Jan 2008

Our three day tour of Ha Long Bay ended up being the best activity, bang for your buck, that we did in the whole of Asia. Feeling slightly guilty about dropping our reservation back in Hanoi, our guesthouse man hooked us up with a wonderful trip for only $45- all inclusive. We were picked up in typical SE Asia touring fashion by a super-crowded mini-bus the next morning which carted us off to Ha Long Bay. Apart from the strange old French man sleeping on Megan's shoulder for most of the ride, it passed without incident.

Here is a little bit of information, courtesy of wikipedia.com on weirdly beautiful Ha Long Bay, Vietnam:

Ha Long Bay (Vietnamese: Vịnh Hạ Long) is a UNESCO World Heritage site located in Quảng Ninh province, Vietnam. The bay features thousands of limestone karsts and isles in various sizes and shapes.

Local legend says that long ago when the Vietnamese were fighting Chinese invaders, the gods sent a family of dragons to help defend the land. This family of dragons began spitting out jewels and jade. These jewels turned into the islands and islets dotting the bay, linking together to form a great wall against the invaders. The people kept their land safe and formed what later became the country of Vietnam. After that, dragons were interested in peaceful sightseeing of the Earth and decided to live here then. The place where Mother Dragon flew down was named Hạ Long (originally spelled 下龍), the place where the dragon children attended upon their mother was called Bái Tử Long island (Bái: attend upon, Tử: children, Long: dragon), and the place where the dragon children wriggled their tails violently was called Bạch Long Vỹ island (Bạch: white- colour of the foam made when Children Dragon wriggle, Long: dragon, Vỹ: tail).

Taking a "cruise" of Ha Long Bay is classified by just about every major guidebook as a "must-do" activity while in SE Asia, and practically everyone who visits Vietnam does it. The harbour is literally teeming with wooden triple-decker boats, all variations on the same theme- cabins on the ground level, a spacious, nicely-lit dining room on the second floor, and an open-air deck on top with lounge chairs and potted plants. The great news is that while the boats are pretty big, they only put about 15 people on each, which means lots of personal space- something you don't get very often in crowded Vietnam.

Ha Long bay boats jockeying for position in the harbour

floating houses with Ha Long Bay karst cliffs in the background

more floating homes

Megan with Vietnamese flag

Catt with Vietnamese flag

riding through a small passageway to a sheltered lagoon

in the lagoon

Catt and Megan in the lagoon

Ha Long Bay

this is what our boat looked like...

"chicken" or "kissing" rock formation (depending on which story you go with)

Our own personal ambassador of Halong Bay Fun was a small, overly-enthusiastic, effeminite guy named "Thanh." There is no way to possibly convey the way Thanh pronounces his own name through a weblog entry- just to say that it actually sounds more like "Daan" said in a really quick, shrill, nasal, high-pitched voice. Thanh was giggling all over all of us within minutes- he is the most energetic being I've ever encountered. He was really good-natured about being the source of amusement and butt of all jokes for all of us over the subsequent few days.

Our boat was entirely filled with travellers from Spain. This being the first time we had really encountered Spanish tourists in bulk (apart from Olga and Coral in Borneo,) we were thrilled to be able to practice our Spanish and learn more about a new country... after our tutorial on "The Donor Show" and the crazy lady who got attacked by a gorilla in the Netherlands, we were looking forward to offbeat news en español. There was one larger family group from Barcelona (their accents were almost impossible for us to understand) but we really hit it off with an awesome trio from Madrid and Valencia region- Jose and Valle, and Luis, Valle's younger brother. We pretty much hung out with them for the whole trip spending some fun times playing card games (bullshit and capitalism) over dinners of peanuts, odd looking greens and rice within the wood-panelled dining hall of our boat in the evening, singing karaoke in cat ba island at a bar run by thanh's friend (sweet caroline on a whole new level), avoiding a pack of rabid monkeys on the beaches, and climbing structurally dubious weather towers with broken floor boards on "hikes." Valle and I also did some research on local dance moves at the local disco while Catt used his Spanish to explain just how much he likes to "cantar y bailar." Ask him about it.

