B-Limey!

Some much needed R&R on the top deck of our boat...

Ok...bad pun with the title...my bad. Anyways, Halong Bay redux! It was an amazing three days. Got lucky with the weather and just avoided the monsoon rains. On the first day, we cruised leisurely in and out of the karst formations, and anchored in a bay for a moonlight seafood dinner and some swimming at sunset. Jumping off the 2nd floor deck of the boat was fun! LOL, lost my top...but thankfully, the water is "turquoise" and not crystal clear.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/vampalcyone/album?.dir=/4107&.src=ph&.tok=phWdosDBn0LWrsGp

For some reason, blogger won't let me upload anymore photos...so the link above shows a couple more pics.

The second day, we visited Monkey Island and scaled the prickly limestone to the top of the island...our group of 5 then headed to Cat Ba Island. We had a pretty ridiculous second night! First of all, one of the guys was an exact splitting copy of Devin (if you know him...), right down to the gift of gab, posture and clothing of choice! The difference: Gareth is an Aussie and he studied social science vs. physics. Crazy!! After dinner, we hit up a pool bar run by an Aussie expat. After a few rounds of really embarrasing pool, we went to the panorama bar at our hotel, hoping that there would be some Ka-ra-o-ke... sorry! Bar closes at 11:45pm. I really wanted to have karaoke under my belt before leaving Vietnam! It's SO popular with the locals. Well...we found a late-nite discotheque and enjoyed the Napoleon Dynamite-esque dancing by the professionals (sculpted bodies and everything) from Belgium. They closed abruptly at 1 am, with the last song being Bryan Adam's Everything I do...ooh...yes, my favorite!

So, Miss Canada suggests swimming...the beach was just a leisurely 15 minute stroll away. So we headed there and went for an early morning dunk.... and were interrupted shortly after by an angry Vietnamese guy. Probably for the best...looking out for our safety right? LOL, thankfully, only the two guys were skinny dipping (no comment).

Everyone was late for breakfast on the third day... but we still made it back to Hanoi by 4:30! Before flying out the following evening, I indulged in a sumptous Chocolate Buffet at the Sofitel Metropole Hanoi (US$10!). Seriously, you can OD on sugar... what a strange feeling! Sort of like you've got energy, but you can't really concentrate enough to use it... and you want to sleep at the same time... Weird.

Mary...the Masseuse?

Today is Day 2 of my five-day Traditional Thai Message course with Baan Nit (Baan means home). Mama Nit is one of the teachers, but my instructor's name is Pen, and I am studying with one other student, a talented Japanese masseuse, Miyako. Ha ha, if you're nice, I'll give you a body-melting massage when I'm back!

Boom (far right) was our charming Thai chef...she learned the tricks of the trade from her mom. David, Sally, Jane and I (wow, we have names straight out of "My First English Book") had a great time pounding the hell out of the curry paste.

Last Sunday, I took a Thai Cooking course, where we prepared 5 delicious dishes...

• Chicken with Cashew Nuts
• Sweet and Sour Vegetables
• Tom Yum Gung (yes, the tasty tasty Thai Seafood soup!)
• Pork in Red Curry
• Mango in Sticky Rice (this is THE BEST dessert)

LOL, I'll make you some authentic Thai food!

Back to Vietnam for a sec...the Halong Bay trip was spectacular. Gorgeous scenery and amazing seafood. The limestone karsts jut out at amazing angles and one of the caves can fit 3000 people inside at once!! Will post the photos soon...

And my sister, Esther, found that if you google blog search my name, mine comes up under the related blogs! Cool!

http://www.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&q=mary+lee&btnG=Search+Blogs

Ok, lunch break (a relaxing 2 hours) is over now...back to the back breaking work of massage!

Crazy Bac Ha

After a sleepless night in the hotel with paper-thin walls, I woke up at 5:45 (ugh, AM!) to catch the local bus to Bac Ha at 6:30. Asking for directions to the local bus station was of no use, because private taxi touts were everywhere!! There was no straight answer from anyone. Ugh! Turns out that the bus station was seriously 300m from our guesthouse, just around the corner. Ha ha, we made it there by 7am and bartered with the unyielding minibus driver for the fare. The final price was 30.000 dong per person, with the posted price being 23.000...I am sick of the foreigner surcharge! Haha, on our way back...the bus was packed to the brim with many people sitting in the aisles and standing... it makes PERFECT sense that we had to pay 40.000 pp... somehow, getting more people on the bus doesn't make it cheaper. The ride there was a bumpy 2 hours...but coming back, was 4 hours in total!! Ahhh...Vietnam.

Even though the road to Bac Ha was the worst I have encountered in Vietnam (waterfalls...running right across the road! and lots of mudslides), the Sunday market was worth the trip. People from all the neighbouring hill tribes descend en mass and buy everything from livestock to earrings.

The train ride back to Hanoi on the hard sleeper was tough (hard means HARD! Straw mats...the gorgeous embroidered blanket I bought at the market came in handy..lol), and we arrived at 4:15am. And believe it or not, we ran out of gas for the THIRD time. Ya, I'm serious! But this time...it wasn't entirely our fault. The people steal the petrol from your bike when it is in the cargo compartment. SOP. So we thought about putting some gas in a bottle in Lao Cai, but it was raining, and we were lazy. Thankfully, there is always someone to help out when a profit is involved; we paid a guy 10.000 dong to bring us some gas... WOO! What an end to the motorbiking adventure. I am still in one piece, but SO grotty from wearing the same 2 sets of clothes for a week. But that's why I checked into a very pricey US$16 dollar room with ooh, A/C and hot shower!! Living like a queen now! :)

Beautiful Montagnard Villagers

Happy Birthday to my twin! Esther!!! And ha ha, all my other twin too! Cheryl!!!

Tourists are bomarded by the local ladies offering handwoven bags, bracelets, earrings...anything you want! I tried on one of their reed "backpacks"... surprisingly heavy, but comfortable!

So, I celebrated my 22nd year of life over a duo chocolate pie and a tasty almond apple tart, at Baguette & Chocolat, a bakery in Sapa. Didn't really feel like a birthday! Thank you for all your birthday wishes!! I miss you all! We'll party when I get back ;)

When I woke up this morning, Sapa was entirely blanketed by the clouds...looking out the window, I could see maybe 200m?!? It was gorgeous. Unfortunately, I had dropped my camera (yikes!) and couldn't take a photo. The local market was very colourful!! All the women from the various hill tribes were buying lengths of black linen for their skirts and vests, and there was a huge selection of food, from the ubiquitous PHO BO (beef noodle soup), to something more exotic...it looked like stuffed snake! We sat down for some noodle soup with pork & tofu, and the local chef sprinkled these long grains of white powder over the bowl...I think they use MSG liberally here still! Eeep! Heart attack in a jar... never ask for a menu...because the local price is always 5000 dong (US $0.30) a bowl. :)

Tiered rice paddy fields dot rural Vietnam.

Poor Romain got chewed out by the salesperson at the shop who fixed my camera. When you've been touring for a while, you start to expect the worst...I don't think the guy expected me to pay, but I was going to offer but Romain insisted it should be free...eep! This set the guy on fire and Romain got a lecture on how locals are actually nice people and don't necessarily expect to be compensated for being helpful. doh!

This is Zhao, whose mother embroidered the handbag I bought...

After lunch, we visited Cat Cat Village, a H'Moung minority village very close to Sapa. There was a gushing waterfall and serene rice paddies. Gorgeous! We then hopped on the motorbike and easily covered the 36km to Lao Cai, right next to the Chinese border. It is absolutely BOILING here...

Running on EMPTY...twice...in 24 hours!!!!

Rickety bridge in DPB...a remant from the war against the French back in 1954.

These last couple of days have been exceedingly ridiculous... so, here we go!!

Wednesday, Sept 14th... just after leaving the internet shop where i last posted, Romain and I hit up this dessert shop, lit attractively in green and pink flourescent lights. SE Asians seem to have a liking for all things kitschy. We used the "point at the picture" ordering technique and ended up with a taro flavored float and a mixed fruit sundae. YUM! Since we were the only people in the shop, the Vietnamese owner decided we would like "western" music...so he took out the karaoke VCD and started the techno "happy birthday" disc. LOL...Then he brought out the big guns! A 500 mL bottle of home-brew cherry wine. He wouldn't quit with the shots until we finished the entire bottle!!! He also dished out a whole plate of wafer rolls to go with our ice cream, and brought out two more strawberry soft serves...EACH! After we seriously could not down anymore cherry wine, he brought on the Bia Ha Noi...I had to run the unopen bottles back onto the shelf to refuse! Then, after we proposed to leave, he strong armed us into going for some CHAO (rice) at about midnight...the restaurant was closed though! Reluctantly, he walked us back to our guesthouse... we thanked him profusely for the ridiculous evening and shoved money into his pocket because he wouldn't accept it any other way. WOW! Talk about Vietnamese hospitality!!!


Taking a breather on the side of the raod...we gave Morris (our Minsk) a break because he was having trouble accelerating...

