Ho Chi Minh City
Tank at War Remnants Museum
The next day it was off to Hoi An, which was a huge improvement over Saigon. Lots of history, very beautiful and a cool old town lit up by lanterns in the evenings. Hoi An is famous for its affordable and fast tailors. We all trooped around the first night trying to figure out the process. It’s confusing as it’s a constant sales pitch from every doorway. I’m not sure how we ended up where we did but we picked one and started with a pin stripe suit for Jeff and a linen suit for Gary and ended up with 3 suits, a blazer for Liz and assorted other items. This involves a very sweaty measuring session, the humidity was at the apex that night, and then return visits for trying on wool clothes in the sticky heat. There is really no acclimating to this weather. But it was a win-win for all. The suits were amazing for about $100 each and they are literally done in 24 hours, so someone is sewing all night. We had to buy another suitcase just to get it home. I was lured into buying lots of other trinkets at the market of course but it was a fun experience. We stayed in a beautiful resort in town and ended each day with a much needed dip in the pool. One day we rode bikes out to Hoi An beach, which was about 4km away. Traffic comes at you from all directions so you have to stay sharp but we made it in one piece. We hung out at a great resort for the day and really beat the heat. The last night we decided to go to “happy hour” at the hotel. Buy 2 drinks and get 1 free. Their flaw in this program is that they staff it with a bartender and cocktail waitress who have never had a drink in their lives and got confused at Jack and Coke. We all kept switching drinks trying to figure out how to actually get some alcohol (vodka tonic: ½ oz vodka, giant can of tonic….) Liz had the nerve to order pineapple juice which completely threw the waitress who couldn’t figure out what to charge us. Costly experience.
Hoi An
Traditional fishermen
Then it was off to Hanoi for the next phase of the trip, the trekking. We had to taxi into the city to pick up the train tickets for Sapa which is the mountain region where 5 different hill tribes live. Made it on time, then went to our Hanoi hotel to drop off extra bags so at least we weren’t lugging the wool suits. Then finally to the train station for the night train to Sapa. Long day. And may I say that the “soft sleeper” cars were slightly misleading, but we all managed to catch a few hours before arriving at 5 am. The train pulls in and we are in the driving rain but the guides were there and drove us about an hour to the town. After breakfast and poncho buying we decided to do a modified hike to the first village. The hill tribes are around Sapa and we were greeted by the first, the Black Hmong women. They are tiny but determined. The first step is the establishment of rapport. Where you from? How old are you? How many children? Then they go in for the sale. There is always a large basket full of textile products that then appears along with about 5 of their friends with the same crap. Needless to say it’s going to be a very special Christmas at the Nichols. They will hike with you for miles in the hopes of a sale. But as we slogged along, the sky cleared and we had a great day. Trekking here means walking to different ethnic villages, we saw their homes (dark, smoky and sparsely furnished) a native dance show (cool) and jumped over streams and slid down muddy paths past pigs, dogs, water buffalo and chickens. But it’s surprisingly fun and the vistas are amazing of terraced rice paddies and towering mountains. We stayed in an Eco Lodge literally in the middle of nowhere but we had great views and it was a good set up for the next day walk to another village of the Red Zao (big red headresses, shaved heads and very aggressive peddlers) When you leave the hotel area it’s a swarm of women trying to sell, they leave this out of the guidebooks. Jeff and Liz always had the plan on how to move through them quickly, even assigning places for us to stand. This never worked, by the way. In the end, in some unseen agreement, the group of 20 falls back except for 3 who have pulled the next tourists and can’t be deterred. The establishment of rapport begins and pretty soon I’ve got one on each side as personal porters. They actually led me down the incredibly muddy hill and across a pretty raging stream and through their village. It’s all friendly and beautiful until it’s payback time and the baskets of stuff come out, then it’s a steely eyed hard bargain that my group determines afterward that I capitulated too quickly over the $2 but whatever. It’s also interesting to note that the women are all in their traditional dress reflective of their tribe but the men all look like they shop at Ross.
