Same same, but different

Pick of the day: Village Public (only?) loo, Nr Sapa

Style: Squat

Atmosphere: Theatrical

Extras: This loo has a pretty impressive view, which you can't see thanks to the exposure. Unfortunately it is at a perfect height to give half the village a view if you are standing up for a pee.

24/04/13 to 06/05/13: Hanoi, Sapa and Halong bay

We arrived in Hanoi at 4:30am feeling spectacularly crap and had to head straight to an ATM to get some cash for a taxi to our hostel. We hadn’t really looked at the exchange rates beforehand so were a little confused when the cash options at the ATM ranged from 500,000 to 3 million dong (yes- that is the name of their currency). Turns out there are 30,000 dong to £1 so takes a little working out.

We made it to the hotel and found that our dorm room was air conditioned (bonus) and that the hotel did free breakfast with loads of fresh fruit (extra bonus). We spent the day exploring the old town which was a cool little selection of mad little streets and alleyways which even Ben couldn’t find his way around with a map. It was astoundingly hot so there were multiple cold drink stops along the way and we had to intermittently head back to the hotel to sit in the air conditioning for a while and cool off (I know, poor us).

There is an unspoken competition among the Vietnamese as to who can get the most on their bikes.

We decided to head to the Hanoi prison museum which was the prison formerly known as the Hanoi Hilton and was originally a prison used by the French to keep, torture and execute rebel Vietnamese and then was used by the Vietnamese to hold captured American pilots during the American war (unsurprisingly that’s what they call the Vietnamese war here). It was a pretty fascinating museum that still had the gruesome guillotine used by the French and the sections of sewage pipe that hundreds of prisoners escaped by (seems the French weren’t terribly good at keeping people in). We had to take the section on American POWs with a pinch of salt as we were given the impression that they were given everything they could possibly want short of a free flight home in a new chopper.

This lady wouldn't stop hassling me to buy bananas!

Next we went to visit Hanoi women’s museum which gave us an insight into everything from the role of women in the American war (up to 50% of guerrilla units were made up by women) to life for women in the traditional Vietnamese hill tribes. In some of these tribes black teeth are considered beautiful so women paint their teeth black with a kind of lacquer- pretty weird. Also a fair few of the tribes are matriarchal so the man takes the woman’s name, as do the children, he has to have a dowry and once married goes to live in his wife’s family home.

Lastly we went to see the traditional Vietnamese water puppet theatre which is a show accompanied by traditional music in which specialist puppeteers operate puppets on long underwater poles to make a scene of traditional Vietnamese life- it’s pretty cool. They do 6 shows a day up to their waists in water and how they don’t get trench foot is beyond me.

 The street food in Hanoi was pretty tasty and varied and always accompanied by loads of fresh herbs which seems to be a Vietnamese staple. Particularly good are the Vietnamese sandwiches which are a combination of crunchy baguette, a relic from colonial days, and tasty pork or chicken with beansprouts and loads of mint and coriander. Also we were introduced to the ‘frozen lemon’ which is only lemon juice and zested lime with sugar over crushed ice but on a day where its 35C with 80% humidity it’s the most refreshing thing in the world.

Frozen lemon. Perhaps the best reason to visit Hanoi

We had been planning on going from Hanoi to Cat Ba island on the coast but arrived not long before a big national holiday and accommodation and transport was hard to come by so we decided to head to the hills and go inland to Sapa instead.

Again, because of the holidays the only train ticket left to Sapa was soft seat which we were a bit wary of due to our Chinese hard seat nightmares. However we were assured that we would get our own comfy, reclining seat with A/C and it would be a lovely 12 hour journey.  The Vietnamese idea of comfort appears to differ quite starkly from ours. The chairs only recline if you aren’t in the two against the back wall (therefore guess where we were). The A/C is only on when the train is actually moving (appears to be roughly 50% of the time) and those that didn’t purchase a seat don’t seem to feel any guilt about stealing a bit of yours.

