Eric Sumberg has requested that we add more detail to our posts. We will do our best in the future.
We know we are behind On posts. We said goodbye and thank you to Bangkok and southeast Asia in general. They treated us incredibly well.
We just finished an amazing breakfast in shavei Zion, a town in the north of Israel. Fresh shakshuka, Bulgari cheese, olive tapanade, home made jam, and a table full of fresh Israeli salads, along the Mediterranean coast. That's two ridiculous, HUGE breakfasts in two days in israel. How do Israelis look fit?
More details later.
Val and Jacob take on southeast asia 2013
Monday, May 13, 2013
Monday, May 6, 2013
Halong bay
Morning Aerobics in Hanoi, and a long (but shortened) trip to Halong Bay and back:
We woke up as the train was arriving back in Hanoi. We went back to our hotel, dropped off our bags, and decided, since we were awake so early, to check out the local ritual that we'd heard happens every morning around the Hanoi Turtle lake: morning aerobics. We weren't sure what to expect, or how many people would be there. Jacob said he thought we were going to some small meet-up or club. Nope!
We walked by people aimlessly flailing their arms, old men using park benches to hold their knees as they did sit-ups, and others doing anything they could to keep their bodies continuously moving for long periods of time. Not wanting to miss out, we joined the biggest group we could find: about 35 older women (ages ~30-85) surrounding a young man doing laughing and smiling exercises. That's a surprisingly hard workout! And a great way to start the day. Since we didn't want to miss our bus to the bay (and since neither of us could handle more than 5-10 minutes of the aerobics, even the laughing kind), we skipped before the end of the class and headed back to the hotel.
The aerobics was funny. It's a little strange to see such a large number of people doing almost the same thing, but mostly separate from each other. We are probably wrong, but we decided that "go outside and move, and don't stop for 30 minutes" was probably a Communist mandate. And a good one. Glad it stuck. We could use some of that in the States. So maybe it's not just the rice and fish diet that gets southeast Asians so thin- maybe it's the aerobics at 6am!
Halong Bay Background: Going to Halong Bay was one of the few things that we were really looking forward to on our trip. Everyone kept telling us how incredible it is, and how we have to go. So we were really excited. We booked our trip out of the Rising Dragon Palace, our Hotel in Hanoi, which was a great hotel. But everything with the planning kept going wrong. It took 3 frustrating hours with the travel agent to actually book our trip. First, we agreed on a trip, but didn't know you have to "confirm." So they gave away our seats. Thanks. Then the second company (after we confirmed) just decided to cancel the trip entirely (we booked a 3 day, 2 night cruise; they decided, after they accepted our "confirmation", that they would now be offering only a 2 day, 1 night cruise). So we finally booked with the Paloma for a 2 day, 1 night cruise. Not what we initially were aiming for (we wanted the 3 day, 2 night-er), but we would take what we could get. The Paloma was supposed to be great, so we were psyched.
So on to the cruise. We were picked up at our hotel for our "3 hour trip" with a bunch of other couples. Just outside of Hanoi, our tour guide informed us that they had forgotten a family, so we had to turn back. It wasn't his fault, and he felt bad, so he stopped at a local store and bought us a round of beer and 'white wine' to apologize. (it was 9am, but appreciated all the same). We finally arrived to Halong Bay 5 hours later.
Immediately, you can see incredible limestone mountains jutting out from the water. It was spectacular and we understood why this was named a unesco heritage site.
We all boarded a small boat that took us to a bigger, old wooden riverboat that had been painted white. It was actually a beautiful ship with a cute room and balcony and and comfy deck furniture. It was perfect!
Of course, you have local women merchants selling wares. Someone must have told them "Americans love Oreos and Pringles", because half-way around the world, that's all they seem to try to sell.
We went to a meeting for all of us who just came on the ship and they told us the itinerary (kayaking, cave exploration, snorkeling, visiting a floating village, cooking classes, a welcome party on the deck) and some basic boat rules. They fed us lunch (and tofu that tasted and looked like pork) and we sat out on the deck. Our boat weaved through the incredible cliffs and it was amazing. About 30 minutes later (after 1.5 hours of being on the boat), we were all hurried into the dining room for an emergency meeting. "We have some bad news. We have to cancel the cruise due to weather. You can all either go 3 hours back to Hanoi or we will pay for a 4-star hotel in Halong Bay. Although the weather looks beautiful, the government is making all the ships go back because there is a typhoon coming." We were pretty surprised, but after all the other fun adventures we have experienced this trip we knew this was one for the books (at least for the blog).
The other passengers were very upset. Conspiracy theories floated around the boat including passengers having read stories on tripadvisor.com warning of the the "typhoon scam" and others claimed to have seen the staff working hard on the engine all afternoon and the ship was broken so they needed us to go back. We didn't know if we were going to have to pay, but most had already paid and were fighting for that. We were all scrambling for hotel rooms in Hanoi since Halong Bay was known to not be very nice and the cruise ship was not going to be able to take us out the next day either. Val was conspiring theories of her own. We both thought that it actually may be a blessing because 1. We had seen the bay. It was gorgeous and we won't forget it. But we saw most of it. 2. We were probably not going to have to pay (and using Jim Libby tactics we could have been paid). 3. We would be able to start the rest of our journey sooner!! So we enjoyed the boat for the next hour, they took us quickly to a huge cave inside a cliff that was pretty cool (and so they would be able to charge passengers for at least something), and we boarded the bus back to Hanoi, and 4. Because we were paying the high price of $40/night for our room in Hanoi, our Hotel, which initially said they were full, actually moved another customer's booking to their other hotel (not as nice) to make room for us. We assumed they gave them a deal somewhere else, and we appreciated having a place we trusted to go back to. We stopped at a random restaurant about half way for dinner and they claimed to have vegetarian noodle soup. It turned out to be ramen noodles with pork. Then, Jacob bought what looked like Rice Krispie treats but turned out to be covered in dried ham. We finally got home to our Hanoi hotel and went to sleep.
