Super moons and a supermoon

Xin chào!  Happy supermooning to all of you lucky enough to have a good viewing spot!  Iowans, I'm jealous of your crisp, clear sky...is there any way to bottle some up for me?  We didn't get a good view of the supermoon in Hanoi; however, the supermoon did mean the official climax of the Mid-Autumn Festival. The streets of the Old Quarters turned into a giant carnival last night with cotton candy vendors, large stuffed animals, balloons, and dragon dancers galore. 

The supermoon was a tad disappointing, but we have had some some pretty super moon views lately, particularly on the beach in Ha Long Bay.  :)   

The noise of Hanoi's festival celebration was a bit overwhelming after being in the peace and quiet of the Sapa countryside and Ha Long Bay for the past week...which brings me to an update about our past week...

Like I mentioned in my last post, we took off for Sapa via an overnight train.  The ride was comfortable as I was able to get a good amount of sleep until our arrival at 5:30 a.m.  We woke up abruptly (no warning) and before even exiting the train, we were immediately bombarded by bus/taxi drivers.  We knew we had to take a "local bus" another 30 minutes or so to get to Sapa, but we didn't know that the "local bus" would actually be minivans driven by locals.  Turns out I simply cannot bargain prices literally 30 seconds after I wake up--I just wanted to punch everyone in the face (gotta work on that). Luke handled it all better though and actually cut a good deal (we concluded later) with one driver/hustler that easily cut our commute time in half by uncomfortably zipping along the mountain roads. 

We arrived to Sapa and waited at the only church in town for our homestay mom, Ger, to meet us.  We had been given Ger's phone number from other backpackers in Hoi An and had simply called her the day before to ask about a homestay.  My conversation with Ger on the phone was very short and the specific stories from the Hoi An backpackers had faded, so we really had no idea what we were getting into.  Tiny Ger approached us with a big smile in her traditional indigo clothes and bulky jewelry. Her brother rolled up on a motorbike to take our big backpacks, and off we went to get breakfast.  Over breakfast we found out it would be a 4 hour trek to her village--whoa--she pointed at the mountain in front of us and said, "My village is on the other side of that."  Ok, great!  Haha.  

Sapa was completely covered in a misting fog, and as we began our trek it actually started raining full on.  This made for a rather slippery (slide-y as Molly would say) and cold (who would have thought?!) hike over the mountain.  We had no view of the beautiful valley rice fields and distant mountains at all--zero. At our lunch stop, Ger showed us pictures on her phone of the view on a clear day and it was a bit funny but mostly heartbreaking. Here's my picture from lunch...haha... 

Woohoo.

After lunch we had another 1.5 hours at least to Ger's village-up and down, up and down.  It became of game of "Who is gonna slip next?" and more than once I considered sitting down and just sliding on my bum.  We passed through 3 villages before arriving to Ger's village, each one a little different than the one before. 

Ger is part of the Black Hmong ethnic group, which may sound familiar to some of you because there happens to be a large population in the US (refugees from the war).  It was fascinating to learn about her culture during our 2 days together.  There's too much to type out but here's a snippet into her life/culture: She cannot read or write in any language because she never went to school.  Her village didn't have a school when she was a child, but now there are schools nearby ("near" by their standards, not mine) which her 3 children (14, 12, and 4) attend. She learned English by going to the Sapa market with her mother and speaking with tourists and her mother offering homestay visits for some tourists. Girls marry very young, around the age of 15, in their culture.  That age is increasing a bit nowadays but not much (maybe 17).  She wants her son to wait until he's 18 to marry.  To marry, the groom's family must pay for the young bride, so that's why the men are typically older before tying the knot.  The ideal family would be one girl and one boy. The boy is needed to inherit the land/possessions, and the girl is needed for the marriage income.  If a family does not have a boy, families must buy a boy at a very young age from another village family.  The children are told as they get older who their real parents are, but Ger said there aren't any hard feelings because the child knows they have a better life in the new family.  People and animals live in harmony together as the pigs, chickens, dogs, goats, and water buffalo roam as they please throughout the village and homes.  Ger's home was very simple.  No running water, one light, one rice cooker, dirt floors, a wood table, a few wood benches, two plastic chairs, and bamboo beds.  The village is basically self-sustaining. They grow all the food they eat, and if they have extra, they can hike into Sapa to sell.  Most people in Ger's village grow indigo and hemp to make their own clothes.  Here are a few pictures of the house:

Where all the cooking was done

: 

views from plastic chairs

faithful guard dogs (or dinner?)

Ger's husband was in the mountain for a medicine-making trip with one of her sons, so we just met the 14-year-old son.  He was like any other 14-year-old, un-amused by most things, asking to go out with his friends, and making sure his hair was perfect before he did.  When the rain stopped for a bit, we walked from Ger's house into the village market to pick up some vegetables for dinner, met her brother and his family, and walked her daughter home from school.  I had packed some Tootsie Rolls before I left the States which turned out to be a big hit and may have been the reason a few of the neighbor girls decided to hang out for the rest of the day!  Just kidding, Khu and Pain (not sure about that spelling) were the sweetest of girls.  We played together the whole night which was a blast but totally wore me out!  It was raining, so we had nothing to do but entertain ourselves inside with clapping games, flips, dancing, and listening to the girls sing along to Vietnamese songs on Ger's phone.   

Khu and Pain

Luke's art lesson

Kha, Ger's daughter

Dinner was super yummy (rice and fried spring rolls) and then the local moonshine was pulled out...oh jeez...!  We did our best to keep up, but Ger and her friend were born to drink that stuff...haha...so we had to be careful.  We slept early and woke up early the next morning to the roosters.  It was still a bit rainy/foggy, so we played with Khu and Pain (they missed school because they slept late) again until the weather cleared up enough for trekking. 

