Back home...final thoughts

As quickly as the trip started, it was over. I said goodbye to my new friends in Hanoi, and wished my travel buddy for the past 5 weeks, Keels the best on his continued adventure. He had another month and half to go in his travels and was going to spend the next 3 weeks making his way to the southern city of Ho Chi Min in Vietnam, then 1 week in Cambodia, and 2 weeks in the southern Thai islands. I went to the airport at 5am Saturday morning and the trip home was testing to say the least. I couldn't find a flight from Hanoi to Bangkok that would line up with my previously booked flight out, so I ended up spending 18 hours in the Bangkok airport (This added to my 24hour normal travel time)! When I finally got home, I had spent over 2 full days in airports and on planes and was in serious need of a shower... I felt bad for the folks that had to sit next to me on the way home ;-) I really am happy to be back in the USA and home, but at the same time I loved my trip and was a little sad to leave the travel path in Asia. I never really thought too much about traveling in South East Asia previous to this opportunity. Most of my travel destinations were determined by activities (such as surfing, and snowboarding) or predetermined by family trips. Now that I am home, I definitely appreciate the fact that I spent time in these areas. At this same time I appreciate and realize how lucky I am to be from the United States. I have tried to share as much of my experience as possible in the blog ( and I hope it was enjoyable for all), but there was a lot that I experienced which cannot be put into words, pictures, or blogs for that matter. I would like to say that I had an epiphany, and my life is forever changed due to the experiences...but I cannot. However, my travels added greatly to the continuous learning experience which I consider my life to be. Some of these things came through direct experiences with the foreign culture and people of Asia...others came through my interactions and conversations with the backpackers from an array of other countries...and some even came from the absence of work /other normal distractions and the ability to think in an introspective manner. Whatever the combination, I think I have left with a greater appreciation of the world, its people, and life itself. I hope that you enjoyed reading the blog, and got something from me sharing this experience with all.

Oh yeah! There were a couple more things that I wasn't able to previously share that I will catch you up on...

Luang Prabang, Laos
When we were in Luang Prabang, Laos we went to one of their most famous waterfalls and were joined by a busload of Buddhist Monk children. They were next the waterfall in their orange robes, and it was a magical contrast of the orange against the green backdrop.

Monk Children next to the waterfall

Within a couple minutes, they had taken their main robes off and fastened them like a diaper around their bottoms as swim suites. Then, like the tourists, they proceeded to jump off of the waterfall and rope swing. It was ironic seeing them as playful, carefree children (as that is not what you think of when you think "Buddhist Monk")...but they are.

Jumping off the lower falls

Me Showing the Monks how to do a back flip off the rope swing!

Stairway up to the upper falls

Le Mat "Snake Village", Hanoi
The night before I left to go to Ha Long bay, Keels pressured me to go to the "Snake Village" outside of Hanoi. The village had been operating to breed and serve snake for hundreds of years. Snake meat, and blood is considered a delicacy for the Vietnamese men. The village it self was over a body of water, and you had to cross some bamboo bridges to get to the area where the festivities began. When we arrived, we were sat on the floor at a table and were given drinks until our dinner arrived. Soon after the hosts brought out two, 3-ft snakes and called us over to the edge of the table (There were six of us in the group). They had 3 tasks that they wanted volunteers for: 1.) Someone to cut the snakes underside 2.) someone to find and pull out the beating heart 3.) someone to swallow the beating heart. I have the weakest stomach, and writing about this still makes me a bit queasy! Well I didn't want to seem disrespectful to Vietnamese culture, or maybe I didn't want to seem a sissy, so I volunteered for # 1 above. Keels willingly volunteered for #3 and within 30 seconds he had swallowed the oyster sized, still beating, snake heart (whew!).

Keels after he had taken the snake heart

Once the snake heart was taken, they proceeded to drain the blood and bile to mix with rice wine as shooters.

