BIG JOHN WRITES:
So from where we left off. We went to see some temples, and the first Capital of Vietnam out at Tam Coc and Hoa Lu. After lunch we went for a row in a boat through the rice fields and out to a lake system known as Halong Bay Landing. We went through some very beautiful low caves, I had to pretty much duck under each one. From there we went back to Ha Noi via bus, where we chillaxed until about 7, when we were going to head to the Overnight train to Sa Pa.
Luxurious would be one way to describe the sleeper car- IF- we didn't have to share with 2 other people. We were the first ones into our room, Shannon grabbed the top bunk and I the bottom. Shannon spilled half a bottle of water on the mattress. Due to their being no-one else in our room, we assumed it was just us for the night. I said "No Worries" and swapped mattresses. About ten minutes later, a Vietnamese woman, with not a speck of English came in. She proceeded to get on the wet mattress. This brought a few laughs from me. However, she soon found the wet patch. Not knowing what it was, she rubbed the wet patch with her hand, and sniffed it, realllll close to her nose. She mumbled some stuff in Vietnamese, and then got angry, even though it was only water. She called in a guard, some other guy, and some woman, who along with Shannon, her and myself were all in this room no bigger than a common toilet. No-one in our cabin could speak English, and they just kept yelling. Shannon got her faux concerned face on, but I just put on my cool face and kept going " Whats goin on?". Hahahaha.
Anyway in the morning, after an ok ride to Sa Pa, we jumped on a bus with the most massive wankar of an American I've seen. In Vietnam. So then after an hour, we ended up in Sa Pa, had a quick shower and a bit of a wander. We met some girls from the Black H'Mong tribe who were very cute and polite, and tiny. About 4 and a half feet tall, at 15 years old.. We gave them toy koalas we have been carrying to hand out to the kids, and they gave us some bracelets. Very nice.
Then we were off to the mountainous jungle ranges to see the Tay and Day tribes, down through Lao Chai, and Ta Van. Stopped in at some womans house, as they were setting up for a wedding this week. Drank some tea, while our guide explained to us that the dogs we saw walking around were going to be the main course. Walked another kilometre or 2, and back to Sapa, where me and Shannon chillaxed, got lunch and we decided I should hire a motorbike and ride us both around Sa Pa. So we rode around, it was very fun and relaxing, there was minimal traffic so felt quite safe. Had a blast!
After that, we were at the markets where we met an old drunk from Perth. His name was Alfonso, and he was about 60 and the most hilarious Aussie I have met so far. Had a beer on the side of the road with him. Finished the beers, parted ways, and we headed back to our hotel, had a bit of fodder, then to a little bar called Tau Bar, where we had a few bevvies. They have a rum here called ISC which I am going to try and bring home.. its brilliant. There were some pretty disgusting people in there, so at Shannons advice, we left, and went to bed.
Woke up this morning, had some breakfast and we were off to more jungle. A bit of a trek through the mountains (about 5km) and we ended up at Cat Cat Waterfalls. They were very beautiful, but must admit, am getting a bit jungled out. After walking a couple of km more, we headed back to the road, where everyone got on Motos, back to Sa Pa. Then again, due to us being kickass, we decided to ride a moto. We rented one off a guy, and got about 2 streets away when BAM!
It's about 5 degrees here, so the roads are all icy and wet. I took a corner and BAM! Bike slid out from underneath us. Both hit the road! BAM! Picked the bike up, road it back to the fella I had just hired it from. Moto-man and I rode up to the local Moto Mechanic.. There was damage to brake caliper, fairing, light and the footpegs, and it cost me about VND400000, or about $40Australian. Shannon was ok, a couple of scratches, and I'm ok, a bit of blood on my leg, a couple of grazes on my tattoos, a cut elbow and thats it. Ego is hurting the most, feeling a little bit worse for wear due to my moto skills being superior to the av-e-rage bear. Most importantly no-one was hurt.
Tonight we leave back for Ha Noi. We get to Ha Noi in the morning (train again) and then off to Halong Bay. We are doing one night on Cat Ba island, and then back to Ha Noi for two days to a bit more shopping. After that we fly back to Ho Chi Minh.
Until then, take care. Write soon.
