8 Months This Once

Looking back on our time in Vietnam, all of us agree that it was our favorite country so far.   Here's a quick list of what we loved: Kim 1.  The food - Bun Cha, Pho, Café Su Da ..... you are all so missed!  Also the cheap Bia! 2.  The strength, resourcefulness, and humility of the people - these people have been under attack so many times, yet they've never been defeated.  Nor do they brag about it.  They just get on with life.  3.  The variety of scenery - this country has oceans, mountains, caves, beaches, rice terraces, hilltribe villages, just to name a few.  We could have spent much more time here and not been bored. Lucas 1.  The food - Bun Cha, Pho, Deep Fried Bananas 2.  The people - most of the time they were very nice and really helpful.  3.  The prices - Vietnam was a cheap place to travel! 4.  All of the other tourists were nice and travelling there was easy and interesting. ...

At the end of our time in Vietnam we stayed in Hanoi where we spent a few days relaxing and recharging, and taking in some of the sights including the famous water puppet show and the military museum.   We stayed in the Old Quarter, a really neat area where all of the streets used to sell just one type of thing, so there was a street for textiles, one for metal work, etc.  Some streets still keep their traditional use, but many have branched out, particularly to accommodate tourists.  A typical street in the Old Quarter - both sidewalks lined with scooters, with the odd sidewalk restaurant in between,  and a constant stream of scooters on the road an evening walk along the lake in Hanoi a cathedral in the Old Quarter An old water tower with some pretty minor scooter traffic in front of it The usual tangle of electrical wires on a corner tanks, bombers, and the flag tower outside the Military Museum We discovered ...

From Sapa we headed toward Bac Ha to take in the weekend hill tribe market there.  We bartered on a price for a ride in a minivan and left town promptly.  As we were pulling out of the parking area, some guys stopped the van and loaded in another passenger - a young woman who seemed somewhat rushed as they shoved her and her backpack into the van.  Her name turned out to be Astrid, she was a lovely young woman from the Netherlands.  We chatted for most of the ride and somehow the topic of payment for the ride came up - it turned out that she paid more for her ride than our whole family combined did.  Ah Vietnam, you are never dull!  Those guys are very savvy at assessing the situation and getting the most out of you!  Astrid was in a hurry with no time to barter since the van was leaving, so she just agreed to their price because it may have been her last chance to go that night.  Of course, the mi...

After Halong Bay we headed north to Sapa. Sapa is a town in the mountains in northern Vietnam.  We wanted to go and see the rice terraces and the local hill tribes, so we caught a night train and arrived really early to find the weather to be pretty decent but declining.  Though we were pretty tired from the train, we decided to maximize the day and head to a hill tribe village to arrange a homestay with a local family. We took a taxi to a hill tribe village called Ta Phin where we were greeted by a pack of women and girls, some with babies in their backs, dressed in traditional clothes and fawning over us.  They all had wares to sell, and knew a bit English, mostly "buy something from me Madame, very nice".  Um, ok, let me get my pack out of the taxi first, ok! Some Red Dao tribeswomen walking us to our homestay through the main street of the village We mentioned the word homestay, and they knew what to do, pointing up the hill past the village (a few sma...