Draining the blood and bile

Red=Blood Shot Green= Bile Shot

Finally they took the snakes (or whatever was left) back to the kitchen and made an 8 course snake dinner. The dinner was excellent tasting, however not extremely filling as you can imagine. There was fried snake skin mixed with garlic and peppers, fried snake meat, grilled snake, vegetables, rice, and oh yeah... all the snake blood rice wine we could drink. We underestimated the power of the snake blood rice wine and the table got blasted before the two hour ordeal was over. When I got home, I went to the toilet and threw up... not really sure if it was from the snake or the rice wine or both...but it was an interesting experience!

The courses

Halong Bay

I booked a trip to Halong Bay with one of the local backpackers hostels in Hanoi. They partner with the owner of a "Junk" boat called the "Jolly Roger" that takes 2-3 day cruises on the bay where the guests stay on the boat.

Our boat the "Jolly Roger"

Keels and I had planned on doing the 3 day cruise together, but with his bike breaking down and the weather (There was a tropical storm) I ended up taking the 2 day cruise alone while he got his bike situated. Halong Bay was like nothing I had ever seen before. There are over 2000 islets (limestone islands) in the bay, which have caves and channels inbetween them. Its a huge tourist attraction, so there were the "Junk" and sail boats all over the bay. The boat that we stayed on was rather nice, and geared towards a younger crowd (we had about 25 in our group). We went on a couple hour kayak trip to and walked through a limestone cave to get to an atoll like swimming area in the middle of the islet.

Islets

Kayaking around these islets was a great way to see them up close. We got to go into the small cutouts and natural tunnels that had been carved through them and basically explore.

Kayaking

 

View from the Cave

Later that night the boat had an upper deck and a bar on which we drank some Vietnamese beers and watched the sunset. The group was mostly English and/or Irish students that were on holiday so we ended up playing some interesting drinking games. It was a good, relaxing, fun evening to wind my trip down on. Every once in a while I had to look around to remind myself on where I was, and what I was doing...as we were surrounded by amazing scenery. At around midnight it started pouring rain, and has continued raining all day today. Tomorrow I leave for Bangkok and then back to the US. I will try to wrap up with one last post, and get my photos updated.

Sapa & Northern Vietnam

Sorry for being out of touch for the past couple of days. We have been on quite a motorcycle adventure! It all started when Keels and I took the night train to Sapa so that we could save a day and have more time to complete the 800k motorcycle trip. It was a bit of a mystery on how to get the motorcycles on the train so we ended up arranging the transfer through a local travel agency where the workers spoke good english. It was a little more expensive, but we wanted to make sure not to have any setbacks. We were supposed to drop the bikes off with the agency, and they were supposed to take care of the rest. When we got to the train station (we were running late),  we were about to get on the train when we passed by two bikes that were sitting by the train schedule board. Keels said, "Man, those look like our bikes". After further inspection we concluded that they were our bikes, and were quite curious why our bikes were not on the train. Keels went to double check with the ticket attendant that they were going to make it on a train. The  attendant spoke broken english at best, but we were able to get the following from him, " No, not good... your bikes cannot be here... you will never see them again". This was the last thing that we wanted to hear! We kept on trying to clarify with him and explain the arrangement that we had made, but he kept to the same story. We then called the travel agent, and again she assured us that "everything was taken care of". It was two conflicting stories, and we didn't want to get on the train unless we could be assured (Keels just bought his bike for $400, and if my bike gets lost or stolen I have to pay $3000). We put our travel agent on the phone with the ticket attendant and within about a minute of listening to Vietnamese back and forth he said "Everything OK", so we literally ran to catch our train with less than a minute to spare. The train was nothing special, but we shared a room with a middle aged couple from Spain. We drank a couple of beers, and got to practice our Spanish while they practiced their English.

 The next morning we got off the train in Lao Cai, waited an hour for the bike to arrive on the next train ( and they DID!), and then got on the road to Sapa. The weather dropped a couple degrees in the Mountains, which was awesome... and the ride was spectacular. More open roads with surreal scenery. The ride to Sapa was about 2 hours and when we pulled into the town we drove around to get a feel for the layout. While exploring the outer fringe of the town we found a guesthouse near the top of the town with a great view. We stopped to see if they had any rooms available, and they did for a whopping $10.

