Motorbiking to Hoi An, Vietnam 12-24-09

At 9:00 am our bikes were waiting out front and we each took our babies for a test drive around the block. It was Mike’s first time on a motorbike so I showed him how to change gears and the best way to start up, neutral, and all of that. He’s skilled and picked it up right away. Our group was set to go. With a map in my hand, the five of us set off towards the temples; well, six of us if you count the tiger trailing from Lusa’s bike. Yup, that tiger balloon was coming with us! On the way, an older Vietnamese lady pulled up beside me and started a conversation- “HELLO! Where are you from?”, “America”, “Oh good, where do you go?”, “We’re going to the Minh Mang temple”, “Oh, same-same, follow me, I show you, I live close that way”.

“Hey everyone!” I shouted, “She’s going that way too and will show us how to get there!” “Great” said Gareth, “Uhhh, I don’t trust her” mouthed Henry. He had had a few locals try to pull fast ones over him before and didn’t want to follow the lady. He shouted, “We’re going to go to the temples, you don’t have to show us but can ride along if you want”. I was convinced that this lady was genuinely nice and wanted to show us the way. She and I talked while driving to the temple and she told me about her family, children, her farm, what she grows, and where she lives. She invited us all over to her home after the seeing the temple, if we would like.

She took us on a shortcut to the temples on one of the rockiest and bumpiest roads I’ven been on. Even I was skeptical if we were going the right way, who knows what the others behind me were thinking. But then, magically, we arrived! Right in front of us was a sign that read “Minh Mang Entrance”. We paid for our tickets and the lady said she would wait by our bikes and watch them for us. Gareth was skeptical now and said, “No, no, you don’t need to… thank you for showing us how to get here”. She was persistent on showing me her farm... the rice field, corn, pineapples, bananas, and mangoes. Remembering how the others felt, I told her that we might not have time to go to her home because we should be on the road at 12:00pm. She understood but waited there anyway.

The temple was peaceful and serene to visit; although, I think after exploring the gorgeous temples of Angkor Wat (and the ones in Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos) I am a bit templed out. We walked back to our bikes and I had to break the news to the kind lady that we had to get on the road and would not have time to go to her house. “Okay” she said sadly, and promised to show us the way to the main road. “You see everyone”, I thought, “She really is just a nice lady going out of her way for us”.

When we crossed over a main bridge to head back into the center of town, we all stopped to wait for Mike to catch up (his bike was acting up already). The lady asked me if I had a dictionary to give to her because she and her kids were learning English. Of course I didn’t have an English dictionary on me. And I knew what was coming next. She said she could use some money to buy a dictionary and help her children learn English. “Can you help me please with some money?” (Sigh) Henry, you were right.

Lusa and Henry were ahead of us and weren’t in on this conversation, so Gareth, Mike, and I each gave her 10,000 dong (totaling about a $1.60). I felt defeated as I put so much trust in this lady. Oh well… maybe we helped her family, $1.60 can buy a few meals here and I hope she has a nice dinner tonight. Our group sped off toward the highway stopping once for gas and once to eat a large lunch. Henry and Mike bought Santa balloons when we stopped, and now officially, we were a target for any person under  the age of 13.

At first we rode through small towns and country sides. We passed water buffalo, cows, kids playing in the street, farmers tending their fields, and school children coming back from school. We paused at one point to take pictures and a little boy ran up to Henry asking for his balloon. He was a sweetheart and untied the balloon string from his bike to give the little boy a gift. The boy was so happy!

Another hour later we stopped on the side of the street at a little stand for soft drinks. We ordered sweet juices and sodas and instantly felt more alert. Lusa’s tiger had popped on her bike’s tire and she was sad to have a deflated balloon. I blew it back up and patched the hole with string to give the owner’s son a gift. He was one year old and scared of tigers apparently. He ran away crying while his whole family laughed. Eventually he warmed up to the idea and grabbed the tiger balloon from me.

We rode through dirt fields, over bridges and rivers, through shaded forests, around mountains, over train tracks, through numerous cities; climbing to a higher elevation each hour. We passed a MAC truck that had just flipped over, another tuck stopped to help and they were transferring the goods from one truck to another. It seemed as though no one was hurt.

Just ahead of the accident we stopped for pictures and had an unbelievable view of an island city, a bay, and the road we had just come from. Five hours had passed at this point and we figured we must be close. We got a second wind from the gorgeous view and Gareth and I took off first on our bikes with Lusa behind us and Mike and Henry bringing up the rear. I made it a habit to constantly check my mirrors and turn my head to make sure our group was together at all times… you never know with these types of situations. I stopped at one point to wait… and a few minutes later Mike and Henry were nowhere in sight. I sped up to Gareth to tell him I was turning around to look for the guys. Lusa and Gareth followed me and as I raced back all I was thinking was… “please don’t be something bad… please don’t be an accident”.

I saw Mike first and he said, Henry fell back there, but I think he’s okay. Henry’s helmet was on (thank god) and was very scratched up. His arms had skid marks and scratches on them and his back was a bit torn up and bleeding as well. Everyone in our group came to his rescue and luckily Mike had a first aid kit on him. He started disinfecting Henry’s wounds and bandaged him up with gauze, surgical tape, and lots of band aids. Good as new… almost.

The next two hours were pretty frustrating… Gareth ran out of gas at the top of the mountain and two Vietnamese guys on motorbikes pushed Gareth’s bike forward so he could cruise down the mountain in neutral. We filled up his tank and realized we had reached the town of Danang. One more hour to go, it was 7:00pm and starting to turn dark.

