Sapa - Those Little Old Ladies Are Being Friendly For A Reason

One of the tours that we booked in Hanoi was a 2 day trip to visit Sapa, a town located up in the mountains near the North Western border of Vietnam to China. The tour involved taking an overnight train from Hanoi to Lao Cai, a small town on the border, then a bus from Lao Cai to Sapa where we would go on 2 one day treks to the local villages, while staying overnight at a hotel in Sapa, returning back to Hanoi via the overnight train.


Because this was described as a trekking trip, we thought we would not be able to bring along our large backpacks, so we organised to leave them at a hostel back in Hanoi. Once we set off on the tour bus to get to the train station in Hanoi, we noticed that other members of the tour had brought along their own big backpacks. It was then we realised that we made a huge mistake in parting with the majority of our possessions and thus worried about getting them all back safe and sound for the entire duration of our trip. Fortunately, upon our return, we found all of our possessions safe and sound, but we have vowed not to part with them again.


On the way up to Lao Cai, we shared a cabin with a friendly Vietnamese business woman and businessman. There was no voice over the PA system that told you which station you were stopping at, so when we woke up in the morning and someone yelled into the cabin that we were at Lao Cai, a mad dash ensued to get us as well as the few belongings we brought with us in our daypacks off the train, before it set off again.


The bus from Lao Cai to Sapa took about 1 hour to snake it's way up the windy mountain road and gave the tour group and excellent preview of the beautiful landscape that we would be trekking through over the next 2 days. We could see beautiful clear blue skies, the first clear blue skies that we have seen since leaving Perth, with clear white clouds, flowing very quickly over the mountain tops. Along the hillsides, there were rice fields and corn fields, planted on the slopes as far as the eye could see. It really was spectacular. 


After checking into our hotel and grabbing a quick bite for breakfast, we met our tour group outside the front of our hotel. Here we were divvied up into groups of 6. Our group included a Spanish couple and a Dutch couple. I later found out during our trek on the second day, that the Danish fellow was an ex-professional football player who played in some of the top German football leagues, so he and I ended up getting on like a house on fire. Each group was introduced to their tour guide who was a female villager from the neighbouring villages. Our guide's name was Sun, a 24 year old girl who lived in Ta Van village, one of the villages we were due to visit on our second trek. Accompanying the guides were a horde of other female villagers, ages ranging from young girls that looked about 10 years old, all the way to elderly ladies who were over 50. 

When we set off, some of the old ladies, joined our group to follow us on our 3 hour trek, down to the bottom of the valley to see Cat Cat village, home to the people of the Black H'mong Tribe. At first we all figured that the extra villagers were there as assistants to the guide and thus the entire group all conversed with them, exchanging conversations about their families, where they were from, etc. The penny dropped when the group went to turn down a narrow pathway that lead down into the village when the ladies exclaimed that they were not allowed to go any further, even though our guide had already entered. At this point, out came the bags, jewellery and souvenirs with them all pleading to us to buy off them, since we are now all friends. Even though we didn't really want to buy anything, feeling really uncomfortable, Jenni and I agreed to buy a couple of small purses from 2 of the ladies for a few dollars. A third lady pleaded us to buy one from her, but eventually stamped her feet in disgust and loudly cursed in her native tongue, when we apologised and walked down into the village. The following day, everyone in the group wasn't so chatty with the accompanying villagers during the trek.


Cat Cat village was located on a high sloping hill with rice terraces built all of the way from the top to bottom. A set of steps wound its way down through the rice terraces, among some small houses to the bottom of the valley to a waterfall. Small village children approached us to sell us small bobbles, but would not offer us one for the small amount of change we had left in our wallets. They instead, settled for taking a photo with us in exchange for the money (although as the photos show, they looked rather reluctant to do so). Some of the other tourists were a bit too much in the villager's faces with their cameras, so we decided to limit our photos.


On the way back up, the group felt a bit adventurous, so we all took a 'shortcut' which lead directly up the steep hill through small, poorly marked dirts trails. Along the way we had a very close encounter with one of the local water buffalos who was taking a break from his rice paddock ploughing duties, eating some shrubbery on the hill. When we reached Sapa at the top, we had the rest of the afternoon to ourselves, so we spent it walking around the town square and enjoying the spectacular mountain backdrop to the town. Aside from a brief power cut which left us in the pitch dark in our hotel room, Jenni and I spent the night watching B grade movies on the tv, while at one point, cautiously peering outside the room door as we could hear what sounded like loud shrieks of terror from one of the other female guests (we soon figured out that she was just a bit over excited).


The following day, we set off with our guide, along with a couple of other villagers on our long trek that would take us through Muong Hoa Valley. Aside from our 'shortcut', the previous day's trek was fairly easy going as the majority of it was spent walking down bitumen roads to get to the village and then once in the village, walking on well built pathways. The trek on this day was very hard going as the majority of it was spent walking down steep, small trails, along the side of very slippery and muddy rice terraces and crossing fairly large streams atop of small, slippery stepping stones. The mountain area that we were in was much cooler than Hanoi, but the constant exposure to the sun made us very sweaty and sticky and sapped the energy from us. 


