me on our hotel balcony overlooking the beach town on Cat Ba Island

After Halong Bay, we took a train to Sapa in northwest Vietnam, where we spent three more days. Sapa is a small mountain town filled with colorfully dressed ethnic minorities that cheerfully chat you up in amazingly good English to peddle their handicrafts. The weather is much cooler here as well.


Ricky and Brent both got haircuts and shaves on the street in the market.


Sapa market with Red Zao people. They shave their eyebrows and the beginning of their hairline. I'm behind them walking.

Sapa's main attractions are the surrounding mountains and villages, which we explored on the backs of motorbikes. I had never really ridden on a motorcycle before, and I found curving around the hills with the wind in my face looking at the stunning scenery to be exhilarating--don't worry, Mom, I don't plan to continue this practice back home. We visited about five villages over the course of our stay here, saw the inside of two village homes, climbed to the base of two waterfalls and ate on about $1.50 per meal for both of us (including dessert). These past few days have been some of my favorite of the trip.


Brent and me riding motorcycles the first day in Sapa


Our cute little guide through the villages for the first day, La


Hard pressure sales girls--we came home with many bracelets and keychains!


Interior of one of our guide's homes in the village


Ricky and I cruising around the misty hills


Our guide on day two - Lam


What a precious little girl!


In the words of Amazing Race's BJ and Tyler - this cave excursion with torches and little Asian boy guide on one of our hikes "is the most Indiana Jones thing we've ever done."


Brent eating 'pho' - the staple dish for Vietnam and us while in Sapa


The cook in the market that prepared our cheap and delicious pho and other dishes for 6 meals in Sapa

Until next time...


This was Ricky's Japanese roommate on the boat. Brent and I thought he looked like a Mike Meyers character.


Ricky found this Sweet Valley University book in our Sapa guesthouse. I would have brought it back for you, Kate, if it wasn't in German!

-Erika