Hanoi, Vietnam - The stop that almost never was...

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Apparently you need a visa to enter Vietnam. We didn't find that out until 90 minutes before our flight was to leave from Siem Reap. Our research indicated the Visa was "On Arrival". What we missed was the fine print that you have to apply for the visa at least two weeks before arrival, with final issuance upon arrival. What ensued was a real life version of those crazy episodes of The Amazing Race, where the poor contestants are frantically trying to solve a problem while the dramatic clock is winding down to zero, then past zero. Meanwhile, Nicole and I are trying to keep our wits about us because the kids could sense the anxiety (Bryce actually started crying).

After several calls to the Vietnam Visa office, and a hefty express processing fee, we were approved....five minutes after the ticket counter closed and the luggage conveyor had ground to a halt! Fortunately the Air Asia staff were sympathetic and did absolutely everything they could to help us along, keeping someone around to reopen the ticket counter, helping us print the approval, and then whisking away our luggage by hand on a cart.

So here we are in Hanoi, Vietnam. And boy is it cold. We figured it would be comfortable, but not see-your-breath-in-the-morning cold. Thus begins another couple months of no-shorts weather as we head further north thru Korea and Japan before we head back to Rome in mid March.

Our first morning in Hanoi was a free walking tour of the old quarter and ethnology museum with a non profit tour group called Hanoi Kids. I can't say much for the museum, and I'll have more thoughts on the old quarter in a moment. But I will say that Hanoi Kids is a great organization that uses college students as tour guides with the goal of enhancing their conversational English. We get a free tour, and they get a chance to converse with native English speakers. It's a win win and was a wonderful experience. I particularly enjoyed our first Vietnamese meal sitting on those classic tiny stools right there on the sidewalk. We ate Bun Cha, a pork soup with rice noodles. Yummy!

The afternoon saw us struggle to find appropriate groceries in the local market and get more fully settled in to our skinny apartment, just on the outskirts of the Old Quarter.

Sat, Feb 3: Old Quarter and Shopping
[Spoiler Alert] We booked a three day ski vacation in Japan! Uh oh... We packed for an endless summer. Let's go shopping! Where better to buy cost effective goods than the infamous Old Quarter of Hanoi.

The Old Quarter is the epicenter of scooter mayhem, mixed with lumbering delivery trucks and absent minded tourists. The Old Quarter puts Bangkok to shame on the scale of CRAZY.

The root of the chaos is the total lack of street lights, allowing for all ways having the right of way at all times. I suppose if you dug a little deeper, one could further ask why a society would allow such madness to occur, but that's another topic for another day. Add to the madness is the fact that "sidewalk" in Vietnamese means "Scooter Parking" preventing people from finding appropriate refuge from the chaos.

So how does a family of five move about in this district? If we were to wait for a clearing (by American standards), we would still be standing on the corner of Huc Phood, and Hang Tien.  It's absolutely true what they say about crossing the street in Hanoi, you go on faith. You find a tiny break in the procession, and just start walking at an even pace. The scooters just casually veer around you like you were a turtle crossing a river of salmon. It's really the cars that need to be considered as they don't seem to notice the lowly pedestrians in the sea of scooters.

You spend so much time dodging the chaos that it can be difficult to look up every now and then. When you do, the old timey buildings can be quite fetching (behind the spider webs of power lines).

Our two weeks coincides with the lead up to Tet, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year. Hanoi is particularly busy with people preparing for this most important holiday. Most notably, everyone needs to get their Kumquat Tree that brings good fortune for the coming year. We come to find out that these trees remain in the soil and are actually rented from vendors, to be returned after the holidays. 

https://youtu.be/PKMKMxsSb3A

Due to some curious trade and tax laws in Vietnam, it is lousy with knock off goods. Nothing here seems authentic, but it sure looks convincing. Our goal was to find disposable warm weather gear that will be worn for a month then shipped back to the States. To our pleasant surprise, The North Face has decided to let a dozen stores sell their stuff for 80% less than retail. Columbia, Under Armor, Nike, and Adidas too!

French / Vietnamese Fusion food

Feb 4 - Road Trip to Ninh Binh / Trang An
We had originally planned to head north to a region called Sapa, famous for their tiered rice patties and treking thru small villages. But as it turns out, it snows in Sapa this time of year! So our alternate was to head south to an area called Ninh Binh, the Halong Bay of the inland. Due to some sweet geologic things that happened millions of years ago, Ninh Binh is surrounded by tall lumpy limestone peaks (called karsts) with rivers running through them (not around them).

