Mountain Bliss

I don't think that words can explain Sapa but I'll certainly try. Photos will come later from Hanoi where the internet is far better. Today the mountain is covered in a wet misty fog, it feels like I'm in Sleepy Hollow. It's the perfect day to rest, get warm by the fire, do some internet and drink delicous vietnamese coffee. We intended to relax today after a very ardous yet breathtaking 3 day trek through the mountains. If it were sunny I might feel compelled to do something, always moving to see something we haven't seen. The comfort of being indoors is perfect, we need to rest.

Originally we wanted to go to Ba Be national park and Sapa in one week. It turned out that Ba Be was so off the track that it would have cost $130 to hire a private jeep to get there...so Sapa it was. We couldn't have made a better decision. So many people told us they only came here for 2 or 3 days, I would have cried if that was all the time I had. Sapa is about 300 KM north west of Hanoi in the mountains bordering China. It is absolutely the most breathtaking place I have ever been. A small town with a European feel only filled with indigenous hilltribes all over the place. They live in villages all over the area extending all the way to the chinese border. Most of root back to China but have kept their culture and languages pure and maintain their traditions. They all make handicrafts and sell them whereever you see them. They are all so beautiful with rich features, high cheekbones and rosy cheeks. The children are so adorable, I've taken so many photos. Each tribe wears their own dress which are all very colorful and uniform. They layer their hand embroidered garments and various headresses in very systematic ways. One of the tribes has a tradition of the women threading their hair half way up their head and plucking their eyebrows then covering with a huge elaborate red headdress. Apparently they do this because long ago a woman's husband fell sick after she cooked him a meal. Nothing in the meal caused him to be sick so they decided it was her hair that fell into the food that caused the illness. So now they get rid of their hair so this will never happen again.

We took the night train on Saturday night, the most comfortable so far. We shared a cabin with a really sweet dutch couple on a short 2 day tour. We came on our own, we didn't want to be rushed around with a tour group. On sunday we just explored Sapa and checked out all the beautiful crafts and talked to all the locals. I was shocked that so many of the hilltribe peeps could speak english, especially the children. They are so friendly and outgoing, and although most of them try to get you to buy things they are very sweet about it. We befriended a girl named Pen from the Black Hmong tribe. She is 22 and the sweetest girl ever. Her english was fantastic, I couldn't believe she just learned it from the tourists. The Black Hmong is the largest tribe in the area. They wear these indigo vests and black circular headbands. They speak more English than any of the others and are all over Sapa.

Our hotel room is very cozy on the fourth floor overlooking the mountain. I listened to my lonely planet by making sure to get a room with a good view since that is what Sapa is all about. After spending a day marveling at the views and getting to know the town we booked our week in Sapa. Monday we did a 5 hour motorbike tour through the mountain, it was one of the most amazing experiences I have had. This entire trip I've somehow avoided the motorbikes even though they are the main mode of transport throughout Asia. I decided to brave it in Hanoi when I had to deal with plane tickets and stuff and really enjoyed it. They are just motorbikes, not Harleys, so it was great. So lauren and I got 2 bikes with really good drivers and went to a waterfall and Ta Van village. The entire ride was breathtaking views where we stoped regularly to take photos and enjoy the scenery. In the village we had an entourage of tribal ladies asking the questions that everyone asks. What is your name? How old are you? Are you married? Do you have children? How many brothers and sisters? How old are your parents? Their village was beautiful with a clear stream running through the center and an amazing cave at the end. We bought torches made of bamboo to take into the cave and were led by a little old woman. It was really amazing, although we only explored it for about 15 minutes. When we came out they swarmed us to buy stuff and our motorbike drivers magicly appeared to wisk us away! That night we filled up on a fantastic italian meal and a bottle of wine before our long trek through the mountains.

We signed up for a 3 day trek with a guide. It ended up just being Lauren, me and the guide. It was 3 days of treking and 2 nights of homestays with families from the villages. The first day we were in shock. Every single step we took was more beautiful than the last. We trekked up,down and around the mountains, through stepped rice paddie fields with the water buffalo, pigs, ducks, roosters, dogs and everything else. The rice paddies made it even more unique than anything I've ever seen. The first day we trekked for 10 miles up and down the mountains and ended up in the village around 4 pm. We stayed with a family and our tour guide cooked us dinner. To our surprise we was an amazing cook. Every meal we had on the trek was the best food we had in Vietnam. Each dinner was a feast with 5 different dishes. We were so tired the first night we passed out at 7pm!

The sleep the first night wasn't the best, the roosters started at about 2 am and then the dogs started and soon enough the ducks went at it! Lauren and I decided right then and there that we could never live on a farm.

