Hanoi - Thursday

We didn't wake up until 9 am. We must have been tired. We had originally booked another tour for today, cancelled it last night, really that we didn't fancy another 6 or 7 hours on a bus. But it was raining again it this morning, but not much.

But we have a secret weapon now. A pakamack and after a hearty breakfast, set off across town. Hey we've got crossing the road sussed. You basically just walk slowly across letting everything around you. Don't stop, it confuses them. We may have it sussed but it still scary as hell.

We decided this morning to walk through the French Quarter, but this time carrying on than last time.  And we found a another lake which we walked half way round and then found the Lenin Park. It cost us 15p each to get in and was worth it.  I bet in summer its a lively place to be. It's got a little train running around it, a few small cafes, a kids funfair and lots of gardens. All was closed today, but a peaceful place to be in the city. And another huge lake.

At 1pm the rain just stopped...yeh! Off came the plastic Mac.

This is our last full day in the city so we wanted to have a good walk around a new area. Walking back we passed the Opera House and financial district and then St. Joseph's Cathedral, and then into a call cave for lunch. Lovely beef stirfy. There were groups of mean sitting around drinking shots out of a bottle covered in newspaper!it isound out it was home made vodka. They certainly put it away, two bottles between four of them.

This was a building site, fancy doing this sort of work under these circumstances.

At 2pm the sun could be seen trying to burn through the clouds yehhh! And off came the padded coat.

Tired and foot sore, a couple of hours later we hobbled into the hotel to rest, pack, shower and have a night in the night market area.

I am getting to like the city more and more as we spend time here. Not that I want to spend too much time here, it gets very tiring, but it has grown on me.  What I love is the contrast I?n e setting, people, building, commerce.

Tomorrow we are off on our last adventure in Northern Thailand.  We are spending two nights at Halong Bay.  I have set my expectations are rock bottom with regard to the weather.  I am expecting rain, cold and fog.  If it is any improvement on that, I will be very happy.  I am sure the boat will be lovely, the people interesting and trip fascinating, aren't we lucky!

More adventures near Hanoi

Wednesday

It has now rained for 24 hours non stop, and I crossed my fingers last night that it would improve today. We had booked a tour outside the city.

Well we woke to a damp and gloomy day but it wasn't raining...yipee. We met our bus and headed out of town.

I really enjoyed the ride out and watching Vietnamese life passing by. I'm not really sure what I expected, but I hoped it would be much more rural. But course it was a mix of agriculture and commerce.  We passed small towns and one large and fairly prosperous city. In between were paddy fields and market gardens.  I know that paddy fields are wet, but the whole landscape was sodden with all the rain and I felt really sorry for the people I saw working in the fields. And also surprised at the number of churches we passed.

But there was commerce everywhere. We went passed stone masons carving out huge shrine sculptures. Quite a few Grotto shops! Huge great lumps of rocks which if you put them together would look like a garden Grotto. There would be bed shops next to scooters, next to little cafes next to coffin dealers, it was fascinating. Then there would be market gardens, herds of goats running around, and hundreds of white ducks or geese everywhere. Some in pens others just in the fields. Occasionally you would see white egrets in the fields.

I would have stopped a hundred times to get out and take pictures, but it wasn't to be.

Our first stop was the original capital of the region and the home to the first Kings and Queens of Vietnam. It was called Hoa Lu and originally covered an area of 3km. Sadly now almost nothing was left of the ancient citadel, but it was a beautiful spot and our introduction to the area.

Our bus had people from everywhere, a really nice bunch. The Netherlands, Germany, Tokyo, Argentina and Sydney and us of course. Our guide was called Kien, and was a cheeky bugger.

Our final stopped was Tam Coc, the Halong Bay of the Rice Paddies. Huge limestone karsts jutting out of the river and Paddie fields. We stopped for lunch. Have to say it was pretty poor. Another meal sitting a cold restaurant with our coats on.

It was then time to get a small boat for an hour and a half trip through the karsts. Although grey and overcast, the scenery was just stunning. Although a barrage of boats set off together, somehow they seemed to separate, and it became quite peaceful.

We paddled by fields and little shrines, and between soaring karsts and then under low tunnels.

After 45 minutes we started to turn around for the return trip. Then the heavens let loose and it threw it down, then came the thunder and lightening.  But we had another forty minutes to go.... And it didn't let up. We were drenched to the bone. What could you do.

 

A strange paddling technique.

After reaching harbour, we returned to the cold restaurant for tea and got on a cold bus, which had no heating (it had wifi! Perhas we should have burnt all the mobiles) for a three hour journey back to Hanoi. Everyone was cold, wet and fed up. More about the cold ....