Anyway, I am completely ahead of myself. The trip began with some stunning views of the bay, followed by a trip to a cave (another one...) called "Surprise Cave" with an odd looking phallus stalagmite, featured prominently awash in reddish spotlight at the end of the journey through the passageways...surprise! Thanh dissolved into completely incomprehensible giggles when we got there. Later Catt and I relived our honeymoon magic (we had a little bit of a spat as to who should be steering, paddling harder, etc) on an ocean kayak through the funky karst formations on the bay. This time we paddled together in nautical bliss, though. See what longterm travel can do for a relationships? That evening we returned to the boat, took some (scary) dives, flips and jumps off the bow into the murky water, and had a cozy dinner onboard followed up with some card playing. All in all our best day in 'Nam so far.

surprise phallus cave formation... on lefthand side of picture

surprise cave ceiling

Megan jumping off the boat into Ha Long Bay

diningroom on the boat

The next morning we awoke early within our surprisingly plush, private cabin to beautiful views of the bay out the window. We enjoyed breakfast onboard before disembarking at Cat Ba Island, a UNESCO recognized site and Vietnamese National Park. As was the case for us, it is often used as an overnight hotel stop as part of the three-day Ha Long Bay cruises. We were taken to our hotel, a narrowly constructed (only two rooms per floor!), bizarrely decorated, but nice place with no elevator, but plenty of sea-view balconies. Apart from the eight story hike to our room and the gigantic photo of a naked chick on a beach hanging over the tub it was a good place. After going on a hike through the bush (which included some very nice views, minus the sketchy, metal weathertower at the end- see pictures,) we checked in and were taken on another boat, this time to Monkey Island, an island only occupied by primates (no permanent humans,) which is surprisingly NOT recommended in the Lonely Planet due to the resident pack of "extremely territorial, aggressive and vicious monkeys." By this point we had met a Dutch couple who had told us about the horrors of obtaining rabies vaccinations in Vietnam, so as soon as the monkeys started appearing on perches on the hills and clifftops over our little patch of sand in very Hitchcock "The Birds"-type formations, our group of five grabbed our stuff and made for the ocean. Sure enough, tourists in our group started feeding them, and it was only a matter of minutes before one little bastard ran up to an unsuspecting girl and took a bite out of her ankle. Good thing we read our guidebook!

boats sailing on Ha Long Bay in the morning

the top deck of our boat

view from the top of the sketchy tower during our hike

Cat Ba Island tower of terror

stairs to the top of the tower- note the missing steps, rotted out wood, etc

Valle, Jose, Luis, Megan and Catterson at the base of the Tower of Terror, Cat Ba Island

That evening after dinner us plus Valle, Luis and Jose decided to take Thanh up on his offer to take us to a bar and we went to his friend's place for some drinks and karaoke. It was pretty funny, and pretty soon about twenty more people showed up (an audience!) After that we went to a disco for some short-lived dancing and weird music before calling it quits and heading back to the hotel. Some great karaoke pics to be added- we've only got one uploaded right now.

Jose and Valle bringing down the house

The next day we set sail for our bus back to Hanoi, said farewell to Thanh and our new Spanish friends, and set our sights on our next spot... the ancient city of Hue.

Jose, Valle, and Luis, thanks again for your friendship and hospitality during our trip to Halong Bay. It was great seeing you again in Hoi An, too- and hopefully we can meet up in the States or Spain in the future. Until then, happy trails!

...okay, so re-reading the sub-heading, I guess it wasn't that bad. But our arrival to Vietnam was pretty stressful.

