Dien Ben Phu, Laos, and the in-between

Traversing from Sapa to Nong Khiaw in Laos consumed the better part of three days.  On the minibus from Sapa to Dien Ben Phu, I met Saskiya, a Dutch woman who is my age, and David, from Paris. Reaching Dien Ben Phu with daylight to spare, the three of us climbed to see a statue commemorating the Vietnamese victory in expelling the French, as apparently that campaign culminated at DBP.  Later that evening Saskiya and I went to a coffee shop buzzing with locals, where I had one of the best hot chocolates of my life!

But really, this is all just a preamble for what happened next: the bus to Laos. We arrived at the bus station 20 minutes early (normally this is plenty) to find the bus packed to the gills. Our bags were "placed" on the bus, which really means put in the aisles where a million Vietnamese immediately sat on them, leaving 8 of us to sit on the hard floor in roughly the first 7' of aisle.  It took 7 hours to reach our destination in Laos, including 2 hours of haggling over "weekend" fees at the Laos border. In that time, we disembarked 4 times, and each time tried to improve our lot, from floor ("I'm a human not a sack of flour"), to arm rest ("this is my arm rest, I am sitting here!"), to, finally, seat, where the guy I stole the seat from proceeded to sit on my shoulder for 2 hours. The only reason this isn't the worst bus ride of my life is that at no point did I think I might actually die. Nope, that honor remains Nepal's.

Ugh. When I got off that bus, I immediately bought a Beer Lao and took a photo of how I felt. Enjoy!

That night as I impatiently waited for our food, Saskiya laughed and told me to chill out, explaining we were no longer in the businessland of Vietnam: things happen now on "Laos time".  I was hungrily hardly amused with this answer to poor customer service!

However, the next morning while we chugged downriver past jungle-clad karsts to Nong Khiaw on the Nom Ou river, I began to relax and let Laos seduce me.  In Nong Khiaw we visited a local cave where Laotians hid during US bombing (Laos and Cambodia were bombed as the Ho Chi Minh trail meandered loosely along their borders) and spent a fun afternoon tubing a near-currentless river.  A few days of waterfall hikes, Indian food, bad movies, hammock lazing, and chocoballs, and I could feel myself slowing down a bit, matching the pace of river life. I think  I'll come to appreciate this Laos time after all.

Sapa

After an overnight train I arrived in Sapa, where I enjoyed my best coffee and omelette breakfast in Vietnam while I waited for the morning fog to burn off, as the internet promised me sun in Sapa! Oh, the horror: the fog seemed not only impenetrable, but increasingly so. In denial, I set off on a hill tribe hike with a local female guide and member of the black hmong tribe, Chi.

Chi is my age, has two toddlers, and married at the age of 30, quite late in the sapa hills.  Already I liked her! She probably stood at 4'11", but was quick-footed and strong on the muddy paths we walked through the rice fields.  At lunch I ran into 3 hilarious ozzie women who would become my homestay pals!   Because family members were joining to celebrate the official end of Tet (?!), an extravagant meal was prepared by our host.  The fried pork and minty herbs dipped in spicy fish sauce were divine!

Unbelievably, the next day was even foggier, so the four of us decided to attend a local harvest festival instead of trek onward. Chi brought one of her traditional outfits for me to wear, and after squeezing into the tiny jacket, we headed to the festival, where numerous local women giggled to see my trekking pants sticking out below the traditional velvet pants.  I admit I felt like a giant wearing kid's clothes!

At the festival, we saw games, the most popular of which was to catch a goat while blindfolded.  After minutes of scanning the crowd for volunteers, the host found an American woman who climbed into the pen after mistakenly thinking the goat would be the blindfolded one! Don't worry, mom, that girl wasn't me: I know too much about angry goats and rural medicine for that misadventure.

Such foggy adventures coupled with such cultural fun have made me a believer in the homestay and the local guide, as without them I fear Sapa would have been ho-hum at best. Thanks Chi, Rosie, Razz, and Georgia!

Northern Vietnam, the land of karsts

"Karst" is a fancy word describing a limestone outcropping. After Phong Na, which I'll describe as cave-riddled karsts on land, I headed to Nim Binh to see karsts by swamp (rice field).  With 2 Dutch women, Josephine and Annouck, and Martin, a Brit living in China, we joined mainly Vietnamese tourists in boating through submerged fields amidst the towering monoliths.  We rounded out the day pedaling our local bikes (my favorite :P) through misty weather past idyllic Vietnam rice field scenery, and in the evening tried unsuccessfully to find any place showing the winter Olympics.

