City Lights and the Great Outdoors

WARNING: It's been a long time since we've updated the blog... you might want to grab a cup of coffee or a glass of wine for this one! Hope you still enjoy, we are definitely tiring of moving around but loving the places we have been lucky enough to see...

As we sit on a balcony perched perfectly overlooking the Sapa Valley, craving a bottle (or even a glass) of wine for inspiration but settling for yet another giant Larue beer, Chris and I have trouble believing that a week ago we looked like the main player from Frogger, eking our way across the insane traffic of Hanoi!  We've gone from Saigon (now known as Ho Chi Minh city) to Hanoi, followed by Cat Ba and finally Sapa.  The balance and contrast between vibrant, crazy cities and chilled-out countrysides has been perfect for being able to appreciate both sides of Vietnam. It is totally crazy that we have been here for three weeks- this country has so much to offer! We have been pretty ambitious in our travel plans here and yet there is still so much more to see!

Not a bad view for $15 a night!

City Lights: HCMC vs. Hanoi

Anyone that knows me will understand that I am absolutely no history buff.  I am generally more fascinated by natural phenomena and science-world type places than I am historical museums.  That being said, the places we checked out in Vietnam (specifically HCMC) blew me away.  Vietnam's history is so closely entwined with the reason the country is the way it is today that learning more about the American (Vietnam) War and the perception of it here has been nothing less than fascinating. We visited the War Remnants Museum, the Cu Chi tunnels, and Reunification Palace in HCMC. Though people worldwide (including many Americans) seem to feel that the involvement of the US in Vietnam was outrageous, because Canada is so close in both proximity and relations to the US, we are often subjected to American Pop culture that glorifies the American soldier and the US perspective of the war.   It was quite the experience to see it portrayed from the other side! All accounts of the war at both the museum and the tunnels were extremely anti-American. This may seem completely logical and I would tend to agree from their perspective.  The part that gets weird and almost so uncomfortable it’s funny is that in no way are the Vietnamese accounts of the war subtle.  A movie shown at the tunnels literally describes Vietnamese soldiers being given awards for "killing many Americans", and the soldiers were given the title "American Killing Hero".  I'm not sure if this is something that was lost in translation or if this is an indication of the Vietnamese people's nature. It does seem fitting simply because the people here seem to say what they mean, mean what they say, and what we might consider to be bad manners or abrupt is just them being straight up.  Still, this most extreme situation caught us completely off-guard! It pales in comparison to women shaking their open hands at us when we go into a shop to ask a question. Another interesting piece about Vietnam is that you really notice being in a communist country. Social networking websites like Facebook are blocked on most internet browsers.  There is definitely a different feeling in the North compared to the South, but all over the country there is a sense that people do not speak freely about the political situation.  We met up with a friend-of-a-friend living in Hanoi, and after speaking with these expats it is clear that there is no freedom of speech! People are afraid that ‘someone is always listening’ and will not discuss certain things in public.  This is so new to us, seeing firsthand how there is such a noticeable difference in lifestyle in a communist country.

These tunnels were made for the Vietnamese people.  This one was apparently "widened for tourists".  We're giants here!

Checking out the war planes at the War Remnants Museum

Anyway, speaking of North vs. South, though Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh are the two biggest cities and share the same chaotic feel, there were definitely a lot of differences too!

Here is our points breakdown in the HCMC vs. Hanoi showdown!

Food: HCMC! Lots of cheap food stalls on the streets, Hanoi it was hard to find! Eating is always the most important --2 points

Shopping: Hanoi. Great place to go to buy art, tailor-made clothes or in our case a tailor-made silk duvet cover! Score! And score for Hanoi shopping --1 point

Partying: HCMC. Cool night scene for travelers with 50-cent beers and random side streets packed with little chairs spilling onto the street --1point

Entertainment: Hanoi. Home to the very odd theatre show concept- Water Puppets.  Check it out if you go, just for the weird factor! I wouldn’t say it is good or bad, just funny and random! For a little bit of Vietnamese crazy --1point

Buildings and layout: Both cities have different looks.  In Hanoi the buildings are older, with very narrow shop fronts that head back away from the street in a long, skinny shape. HCMC is more westernized with taller office buildings and high-rises. The streets in Hanoi are much narrower than those in HCMC. No points are awarded to either for this category as they are very different and may appeal to people in different ways (although we lean towards the South on this one, because at that point we were craving a bit of Westernization)!

The city lights of Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)

The crowded streets of Hanoi.  Can you see me amongst the motos? Look for the person a foot taller than everyone else!

HCMC: -1 point because our friend Jeff got Dengue Fever here… bad one! Luckily he is on the mend now and back home safe and sounds!

Hanoi: -2 points for noise pollution from all of the honking motorbikes, which would be on par with HCMC if it weren’t for the skinny streets in the Old Quarter! The second point is being deducted for safety reasons.  You have to walk on the hazardous roads because the motorbikes are parked on the sidewalks.  I got hit in the hand by the wing mirror of a passing car! Not cool!
So the winner for us was Ho Chi Minh City 2-0, though we were feeling pretty tired and chill by time we got to Hanoi so we didn’t get up to too much there comparatively. Constantly being on guard for motorbikes and the incessant honking of horns get under your skin after a while! So we were keen as beans to move on to somewhere with less traffic and more green space.


Enter the Great Outdoors: Cat Ba Island and Sapa

Chris was in full form - sweating so much it was dripping off his hat!