Tribe ladies who followed us our entire trek until my mom bought their crap
Sapa, Vietnam
On day three of our mountain adventure, they picked us up at 7:30 for the 3 hour drive through the mountains to Bac Ha, the scene of the multi tribal market. It was a great market and they sell everything from souvenirs to water buffalo and weird food. Our guide then took us to the worst lunch we ever had (included in the tour) then next we were off to the short “trek” and the river trip. I pointed out that it had started raining pretty steadily but he assured us that it wasn’t raining where we were going 30 minutes down the mountain. This was a lie. In that we didn’t have to be back at the train station until the evening to go back to Hanoi, there was an itinerary and he was sticking to it. So we slopped through the mud for at least a mile on this trail with water buffalo and bored looking villagers staring at us. Our guide was in dress pants and loafers and because he weighed 80 pounds didn’t look half as bad as we all did. He probably does this crummy tour daily. The boat trip was freezing as the rain was coming in at a 45 degree angle by now. The river was low which only highlighted how much Vietnam needs to work on its national litter policy. There are plastic bags and water bottles everywhere, it’s quite scenic. OK, so that was the most lame day of the trip. We were all happy to see our “soft sleeper” cars again. The train left at 8:30 and arrived in Hanoi at 4:30 am where we had absolutely nothing to do. Luckily the hotel picked us up and let us stay in their lounge and Jeff got the Giants game going on his computer.
So we had a day in Hanoi which is actually a much cooler city than Saigon. The old quarter is well preserved, they had just had their 1000 year celebration so lots of decorations were still up. They have a nice lake in the middle of town that has tons of neon at night. We went to the temple of literature which was their 1000 year old college. It was pretty but we were all tired so whatever. The Vietnamese like to eat on the street and there are tons of pho noodle shops where everyone sits at tables and chairs that would be small for preschoolers. Americans are huge for this country and usually sweating, especially me. Jeff and Liz have turned into the adventurous eaters as well, we had water buffalo satay but I drew the line at the cricket spring rolls. Meanwhile the wonderful hotel, who took care of everything was worried about the offshore typhoon that had hit the Philippines coming toward us which could wreck our boat trip the next day so we were sort of in limbo as to Plan B as we didn’t have one.
But luckily the Typhoon veered toward Hong Kong so off we went to Halong Bay for our 2 night cruise on the Chinese junk. This was definitely a highlight of the trip, the weather was great, warm and sunny. The boat was luxurious and comfortable and the food was excellent. We went swimming, kayaking through caves where we saw bats and monkeys and just cruised around and relaxed. They took us to some caves which they lit up with different colored lights, kind of cheesy but pretty. It showed effort. Gary celebrated his birthday on the boat and they carved a watermelon into some elaborate flower and we all had shots of B44’s which are some potent concoction. Great night. On the third day we headed back to Hanoi for our last night and made the most of it. Gary and I ran over to the Hon La prison (Hanoi Hilton) which is where the US pilots, including John McCain were “housed” for up to 7 years. This prison was really old and has been used by the French to lock up communists, communists to lock up protesters, then US soldiers then each other. It’s a museum now but it was easy to see how horrible this must have been. There are a lot of pictures, many propaganda, of the prisoners enjoying Christmas and playing basketball. They also had a lot of pictures of the US war protests in different cities. They had a lot of captured pilots from the December 1972 carpet bombing that we did to Hanoi and the destruction to their city was stunning so they weren’t very nice to their captives. But at least they got out in 73 unlike McCain who was there for 7 years. Overall the war seems long ago but these reminders really illustrate the brutality on both sides and you can’t help but reflect back as you travel through the country which is really quite small. The people are really friendly and gracious for the most part and you can’t fault them for always trying to make a sale.
So the next day, Gary and I were off to San Francisco and Jeff and Liz took off for Laos. We had a great time and only wish our pictures had turned out better! XO to all.
Halong Bay
Dad's birthday
Jumping off the boat
Hanoi
Weird ghost lady in corner of an otherwise cool picture
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