After Nim Binh the karst tour progressed to karst by sea via the UNESCO site Halong Bay.  We traveled to Cat Ba island, heralded as the "untouristy" Halong bay, where we met Charlotte and George, and Lino and Matt. Yes, 8 is a crowd, and a great number to have when you are staying on an otherwise freezing and deserted island!

As Cat Ba was empty, it met my requirement for renting a moto: no one else is on the road! Together we motoed around the national park, taking in a cave used as a hospital during the war and a hike to a vista teeming with, you guessed it, karsts!  We decided to thaw out after the moto ride home with drinks and shisha at the only bumping bar in town, which turned out to be a great night. Travel buddies definitely make things more fun.

The next day we hired our own private boat (yay party of 8), to venture into the surrounding karst-filled bays, which after karst by land and swamp definitely fit the local descriptor: same same, but different.

This day was cold and the highlight was definitely the amazing seafood lunch and kayaking in the bay, the latter of which reminded me of a different trip, kayaking in Milford sound a world away. 

As all good things must end, our crew had a last night out before going our separate ways.I'm heading for Laos, where rumor is it's warm! Sun, I'm coming!

Time for some Vietnam outdoors!

After a few days in Hoi An recovering from whirlwind travel, I headed to Phong Na, Vietnam's cave park boasting the largest cave in the world.

At Phong Na I quickly befriended Ian, who hails from north England and sports a Scottish-esque accent. On our first day we took a boat on a river through Phong Na cave, one of the biggest caves I've ever seen.  The stalagtites and mites were amazing, and we learned how Vietnamese hid in the caves during the Vietnam war, when supposedly planes flew low over the water to try to shoot directly into the cave mouth.  After the cave we climbed uphill to see a view of the land, pitted by craters from bombing during the war.  Phong Na is not far from the DMZ, and this aspect of the place added to my continued education about America's military behavior from the receiving end.

After our morning cave boat ride, we rented rusty beach cruisers aka "local" bikes and headed 10 km to the "pub with cold beer".  The way to the pub meandered down dirt roads past rice fields, a cemetery, kids playing Asia's most popular game volleyball, and eventually to a family's home outfitted with hammocks, tubes, and beer.  Ian and I bought a beer, grabbed a tube, and plopped into the river, where local kids laughed at our slow progress down what I eventually dubbed the "rubbish river" after the flow forced me into piles of trash. Oh, adventure!

The day wasn't over, however, and as the sun set and we pedaled away, both of our chains managed to break within 5 minutes of each other.  Light grew dim as we walked and coasted our bikes for over an hour before deciding to hail a passing vehicle for a lift. Within a few minutes, we flagged a vehicle, charaded our problem and, yes, got a lift, rusty bikes and all, in a Vietnamese ambulance.  This lift definitely fell into the category of, "this would never happen in my country, and that's perhaps for good reason, but I'm sure happy it happened for me in this one!"

Day two of Phong Na found us renting motos to visit two other popular caves in the park, paradise (it's beautiful and big) and dark cave (it's, well...).  My favorite part of the day, however, was riding the deserted lush green mountainous twisties of the park on my manual scooter, shifting the gears and channeling my father's spirit as I climbed to 30, no, 40...km/h.

I left Phong Na on a night bus to Hanoi, sad to leave such a laid-back hostel, such an adventurous pal, such a nice family as the one who ran the "best BBQ shop in Vietnam and possibly the world," and such beautiful country.

Tet photos!

Uploading a few shots from New year's eve in HCMC and the last one from new year's day in Hoi An. I hope you can feel the energy!

Vietnam war history

America fought in the Vietnam war (known in the Vietnam war museum as the "American aggressive war"), so as a history fan and believer in the fact that all stories have multiple sides, I visited ho chi minh's war attractions.

I began the day with Monica at the cu chi tunnels, where the intro video, seemingly made in the 30s!, described the "devil American" and accolades to Vietnamese as "number one American killer".  This had me feeling sad and uneasy. Good thing I'm from Vancouver...