We hit the crazy center of town of Danang in the middle of rush hour on Christmas Eve in complete darkness. Motorbikes were EVERYWHERE and it was terribly difficult to keep out little group together. I stayed in front of our group and kept alternating my left and right blinkers so they could spot me. And every time someone Vietnamese pulled up beside me I would say, “Hoi An?” Each person I asked helped us continue in the right direction. The few who spoke bits of English would say, “Go Straight”, or “Right after bridge”, “Go around the circle, straight” or “Stay to the left”. The four others in our group were behind me and I was the only one who had an idea where we were going. I just kept hoping that the people I was asking knew what they were talking about. But then we saw it, a tiny sign that said “Hoi An”. We made it!

We stopped to look at the business card of the Hotel in Hoi An our hostel owner in Hue gave us. We found the name of the hotel road and slowly passed by each street sign to see if it was the right road to turn on. I stopped to talk to a group of young Vietnamese guys on the side of the road, showed them the business card, and with one wave of the hand, we were following the gang.

They brought us almost all the way to the hotel and we were so thankful to arrive! All of the motorbike pick-up men were waiting outside with a look on their faces as though they had been waiting for hours, which I guess they had. We were supposed to have the bikes back by 6:00pm and now it was 8:00pm. Wow, 8 hours on a bike. Henry had to pay $20 for the damages done to his bike, which wasn’t so bad considering.

Immediately after setting down our bags in our hotel rooms we set off to find a nice place to have dinner and drinks. Celebratory drinks were compulsory. We bought a bottle of Dalat (Vietnamese) red wine, a bottle of Dalat white wine, and some beers to start. We toasted to surviving this epic journey and all sensed a strong bond tying us together after completing such a voyage. We relaxed for the first time in hours and were happy to finally be in Hoi An!

A memorable train ride and Hue,Vietnam 12-22-09

China trains are precise and on time, Vietnam trains… not so much. Our train departed at 7pm and was scheduled to arrive in Hue at 8am. Thirteen hours, no big deal… “we’ve done this before” I thought.

Lusa and I settled into our separate rooms and I met my three bunkmates. The guy next to me on the bottom bunk was Vietnamese and the two guys on the top bunks were Russian. The three of them were lying in bed ready to sleep when I came in. I quietly placed my massive bag on the floor and set off to find Lusa. She was only two ‘cars’ away and was bunked up with a Canadian couple. You know what? I’m starting to think I’m the only American in Vietnam… and only one out of the handful that are in SE Asia. Americans here are rare!

Around 10pm I feel asleep while reading my book (Eat, Pray, Love) and awoke to find Lusa and Henry, a bloke from England, creeping open the sliding door to my room. In the hall I discovered Henry had brought LOTS of beer with him on this train and Lusa and him had become fast friends. Henry was slurring his words a bit and talking about wanting to search the whole train to find another room... then he disappeared. Lusa and I chatted until Henry came back and explained, “I made it to the end of the train and the conductor looked at me and just shook his head ‘no’.” Oh well, at least he tried to find his own private suite. We all hung out for a good 45 minutes and decided to stay at the same hostel in Hue. Henry’s friend Mike, who was sleeping on the train, would be joining us too.

Lusa and Henry headed back to their rooms and I decided to brave the toilet. The bathrooms on this train were pretty bad and were exact replicas of the squatter bathrooms on the trains in China. Picture this… you open the bathroom door that swings into the bathroom, then tip toe around to step on the less-wet spots on the floor, and try to close the door behind you without hitting yourself with it because the space is so tiny. Next convince yourself that you CAN use this porcelain hole that is covered with dirt, urine, and shoe-prints. Try not to let anything of yours touch the ground and also try not to touch the walls or bathroom door because everything inside is wet from who knows what. Also, do this while the train is going 90mph and is vibrating and shaking. Good luck.

Each time I went in there I felt like I needed to be steam sterilized afterwards, but all the train provides is a tiny sink near each bathroom which trickles water (no soap or towels). Luckily I had my soap, towel, and anti-bacterial ready to go for this train ride. At one point in the evening I went to my normal bathroom and it was occupied. I went to another car’s bathroom and opened the door to find a western toilet! Yay! The toilet lid was up so I pulled the seat down and instantaneously regretted it! Shoe marks were on top of the seat and a huge bowel movement was sitting on the back of the toilet. You know, I saw funny signs in the bathrooms in Cambodia showing a person squatting on top of a western toilet with a “No Sign” marked through it. I didn’t think that anyone would be foolish enough to actually do this. Well, that was the last time I went to that toilet.

Since traveling in SE Asia, I’ve had to take malaria pills every day. I usually take one at night and the instructions say to take the pill with a lot of water and not to lie down within two hours of taking it. I have obeyed these rules for a month and a half, but on this particular night I forgot to take my tablet at dinner (because we skipped that meal and had beers at the hostel instead), so when Lusa and Mike woke me up at 12:00am, I took it then.

Not even fifteen minutes later I started to feel nauseous. I downed a lot of water, ate two bananas… all while realizing that I hadn’t eaten or had a lot to drink (besides beer) in 6 hours. I tried my best to convince myself I would be alright. I was breathing steadily and slowly and saying to myself, “you’re going to be fine, breathe…”, but when you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go and I had to RUN to the bathroom. I have to say, this was probably one of the most disgusting moments of my entire backpacking trip so far. I chose to go into another bathroom than the one I had used before because this one was closer. Well… bad decisions all around. I was REALLY sick, and the bathroom smelt of… well, you can imagine- worse than a frequently used porta-potty. Needless to say, it didn’t help my circumstances AT ALL.