I am totally bemused.  This part of Vietnam gets this cold and wet weather for a third of the year, yet they seemed totally un set up for it. Homes, businesses and restaurants just have no heating. You walk around Hanoi and there are people sneezing, coughing and snivelling, but they do nothing to try to keep warm and dry. Everything is damp.  But they have mobiles, PCs, scooters,cars, electricity and technology, but they keep themselves damp and cold. We were told that chest problems kill many people here, pneumonia etc and I can see why.

Up and on. I love some of the architecture here, its so bizarre. Many of the buildings are possibly one room wide, and then up to six or seven stories. Often the ground floor is a shop or cafe.  There is everything from what looks like hovels to large ornate houses. And you will see a largish newish looking building, freshly painted building next one that looks like it is falling down. But parked in front will be a 4 x 4.

How about this for a pad in  a communist country!!  I am going to try and get some pictures of the tall houses, but more difficult in the city.

Most of the buildings are made of concrete and left bare and unpainted, and look that drab grey colour. I presume it is a mixture of the wet, damp and rain, but it doesn't take long for them to look run down. Some are brightly painted all over and some they just paint the front and leave the rest grey. I wonder how long they last in this climate.

One thing I find very sad is that they do not look after their countryside. As you drive through the sides are covered in rubbish, plastic bottles and bags. At times someone has  brushed them all up, but they are just left in piles. I know it is probably the least of their worries, but wonder when it will be a huge problem environmentally.

Back in Hanoi we had hot showers and jumped into bed to try and warm up. And we stayed there. Dinner was a coffee, a banana and a small packet of biscuits, and the evening was watching TV in our warm room.

Up and on tomorrow is another day.

Confined to barracks

It's Tuesday and we've been confined to barracks most of the day due to absolutely torrential rain and 6 degrees. Bit of a bummer but can't do much about it. So we collected our washing, changed rooms as the heating not working in current one. It was freezio last night. Only next door, so not much trouble.

Ive been playing games, blogging and reading Dracula all day.  Oh and planning the shortest route to a restaurant tonight as still pouring down.

So not much to tell. We've got a trip planned out of town tomorrow, so cross your fingers the day is better.

Back at home in Hanoi

After a few hours sleep and breakfast, we took a huge bag of laundry to be cleaned. How civilised getting someone else to do it.

As usual it has taken coming back to Hanoi for me to start getting used to it, and feel happier about the place.  SaPa wasn't a complete disaster, but I suppose I felt it was a waste of time and it cost a lot to sit in a hotel bedroom for two days. But you have to put it down to experience. Also it was so lovely to see the locals so excited about snow. Our guide tonight said that it had been 42 years since it last snowed. No wonder they were so excited.

It is nice be back doing something.

We decided to walk back to the Hoan Kien lake. It was a much clearer day than last week and at the end we veered off into what seemed a smarter area, with wider roads.  In the middle of the lake there is a wooden bridge over to an island with Ngoc Son Temple on it, I think the most photographed temple in Vietnam.

There was a photographic exhibition in the park, some of it very good.

Then we hit the posh shops, but what I love about the place is that in front of them you have sitting on little plastic stools cooking up their lunch.

Somebody has lots of money here.

We walked around the Old Town again. In the 13th century Hanoi had 36 guilds, each of them taking a different road. Hang means merchandise and the 36 streets still exist. Each one called Hang plus the name of the goods. P Hang Gai means silk Street. When we first walked around last week we couldnt understand why there was a whole street or shoes or lanterns  or books etc. Also at the back is a whole street of coffins with flower sellers, and what looks like a crematoria all together.  We know now.

Vietnamese health and safety at its best.

The Opera House

Poinsettia everywhere

In the evening we had a guided street food tour. We thought it would a group, but our guide turned up and it was just the two of us. We decided to be brave! We have already tried Bun Cha which is pork noodles, salad and crab rolls. So Lee started us off with chicken noodle soup, lovely

Then fried vermicelli with fried eel, I know, but it was great

Then it was a drink of fresh beer in Beer Street, and next came deep fried tofu and fried tiny fresh water crabs... Different than tofu ive had the UK was so fresh, the crabs great and the fresh beer tasted like lager, so okay

We finished off with deep fried battered banana and sweet potatoes. It should illegal.

And then gooey pudding made from beans and coconut milk. Bit too sweet for me.

By that time I was ready to explode.  As we started walking back it started to rain and Lee so kindly bought us a plastic Mac... Ooo so chic don't you think.

Train back from SaPa and back in Hanoi

I've corrected all the predictive errors from yesterday. It does some peculiar ones.

When the sun did shine.

Anyway the excitement continues. As I said the Vietnamese go wild to see snow. Half of Hanoi decided to come to SaPa in the morning, followed in the afternoon by the other half.

We booked a transfer for 4pm back down to Lo Cai, which should take 60 minutes. It took us an hour and a half to get to the edge of town.   Rod was starting to fret a little at this point. I would add that there is only one road into and out of the town, with one lane in each direction.