View from our Balcony

Day 2
The next day we booked a trekking tour to see one of the tribal villages. The villages we went to were of the "Hmung people"  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hmong_people). We spent about six hours and walked about 7km through rice paddies and villages. Our guide was Hmong, and wore the traditional dress along with most others. She spoke great English, and ended up being very playful (I raced her down the foot trail, which was steep, muddy terrain, and nearly lost).

The village and scenery was what you would think of if you saw a movie about Vietnam (See the photos of Sapa under "My Photos")...unbelievable. We also got to meet a lot of the Hmong women as they were selling handmade hemp clothes, bags, etc. They would all come up and with broken English say "You buy from me?!". It was funny because it was all ages (from 4yrs to 85yrs old), and they would say the same thing. I assume that tourism must be their main source of income, and those are probably important English words learned at a young age.

Day 3
The next day we woke up early and started our motorcycle journey. This was the longest leg of our trip (300km on dirt/semi-paved roads), and we were told it would take between 6 and 9 hours. We ended up making it in around 10 hours and road for about 1 hr in the dark....which is exactly what we didnt want to do. It was raining when we left and didnt clear up for over an hour, so that probably slowed us down a bit. However long and uncomfortable the ride was, it was also amazing. We went  through a very rural part of Vietnam (near the boarder of China). The paved roads at the beginning were small and windy...with one side being rock where the road was blasted through the mountain side, and the other a small guard rail (if that) and sheer drops. Everything was super green and it was hard to take it all in. About 2 hours in, the roads started to have small sections that had been washed out and were filled over with dirt and gravel. Then they turned to all dirt and gravel (better say mud and gravel). The towns were spread out, and we wouldnt see any signs of civilization for 45 mins at a time. There was a lot of road construction going on and it looked as if a couple of the towns were built especially to house the construction workers. I think we went through every element possible: rain, sun, mud, dust, small streams, etc.  The elements and construction work slowed us down a lot, and although we tried to make good time we didn't make it to our stop in Dien Bien until about 8:30pm. When we arrived we were both covered from shoe to knee with mud, then the rest of our bodies and faces were "dusted". To say the least we slept good that night!

Me leading the ride

Day 4
We decided to stay in a town (Son La)  that was about 200 km away in hopes that we could have an easier day. The morning was crisp, and the ride started out beautiful. More majestic mountain views, and the roads were getting better... back to mostly paved with some sections washed out. We would pass through towns, and the Vietnamese children whom were going to school or playing near the road would do a double take (probably since our bikes were much bigger than the norm), wave, and yell "Hello". We would do our best to return the wave, honk, or rev the engine. I felt like a "rock star" and could tell that Keels felt the same. About an two hours into the trip, we had just passed though a small town and were starting to open the bikes back up when Keels pulled over. I pulled over next to him, and knew by the look on his face that his bike had broken down. He said that it had just cut off, and when he tried to start it (both electric start and kick start) it wouldn't turn. It seemed like something was locked up in the engine. I towed him back to the last town, and we spent 5-6  hrs with two different mechanics and the outcome was that he would have to go back to Hanoi to get it repaired. The piston, rocker arm, and one other internal component had failed and it was more than they could handle at this remote location.
To make a long story short Keels had to find a bus that could carry his bike and himself back to Hanoi. He found one at around 6pm that was leaving that night, so he booked it. After a quick discussion we decided for me to finish the trip alone, and to meet back in Hanoi the next night. I left for Son La which was still 85km away, and made it there just before dark.