Trekking the 2nd day was clear once we got down into the valley but still really dangerous and slippery to get there. 

Rice fields

For our moms ;)

It was worth all the slips though because, as you can see, it was absolutely stunning.  We stopped at a waterfall to wash the mud off our shoes, and then went back up the mountain to a village for lunch.  After lunch, we said goodbye to Ger (sad!) and hopped on the back of a motorbike with our bags for a 30-minute ride back into Sapa.  

I'd say the whole experience ranks as one of the top intercultural experiences in my life.  The kind of experience that leaves you questioning (in a healthy way) your values, lifestyle choices, and worldviews.  Sure these people don't have running water, but they certainly aren't lacking in the essentials: love and community with others. It was a privilege to be able to share in a few days of Ger's beautiful life.

We stayed one more night in a noisy hostel (I blame the Aussie boys) in Sapa before taking a bus back to Hanoi for a fancy night out at a classical piano/opera concert performed by one of Luke's mom's friend.

More on that to come--this is far too long of a post! Tomorrow I'll give you all the scoop (and pics) on the concert and Ha Long Bay.

Cheers and love and hugs,

Kelly

North-side! (Peace fingers)

Hey all!

I haven't had access to a computer in any of the hostels we've been staying at so....sorry for the silence!

A lot has happened since the last update and a lot of Vietnam has been covered.  First of all, I'm no longer sore from canyoning.  It was a solid 3 days of soreness though...yikes!  But totally worth every second of it.

Saying "bye" to Dalat was tough.  The hostel was amazing--did I mention before that they cooked family dinners each night for those who wanted to join?  Yeah, and one of the owners (Lin) even took everyone for karaoke our last night in town!  We could have stayed in Dalat the whole time but knew we had to press on to our first beach town...Nha Trang.

The bus ride from Dalat to Nha Trang was absolutely stunning as we spiraled down the mountains to the beach.  Pictures cannot possibly caputre the full beauty, but here's my best shot.

Bus ride to Nha Trang

We had heard rumors about Nha Trang from other backpackers and Lin ("Do you like to watch Russians play?") but nothing truely prepared us for the shock that was Nha Trang.  It really was FULL of Russians.  There was a beautiful Miami-like beach and boardwalk lined with resorts, and everywhere was FILLED with Russians.  Most signs were in Vietnamese and Russian, and when I asked questions to street vendors in English, often the vendors answered in Russian (Me-Do you have avocados? Vendor-Nyet!).  It was surreal!

The hostel we stayed at had a lovely rooftop area where we were serenaded with English cover songs by the bartender (Max) and other hostel workers.  One worker, Tony, took us on a night tour of the city, and when we stopped for a bit after being caught in the rain, he admitted as we watched a foreigner walk past with a bag of groceries, "Before, I would take that, so easy."  He used to prey on foreigners.  That is until he met bartender Max on the beach playing guitar a year and a half before.  Tony had always wanted to play guitar.  Max graciously taught him guitar (and English!) and got him a job at the hostel where he now befriends instead of preys on foreigners every day.  It was a sweet story of how friendship can transform a life.  Hearing his story made me, once again, so grateful for all the sweet friendships I have in my life that have molded and transformed me into a better person. Love you all! 

From Nha Trang, we moved on to Hoi An.  Hoi An is a charming little port city (UNESCO Heritage site) with influences from Europe and all over Asia.

Hoi An port

Hoi An is famous for tailor shops.  Tailor made suits run between $50 and $80 USD.  I could have gone crazy getting tailor made dresses and shirts, but I didn't.  Luke did, however, get a few shirts.  We stayed at a cute, bugalow type hostel along An Bang beach which was quite perfect until...dun dun  duuuunn....the typhoon!  It downpoured for 3 days straight, friends.  Nothing to report for those days really except a sour mood.

For the last day of the typhoon, we were in Hue.  Hue is the site of the old imperial city and very close to Vietnam's DMZ.  

Citadel

From Hue, we took a bus to Phong Nha National Park, famous for the best caves in Vietnam (and the world).  We had heard that everything was closed due to flooding from the typhoon, but we went anyway with hopes the rain would clear up.  And it did!  The first day, nothing was open still because of the flooding but we were able to experience a rare day of motorbiking in the park, free of tour buses and tourists.

Phong Nha National Park

Following a day of rest (both Luke and I caught colds), we were able to explore Paradise Cave and the Botanical Gardens in the park.  In the gardens, we trekked to a waterfall where ropes were set up to climb down it, and we went for a refreshing swim.  We were the only ones there!

We climbed down this

Botanical Gardens waterfall

It was absolutely beautiful, ranking as my top day in Vietnam so far (tied with canyoning)!  Again, I feel like we could have stayed in Phong Nha forever, but we knew we had to press on to Hanoi.  We took another night bus and arrived yesterday morning.  It's shell-shocking to be back in a big city again!  The good news is we are here in time for the chaos of Mid-Autumn festival!  Last night the streets were packed with children, festival dancers, and couples shopping and walking around the lake.

Mid Autumn traffic

As chaotic as it was last night, it was heartwarming to see all the love and excitement flowing from the couples and children.  

Tonight we will take the night train to Sapa, the northwestern mountainous region.  This is the area I have been most looking forward to visiting, so I'm really excited!  There we hope to do some trekking and a homestay---I'm not sure about Intenet in that area, so you might have to wait til we're back in Hanoi for pictures/updates from Sapa!  Ahh, I have to go pack up now!  

Cheers!  Xoxo

P.S.  All the fall pictures on Facebook make me a bit homesick, but I love seeing them!  Drink some extra pumpkin beer and apple cider for me! :)

Oh, and I've started documenting some of the inspirational clothing quotes I've seen, so here's one last thought for the day: