Liketytrip

We finished our trip of Vietnam with two organised tours. I know it’s not the done thing for us traveller types to settle for the expensive easy route but it had been recommended and was well worth the money, even if the weather wasn’t included in the price. The first of which took us high up in to the hills to trek amongst the tribal villages of Sapa. And the second took us back down to sea-level to cruise among the beautiful karst limestone islands which towered above us in Halong Bay.

Sapa
We met our wonderful guide, called Si (pronounced the Spanish way, like See… or Sea). She was great, only 19 but very switched-on and kept us entertained with some good old sarcasm. She is the first in her family to leave the village for work. Her father works in his paddy fields which serves to feed the family and it will be expected that her younger brothers continue to toil in the fields.

Cloudy, misty Sapa was waiting for us to start our trek and so were all the local sellers. Our group of 6 (plus Si, making 7) soon turned in to 12 before even leaving the village and we were pretty much tripping over them as we walked down the road. They were dressed up in their traditional clothing, with heavy silver jewellery and long earlobes. All of them looked much younger than the years they were telling us, even though their teeth were ruined and rotten. Unfortunately, further downhill we were joined by another 100 or so tourists all of us walking in the same direction (damn that package tour!). This meant that at several places along our route we were stuck in a long human traffic jam. In the middle of an enormous amount of space, here was a bunch of useless westeners unsteady on their legs afraid of falling over on some slippery clay soil whilst the locals piled through the water and mud in their wellington boots. If they weren’t wearing wellies, they wore brown sandals and I’ve no idea how they kept their feet so clean as our trainers were quickly covered in sticky gloop. At lunch our friendly local ladies who’d been following us all the way left us to our own devices, only to pounce again as soon as we’d finished. It took us a long time to shake the lady who’d been at our side for most of the way. Their tactic is to help you up and down the difficult parts and then make sure you buy something at the end. But God Forbid! you even think about buying anything from a different lady.

As we passed through different villages so the people changed quite dramatically, not only the colour of their head-dresses, but also the shape of their faces. Some were even more striking and had what looked like receeding hairlines with folded cloth as their head attire. Although we were on a short 2-day walk, we saw different local heritage; the Black Mong community, Zao community and Tai community. They each have their own language and apparently hardly any of them can communicate with eachother, unless of course it’s from the universal Hello, Where you from, You buy something? type of School.

I’m glad we had our Japanese Encephalitus jab back home. Our travel nurse would have been proud as her advice was working. Here we were surrounded on all sides by paddy fields, pigs and ducks. I wonder if my body realises where I am and is doing some killer moves inside? I don’t want my brain to swell up and die!

Our overnights were spent in two differnt wooden homestays. At one, we warmed ourselves by the kitchen fire – but they don’t understand the idea of closing the front door to keep the warmth in. We were intoduced to the 6-strong family; two parents, two grandparents and two young boys. We were looking forward to having a discussion about local living but as soon as all 13 of us were sat down at the low table, and having politely knocked back the thimble of rice wine, the whole family kept their eyes glued to the large colour TV in the corner behind us. In fact, our heads seemed to be in the way so they all had to cock their heads to peer round us, transfixed. Once the Chinese dubbed soap opera was over, dinner was finished and the kids bought out their battered Rubix Cube and light-saber-esque toys. Clearly, we weren’t that remote!

We ran inside at night; the cold mist shot straight through us. Off to bed wearing every item of clothing, only to wake up at midnight with a right sweat on. It must have been the second mattress and second uber-warm blanket that did it. The second night, at a much lower altitude, was much more bearable – bar the crying cat roaming the house in the early hours.

And finally, as Murphy’s Law would have it, we woke up to fine weather on our last day and by the time we’d walked the short hop back up the hill to our finishing location the sun was out. Back in Sapa, only 15km away, blue sky and a ferocious sun were waiting for us.

Halong Bay
I’d been so looking forward to sunning myself on deck looking out at the picture-postcard view from our junk, but again we had to settle for mist and a chill. Still, we managed to play with the local mythical dragons among the utterly stunning scenery (it’s a World Heritage Site and is apparently more beautiful than Krabi in Thailand…). It’s mind blowing. Our days here consisted of kayaking for a few hours each day, followed by a hearty meals of rice and fish, rice and fish…. Out on the water with the islands towering above us, we were able to pop in to a beautiful cave (nicely laid out for us tour groups to wander around, with cool lighting and considerately laid concrete pathways) and pass wind-blown holes and drop offs.

It was odd being in such a beautiful place without the sun to bring it to life; the up-market hotel we stayed at on Cat Ba Island was under-used as a result and we weren’t able to swim with the polystyrene swans or swim up to the pool bar. Our walk along the seafront path made us feel we were in Wales more than Asia. I did however make use of the ‘spa’ only to come away from my massage more in pain than pampered.

We’ve been a month now in Vietnam; time to say goodbye to the good-life of hotels and dinners (thank you so much again mum and dad!), the bustling major cities and complicated history and off to sample a more laid-back, underdeveloped way of life… or is it?