Hanoi and Sapa

After we left Kathmandu and spent a night in Bangkok with Gabor (thanks again for hosting us and taking us to this animated night food market), we took off with Vietjet to Hanoi. The flight went well, we were on time, our visa on arrival took a while (guess the guys behind the counter did a coffee break in between), but then we finally went to the city center. We stayed in the Old Quarter, a very lively and pulsating area in Hanoi.

When we arrived at the accomodation, we had the probably funniest moment in Vietnam: the lady behind the reception spoke very fast and not always super clear English and explained us what to do and see around Hanoi. All of a sudden she started to talk about her uncle... "You need to go see my uncle!" "He is my uncle!" "Please visit my uncle!". We were both a bit like "Who woh woh woh what is going on?" We thought she wanted to sell us a tour with her uncle or her uncle had a souvenir shop that we should visit or some dodgy stuff like that. Turned out to be a huge misunderstanding. We discovered that all Vietnamese call good old Ho Chi Minh "my uncle" or "uncle Ho". So she was actually not really talking about her uncle or trying to sell us some stuff, but she wanted us to go to the Ho Chi Minh Complex in Hanoi :))))))))).

We spent all in all 3 days in Hanoi, a very lively and animated city we really liked a lot. We explored the Old Quarter, the French Quarter and the Hoan Kiem Lake by foot. There are plenty of markets, some nice temples - the nicest is Ngoc Son on the Hoan Kiem Lake which is beautifully lit at night - and tons of good street food. We often found ourselves sitting on the kids' size plastic chairs and tables next to the street and eating inexpensive and delicious pho bo, bun cha, table bbq, banh mi and others (an article about Vietnamese food will follow in due time).
And of course we also visted the Ho Chi Minh Complex where you can find the Ho Chi Minh museum, his mausoleum and a stilt house where he was living for some years.
Both the museum and the mausoleum look like typical communist buildings, but the museum was quite interesting despite the fact that they of course presented a very Vietnamese perspective of all events.
The mausoleum was closed as every October/November uncle Ho's body goes to Russia for "maintenance", so we only saw it from outside.
From there a short walk took us north to yet another lake in Hanoi - West Lake - where we wanted to see a pagoda. When approaching the lake both of us were already disgusted by the smell around - something like fish, toilet and death. When we walked along the shore we were terrified to see that the whole lake was full of dead fish. The water must have been so polluted that no creature was able to survive. Really sad to see  :(. That also explained the smell!

On the way back to the center we caught one of those taxis we already read about: they are normal taxis, it is impossible to differentiate between the bad rip-off taxis and the good ones and they have a meter that is running super fast. For pretty much the same way we did in the morning we paid triple the price with that taxi on the way back. Unfortunately you cannot do anything about it at the end, but we still told the taxi driver that using his fast meter is not correct. As of then we paid very close attention when we got into a taxi on the street to get off immediately in case we see the meter is running too fast again. Luckily, this was our only time and all the other taxis we had were not ripping us off with that treacherous method. 

Our next destination after Hanoi was Sapa in far northern Vietnam close to the Chinese border. The area is known for its diversity of Vietnamese minorities (Hmong, Red Dzao, Black Thai, etc.) and trekking, so we were hoping to combine a cultural experience with some nice mountain trekking.
Even though the night bus was cheaper we opted to take the train this time as it was more comfy, you could move around more easily and you had a completely flat bed to sleep. We shared a 4 bed cabin and were super suprised about the comfort and the cleanliness on board. We had clean bed sheets and pillows and even some water and fruits included. We left Hanoi at 10pm and arrived in Lao Cai at around 6 am. From there it was another hour bus ride to Sapa.

When we arrived there we were honestly quite shocked. Maybe we had completely wrong expectations, but we thought we would find a laid back mountain village or small town in beautiful settings and a relaxed and authentic atmosphere, instead we found ourselves in a complex tourist city: hotel after hotel next to restaurant next to souvenir shop and tons of massage places. And everyhwere in town construction was going on to build even more and even bigger and ugglier hotels which was destroying the landscape even more. And the minorities were as well very present in the streets of Sapa as every 50 meters one of the Hmong ladies was persistently trying to sell you some bags, purses, necklaces or bracelets.
To make use of the rest of the day, we rented a motorbike and went uphill to see the Love Waterfall, a beautiful waterfall in calm surroundings with views of Fansipan, Vietnam's highest mountain (3143m).

We still decided to go for a 2 day/1 night treking tour with an overnight in a homestay in one of the local villages. We booked a tour through the tourist office which at the end was maybe not so clever as it was a complete mainstraim tourist trap tour :(.
We should have maybe gone for a specialised agency in town and paid a bit more to have a more authentic experience. We met some people during our time in Vietnam who were super happy with the tour they had and they usually all went a different route than we did.

Our guide was a Hmong lady who actually did nothing else than leading the way through the rice fields. No explanations, no background info about her tribe and life in the villages, nothing. So much for the cultural exchange! We have to admit that the views were pretty spectacular though with all the rice terraces in the steep valley, sometimes looking like an amphitheater. We have already seen many rice terraces in Asia, but these ones were by far the most impressive ones.
At lunch we were trapped in one of those tourist restaurants in Lai Chau where all the Hmong ladies who had followed us during the hike were again trying hard to sell all their products. Not very pleasant to be bothered all lunch break long why you do not want to buy a purse, a scarf or a shirt.
After lunch it was only a short walk through the rice fields to the Homestay in Ta Van village where we arrived at around 2:30pm and were just dumped there for the afternoon. Luckily we had a good group so we did not mind chatting and playing cards, but it was honestly very disappointing. Probably the most entertaining was the 4 year old girl of the house who became known as "the dragon" or the "little devil". She was a little princess who knew exactly what she wanted and if she did not get it she would just slap people. When one of the Dutch guys took her elastic to make himself a ponytail she got really mad and slapped his arm and even his face. She spilled beer all over our playing cards and was laughing very devilishly as she found it funny. She also enjoyed herself pulling down her pants and going for a wee just next to our dining table... Well, that was the little dragon of Ta Van.

We spent the night in the attic where all of us slept together on mattrasses on the floor with mosquito nets. That was quite basic, but alright and given we had a hot shower western toilets and even wifi, we would not rate the experience as too authentic. Also in the village, tourism had already left a mark as you could find 5 bars and even a massage salon.
After breakfast (the mandatory banana pancakes) we headed off to climb up and down some more rice terraces and through bamboo forests. Day two was a bit more fun as the path was quite tricky with puddles and slippery mud. We had fun watching each other slide down the steep hills, step into mud puddles and hold onto bamboo to avoid falling on our butts.
We were again accompanied by an old Hmong ladies and some young girls. When we asked our guide why they were not at school she vaguely said that sometimes they "take a day off". We suspected that they were sent to follow tourists and make money out of it. And we are sure we were right when we finished the hike and one of the girls approached Moni and said "You pay me now!". We did not trust our ears and Moni firmly said "No". Where does that lead to if you start giving money to children for their company on a hike?! Very cheeky!

After a similar lunch like the day before we returned to Sapa. As we had already decided before the hike that we did not want to spend more time in Sapa than necessary we had already arranged our train tickets back to Hanoi for the same night. So we just picked up our bags, showered quickly and soon headed to Lao Cai to go back to Hanoi and then onwards to Cat Ba Island.

We will provide more information about our activities there in the next article.
In the meantime, check out the pictures and enjoy autumn in Europe (or wherever you are)!

Take care and talk to you soon,
Moni & Alex