Sapa market square "you buy from me"

Thankfully when we arrived in Sapa (which is an old colonial hill station) we found that we had a beautiful view from our room overlooking the terraced rice fields and the mountains. We spent a day exploring the town and its markets which is populated by colourfully dressed tribal women. The usual dress for the local women is a colourful pleated skirt, black velvet leggings that are wrapped around the lower legs and an array of colourful long sleeved tops. Women in Vietnam tend to cover up a lot in the day time (jeans, thick socks, hoodies and gloves as standard) because white skin is considered beautiful and they are avoiding tanning as much as humanly possible. What they must think of people with translucently pale skin who rock up to try to tan is anyone’s guess.

The view from the balcony....

...was impressive with clouds forming in the valley below...

.... so a little time-lapse and light refreshment was in order

Our second day in Sapa we decided to grab a map and do a little trekking by ourselves and found that once we were out of the way of the main crowds we had the beautiful landscape with rivers, waterfalls and rice terraces all to ourselves. We had a picnic overlooking some grazing water buffalo and duly got sunburnt. That night we were craving something a little calorific and western and amazingly managed to find one of the best burgers either of us had ever had, home or away.

As with so many places, 100metres off the main path and you could be the only person for miles

That river was sooo tempting for a dip

Sometimes you just have to treat yourself. A worlds top 5 burger and dried water buffalo with a cold beer. Not shit.

The next day we were pretty glad to have not gone for the local food as we were walking along and saw a goat in a cage being taken to market on the back of a motorbike. Then we saw a small dog in a sack howling as it was also taken to market on the back of a motorbike. Apparently the second half of the month is dog-eating time as dog is a cheap meat and people’s pay is stretching a little thin by then. It’s supposed to be a pretty grim meat and we don’t think, fingers crossed, that we have been fed any yet. We also had the misfortune to witness a piglet being prepared for the roasting spit. I am not veggie and understand where meat comes from but there has got to be better ways of killing an animal than putting it in a sack and hitting wildly with a crowbar until it stops squealing. Tenderised at least….

Roast pork. VERY popular in Sapa

Anyway, now suitably vegetarianised we headed back to Hanoi on the train as a stopping off point on the way to Cat Ba island on the east coast.

As we arrived at Halong bay on tail end of a bank holiday it was as you would expect cloudy and a bit drizzly. We had tagged onto a Halong boat tour to get us to Cat Ba island which is the other side of the bay. Halong bay is geologically and scenically stunning, like a flooded version of Yangshou. With the Karst spires now being spectacularly eroded at the base.

Halong Bay, with typical bank holiday weather

We split our time at Cat Ba between a cheap hotel in Cat Ba town on the island and at a beach “resort” out in the secluded Lah Ha Bay (a less touristy, but no less impressive, Halong). One thing that has become apparent is that to truly “see” Vietnam you have to hire a motorbike, or so they say. Either way, with no motor biking experience, save a little mopeding in Kalymnos, and fully safety geared up in our shorts, t-shirts and flippy floppys we got a bike and stuttered our way around the island for the day. Thankfully there is little to no traffic on the island so we enjoyed a pleasant ride through the islands national parks.

Highway to the danger zone

The one thing we had most been looking forward to in Halong was some deep water soloing, but the moon god was against us and the tides would be too low throughout our time there. Fortunately there are a number of bolted coves around the bay and a superbly enthusiastic and professional outfit called Asia outdoors which hires kit and runs trips. We tagged onto one of their trips and enjoyed a morning kayaking and an afternoon bolt clipping on beautiful boat accessed cove.

Vi borrowing a top rope for a route at Moodys beach, courtesy of Asia outdoors

Nam Cat island resort.

Our home for a couple of nights

The following day we grabbed a boat out to Nam Cat beach resort. This was the setting we were after. A number of beach “bungalows” built on an isolated beach, with an all you can eat buffet lunch and dinner and nothing to do but read, swim, kayak and play with the puppies, we set in for a bit of R & R. Highlights include the dog vs. snake fight (mummy dog not too happy about snake biting two of her puppies and so destroyed it) and kayaking out to find some lagoons on our own.

Puppies, Kayaks, sand, and enough sun for a pink belly

Exploring the lagoons around La Ha Bay

Our exit from the island involved a bus-boat-bus-bus shuffle back to Hanoi were we decamped to the best place for frozen lemons, La Place, for a couple of hours before our evening train to Hue…