SHANNONEGANS WRITES:
Ok , so we've arived in the beautiful mountainous town of Sapa by train and then bus. The night train was a very interesting experience, we were stoked to find out that we got a room with 4 beds and devastated when we didn't get the whole place to ourselves. John and I were so excited at the prospect of spending 8 hours on a train that we decided to take and "Obligatory Myspace Photo", whilst trying to get the perfect angle to show off our beautiful faces I proceeded to knock over my water bottle spilling it all over my bed. Not wanting to sleep in a puddle of water for the trip John and I cam up with the ingenious idea to swap the mattresses with another bed in the room before someone else came in. This idea turned very badly once a Vietnamese lady came and sat down, realising her bed was wet, she proceeded to put her hand in the mysterious liquid and sniff it (all the while John and I pretending we had no idea what was going on). This then turned into the biggest debarcle when the guard and two other people from the train got involved! The problem was sorted when the woman swapped the matterss with another bed and they just put more blankets on it to soak it up.
Enter young Engish girl called Gemma, she did not seem to notice the wet and we had a great old chat. It turns out she was working at a school in Vietnam during her gap year. She had been here for 3 months and was loving it.
We then arrived in Sapa at around 6.30am we were then bombarded by the children of the local villages asking "Where you from?", "What your name?", "You buy from me?", we gave them some of the toy Koala's and got some bracelets in return. They were very cute and are very small. When we asked them their age I thought maybe 7 or 8, it turns out they were 15 and 16!! I seem big over here! We went on a day trip to some of the villages and were followed by some Black H'Mong women on the way down the mountain, they all find John and I very interesting, I have a hilarious picture of the women standing next to John, they were all about 30ish and look like dolls next to him!
The villages were amazing! The scenery is fantastic, it's winter here so a layer of fog hangs over the tops of the moutains, it makes all the terraces with rice growing on them look magical. I bought quite alot of stuff from the women who followed us down the mountain, my favourite was a weaved blanket, it's amazing handiwork. I've also bought some silver bracelets they make as well.
To avoid sleezy men and women (a number of people have been a bit off to both of us) we have been claiming to be husband and wife as they tend to leave us alone once this is said. This has brought many LOLS as I have come across a local village girl who forst tried to buy me from John and now keeps trying to steal me and take me back to her village to marry her brother. She has litterally dragged me down the street! (I think it's all in good fun but John is paranoid they are going to knock me over the head and run away with me).
It's our last day in Sapa and we had a bit of a moto accident today, nothing serious, just the combination of bald tyres, wet ground, a corner and a stupid man John was avoiding hitting. We are ok, just a couple of bumps and scratches. We are off to lunch now and to wade our way through the village children selling things and threatening to cry if we don't buy from them! As much as it is annoying, they are so cute!
Tuesday, 4 December 2007
Sunday, 2 December 2007
From then until now. The sapa continues.
John :
So since we last left off. The plans for Friday night involved heading to our favourite bar in HCMC, the GO2Bar. We sat down and there were some cute, rambunctious children running about. So we had a bit of a play and giggle, all the while Shannon was trying to take pictures of them. They wanted to charge us 5000VND, about $1 to take their photo. When we said no, they flipped us off. It was pretty funny.
Anywho, then Jetstar (the Aussie airline) came and gave everyone at Go2Bar some cake, because it was their birthday or some crap.
We gave our cakes to the children who immediately became our best friends. Hard to explain but we have some pretty cool memories and pictures of the kids. I got my drunk on, while this bar tender called Viet entertained us. He was hilarious, he insisted on arm wrestling and continually trying to make us dance. Chatted to him about Australia, and about Vietnam and it was eye opening. We gave him a toy koala that we had, and he named it Tim Cahill (Australian Soccer player). It was funny but also kinda sad watching all his mates and work colleagues wanting to play with it. It was very touching. One day I hope to see Viet in Australia. He was a chipper young fellow, and it's kinda hard to describe him. Just all round ace. A bloke from Wales called Cecil sat down at our table, and we talked a bit more, before we headed back to our hotel at about 11pm. The next morning we were up and about, getting some breakfast and chillaxing waiting for our ride to HCMC airport.
We have been in Hanoi since Saturday, after a kickass flight with Vietnam Airlines.. a 2hour trip on a jumbo jet (Boeing B777) doesn't make sense to me, but I'm not going to argue with it.