It then took another one and a half hour later down hill to Lo Cai.  Rod by this time was having kittens. I had my eyes closed for most of this time, as our driver thought he was Schumacher, I have never been around so many blind mountain bends on the other side of the road, as he tried to overtake five or six cars. This is in addition to three or four scooters trying to overtake on the inside and a few pedestrian on the road.  Bugger Alton Towers, just come here!

Over three hours later we arrived at the station, me trying to be calm, and poor Rod stressed out completely, but we got there, picked up our tickets for the same cabin and got onboard.

We had a sandwich and then went to bed exhausted, and  surprisingly slept quite well, until they banged on the door at four fifteen as we were coming into Hanoi.  By five we were tucked up in our bed at the Glance Hotel.

And when the snow came.

SaPa - Saturday and Sunday

Saturday - Well our luck truly ran out today. We woke to thick fog, you couldn't see past the balcony and unfortunately more serious, pouring rain. Our trip out to the countryside was cancelled. Hoa from Ethos travel emailed me to say that the whole region was the same, and basically we wouldn't see anything if we went out.   What a shame as we only have tomorrow and we are back to the station tomorrow night to catch the train back to Hanoi.

It continued to rain all day and we basically stayed in the hotel except for a couple of forays out for lunch and dinner.  SaPa is such a small place and we saw all the sights to see yesterday. All there is to do is eat, as ususally you would be out in the countryside or trekking.

Comfy hotel, nice room with heating and an electric blanket, heaven..

But that's the game here, we are up in the mountains and the weather changes by the minute.

So what are we going to do today then. Hopefully the rain will stop later and we can get down to the town. But it didn't, it got worse and colder.  We had dinner, had an amble around till it got cold, and watched pirates of the Caribbean III back at the hotel.  Very silly it was, but quite enjoyable. Read a bit, played some games and that was it.

Sunday

It got worse today and we woke up to snow. All the locals are ectastic, they get snow about once every ten years. Suddenly SaPa became full of people from Hanoi, wrapped up like snowmen, giggling a lot and taking loads of species.  Unfortunately for us it meant another day of hotel. We are destined not to visit the hill tribes.

Caught the girls from the hotel playing snowballs outside.

It hasn't turned out how we expected, but that is the way it goes. My knees are better from the enforced rest.

We've had lunch and are huddled by the fire keeping warm and sipping ginger tea. The fire has a couple of fire pixies, who scramble under the bricks, and come out every so often looking a little. A mother and her 3 month pup who are both very entertaining and so sweet.

 

We are now waiting for our transfer down hill to Lo Cai. Hope it won't be a slide down hill all the way. We are leaving a bit early to ensure we get there in plenty of time and will probably have to hang around, but at least we will be there.

Some thoughts on the hills.  Didn't see much countryside, but it is easy to see how hard it must be for the hill people. There are about six different tribes of people who rarely inter mingle. There is 26 languages spoken, not dialects, but separate languages.  The Hmong people sided with the Americans during the American war, not the Vietnam War, and they were trained as fighters.  So of course after the war ended the Hmong were treated with great suspicion.

You have a circular problem with the Hmong people here. They do not want to mix with the Vietnamese, okay you may understand that, but they seem to keep themselves to their traditions, which is okay but very static.  They take their children out of schools, as they don't see the point, therefore the do not learn to read and write.  To get anyway here you have to do that. So they cannot get jobs, or improve their lot.

Some other awful facts. Life expectancy for men is 46 and women 51. The biggest killer is cancer, mainly caused by inhaling wood smoke constantly and pneumonia, which after the last few days I can fully understand.  They live in damp housing in the hills without heating or ventilation for wood smoke.

On the upside there are a few small co-ops here pushing for education and better health care, but I think it will be an uphill, no pun intended , struggle.

We were talking to our waiter last night and he told us that the government want to double or triple the number of tourists in SaPa and there are building works everywhere. He wasn't very happy about it. Not sure I would want to come here if this happens.  The government also want to ban Hmong women selling their handicrafts on the street. Yes it can be irritating but it is their livelihood. How are they going to survive. And a slight bitch, where are all the Hmong men, it all seems to be the women out in the cold and rain with their wares.

I just elt they had crap lives, and they looked so cold and bored. It didn't seem much of a life huddled in a doorway in the pouring rain last night. But then I would have been on this particular night.

They get cold and rain here every year, but don't seem geared up for it, evening the main part of town. None of the restaurants have any heating, so you have to wear your padded jackets in them. You can see from our balcony, that only about an inch of snow has fallen on the roofs below, but it doesn't melt because the houses don't have heating.

So end of rant. The transfer will be here soon and we will catch up again back in Hanoi.