Hill Trekking in and around Sapa (Northern Vietnam)

Well it is a bit delayed but finally here is another installment of the Vietnam adventure Bridget and I are having. We actually did this trip around Xmas time, and thinking about it now well its amazing how quickly you forget what you got up too back then when so much has happened since.

After the previous post in Halong Bay and the weather we had well it was not to get any better thats for sure. We did not see the sun once while we will in Sapa (3 days) and only had more than 100m vis on a couple of brief occasions. This is when most of the landscape fotos were taken of course.

The days before we got there it was clear blue skys, and later we found out the days after we left Halong Bay were all clear and blue. Go figure.... This is how the weather has been for us throughout all of Northern Vietnam.

Anyhow after a nice 8hr overnight train ride in a great wee new sleeper we got to Lao Cai. From here at 6am we were driven 1.5hrs over what would have been a great mountian road if we had a view :-) Sapa is at 1600m so the temp dropped dramatically being winter. Kinda nice I found for a change. We mucked about at the tour headquaters at the hotel we were staying in for over 2hrs. Of course a couple of girls had missed the right train so we needed to wait for them before we headed out to see some hill tribes nearby on a day walk.

Our guide was a local Hill Tribe girl (21yrs) named Khu. She was really nice, had good english and a good sense of humour. The main village we looked at on this day was the Catcat village. Some lovely scenery even if we could only see brief glimpses across the valley through the clouds. The rice paddies up the sides of the hills always amaze me. The amount of earth-moving is impressive thats for sure. And its been like this for 100s if not 1000s of years.

Some of the local transport infrastructure. Strictly for people, motor bikes and the odd buffalo. Well actually anthing they can fit across it.

Sapa Village. This was the weather we faced for most of the 3 days. Aren't the inside of clouds lovely ;-)

The next day we headed off into the hills. Today we had a 5 odd hour walk over varied terrain. Easy for an experince mountian goat like me but quite challenging for others in the party. Espcially an Israelly guy just out of the army after 3 years. He had full on tramping boots but still could not stay on his feet. Mind you the surface was slick and often of clay so the off camber slopes were interesting. The locals that join in and try and sell you handicrafts are impressive in the little sandels jumping round the slopes as if on a basketball court.

Khu chopped up some fresh sugar cane for us to munch on. It is very fiborous. You chew the material, and suck it till the flavour is gone then spit it out. About a 20cm length was too much. It is very sweet.

The trail and the lovely ferns. One of the locals made Bridge a crown out of the local plants while walking along. They were nice but of course once they left always wanted you to buy something from them. Many were also running round the hills with small babies and kids hanging from their backs.

Some of the local wildlife were also very friendly, just walking along the trails ahead or behind us.

A slight opening in the clouds allowed me to get a bit of a view across the valley bottom. Lovely vistas and the wx adds a little mystic to it.

We did not see to many men working but came across a group creating a new road. Basically they seemed to lay the clay with bashed up rocks (granite) by hand with hammers. They then surface back over the rocks with dirt/clay. Pretty hard work if you ask me to create a dirt road. In the picture there is some Wolly trying to ride his bike over the unfinshed surface with limited sucess I must say and some not so nice noises.

The homestay was great. We got there abouty 3pm and for the next 3 hrs we simply watched (and helped a little) while Khu and the homestay mum cooked up a 'mean as' fed in front of us. Dam it was nice. It was all made in 1 wok including fresh fries we had as a strater not shown here. They were by far the best spring rolls I have had over here also. We learnt how to roll them. Either fresh or deep fried the are delicious. There were only 8 or 9 of us including the family to feast on this meal, and a feast it was :-)

Dam the night at the homestay was cold. The sleeping quarters, infact all the buidings have zero insulation, and with the bodies being use to more tropical temps the 1 or 2 degress was extremly chilly.



The next day the going got more tough. Bridget got many a helping hand from the locals whom seemed to pop out of the bushes quite litrally. Within 10mins of leaving the house each of us had a small woman offering to help us down the hills and along the trials for the next few hours. I made it quiet clear that I did not need help but still she hang around for hours trying to stay right on my side. At one point I ran ahead to get a picture of the group struggling along on the slippery slopes. She of course ran after me trying to keep up. Everyone had a good laugh at that. A couple of people had a few good slides and scares, and I think I freaked a couple of them out at times when I skidded about or caught myself in a slide. This all got me really inspired to get back into tramping. 3 years in the North Island had certiainly put a stop to such adventures.

This was the 'rugby' scrum at the end of the days walking (well the tricky bit). Many people including Bridget felt obligided to purchase some goods. Bridget spent 8 dollars on some lovely bangles. Well worth the money for the support getting across the slippy tracks. Its also nice to support the makers of such gifts directly rather than going through a 3rd party shop or what not.