When I made it back to my room I had some water, ate a banana, and mentally cursed myself for being so foolish. I made a promise to myself be more careful from now on and felt well enough to fall asleep.

At 7:00am, noise from my Vietnamese bunkmate woke me and I discovered that our train was stopped in the middle of nowhere. Normally trains only stop at other train stations and for less than 10 minutes. This was not normal. I walked around and heard talk that we had been stopped for two hours because our engine broke down and we were waiting for a new part. At 12:00pm that part arrived. That’s right, for 7 hours we were stuck in the same spot on the tracks with nothing around us but farm land. Lusa, Henry, Mike, and I headed to the kitchen at some point to order food and the lady inside told us she was out of everything, (in a couple Vietnamese words). I would point to one thing on the menu, and she would say “no”. Then I’d try the next item, she would say “no”. Eventually she said “Unnngh” (yes) and went inside to tell the chef what to do. 30 minutes later we had elementary school styled sectioned plates of steamed rice, steamed cabbage, and mystery meat. Mmmm… just what the doctor ordered. Henry noticed a Vietnamese man eating a hard-boiled egg and figured eggs were probably a safer bet.

When we finally arrived to Hue at 3:00 pm. our pre-arranged hostel pick-up was waiting for us. We all stuffed into the min-van and made our way to Hue Backpackers (the sister hostel of Hanoi Backpackers). The place was really nice, three stories, dorm rooms for 4, and a nice lobby/dining area. Lusa and I put down our belongings and went for a walk around the area. We crossed over a bridge with hundreds of scooters and motorbikes crossing over it. We passed a man selling helium balloon zoo animals and Lusa bought a tiger. For the next hour, every single child, and almost every mother, eyed that tiger and desired it. Some kids followed us for a while doing the “give me” sign with their hands. So many more gave us puppy eyes and asked for it in Vietnamese… we knew what they were saying, they wanted it.

We took a turn down a little alleyway and found ourselves walking down a neighborhood of bedrooms, I’ll explain. Most families in SE Asia own a tiny space which is comprised of one room, two if they are more fortunate. The front room usually has an old TV and mats to lie on the ground... maybe a plastic chair or two. The back room has more mats on the floor to sleep, that’s all. Most “houses” we passed only had one room and the mats were the whole house. Everyone sleeps in the same room and the house is usually only occupied at night for sleeping. During the day the children are at school (if their parents are affluent enough to afford it) and the parents are working.

   

   

We passed dozens of side by side houses and one of ‘home’ owners had a day-care in her little room/house. Fourteen little children ran over to see us when we passed by. They were very cute and all loved Lusa’s balloon.

On the walk back to Hue Backpackers, we passed a “new” electronics store that sold portable c.d. players and GAMEBOYS. The also had knock off ipods and watches, so I bought an old school, “waterproof” Casio watch for $4. I’m pretty excited about it. It has a light, an alarm, a stop watch, the date, and day of the week. Now I’ll know what day it is... I’ve felt pretty lost on time/days the past few months.

Back at the hostel we had happy hour drinks and spoke with Henry and Mike about their plans for Vietnam. Gareth, from England, joined up with our group and we all decided to motorbike down to Hoi An in the morning. We heard it would take about 5 hours, 6 if we stopped, and we all thought it would be quite the adventure. Little did we know then how much of an adventure it would be!

We booked the bikes from our hostel and they arranged for a car to carry our large bags and drop them off at a hotel in Hoi An where we would met up and return the bikes. Our plans were set and our motor biking group of 5 decided to wake up early and see a temple nearby before hitting the road.

Halong Bay, 12-21-09

At 7:00 in the morning a large group of us got out of our beds to pack for our Halong Bay trip. Will, Rich, Emma, Russ, and the whole group of them I met in Phnom Penh, met each other in Vietnam on their Halong Bay trip months ago. They told me it was mandatory that I go. I didn’t refuse and was actually looking forward to getting out of this crazy motor bike city for a couple of days to check out something else.

Our hostel group of 27 brought our daypacks on the bus destined for Halong Bay; and left our “lives” behind us in storage. The two hour trip wasn’t too bad. The only part worth mentioning was when we stopped at a rest stop for food and souvenirs and saw 12 young girls stitching away on canvases with colored thread to duplicate famous works of art. The craftsmanship was magnificent, except I couldn’t help but feel sad for these girls who had to stitch and sew all day long with needle and thread in this sweat-shop like place.

 

For me, Hanoi was a very cold city. At the time I was there it was around 60 degrees Fahrenheit during each day, with a strong breeze, and 40-50 at night. The sky was cloudy and air foggy and cool. It was Vietnam’s winter and everyone in the city was bundled up.

Usually Halong Bay has nicer weather than Hanoi since it’s on the east coast; but we had heard the last few trips to the bay were so cold that no one had even gone swimming! All we could do was pray for sun and as we walked from our bus to the pier, we watched the clouds part and bit of sunshine shine through. Thank you, sun gods.

The harbor was crowded with Bhaya Cruise boats that look like old wooden cruise ships with traditional SE Asian red sails on top. We boarded our private vessel and immediately were welcomed aboard with fresh, chilled orange juice. Our hosts escorted us into the dining area where we had a feast of food. During the meal our hostel guide, Trevor, made an announcement that we should pair-up with someone for room assignments. Lusa, an extremely out-going and bubbly girl from NZ (who lives in Brisbane, Australia now), and I hit it off and decided to share a room. By the time lunch finished our boat had arrived at the bay where we would be spending the rest of the day and evening. Everyone put on bathing suits and starting jumping off the boat into the water below. Afterwards we had to pick a paddling partner, kayak exploring was next on our to-do list and we were about to check out a cave too!

 

Our Vietnamese guide, Phu, was leading the way, but since our group was pretty competitive, everyone was playing “bumper kayak” and pulling the tails of others’ back, to take the led. Tom and I were constantly fighting for first place. Tom’s friend, Elton, from Canada, was probably the most competitive out of the group and was talking smack to us as he paddled with Jessie, a girl from Australia.

We paddled around limestone mountain peaks, similar to the ones in the south of Thailand and in Yangshuo, China. When we reached the cave we docked our kayaks and huddled around one of the five who had a torch light. The cave narrowed and the ceiling lowered until we were crouched down in the darkness feeling all around us for the walls and ceiling, as we moved forward. We had to go on all four’s a couple times until we reached a small hole, which when we squeezed through, opened up into a huge space inside a mountain with a view of a private pool and total seclusion. It was spectacular.

Tom and I jumped into our kayaks first and were racing to be the first ones back, but Elton and the  Jessie were quickly catching up and we were racing for the finish. As we neared where our boat was supposed to be, we saw 10 identical boats all spread out around the bay. “Okay, I think it’s that one”, I said. “Yeah could be… or that one” said Tom. Three ship inspections later we found our boat and came in second place. Oh well.

Back on board we changed out of our semi-wet clothes to find another fabulous meal waiting for us. We had egg drop soup, fresh fish, chicken, clams, steamed rice, spinach, stir-fried vegetables, and sweet oranges for dessert. When our meal finished our hostel guide stood on a table and announced- “HAPPY HOUR BEGINS NOW! THREE-FOR-ONE DRINKS FOR THE NEXT HOUR!”  Everyone ordered their 3 drinks and we all pushed our table tops together to form one long banquet table and then proceeded to play “Roxanne/Red light”. We played this drinking game in Lagos, Portugal as well… all the girls stand up and drink when the song says “Roxanne” and all the guys stand up and drink when the song says “red light”. That game finished our 3 drinks rather quickly, so we all went back to the bar to order up again. This time our banquet group played the longest game of flip cup ever! To play you pair off with a person on the other side of the table and you both simultaneously drink a few inches of beer. Once you drink you can place your cup on the edge of the table, but have to correctly flip it up-side-down using one finger, until the next person on your team can drink... and so on down the line. We had 14 people on each side!

 

The next few hours that followed were fun, Tom, Elton, Lusa, and I partied with a group of friends we had met; James from England, Oskar from Sweden, and Nick from Australia (all of which we had beers with the night before). Some people on the boat jumped off to go swimming and check out the bioilluminous plankton in the dark sea, others danced all night in the “banquet hall”, a few had private parties in their rooms (with alcohol they had smuggled on). I spent the night jumping between the dancing hall and the private parties. At one point 10 of us decided to make a human pyramid and I was elected to crawl on top. As I was perfecting my balance, someone on the 3^rd row fell and we call came crashing down.

In the morning we had breakfast and lounged around on the top deck to relax as we cruised back to the harbor. Lunch was served a couple hours later- spring rolls, stir-fried veggies, chicken, and an Indian curry dish. After lunch we headed right back up to the top deck.

Lusa and I started talking about our traveling plans for Vietnam and it seemed as though we had the same plan. The only difference was that I had one month to explore and she was on a two-week time crunch. We got along so well that I decided to change my plans around and travel with her for a bit. When we got back to the dock our bus brought us to our hostel and from there I went straight to the train station to book a train to Hue that would leave in two hours.

The train station was a 15 minute scooter-taxi ride away and I paid two dollars for a round trip ride. Really though, the driver should have paid me because he almost killed me 11 times… seriously. We came pretty close to taking out 3 bicycles, 4 other scooters, 2 girls walking, and being crushed by 2 cars. I was holding my breath the whole time on that crazy ride!

Our last couple of hours before heading to the train station, Lusa and I had beers with Tom, Elton, James, Oskar, and Nick. Lusa found a red sash at the hostel that read- “Happy Birthday Backpackers, From Finnegans”. She put the sash around me and started calling me “Miss USA” and introducing me to everybody as that. I didn’t mind and we had a good time talking about how we would make sashes in Hoi An, the city known for getting tailored clothes made. I would have one that read “Miss USA” and she would have one that said “Aussie” on the front and “Kiwi” on the back.

When our time had come we said good bye to our new friends and hopped onto two motorcycle taxis which would take us to the train station. Luckily there were no close calls dying on this trip and we arrived to the station with perfect timing. Just 13 hours on a train (7pm to 8am) and we’ll be in Hue!

Hanoi, Vietnam 12-20-09

My flight from Laos to Vietnam was pretty amusing. Shortly after the plane took off I starting flipping through my camera pictures for fun and to reminisce the things I’ve done on my trip so far. I got to a gorgeous picture of a sunset in Thailand and the Vietnamese looking lady behind me one aisle over gasped “ohhh!”. She nudged her husband and pointed to my camera so he could see as well and then tapped her son on the shoulder who was in the chair behind me. He took out his camera and showed me a picture of a beautiful sunset in Laos. The fun rivalry was on, and for the next hour we compared pictures. I would show him a picture of a little girl in Cambodia with no shoes and he would show me a similar picture of a little boy in Laos; I would show him pictures of markets and fresh food from Laos and he would show me fresh meat and fish from Myanmar. It was wonderful and the three rows behind us, as well as his parents in the aisle next to him, were all in on the game as too and would “ouuu” and “ahhhh” and nod their heads approvingly when they saw a picture they liked. It was show and tell day on Vietnam Airlines.

