Sitting on the dock of the bay. . .

After getting down from Sapa we arrived back in Hanoi about 6am after another night on our fancy sleeper train. A bus swung by to pick us up and we took the 3 hour drive out to Halong Bay for a bit of relaxtion on a boat cruise! We of course had to board 8 million different modes of transportation before getting on the actual boat. . . . . .But here is the Phoenix Cruiser! Our accomodations for that night!
We immediately started taking in the gorgeous scenery around us, limestone caves and cliffs shooting out of the water all over.Just soakin' it in. . .Throughout the day we made use of these great snack ladies who cruise through the bay on their giant row boats full of all sorts of goodies and beer!After lunch and a little down time we loaded off the boat to hike up part of the cliff and walk through some caves. Afterwards we went kayaking. Little did we know our group was full professional kayakers and sped off without us. . .well, that or J and I just got stuck and couldn't get ourselves turned back around. We were still recovering from Fancipan anyway (our excuse for the next few months) so we hung back and just chilled in our kayaks, enjoying the most gorgeous sunset.
After coming in off the kayaks we cleaned ourselves up for a fancy little dinner on board with some kareoke to top the night off. . .yet another hilarious site. After breakfast the next morning we floated through this fishermans village where families live and work six days a week just fishing in the bay.

All in all it was another fabulous part of our adventures and we felt lucky to experience it! After heading back to Hanoi we started our journey down southern Vietnam. More stories to come!. . .

Fansipan in fancy pants

I'm a little behind on my updates but I'll try and catch up. We've had an amazing time in Vietnam and I'm sad to say that this part of our journey is ending tomorrow when we go to Cambodia. Here is a little adventure story from our hike up Fansipan a couple weeks ago in northern Vietnam. . .

We left the traffic in Hanoi behind us as we boarded our overnight train to Sapa. The sleeper cabin was more than cozy and we felt especially pampered with the AC, flat screen and down comforters. By the time we arrived in Sapa it was early Monday morning but the mountain village was wide awake, welcoming us with smiling tribal woman and children hoping to sell us some of their goods.

We spent the morning relaxing on our hotel balcony that overlooked the rolling rice fields and steep mountains, trying to figure out which one we would be climbing up the following day.
The rest of the afternoon we gathered up some extra gear around town to prepare for the cold weather and possible rain on Fansipan. All for about $20 dollars we were able to round up a few good pairs of socks, long sleeve shirts, and matching Swiss Army pants. . . all in XXL Men's size (that would be Vietnamese men's size. Still, we all felt a little shot to the ego seeing a double XL on our tags). But we figured our new fancy pants would prepare us for anything that Fansipan could throw at us.

The following morning we drove a little farther up the mountain pass in a minivan full of us four girls, our guide Tony who we met the night before, and four porters who would carry all of our food and sleeping bags along the way. At about 11 am we were finally on our way. The first day of the trek was fairly easy. We walked through a few streams, stumbled over roots and climbed up and down the dirt paths through the jungle. Including an hour stop for lunch, we made it to base camp an hour before our estimated arrival time. We were beginning to feel like we talked up our "Big climb up FANSIPAN!!!" a little too much. Recognizing our anti-climactic mood, Tony took us on an additional hike for about an hour to "Buffalo Valley" before we headed back to camp.