Thursday, Sept 15th...We toured the miltary historic sites of Dien Bien Phu and had a late lunch before setting off at about 4:30 pm for Lai Chau. eep! It was getting late, but how long could it take to cover 103km?!? Well...ha ha, if you run out of gas about 3/4 of your way through...a while!! At about 6:30, we noticed that the Minsk wasn't really accelerating too well...so we stopped at the side of the road and gave the bike a chance to cool down...maybe it was overheated?? A passing local took the bike for a spin too, and everything seemed fine; so we set off again. Ha ha, the bike then puttered to a complete stop after we hit a small hill. DOH! We switched the valve to "reserve" and managed pull another 15kms before the tank was bone dry. It was 7pm and pitch black outside, but thankfully, we used some wild gesturing and broken Vietnamese to wrangle Romain a ride into the nearest town for 5 litres of precious gas.

Passed the time by taking pics of the moon while I waited for Romain to come back with the gas...

*News Flash* Never trust a man's judgement on gas. Yep, so I did suggest before we left DBP to fill up, but hey, according to the Minsk manual...we were supposed to get 250 clicks out of a full tank! oh well...

So, we arrived in one piece at about 8pm and headed straight to a restaurant promising BUN CHA (noodles in soup with grilled pork). Right before leaving Hanoi, we had the most delicious bun cha so we had our hopes up. My lord! I may have been veggie for I dunno, the past 6 years or something, but this did not taste like pork. MYSTERY MEAT!?! It was very "wild"...hopefully just wild boar...and not dog or something! eep!


Beautiful landscapes on the way to Sapa...

Friday, September 16th... From the crazy mishap with the gas the night before, we decided to play it safe and fill up the tank completely before starting the 180km run from Lai Chau to Sapa. The weather changed from blazing hot to winter chilly (ok...so it is Vietnamese chilly...like 15 degrees C?) all in a day. I think we've climbed about 1000m though!

Noo! The internet shop is closing...will continue this saga soon.

The road from Lai Chau to Sapa was absolutely amazing...the curves were not too tight and we whizzed past the beautiful country landscapes at...I would guess, 60km/hr. (Ha ha, the Minsk has no gauges...) We had lunch in Phong Tho, and LOL, we stopped at this particular PHO COM shop because I made the passing remark, "Hey, there were white people in that place!"...the first fellow tourists in 4 days! WOW! About 40km to Sapa, Morris started to putter out...noooo!! NOT AGAIN!?!? Using the last of the petrol in the regular tank, we managed to make it another 20 clicks up around the huge mountain. We switched to the reserve tank after that and prayed for downhill sections...we saved gas by cutting the engine and yelled "beep beep" as we rolled down the road. Pushing the motorbike and running after it to reach a downhill section was really only embarrassing when people were watching I guess! LOL... Amazingly, we managed to coast most of the 20km to Sapa and the tank only hit empty about 200m from the petrol station in the town centre. PHEW!!! We made it into Sapa at about 5pm...so yes, we ran out of gas...TWICE!!!! in 24 hours!!

*News Flash* Never trust the Operator's Manual nor the guy from the rental shop when asking about mileage on a rental bike....

The bornes on the side of the road helped us navigate and I made rough speed estimates from time to time...

No...we're NOT married!

Gorgeous sunset on our first day of motorbiking...on the road to the Thai village, Mai Chau.

After 6 weeks in SE Asia, I think I've finally found the place where there are no fellow tourists. Ever since leaving Hanoi, we have not seen any other western tourists at all!! Unheard of, really. Currently, I am hanging out at a packed internet cafe (3000 dong/hr = US$0.20) that is around the corner from our hotel...we're the only guests at this "Beer Factory Hotel", named for its proximity to the Bia Hoi plant (the cheapest I've seen is 1500 dong/glass...that's US$0.10!!). It's so funny, everywhere we go, the first thing people asks is, are you married? Ha ha, why don't the 3-pages that the lonely planet dedicates to Vietnamese phrases include "No...we're NOT married"??! Here's the other conversation I've had a billion times:

Local "Where you from?"
Me "I'm from Canada!"
Local "But you, I think you same same (insert name of SE asian country) girl"
Me "Oh no, I was born in Hong Kong, and now I live in Canada!"
Local "ahh...." (This is either an 'ahh' I understand, or 'ahh' with a goofy smile that tells you they don't really understand english. Travelling is awesome.)