I found out after we landed that the family of 10 were from China. I said hello, “Ne how” and how are you, “Ne how ma”, and then showed them how I could count to ten with the appropriate hand gestures (this is the phonetic spelling; E, R, Sun, Zsa, Ou, Leo, Tchi, Ba, Joe, Szhaa). They all laughed and nodded and smiled and then said the same words back to me in English. We were pretty much on the same page with our knowledge of the other’s language. I started naming the cities I had traveled to in China and they understood and would repeat the city names back to me. It was a pretty cool experience to be able to share a bit of what I learned in China with some Chinese I met on a plane.

We arrived in Hanoi just after sunset and I had instructions in my hand on how to reach my hostel, Hanoi Backpackers. My first mission was to find the public bus, check. I showed the driver the address I had written down before of my hostel; the driver nodded and started speaking in Vietnamese to me. “Okay?” I said… and just heard more Vietnamese from him. “Alright.. I’ll just sit up here in the front and keep asking you, okay?”. “unhhhh” (which means ‘yeah’ in Vietnamese I learned).

My 45 minute bus ride turned into three and a half hours due to a traffic accident on the freeway. I didn’t mind too much since I was still soaking in this hectic and buzzing city which was much different from anywhere I had been in the past two months. But the temperature here was a bit cold, maybe 60 degrees, so I tried to stay bundled up on the bus. I started doodling in my note pad and soon the three Vietnamese near me were huddled around to see my [terrible] art work. They sat back down when I looked up at them, but then another hour later I felt my hair being tugged on. I turned to see the man behind me smiling and making some sort of approving remark about my curly hair. I guess that was his form of saying- “Hello Miss, I like your hair, can I touch it?”. Anyway, he knew the word “real?” I nodded, and he seemed pretty impressed.

The bus driver and I had a few discussions along the way as we neared the center of the city, the conversation went something like this... “Is this my stop?”, “Nunhhh” (with a head shake), “Is this my stop?”, “Nunhhhh” (another head shake), “How about here?” “Nunhhh”. I knew it was my turn to get off when I was the last one still inside the bus and driver himself got out. He came back in to get me and waved his hand towards him to signal I should get out too. He pointed me in the right direction and I walked down the street with my massive backpack on, hoping the hostel would be near. I showed the addressed piece of paper to a few Vietnamese I passed along the way. They kept pointing down the street I was already on, but the last woman I asked made it seem like I went too far and should turn around and go left on the next street.

All I had on me were these directions and instructions that my hostel would be about 300 meters from the bus stop. In the beginning I was counting my steps.. 1, 2, 3, 4, … but after I reached 100 three times and realizing that only 100 meters had passed and I still had no idea where I was; I gave up and showed the address to a motorbike taxi (same as the tuk-tuk drivers but without the tuk-tuk part). We negotiated a price of 1 dollar (19,000 dong), and with my huge bag in front of him on the motorbike, I wrapped my arms around him and felt reveled to be off my feet.

Turns out, I was going the right way before and shouldn’t have ever turned around. But, I was glad I had the motor ride because the hostel was still a ways away from where I was. My savior dropped me off at the front door of Hanoi Backpackers and I happily paid him and walked inside. The receptionist was delightful and showed me to my dorm room right away. It was midnight at this point and all I wanted was to sleep, so I did.

Breakfast in the morning was complimentary downstairs and consisted of unlimited bread, sweet jam, bananas, instant noodles, and tea or instant coffee. I had some soup, bread, and bananas as I talked with a few other backpackers at our breakfast table. One 26 year old guy from Israel, Liraz, has been cycling through Mongolia, China, and Vietnam for the past 4 months. He had quite a story and we hit it off as soon as we started talking about China. He had just arrived in Hanoi as well so we decided to spend the day together and explore the city. We walked around the Hoan Kiem Lake and then just north of it to check out the local markets with clothes, shoes, souvenirs, restaurants, fresh food stalls, and more. We stopped along to way to try out as many new fruits as we could and tried Mangosteen, Sweet-sop, Guava, Waterapple, and Jackfruit. All were very unique and quite good... except for the Jackfuit.., that one might take a little getting used to.

 A few hours later we were back at the hostel and I took a nap. I woke up in my dorm to find Tom, a 26 year old guy from Australia, moving and setting down his belongings. Tom had just arrived from one day in Singapore and was on a two-week vacation from his law firm back in Brisbane. We chatted for a bit and then headed downstairs for the free beers our hostel was giving away tonight due to their 5-year Anniversary. We met up with other backpackers downstairs and each had several beers while talking, listening to music, and wearing Mexican sombreros our hostel owner was passing out.

It was a few days until Christmas and the hostel, as well as the entire city of Hanoi, was decorated with lights and tinsel and constantly played Christmas music. It made me a bit homesick when I first arrived, since I had just left my great traveling companions and now was on my own again. But luckily because I’m backpacking, there are always other people around and new friends to meet. Our whole hostel walked to a bar down the street called Finnegans where we had more free beers all night (I had good timing arriving here!). Tom, Liraz, and I played a drinking game that Will and Rich taught me called “Nominate”. The concept is pretty easy, you hold a coin in your hand and as the person to your left- “heads or tails and how many fingers?” If they say “heads and three fingers” and the coin lands on heads, they win and get to nominate someone at the table to drink three fingers worth of beer. If they lose and the coin lands on heads, they themselves have to drink the amount they originally picked. Then the coin is passed clockwise and the game continues. I don’t know who thought up this game, but it’s a sure fire way to get drunk quickly. I somehow managed to get my coin flip right 8 times in a row and everyone thought I had rigged it. Eventually my luck ran out and not only was I drinking my weight in beer, but everyone else at the table was nominating me to drink their winnings as well. A few more beers later we all stumbled back to our hostel and passed out for the night.