The rest of the night we hung out with the other group, which consisted of 5 Vietnamese tour guides and 1 Aussie. As the temperature dropped we all hung around the camp fire, enjoyed a delicious meal huddled in our hut, then bundled up in our sleeping bags. Unfortunately our bamboo hut lacked even the slightest bit of comfort. We slept on wooden platforms and could hear rats squeeking below us throughout the night. I usually have the ability to sleep anywhere and everywhere but that night I struggled a bit.
Knowing our most challenging day lay ahead of us, the next morning we scarfed down as much breakfast as our bellies could handle and emerged from our hut, ready to face the unforgiving inclines of Fansipan. No time was wasted in our second leg of the trip. The uphill battle began within a few minutes of camp and was unyielding for most of the way to the top. For the next five hours we forged our way up the mountain, often making comments like "You gotta be kidding me." or "They should have prepared us for this." or "Why do I feel like I'm on the hardest level of the stairmaster for 8 hours straight? And I hate the stairmaster." Yes, the 5 months of not working out finally hit us. We began questioning why we would ever pay to put ourselves through such torcher.
However, the views made us feel like we were in an episode of "Lost" or one of the Lord of the Ring films. Absolutely stunning. We made our way up and down the rolling hills, through muddy paths lined with bamboo and eventually faced boulders stacked on top of eachother. If Tony wasn't leading the pack, I would assume the trail ended here and we shouldn't go any further. But we carried on and somehow managed to climb our way up and over the slippery rocks with our bamboo walking sticks in hand, often feeling like giant spiders crawling our way up. Eventually our sarcastic chit chat and complaints turned to silence as we each tried to find our own personal means of motivation. Inner thoughts like "Oh you better not give up. Take your diapers off and get up this freakin mountain!"
Tony continued to tell us "20 more minutes" about every half hour and we all began muttering "liar", realizing this was his ploy to get us to just keep moving. At one point we finally heard the other group ahead of us and we all glanced at eachother with hopeful looks that perhaps we finally made it to the end. Bridget forged ahead, mumbling some sort of inclination that she might puke if she stops. Georgie, J, Tony and I stuck close behind. As Bridget headed down the straight away and turned around the last corner I heard her staggering steps come to a halt as she barely got out, "Did I make it?" Cheers and claps erupted from the Vietnamese group as the rest of us turned to eachother, exhaling sighs of relief and forcing out as much of a smile as our exhausted bodies could manage. We trekked through the last leg of the trip and exploded in cheers when we cleared through the opening to highest point of Fansipan. We reached our destination!
We spent the next 30 minutes at the top soaking up our vicotry, eating lunch, taking pictures and enjoying a cat nap. We loved it when Tony told us there is usually one person in every group that doesn't make it to the top, but all 4 of us did it!

At one point we got a picture with both groups as one of the Vietnamese said, "Vietnam and America as friends. Not fighting anymore." Pretty awesome. The weather wasn't quite clear enough for us to see as far as China and Laos but we could make out the surrounding mountains. The cloud coverage below us validated our complaints about the steep hike and made for an unforgettable view.

Our trip back down to the second base camp was full of laughter and jokes, We made fun of ourselves at various parts of the trip, "Oh my gosh. I remember this part. I was dieing! I couldn't even talk!" Trekking downhill still required some energy that we were convinced we left on the way up, but our spirits were high so it didn't matter. Similar to the night before we ate fabulous food, piled into our sleeping bags early to warm up, heard the rats below us. And this time we slept on bamboo sticks (thought it might feel like a massage on our back. We thought wrong.)

The next morning we were on a one track mind. Get me to a shower and a real bed (yes, after only 3 days the "Bellevue girls" in us came out). After giant bowls of noodle soup we barreled our aching legs to the head of the trial and began our final decent. For much of the 6 hours down the mountain we laughed and shouted back and forth, "I don't remember this part on the way up!" We figured we blacked out some parts out of pure exhaustion. We took a few more pictures on the way down as we were able to enjoy the scenery a little more than on the way up. We allowed our gumby legs to lead the way as we scrambled back over the rock piles, up and over the rolling hills and through the bamboo trails.

Can you spot our guide Tony in this pic above?Tony stopped us about 30 minutes before our final destination to juice us up with a little more fruit since the last bit back was a bit steep. Finally, just over the top of the last hill we could see the building that we started from, signifying the end. We officially completed our Fansipan trek. Officially exhasuted and officially happy.

The rest of the day consisted of a much needed shower, much needed food, much needed bottle of wine, and a delicious cup of Vietnamese coffee to top. Later that evening we thanked the hotel staff who congratulated us on our victory and we boarded the night train back to Hanoi, full of smiles from our latest adventure!

Good Morning Vietnam!!!. . .

. . .good morning my new favorite country of SE Asia! I absolutely love Vietnam so far. We've only been in Hanoi a few days but it is beautiful and lively and full of great people! It just took us awhile to get here. . .

We left Vang Vieng, Laos on Wednesday afternoon on a 4 hour mini-van ride south. Apparently we were the last leg of our driver's long shift because we kept having to clap and shout at him to keep him awake. Little nerve racking as we drove through the curvy mountain roads but we eventually made it to Vienetiene, Laos. We loaded onto a big charter bus about 6:30pm and made ourselves nice and cozy, knowing this would be home for the next 24 hours. Or so we thought. When we were told "24 hour busride" we figured 24 hours on the bus with some food/bathroom stops along the way. What we didn't know was how much time we'd be spending off the bus. . .

First stop was within about an hour: bathroom break for the bus driver. Little early in the journey but I guess you gotta go when you gotta go.

