Let me recap what I've been up to in Vietnam since my last post. It's been quite the whirlwind! After Mui Ne, we stopped in Nha Trang, another beach town, yet more developed and resort-y than Mui Ne. The highlight of Nha Trang was definitely a boat trip we took called the "Funky Monkey". While there were no actual monkeys involved in the trip, it's safe to say things got pretty funky. We had a good time cruising around on the super blue waters, singing along to oldies, snorkeling, jumping off the top of the boat, and even being treated to an all-crew rock band performance.
On the sea.. in the background you can see the world's longest oversea cable car. We didn't actually ride it because it doesn't take you anywhere all that amazing, but still, pretty cool.
Our tour guide for the day, Mr. Bin (or Min?). And now, his most notable quotes of the day in ascending order:
1. Him proclaiming his Chippendale dancer skills and that free kisses will be given out.
2. "You don't have to worry about sharks in the water...only me."
3. "No money, no honey. No honey, no boom boom. No boom boom, no baby. No baby, no problem!"
Jayne and Cassie's response to the promise of Chippendale dancing
Us at the "swim up bar", ie a man in a ring buoy passing out dixie cups of a vile whiskey/orange juice combo
From Nha Trang, we had our first overnight bus experience. Whoo Nelly. This went down as one of the few truly terrible experiences of the entire trip. We were unlucky enough to have the most horrendous a-hole of an employee screaming at us where to sit on the bus. Now, there were no assigned seats on our tickets. We, along with everyone else, assumed that the seats were on a first come first serve basis. Apparently this was completely wrong. We had the bus nazi literally pushing people onto their seats, and if they tried to claim a different one, wrath ensued. Poor Cassie experienced the brunt of this man's cruelty, as he first wanted to make her sit in the "kennel" as I like to call it (the group of 3-5 seats at the very back of the bus that are literally in a hole, allowing for virtually no air flow and way too much intimacy with the stranger sitting next to you, also known as the "coffin"). Then he wanted her to climb up to the 2nd floor of seats, an act even the most limber of us have trouble with. When she requested to simply take one of the empty bottom level seats (which there were plenty of), he had an absolute fit of rage and started screaming at her and wanted to kick her off the bus. We all just about killed this man, but the fight was eventually settled and Cassie was allowed to sit in a more humane seat. Once we got to our destination, Hoi An, we were all completely exhausted from the ordeal that was the night bus. We only had a day or 2 to spend there anyways, so we all just hung out by the pool and relaxed before trekking it to the next stop: Hue. Luckily it was only a couple of hours by bus and they were free of psychotic workers.
I really enjoyed Hue because it had a lot of cool tourist attractions and interesting architecture. Vietnam in general is pretty cool to look at because of the French influence. There are millions of motorbikes and street vendors selling pho and all kinds of scary meat products, but you can also get a great pâté sandwich on a baguette.
The best thing we did in Hue was a day trip with the Hue Riders, guys who carted us around all day on the backs of their motorcycles to see the city's sights. It was a lot of fun riding those hogs and I think we all enjoyed the wind in our faces after a long night of dancing at Club "Browneyes". Let's just say we enjoyed it more and more as the day went on.
Brit and Cass on their bikes
peace!
Our first stop of the day was this Japanese bridge, the oldest covered bridge in Vietnam. Woo?
We also checked out some colorful handmade incense, and tried our hands at making it. Those weren't quite as pretty.
Next, we went to a US army bunker, which wasn't the most exciting thing ever, but this was the view from it. That's the perfume river, and the mountains furthest away are in Laos.
There we are.
Our last stop was this Pagoda, the Thien Mu Pagoda ("Heavenly Lady Pagoda").
All in all a good day on the back of a bike in Vietnam. Too bad we didn't have the time or money to do the "Top Gear Tour", where we could have ridden bikes all the way from Hue to Hoi An, stopping at all of the little, lesser known sights along the way. Oh well, then again maybe one day clinging to an older Vietnamese gentleman in the hot sun was enough.
After Hue, we took another overnight bus to Hanoi (this bus was a much better experience than the last one, even though we ended up side by side in the kennel). Vietnam's 2nd-largest and capital city, Hanoi is as busy as one would expect. The traffic isn't quite as crazy as Ho Chi Minh, but it's definitely got its own hustle and bustle. Our first destination was Halong Bay, the world famous bay full of thousands of little islands and mini-mountains. We were ready to party, so we decided to book a tour through our hostel called the "Rock Long Rock Hard" party boat tour. Unfortunately for us, this turned out to be mostly a waste of money as we ended up with a grouchy tour guide called "Chops" who acted like a worn out camp counselor who needed a smoke break. He was utterly horrible and spent most of the night yelling at everyone to be quiet so he could explain the rules of drinking games that involved getting hot girls to lick his nasty, scabby, disgusting 19-year-old body. VOMIT. Despite this 6-foot bag of douche, we did manage to have some fun. We were in Halong Bay, after all. Can't let one hurl-worthy college dropout ruin everything.
Halong Bay is definitely a must-see, but if I were going to do this trip again, I'd book a tour through a normal, non-fratty tour company. I like to party, but damn. There are some things I really don't need to see, and that's the rest I'll say about that!
Our very last destination in Vietnam was Sapa, an abso-frickin-lutely gorgeous town in the northwestern part of the country. We had to take an overnight train (I know, always with the overnight transportation!) from Hanoi since it's quite far away. Our tour involved 2 full days of trekking with hill tribes, in this case the Black H'Mong, an ethnic minority from various parts of China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. This group of people faces incredible hardship due to political unrest and discrimination, and they make almost all of their money from tourism. The government does not support them or provide them with any refugee benefits, so they really rely on people's interest in visiting their villages and experiencing their way of life.
Well, experience their way of life we certainly did. Our first day of trekking wasn't anything too grueling. We visited Cat-Cat village and saw some of the countryside. It was strenuous at times but none of us had any problems. It was hard feeling too out of breath when the scenery was so beautiful everywhere we looked!
Rice paddies are everywhere in Sapa. The beauty of this area was simply astounding!
following the villagers
group pic
adorable baby in a bonnet
If we thought the first day was hard, whoa. The second day was straight up life threatening. It had been raining in the morning, and we quickly found out that we'd be trekking all day in the mud. Down gorges and cliffs. Now that may sound like an exaggeration, but let me tell you this was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life! I don't have the worst fear of heights ever; I have no problem going up in towers, riding rollercoasters, or anything like that. But if I have to walk or stand near a drop with no wall or handrail between myself and death or dismemberment, I kind of lose my shit. Funnily enough, that's exactly what we had to do.
I don't have pictures of most of it, but this was the first steep drop we had to maneuver down with nothing but petite tribeswomen and a bamboo stick to help us out. Now those women were extremely helpful and without them I don't think I could have done it, but still, I was utterly petrified. I don't know how, but I made it down that first drop. I thought that was the worst of it, but there were so many more rocky precipices to traverse, I felt like I was in Vertical Limit: the Vietnamese edition. Jayne and Cass both suffered a fall or 2, and they have the scabs (soon to be scars) to prove it, but we all made it. 10 miles from Sapa town to our guides' village, through treacherous mud, steaming piles of buffalo dung, and more than a little adrenaline. I'd never felt such a sense of pride...even when I got into college!
Victory!
The views at the end were pretty worth it, too.
Woo.
/longest blog post ever
So it's farewell to Vietnam for now. The land of Uncle Ho has been great to me, but now it's onto Laos for even more adventures. Wish me luck for the longest bus ride of my life...please no kennel this time!
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