Although the conditions were really tough, we still enjoyed the speculator views that were on offer. The photos just do not do it justice. Along the trek we passed through Ylinhho Village of the people of the Black H'mong Tribe and through Lao Chi Village where we stopped by the Muong Hoa river at a small 'restaurant' for lunch. By the time we reached here, Jenni was really struggling due to exhaustion and finding it very difficult to navigate the slippery stepping stones along the long, muddy rice terrace that lead to the restaurant. We would typically not eat at a place like this, but because we needed food so badly, we didn't really have much of a choice. As mentioned in a previous post, we fell sick the day after this trek, when we returned from Sapa to Hanoi, so this restaurant is one of our number one suspects to where we got sick from.


After lunch, we continued the trek to Ta Van village, home to Zay minorities. This was the same village that our guide was from. As it turned out, one of the little old ladies that had trekked the entire way from Sapa with us was our guide's grandmother and she graciously invited the group to come in and see her house within the village. Her house was very simple and divided into 3 main rooms with a compacted dirt floor. One room was for cooking and the others for sleeping. Hanging up on one of the walls were wedding photos of our guide. Inside we met some other members of the family including our guide's husband and young baby boy. Surrounding the house were many different kinds of animals such as cats, dogs, pigs, ducks and chickens. A single power chord had been run from the nearest road to the house to provide limited electricity. Although we did not see it often, we did catch some of the villagers embracing the joys of modern technology, the most notable was when we caught our guide using her mobile phone to get updates of the progress of other tour groups. 


After allowing us to see her house as well as walking the whole way with us (the other villagers had peeled off earlier on), everyone in the group was more than happy to buy something off the little old lady as as well as from her granddaughter in law. We bade the family farewell and headed to the front of the village where our bus was waiting to take us back along the main road to Sapa. All up it took from 9am through to 3pm to traverse about 5km through the tough terrain, so we were all very glad to eventually make it back to the hotel for a shower. 


Before jumping on the bus to head back to the train station, we ate some dinner in the restaurant (those prawns served to Jenni were the second suspect for making us sick). When we arrived at the train station, the heat was sweltering again, so we grabbed a fresh coconut from one of the street restaurants (this is the third and final suspect). When we jumped on the train, aside from feeling hot and exhausted, we both felt fine, but it was a completely different story for Jenni when we arrived in Hanoi.


Feeling VERY green, Jenni managed to drag her sorry carcass off the train and into a taxi. When we arrived at our new hostel in the Old Quarter it was about 5am in the morning and the roller shutters where closed. Jenni groaned and placed her head between her knees while I panicked. A bunch of very drunk guys stumbled past and I heard one of them mention the word 'toilet'. I asked them where it was, but they claimed that they were just going to go in one of the back alleyways. I explained our situation to the inebriated fellows and they insisted on helping our cause by all four, VERY LOUDLY banging on the shutter of our hostel and yelling at the top of their lungs. It worked a treat and they quickly retreated when a very sleepy and not too impressed Vietnamese bloke opened up the roller shutters to let us both in, while I apologised profusely.


Our new accommodation was not exactly the Taj Mahal and, realising that Jenni was not going to get better anytime soon, I contacted our original hotel a few hours later and got us booked in there for a few nights to let Jenni recover. During that morning, while Jenni stayed in the room, moving at speed between the bed and the toilet, I was busy running around, cancelling pre-booked accommodation in other cities, cancelling train tickets and visiting our travel agent to push back our Halong Bay trip until a time I thought Jenni would be better. Due to a combination of the long exposure to the heat from the day before, lack of sleep on the train, lack of food and water and stress caused from running around organising things to get Jenni better, I in turn fell sick and found myself lying beside Jenni with a fever, splitting headache and mild upset tummy over the next day or two. We were a pretty sorry sight!


Thanks to the medicine given to us from my Dad and the medical advice given to us from both Jenni's mum and my dad via a series of text messages and brief phone calls we managed to recover after 3 days. We decided to stay put in Hanoi for an additional 2 nights after we started to feel that we were on the road to recovery as we wanted to make sure that we were 100% before setting off to Halong Bay. During the time we were sick, the hotel staff at the Atlantic Hotel in Hanoi were fantastic in tending to our every need. If you are ever planning on staying in Hanoi, I would highly recommend staying there as the rooms are very good and the staff are the best we have encountered during our travels.


We are now fighting fit and continuing on with our travels, so stay tuned for Halong Bay!

Hanoi Part 4 - Masterchef: The Jenni and Michael Version

In the morning we checked out of our hotel and rushed to our 9am cooking class. Yes, you heard me right: cooking class. For something a bit different, Michael and I decided to try out our cooking skillz which we haven't been able to do since leaving Oz, plus learn a few new dishes along the way.