The caves were built by the Vietnamese after bombing forced them underground.  Unable to combat American weaponry outright, the locals apparently used hunting trap concepts and tunnels to ambush and kill Americans. It was sad to see the traps, which seemed painful and horrible, especially knowing so many young men were drafted in a controversial, unpopular war. These boys probably wanted to be in the jungle as much as these locals wanted them there. :(

Continuing the dia de war learning, we headed to the museum. The first floor consisted of anti-American-involvement photos and posters from around the world. I was happy to see it wasn't so biased to leave out the USs protests. This wall featured Kent state, quotes from Dr. King, and quotes from congressmen opposing the war. 

On the second floor the agent Orange/napalm room was dedicated to some stats about the amount of chemicals dropped along with large photos of birth defects suspected from agent Orange. Perhaps some is propaganda, perhaps some isn't. Regardless it had me wanting to look more into the "official" reason for the US using chemical warfare. 

Finally, to a display of war images compiled from photojournalists on both fronts. Photos of US troops and killings of Vietnamese were adjacent to photos of Viet cong crossing rivers at night with ammunition boxes.  The juxtaposition was very interesting, and the exhibit also drew attention to the mostly-unsung hero, the war photojournalist.

One pervasive sentiment for me was that the people on the ground and their loved ones bear the physical, emotional, and psychological pain caused by the war. I think of vets returning home with PTSD, of the guerilla tactics being maddening as you cannot trust anyone (perhaps even your own shadow), and of the American photojournalist describing taking photos of children before they were shot by Americans. The story is so full of losers.  It's frustrating to have so much suffering over a cause that seems so pathetically political.

I posted a sentiment of war having no winners on Facebook, and a friend of my dad's (also a vet) chimed in that McDonnell Douglas is a winner, with huge sales and profits. I'm practical enough to know that in this lies some truth. To that end, why were chemical weapons used? Rumor in the war museum was that chemical companies wanted to test things. A slanderous rumor?

Tet!

Tet is Vietnamese new year, falling in the same day as Chinese new year (lunar calendar).  During Tet, Vietnamese flock to their hometowns for 4 days of family festivities. This means travel is a packed and expensive, and cities like ho chi Minh, where people flock for work, are empty and closed. It also means you might happen upon local celebrations!

I got to Ho Chi Minh city in time for a lovely dinner with Phong, a long-time work colleague home for Tet. He introduced me to some local delicacies including BBQ deer, quail and quail eggs, though sadly not to baby pig as they were withholding pigs for Tet. After Phong headed out of town, Alex arrived, and we went shopping! I bought some "Nike" gym shorts at one of many fake/real stalls, and Alex found the perfect linen pants. It amused him endlessly to watch me attempt to find linen pants in size 6, then 10, then XL..."wait I have bigger!" I think it's fare to say these pants made my fat ass look like exactly that! :(

On new year's eve Monica joined us, and the three of us headed out after our street pho and 12000 dong beer for the fireworks at the river. Man, every young local had this idea, and streets were packed! We found a plot of asphalt and soon were befriended by some local students wanting to practice their English. We sat with them, taking about Tet and tradition until fireworks filled the skies! Happy New year!

About ten minutes after the fireworks ended, scooters filled the pedestrian-heavy streets, and all was back to the normal mayhem. 2 scooters from opposite directions attempted to squeeze around me, Argh!  Damn beeping, entitlist scooter culture!

The next day I headed to Hoi An, where an evening stroll by the river led me to ornate lantern displays, candles on the water, locals playing carnival games and watching outdoor theater, and a dancing competition featuring American pop songs and conservative attempts at sexy dancing by local teens.  Hoi An, being a destination for locals from Danang and also a crafty, historic place designed to help vacationers empty their pockets on cards, paintings, and tailored clothes (guilty x 3), really seemed to buzz, and I was glad to be there during the fanfare of Tet.  All night photos were taken with my camera, so sadly nothing for the blog, but I give you...Tet flowers and my new shorts!

The remainder of Tet was spent by the pool of my awesome hostel and on trips to the beach.  The latter by bike and then moto as a pair of kiwis, Nick and Geoff (fine upstanding gentlemen), offered to teach some of the hostel kids how to ride. :)

I'm now on a beautiful mountain road overlooking ocean and rice fields on the way north to Hue.  These are the first mountains I've seen in a month!