We’ve just got back from an exhausting and amazing trek around the stunning rice paddies near Sapa.
We organised the trek through the hotel and asked for a local guide to take us off the beaten track. 1 hour later, after a much needed shower having slept on the train, our guide Mia (pronouced ‘my’ ) waddled into reception with a big smile on her face.
Mia is roughly (!) 19 and from the Black H’mong tribe that live in a village close to Sapa. I say roughly as they don’t celebrate birthdays. We also learnt over the trip that Mia couldn’t read or write and learnt her excellent English from tourists. The thing I’ll remember about her was how playful and happy she was … we had constant banter throughout the trek.
The trek was about 30km over 2 days, with a ‘homestay’ night in a village.
We started the trek by driving to a village that most treks end at. We immediately picked up a tail in 2 local woman who followed us for the next 2 hours. We were kitted out in our Colombia hiking shoes and they had flip flops, handling the steeo terain with ease. Mountain goats with flip flops!
We stopped for a green tea mid morning in one of Mia’s friends house that had a Sewdish family staying. They had a young girl (maybe 7 is) who had typical Swedish blond hair and blue eyes … the local kids couldn’t put her down, literally.
We continued trekking throughout the day meeting various groups of kids with big dirty smilely faces. One group were picking snails out of rice paddies and were very keen to show off their haul.
We got to our homestay in Ban Ho at about 5 after passing by a dam that was being built above the village we were staying in. The dam was not welcomed at all by the locals as it is cutting off one of their water supplies.
There was a village gathering at the house next to our homestay to celebrate the New Year (Chinese). We wandered over and were cojoiled into downing shots of rice wine with a table full of very drunk toothless locals … priceless! Laura got a massive cheer when she nailed hers and held up the empty glass!!
Above the drinking, the woman were praying for a good crop guided by a Shamen who was zoned out and chanting. It was like walking into another world.
We went back to our homestay and helped Mia cook our huge dinner on an open fire in the kitchen bit of the hut.
I’m not too sure what I made of our homestay as it seemed like every house was one. You can’t blame the villagers as it is there main source of income. We were lucky in that there were only about 5 Westerners in the village when we were there, but I can imagine it doesn’t feel too authentic when it’s packed.
On day 2 we headed further down the valley to a remote village (will add name later) taking in various sites on the way. We came across a very cool water powered rice mill that pounds rice before it is ready to peel.
The remote village was, well very remote! The kids were smiling, but when Mia mischievously told Laura to approach a little girl she burst into tears with the look of fear in her eyes … giant white woman bad!
We trekked to our pickup point via the homestay, where we stopped for lunch. As we went we saw women doing back breaking work in rice paddies with babies strapped to backs with cloth … not a man in sight, they were probably working hard at their rice wine drinking skills at home.
After getting back to our hotel we showered and headed up the street the check out Sapa Market. Nothing too special, but I did get offered opium twice on the way!
We decided to splash out on an Italian for dinner as we figured we’d earnt it. With wine and a dessert it came to $22, which is an absolute fortune here. To compare were eating street food in Hanoi for $2.
We’ve got an early start tomorrow as we’re heading to Bac Ha Sunday Market.
Hanoi is a cool, chaotic city.
We were a little shocked at first as it’s a pretty full on place, especially where we were staying in The Old Quarter. Our initial reaction was to get in and out as quickly as possible, cutting our time there to 1 day, but we soon got into the groove … and liked the place.
The Old Quarter is a grid of streets, each with name representing the trade of the street – shoe street, toy street … you get the idea. Shoe street still sells shoes and toy street still sells toys!
On our first day in Hanoi we wandered around the narrow streets of The Old Quarter and took in the sights, smells and sounds.
Vietnamese drivers use their horns as presence transmitters and so the maze of streets in the Old Quarter is a noisey place. The motorbikes seemingly repel each other at close quarters, like a flock of birds – or an inverse square law for the 3 physisists that may be reading (geek!!).
Crossing the road is all about eye contact and confidence!!
We ended our walking tour (courtesy of Lonely Planet) with a Bia Hoi at a street cafe at one of the main Bia Hoi junctions. Bia Hoi is a light larger, introduced by the Danes, that is micro-brewed at each street cafe. At 20p a glass it’s supposed to be the cheapest beer on Earth. We had a couple!
The following day we were up early for the mueseum circuit. First up was the Mausoleum – Ho Chi Minh’s resting place. His body is preserved and presented in an open casket.
There was a very sombre mood in the queue of mainly Vietnamese visitors. It is almost a pilgramage and rite of passage for the Vietnamese people.
The queue was broken at various points by imposing military guards who had the look of the authoritarian regime of yesteryear. The effect this had on the normally animated Vietnamese in the queue was immediate and incredible. The queue was slowly marching forward in double file and to say that the Vietnamese looked oppressed would not be too much of an exageration.
It is easy to see how fear can rule and we saw first hand how readily the power of the past can be leveraged.
Against all this seriousness, we were of course fighting back the giggles! We managed to pinch them off pretty early, thank God!
As we approached the inner chamber, it became apparent that Laura hadn’t read the break out section in the Lonely Planet and had no idea what she was queuing for. Her face when she saw a dead man staring back at her was priceless!! She very quicky made her way to the exit the only way you can when you are in the shrine of a man who is worshipped in Vietnam: a sort of half run, half walk shuffle, with little movement of the upper body!!
After Laura had come to terms with what had just happened we wandered around the grounds looking at where Uncle Ho used to hang out in the brief time he controlled the country. I liked his study, which had framed pictures of Marx and Lenin over his desk.
After a quick pit stop at Koto Cafe, we headed to the House of Literature, Hanoi’s first University and the former seat of education for Royality.
We headed back to Koto (cool cafe come training charity for local kids) for a lazy lunch on the roof terrace to escape the buzz of the city for a while.
After lunch we jumped on the back of a pair of motor bikes to get ourselves across town for the next cultural leg. Very cool being in the thick of the river of bikes cascading through the city.
Next up was the History Museum and the Revolution Museum. The former was pretty dull, the later much more interesting as it chronicled the sucessive invasions and Vietnam’s struggle for independence.
We ended the day in a restaurant that only served one dish: shallow fried fish served at your table in pans on a coal stove.
After our trips to Sapa and Halong Bay we had one final night in Hanoi, before an early flight to Hue the next day.
We went back to a few places we knew (drinks at Lucky Bar and dinner at 69) and then took a final stroll around a city I was strangely glad to be back in.
We stood and watched some local über cool kids break dancing for fun, not money. Then we grabbed an ice cream and wandered around the lit lake, which was dotted with young romantics taking in the night. All very pleasant.
Hanoi. Done.