We arrived at Hanoi's Noi Bai International Airport later on in the evening of October 17, 2007. We were immediately on guard, as we had read and heard time and time again from fellow backpackers that Hanoi was the SE Asia capital of scams on poor, unsuspecting travellers, especially those coming from relatively laid-back Laos. The most frequent scam goes something like this- you arrive at the airport, looking for a cab to take you into the city. You go to an official looking taxi stand with a sign with a quoted "set" price- maybe 10 USD, for example- to the city center. The guys working the taxi stand all have matching, official looking polo shirts and are uber-fake helpful. Looks legit, right? You tell them where you want to go, show them a map, point out your hotel or guesthouse. Of course they say they know where it is. You get in the cab, then proceed to be driven around in crazy circles for an hour and a half or more, and finally when you're beginning to feel like something is really amiss, they deposit you at some shady looking, generically named hotel (usually the sign says something like "welcome to our hotel!" out front) down some not-so-fun alley. Some dodgy character taps on your window, indicating that you should come into the hotel. You ask where you are, and the hotel tout, having already spoken with the driver, says you're at whatever hotel you named at the beginning of your trip. You get there, check in, it's a total dump with hidden charges, and you get ripped off, big time. Our guide book warned about this, but said that if we get an official taxi, and didn't go with the freelance guys working the area outside the airport, we should be okay.

We totally weren't. For starters, our guesthouse was supposed to send a driver for us, as to completely avoid aforementioned headache. Through an email miscommunication, they didn't, so we ended up waiting around the arrivals terminal for a good half hour at Noi Bai. Finally we realized they just weren't coming, and got the most "official" looking taxi from the matching polo shirt guys that we could find. The taxi driver was totally incompetent- or pretending to be. After driving erratically for ten minutes, he pulled off the highway to a gas station (stalling the car in front of the pump). We waited for an extended period of time in some dark corner of the parking lot while he used the gas station office to charge his cell phone. Back on the highway, we swerve all over the road until we start to get into familiar territory (for Megan, as she visited Vietnam on a business trip in 2005). All along we're showing him on the map where we want to go and he's indicating that yes, that's where we're going. Surprisingly, despite his assurances, we pull into a sketchy side street in front of a generic hotel. A sleazy looking Vietnamese kid opens the car door- "welcome to my hotel!" Last time I got a curbside welcome at a backpacker-type guesthouse was NEVER, so we knew immediately that we were falling victim to the predictable scam. We insisted that no, we weren't going here, and no, we weren't at our hotel. There are several people now trying to intimidate us to go into the bogus hotel. The cab driver got super pissed off and smoked like three cigarettes outside the car while we sat in the car, not sure of what to do. It was like a staring contest- who would break, first. Finally he stopped this random motorcycle driver and asked for directions to the real hotel we wanted- the "City Gate Hotel." We proceed to follow this random motorbike the wrong direction- BACK onto the highway and into a completely different section of Hanoi. At this point we're getting nervous because if this sort of thing happened in DC, it would be considered kidnapping and the end of the drive would be something worse than an attempted guesthouse scam. Catt- very patiently- tells the driver to pull off the highway and back to the Old Quarter. Again, the taxi driver gets out of the cab and smokes, yelling at us. Language barrier is a huge problem. He tries to kick us out of the cab in a sketchy looking area without taking us to our final destination. We insist that, no, we aren't paying until he takes us to our hotel, just as he promised back at the airport. Finally we make it to the hotel. We get out, and again he tries to overcharge us. We walk away as he's still demanding more money. To make matters worse, the hotel dropped our reservation and is now totally full- no rooms left. After almost 2 hours in a cab whose destination we couldn't control, and now no place to stay, Megan sort of had a miniature internal meltdown and just sat in the guesthouse looking at the floor for a few minutes. Laos was just so lovely, and our entire Hanoi experience was a rude awakening- like a "welcome back to Asia, sucker!" for us. Anyway, the guesthouse people at City Gate felt really bad, turned out to actually be very nice and ended up taking Catt on the back of a motorbike to see the manager's friend's guesthouse to see if we'd like to stay there. We agreed on the other place, and then Megan was loaded, packs and all, onto the back of this kid's motorcycle, just like that whizzing through the streets of traffic-crazy Hanoi, top speed, side-saddle on a motorbike to a guesthouse we've never heard of. In the end all ended well, but not without frustration. We seemed to be magnets for this sort of behavior all through our visit to Hanoi- the next day, we had a similar episode with a cyclo driver, who gave us quite a verbal bashing when we failed to pay him a tip on top of an amount we'd already agreed upon (and he drove us for less than the agreed-upon amount of time.)