A beat up old village, the last we would see in Sapa.

So there it goes. That was a Sapa trip. On the 3rd night we headed back on the sleeper train, a crappy one this time. A scam was running where the officials running the train put u in a shitty cabin and say that you can pay 10US to get a nice new cabin. Bollocks and there is sweet f all you can do about it. Of course we did not indulge them with our cash and put up with the hard sleeper. It arrived back into Hanoi at 4.30am so we walked to town and waited in the ATM enclosure of a bank until places opened up for Breaky. The day was a day of shopping and nic nac hunting until 6pm when we boarded onto a sleeper bus set for a 13hr ride to Hue. Now this was an exprience I will not do again in a hurry. If the lack of room was not bad enough then the fact I was laying above the toilet really put the nails in the coffin so to speak. Was a hell of a night is all I can say.

So the next chapters will come on a later post once I have actually found the time and a fast PC and net to sort the photos out for it. Basically for those interested our route has gone through Central and Southern Vietnam (Hue, Hoi An, Quy Nhon, Dalat) to Saigon where we have been for 4 days. We leave here tommrow (14th Jan) with 3 days by boat on the Mekong Delta before heading into Cambodia.

Good Morning Vietnam!!! (Hanoi and Halong Bay)

We have now been in Vietnam for over a bit week. We arrived at midday, got through customs very easily. Was interesting to note that the American in the bothe next to us had his picture taken yet we did not. We then got some cash out. Instant Millionnairs we were. 2,000,000 dong to be exact. About $170NZ. Found a minibus as the taxis were supposibly all touts working for particular hotels and guesthouses in which they themselves would get a kickback if you used a room or their services. After dropping the 1st 5 people off the 4 of us left wanted to be dropped off at a particular place. They took us somewhere else, dropped us off and said that the place we wanted to go was full. I'm getting better at this but regret not getting much more angry and forceful at them. If it happens again now that I have been in Vn (Vietnam) for more than and hours I would not be done over so easily. Anyway we were shown rooms. The Danish couple got sucked in, grabbed a room and headed upstairs. I wanted to see where we were on a map. The showed us the spot, we walked outside to their disgust and figured out we were in some shitty part of town 4 odd ks from where they told us and where we wanted to be. We walked off only to be hounded by someone else. He was a little better and we took a taxi with him to his place which was a good spot in town with a good room. We booked for 2 nights. So 4hrs after arriving I had been through so many emotions. This process took hours and we could barely take in all the sights and sounds of what is the crazyiest traffic and driving and hustling bustling place I have yet to visit. First thoughts during the 1st day included:

• How do they all fit on a bike?
• How do they fit that on a bike?
• I never knew so many bikes existed?
• How do they not crash?
• My god crossing any street at anytime is a near death experience. Certainly not for the faint hearted. Bridget took some encouraging stepping into a steet of flying metal as it sweaved around you. You will never get across otherwise.
• So much good shopping...
• Finally <$1 beers :-)

Hoan Kiem Lake is in the center of town. It is a great wee spot with a pagoda accessible by bridge in its centre. The centre for us and most tourists is an area they call the 'Old Quarter'. Much shopping, sleeping and dinning is to be had here.



Here is a picture giving some idea of the chaos. Words cannot describe it and watching it all take place from the 2nd floor of a cafe is a bewildering experience. I hear Saigon takes this up another notch again :-) Check out those power cables...



Enjoying the 480ml $1 beers. Finally. Thailands cheapest beers are atleast $1.5. A lovely plate of fresh fruit including the wonderful and stangely textured dragon fruit was also the order of the evening. This cost about $1.8.



Cruising the streets around some bag shops near the lake before Bridget knew it she had some pineapples and banana slices around her shoulders with the traditional cone hat. Seeing that I was preparing to take a photo much to my amusement another woman had one on my shoulder real fast offereing to take a pic of both of us. Moments later feeling guilty (especially since we took a picture) we were parted with $4 for 2 bags of pineapple and banana all sliced up ready to eat. This was actually a real rip off but hey what can ya do. Bridget assures me it will not happen again :-) Just to not what these small woman can carry is amazing. They must at times have 30kgs in each basket. Be it Oranges, scooter parts or donuts.



Some more electrical handy work for those of you interested in such things to admire.

Hat anyone??? Another fine example of the use of the humble single speed push bike in Hanoi. Incredible and this is nothing. It is very pleasing for me to see push bikes over here. Even if they are ridden by the people on the bottom of the economic heap. Still they are a good efficient use of transport and I plan to employ our legs later in Vn to get round the sights. Even I are not brave enough to tackle the mean streets of Hanoi. Well atleast not without my full body armour, a full face helmet and a few red bull.