The second day of trekking was quite a task. Definitely the hardest hike I have ever done. It was just as amazing, running into to tribal peeps in the mountains. At one point i had 2 ladies holding my hands along the way helping me walk...whether I wanted it or not. They had quite a strong grip! Lauren got some good photos of it, it was pretty funny. I have to say it was pretty helpful at some points, the hiking wasn't only ardous but very difficult as well. Steep, slippery paths and rocks and a very fast guide. I had to ask to slow down a number of times. We literally went up and down mountains like I had never done before, I can't even believe I did it now. We hiked about 12 miles and ended in a beautiful village located in a valley between mountains. By the time we got there we were both in some pain, Lauren with blisters and me with the knees. We arrived to a comfortable spot (comparatively) with a fanstatic view. As are tour guide prepared our feast we headed down to the hot springs to sooth our muscles. We were so excited to find out they were there, what a treat. They ended up being warm springs, but beggars can't be choosers! We grabbed a beer and headed down jumping rice paddies to get there (my knees weren't very happy about that). It was very blissful though, and we met some other cool peeps while we were there. Afterwards we had a great meal with the family and a bunch of rice wine (the local drink of choice in Vietnam). I told our tour guide that i wanted to take him home with me to cook for me cause the food was so amazing. After dinner we went next door to hang out with some other tourists from all over. The party moved to "the poolhall" which ended up being the woman's house where the men were doing Karoke and had a pool table. It was really bizarre and amusing, although we didn't stay for long. Lauren and I sat down and she went to the bathroom and suddenly i found myself surrounded by a bunch of Vietnamese men that kept trying to talk to me in Vietnamese. I just say there like, I don't understand you. It was pretty funny. We headed back talking to a some swedish guys who were in Vietnam doing research for University...how cool is that?

The next day we spent the morning walking around the village going to some peoples houses and to an elementry school where we saw what gym class is like. It was hilarious! We def took some good videos. They had techno music on and they were doing these funny little dances, what a privelage to see! Our tour guide spoke the local language so that was really helpful. He was very personable and good with kids which really made the trek even richer. He was also full of great info about the history and folliage. He could even talk to the water buffalo, which almost got us in big trouble with some angry mama buffalo! He prepared us lunch at the homestay and then we headed back up the mountain to get motorbikes back to sapa. We hiked 2 miles straight up hill in 30 minutes! I couldn't believe it, it was really hard! So now here we are, after 5 gorgious clear days with spectacular views it is misty and foggy. I feel like the luckiest person ever. I can't imagine just arriving here and having it be this foggy, how disappointing it would be. For us, it's the perfect weather to relax and sit by a fireplace in a cafe. So the lesson here is, come to Sapa...it's my new favorite place...and pictures will be posted in a few days!

It's all true, Hanoi is great.

We arrived in Hanoi yesterday after a 15 hour train ride, which we thought was 10 hours...ugh. Big surprise, communication error...in Asia? Never...ha. So after probebly the worst and scariest train ride ever, oh man it smelled so bad, we arrived. Not excited about going to another city, craving quiet and nature. After a search for the right hotel, a shower, and a faux thanksgiving meal (french/vietnamese food) we started to enjoy Hanoi. We heard it was french colonial, charming. On first impression it's just another Asian city. Loud, dirty, congested. On our way to find food I looked down at this girl squatting in the street (as people are always doing). Only she had a really funny look on her face, she must have been about 10. Lauren was a few feet ahead of me and kept looking at her and suddenly realized that she was deficating in a small bowl! Right there in broad daylight in the middle of the sidewalk! I was so shocked and distracted that i almost ran right into a motorbike, which isn't hard to do in Vietnam! We were laughing for blocks...nothings should really shock us here, but it does. Manners don't really exist here, i bet there isn't even a word for manners in vietnamese. Everyone picks their nose all the time, right in front of you! Lauren was buying new tevas at a pretty nice shop in Saigon and the saleswoman was talking to lauren and picking her nose at the same time...i mean diggin! It's so strange, totally not tabu at all! I hope in writing my laughter is coming through, because the small cultural differences are so entertaining...why else would you take such a painful flight across the world??

Anyway,enough of the newounces. Hanoi has loads of cute little cafes and a fanstastic lake,but it really came alive at night. They have these little outdoor beer stands with organic beer for about 10 cents each. So everyone sits out on these little plastic chairs and table drinking beer and eating the delicous street food. The whole city is out and it seems like a big party. We met these 6 Cuban men at a Gyro stand that came here to work on the roads. Vietnam and cuba a very tight and help eachother out apparently. Makes sense, i mean, how many countries are actually communist anymore. The whole communism thing is another entry, too much energy. All i have to say is taht it hasn't been the prevelant except for this tour guide we had in Hue who was a total ass. He was preaching misinformed propaganda and started talking trash about americans. He was a terrible tour guide too. But we have been truthful about where we're from to everyone and everyone has been very nice otherwise. Noone else is holding a grudge or cares..actually they're all like "oh, bush was just here."

