Vietnam
October 22 - November 3, 2019
SAPA
It was a six-hour flight from Tokyo, Japan to Hanoi, Vietnam. We had to rush through immigration and customs to get to the sleeper bus that was waiting to take us on a six-hour drive further into northern Vietnam, to Sapa!
We stayed at Zizi's homestay with her children (the best bar-maids!) and family and got to see how they live off the land. Sapa is a stunning mountain town with rice fields and water buffalo roaming throughout. We trekked the bamboo forest in full hiking gear while Zizi and the local guides wore plastic bathroom sandals and their traditional black velvet tribal attire. They kept asking 'are you okay?' while we slipped on the mud and sweated all the way to a beautiful waterfall.
The local moonshine, happy water, is drank in celebration by locals and travelers with a Vietnamese cheers. It's some gnarly stuff. Finally, we were in South East Asia!
HANOI
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEEEEPP! Oh the sound of Hanoi.. so many motorbikes whizzing past. There are no traffic laws in Hanoi, at least none that are followed. The flow of motos and cars is endless, so just run across the street if you see an opening - don't worry they won't hit you!
At night the party takes over! Food stalls set up plastic tables and chairs in the street, loud music is played, and so many smells - some good, some super.. interesting. We also got to visit the prison museum where John McCain was held during the Vietnam War. Being American, in a Vietnamese prison, reading about the war was a pretty moving experience.
HALONG BAY
We stayed at another homestay and the woman cooked us some of the best food we had in Vietnam. We rented a moto from her husband, who spoke no English. We had 20 minutes to get to our boat tour and found out it was a manual bike! Neither of us knows how to drive manual let alone a manual motorbike.. so Justin got a quick crash course in Vietnamese and off we went. The look of concern on this man's face was palpable, I don't think he expected us to return lol
Although being corralled around with a bunch of people isn't our preference it was the only real way to see the beauty of Halong Bay, so we jumped on board! And it was worth it! We walked through a cave, kayaked through a tunnel to monkey island, and swam at Ti Top Island! It was really breathtaking cruising around the Bay and between the towering limestone islands.
And we made it back home safe and sound :) thanks to Jut!
DANANG
After Halong Bay, we jumped on another sleeper bus - this time for 16 hours! It was a bit more of a local bus, with no one speaking English, arriving in Danang in the pouring rain with no ride to our hostel and being harassed by taxi drivers. Not a great start. But we waited out the first wave of drivers and found a nice man offering a fair price.
In between rainstorms, we explored the city and beaches of Danang and the tricked out bridges connecting them. The Dragon Bridge was the most impressive! Every Friday and Saturday the bridge closes for traffic so onlookers can fill the street and watch the dragon breath fire and spit water!
We also wanted to visit the Golden Hands Bridge so we had to do a tour of Ba Na Hills. Which is basically an amusement park to take really cool pictures. To get to the Hands Bridge you have to take the world's longest and highest non-stop cable car through banana trees and jungle forest. It was sunny on the bottom but by the time we got to the top, it was super foggy. We were literally in the clouds!
HOI AN
We planned to stay a month in Vietnam but it kept on torrential raining. So we cut our time short to head to Cambodia. However, our last day in Vietnam was perfectly sunny while we visited Hoi An. This place was super cute and is famous for its textiles and custom-tailoring. No room for custom suits! But Justin did get a shirt tailored for a couple bucks. We enjoyed exploring the markets and temples of this coastal city.