Last Friday the 21st Dec after 1.5 days in Hanoi we jumped on a minibus bound for Halong City to the east where we would climb aboard a traditional Chinese Junk (type of ship). The drive itself (3hrs - 140km) was very amusing if not scary. We spent 10% of the time on the wrong side of the road passing a truck that was passing a motorbike with a cage of pigs hanging off it behind the driver with a stream of oncoming traffic bleeping its lights at us. Of course as always seems to be the case nothing happened. Figures crossed it stays this way.

Once aboard the boat we were greeted by the crew and had a fantastic lunch. Heaps of fresh seafood. Squid, crab, some sort of fish. Yum Yum. On another note the name of our ship as seen in a couple of pics down the page was called the "Imperial Junk". Not only this, it was 3 star imperial junk. This was a grave dissapointm,ent. I would have thought all Imperial Junk be atleast 5 stars :-)

The weather as it has been so far in Vn was dissapointing. Lots of overcast clouds, drizzle and foggy, misty, hazy stuff. Still even though sun would have been better it added some myterious elements to the journey. The 1st day entailed a 3hr boat ride to the anchor point for the night. We stopped at a large cave. It was lovely all lite up inside with many luminous colours. The fact that another 15 junks were there (at anyone time there are 300 junks in the Halong Bay Area) meant that I felt I was in a sheep paddock back home. This was a massive cavern with huge cave features. I could not setup for good photos due tot he hurried nature of the visit.



Some lovely vistas were to be had. Though a bit murky it was still very pleasent. A must do if you are ever in this part of the world. There are a total of 1969 limestone outcrops in Halong Bay and it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.





The resourceful Vietnamese manage to find all manor of ways to seperate money from our wallets. This lady lives in one of the many floating fishing houses/villages scattered thoughout Halong Bay. She rows between the junks yelling at tourists enjoying the view to sample some of the tucker avaliable on her rowable kwik-i-mart.



Enjoying our books on the top deck of the Imperial Junk.

After sunset which was lovely with all the junks scattered among the various inlets of the bay another great seafood meal was had followed by chit chat and a very bad sleep. Our room was a VIP room convieniently located above the generator. It did not get turned off till midnight and started up again at 6am. About 15min later I awoke feeling like I was to die. The room was not sealed and I thought we would die from carbom monoxide poisoing. Still we made it out alive and read books on the top deck till breakfast time.



A junk through the haze of the early morning.



On the 2nd day we ventured further afield after being tranferred off the big boat to a smaller boat for the day. Eventually to leave us at Cat Ba island and a great hotel there for the night. A few more decades of erosion here will see this limestone sea stack end up on the seabed.



I was well impressed when we were to do a small 8km bike ride to a small village only accessible by this road and a boat to get to it. The village was great. Full of children, rice paddies and animals of all shapes and sizes.

Once at the village we trekked into the bush to see a cave used by French as a hideold during one of the wars. There were heaps of snail shells (1000s) on the cave floor which were no doubt eaten by the resident and hungry Frenchman.

For lunch we had seafood yet again. What else could you expect aye. Very yummy. It was supplied by a floating fishing house we pulled up too. Here we also went kayaking for a couple of hours. It rained on us during the kayak but it added to the experiance. Bridge and I thought we would take a long way back to the boat. Thought we were to lost for a while there in the labyrinth of inlets but we made it back. I loved the kayak and it has got me inspired to do more again.

The above picture shows an archway. The only way to get into the mountain enclosed lagoon.

The view from the top of Monkey Island. Here comes the rain again... Very sharp rocks to the top of this outcrop. I was amazed I was not in the market for my 4th pair of jandels after this little escapade.

Before I forget here is a pic of the inside dining hall of the Imperial Junk. It was not too junkie, I must say so myself. Quite lavish infact with a sound system, TV and bar.

On the drive back after 3 days in Halong I was keen to get pics out of the window of passing traffic and what they were carrying. It was easier said than done and I missed the best ones. Normally these involved animals such as ten little pigs in a cage stacked on top of each other zooming past us on the back of a scooter. Not to mention enough 2 by 4 to build a small palace. See the pics below.

Crossing the Red River on the way back into Hanoi I managed to capture a shot of the skyline of a small part of Hanoi.

So this blog covered our first few days in Hanoi and the 3 day Halong Bay trip. We got back at 5pm and had the train to catch (overnight sleeper) to Lo Cai for a 3 days trekking in Sapa. A mountain town in northern Vietnam. This blog will be posted in the near future. For now I am outta here. Tonight after having got back to Hanoi from Sapa on the train (arriving at 4.15am) we leave on an overnight bus (700km - 13hrs) for Hue.