There was originally a class of 6, however two people didn't show, so in the end it was just us and two very friendly ladies from Hong Kong; Diana and Alice. It turns out that Diana is actually a famous professional ballroom dancer, who was the reigning champion in Hong Kong for many years. 


Our instructor was Dan, a young Vietnamese student who was studying journalism and working at the restaurant part-time. He was really nice and explained all of the steps as we watched one of their chefs prepare the food, then tried it on our own. 


Before the actual cooking he first took us around the fresh food market, pointing out various ingredients and how they are used in Vietnamese cooking. Diana and Alice took the opportunity to stock up on fresh fruit and we went halves in a bag of lychees. One of the more interesting things on sale was betel nuts. They are these funny looking nuts/berries that the older people chew. It acts as a mild narcotic and is very addictive. However the unfortunate side effects include bright red lips and black teeth, making it not so popular with the younger generation.


Then we went back to the restaurant where we donned our aprons and chef's hats. We prepared four dishes:
Starter: Fresh Spring Rolls with Dipping Sauce
Mains: Fried Chicken in Oyster Sauce and Steamed Fish with Tamarind Sauce
Dessert: Sweet Potato Pudding with Coconut Cream


The spring rolls were fiddly but pretty straightforward, I left out the coriander so mine were a bit on the skinny side. The chicken was probably the most challenging, because we had to de-bone it. It looked really easy when the chef showed us, but our knives just didn't seem as sharp (any excuse will do!) so it took us a lot longer. The fish was nice and easy as the tamarind sauce was already made, we just had to cut and marinate it with ginger, pepper and chicken stock. The sweet potato pudding was easy enough to prepare, however the decoration was very tricky. The chef dolloped some coconut cream into one of the bowls, then used two toothpicks to make a pretty lotus flower pattern. We tried to copy her exactly, but somehow we ended up with splodges that looked more like a rorschack picture than a lotus flower.

Once we were finished, our creations went off to the main kitchen to be finished off and plated. Then we went into the dining area of the restaurant and had everything served to us for lunch. For dessert, Diana and Alice kindly shared their market purchases, so we finished of with a delicious selection of lychees, mangostein and water chestnuts.


After lunch we went back to the hotel to get our luggage. Then we stopped off at our favourite Hanoi cafe for non-alcoholic cocktails and free wifi, before having dinner at our favourite Hanoi pub (Le Pub) and then boarding the overnight train to Sapa.


Stay tuned for Sapa!

Hanoi Part 3 - Michael and Jenni avoid the 'beef' dishes

On what was supposed to be our last day in Hanoi, we joined a tour group to go and see the Perfume Pagoda. It is located about 60-70km south of Hanoi and is basically a whole heap of shrines and pagodas built on and around Huong Tich Mountain.

First we took a minibus to My Duc, where we took a 6-seater canoe to the foot of the mountain. The canoe sat very low in the water, so low that we had to keep our backpacks on our laps when a motor boat went past because water sloshed over the side. When I say '6-seater canoe', I should point out that there weren't actually any seats, just narrow planks which were extremely uncomfortable after the first 10 minutes (the boat ride took over an hour!). However the scenery was spectacular, and the lady who rowed our canoe was very friendly. There were lots of other canoes on the river and all of them appeared to be rowed by local women. I couldn't believe it when she said that they make the trip several times a day, I would get tired after about 20 seconds!


Along the way, our guide explained the local legend surrounding the unusually-shaped hills on both sides of the river. Legend has it that they were once a herd of elephents, who angered a Buddha. The Buddha punished them, causing them to cry and formed the river with their tears. The Buddha then turned them to stone. Our guide pointed out one particular rock formation and, sure enough, it looked exactly like an elephant lying down. You could even see its eyes.

The first thing that we noticed when we got our of the boat was a skinned dog hung up out the front of one of the local restaurants - covered in flies with its front leg cut off. It was pretty horrible and led to us avoiding the so-called 'beef' dish that we were given at lunch, even though it was a different restaurant. I had one piece and it definitely did not taste like beef, although maybe I was just paranoid.

First we visited a beautiful shrine complex, not far from the river front. I would love to tell you what it was for and when it was built, but it was so hot and humid that I wasn't concentrating on the plaques, being more concerned with finding some shade and figuring out where my next bottle of water was going to come from.

Then we escaped to the shade of the restaurant for lunch, where we avoided the beef as already mentioned above. I call it a restaurant, however it was very basic, being just a huge shed with plastic tables and chairs and the kind of toilets where you flush by pouring a bucket of water into the hole in the floor and then wash your hands using the garden hose. However, the food was delicious and the water bottles were cold so it was all good.

Then we continued the tour and took the cable car further up the mountain, till eventually we were nearly 1,000m above the level of the river. The views were amazing, however even more amazing was the enormous cave that we visited once off the cable car. It is a natural cave, with huge stalagmites and stalactites which were a couple of million years old. Inside they have shrines to several Buddhas, one to pray to for children, one for mothers and one for fathers. They also pray to some of the stalagmites and stalactites, believing that gods or spirits live inside them. One is for a good harvest, one for gold and one for silver. I stroked the gold pillar, as instructed by the tour guide, however have not noticed any increase in my bank balance as yet. It was nice and cool in the cave, making it a very welcome respite from the horrible weather back at the top of the stairs.


