MOVING SOUTH

Today we drove to Ninh Binh to visit the area that is sometimes called the Dry Halong Bay. We have been to Halong Bay before and we came away quite frustrated. It was extremely touristy and very polluted….hopefully this has been addressed and Halong Bay is living up to its reputation as a World Heritage Site once again. 

We were quite pleased with the Ninh Binh area and it appears to be well worth the overnight stay. Today we visited smaller temples and tomorrow we will visit the largest temple in Vietnam…. Supposedly it takes two hours to walk it. 

We also took a three hour bamboo boat excursion through different caves and an up close visit to the limestone formations. 

Some setting on my blog isn’t allowing videos so I sent some to the Humeny Group. 

DAY TWO OF HIKING

Yesterday we hiked up hill for two hours and today it was down for four hours…give me the “up hike” any day. Today the rough and washed out trails were hard to manoeuvre, constantly watching so we didn’t fall or step in too much unknown water!

Yesterday we visited a White Hmong village and today it was strictly a Black Hmong day. The White Hmong are not nearly as touristy as the Black…. So many of the small village homes have been turned into Home Stays. 

The water buffalo are so docile and tame that you can pet them if you wish…. We couldn’t quite build up that courage. 

By the looks on our faces I suspect we did have a great hike….hard to tell at the time!

SHORT CUT

By the time today’s ten hour journey was over I decided never to listen to our driver again!  Hung told us it made sense to take the short cut to Sapa so we could stop at a little village and explore the Vietnamese country life. The destination was fabulous but the journey was hell. 

We drove from 20 metre elevation at Hanoi to 1600 metres at Sapa, almost all on a washed out, narrow and frightening (to me anyway…Mo loved it) trail. 

On the route we were pretty close to China, in fact just across the river. 

The village was full of exciting people and animals to observe….of course they all wanted to practise their English. Hung told us that learning English in schools in this area was illegal onto 1995. 

The villagers have some ingenious ideas for growing cucumbers and corn. There are no stores as the people are all completely self sufficient… vegetables, chickens, hemp for clothing and dogs, if need be. 

FULL DAY

We spent the complete day wandering around the centre of Hanoi…. Our hotel is a short block from the lake so we spent time enjoying the relaxing atmosphere of Hoan Kiem Lake, just people watching. 

We are learning to cross the streets with “confidence” as the hotel advised us. The streets of Hanoi were pretty active on Sunday afternoon so we practised our street crossing every chance we got…. Getting ready for the more hectic crossings in Ho Chi Minh City in two weeks. Watching the residents of the city park their scooters was an afternoon activity that we loved. I would hate to be the first one there in the morning and then be the first one to leave. Help!

We finally ended the day on our hotel’s roof top patio having a glass of surprisingly good wine. 

ARRIVING

Our flight from Manila to Hanoi was delayed so we arrived two hours late, but our guide was there waiting. Hung is going to be with us, off and on, for the next six days so we will be learning a lot about this man. 

He got us checked into the hotel at 10:00.., we won’t see him again until he and the driver take us to Sapa. 

We spent the rest of the day wandering around the Old Quarter, getting reacquainted with the sites of Hanoi. 

SECOND LEG

At 1:55 am the second and most difficult leg was to begin…..half an hour late but nothing too noticeable.  We had booked pods for this flight and I’m so glad we did as the flight seemed exceptionally long. All three of us were able to sleep for about five or six hours, but it didn’t seem to shorten the trip any….when you wake up after a six hour nap and realize you still have eight hours to go, that’s tough. 

But The flight was quite rough so no hot beverages were served and the no moving around sign was on constantly. I was tired of reading and I didn’t feel like watching movies so the time moved rather slowly. 

We landed in Manila around 5:30 am their time and we were so pleased that the Sheraton Hotel allowed us to check in right away. Mo and I walked back to the airport to try to find an ATM that would give us some Pesos… no luck on any machine. We eventually had to settled for the money exchange business. Not a great rate but at least we got some cash for any purchases and meals. 

Our connecting flight to Hanoi was to leave at 5:20 am… we knew we needed to try to get some sleep so by 4;00 pm we were all tucked in bed and probably snoring!

FIRST LEG

We thought we had everything covered and would have an easy flight Kelowna to Vancouver, but things have a way of  altering your plans. When we tried to check into our AC portion of the trip we were informed that we needed to fill out a time consuming and tedious Transit Form, needed when entering Philippines. 

Fifty minutes later and one long phone call with Mo we “sort of “ had things worked out …..Mo was officially my cousin !

To complicate things even more, Saskatoon, Calgary and Kelowna flights were delayed and some being cancelled. After lots of “wishing and hoping” all three of us made it to Vancouver…. A little stressed but glad to be in Vancouver!