Motorbiking is seriously the most awesome way to see the countryside!! Life along the road in Vietnam is amazing...beautiful rice paddy fields, long winding roads, and the little Vietnamese children are the most adorable kids ever!! Many still wear the traditional hill tribe clothes and they all carry brightly coloured, hand-woven shoulder bags. After only 3 days practice, Romain is getting pretty good on the Minsk! LOL, the 3rd gear on the bike is absolute crap though! It is so ridiculous. There are 12% grade roads here!!! (the road sign says so...no...i didn't bring surveying equipment along...) I think we're only making 30km/hr on average. crazy.


Farming in the rice fields of rural Vietnam...

We left Hanoi at about 3pm, and arrived in the Lac village (Thai minority) near the city of Mai Chau at about 7pm. What a harrowing experience on the back of a motorbike! But Romain assures me that driving here is safer than France. His reasoning is that since there are no real rules of the road here, people drive very cautiously and even with close encounters, drivers stay in control. LOL, that may be true...but the biggest problem we've had so far are the stupid stray dogs!! They seem to walk towards the sound of the horn. UGH!

In the Lac village, we stayed in a traditional Thai house on stilts, made out of bamboo. Just like Vietnamese everywhere, the locals here got up at about 6am and started cutting their wood to make furniture, washing up, daily chores...but we managed to delay breakfast until 11am. So yesterday, we spent about 5 hours on the road, stopping at the city of Moc Chau for lunch before arriving in Son La at around 6pm. Finding good food has been pretty hard! You're basically stuck with either COM (rice) or PHO (rice noodles). I always have my eye out for SINH TO (fruit shakes)...watermelon, mango, papaya...they're all delicious! KEM (ice cream) is lovely too...all the asian flavours...taro, red bean...even durian. awesome. The people out here in the NW are very friendly and always invite us to sit at their table, even if just to make hand gesture conversations.

The cutest kids ever! The guy on the left even wanted to give us 2000 dong for luck! But we really couldn't accept. :)





Today, we left Son La for Dien Bien Phu. The sceneary was aboslutely spectacular. We stopped SO often for photos!! LOL, it took over 6 hours to cover 140km...but bear in mind, the divided highway ended and we embarked on the narrow country road that allows a motorbike to just barely pass a large truck. Ha ha, the wide oncoming truck made driving straight through a large puddle inevitable...but thankfully, my pants dried quickly! We also had a close encounter with a friendly mob...of about 50 little children! They were really excited after I showed them the photos I was taking on the digicam. SO CUTE!!! Cattle also graze in really precarious positions on the mountains! Small boys, about 7 or 8, sit on top of a bull and lead the herd to new feeding grounds. The locals also smoke tobacco from really long pipes...I think it is tobacco...but who knows!

gorgeous countryside that just doesn't end...

Russian Minsk: The New Ride

Romain on the Minsk...

Today, Romain and I are leaving Hanoi on motorbike...a real adventure! We're going to do the "Northwest Loop" in Vietnam, and visit a bunch of minority hill tribes. Neither of us have really done motorbiking before, but a lesson from the shop owner gets us on the road! LOL, this is a 125cc bike, with 4 gears that you shift with a clutch...should be interesting! Thankfully, we are getting transferred onto the highway, and get to avoid the messy traffic of central Hanoi.


The past couple weeks have been amazing!! Vietnam is such a beautiful country, with lots of friendly people and tasty gastronomic delights. I was in HCMC for National Day, and there was an anti-climactic display of fireworks. I met a bunch of people and we headed out to the aptly named Apocalypse Now Club...about half the people there were prostitues I think! It is really scary that the industry operates so openly.


Woo, canyoning is awesome!! Yep..that's me there! LOL

I caught a bus to Mountainous Dalat, located in the central highlands...beautiful waterfalls!! I went abseiling/canyoning down 5 waterfalls nearDatalana falls and it was SOO crazy! No matter how many times you go down, getting past that "edge" feeling is scary... ha ha, the last waterfall we tackled was called the "washing machine"...the water pounding down on your body is ridiculous.

Next, I visited the coastal city of Nha Trang...beautiful beach resort town with a party boat trip...but since most people have just gone back to school (including hoardes of Vietnamese tourists), I was the first person at the "floating bar". Ha ha, bad mulberry wine from Dalat mixed with some tasty sea water. yum! Nha Trang also has some relaxing mineral mud baths and I was pounded into jelly by a trained masseur. So good.

The light was playing a game in the islands near Nha Trang...

The local market in Hoi An...all the ladies still wear the conical hats!!

An overnight bus landed me in Hoi An, a quaint little town that oozes Old World Charm. Shophouses are built with Chinese, Japanese and even Arabic influences, and there are loads of French Colonial buildings too. Hoi An is famed for its tailors as well! I had two suits and a few dress sirts made...they fit PERFECTLY. It is SO awesome!!! The Cau Dai beach in Hoi An was 20 meteres wide and I dunno, endlessly long. The sand was silkly and the coconut trees made it picture perfect. A beautiful 20 minute bike ride from town. The food in Hoi An was amazing too!! Lots of great seafood (I inadvertently ate baby shark! set menu...eep! It is very "meaty" and only has a bit of fishy taste) and satays.
Look Mom, it's your name...on a shophouse in Hoi An.












A most gorgeous sunset in Hanoi....

Then, an 18 hour bus got me to Hanoi...capital of Vietnam! We're off to visit the elegant rice paddy fields and get mobbed by little children in traditional garb. Don't worry, I'll be super careful on the motorbike.

Ho Chi Minh LIVES!

On the corner of every street in Vietnam

The propaganda is everywhere! Ho Chi Minh posters adorn the streets in Saigon (central HCM City) and are almost as abundant as the red communist star/hammer and sickle banners. Tomorrow is National Day in Vietnam, celebrating the 60th year of indepedence of the republic, and the 30th anniversary of the liberation of southern Viet Nam and national reunification. Cool.

What isn't cool is the fact that the museums I want to go to are all closed! Ugh...


The view of HCMC from my US$2 dorm room, on the 7th floor...yep, there are NO elevators people! ugh...

First, a recap: The last day of the Mekong Delta tour was great! We visited these floating fishing village, where they breed loads of cat fish. Then we hit up a Cham minority village...Chams don't have their own country anymore (1st the Khmer Empire, then the Vietnamese took over) but spots of the country have mosques and they follow the muslim way of life...5 prayers a day and all.

After that (it was only 9am and the sun was ridiculous already!), we headed back to HCMC by bus. Ha ha, all the tour companies are basically fronts for one big delta tour. I think I switched buses & tour guides 3 times! On the last leg of the journey, I met a couple of Americans who are studying in Chicago, Amy and Derek. We met later that night for the "special" at Pho 2000, which is the "local" restaurant that Bill Clinton (yes, THAT guy!) visited during his visit to Vietnam in 2000. Ya, it wasn't all hype. Superb pho!

We did a bit of shopping in the local market, picked up some bling bling rings and knock-off paraphanelia. We stopped into the local food stalls to play some cards and ended up learning some Vietnamese games from the waiters! They were so young!! 13-16... ha ha, even with the suits being all jumbled up, and our inability to speak the local tongue, we had a pretty good time!

Card Sharks!! Check out the hardcore guy in the bottom left.

We then met up with a Malaysian girl, and a guy from Mynamar (He was promoting tourism to his country)! A couple of Belgians joined our little group (really tall guy - 6'9" and a photographer) and we stayed until POLICE raided the little cafe! Crazy! Apparently, the motorbike and furniture were on the "public" part of the sidewalk denoted by the RED versus YELLOW brick on the floor. Geez! It was kinda hectic, so after that, we called it a night.

Yesterday, I visited the war museum and the reunification palace...hot work walking in HCMC! Ate some tasty taro-flavored ice cream and people watched for a bit, and enjoyed a nice PIZZA dinner (US$10 - pricey...maybe it was the feta. lol) with Francoise, a Swiss girl who was staying in the same dorm (US$3!).

Okay! Back to the present...The US$30 cooking class I took this morning was wow, a nice dip in the pocket, but so worth it! Best meal in Vietnam yet! We made a really tasty banana flower salad, ginger steamed rice (tastes WAY better than it sounds...simple, yet delicious!), pork done in a traditional claypot, clam soup, and sweet corn dessert. It was good that the chef had ideas for substitutions! Not sure if I can find banana blossoms too easily. Maybe I'll start a garden. Ha ha

After that, I took a xe om (motorbike - 20.000 dong ~ US$1.25) to Cholon, the Chinatown of HCMC. Woo, my choppy Cantonese came in handy. LP didn't have any maps (not like the others have been too too accurate anyways!) so I sorta stumbled around and visited a bunch of pagodas. Crazy...there were thousands of these probably 6" ceramic figures all along the roofs of the temple! The nice guy at the convenience store where I bought some water even walked me to the bus stop.. ha ha, they have relatives in Edmonton. For 2.000 dong, which is about $0.15, I got an A/C bus back to the central market. I took a hot stroll to the HCM Museum across the Saigon river, only to find that it was closed! Boo!! At the bridge, I met this Israeli guy, who COINCIDENTLY, was Francoise's acquaintance! WHOA. Small world in Pham Ngu Lao, the backpacker district in Saigon...

Burning incense sticks at a pagoda in Cholon, HCMC