Both cities are influenced by different sides of western culture - Saigon is more Americanised, with burger bars and (american style) pizza houses. The tourists you see there are young beardy american guys drinking budweisers in tourist bars which are playing Led Zeppelin while shooting pool and hitting on even younger Vietnamese girls.
Hanoi on the other hand is more European, with flash, overpriced (by Vietnam standards) restaurants and cafes trying hard to look as french as possible. The tourists here are middle aged French people from Paris who like to peruse art galleries looking at historical communist propaganda posters. Sometimes they make intelligent socio-political commentary while sipping espresso.
If you walk around Hanoi with a scruffy T-shirt and traveller beard, people give you strange looks. If you walk around Saigon like that they try to get you into their bar to sell you a bud.
Old Quarter, Hanoi
Hoan Kien Lake
Emmie follows the locals saying 'Banana, cheap cheap! You buy! You buy!'
Flower seller
Temple of Literature
Volleyball on the street
From Hanoi, we booked a 3 day cruise to Halong Bay. Halong Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage site, famous for its limestone islets. Our guide was a chap called Nam, 24 year old Vietnamese, single and looking for a woman, which he says is hard to find in this largely male country (ladies, photo is below...).
We took a boat out to the bay, where we had a chance to go kayaking through some caves to take in some of the more hard to reach sites. We then spent the night at a resort on a private island owned by the tour company, and we spent a lot of the next day kayaking around. The last day we took a tour of one of the old war hospitals, and went cycling through the national park on Cat Ba island with a great german couple we met, before taking the boat and bus back to Hanoi.
Halong Bay
Nam and I playing chess. We didn't have time to finish but I think he was winning. Slightly.
Cat Ba National Park
From Hanoi we went straight up to Sapa, which is a mountain town that has a feel of a ski resort. Sometimes foggy and icy cold, it also has the nice clear mountain air. Its a big tourist spot, which can be negative as its hard to meet locals who aren't trying to sell you something, but at least it means you can always get a good hot chocolate. The town is a mix of ethnic vietnamese and hill tribes, who make a large part of their income from selling handicrafts to tourists. They are quite persistent, and you need to be quite firm with them to say no...
Typical ethnic minority-tourist interaction:
"Where you from?"
"England."
"You my friend yes?"
(sigh) "Yes, why not. What are you selling?"
"You buy headband?"
"No I already have 3 tribal headbands that I don't need."
"You need one from me too, those are H'mong tribe, I'm Red Dzao"
"But its the same headband."
"Why you buy from them and not from me? You my friend."
"I can't buy from everyone in Sapa."
"You want earrings?"
"No, I'm a man. Those are women's earrings. I have to go away now."
"Okay I come and see you later, you buy from me, okay?"
"Maybe. Probably not."
"Yes, you buy. Promise."
"Er, maybe. Okay bye now."
But at least they do it with a smiling face.
One amusing incident that happened in Sapa that is an important lesson on world travel I would like to share: If you need to buy condoms in a foreign country and don't know the local word for it... do not, and this is very important, do not try to use sign language. Especially in a country with copious 'massage parlours' trying to say 'sex with woman, no babies' while waving your hands around will only get you in trouble.
We then did a trek in the mountain with a crazy vietnamese guide (Rubbi) and a french couple (Axel and Elizabeth). We toured some of the nearby villages, visited a school and some of the tribal homes, and spent the night in one of the villages.
Sapa, from our hotel room
In the absence of a disco we make do
H'mong following us, trying to sell us things.
Black H'mong and baby
There is always a buffalo
We realised quickly that Rubbi is insane and obsessed with sex. She kept asking if, since we were two couples and she was alone, she could stay with us. I assumed she was joking since she kept laughing hysterically but given that she suggested that about 10 times to both couples I began to wonder. She offered to carry our bag in exchange. Apparently she would normally have a bus driver to stay with but for this trip the driver wasn't staying with us.
She once said to me "Do you want to see women bathing naked?". I looked at hear to see if she was joking. She wasn't. I assumed I misheard. I asked her to repeat. She said "Do you want to see women bathing naked?". I decided its best to pretend that she hadn't spoken. Sometimes you can be lost for words.
Rubbi, Elizabeth, Axel and Sri
Lao Chai School
Red Dzao people at Ta Van
Kitchen at the homestay
Emmie considers stealing children. Again.
Playing with the kids.
Axel and Elizabeth
Red Dzao house at Giang Ta Chai
When we got back to Sapa, we spent a few days relaxing, before heading to the Laos border by bus.
Back in Sapa, our favorite restaurant where we played chess. A lot.
Our border jumping route took us to Dien Bien Phu, then Tay Trang, then over the border to Muang Khua. Actually crossing the border was surprisingly easy. When we got to Muang Khua we were a little stuck. We wanted to get to Luang Prabang early but there wasn't any transport that day. Fortunately there were 6 other tourists in the same position, so we together privately hired the back of a truck to take us to the nearest large town (Udomxai), from a really really drunk guy. He assured us that he wasn't the driver, that it would only be his sober mate. We even managed to successfully stop him driving several times and got there in one piece. From Udomxai, we did an overnight stop over to take the morning bus to Luang Prabang.
Muang Khua
Crossing the river at Muang Khua
Our fellow border jumpers
Luang Prabang
Sri
in all photos is just a very quiet and beautiful country!
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