Vietnam At Its Best

     Last week we embarked on a three day, two night cruise to the spectacular Halong Bay. Just as everyone says it is some of the most beautiful scenery in the world, in my experience, and although the tourist movement there has become somewhat overwhelming, it remains well worth a visit to experience its grandeur. As you leave the dock on your big wooden junk, the sleeper boats used for all tours here, massive limestone karsts begin to rise all around in amazing teetering and flowing formations that require lots of camera work. What really made our particular trip so fun, however; was the group of twelve people that made up our boat, the Duong Song. As usual, and on this trip more than ever, the people around us continue to make all the difference, despite the location. Our boat consisted of travelers from Germany, Singapore, Australia, Belgium, and one crazy Russian.  He felt obligated to buy the boats stock of wine(8 bottles) amongst many beers to ensure everyone had a good time during our night spent on the boat, afterwich I felt obligated to free the bird that was caged on the bow of our boat. The second night was spent on Cat Ba Island in a great hotel right near the beach. It was a really fun trip and we were sad to say goodbye to our new friends.
     That said, I looove Sapa. It is my favorite city/town that we have visited to date. Located high up in the mountains, yet still surrounded by even larger mountains, Sapa is breathtaking. Its beautiful old buildings are backdropped by splendor from all sides and the flowing stair-stepping rice paddies covering the hillsides are stunningly green and concentric, reminding me of the lines that make up our fingerprints. On top of that, we got the deal of the year at a great hotel with a great view and staff, even bartering for two free breakfasts each to accompany our room. The town is full of great restaurants and cafes and the people are friendly. The most surprising, but my favorite, aspect of Sapa were the droves of hilltribe women wandering the streets, trying to sell their handwoven goods. Many of them speak fluent English, which they learned from tourists alone, none in school. Their people, the Black Hmong, live extremely difficult lifestyles, comparable to that of native Americans in the U.S. a hundred years ago. They live completely off of their own crops and weavings, in dirt floored wooden huts. They are opressed by the vietnamese people who call them cats and have zero respect for them. We found them to be more friendly and smarter than any Vietnamese we have encountered. We had the privelage of joining two of our befriended hilltribe women, So and Csi, for lunch one day in their village. After buying some food at the local market, we hiked three hours up to their house through dense mist. Upon arriving we found the house empty except for Grandma and the youngest daughter of So. After twenty minutes ten more family memers had arrived, straight from the fields where they spend their entire day, even the 10 year old boys and girls. After about two hours sitting around the wood fire, cooking lunch, we sat down to a delicious meal, men at one end of the table, women at the other. Throughout the meal any time someone said "How", everyone took a drink of rice wine. DO NOT be decieved by the name wine here..this stuff is lethal. Rice whisky or 100 proof wine would be a more appropriate name which we found, and experienced quite quickly. We should have known it was trouble after grandpa stumbled out of his room at 11:00 am, already drunk as a skunk, almost falling into the fire. I was lucky enough to sit next to him at lunch as he rambled on in Hmong dialect, to nobody, for two hours, before stumbling back to bed. Impressive for an 86 year old. Our second to last day we took a moto to Bac Ha for the Sunday market where we saw buffalo, pigs, and dogs being sold among other craziness. We spent five days enjoying this great little spot and I wish I could stay longer. Now its off to catch our flights to Taiwan for our last stop. Miss you all and hope everythings great back home. Love Mas
p.s. Happy Graduation Kenyonites!!

Escape the Heat

        Since our great few days in Dalat, one of my favorite stops in Vietnam due to the beautiful area and friendly locals, we have been heading north faster than expected. Hoi An was our next stop where we spent three days in brutal heat waves reaching over 100 degrees every day, 104 once. The town itself was a really fun, beautiful old town full of great food and over 500 tailors interestingly enough. We made it a few hours walkin around the town before retreating to the nearby beach on rented bicycles for the rest of the afternoon on day 1. Day 2 started at 4:45 am for a tour to My Son, a Cham Ruins site nearby. Again we made it to around noon before running for shore. Aside from touring and beaching we had some custom clothes tailored for us, some button downs for myself, which are especially comfortable.
         Next on our route north in n attempt to flee the heat was Hue, the old capital of Vietnam which was a big bustling city, but full of culture including a really interesting old Citadel from an earlier emperor which was heavily bombed. Other sites included tombs and pagodas from hundreds of years past. We took the sleeper bus from here north and stopped in Ninh Binh for the day to visit Tam Coc. These sleeper buses are pretty hilarious. Two levels high, three "beds" acrosse each row. I unfortunately am far from fitting but with enough snacks and a book I make it through the night. Tam Coc is called the Halong Bay of the rice paddies. Half of our canoe ride was spent in the rain, but the scenery was the most spectacular that we have seen yet. Huge rock formations and cliffs coming out of the rice paddies as we quietly canoed through their shadows..a real highlight despite the weather (It wasn't all bad as we were the only boat out there for the first hour).
     Now we are in Hanoi, a huge metropolis full of motorbikes, big buildings, an endless flow of people, and most importantly niiice cooler weather! It is a great city with lots of great attractions around a very nice 'Old Quarter' part of the city which is centered around a big lake. Among the many museums we have visited is the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, which houses the body of Ho Chi Minh. Not a fake body, or a wax body, his real body, which spends three months a year in Russia being kept in good shape. It was a little creepy in there, and extremely strict. If you stepped out of line, a military official was there to push you back in line. Tomorrow it's off to Halong Bay for two nights!! Hope you're all happy and healthy, love Mas

Ho Chi Minh??