Next stop about 45 mins. later: dinner break.

Next stop at about 1 am: some random hotel/restaurant/convience store which we eventually named "Hotel California". At first we were told this is where our driver sorts out our passports for the border crossing. A woman also told J "Hours 6 to border". So we figure we're 6 hours away from crossing into Vietnam and our driver just needs some time to check the passports. Before we know it, it's 3am and we're still at the same stop. Finally the guy that was going through our passports stands up and says "5mins" to us. We start gearing up to get back on the bus and the same woman that talked to J earlier comes over to say "No, here until 6". At this point we don't know what to think. Are we leaving in 5 mins? Or are we here until 6am? And how far away from Vietnam are we? Of course we can't really get any straight answers because of the language barrier but we finally roll out of there at 5:30am.

Next stop about an hour later: border crossing, Laos side. A guys just shouts "passports" at us. It is pouring down rain at this point but we all pile off the bus and race up this hill to the government office. There is of course no method to the madness here. People push and shove their way up to the front, passing papers and passports back and forth, signing who knows what while angry men bark at eachother in Laotian or Vietnamese. This is all done in the cloud of smoke created by everyone chain smoking in the building. We finally get back on the bus, cold and wet at this point. It's the first time in awhile that we've actually been cold and not dripping sweat. We began a long rant of how nice it would be to have a hot cup of cocoa, big cozy blanket, nice warm fire, and a big comfy couch. Instead we snuggled ourselves into our bus seat under the blankets and started reading our books, figuring that's the closest we'd get to our little daydream. And it actually felt pretty cozy. For about 5 minutes. . .

Next stop, 5 mins later: border crossing Vietnam side. Apparently the last stop was just getting stamped OUT of Laos. Now we needed to get stamped INTO Vietnam. More pushing, shoving, passing papers, signing documents, cigarettes flying. This time we also had to load our bags off the bus and pass them through a metal detector (which looked about 85 years old. I wasn't quite convinced it actually did anything.) After about an hour of standing around we finally made it out of there.

Next stop, another 5 mins later: yet another passport check. A couple men in military outfits load on our bus and check our stamps.

Next stop, about 30 mins later: military men repeat. By this point I think it's official that we're cleared to come to Vietnam.

Next stop: lunch time. Stopped at a crazy little family owned restaurant along the highway. Used the bathrooms first, which were out back next to about 10 pigs squirming around a little fenced in area. Came out to order food and quickly learned that, in general, the Vietnamese language sounds like someone is really angry with you. Instead of ordering we were pretty much told what we'd get to eat. We watched while the ladies scooped up this and that and threw it into a bowl of noodles and broth. Luckily throwing a hand up, saying 'no', and smiling is the universal sign for "don't put that chicken in my soup. Please :)". The cook shot me an angry look at first than smiled and nodded, giving me the 'ok' for the vegetarian version.

Next 10 stops: random places along the highway to drop off bags of rice or mysterious steel containers with massive locks on them and a few times the local men got off to relieve themselves right outside the bus windows. Hey, what about the girls!? We need bathroom stops too! Not fair.

Final stop, 6:30pm Thursday evening: HANOI, VIETNAM BABY!!!!!

So, like I said, it took us awhile to get here and our travel days are exhausting but so far they have been totally worth it once we arrive at our destination. (Not to mention they are full of adventure and hilarity). The past few days we have soaked up the city and I absolutely love it. There are fruit markets, art shops, bars, coffee shops, a whole street with shoe stores lined on both sides. Next street over, exercise clothes shops lined on both sides. Next street over, snack shops lined on both sides. I'm not sure how they all stay in business because they all sell the same things and are right next to eachother. It makes bargaining easy because you can just tell them that the next store over is offering the same thing for 50, 000 Dong less. And yes, their money is called DONG. We've had fun with that one.

As for today, we are gearing ourselves up for a 3 day hike up the Fanxipan mountain, just north of Hanoi and known as the 'rooftop of SE Asia'. Fingers crossed on the weather conditions, when we summit on the 2nd day we should be able to see Laos on one side and China on the other. After our hike we come back to Hanoi and drive east to Halong Bay where we will go kayaking and spend the night on a huge wooden boat.

We'll probably be out of computer range for the next week or so but hopefully I'll get to a spot where I can load some pics of our hike/boat trip once we get back! Until then, we will continue to avoid the typhoons/earthquakes that have hit this region of the world.