The following day Tom and I took a little tour around the city. He bought a few shirts and souvenirs from some stores and I bought a couple things for my mom and dad back home. We sampled fruit jelly candy, which is a little inch-sized container with a juicy-chewy-jelly that you have to squeeze and suck out to eat. Each jelly candy has a little piece of the fruit in it and they all taste like the actual fruit. We sampled strawberry, melon, mango, coconut, and pineapple- they were delicious!

We were still hungry after the candy and decided to find some real, authentic, different, but tasty, Vietnamese street food. We came across a lady spreading rice paper liquid onto a hot place (like the crepe masters do in Paris). We watched as the liquid turned into a pliable sheet; and then peanuts, herbs, mushrooms, green leafy vegetables, meat, and other spices were placed inside. The experienced woman rolled up 4 pieces at a time and then skillfully chopped the rolls into 12 bite-sized pieces. This whole process from start to finish took about one minute.

We were instantly impressed and walked inside to sit, after pointing to what they were making and saying “two, please”, while holding up two fingers. As we sat in anticipation I noticed signs up all over the walls (written in Vietnamese), that looked as though they claimed this place as the best spot in town. All different newspaper and magazine companies were raving about this place it seemed. We were excited. After 15 minutes of salivating and waiting impatiently, our plates of rolled up deliciousness arrived along with some sweet dipping sauce (with chilies on the side). The bits of rolls were unbelievably good… I couldn’t eat mine fast enough! They were sweet, yet savory, soft, but with a bit of crunch from the peanuts. It was a perfect snack, delectable, to say the least.

After we had the rice paper rolls (for less than 1 dollar each), we were still a teensy bit hungry and were lucky enough to come across a meat-lovers buffet on our walk back to our hostel. At the buffet was chicken, beef, pork, pork ribs, duck, fish, snails, shell fish, meatballs, even tofu! We just started pointing to things and shared a plate between us for about 20 dong (50 cents each). I have to say, although I don’t eat pork very often, the ribs were incredible and I was glad to have tried them.

On our walk back we passed some workers digging up an asphalt road. They were taking a break and smoking cigarettes, which was a common site to see in Vietname since most Vietnamese man smoke cigarettes. Ahead of the road was a market where all types of fish, turtles, snails, shell fish, raw beef, chicken, and vegetables were sold. The smell was severe and so overpowering that I literally had to cover my nose with my scarf and speed through. Tom was alright with the smell, he does a bit of fishing back home. Good on him.

Back at our hostel we took naps and then met up with a group downstairs to head out and find the cheapest beers in town. It was a bit of a walk to get to the famous spot, be our pack found the shop and sat in little red child-sized plastic chairs on the street as we drank our 20 cent glasses of cold Vietnamese beer. Life in Vietnam is good. After a couple rounds of cold beer we heard sirens and Vietnamese yelling through a megaphone. The police car moved towards us in the street yelling (in Vietnamese) that we should get off the street- we assumed, since the owners we picking up our chairs from under us and pushing us off the road and onto the small curb in front of their shop. Less than two minutes after the police passed our play-sized chairs were placed back on the street once more and we could relax in the comfort of our tiny seats.

Final days in Luang Prabang, Laos 12-19-09

Back in town we rested up from the trek for a day and then set off for the Tad Sae Waterfalls, where we heard we could zip-line over the rainforest canopy from tree to tree and above waterfalls. To get there we first had to hire a tuk-tuk driver who brought us 40 minutes out of town towards the falls, then we had to pay for a little long-tail boat ride up a river before arriving to the falls (in total it cost $4 a person). Since I have some family who live in Hawaii, I’ve been lucky enough to have zip lined over mountains and valleys before, but this zip lining was much different. We had two guides helping us, one would go first and zip line to the tree ahead of us, while the other would stay back to strap our harnesses to the metal cable cord above and send us on our way. Wooden platforms were nailed around each massive tree, which we stood on before swinging to another tree and platform.

Our harnesses and belaying clips held strong and I was the first to take off and test out the line. It was fantastic! Flying and soaring across a line while towering over tree tops and water… only to be catapulted into a guide at the end who had a huge smile on his face and wide open arms to catch me so I wouldn’t hit the tree behind him. It was great! Will is scared of heights and sat hugging a tree, literally, for a good 10 minutes before he surfaced up enough courage to give the line a go. And he loved it too, although his shaking legs hinted otherwise. Rich did great and we all took turns taking pictures of each other zipping along. A couple tree top platforms required us to drop vertically instead of horizontally to another platform. For these, our guide worked like a magician tying up the rope and slowly lowered us down on-by-one to the platform below, and then let out huge slack in the rope to scare us half to death before grabbing the rope again and lowering us slowly again.

After the 20 zip lines we took off our gear and dove into the chilly pool of water at the bottom of the falls. Most of the time swimming I was trying to catch my breath from the shock of how cold the water was! But it was a nice was a nice end to the day. Back at our hostel we each made arrangements to leave Luang Prabang, Will and Rich were headed for Bangkok, Thailand and I was off to Hanoi, Vietnam. We had a celebratory dinner together at a nice restaurant (each shelled out about 5 dollars on our fantastic meals) and then we randomly met up with some friends of ours at the Laos Laos Garden restaurant. We drank beers while playing some sort of bunny drinking game and later piled into a tuk-tuk to take us all to the bowling alley.