That was the end of the tour, so we made our way back to the river by cable car. It doesn't sound like we did very much, however the small amount of walking was exhausting due to the heat. We were so tired that I managed to fall asleep in the extremely uncomfortable canoe on the way back! Except for the heat it was a very enjoyable day trip, if only for the amazing views of the country-side.

Hanoi Part 2 - A Familiar Face

The following day, we were really excited to meet up with Erik and Mita as we have really missed seeing a familiar face and were really stoked that we had been able to make our travel schedules match up. Erik and Mita only had 2 nights to stay in Hanoi, so we were determined to make the most of the one and a half days we had together. They were due to arrive in Hanoi around mid day and we planned to meet at 2pm at their hotel which was near Hoan Kiem Lake. That morning, Jenni and I spent our time wandering around the Old Quarter. During our stroll (if you could call it a stroll, more like a game of dodge ball, trying to not get by bloody scooters on the street), we were stopped and asked for directions by a lovely Irish lady called Sheila who had gotten herself lost that morning. Even though we didn't really know the area, we at least had a map on us and could locate where we currently were and where she needed to go. She needed to head in the same direction as us, and to her relief we walked with her as she was being badly pestered by the local rickshaw drivers and people offering motorbike rides. The three of us ended up walking around nearly half the lake before parting ways.


After making our way around the whole lake, Jenni and I grabbed a quick bite to eat before going over to Erik's hotel to meet him and Mita. We joined them for a drink while they ate some lunch and then went to see the temple that lies on Hoan Kiem Lake. The Vietnamese say that a magical sword lies somewhere in the depths of Hoan Kiem Lake in the centre of the Old Quarter, as a turtle god gave it to an ancient King to help defeat his enemies and was then returned to the turtle god in the lake. At the temple there is a large embalmed turtle in a glass case.

That evening, the four of us went to see the water puppets show at the theatre next to the lake. Each song played by the musicians, depicted a story or a scene that was acted out by the water puppets. Some of the scenes were fishermen catching fish, farmers chasing off foxes that were trying to steal their ducks and the ancient king returning the sword to the turtle in the lake. Even though we had read some things on the internet saying that it was boring and very repetitive, we all still really enjoyed it as it was very different. After the show we had dinner at a restaurant that overlooked the lake. The food was pretty bland, but the view was really pretty, so it made up for it. We finished the night off by going to the "Legend Beer" bar which was on one of the higher floors of one of the big buildings overlooking the lake and the busy intersection. There, to both Jenni and Mita's disgust, Erik and I treated ourselves to a 1 litre Legend Beer each, while Jenni and Mita settled for more sensibly sized drinks. Not only did we have a great view of the lake from our table, but we also had great entertainment while watching the traffic chaos going on at the busy intersection below. Taxis parked in the middle of the intersection, no road markings resulting in scooters and cars attempting to drive through in all directions, rickshaws trying their best not to get themselves and their passengers killed, ladies holding huge bunches of helium balloons for sale walking through it all and a bunch of not very adept rollerbladers, attempting to cross the traffic. Comedy gold!

The following day we all met in the morning and shared a taxi to go and see the temple of literature. Both the temperature and humidity that day was through the roof (we later found out it was about 39 degrees Cecilius). We all had to spend the whole day drenched head to toe in sweat, but tried our best to not let the heat spoil our fun. At the temple of literature we learned that this was Vietnam's first university. In order to gain attendance, students had to undergo a series of yearly tests. If they passed all of the tests up until young adulthood, they could attempt the final test that was set out by the Emperor himself. If they were successful in passing the Emperor's test, they had their name engraved on a plaque that stood atop of a stone turtle, with the highest achieving students' names carved on the shell of the turtle itself. 


After the temple of literature, we decided to walk in the sweltering heat a couple of blocks to the Ho Chi Min mausoleum and museum. To our disappointment, it was closed on the day we were visiting, but we were able to take a quick look at the one pillar pagoda which is next to the museum. We then jumped in a taxi to go to the museum of Ethnology. The bloody taxi driver, had rigged the meter to tick over really quickly and charged us over double what the ride should have been worth. We have learned here that you should try to avoid taxi drivers that attempt to pick you up or wait around airports and train stations, trying to get you to go into their taxi. They ALWAYS attempt to rip you off. Never agree to a fixed price for the journey before setting of in the taxi. Each time you get one, you need to make sure that the driver turns the meter on. If they claim it doesn't work, they are lying 99.9% of the time, so tell them that if they don't make it work, you will get out. Even if they do turn on the meter, make sure that you keep an eye on the distance meter. A lot of the cheeky buggers tamper with the meter so it ticks over distance quicker, thus increasing the fare (this is what happened to us). If you manage to spot this, tell them to fix it, otherwise you're getting out. Apparently some taxi companies are better than others here, but because there are so many of them, it is difficult to remember which ones are better to take. The safest bet to get an honest taxi is to get the hotel, restaurant or bar you are at to call one for you.