In Hanoi, we slept in and decided to take care of the boat issues from the day before. Haivng heard that the boat was charging everyone $60/person for the tour, we were not impressed. With inspiration from Val talking about the "Jimmy Libby" tactics, we decided what we felt comfortable paying for the day, tag teamed the travel agent and Paloma Company, and got exactly what we asked for. We paid them $30 each for the lunch, transportation, drinks, boat ride and cave. A novice performance, maybe, but we were happy.
We then set out for the city, smarter travellers. We first found the one western mart we knew and picked up some packaged foods that we could keep with us in case all we were offered was "tofu" pork. Those crackers were a huge addition for days! We found out that the Ho Chi Minh Museum and Mausoleum (where he is cryogenically frozen and visible) closes early in the day, so we missed that. But we had plenty to keep us busy. Jacob wanted to see the "Hanoi Hilton" museum and Val had been expressing her desire for a "non-touristy" adventure. So we went to the Hilton (a little disappointing), and then went shopping for electronics (we thought electronics and computers might be cheaper in Vietnam since we're right next to China. Not really. Same prices, and the models are not the same ones we have in the states.) But it was still cool to be in a Vietnamese Best Buy type place and to see how the locals shop.
We got back to the hotel, had the most painful and aweful massages you can imagine (we basically paid them to punch and slap Jacob for a "Thai massage" and tapping session for an "NG massage." Neither masseuse understood us when we asked them to adjust, so we were just happy it was over.
Finally, it was time for our train to Hoi An. Instead of our 2 day tour of Halong bay, we had enough time to go check out Hoi An, a coastal ancient city in Vietnam known for tailoring and art. Friends had suggested it was fun, so even though there were no flights and the only way to get there was a 15 hour train ride in a 6 sleeper "hard bed" compartment, we booked it and off we went!
We woke up as the train was arriving back in Hanoi. We went back to our hotel, dropped off our bags, and decided, since we were awake so early, to check out the local ritual that we'd heard happens every morning around the Hanoi Turtle lake: morning aerobics. We weren't sure what to expect, or how many people would be there. Jacob said he thought we were going to some small meet-up or club. Nope!
We walked by people aimlessly flailing their arms, old men using park benches to hold their knees as they did sit-ups, and others doing anything they could to keep their bodies continuously moving for long periods of time. Not wanting to miss out, we joined the biggest group we could find: about 35 older women (ages ~30-85) surrounding a young man doing laughing and smiling exercises. That's a surprisingly hard workout! And a great way to start the day. Since we didn't want to miss our bus to the bay (and since neither of us could handle more than 5-10 minutes of the aerobics, even the laughing kind), we skipped before the end of the class and headed back to the hotel.
The aerobics was funny. It's a little strange to see such a large number of people doing almost the same thing, but mostly separate from each other. We are probably wrong, but we decided that "go outside and move, and don't stop for 30 minutes" was probably a Communist mandate. And a good one. Glad it stuck. We could use some of that in the States. So maybe it's not just the rice and fish diet that gets southeast Asians so thin- maybe it's the aerobics at 6am!
Halong Bay Background: Going to Halong Bay was one of the few things that we were really looking forward to on our trip. Everyone kept telling us how incredible it is, and how we have to go. So we were really excited. We booked our trip out of the Rising Dragon Palace, our Hotel in Hanoi, which was a great hotel. But everything with the planning kept going wrong. It took 3 frustrating hours with the travel agent to actually book our trip. First, we agreed on a trip, but didn't know you have to "confirm." So they gave away our seats. Thanks. Then the second company (after we confirmed) just decided to cancel the trip entirely (we booked a 3 day, 2 night cruise; they decided, after they accepted our "confirmation", that they would now be offering only a 2 day, 1 night cruise). So we finally booked with the Paloma for a 2 day, 1 night cruise. Not what we initially were aiming for (we wanted the 3 day, 2 night-er), but we would take what we could get. The Paloma was supposed to be great, so we were psyched.
So on to the cruise. We were picked up at our hotel for our "3 hour trip" with a bunch of other couples. Just outside of Hanoi, our tour guide informed us that they had forgotten a family, so we had to turn back. It wasn't his fault, and he felt bad, so he stopped at a local store and bought us a round of beer and 'white wine' to apologize. (it was 9am, but appreciated all the same). We finally arrived to Halong Bay 5 hours later.
Immediately, you can see incredible limestone mountains jutting out from the water. It was spectacular and we understood why this was named a unesco heritage site.
We all boarded a small boat that took us to a bigger, old wooden riverboat that had been painted white. It was actually a beautiful ship with a cute room and balcony and and comfy deck furniture. It was perfect!
Of course, you have local women merchants selling wares. Someone must have told them "Americans love Oreos and Pringles", because half-way around the world, that's all they seem to try to sell.
We went to a meeting for all of us who just came on the ship and they told us the itinerary (kayaking, cave exploration, snorkeling, visiting a floating village, cooking classes, a welcome party on the deck) and some basic boat rules. They fed us lunch (and tofu that tasted and looked like pork) and we sat out on the deck. Our boat weaved through the incredible cliffs and it was amazing. About 30 minutes later (after 1.5 hours of being on the boat), we were all hurried into the dining room for an emergency meeting. "We have some bad news. We have to cancel the cruise due to weather. You can all either go 3 hours back to Hanoi or we will pay for a 4-star hotel in Halong Bay. Although the weather looks beautiful, the government is making all the ships go back because there is a typhoon coming." We were pretty surprised, but after all the other fun adventures we have experienced this trip we knew this was one for the books (at least for the blog).
The other passengers were very upset. Conspiracy theories floated around the boat including passengers having read stories on tripadvisor.com warning of the the "typhoon scam" and others claimed to have seen the staff working hard on the engine all afternoon and the ship was broken so they needed us to go back. We didn't know if we were going to have to pay, but most had already paid and were fighting for that. We were all scrambling for hotel rooms in Hanoi since Halong Bay was known to not be very nice and the cruise ship was not going to be able to take us out the next day either. Val was conspiring theories of her own. We both thought that it actually may be a blessing because 1. We had seen the bay. It was gorgeous and we won't forget it. But we saw most of it. 2. We were probably not going to have to pay (and using Jim Libby tactics we could have been paid). 3. We would be able to start the rest of our journey sooner!! So we enjoyed the boat for the next hour, they took us quickly to a huge cave inside a cliff that was pretty cool (and so they would be able to charge passengers for at least something), and we boarded the bus back to Hanoi, and 4. Because we were paying the high price of $40/night for our room in Hanoi, our Hotel, which initially said they were full, actually moved another customer's booking to their other hotel (not as nice) to make room for us. We assumed they gave them a deal somewhere else, and we appreciated having a place we trusted to go back to. We stopped at a random restaurant about half way for dinner and they claimed to have vegetarian noodle soup. It turned out to be ramen noodles with pork. Then, Jacob bought what looked like Rice Krispie treats but turned out to be covered in dried ham. We finally got home to our Hanoi hotel and went to sleep.
In Hanoi, we slept in and decided to take care of the boat issues from the day before. Haivng heard that the boat was charging everyone $60/person for the tour, we were not impressed. With inspiration from Val talking about the "Jimmy Libby" tactics, we decided what we felt comfortable paying for the day, tag teamed the travel agent and Paloma Company, and got exactly what we asked for. We paid them $30 each for the lunch, transportation, drinks, boat ride and cave. A novice performance, maybe, but we were happy.
We then set out for the city, smarter travellers. We first found the one western mart we knew and picked up some packaged foods that we could keep with us in case all we were offered was "tofu" pork. Those crackers were a huge addition for days! We found out that the Ho Chi Minh Museum and Mausoleum (where he is cryogenically frozen and visible) closes early in the day, so we missed that. But we had plenty to keep us busy. Jacob wanted to see the "Hanoi Hilton" museum and Val had been expressing her desire for a "non-touristy" adventure. So we went to the Hilton (a little disappointing), and then went shopping for electronics (we thought electronics and computers might be cheaper in Vietnam since we're right next to China. Not really. Same prices, and the models are not the same ones we have in the states.) But it was still cool to be in a Vietnamese Best Buy type place and to see how the locals shop.
We got back to the hotel, had the most painful and aweful massages you can imagine (we basically paid them to punch and slap Jacob for a "Thai massage" and tapping session for an "NG massage." Neither masseuse understood us when we asked them to adjust, so we were just happy it was over.
Finally, it was time for our train to Hoi An. Instead of our 2 day tour of Halong bay, we had enough time to go check out Hoi An, a coastal ancient city in Vietnam known for tailoring and art. Friends had suggested it was fun, so even though there were no flights and the only way to get there was a 15 hour train ride in a 6 sleeper "hard bed" compartment, we booked it and off we went!
SAPA !!!
30 km of hiking with backpacks up and down mountains, literally through rice paddies, getting dirty, sleeping on the floor, eating local foods, talking to local people, and allowing for our eyes and minds to expand with each step. It was an amazing (and exhausting!) few days. We took lots of pictures, and want to remember all of it. So this post may be longer than most. We apologize in advance. :-)
We took the overnight train from Hanoi and arrived in Cao Lai the next morning. John, our 24-year old trek guide who smoked cigarettes throughout, but never seemed to tire, picked us up from the train station and brought us to Casablanca hotel in Sapa. Sapa town is a cute town in the north part of Vietnam. It's in the middle of an absolutely stunning mountain range of subsistence rice paddies: sapa region. Val had a baguette and oily delicious eggs for breakfast and Jacob had a hearty noodle soup and we set off with John for our trek. Within 20 feet of our hotel, 2 local women from the ma'hong tribe, started following close behind. It was weird. They were really close, and were clearly following our tracks, as we were the only ones out there. Their "shtick" is to follow tourists and eventually sell them homemade wares. Soon enough, we started talking (they learned English by speaking to tourists and had learned remarkably well!), and they became our walking sticks/helping hands/second set of guides throughout. (Of course, we bought stuff from them. Their plan was very smart, because we felt compelled to buy from them but ignore the 20 other women that came up to us at lunch).
The first few minutes were incredible, with new sights and views at every minute. We saw our first water buffalo (although it looked like an ox) pulling a plow and a shoeless farmer through 2 feet of muddy rice fields and were in awe. (Video wouldn't upload, sorry!).
The farmers in the region were all at different stages of planting, depending on how much water their individual paddies had gotten so far. Unlike the south region, which gets much better water and has a better climate (allowing two harvests a year), the farmers in sapa can only get one harvest each year. The soil isn't great for that one harvest either, so the rice is "poor quality" and they can't sell it on the market. (Note: at dinner that night, we had a tourist from south vietnam at the homestay with us. When the family fed us the rice, she humbly told them to take it back and keep cooking it because it wasn't done. They told her, "yes it is. That's our rice").
Most farmers we met or saw were growing only for their families to eat. The farmer we were watching and video taping had 3 rows of rice paddy for his family. He was doing the first leg of work: plowing the grass covered dirt and breaking it up so that it could turn to mud and then water paddies once the rains came and were trapped. It looked like awful hard work, but he did it in style, and was friendly to us.
We were amazed throughout at how generous the locals and farmers were to us tourists, watching and taking pictures as they sweat and worked for their food. Even the people who seemed to have nothing to gain from us and were just focused on their farming were super kind and gracious. Tourists started visiting Sapa 20 years ago and the industry has boomed since then. It was interesting seeing how tourism has slowly become integrated into this region still deeply entrenched in old chinese/Vietnamese values (most vietnamese people are from
Chinese heritage. They look Chinese and Sapa is only 20 km from the China border.). The farmers welcomed us and guided us onto more sturdy ground on their rice fields as we trudged right through them. Many of their wives leave early in the morning to follow tourists in hopes of making some money. Many of their children sit in English classes hoping to communicate with tourists. Some couples decided to open their homes and start homestays where tourists live with them almost every night. The villages have become bed and breakfast towns. The men continue to follow their water buffalo through their few terraces of rice paddies.
As we continued our trek, we saw another family building a tent. We saw many more like this along the way. Most families live 10-30 km away from their paddies, so they build a new tent/house for them to stay in while they work the harvests. It was amazing to watch them build it with skill and care, and all out of natural bamboo from the local forests (except for the blue tarp, probably from Home Depot). :-) (see pic).
Farmers also had livestock. Even though they are all poor, and we think of poor as meaning having no meat, they all seem to have plenty of meat. They keep their own animals. The animals, like many of the people, looked smaller and more malnourished than we were used to. But still interesting. See the little piggies milking from their mama.
Jacob claimed he never had sugar cane, so we tried some. We did not brush our teeth with it.
As we walked into the town of our homestay, we passed the village market. They had a baby pool of catfish. They use catfish in a lot of places. For a fish to be kosher, it has to have fins and scales. Catfish, Jacob remembered, are not kosher. But then Val pointed out that these catfish had both fins and scales. So we looked it up, and apparently, to our merriment, while most catfish do not have scales, some do. We were amazed to have found ones that, by our understanding, should be kosher! We shared with John. They were also the largest catfish we'd ever seen.
After walking through a street lined with homestays, we arrived at ours. It was a one story wooden structure that had a wooden balcony addition for the tourists. The only thing on this addition were 18 (one inch thick) mattresses with mosquito nets hanging above each one. The best part of this house was the incredible view. We joined the 3 other tourists at our homestay (a jovial 40 year old dutchman and his vietnamese girlfriend's mother and brother (she was stuck at work so she sent them on a tour of the north)) and settled in. It was beautiful, and we decided we were starting a new travel log, where we track our steps with a picture of us with our feet up at each country). Installment two is attached.
After a while, Val got antsy and wanted to explore. So she did what she does, and walked the streets of the village, talking to every person in town. We met a really cool couple from Berkeley (shes a nurse, he owns a fly fishing store), two young frenchman (a physical therapist and a "commercial" guy) and a cool younger couple who live in bangkok. We were waiting for dinner, so we hung around and our new bangkok friends taught us a card game called Crib.
When we got back to our homestay, dinner was ready and the entire table covered with delicious smelling foods! John had gone back to town and picked up that catfish he saw us talking about. (So nice). And the catfish was pregnant! So we had rice, sapa vegetables, (amazing) fresh spring rolls, local salmon, fresh local (kosher?) catfish, and catfish caviar pancakes. It was amazing. (Everyone else also had pork, beef and chicken. The neighbors, we heard, also had a duck that the family slaughtered when they arrived). Oh. And we also had a little bit of "local white wine". Allow us to explain:
One reason why the farmers may not sell their rice may be because so much of it is used for "white wine!" (Ie rice wine). So before, during and after dinner, we were introduced to the local custom of finishing a day with rice wine. "I promise, no hangover!" (He was right). "Moh, hai, ba, yo!" (One, two, three, cheers!). Dinner was fun. Lets say that. Pic attached. And Jacob was feeling it as we stumbled out after our meal to go find our friends and finish our crib game.
We did not get to finish our crib game. Our friends were in the middle of moh, hai, ba, yo-ing themselves. And it would have been rude for us to make them stop on our behalf. So we joined. An hour, countless shots, and two fake weddings between the Vietnamese tour guides and the two Frenchman (we don't think the tour guides wanted it to be fake), and we stumbled home. (Jacob may have stumbled more than Val, as he chivalrously drank many of her shots for her. Good guy.)
When we got home, everyone was drunk, so Val showered and Jacob sat with the other tourists, listening to anh's album (the vietnamese tourist) (he has his own band) and staring off into the mountain range. It was awesome.
The next morning, we set off for our hike. 18 km of harder terrain. (Aren't they supposed to make the harder day first???). And Val didn't sleep a wink the night before. Apparently sleeping in hot rooms on the floor with doors open to the outside is not her ideal sleeping set up. She fought through like a champ though.