Did some shopping Saturday afternoon, and headed to a place called Le Pub for some beer. Hanoi had a french occupation for a lot of it's past, and is still very much french orientated. This leads to excellent shopping, great food, very relaxed (in comparison to HCMC) and unfortunately also has the air of pomposity that is synonomous with the French.
Today we did a tour of the City, checked out a couple of Museums, saw the changing of the guard at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and then to a Restaraunt in Hanoi's Old Quarter for some great lunch. Me and Shannon decided to call it a day, and headed back to our hotel.
I headed off straight away to find a moto to take me a Doctor, as I had been experiencing ear problems for a couple of days. Woke up this morning with a severely sore ear, and could barely hear. Got to the doctor, and near USD$200 and some drugs later, turns out I have an inner ear infection.
Back on the Moto, with the translating help of an armed Vietnamese soldier in front of arrived back to the hotel, where we didnt stay long before heading to a little place we found in our earlier travels, called Half Man, 1/2 Noodle. I intend to come back here tonight and drink some beers.
Apart from that, we head off to do some more touring tomorrow. I believe we have a boat trip thru some rice paddies and other stuff on the cards. And then tomorrow night we head off to Sa Pa on the overnight train. Looking forward to it.
That's all I have for now, we will write soon.
Shannon :
We got to Hanoi yesterday. It's really different from Ho Chi Minh, John likes it better, I don't really.
It has much better shopping in terms of pretty things to bring home and it is easier to haggle, pretty much say "No thank you" and walk away, then they call after you what price you will pay! So far this isvery bad for me and my buying style as I walk away alot and then end up haggling and then I buy something I wanted but could have definately gone without! I bought some silk scarves and a silk shirt yesterday in total cost me about $20US. They're really pretty. I've also got my eye on some a lanterns and some beads and some cute book marks for presents and really awesome weaving from the H'Mong tribes. I want to actually buy the weavings when we go see the tribes in a few days though so I'm holding off.
The buildings are beautiful and it's alot cleaner and definately slower then Ho Chi Minh, but the people aren't as nice and I find it way too slow after the fast pace of Ho Chi Minh. We got a massage yesterday for 30mins, it cost $5US. I'm thinking about visiting a dayspa this afternoon, for 2.5 hours its like $30US - So cheap!
We went on a tour of Ha Noi this morning part of the set up with Sinh Cafe, it was sadly a little bit disappointing due to the fact that although interesting, it would have been good to do outside of a tour as we had to stick to the tours timelines. We went to some pagoda's where some people were holding a funeral - very different from Western funerals. They all wear white. Then we went to the Ethnology Museum which was all about the different ethnic groups in Vietnam, then itwas off to the Ho Chi Minh Mausuleum, unfortunately this time of year they did not have Ho Chi Minh's body on display. I learnt a fair bit about Vietnamese political history which was cool.
We're off on a boat trip tomorrow and then out to Sapa in the evening. I'm really looking forward to seeing the Black H'Mong tribe and the landscape in Sapa.
We had a pretty awesome last night in Ho Chi Minh and a very cool flight up here! They stuck us on a Boeing 777 for a 2 hour flight and had a camera at the front of the plane showing the view on landing and take off - way cool, not only that but they fed us!
I'm a bit bored today, there really isn't that much to do in Ha Noi and I'm struggling with being forced to be still! Our room is nice but small so I've been getting a bit of cabin fever.
Anyway, I must be off, I think we're going to hit a pub and get some din dins. Most of the tourists here are French and a fair bit snobbish so we haven't met anyone cool yet - not like Viet from the Go2Bar (read John's entry).
So since we last left off. The plans for Friday night involved heading to our favourite bar in HCMC, the GO2Bar. We sat down and there were some cute, rambunctious children running about. So we had a bit of a play and giggle, all the while Shannon was trying to take pictures of them. They wanted to charge us 5000VND, about $1 to take their photo. When we said no, they flipped us off. It was pretty funny.
Anywho, then Jetstar (the Aussie airline) came and gave everyone at Go2Bar some cake, because it was their birthday or some crap.
We gave our cakes to the children who immediately became our best friends. Hard to explain but we have some pretty cool memories and pictures of the kids. I got my drunk on, while this bar tender called Viet entertained us. He was hilarious, he insisted on arm wrestling and continually trying to make us dance. Chatted to him about Australia, and about Vietnam and it was eye opening. We gave him a toy koala that we had, and he named it Tim Cahill (Australian Soccer player). It was funny but also kinda sad watching all his mates and work colleagues wanting to play with it. It was very touching. One day I hope to see Viet in Australia. He was a chipper young fellow, and it's kinda hard to describe him. Just all round ace. A bloke from Wales called Cecil sat down at our table, and we talked a bit more, before we headed back to our hotel at about 11pm. The next morning we were up and about, getting some breakfast and chillaxing waiting for our ride to HCMC airport.
We have been in Hanoi since Saturday, after a kickass flight with Vietnam Airlines.. a 2hour trip on a jumbo jet (Boeing B777) doesn't make sense to me, but I'm not going to argue with it.
Did some shopping Saturday afternoon, and headed to a place called Le Pub for some beer. Hanoi had a french occupation for a lot of it's past, and is still very much french orientated. This leads to excellent shopping, great food, very relaxed (in comparison to HCMC) and unfortunately also has the air of pomposity that is synonomous with the French.
Today we did a tour of the City, checked out a couple of Museums, saw the changing of the guard at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and then to a Restaraunt in Hanoi's Old Quarter for some great lunch. Me and Shannon decided to call it a day, and headed back to our hotel.
I headed off straight away to find a moto to take me a Doctor, as I had been experiencing ear problems for a couple of days. Woke up this morning with a severely sore ear, and could barely hear. Got to the doctor, and near USD$200 and some drugs later, turns out I have an inner ear infection.
Back on the Moto, with the translating help of an armed Vietnamese soldier in front of arrived back to the hotel, where we didnt stay long before heading to a little place we found in our earlier travels, called Half Man, 1/2 Noodle. I intend to come back here tonight and drink some beers.
Apart from that, we head off to do some more touring tomorrow. I believe we have a boat trip thru some rice paddies and other stuff on the cards. And then tomorrow night we head off to Sa Pa on the overnight train. Looking forward to it.
That's all I have for now, we will write soon.
Shannon :
We got to Hanoi yesterday. It's really different from Ho Chi Minh, John likes it better, I don't really.
It has much better shopping in terms of pretty things to bring home and it is easier to haggle, pretty much say "No thank you" and walk away, then they call after you what price you will pay! So far this isvery bad for me and my buying style as I walk away alot and then end up haggling and then I buy something I wanted but could have definately gone without! I bought some silk scarves and a silk shirt yesterday in total cost me about $20US. They're really pretty. I've also got my eye on some a lanterns and some beads and some cute book marks for presents and really awesome weaving from the H'Mong tribes. I want to actually buy the weavings when we go see the tribes in a few days though so I'm holding off.
The buildings are beautiful and it's alot cleaner and definately slower then Ho Chi Minh, but the people aren't as nice and I find it way too slow after the fast pace of Ho Chi Minh. We got a massage yesterday for 30mins, it cost $5US. I'm thinking about visiting a dayspa this afternoon, for 2.5 hours its like $30US - So cheap!
We went on a tour of Ha Noi this morning part of the set up with Sinh Cafe, it was sadly a little bit disappointing due to the fact that although interesting, it would have been good to do outside of a tour as we had to stick to the tours timelines. We went to some pagoda's where some people were holding a funeral - very different from Western funerals. They all wear white. Then we went to the Ethnology Museum which was all about the different ethnic groups in Vietnam, then itwas off to the Ho Chi Minh Mausuleum, unfortunately this time of year they did not have Ho Chi Minh's body on display. I learnt a fair bit about Vietnamese political history which was cool.
We're off on a boat trip tomorrow and then out to Sapa in the evening. I'm really looking forward to seeing the Black H'Mong tribe and the landscape in Sapa.
We had a pretty awesome last night in Ho Chi Minh and a very cool flight up here! They stuck us on a Boeing 777 for a 2 hour flight and had a camera at the front of the plane showing the view on landing and take off - way cool, not only that but they fed us!
I'm a bit bored today, there really isn't that much to do in Ha Noi and I'm struggling with being forced to be still! Our room is nice but small so I've been getting a bit of cabin fever.
Anyway, I must be off, I think we're going to hit a pub and get some din dins. Most of the tourists here are French and a fair bit snobbish so we haven't met anyone cool yet - not like Viet from the Go2Bar (read John's entry).
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