Getting back to the museum of Ethnology, we arrived around lunch time, but decided to go into the indoor exhibit before having lunch and then seeing the outdoor exhibit. The museum of Ethnology is a museum that houses a series of exhibits that explain the various ethnic groups living in Vietnam. The indoor exhibit is setup like a standard museum with each section dedicated to a particular ethnic group in Vietnam, explaining their origins, demographics, geographical spread throughout the country, cultural dress and way of daily life. Specific items used or created by each ethnic group were on display as well as little models of the houses that they live in. Due to a combination of the heat and hunger, all of us found it very difficult to take much in while visiting the indoor exhibit, so we made our way through as quick as possible so we could grab a bite to eat at Baguette and Chocolat, a cafe right next to the museum. (Baguette and Chocolat are part of a series of cafes and restaurants here in Vietnam that provide opportunities to disadvantaged teenagers as well as donate some of the profits to charity).

After feeling rejuvenated after our lunch in the fan cooled cafe, we ventured to the outdoor exhibit of the museum. This was spectacular as life sized replicas of the housing models we saw in the indoor exhibit have been constructed by villagers from the representative ethnic group. We were able to go inside the houses and explore the interior. Each house included replica items that would typically be found in the house. Even houses which were elevated high in the air included fire pits suspended from the floor. Due to the hot day, many of the groundskeepers and museum staff were lying down inside the houses, trying to stay cool. The most impressive house was built on stilts about 5m high and had a roof which reached about 20m in the air. Another house that really stuck out was one which had many statues performing lewd acts surrounding it. This house would have fit in very well at the sex museum we visited in Tongli, China.


We finished off our travels for the day by taking a taxi back to central Hanoi and walking through the French Quarter. Here we grabbed a couple of snapshots of the Hanoi opera house and some of the built up European style buildings, all the while enjoying the traffic chaos ensuing on the nearby streets. After a splitting up for a couple of hours so we could all have a well deserved shower and a change of clean clothes, we met up at dinner time and took a taxi up to Hanoi's West Lake to the famous Bobby Chinn restaurant. Mita and Erik were very excited to go here as they explained to Jenni and I that Bobby Chinn is one of these new age celebrity chefs with a cool attitude and funny sense of humour, kind of like Jamie Oliver. Jenni and I have never heard of him, probably because most of his shows would only be available on cable / satellite TV back in Australia and we never had that, but we were more than happy to take their word for it and go along for the fun.


Bobby Chinn's restaurant was setup inside an old multi storied house. From the outside, it wasn't much to look at, but the inside had been decked out. In all of the dimly lit rooms, the walls were covered with dark red silk drapes. In the downstairs cocktail bar area there were dark red couches and coffee tables with large flavoured tobacco pipes on top. In the upstairs dining area we found, candle lit, rose petal covered dinner tables. Even the toilets had a fancy touch, with rose petals floating in the bowl. We all spent a good 20 minutes attempting to decide what we were going to order, not just because all of the meals looked so good, but also because the menu had been written by Bobby Chinn himself, with very amusing comments and notes throughout. I cannot remember all of the best ones, but some of them were; "Non-smokers, please don't fart in the smoking section", "We have a children's menu and duct tape is also available" and "Smaller portions are available for anorexics and those aspiring". All the meals, cocktails and desserts we had tasted fantastic. We even all had a go ruining the rose petals in the toilet bowl on the way out :)

We finished the night of by heading back to the same location in the Old Quarter where we had a drink the previous evening, but this time went to the bar at the very top of the building to get a better view of the lake. Instead of large 1 litre beers, we settled for some of the fruit cocktails that are so readily available over here instead, probably a wise choice given how hot and dehydrated we were earlier that afternoon. Before parting ways, we took a stroll up Hang Dong st where the busy 1km long night market is held most nights here in the Old Quarter. About half way down the street, we bade Erik and Mita farewell as they had to catch an early flight back to Ho Chi Min city the following morning. Jenni and I really enjoyed the couple of days that we had with them as we enjoyed spending some time with some familiar friends. We hope that we can do it again sometime in the future.


After Erik and Mita left, Jenni and I found ourselves with 3 days remaining in our stay at Hanoi, so spent the next day catching up on the blog and booking various tours and activities for the next week. While returning to our hotel, we came across "Le Pub", a pub that was recommended in our Lonely Planet book. Scrawled on the blackboard on the outside of the pub was "Chelsea v. Portsmouth, 9pm". When Jenni saw it and pointed it out, I snatched my phone out of my pocket to check the date, it the 15th that day, a Saturday. Then it clicked; Chelsea v. Portsmouth; the Saturday, one week after the end of the Premier League Season; THE FA CUP FINAL WAS ON THAT NIGHT! Wwwoooootttttttt!!!!1!!!11oneoneone.

