North Vietnam - Uncle Ho country

see all photos »

What a trip this has been! We have loved every region of Vietnam. The food, the smiles, the pride -- a resilient country. We held our breath for a few days in Hanoi (home to the mystery virus of Asia) before venturing out to cleaner air.

Our first trip was to Halong Bay to see the collection of over two thousand cliff islands scattered about the bay (see the picture below). Apparently, a dragon, who happens to be the ancestor of all Vietnamese people, slashed out the landscape with his tail in a fury to jump into the sea. Adam and Eve were so dull! We spent two days and one overnight trolling around the area in our wooden 'dragon lady' boat with a great group of Aussies.

Next, we spent four days trekking in the hill tribe region around Sapa in the north of the country. We enlisted the services of a guide since we would have never have found our way around solo -- half of the trail is THROUGH rice paddy fields. At first, Huong appeared to be a serious young man curious about our opinion of the war, America's feelings about modern Vietnam, and current events. By night, it was a different story. We spent the evening at 'homestays' in the hill tribes. Nothing like the Nepal mountain hotels. These homestays were in the loft of a family's stilt house with the rooster crowing at 5am (do roosters 'crow'?), the hand loom clacking shortly after, and the pit-fire sending a trickle of smoke up through the bamboo floors. The nights involved huge amounts of food and a steady stream of dinner guests. (I'm pretty sure we funded a village feast.) After the meal, out came miniture teacups and the familar large plastic water. 'Drinking water' Huong read off the label. Heavy duty homemade rice wine, was more like it. Shot after shot of the stuff. The villagers and we didn't understand a lick of each other's languages, so Huong had to translate all of the toasts: 'To Vietnam - American friendship,' 'May you have two sons... EACH' they yelled. Then they began drumming chopsticks on rice bowls and demanding songs. Early in the rounds, the lightweight of the group (me!) got up and did a TERRIBLE rendition of 'Star Spangled Banner.' Be glad you weren't there. Embarassment is always an icebreaker, and much more appealing Vietnamese folk songs soon came out. After that first day, the hikes began MUCH later and moved significantly slower.