Val kept saying, "we want the hard hike". So John kept giving it to us. We went through the bamboo forest (where he made us surprisingly sturdy bamboo walking sticks with his machete), up and over steep mountainsides and into amazing views. The second day, we picked up (ie started being followed by) three young girls/sales people. (This time, our guide suggested we not buy from them so that we don't encourage them to skip school. We didn't. But they were cute and fun and they stayed with us for about 7 km, all nimbly trekking in slippers while we huffed our way through in gear).
We met more fun tourists along the way, including some Macedonians living in Australia (Val decided she wanted to be like the world traveling mom), and a fun French family living in Malaysia. We saw many buffalo and rice paddies at different stages of growth. It was fascinating. When John offered to sleep in the hotel that night we strongly considered it. When he mentioned the no-see-em bugs that are famous in the village we were headed to, following Val's 170 earlier bites, we said, "yes, please!" So we finished our long hike, drenched, exhausted, and better for it, and got a ride back to the hotel. Just for our own vanity, we will point out that while we hiked 30 km in 2 days, these were not normal kilometers. With twists, turns and mountains, it took the car 50 minutes to travel the 30 km (18+ miles). So we tell ourselves we get browny points for terrain.
We had a quick dinner and then both slept extra well that night.
The next day, John took us by scooter to the local waterfall. A fun ride, a nice waterfall, and a good experience. Jacob bought two machetes (Jacob calls them knives) cause he loved how everyone had one, but we left them at dinner by accident (so Val claims) in our exhaustion. We also passed two dogs that had just been butchered and were for sale. John offered us to go back and look. We screamed no and told him we were moving on. The topic of what people eat was a frequent one. John claims that Vietnamese eat anything but rubber. His personal dietary conquests include snake, dog, cat, tiger, frog, and anything else someone will offer him. "It's a different culture", he says. "It's not weird". We respect his choices. Just one of us prefers not to see it (guess which one).
For our final exploit in Sapa, we decided to spend a few hours in the town's many North Face stores. We aren't sure if the real North Face is made in Vietnam or Bangladesh or somewhere else in Southeast Asia, but we do know they have an excellent knock-off factory near Sapa. Everything looks the exact same as North Face sold in the US and its a quarter the price. The two things that are slightly different is that Val found a puffy jacket she loved, but couldn't bargain it down enough to validate owning a jacket with "The North Fface" written on it. The other thing that's different (and obnoxious) are the sizes. Val is apparently an extra-large in Sapa's North Face clothes. (When you see the size of the average Vietnamese person, you'd understand). Once she got over that, she bought a red ski jacket and long underwear for her (hopefully) new ski-filled weekends ahead. Jacob bought another red ski jacket (actually he bought his first and Val copied him) and a huge blue backpack that can hold all our presents.
We took the overnight train back to Hanoi and prepared for our halong bay adventure.
We took the overnight train from Hanoi and arrived in Cao Lai the next morning. John, our 24-year old trek guide who smoked cigarettes throughout, but never seemed to tire, picked us up from the train station and brought us to Casablanca hotel in Sapa. Sapa town is a cute town in the north part of Vietnam. It's in the middle of an absolutely stunning mountain range of subsistence rice paddies: sapa region. Val had a baguette and oily delicious eggs for breakfast and Jacob had a hearty noodle soup and we set off with John for our trek. Within 20 feet of our hotel, 2 local women from the ma'hong tribe, started following close behind. It was weird. They were really close, and were clearly following our tracks, as we were the only ones out there. Their "shtick" is to follow tourists and eventually sell them homemade wares. Soon enough, we started talking (they learned English by speaking to tourists and had learned remarkably well!), and they became our walking sticks/helping hands/second set of guides throughout. (Of course, we bought stuff from them. Their plan was very smart, because we felt compelled to buy from them but ignore the 20 other women that came up to us at lunch).
The first few minutes were incredible, with new sights and views at every minute. We saw our first water buffalo (although it looked like an ox) pulling a plow and a shoeless farmer through 2 feet of muddy rice fields and were in awe. (Video wouldn't upload, sorry!).
The farmers in the region were all at different stages of planting, depending on how much water their individual paddies had gotten so far. Unlike the south region, which gets much better water and has a better climate (allowing two harvests a year), the farmers in sapa can only get one harvest each year. The soil isn't great for that one harvest either, so the rice is "poor quality" and they can't sell it on the market. (Note: at dinner that night, we had a tourist from south vietnam at the homestay with us. When the family fed us the rice, she humbly told them to take it back and keep cooking it because it wasn't done. They told her, "yes it is. That's our rice").
Most farmers we met or saw were growing only for their families to eat. The farmer we were watching and video taping had 3 rows of rice paddy for his family. He was doing the first leg of work: plowing the grass covered dirt and breaking it up so that it could turn to mud and then water paddies once the rains came and were trapped. It looked like awful hard work, but he did it in style, and was friendly to us.
We were amazed throughout at how generous the locals and farmers were to us tourists, watching and taking pictures as they sweat and worked for their food. Even the people who seemed to have nothing to gain from us and were just focused on their farming were super kind and gracious. Tourists started visiting Sapa 20 years ago and the industry has boomed since then. It was interesting seeing how tourism has slowly become integrated into this region still deeply entrenched in old chinese/Vietnamese values (most vietnamese people are from
Chinese heritage. They look Chinese and Sapa is only 20 km from the China border.). The farmers welcomed us and guided us onto more sturdy ground on their rice fields as we trudged right through them. Many of their wives leave early in the morning to follow tourists in hopes of making some money. Many of their children sit in English classes hoping to communicate with tourists. Some couples decided to open their homes and start homestays where tourists live with them almost every night. The villages have become bed and breakfast towns. The men continue to follow their water buffalo through their few terraces of rice paddies.