Jenni and I returned that evening and we staked out our spot. Usually Jenni wouldn't be that fussed on coming to watch a football match (real football that is..... with a round ball.... where you use your feet... not this egg shaped ball nonsense where you can use your hands and score points by missing the goal completely!), but she was fairly keen to get into the spirit as she knows that the FIFA World Cup starts in June and that I was planning on catching as many games as possible during the month it is on. The pub was not shoulder to shoulder full, but all of the tables and chairs were taken up by football fans from all corners of the globe. With the exclusion of 2 Chelsea fans, the entire pub along with Jenni and I were all rooting for Portsmouth to win. A mighty cheer arose when Portsmouth were awarded a penalty, but shortly after, followed by loud groans as the taker put it straight at the keeper's feet. The English bloke next to me put it best when he exclaimed loudly "My f**king Grandmother could have taken a better penalty than that... and shes been dead for the past 10 years!". More loud groans where soon to come as Chelsea's main striker, Drogba, blasted a free kick, through a wall with more holes in it than a block of swiss cheese, straight into the back of Portsmouth's net. When the game came to a close, with Chelsea winning 1-0, 2 lone cheers went up in the pub, everybody else just groaned and went back to their drinks. After winning both the Premier League and the FA Cup this year, there will be no living with Chelsea fans (like my good mate Reenz) after this season!

Hanoi Part 1 - A New Country Where I Don't Feel The Need To Hit Someone

Blogging over the past week has come to a screeching halt due to a number of contributing factors. The first factor has been that we took a 3 night tip away from Hanoi to a place called Sapa and left all of our computer gear with our main packs back at our hotel in Hanoi. In hind sight, this was a really bad idea as we were constantly worried that some of our stuff might be stolen while we were away, but luckily it was all there when we arrived back in Hanoi - we won't be parting with all of our gear like that again! The second factor has been that upon our return from Sapa to Hanoi, Jenni feel sick and I made myself sick by not eating or drinking while running around trying to organise various things to make her better. Thus we have both been bed stricken for the past couple of days, Jenni with a nasty bout of Gastro and me with a mild touch of Gastro, coupled with dehydration, lack of food and splitting headache, probably caused heatstroke. 


Fortunately, thanks to the medicine provided by my Dad and the excellent medical advice given to us via a series of phone calls and text messages both from Jenni's mum (who is a nurse) and my Dad (who is a doctor), we seem to be well on the road to recovery. Today we managed to get some food into us at breakfast, have taken plenty of water and both feel healthy enough to write a post about our activities in Hanoi, our first stop in Vietnam.


We were both really looking forward to reaching Vietnam for a number of reasons, the first being that everyone we have spoken to that has already been there has had a blast. The second reason was that we were really looking forward to seeing a familiar face again as we had planned to meet our good friend Erik, along with his partner, Mita in Hanoi.


Upon arrival at the Hanoi airport, we were picked up by our driver, Bing, who drove us to our hotel. I never ceases to make both Jenni and I chuckle when we walk into the arrival area of an airport or train station to find my name written on a piece of cardboard and someone holding it up, as more often than not it doesn't say "Michael McGonigle" or "Mr McGonigle", it always says "Mr Michael"!. 


During our drive to the hotel, we noticed how friendly our driver was and that he could speak very good English. Over the past week of staying here we have noticed that pretty much everyone here is very friendly, although that is probably because they are trying to get money out of you. Sure people are still trying to rip us off left right and centre, but at least people are doing it with a smile on their face! However we did recently meet two Vietnamese people who were not taxi drivers, hotel staff, shop owners, tour guides, etc and they were also very friendly and very easy to talk to. Even though the infrastructure in Vietnam is decades behind China, the lack of subways, shopping malls, convenience stores and decent plumbing, the friendly attitude that people have here is making this country infinitely more enjoyable than China. (On a quick side, this is the first place we have visited during our trip where we have not seen a McDonalds or a Starbucks).


On our way to our hostel, we learned from our driver that cars in Vietnam are RIDICULOUSLY expensive. In an attempt to reduce the amount of traffic on the road, the Vietnamese government has placed extremely high taxes on cars here in Vietnam. A new Toyota Corolla in Australia would probably cost less than $30000 AUD. The SAME car in Vietnam would cost $38000.... US! Considering the average wage in Vietnam, $38000 US is probably the equivalent of an average earner buying a Ferrari back in Australia. To top it all off, the Government charges approximately $2000 US to get your car licence plates and an additional $1000 US to have it registered!


Although there are not many cars on the road due to their high cost, that certainly does not mean that the traffic is mild. It is in fact rather busy... actually that is an understatement, it is chaotic! Every man and his dog here owns a scooter and they weave all around each other, all over the road. It is quite a spectacle to watch such a large amount of traffic manage itself. It is hilarious to stand and watch (from afar of course!) one of the very few traffic lights that lie on one of the main roads entering Hanoi's Old Quarter (the busy center of Hanoi). Within about 60 seconds of the light turning red, close to 100 scooters will have piled up ready to go when the light turns green. If the light turns green and there is a bus or car, stuck in the middle of the intersection, all 100 scooters will go anyway, weaving around each other and anything else in the way. It is insane!


Upon arrival at our hostel, we discovered that it is more like a low budget hotel than a hostel. The staff are really nice and we have a large room with good air-con with windows that open out onto the Old Quarter Street. We have discovered that backpacking on the bigger budget than most others has allowed us to stay at more of the nicer places along our travels. 


The Old Quarter is the central district in Hanoi, surrounding Hoan Kiem Lake. It is a very busy place with all of the streets lined with market stalls and places to eat and drink. In the past, each street sold particular types of goods and the street was named after the goods that were sold on it. Now days each street has a variety of goods being sold on it, but as you walk down some streets, you can notice groups of toy stores, jewelery stores, sandal stores, travel agents, etc all bunched together.


Anyway, getting back to what we actually got up to. Well, we didn't really do much on our first day. The only notable thing worth mentioning is the little restaurant that we found a few blocks down from our hostel that serves a damn good Hoi An chicken rice. For the low, low price of only 65,000 Dong (for all of you with dirty minds, thats the currency here, Vietnamese Dong, not 65,000 penises!), which is about $3.80 AUD, you enjoy this taste sensation. It is so good that I have returned 4 times over the past week to order the same thing. Hoi An chicken rice is a mixture of leafy herbs, thinly sliced onion, small pieces of mushroom, steamed chicken and yellow rice, mixed together with squeezed lime, a splash of soy sauce and a little bit of chili sauce. It is very light to eat and not at all oily like most other typical Asian food. Because of the huge mix of herbs throughout the dish, every mouthful tastes slightly different, each one being delicious. When Jenni and I get back to civilization, I will definitely look up how to make this and incorporate it as one of my regulars for dinner.

Macau - Not just the Vegas of The East

Hong Kong was an absolute blast, so the city following Hong Kong on our trip, Macau, was going to have to pull something pretty special out of the bag to try and compete. Jenni and I were somewhat excited about seeing Macau as we had heard it described as the 'Vegas of the East' and were looking forward to seeing some spectacular looking casinos. However, not being big gamblers ourselves, we figured that after seeing the outsides of the casinos, there wouldn't really be much else for us to see.


Booking an actual hostel in Macau proved to be a problem since there are none.  Because the city's main tourist attraction is gambling, I imagine that the people running the accommodation business don't get too many requests from backpackers with moths in our wallets like ourselves - mum and dad, I'm just exaggerating about our lack of funds, you don't need to send us any money because we have run out.... yet :) Thus, we got our accommodation at the Casa Real Casino hotel. We got a fantastic deal on the accommodation ($87 AUD per night, opposed to over $250 AUD per night at all of the other hotels in Macau). We think that the reason why we got such a great deal is because there are some renovations being done on one of the floors and, every now and again, we could hear the faint sound of a drill or hammer. After staying in the room in Beijing that lay directly facing the Beijing railway station with cars using their horns 24 hours per day, this didn't bother us in the least. 


We travelled to Macau from Hong Kong via the ferry which proved to be very cheap and convenient as a ferry leaves Hong Kong every 30 mins from a dock which was only a few blocks walk from our accommodation. The ferry only took about 1 hour and 30 mins to get there. Being a bit of a pussy when it comes to riding on boats, I was a bit anxious as I didn't want to get sea sick, but to be honest, the most choppy part of the trip was actually in Hong Kong harbour, caused by the large amount of traffic in the water. 


We had a total of 2 whole days in Macau to see the city. The first day we lazed around in the hotel in the morning, unwinding from having a couple of busy days in Hong Kong. That afternoon, we thought we would go out and see the red markets, but were redirected into the centre of town upon the recommendation of the hotel concierge as he claimed that they sell the same stuff in town, but the place is much nicer to walk around. The architecture in Macau's town centre is heavily influenced by the Portuguese and is absolutely beautiful. During this outing we discovered that the entire city of Macau is littered with beautiful churches, graveyards, parks, fortresses and old military installations.


Because Macau was so heavily influenced by the Portuguese due to their merchant-explorers visiting the town and settling there back in the early 1550s, Macau is home to an interesting mix of both Portuguese and Chinese culture. The catholic church has had a very big influence over the city as many missionaries were sent into the area to convert the people of China and many churches can be seen throughout, the most notable of which is the ruins of St. Paul's which lies near the town centre. St Paul's was built as the Church of Mater Dei between 1602 and 1640 by the Jesuits. In 1835 the church was damaged by fire and beyond repair. All that was left of the church was the front facing that you can now see today. It is a spectacular sight at the top of a set of steps that lead down to the winding market streets in the town centre. Flanking one side of the steps is a beautiful flower garden and beyond that, a spectacular fortress that over looks the town centre and the city bay. Behind the ruins we were able to walk down into some crypts and into the Museum of Sacred Arts which houses some paintings created by Japanese artists in the 17th century.