Speaking of this. I should clarify about something, the anti-american sentiment i described earlier in my entries. First off, we haven't experienced this since thailand, and in thailand it ONLY came from other westerners...never from the thais. We have realized that the tourists that go to southerns thailand are very different from the ones who explore beyond that. There are a lot of arrogant people down there that just want to party. It's a good thing i checked it all out so i don't have to take alex to those places. So anyway, in cambodia all the locals loved that were american...but of coarse immediatly said "american, lots of money." And here, no response that's unique, it's really not a problem...except for the dumb tour guide. But he doesn't count.

Oh, finally, i officially changed my ticket today. YEAH!!!! Finally, what a pain! Thank god american airlines has an office here or i would have gone crazy! So Lauren leaves Jan 9, Alex flies in on the 14th, and we both fly out on the 27th! I'm really excited to take him to the islands, it's gonna be fantastic. It felt like he should have beent there so much the first time, i can't believe i get to go back with him.

Whew, long blog. Props to anyone who actually reads this. Sorry i didn't go into much detail about the other places i went..maybe later with some photos. That's all for noW. Happy turkey day!

running around in vietnam

I just wanted to do a quick update since i haven't posted for a while. I have to catch a train to Hanoi in 10 minutes so i'll make it quick. We are doing well, running here and there. We spent 3 days in Saigon, then a 3 day tour on the Mekong Delta...which was really amazing. Then we went back to Saigon for a night, did an overnight train to Hoi An (on the central coast). We stayed there for 4 days, took the bus to Hue (4 hours north) yesterday, and now are taking the overnight train to Hanoi. We are planning to head straight to Ba Be National park from there for some peace and quiet, and some nature! I'll elaborate more soon on all these places. But all is well, time is flying!

I heart Vietnam

And i've only seen the south! Right now we are in a small town in the Mekong Delta. We took a 3 day boat tour from HCMC around the Delta and it is fantastic. The scenery is unbelievable and life here seems like it hasn't modernized very much at all. People wash everything in the river and use floating markets everywhere. It is so lush and fertile here and everyone is so friendly. The vietnamese people are so beautiful too, they all smile and seem to be happier than those in previous places we've been. And the food...oh man...it's the best. It's so good lauren and i are going to take a cooking class in Hoi An and apparently you learn how to make rice paper spring rolls from scratch. So for all my friends, that's what you get when i come home!

We had a great time in Saigon (otherwise known as Ho Chi Mihn City). We were a little templed out from Angkor Wat so we just enjoyed the city..okay and went a little crazy with the shopping. It's ridiculous really, the fashion there is outta control. For those of you who like fashion (khmm, Christine) you HAVE to come here. Here's the dilly, you go into a supercute boutique (or 100 of them) and if something doesn't fit or you like the cut but another fabric, they make in for you! There's no extra charge and it takes less than a day! Plus, nothing was over $30! Seriously cute stuff, now i'm scared to see how much it costs to send home. On our last night in HCMC we felt like being normal and escaping the noise (HCMC has got to be the loudest place in the world, and it's 24/7). So we found the only english movie theater in town that happened to be at the superfancy mall. It was such a trip, going to the mall in Vietnam with all the middle class peeps. It was sooo nice and everyone looked so good. Saigon really reminded us of Japan, only affordable! So we roamed, had some really funny moments with groups of teenagers in the elevator, and saw "The Guardian." It was so great. To clarify the elevator thing...kids here like to say hello and when you say it back they always laugh. Well there were like 15 kids in this elevator with us and this happened and they all started laughing and screaming running out of the elevator...it was good times... (in reading that the vagueness sounded weird so i wanted to clarify).

The other scary thing is that next we are going to Hoi An, which is full of some of the best tailors in the world and you can have ANYTHING made for you...including shoes. Can anyone hear me squeeling...cause i have been. I'm thinking suede boots with embroidery...and jeans made just for me. Apparently to have a custom suit it's like $30...oh so scary...I have no self control when it comes to this stuff.

Anyway, i'll post some photos when i can. This country is so photogenic it's insane. It's really exciting cause we love it so much down here, but apparently up north is even better.

Whoa-hoo!

Another safe journey complete, we are now in Saigon and freaking out at how much we love it! What a fantantic city! I'm so excited to be in Vietnam, it's sooooo beautiful and the food is amazing. Happy day!

not such a clean country...

Cool floats

Water festival

View from our hotel of the festival...yes...we got caught in that!

They're nuts!

This is the view from the tuk tuk on our way back to Phnom Pehn. People were packed in every which was trying to get to the water festival..oh yea and they LOVE to stare at us so taking photos of them was superfun.