       Vietnam. We have successfully returned to the flow of backpacker living. After a few rocky days missing the comfort of traveling with my parents i.e the comfy beds, buffet dinners, great company, and the occasional massage, we have regained our stride.
      We spent two nights in the Mekong Delta at a cool little "homestay" on an island in the river. Our place had a working orchard full of tons of delicious fruit and a 91 year old owner who eerily resembles Ho Chi Minh himself. Every so often, only when you were lucky, you would see him emerge from his quarters, staff in hand to walk the grounds for a minute or two before silently disappearing again for hours. When we made contact it was clear he may not have really known what was going on as he waved his hands around somewhat randomly until we continued on our way. The only downfall was our room was a bit dirty..we awoke to several hundred dead bugs coating the floor the second morning. That aside, we enjoyed a great river boat cruise through the delta canals with a local guy, and visited one of the many floating markets where we clambered onto the sellers boats to pick out the best watermelons and pineapples from the pile of several hundred laying in the hull. In the afternoon we used Ho's rickety bikes to explore the island a bit, and Stef got a nice purple 50 cent pedicure along the way. Other than that we spent a lot of time reading, relaxing, and watching some great evening lightning storms.
         After the delta we headed North to Mui Ne, a beautiful little beach town full of great cafes, lots of guesthouses, and perfect weather. We were in full out relaxation mode at this point, reading on the beach, and swimming in the amazingly warm waters. In the afternoon we rented a motorbike and headed off to find the sand-dunes we had heard about. After about forty minutes driving, we tailed a tour jeep most of the way so as not to get lost, we arrived at spectacular white sand dune mountains next to a water-lilly filled lake. It certainly did not feel like Vietnam at any point. We hiked up them for a beautiful view of the surrounding desert area. It felt just like New Mexico strangely enough.
        Today we arrived in Dalat, a town north of Mui Ne and inland at an altitude of about 5000 ft. The weather is sooooo nice, 70 degrees in the middle of the day, almost cold at night! What a great relief from the 90's and humidity. The city is bustling but very interesting. We had our best Vietnamese food yet and found some tasty street stalls as well. Tomorrow we are heading 15 km out of town to hike Lang Bian Mountain which is a little under 8000 ft so we shouldn't have to much trouble..we hope. Hope you are all doing well. Miss you, Mas

Laos Livin

        We have made it to Vietnam after an amazing two weeks in Laos with my parents! Our time in Laos included an amazing two day river cruise down the mekong, full day treks over unbelievable green peaks and rivers, kayaking, spalunking, elephant riding, tons of eating, and endless great company.
        The river cruise was really relaxing and enjoyable as we cruised about seven ours a day, split up by some cave stops and village walks. It was really interesting to observe such a remote culture based on fishing and farming alone with little to no interactions with the outside world. We saw lots of new fishing techniques, people panning for gold, and there were always lots of naked kids screaming and running around the shore. We met up in Luang Prabang after the cruise where my dad met up with us and from there we were on the move, treking, kayaking, and touring the city. We did one long trek to an overnight homestay in a Hmong village of only 300 residents. We were definitely brought back in time a bit as we lay in our bamboo hut that night. It was really fun. After, we headed south 7 hours y van to Vang Veng, known for its absurd drugs and party scene...mom picked it. It was by far the most beautiful area we have traveled through with dramatic steep peaks covered in virgin jungle. The town itself wasn't much and we spent most of our time outside of it. One day we went spalunking in some huuuge caves, some that take over 4 hours to walk through. We went about 500 meters into the largest one before turning around. The final cave/tunnel was filled with water so we rode tubes through it. After some more hiking and kayaking we headed down to Vientiene for a final couple days of touring and eating and enjoying the peaceful, happy, friendly Lao people. It was really great getting to travel all together and we had an amazing time. Laos is a spectacular country and will thrive in the coming years as they have so much to offer.
       Our first day and a half in Vietnam have been humbling as we visited the war museums. It is definitely hard not to feel like the bad guy as an American, especially since the communist government is in charge of all the writings. They make it very clear the North "liberated" the South and we were trying to destroy the country as a whole. That said we were clearly well out of line on several issues and it was very hard to see the images of tortured POW's and those affected by agent orange. Today we went to Cu Chi tunnels, a network of vietcong caves stretching over 500 km at their peak. We got to 'walk' through one of them about 30 meters ( I basically had to crawl it was so small) which was a really eye-opening experience. These soldiers would spend weeks inside, often without room to sit up. Crazy.
      Tomorrow we are off to the Mekong Delta for a homestay and some floating markets!! Hope your all well back home and getting some nice weather, Love Mas

p.s Happy Liberation Day! (Yesterday in Vietnam)