Keels working with the mechanic

Day 5
I left for Hanoi (300km away) early that morning, and started the trip in high spirits hoping my buddy was safe and sound back in Hanoi. Not more than 1 hr into the trip, it got foggy and started raining.The rain felt like small stingers hitting my face (I had a dirt bike helmet with no face shield), and my glasses kept getting foggy. I slowed down as much as I could but in no time, I was wet and cold and ready for a hot shower. The rain didnt stop the whole way, and when I returned to Hanoi, I found out that it was the outer bands of a tropical storm...hmm go figure.

Ride back alone

I found Keels as soon as I got to town (well actually Hanoi is huge and confusing...it took me 2 hours of driving around the city to find the guest house...click here or here to see an example of traffic in Hanoi), and he had gotten his bike fixed. He said he had a crazy night and didn't get much sleep due to the bus ride and having to find a mechanic. His spirits were kind of low after the whole ordeal, but hopefully a good nights sleep will boost him back up.

On the Road Again...

Keel's Bike

Keels just bought a motorcycle for a little under $400.Its pretty sweet and looks like it will be his baby for the next month. I just rented a enduro bike and gear from a local place and am excited to have a decent sized bike. We are taking the sleeper train tonight to Sapa, which is tucked in the northern mountains. We will likely spend a few days exploring Sapa, then take the mountain ride back to Hanoi. Supposed to be a motorcycler's dream trip.

My Bike

Hanoi, Vietnam

Keels and I made it out of Laos safely. It was actually an interesting affair for the past couple of days. Vang Vien, although beautiful and fun, was like a sick backpackers quarantine. I would estimate that over 50% of the travelers there were sick, had "pink-eye", or both. The pink-eye came from the bacteria in the river mud/water, then was spread due to the close living and partying conditions. The people with pink-eye looked miserable, as their eyes were swollen shut, full of puss, and they couldn't see anything. Friggin gross... Keels and I took many precautions: Didnt touch our eyes or face, used hand sanitizer religiously, and even purchased conjunctivitis ("Pink-Eye") eye drops as a preventative measure. As we got further from Van Vien we started feeling safer, like we had escaped from a prison of disease, and slowly letting our guard down. But every time we started getting comfortable, we would run into a group of travelers with pink-eye....and guess where they came from...Vang Vien. Even here in Hanoi, Vietnam...many miles away, we are still running to folks...so for the time being still on guard!

We flew from the capital of Laos (Vientiene) to the capital of Vietnam (Hanoi). This made travel and obtaining Visa's easier. The choice was a 25-30hr bus ride (when I say bus, I mean many non-air conditioned buses) or a 1 hr flight...Keels and I chose the latter for obvious reasons. Driving through Hanoi was a spectacle, as there are so many people here, and their life is in the streets. Crossing the streets is an Art in confidence and faith (see this video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC4BN9kInXg). We ended up at this well known backpackers hostel in the middle of the city which is supposed to be a plethora of information. It was filled with tourists, but was well run and super clean! We ate at a little street vendor who was serving a noodle and "meat" ball soup. We tried to ask what kind of meat the "meat" was (due to the fact that they eat dog here), and all we could get was a smile when we waved our arms and "bwaked" like chickens. Hmm didnt really taste like chicken but oh well, I hope for the best.

A sign next to the bar

The group getting moved down the alley

In the alleyway next to our hostel, there was a small bar serving $0.25 draft beers, so we decided to get a few with an English guy that we met on the bus. It turned out that Hanoi has a sort of curfew at around 11pm, that noone told us about... the police came down the street and the all of a sudden, the bar owners and workers had the place cleaned, cleared, and shut down in about 30 seconds flat. He then told everyone to hide their beers?!? We (along with about 30 other tourists in the alley) "hid" our beers and just kind of looked at the police as they spoke to the bar owner. I'm not sure what the bar owner told them (I suppose he told them that we were not drinking...maybe he told them we were gathered out there "reading" or "star gazing")...but the police left and within 30 seconds the bar was back together and $.025 beers flowing. We went through this dance a few more times, and the bar owner kept on moving the group (chairs and all) down the alley away from his bar, but still running drinks over to us... I'm guessing to keep the noise down from around his establishment and maybe trick the police???... Anyhow it was an interesting evening.
Oh yeah... the currency here is "Dong", and I currently have about 4,000,000 dong in my pocket (roughly $200.00), so technically I am a millionaire :-)