As we continued our trek, we saw another family building a tent. We saw many more like this along the way. Most families live 10-30 km away from their paddies, so they build a new tent/house for them to stay in while they work the harvests. It was amazing to watch them build it with skill and care, and all out of natural bamboo from the local forests (except for the blue tarp, probably from Home Depot). :-) (see pic).
Farmers also had livestock. Even though they are all poor, and we think of poor as meaning having no meat, they all seem to have plenty of meat. They keep their own animals. The animals, like many of the people, looked smaller and more malnourished than we were used to. But still interesting. See the little piggies milking from their mama.
Jacob claimed he never had sugar cane, so we tried some. We did not brush our teeth with it.
As we walked into the town of our homestay, we passed the village market. They had a baby pool of catfish. They use catfish in a lot of places. For a fish to be kosher, it has to have fins and scales. Catfish, Jacob remembered, are not kosher. But then Val pointed out that these catfish had both fins and scales. So we looked it up, and apparently, to our merriment, while most catfish do not have scales, some do. We were amazed to have found ones that, by our understanding, should be kosher! We shared with John. They were also the largest catfish we'd ever seen.
After walking through a street lined with homestays, we arrived at ours. It was a one story wooden structure that had a wooden balcony addition for the tourists. The only thing on this addition were 18 (one inch thick) mattresses with mosquito nets hanging above each one. The best part of this house was the incredible view. We joined the 3 other tourists at our homestay (a jovial 40 year old dutchman and his vietnamese girlfriend's mother and brother (she was stuck at work so she sent them on a tour of the north)) and settled in. It was beautiful, and we decided we were starting a new travel log, where we track our steps with a picture of us with our feet up at each country). Installment two is attached.
After a while, Val got antsy and wanted to explore. So she did what she does, and walked the streets of the village, talking to every person in town. We met a really cool couple from Berkeley (shes a nurse, he owns a fly fishing store), two young frenchman (a physical therapist and a "commercial" guy) and a cool younger couple who live in bangkok. We were waiting for dinner, so we hung around and our new bangkok friends taught us a card game called Crib.
When we got back to our homestay, dinner was ready and the entire table covered with delicious smelling foods! John had gone back to town and picked up that catfish he saw us talking about. (So nice). And the catfish was pregnant! So we had rice, sapa vegetables, (amazing) fresh spring rolls, local salmon, fresh local (kosher?) catfish, and catfish caviar pancakes. It was amazing. (Everyone else also had pork, beef and chicken. The neighbors, we heard, also had a duck that the family slaughtered when they arrived). Oh. And we also had a little bit of "local white wine". Allow us to explain:
One reason why the farmers may not sell their rice may be because so much of it is used for "white wine!" (Ie rice wine). So before, during and after dinner, we were introduced to the local custom of finishing a day with rice wine. "I promise, no hangover!" (He was right). "Moh, hai, ba, yo!" (One, two, three, cheers!). Dinner was fun. Lets say that. Pic attached. And Jacob was feeling it as we stumbled out after our meal to go find our friends and finish our crib game.
We did not get to finish our crib game. Our friends were in the middle of moh, hai, ba, yo-ing themselves. And it would have been rude for us to make them stop on our behalf. So we joined. An hour, countless shots, and two fake weddings between the Vietnamese tour guides and the two Frenchman (we don't think the tour guides wanted it to be fake), and we stumbled home. (Jacob may have stumbled more than Val, as he chivalrously drank many of her shots for her. Good guy.)
When we got home, everyone was drunk, so Val showered and Jacob sat with the other tourists, listening to anh's album (the vietnamese tourist) (he has his own band) and staring off into the mountain range. It was awesome.
The next morning, we set off for our hike. 18 km of harder terrain. (Aren't they supposed to make the harder day first???). And Val didn't sleep a wink the night before. Apparently sleeping in hot rooms on the floor with doors open to the outside is not her ideal sleeping set up. She fought through like a champ though.
Val kept saying, "we want the hard hike". So John kept giving it to us. We went through the bamboo forest (where he made us surprisingly sturdy bamboo walking sticks with his machete), up and over steep mountainsides and into amazing views. The second day, we picked up (ie started being followed by) three young girls/sales people. (This time, our guide suggested we not buy from them so that we don't encourage them to skip school. We didn't. But they were cute and fun and they stayed with us for about 7 km, all nimbly trekking in slippers while we huffed our way through in gear).
We met more fun tourists along the way, including some Macedonians living in Australia (Val decided she wanted to be like the world traveling mom), and a fun French family living in Malaysia. We saw many buffalo and rice paddies at different stages of growth. It was fascinating. When John offered to sleep in the hotel that night we strongly considered it. When he mentioned the no-see-em bugs that are famous in the village we were headed to, following Val's 170 earlier bites, we said, "yes, please!" So we finished our long hike, drenched, exhausted, and better for it, and got a ride back to the hotel. Just for our own vanity, we will point out that while we hiked 30 km in 2 days, these were not normal kilometers. With twists, turns and mountains, it took the car 50 minutes to travel the 30 km (18+ miles). So we tell ourselves we get browny points for terrain.