Getting taken somewhere against your will is far too common of an occurrence for travellers- budget, and top end, alike- in SE Asia, and has the potential to really ruin an otherwise wonderful cultural experience. We've had the same thing happen in Bangkok, too. It's scary, because you never know if they're attempting a garden-variety guesthouse scam, running up the meter, or really taking you into serious, dangerous trouble. Tips that we always heed that really help keep you in control: never put your backpack or suitcase in the trunk if you can help it. Keep it in the backseat with you. That way, the cab driver can't hold your luggage "hostage" while they try to get more money out of you. Also, never pay beforehand- this is just asking to get dumped at the end of the wrong dark alley. Finally, if using a meter, ask for a price, also, beforehand for "an idea". Many meters (at least in Vietnam) are cooked and rigged to overcharge. The best thing to do? Ask your guesthouse (or another trusted local) for the approximate price for a drive from point A to point B. If will give you bargaining leverage, and save you lots of headaches later on.

Apart from our initial negative impression of Hanoi, we ended up having an amazing time in Vietnam on a whole. We spent a few days checking out Uncle Ho's haunts, the Ho Loa Prison (that housed John McCain after he was captured during the War) browsing shops and evaluating bun cha and pho at various foodstalls in the Old Quarter before signing up for what turned out to be the best value tour of our trip so far- a three day, two night excursion to Vietnam's lovely Ha Long Bay. Before we get there, though, here are some pictures from our time in Hanoi:

swan boats in Hanoi... almost like Boston!

Vietnam's most famous resident... the motorbike

Hoan Kiem Lake in central Hanoi

Hoan Kiem Lake and the turtle pagoda

motorbike traffic in Hanoi

transporting bamboo

at the "Hanoi Hilton" prison

...and the next day it was on further east, to Ha Long Bay!

We left Luang Prabang the morning of the 13th en route to the small city of Vang Vieng, about 6 hours south of LP. We had planned in advance to meet up with Moniek and Sven, our Dutch friends from Turtle Islands National Park in Borneo, to celebrate our one year anniversary on October 14th by doing what one does in VV... floating down the river in an innertube, with intervals of drinking and rope swinging, of course.

We had read in our guidebook that the stretch of highway between Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng was actually considered to be quite dangerous until recently due to Hmong rebel activity. We had heard stories of travellers riding buses accompanied by Lao guards armed with semi-automatic weapons on bus rides to fend off unfriendly fire. We encountered nothing of this sort- our bus ride was windy, uneventful and quicker than scheduled. The bus station is actually located on an out-of-use gravel airstrip, used during the Vietnam war by American planes. The entire thing is pretty surreal looking.

Vang Vieng is a study in bizarre contrasts. The town itself sits nestled amongst beautiful, soaring karst cliffs, their sheer, vertical faces plunging into the gurgling Nam Song River... and from afar appears to be quite tranquil. The town itself, though, has in recent years become a "must" on the SE Asia backpacker circuit for tubing, getting "happy," and watching hours and hours of "Friends" episodes over tainted pizza and fruit shakes. We weren't really into the happy scene (I saw that movie "Brokedown Palace,") but the tubing on the Nam Song sounded alright. We met up with Moniek and Sven at the guesthouse that night, had a few delicious chicken baguettes and charted out the next morning.

