February 26, 2001

A nice flight on Vietnam airlines brought us into Hanoi in the early evening into an empty aiport. So the exchange booth was out of vietnamese Dong and they closed just as we got there and in need of money for a taxi into town. The pre-paid taxi booth of course was going to give us a horrible rate if we didnât pay in dollars, so we had no choice. Took and hour to get out of the parkinglot waiting to fill the minibus and got into the Old Quarter part of the city in the dark and ended up chosing the hotel we got touted into. Luckily we were able to share a big room with another traveler from Germany and even had a bathtub. Couldnât resist that!

Hanoi, compared to Ho Chi Minh City, (3 years ago), was more mellow and much prettier. In the Old Quarter, most of the building are 2-3 storied French styled with high ceilings and balconies with lots of plants dangling from the decorative iron railings. Lots of trees and few cars. But the scooter are not going to stop when crossing the street. Hoan Lake was near our hotel and made for a nice stroll in the evening. There was quite a strong backpacker circuit of restaurants, hotels and tour offices north of the lake. Everybody offered Singh Open Tours/Hanoi Toscero tours of Perfume Pagoda, Halong Bay, Sapa etc· the list went on all the way to Saigon. We jumped on the bandwagon and did the Halong Bay 3 day tour with a challenging trek on Cat Ba National Park Island. Halong Bay was beautiful ö explored only by boat, they are green covered rocky islands that shoot straight up from the water. It looks as if long ago some volcanic erupsion made these islands burst from th! e bottom of the sea, so no beaches. You can even see the volcanic layers stacked diagonally creating a traceable pattern from island to island. I think it has been compared to the misty filled islands in China of similar formation. Our trek was vague at first, but we chose the ãlong trekä which we found out very quickly was 6 very sharp rocky hills up and down in a dense forest. Not many views on the way, but our reward at the end was a lush rice patty valley surrounded by these formations and a boat ride back to our hotel.

Exhausted, but ready for more, we did a museum tour-o-rama back in Hanoi and saw the spookily preserved body of Ho Chi Minh in his mosaleum, his museum (which was more like an interesting conceptual art exhibit mixed with his history), his house on stilts; few days later the Army Museum (formally called the American Museum), ãHilton Hanoiä (former prison made by the French for Vietnamese revolutionaries and later for Americans), Womenâs museum (including a tribute to women soldiers) ö I think that is it. Got a good dose of military history from the Vietnamese perspective of their long turburland fight for independence. On this side, the Vietnam War is know as the "American War".

After doing a hill tribe trek in northwestern Vietnam (see later), we did the Perfume Pagoda tour to the pilgrim site of a series of buddhist cave shrines. Good 2hour hike up filled with families bringing religious offerings of cooked chichens, fruits, lots of money and even Heineken beers. An amazing site of so many people trying to get close to the shrines or catch a drip of cave (holy) water from the high stalagtite roof above. The highlight, though, was our tour lunch spot where a stuffed (ãtaxidermistä) goat and hairy deer animal with a vietnamese bamboo conical hat on itâs head were on display in front of the tables with whatever meat hanging overhead. Luckily our meal had lots of tofu!

SAPA:

To break up our long stay in Hanoi, we went to Sapa for a highly recommended trek by a long-haired red head from Alaska we met on a Myanmar trek in Kalaw. Took the overnight tain and later we met a woman architect from San Francisco on our bus from Lai Cai train station to Sapa town up in the mountians 2hours away. The higher we drove, the foggier it got. Just like home. So we got caught up on the latest SF news and dot.com fall outs and found out we had mutual friends. It really is a small world. We ended up doing a trek all together into the gorgeous valley meeting Hmong, Red Zao, Day and and Tay tribes and stayed in their homes. Hmong women, everywhere and VERY persistantly, try to sell to tourists their natural indigo died clothing and ornamental garments which bleed their color onto your sking when wet (which is all the time in the winter there). They have this kind of sweet, funny, good-witch laugh that is funny at first, but after the the20th offer while standin! in the rain, it was too much. Saw a young girl in town with her indigo ãtribalä outfit on, wearing black rubber goloshes, holding a chinatown style umbrella wearing John Lennon shadded specs on. That made me do a double take. Had a great trek with our guide Luan who had a great fun, perky and upbeat personality (like most young women in Vietnam). Got a ride back on a small motorbike through the dense slippery mud for an hour in the cold rain. Not helmut, driver had flip-flops on and no gloves and handled the bike like it was gliding on water (excpet for a few spots..) . Donât try this at home ö these guys have been doing it this way since they were teenagers, actually younger.

After developing head colds, we were ready to get warmer areas and start heading south to Hue in the central region. Did the night slow train with a family of 8 in a crammed compartment with lots of luggage and a baby and a child and enough food to last their whole 44+ hour trip to HCMinh City. Explored Hue city with our own cyclo driver for a few hours the first day and signed up for the popular Singh tour of the Perfume River that runs through the city. (Singh tours has basically monopolized on the tour business in this country). Saw these lush green estates of former emperors and their now mosaleumed buildings on beautifully landscaped grounds with ponds and forests and very chinses styled archways and buildings dotted all around. Took a day apart, and Jon did the DZM tour and I hung out by the river munching on a makeshift sandwhich of local batter fried banana in french bread and fresh pinapple. Explored the city a bit more and getting ready to check out picturesque Hue and Hoi An, a fews hours south.