Our group of six was pretty drunk at this point and the bowling alley became our own private party. Everyone at the alley would walk over to see what the commotion was and then laugh hysterically at the drunken boys sliding down the bowling alley towards the pins or at them play fighting in the bowling lanes. We were warned about getting kicked out four times, but I think the guys who worked there were kinda enjoying the show too, so they let us stay. My score started out strong with spares and strikes, but as I sobered up my bowling has a reverse effect and I ended up in 4^th place. The night was great and we all hugged and embraced to say our good byes before parting.

Will and Rich left at 6:00am for the bus station to find a Bus named Luang Prabang—Bangkok waiting for them. My flight left 7 hours later and I had some time to relax on my last day before making my way to the airport. I had one last Laos meal near the airport and then I was ready to depart, alone. Hanoi, Vietnam here I come!

Trekking in Luang Prabang, Laos 12-15-09

At 8:30am Rich, Will and I were on our mountain bikes, along with Didd, our Laos trekking guide. Didd was born and raised in Luang Prabang and is attending the LP University to study Economics. His English was great and trekking ability even greater as he guided us uphill this one mountainous road on bikes. For 3 hours we cycled up mountains, steadily climbing higher and higher. A couple times the slope was so steep, and we were in such a low gear, that it was faster to jump off the bike and walk it than to try and cycle a thousand miles an hour in place. We stopped one time to have some water and eat half of our lunch Didd had prepared for us, fried rice with egg and vegetables, and then we carried on for another hour. Eventually, our exhausted group made to the end of our biking trail. From that point the we finished off our rice and started to trek by foot.

I’ve hiked before in Hawaii, Switzerland, and Germany, but this hiking was rougher, strictly uphill, and never ending! Our guide only slowed down twice in two hours, so we could catch up and have some water… it was brutal. I thought I was in shape from the activities I’ve been doing all along on this trip, but Didd was insane and I realized I was completely out of my league when it came to trekking. We were all so relieved when we finally made it to our destination, a small village, called Mon Jong, that lives up at the top of these mountains .

As we walked into their village we saw little children bathing in a puddle of still, dirty reddish-brown water and stray pigs, chickens, ducks, dogs, and young kids running around everywhere. Twenty families live in this village with no running water or electricity, they are completely self-sufficient and live off of the food they grow and animals they raise. The only bathroom in the village is a hole in the ground surrounded by bamboo pole "walls" that was built a few weeks ago and our guide was surprised to see it here. He was telling us before-hand that we would have to walk into the brush if we wanted to go to the bathroom.

Mon Jong is a very primitive village. Most of the children were wearing dirty old clothes, some weren’t wearing pants, and most did not have had shoes. The older men and women were busy working and paid little to no attention to us when we arrived. Each had their own job to do and we watched on as women separated thread, sorted and cut chili peppers, washed laundry, and as one man continuously chopped wood for hours to make fire logs. Didd led us to our beds and we walked through the threshold of our bamboo hut doorway to see one bamboo platform on top of a sheet of wood. Along with our stiff beds were blankets, pillows, and mosquito nets hanging above. We sorted out our beds quickly and then changed into clean clothes before exploring the area. But before we could do that, we had to get past the six children who were sticking their heads inside our room to see who the new people in their village were.

We checked out the small village of wooden/bamboo huts and met the little children who live here. They didn’t speak any English, but we were able to interact a little bit. The three of us saw some boys holding animal traps and sling shots in their hands; Will got them to demonstrate how they use them and then he set up a competition amongst them to see who could sling-shot a rock the furthest. It was fun to watch until we realized that these little rocks they were shooting were making holes in people’s homes! That game ended rather quickly.

As we walked we passed by roaming roosters and a mama pig with her 10 teensy piglets. A couple dogs roamed around but stayed mostly near the houses of their owners. We watched as some little girls slid down a little hill by sitting inside of an old gasoline container that had been sliced in half to make a bucket seat. Will had a go on it and all the girls giggled at him.

In ten minutes we were able to see the whole village, which was a good thing because we were so knackered that we made up our beds and fell straight to sleep at 4:30pm. Didd woke us up at 7:00pm to let us know that dinner was ready which he had prepared for us (he is the best). He stir-fried mixed vegetables in a delicious brown sauce that we had with sticky rice and home-made french fries! The food was great and we ate till our hearts content. I kept eating and eating to finish off my plate, but there was so much food it was difficult to finish! The stray dogs had taken a liking to us from the instant they smelled food and we fed them the remaining sticky rice we had at the end of our meal, which they devoured without any form of manners.

The Mon Jong people must have thought we came from “lazy village” because after dinner we went straight to bed again and didn’t wake up until 12 hours later at 8:00am, except for the few wake up calls in-between: roosters at 4:00am and 5:00am, the man chopping wood at 6:00am, and pigs oinking under our beds at 7:00am. Didd had breakfast prepared for us (he's amazing), fried eggs with sticky rice, bread, and delicious coffee. The morning air was crisp and cool and from our breakfast table we could only see 30 feet around us (so- dogs, chickens, and pigs). The entire village was filled with fog from the elevation we were at, and it looked as though fog machines had been working all night to completely fog out this village. We finished off our breakfast and fed the extra sticky rice to the dogs before packing up and getting back on the dirt trekking road.