Halong Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the ‘Wonders of the World’.  It has giant limestone karsts that jut out of the water, covered in lush green plant life and peering through mist that gives them a mysterious, majestic look.  Unfortunately Halong Bay has been exploited by tourism.  We read that over 2 million tourists visit the area annually- that works out to more than 5000 people per day! The water and air pollution brought on by hundreds of tourist boats visiting the site have taken away that untouched beauty that everyone comes to see.  Cat Ba Island, however, is the main island south of Halong Bay that features the same limestone cliffs, but is further away from the tourist trail.  We spent three peaceful nights there and clambered through dense jungle for 16km one day, visited a small village in the mountains, went kayaking amongst the karsts and hung out on a boat as it wove through fishing villages and crab farms.  It was absolute heaven to be working up a sweat (and I mean a LOT of sweat) due to physical activity and not just walking to a restaurant or around a temple. To be able to sit and eat Pho on the street without a motorbike passing by every second we well and truly appreciated. We wanted more of this type of travelling…

View from on top of Cat Ba Island.

Stopping for a swim late afternoon before winding our way back through the islands

   Enter Sapa. We were in Sapa and the surrounding area for five nights and it was basically love at first sight! We found a home away from home for the short time we were there.  Chris was in heaven because Sapa is a mountain town.  Mountains = higher elevation = significantly cooler temperatures = no sweating your ass off! It was a welcome break from feelings sticky again five minutes after you towel off from your shower. Sapa is the home base from which people go on hikes and overnight stays to visit hill tribe villages in the mountains and experience a different way of living.  This is also something that has become more touristy, but Sapa didn’t feel too overrun with tourists to us. *side note: the computer is suggesting that grammatically the word “touristier” should be used in the last sentence, yet if I change it the red line comes up saying it’s a spelling error and suggest “touristy” to fix it. Grammar and spell check need a conference call!* Anyway, we checked out a village the first day we arrived and were blown away by the beauty of its location and charm: children playing in the river, splashing around, naked and happy; pigs, chickens and water buffalos roaming the paths that wind through the rice paddies and huts; women preparing dinner, or sitting weaving a new bag or blanket to sell at market. All a totally different world to us, it felt like we were stepping back in time and we loved it.  We spent a couple of days riding motorbikes around and hiking in and amongst different villages.


We liked the motorbike thing so much that we hired one for two days and went on a 3-hour journey to another smaller nearby mountain village. The ride was awesome though butt-aching, and we got to see the countryside in a different way both there and back, winding around roads climbing the side of a mountain looking down to the rice-paddied valleys below. Awesome! We ended up in Bac Ha. Bac Ha is the home place of the Flower H’mong hill tribe and is known for its Sunday market. This market gave me an emotional breakdown- literally.  I was okay through the part that had giant vats stewing weird meat chunks of bone, internal organs, feet, tongues and whatever else.  I reached breaking point when we got to the animal market and saw the dogs on sale for Sunday supper.  It was absolutely horrifying.  There’s not even any meat on them and they’re man’s best friend people!  There are certain things we have seen here that we will never understand.  Seeing the way that animals are bought and then strapped onto a motorbike alive really does give me the ability to understand my vegetarian friends better.  Especially since these animals likely live a happier life than those sold in our supermarkets. It has been important to us to appreciate where the meat on our plates comes from because if you can’t watch a pig getting hog-tied, weighed and listen to its ear-piercing squeal of protest, then how can you eat it? In any case, the food in Sapa has been some of the best food we’ve had in Vietnam and you know it’s fresh from the farm because you’re surrounded by it.  We could’ve stayed another week here, but sadly we move on to Laos tomorrow.

This is Bao of the Black H'mong people. She was our forced guide to see Cat Cat Village.  Lovely woman, except we thought tipping her $2 was generous until she told us we had to give here an extra 50c more! Then after we caved she asked us for a ride back into town on our motorbike.  She was cheeky but colourful that woman!

Love the water buffalos here! They're like big dogs (except the Vietamese don't eat them)!

The saying "it takes a village" is so accurate in the rice fields of Sa Pa

We’ve heard absolutely great things about Laos, especially the food and the people. Vietnam has been a crazy ride and such a diverse country, but it’s also exhausting to travel in.  Mostly because you always have to have your guard up and can never accept something someone tells you as the truth. As an example of the incredulity of some of these scams, here are our top three taxi experiences:

3. A taxi driver drops us off outside our hotel, but has to get right to the front door even though he’s driving down a back alley that is so crowded he’s practically scraping past the buildings on either side.  We finally get there and Chris pays, and the driver tries to ‘escape’ without giving Chris his change back. He was going so slowly that Chris just walked along beside him and opened his car door to stop him.

2. After negotiating a price for a taxi cab, the driver forgets to turn the meter off. When he drives us to our desired destination and the meter shows the price to be half of what we had agreed to pay, we give him the lower price and ignore his protest as we get out of the car.

1. Headed to the bus station, we ask the taxi driver if he will use the meter after he quotes us an exorbitant price to take his taxi.  He tells us that the meter is broken.  We say to him that we would prefer to find a taxi with a meter.  He quickly turns around and says “Ok! Meter! Meter!”, and we tell him he’s lost our business because he lied to us in the first place.

Vietnam is worth the hassle of negotiation to see some amazing things and you just have to accept that as part of the package deal.  Bring on Laos and a more chilled traveling environment though. We’re ready for a change!

Tam biet for now,

Lauren and Chris

PS I can reply to comments on here now (I'm still learning...)! Feel free to give a shout out a la Facebook on this site :) :) I hear Vancouver has had some sunshine in May!! Hope everyone had a great long weekend xo