Vang Vien

The 5hr  minibus ride to Vang Vien was nuts. The super curvy roads, coupled with my already upset stomach left me feeling nauseous for the entire trip. The town has lived up to its reputation as a European backpackers party town. Its set up with cheap guesthouses, cheap food, and even cheaper drinks. They also have a tubing run which everyone does in the daytime on the local river. The sides are set up with about 10 different bars, each advertising their own array of swings, ziplines, waterslides, etc. The local Lao workers have ropes that they throw out to you and pull you in with.

River Side Bar

The float down the river would probably take about 1hr at full speed, but due to the stops and recreation we spent about 4 hours. The river is surrounded by beautiful mountain landscape, and its kind of an ironic mix of natural beauty and spring break. Lots of music, drinks, and water activities made for an all day affair.

Rope Swing

View of the river

However, the river is not the cleanest due to improper sanitation and runoff from the upstream towns and I caught a bad bug that I have been dealing with for the past two days. Finally starting to feel better today and I think we are getting back on the non-tourist route and back out to the countryside.

Leaving Luang Prabang for Vang Viene

Luang Prabang was a relaxing few days. Originally we were going to rent dirt bikes so we could explore the country side. Renting dirt bikes (or any motorcycles) proved to be difficult and/or expensive. After one afternoon of speaking to local tourist companies and dealerships, I started getting the impression that bike rental was discouraged due to the local tourism office wanting us to pay for the local taxi services. Anyhow, we changed our plans and decided to relax in Luang Prabang for a couple days, then head to Vang Viene for tubing, then to Vientene to fly out to Hanoi Vietnam so we could get dirt bikes there. This cuts our trip a little short in Laos but allows us to extend the time in Vietnam. To try to relax from the frustration, we rented some beach cruiser style bicycles for 20,000 Kip ($3), grabbed some cold beers from the local vendor and rode around the town.

While exploring the town we ran into a UXO (unexploded ordinance) museum that was really interesting. From both WWII and the Vietnam wars, the Lao people were left with an estimated 80,000 unexploded mines, bombs etc. This makes it difficult for them to use land for farming, and development. Museum was really interesting, and we both donated some money and took some photos.

That night we met a Malaysian guy (Andrew) who was in the room next to us. He spoke great English (in addition to 5 other languages), and he joined us at the local pub for some (Tower Beers).

They were the cheapest drink out, and pretty cool looking. We rode our bikes to the pub, in the rain and when the pub closed I offered to give Andrew a ride (the bikes had a seat that you could sit on above the rear wheel). Things were going pretty well (although I was a bit tipsy from the Towers), until I missed a turn. Andrew shouted "There it is", and about 3/4 the way past it I tried to make a quick turn. The bike slipped out like the tire hit a banana peel, and we both spilled...laughing. Luckily no one was hurt. I offered Andrew another ride and he said "I would rather walk"...which I cannot blame him for. I got back on the bike and continued riding down the correct road. Before we got back to the Guesthouse, I tried to jump down off of a curb...and the bike did the same thing...slipped out. I dinged my thigh up on the curb, and it's still pretty bruised at this time. Andrew then suggested that "maybe you should walk too"...I agreed and made it home fairly unscathed.

The next day we ended up renting two scooters from a local restaurant for $15 (3x more than in Thailand) and going to some really neat waterfalls. They had a cool rope swing and also a small waterfall that we could jump off of. We were soon joined by a busload of Buddhist monk children, that were soon jumping off the waterfall and rope swing with us. It was a sight seeing them as playful children, but in their orange robes that they tied around their waist like a wrap. Brian got some great photos that I would love to share, but he is having some trouble with the memory card on his camera. Hopefully we can get them out I will try to share them later.
We are now leaving on a small bus for the 6hr trip to Vang Viene...