This time though, the path was wet from dew and the four of us had a bit of difficulty walking. We were slipping and sliding constantly, which is a problem when you are trekking on the edges of mountains with a drop off and no way to save yourself if you do fall! We gingerly placed one foot in front of our other on the slippery declining dirt/mud and would all reach towards each other if we noticed someone else falling.

The green brush was flourishing and taller than us all, complete with thorns and massive spider webs and spiders. The air was cool and fog dense, we could barely see but we trekked along. Didd fell a few times and would look back to make sure I was be okay. Rich was walking behind me with probably the worst shoes to be trekking with, Converses, and Will was bringing up the back with a blistered foot which bothered him to walk on. I fell a couple times, but didn’t hurt myself. We would all make “ouuuing” noises and laugh at each other when someone fell. Luckily no one was injured aside from a few scrapes from the thorned brush we were walking through.

For the next two hours we trekked up and over a small mountain, which we never really could tell when we got to the top of it or over it since the fog was so thick. Eventually we got to the base of the mountain and our mini-van was waiting for us with kayaks strapped on top. Didd, Rich, Will, and I placed the two-man kayaks into the Ou River and started paddling in the cool water surrounded by gorgeous mountains in the distance, beaches along the shores, and limestone mountain peaks around us.

Didd and I paddled in unison, while Rich and Will figured out their own paddling style eventually asking us- “so, is it better to paddle on opposite sides, or on the same side?” After two hours of steady paddling along this mountainous river, we arrived at a site where we would have lunch and ride on elephants. We pulled the kayaks onto shore and started up a path to get to the top of a small hill (which at this point seemed massive to us since we were so trekked-out).

On the way to our picnic lunch we passed by a Petanque game, which Will claims he is "the BEST at" (he likes to say this of all games and sports really), and we all threw some of the hallow metal balls around to hit a smaller wooden target ball on the other side. Around the corner from this game was an open space with a view of the river, a couple picnic tables, and two beautiful gray elephants. I was instantly in heaven. Elephants have a way of making you feel very calm and relaxed in their presence and the three of us acted like giddy little children touching their trunks and heads and taking pictures of them and with them until our lunch was ready.

We had sticky rice, fish soup in a clear broth with cabbage, and a large fish that was just caught in the Mekong river. We ate up, I fed some of my rice and fish to the stray cat and puppy that were running around, and then I got up to spend some more time with our elephants.

I’ve heard some pretty bad stories about cruelty to elephants during treks… some guides constantly whip the elephants during the trek, others keep a nail under their throats to stab them if they misbehave, some keep the elephants chained together at their feet while they walk, but luckily I took another backpacker’s advice and waited for Luang Prabang to ride on them, where they are treated kindly.

The elephant owner/trainer saw me petting one and asked if I was ready to ride, “Sure!” I said and he walked me up a ladder to a platform so I could easily hop onto my elephant’s neck. It was such a great feeling to have my legs wrapped around either side of an elephant’s neck and feel her shift from side to side with each slow and steady step. I was so high up and everything below looked tiny.

Rich and Will were still sitting at the table when my elephant walked near them and I called out- “Hey! It’s time to ride!” Since we only had two elephants, Rich and Will sat together on a bench that was tied to the top of the other elephant. The trainer and his young son led our elephants by a leash that was place around our elephants’ ears. Elephants’ ears are very strong and tough, so the harnesses did not hurt them. We walked through a path and then up into the woods. The trees above cast a shadow over us and our elephants casually walked through the narrow forest path with ease. Every so often my elephant would flap its ears to cool itself down and I would get a nice soft slap to my legs. I had to keep ducking under tree limbs and branches to stay alive and one time accidentally got smacked a bit by thin branch my elephant was trying to brake off to eat.

An hour later our riding was done and we took pictures and said our goodbyes before walking back towards our kayaks. We paddled to the other side of the Ou River to a point where the Ou River and Mekong River meet. At that intersection is “A Cave of a Thousand Buddhas” where were docked again to explore. Each year, Lao, Cambodian, and Thai people bring buddhas, money, food, and other offerings to this cave in exchange for good luck from the gods and blessings upon their family for the following year. The cave is known to have over 4,000 tiny buddhas inside it and the number grows each year. Didd showed us the small golden Buddha his family placed here last year, he was excited to talk about the wishes they would like to receive. On our way out were little kids and women carrying small bird cages with little birds inside; for a fee, one can release a bird in exchange for good luck. Didd told us that each year when families come to the cave they release 3 birds for good luck.

Another 45 minute paddling session later, the worn out group of us arrived at our final destination, Xang Hai Village, famous for the whiskey they brew. Little children were bathing in the river as we arrived and the four of us carried our kayaks up the dock steps to get to the village. A few monks were walking around sweeping up, a little furry Alaskan husky puppy was running around, and a wedding was going on when we arrived. After I played with the pup we walked past the wedding party and were welcomed with whiskey shots we couldn’t refuse and free spoon-fed samples of all the foods they were eating. The whiskey was warm and STRONG and food delicious and different from anything I have tasted before. The Lao people laughed at our reactions to the interesting food and smiled at me as I tried to explain some of the ingredients and textures. A few tasted as though they were made from smashed potatoes, but were filled with either meat or vegetables with spices. Very tasty!

We partied with the family for a little while and then turned a corner to sample other flavored whiskey the village brewed. Will, Rich, and I first tried a red sweet whiskey which was delectable and then tried a light yellowish whiskey that looked the same color as a pinot grigio and was strong yet tasty as well. With 5 shots of whiskey in our system we were smiling and happy to hop into our mini van to take back to Spicy Laos. The trek was fantastic, the perfect combination of hard work and cultural experiences.