Trees and Wats

Photos just can't capture any of this. But this wat had trees all throughout it, it was pretty amazing. The Japanese tour groups went gaga!

Kids do the darndest things!

Especially the ones here, we saw a baby putting one of these over his head the other day!

I forgot to mention...

How incredibly cute the Cambodian children are! I want one! This is a little girl that wanted me to buy stuff but we have her candy instead...and got a great picture out of it!

Ruins

Here's some more ruins...

photos!

To everyone in Baltimore...

Have a drink for me! Yea for O'Malley winning! Yea for the house getting taken over! Yeahhhhhh!!!!!

Time to Reflect

Since I posted the last blog entry I have had some time to reflect...on the bus really. First off, yesterday was great. A relaxing day at the beach in Cambodia not getting hassled too much..although Lauren got talked into having her leg hair threaded! It took 2 hours and was pretty painful, after about 20 minutes she was already regretting it. I eventually had to go in and shave cause I had all these women coming up and grabbing my legs! It was sooooo weird! But we ended up meeting all kinds of cool people,some young american expats and lots of others from all over the world. It was a great farewell to Cambodia.

Anyway, the reflection...
It seems that this portion of the trip is amazing and exhausting...but that's what makes it so exciting. It feels really good to have gone through what it takes to be here, witness it and accept it. I finished reading a book I bought here today called "First they killed my Father". It's a biography of a girl who survived the Khmer Rouge as a child and now lives in the states. I really think knowing a lot about the history is such an important part of being here. I can still feel the weight of the book in my stomach, and how recent it all was. The thing that really gets me is that every time i get annoyed with the hassling I immediatly feel guilty afterward because I feel so bad for what all these people have been through. Every single person that is in this country over the age of 35 was in a prison/work camp unless they escaped and returned. What they went through is so unimaginable yet so real to me now. I've never been to a place where war was so fresh that it affects the culture so much still.

So my reflection is this, it was a good experience. Trying, exhausting...but this is why i flew across the world..after all, Costa Rica has some fantastic beaches too!

Temples, Touts and Tears

Cambodia...a mixed bag. The ultimate bitter-sweet. This has been a very emotional week filled with awe, anger, sadness, frustration and excitment. Cambodia is not an easy place to be in. It takes a lot of energy to be here and i have definitly lost my cool for the first time on this trip. I can't even put into words all of the things that have happened, so I'll just write about what we did for now.

So I wrote about Phnom Penh. When we were leaving we actually realized we missed some really cool parts of the city...but no worries cause we keep having to spend time there to get to other places. We took a very pleasant 6 hour bus ride to Siem Reap, it was great to see the countryside and the bus was very comfortable. We spent 3 days there, the temples were really amazing. On the last day we woke up to watch the sunrise at one of the wats, we went to something like 10 sites in all. It was really peaceful to be there in the morning, and peace is a hard thing to accomplish in Cambodia. The reliefs were unbelievable and the scale was greater than i could have imagined. I even got to have a nice conversation with a monk...they're so cute!

Siem Reap as a town was a different story. The dust was killer, we both took 3 showers a day. The food was really good since its a tourist town, but the begging was out of control. It made us not want to go outside. We ended up giving a lot of money away, which is okay, they needed it. But it's really hard to enjoy anything (including certain temples) when you are constantly surrounded by people begging you to buy stuff or for money.

So yesterday we went back to Phnom Penh and to our surprise there was a huge festival going on. It's the boat race festival and it's the biggest one all year. We ended up getting a room overlooking the river from the 3rd floor and the 2 million people below, it was really great. We walked around just checking out the masses of Cambodians everywhere...then got stuck in a crazy crowd and Lauren had to push me out. We ended up seeking refuge in a restaurant and got some drinks. We watched the fireworks from there and ended up hanging out with some supernice Australians at a couple places. All in all it was a great day.

Now, after a long, sweaty, dirty bus ride we arrived at the beach. It's alright here, but we'll stay for a day and then make our way back to go to Vietnam. To be honest I'm done with Cambodia. I haven't met a single altruistic Cambodian, just people that seem to be and then end up trying to get money out of me. The thing is, is that there is no assimilation here...it seems to me at least. It's us and them, which of coarse is because this country is so poor. I think it's important for everyone to see how other's live, but it's just so hard. The sadness i can handle, it's the harassing that really gets to me. There is little time for peace here, and the worst part is that most of the the people harassing us are children. But really it's a constant part of being here, when we had the temples to ourselves that morning it felt so peaceful and perfect. A quiet moment to take it all in. Cambodia is an interesting place and absolutely an interesting culture, it's just hard. I have some crazy stories but if you've read this far and care to hear more you'll just have to hang out with me when i get home...cause I don't think i'll ever forget this place.