After seeing how spectacular the town centre was, the following day we decided to do a walking tour that would take us from one end of the city and into the centre of town, passing all of the major sights. We started our day by walking around to the opposite side of Guia hill to the cable car station. Along the way we got a good view of the Macau Grand Prix tower and seating area which is next to the bay. By the time we got to the cable car and took it to the summit, we were already dripping in sweat due to the high humidity. The hill is more like a plateau, flat at the top and covered in lush jungle gardens, with jogging trails winding their way to the top, passing flower gardens along the way. At the top of the plateau we found old military anti aircraft bunkers which were built in the 1930s. At the peak of the plateau stands Guia fortress. 

Originally built between 1622 and 1638, over the years the fortress was transformed to house a lighthouse, cannons and anti aircraft guns. Under its hill we walked through a bomb shelter that has tunnels that connect the fortress to the other major military installations found along the top of the plateau. At the top of the fortress, we were at the highest peak in Macau and could see right down into the bay and across the entire city. From here we had a great view of all of the fancy-looking casinos, the most spectacular of which was the Grand Lisboa which is in the shape of a lotus flower. On the other side of the hill we could look down into the city and see from a bird's eye view some of the churches, parks and graveyards we were planning to visit on our walk, later that day. With the surrounding jungle foliage and military equipment throughout, this fortress was one of the most spectacular places we have visited on this trip. I have played my fair share of videos games and I am convinced that some of the action games I have played (Farcry in particular comes to mind) have had sequences in the games based on such a place as this. It is absolutely breathtaking. 

We made our way back down along one of the jogging tracks and started heading towards St Michael's cemetery. The cemetery has a chapel in the centre and many graves with lots of elaborate headstones. The oldest graves that we could find dated back to about 1850.

From the cemetery, we made our way towards town to the Mount Fortress that over looks St Paul's ruins. Atop of this fortress, we could get yet another fantastic view of the city, this time a bit more up close as it is only a short distance from the city centre and all of the major casinos. While sitting down and having a rest at the top, we were treated to fantastic entertainment, compliments of some of the local puppies who were having a great time running around to greet all of the people and wrestling with each other. 


The Mount Fortress not only has things to see at the top, but also houses the Macau museum. Visiting the museum was very interesting as it had many exhibits contrasting western and eastern cultures. It also had a lot of information about the sights we had already seen around Macau. Because Macau was historically one of the main cities where the Europeans traded with the Chinese, there were many interesting exhibits that explained the various trade routes, the relationships between the Chinese and European traders and displays of all of the various wares that were traded. We could see that even 100s of years ago, gambling was still a big thing in Macau, especially when it came to gambling on cricket fights. Apparently the best crickets were treated like heroes, fed a special diet and upon their death, even graced with little cricket coffins or tombs and a funeral.


After the fortress and museum we went down the hill, back to St Paul's to take a couple of photos, as we did not bring our camera the previous day as we did not expect to see anything worth taking a picture of. Before heading back into the city centre, we headed around the back of St Paul's ruins, past St Anthony's church to see the Casa garden. This large park looks like it was built around some of the ruins of the old city walls and is a maze of winding paths that go up along the sides of hills that are rich in lush greenery. At some of the shaded platforms, groups of old men were gathered around others playing Chinese chess, while on the flat grassy areas people played badminton. 

After a quick pit stop in the garden to have a read of our books and sample some of the local specialities, sweet dried pork and Portuguese custard tarts, we made our way back into the centre of town. Along the winding streets, we stopped to take a peek into St Dominic's church which lies right in the middle, next to the Senado Square, the same town square where we visited the previous day. The town square is flanked by old Portuguese-style buildings, one of the most noticeable was the Holy House of Mercy. Even McDonalds had set up shop in one of the Portuguese style buildings, making itself look more like a fancy cafe from the outside.


We still had a bit more time up our sleeves before we needed to grab some dinner, so we ventured even further into the town, up through the winding streets to see St Augustine's Square, with the adjacent St Augustine's Church. The church had some people outside it, with a desk setup and flanking posters advertising a performance that evening. At first we thought we had stumbled across the Dom Pedro Theatre instead of the church, but upon looking around a corner, we managed to find the theatre, but with the gates closed. We can only assume that the church sometimes doubles as a theatre, as when we peaked around the people at the front, we could see a rehearsal going on where the alter would be.


By this stage of the day, we were completely exhausted so we walked back into town, grabbed a bite to eat and started to make our way back to the hotel. Before jumping in our taxi, we figured we should at least grab a snap shot of some of the downtown casinos, just to prove that we had been to the 'Vegas of the East'.


The following morning we, left Macau via ferry to travel back to Hong Kong so we could get a flight to Hanoi in Vietnam where we were planning to meet a couple of friends of ours the following day. Although we didn't partake in any gambling at all, I can happily say that we thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the 'Vegas of the East'. It was definitely one of the most amazing places we have visited on this trip so far. If you ever go to Hong Kong, make sure that you take the ferry across to visit Macau. Don't be tempted to just sit in one of the casinos as this city has SO MUCH MORE to offer!