April 24, 2005

Sapa

An optimist might believe that Sapa is the place to come to wander amongst terraced rice paddies and happen upon a remote hill tribe or two. The reality is slightly different. Although the scenery is absolutely stunning, the ‘remote hill tribes’ are now found outside all the tourist hotels, clamouring to sell you silver jewellery and cushion covers. Predictable maybe, but also pretty unsettling. It’s possible to arrange tours to villages with the added option of ‘helping’ for an afternoon or until you need another beer. It’s hard to imagine what kind of help the average tourist could offer – yoking up an ox and ploughing a rice paddy? It may sound cynical but ‘responsible tourism’ isn’t much in evidence here.

If you look past the ethnic minority debate however, Sapa is an amazing place. Yesterday we arranged for a guide to take us for a hike around the area and spent the day stumbling after him as he leapt between rice terraces and over streams. He’d climbed Fansipan (Indochina's highest peak) over a hundred times and it showed. The landscape is incredible – steep terraced hills, mountains towering over and mists rising up the valleys. It’s been good to be here for a few days, out of the noise of the cities and where everything moves just a bit more slowly.

Posted by jon jack at 4:29 AM

April 22, 2005

Halong Bay and Cat Ba Island

Do you remember the Moomins? Halong Bay looks like the place they went to where the freaky wee hippo things sailed around in the funny wee boats. Remember? All those pointy blue islands?

We went to Halong Bay for a few days and took a boat to Cat Ba Island. There are over three thousand islands in the Bay – kayaking around a few of them is only enough to get a taste of what could be hidden there. At low tide you can kayak under gaps in the cliffs and explore hidden lagoons in the centre, surrounded by sheer limestone walls. The limestone caves are also really impressive – ‘Amazing Cave’ is just as its name suggests, though instead of telling us geological facts, the guided tour consisted of “can anyone think what this rock looks like? No? It looks a bit like a bear. And this one looks like a turtle and this one looks like a penguin and this one……” Amazing.

We spent a night on the boat and two nights on Cat Ba Island. The night on the boat was cool, very romantic - the sound of the waves lapping against the side of the boat, the scrabbling of rats trying to get into your room, awwwwww. Cat Ba Island is the only inhabited island in Halong bay. We spent the first day exploring the island by mountain bike. We visited ‘Hospital Cave’ which was used as a hospital for high-ranking officers during the American war. Our guide was an ageing officer who served there as a lookout for enemy planes flying overhead. We were ‘treated’ to a rare rendition of Vietnamese military songs when he had us trapped in the depths of the caves, very surreal.

Posted by jon jack at 4:25 AM

April 18, 2005

Hanoi

There are approximately four million motorcycles in Hanoi. We had a one hour flight from Laos to Vietnam, much better than a twenty-five-hour bus trip we calculated. Hanoi makes Bangkok seem chilled out and slow paced. Everything moves at a hundred miles an hour. Trying to cross the street is crazy - you just have to step out, walk slowly and somehow you get to the other side unscathed as the traffic zips past in all directions. We spent the first night in the historic ‘Old Quarter’ and it’s enough just to stroll the narrow streets to get a good feel for the city. The buildings all seem to be piled on top of each other with no sense of town planning at all.

All the clichéd images of Vietnam are here – conical hats, woman with baskets on poles (anyone know the name for these?)…..Well, most of the clichéd images; we saw no sign of swarms of helicopters or soldiers belly-crawling through the jungle. Most of the relics of the Vietnam War (the most recent one that is – the country seems to have been at war for most of its history) are further south, out of the city. Our ‘time in ‘Nam’ is going to be pretty good.

Posted by jon jack at 1:26 PM