We had a quick dinner and then both slept extra well that night.
The next day, John took us by scooter to the local waterfall. A fun ride, a nice waterfall, and a good experience. Jacob bought two machetes (Jacob calls them knives) cause he loved how everyone had one, but we left them at dinner by accident (so Val claims) in our exhaustion. We also passed two dogs that had just been butchered and were for sale. John offered us to go back and look. We screamed no and told him we were moving on. The topic of what people eat was a frequent one. John claims that Vietnamese eat anything but rubber. His personal dietary conquests include snake, dog, cat, tiger, frog, and anything else someone will offer him. "It's a different culture", he says. "It's not weird". We respect his choices. Just one of us prefers not to see it (guess which one).
For our final exploit in Sapa, we decided to spend a few hours in the town's many North Face stores. We aren't sure if the real North Face is made in Vietnam or Bangladesh or somewhere else in Southeast Asia, but we do know they have an excellent knock-off factory near Sapa. Everything looks the exact same as North Face sold in the US and its a quarter the price. The two things that are slightly different is that Val found a puffy jacket she loved, but couldn't bargain it down enough to validate owning a jacket with "The North Fface" written on it. The other thing that's different (and obnoxious) are the sizes. Val is apparently an extra-large in Sapa's North Face clothes. (When you see the size of the average Vietnamese person, you'd understand). Once she got over that, she bought a red ski jacket and long underwear for her (hopefully) new ski-filled weekends ahead. Jacob bought another red ski jacket (actually he bought his first and Val copied him) and a huge blue backpack that can hold all our presents.
We took the overnight train back to Hanoi and prepared for our halong bay adventure.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Tailoring
We were told that the ancient city of hoi an is famous for its silk and tailoring. So if course, we have to try out the local trade.
We were also told that "you get what you pay for". So we're at the most expensive places here (1/10th the cost of the USA instead of 1/40th...still pretty good). Let's hope it's better than 1/10th the quality!! You be the judge when we get home. See if you can spot the new stuff. In the meantime, it's a fun experience.
We were also told that "you get what you pay for". So we're at the most expensive places here (1/10th the cost of the USA instead of 1/40th...still pretty good). Let's hope it's better than 1/10th the quality!! You be the judge when we get home. See if you can spot the new stuff. In the meantime, it's a fun experience.
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Hanoi
We got great advice from a fellow traveler about agoda.com. It's kind of the Priceline of southeast Asia. We reserved $36 hotel room in a fancy hotel
in Hanoi. We arrived pretty late, but when we saw our room an the private balcony overlooking the old quarter, glass bathroom shower, and comfy bed and aircon, we were at peace. After we tucked ourselves into bed, we got a phone call from the reception around 2 am telling us they had make a mistake and given us the suite by accident and the other guest had just arrived and wanted our room. We kindly asked if we could wait until morning and they agreed. That's the second accidental suite we've had in a week. This one came without bed bugs.
Our first day in Hanoi, our hotel arranged a free waking tour with one of the college students studying English. Before the tour, we explored the blocks near our hotel looking for a local lunch spot. We joined the locals streetside and took a seat on the plastic stools. Jacob's immediately broke in half, and, despite the language barrier, it was universally understood that he was embarrassed and everyone was laughing together:). There is no menu. We tried to explain that we were vegetarian and ended up with fried pork. Jacob took a bite and tried to vomit the rest of the afternoon. Although, he admitted it tasted good. The rice noodles and fried tofu were tasty too.
The student, hien, gave us a tour around the city (see pic of us with her). We started in Silk road finding ourselves lost in Vietnamese art. We then walked to the temple on the lake which is one of the city's main attractions. There is an old legend of the turtle and the sword. Legend has it that the first king of Vietnam became king after pushing out the Chinese around 1000 ad. He finally did this with a magical sword that was given to him by divine intervention. The day after the battle was won, a huge turtle came out of the lake and took the sword back, returning it to the earth. The massive turtle's descendants are still alive in the lake today, and the many hundred pound 1000 year old turtle was fished out and bronzed and is on display in the temple to this day (see pic).
Val paid for us to enter the temple and had accidentally left a zipper of her purse open. About 30 seconds later, she noticed a poor Vietnamese young woman waking very close behind her. She turned around and saw her taking a 100,000 dong note (5 US dollars) from her purse. She said out loud, "she just took my money". Jacob snatched the money out of her hand as she tried to say it was hers. Thankfully, two Vietnamese women behind us immediately said they saw the whole thing and started speaking fast and pointing at the girl. Before we knew it, three guards surrounded the woman, grabbing her tightly while her young child watched, crying, not understanding what was happening. Val said she felt distraught because on one hand she saw this poor Vietnamese lady being held with her child watching over $5, and, on the other hand, she had just been pick-pocketed! We thanked the ladies and hien, our guide walked us into the temple.
The story wasn't over though. A few minutes later, a guard asked Val to follow him. He led us into a small room on the side, where he asked us to sit at a table, right across from the lady! It was serious and quiet, with four guards behind the lady. They were very focused on hospitality for us, it seemed, and so they served both us and the pick-pocketer tea and fruit. (we didn't drink, the lady did). They made Val confirm that the lady stole something, confirmed that she didn't take anything else, and then profusely apologized for the experience. They spoke to our guide who shared that they all wanted to make clear to us that this was not the image they promoted for Vietnam, as this is not something they accept, and they want to make sure it does not happen to other tourists. They really seem to put a lot of pride and emphasis on making their country tourist friendly.