Hope u all had a great Xmas and have a Great New Years.

Cheers,

Kurt & Bridget.

Koh Tao - The best of the Gulf Islands

Righto. I'm currently a bit brian dead as I have been sitting here in this tiny internet cafe for 1.5hrs already sorting out some photos. Man it amazes me how they make use of space here. Anyspace. This cafe is not wider than 160cm but there are 10pcs along the wall within a tiny space. You can barely walk down the isle from the entrance to last PC. In NZ a building like this would simply not be used, infact it simply would not exist. The largest specimins back home would struggle to get through the doors. Here however it is a common sight. Atleast the net here in Hanoi is far cheaper than Thailand. Vietnam!!! much more about this in the next blogs.

After Koh Phangan we were off to Koh Tao for some laxing and chilling on a smaller more undeveloped island. It is a lovely place as the picture below shows. For the 3 days we were there the weather was changable with some very heavy showers. Still of course we are talking of 20s as the lows in the night so there is no moaning about the temperature. On the first day we just wondered round the 2 main populated areas of the island. Its not very big. With a little dedication much to the disgust of taxi drivers you can walk anywhere on the island. Though I must say walking over the hill to Chaloak Bay (only 5kms) had us very neary calling a taxi. I was sweating insane amounts. Talk about humidity. Mae Saree is the lovely part of the island. Many great restuarants, cafes and guest houses.

Thinking about it the number of taxi drivers with nice utes costing 750,000 Baht is surprising on such a small island. I guess they pay for it by overcharging the whiteman. A very common occurance. Cars in Thailand are overall more expensive by a little than at home. Hence the number of motor bikes.

Here is a typical street scene in the port town of Koh Tao. It is much quieter and more peaceful than the islands larger brothers we had frequented earlier.



Walking down the beach one evening in Mae Saree I came across a swing. Of course I had to have a go. Makes for a good pic atleast. Must say that the 4 by 2 was not exactly contoured for ones backside :-) Along the whole water front a good couple of Ks are lots of lovely we spots for a drink or some tucker. The next photo was taken just after sunset from a great wee restuarant which like Koh Phangan showed movies for free at night. One such movie we watched was "The Beach" quite appropriate really... We had now been to a number of the places talked about in the movie and also used as filming locations.

A spot of torrential rain was on the menu one arvo. Man was it heavy. A great time to pull out the books before heading out for a feed. We got back to little hut which was a bargin at 250Baht per night with a TV. Though I must say it is pretty bad TV. Much worse than at home.

We both really loved our 3 days on Tao. I must say the highlight for me was a day travelling around most of the island (not all due to the swell prpogating in from the the Gulf) snorkelling. It was so great having contacts as I could actually see what was in the water. It still didn't stop me slicing my finger up on a chunk of coral. The little boat was great with about 30 of us packed onto it. We went to 3 dive sites and a great beach during the day. The fish were great. Many colours though the rocks, plants and coral were not so colourful. I was a bit of a fool and got really sunburnt. I fell to the premise that it was too cloudy to get burnt and that my body was use to the sun now. Yeah right :-)

The higlight of the trip and the best beach I have yet to adorn with my presense would have to be Nang Yuan Island (following 2 pics) which is a few hundred metres off the northwest coast of Tao. It is too small islands with a very small island in between connected by 2 sand barriers, banks, beaches. It is a very interesting coastal geomorphological feature and one that is perplexing getting ones head aorund just how it forms and also how it stays in exsistance. Enough off that. This is not a 4th Year Geog paper. Climbing to the top of the rocky limestone outcrop in which the panorama picture is taken I managed to break my 2nd pair of 3 dollar jandels. Man they really do not make jandels over here like the Warehouse back home. Though these are admittidly of the $3 variety. The 1st pair was broken trying to jump start a stupid scooter.

On the way out to our last dinner and evening spent on the beaches of Mae Saree after we had organised ourselves for the following day of travel I had to make sure I got a picrure of this shop. Notice the home made condoms. He says they are best money can buy. You will need to wait for someone else report on the accuracy of this statement as I cannot comment on it....I ain't nearly that brave :-)

Tuesday the 18th Dec was along day indeed. First up we had a 2hr fast catamaran ride from Tao to the Mainland (Champon) then a very long and exhausting VIP (They love this terminology over here. You can be a VIP for very few $$$ in these parts) bus ride to Bangkok. They dropped us off at Koh San Road in BKK which was a good spot to end up. We managed to find a place to stay. Had some tucker and hit the sack before yet another day of travel and sensory overload as we flew to Hanoi in Northern Vietnam. Pic is of Koh San Road at night. A very lively spot indeed.

P.S - Spelling may not be up to scratch as the spell checker is not working here.