Tubing on the Nam Song is usually a pretty quick affair, as most backpackers opt for the short 4km circuit at the end. This section of the river is almost completely bordered by family-run, ramshackle bar-type affairs, selling cold BeerLaos, liquor drinks, and snacks. Being on the riverfront, many of the bars will try to entice- or even kidnap- tubers by hooking their tubs with long bamboo sticks, or throwing out a long rope. To visit these establishments, you simply dock your tube, climb up a (usually) rickety bamboo ladder, and you're at the bar. In addition to the drinks on offer, there are spots for jumping into the river, either from a bridge, dubiously constructed rope-swing, or ladder-type thing. Wikipedia warns (as do the guidebooks,) that it pays to exercise caution on the 10 meter high swing, as it's common to "perforate your eardrum and do permanent damage to your hearing if you land the wrong way." There are typically several backpacker deaths on the Nam Song River each year, due to drunken swinging, etc.

Moniek and Sven had already tubed once, and were true veterans. They bargained out a deal where we got to tube not 4, but 17 kilometers- the first 13 being completely rural, surrounded by cliffs. The whole thing cost us 80,000 kip per person- or about 8 bucks- for transportation, the tube and a lifevest. Not bad! It was relatively safe, too- we'd hit the ocassional rapid, snake, or rock in the bum, but for the most part we were alright. Not a shabby way to celebrate one year of marriage!

One year anniversary!!

soaking up some sun on the river

keens should endorse our trip for this...

Catt and Sven

Catt and Meg floating down the river with the dramatic cliffs of Vang Vieng in the background

Moniek

Megan going it skeleton-style

Moniek riding calm

snakes on a tube... in attack mode

Moniek and Sven on the river

Catt dreaming about tubes... on his tube

sometimes there were rapids

Our tubing took up almost the entire day, and by evening we were tired. We went to dinner at an empty (but atmospheric) Lao restaurant on the riverside, and dined by candlelight. Thanks, Moniek and Sven, for helping us celebrate! Many of the pictures above from our time on the river are from their website, too.

After a few days in Vang Vieng, we said farewell to our friends, and started the last leg of our Lao journey on towards the capital, Vientiane. Vientiane is really more of a gigantic village than a capital city- with only 200,000 residents, it is by far the smallest Asian capital city. The pronunciation of Vientiane, is "Vyen Chen." Here is a little bit of background on its evolution, both in meaning and spelling:

The name of the city is derived from Pāli, the literary language of Theravada Buddhism, and its original meaning was "The king's grove of sandalwood", this tree being prized for its fragrance in classical India. It is also believed that the original name of Vientiane (Viangchan) means "City of the Moon" in the native Lao language. Modern Lao pronunciation and orthography do not clearly reflect the Pali etymology. The romanized spelling "Vientiane" is of French origin, and reflects the difficulty the French had in pronouncing the hard "ch" syllable of the Lao word; a common English-based spelling is "Viangchan", or occasionally "Wiangchan".

We had heard that the French food there would be delicious, and we were not disappointed- it was absolutely amazing value. We decided to celebrate our anniversary with our tastebuds, and had two amazing dinners- the most outstanding being the meal we had at French Bistro, La Cave des Chateaux. Perhaps most unforgettable was the smoked pear and camembert cheese appetizer. I still have dreams about it. They also had a fairly decent selection of French wines, at very good prices.

We only had a few days, but we took in some sights, especially the famous Wat Si Saket temple, built in 1818 and home to over 2,000 silver and ceramic Buddha images. Here are some pictures of Wat Si Saket, and our time in Vientiane:

I love Laos!!

Wat Si Saket... check out the hundreds of tiny Buddhas sitting in the wall

Broken Buddhas

Vientiane tuktuks

Sadly, though, all good things must come to an end... and we had a pre-booked flight from Vientiane to Hanoi, Vietnam on October 17th. As if you couldn't already tell from our entries, Laos has definitely been our favorite country so far. Every experience we had there was positive- from the locals, the food, the beer, the accomodation, the scenery, the culture, even the fellow travellers we met on the road. It is an amazing destination for those willing to get off the beaten track a little bit. We are hopeful that the tourism industry there will continue to develop on the right path and it won't go the way of, say, southern Thailand. It's one place where genuine interactions with locals and culture can still quite easily take place. Go now!

That night we took our flight to Vietnam. A whole new set of adventures were just around the corner...