Except for the scary room and serious tone, which brought weird images and fears to our Hollywood imprinted minds, the whole experience left us impressed with how seriously they handled the situation. We do feel bad about the girl and her daughter and wonder what happened to her.
Our trip coincides with a Vietnamese national holiday celebrating the reunification of north and south Vietnam after the war. (note: fascinating how histories are taught differently. The Vietnam children are taught that the war began in 1955 when the Americans arrived and lasted until the north won the war in 1975). As we were walking the streets with hien, we heard megaphones saying lots of things in vietnamese and asked her what it meant. She explained it was a government announcement that all citizens must hang Vietnamese flags outside their home on the upcoming holiday. We asked hien what happened if someone did not hang a flag. She said no one doesn't.
Another main attraction is the water puppet show which Val insisted we buy tickets to. We both fell asleep, but hien loved it:)
After amazing, cheap massages and a vegetarian rooftop dinner at our hotel, we boarded an overnight train to sapa.
in Hanoi. We arrived pretty late, but when we saw our room an the private balcony overlooking the old quarter, glass bathroom shower, and comfy bed and aircon, we were at peace. After we tucked ourselves into bed, we got a phone call from the reception around 2 am telling us they had make a mistake and given us the suite by accident and the other guest had just arrived and wanted our room. We kindly asked if we could wait until morning and they agreed. That's the second accidental suite we've had in a week. This one came without bed bugs.
Our first day in Hanoi, our hotel arranged a free waking tour with one of the college students studying English. Before the tour, we explored the blocks near our hotel looking for a local lunch spot. We joined the locals streetside and took a seat on the plastic stools. Jacob's immediately broke in half, and, despite the language barrier, it was universally understood that he was embarrassed and everyone was laughing together:). There is no menu. We tried to explain that we were vegetarian and ended up with fried pork. Jacob took a bite and tried to vomit the rest of the afternoon. Although, he admitted it tasted good. The rice noodles and fried tofu were tasty too.
The student, hien, gave us a tour around the city (see pic of us with her). We started in Silk road finding ourselves lost in Vietnamese art. We then walked to the temple on the lake which is one of the city's main attractions. There is an old legend of the turtle and the sword. Legend has it that the first king of Vietnam became king after pushing out the Chinese around 1000 ad. He finally did this with a magical sword that was given to him by divine intervention. The day after the battle was won, a huge turtle came out of the lake and took the sword back, returning it to the earth. The massive turtle's descendants are still alive in the lake today, and the many hundred pound 1000 year old turtle was fished out and bronzed and is on display in the temple to this day (see pic).
Val paid for us to enter the temple and had accidentally left a zipper of her purse open. About 30 seconds later, she noticed a poor Vietnamese young woman waking very close behind her. She turned around and saw her taking a 100,000 dong note (5 US dollars) from her purse. She said out loud, "she just took my money". Jacob snatched the money out of her hand as she tried to say it was hers. Thankfully, two Vietnamese women behind us immediately said they saw the whole thing and started speaking fast and pointing at the girl. Before we knew it, three guards surrounded the woman, grabbing her tightly while her young child watched, crying, not understanding what was happening. Val said she felt distraught because on one hand she saw this poor Vietnamese lady being held with her child watching over $5, and, on the other hand, she had just been pick-pocketed! We thanked the ladies and hien, our guide walked us into the temple.
The story wasn't over though. A few minutes later, a guard asked Val to follow him. He led us into a small room on the side, where he asked us to sit at a table, right across from the lady! It was serious and quiet, with four guards behind the lady. They were very focused on hospitality for us, it seemed, and so they served both us and the pick-pocketer tea and fruit. (we didn't drink, the lady did). They made Val confirm that the lady stole something, confirmed that she didn't take anything else, and then profusely apologized for the experience. They spoke to our guide who shared that they all wanted to make clear to us that this was not the image they promoted for Vietnam, as this is not something they accept, and they want to make sure it does not happen to other tourists. They really seem to put a lot of pride and emphasis on making their country tourist friendly.
Except for the scary room and serious tone, which brought weird images and fears to our Hollywood imprinted minds, the whole experience left us impressed with how seriously they handled the situation. We do feel bad about the girl and her daughter and wonder what happened to her.
Our trip coincides with a Vietnamese national holiday celebrating the reunification of north and south Vietnam after the war. (note: fascinating how histories are taught differently. The Vietnam children are taught that the war began in 1955 when the Americans arrived and lasted until the north won the war in 1975). As we were walking the streets with hien, we heard megaphones saying lots of things in vietnamese and asked her what it meant. She explained it was a government announcement that all citizens must hang Vietnamese flags outside their home on the upcoming holiday. We asked hien what happened if someone did not hang a flag. She said no one doesn't.
Another main attraction is the water puppet show which Val insisted we buy tickets to. We both fell asleep, but hien loved it:)
After amazing, cheap massages and a vegetarian rooftop dinner at our hotel, we boarded an overnight train to sapa.
Teaser
We know we are very behind on posts. So we will give more in depth posts soon. Details will include jacob being a large american and breaking the chair at a street side restaurant. a 30 km hike through sapa (rice country), and a failed attempt at an overnight cruise in halong bay (they're sending us home back to hanoi because of a reported "typhoon" warning, even though it's beautiful outside.).
So that's it for now. More later.
Jacob and val
So that's it for now. More later.
Jacob and val
Thursday, April 25, 2013
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)