To take all the thinking out of this road trip, we hired a driver and guide and we're rolling in an 11 person van with seats that lay flat. This pleases the boys to no end. Our guide's name is Hai (pronounced 'hi'), so when he joins us, we get to say "Hi, Hai!". This also pleases the boys to no end.

After a brief stop at the compulsory tourist art souvenir shop*, we hopped on a boat in Trang An. The boats, called a sampan, are rowed by women, while the passengers take in the scenery. There is a little bit of guilt that builds up over the course of the two hours, so they provide some make shift paddles for us to use to help speed things along.

The ride meanders thru tall cliffs of limestone and just when we thought we had reached a turnaround point, we snuck our way thru waterways under the karsts. Some of the passages were so low, we all had to hunker down to avoid hitting our heads. Meanwhile, the little old lady deftly rowed is thru without a scratch. It felt a bit like the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland (but without that nostalgic musty smell). We made our way thru nine of these tunnels. Probably the best part about this adventure was the curious lack of other boats. This made for quite the peaceful journey.

The water was so calm it was like floating on a mirror sometimes. 

Our fearless pilot. Tough lady.

We were so famished from not doing anything on the boat that we had to stop for an eight course lunch. Not gonna lie, the Vietnamese food wasn't our favorite. It's quite simple and a stark contrast from the flavor explosion of Thailand. 

Our next adventure was a brief bicycle ride around the karsts. It's good to know that all the old bikes we no longer ride in the states have been put to good use overseas.

Actual kid seats are a luxury. Bryce, just sit on the luggage tray and hold on tight. 

Zane was rolling on a sweet pink ride with a cushioned rear seat. 

We ended up at a family cemetery with a bit of Vietnamese weeding going on. Many of the rural cemetery's are abandoned sections of rice patties. It seemed very appropriate and serene.

Our namesake is EVERYWHERE in Vietnam. Apparently Long means Dragon! I like the sound of that. Oh, and that is not a hand growing out of my shoulder. Bryce just wanted to make sure he was in the shot. 

As the day grew long, we drove to the Bai Dinh temple complex. This newly created behemoth of a Buddhist mega temple sits along a hillside and must be trying to steal the honor of being the biggest religious monument from Angkor Wat. Given it's only ten years old, it sort of lacks that old timey spirit of other temples we've visited. We also learned that it was funded by the government, which sort of rubbed us the wrong way given the infrastructure and challenges of the Vietnamese people at large, along with the fact that Vietnam is supposed to be secular... In any case, we had the place nearly to ourselves, which apparently is rare as it hosts as many as 40,000 people a day in spring.

The sign next to these statues tells people not to touch the Buddhas...

That's Hai with Bryce.

Feb 5: Monkeys, A Cave, and a long drive
Today was predominantly a driving day broken up by a quick stop at an Endangered Primate Rehabilitation Facility, and a hike up a hill to a hidden cave. Our goal for this day was to find our accommodations in a mountain town called Mai Chao.

Turn up the sound on this. It's the sound of the Gibbons talking... https://youtu.be/NcBI7LlU_Ko

Most incredible looking Monkey we have ever seen. This sanctuary is known for their many species of Langur monkeys. 

One of the many pleasures of touring newly developing countries is visiting caves (and other natural wonders) that would be otherwise overwhelmed with tourists and sanitized with safety precautions. We visited a hidden cave that was actually quite large and had to navigate with flashlights only. 

Quick photo op along the road to Mai Chao. These ladies were laughing hysterically as I was taking these pictures, wondering why anyone would take pictures of such old women. They said there were much prettier girls in town....

After a rough road and wandering around aimlessly in search of our accommodation, the driver pulled up next to this ramshackle hut - not gonna lie, we were a bit freaked out. Fortunately, our driver realized he should have turned left instead of right at the fork. 

Our actual lodge was most respectable.

This happened to be Superbowl Sunday (Fly Eagles Fly!). Even in the middle of a rice field, Nicole got her halftime Timberlake fix. Isn't wifi wonderful?

Feb 6: Bike and a Hike
Our eco tourist lodge sat at the edge of a field of working rice fields, which made for a fun place to hop on bikes for a morning ride. Our guide suggested we take a short detour to walk up a short set of stairs to check out a hidden cave overlooking the village. Eight hundred brutal feet later we finally ascended the set of stairs, passing a handful of elderly women descending with 60lbs of firewood hung from their heads. Sort of makes you feel silly for feeling winded on the way up.

Everyone was hard at work preparing their fields for planting. 

Hai said it was 100 steps or so. 

After 200 steps and no end in sight, Nicole opted for a more relaxed approach.

The valley floor has been picked clean of burnable wood. The only option in this cold season is to hike over the top of the mountain to farm the forests on the other side.

1,250 steps later... the effort was marginally worth it. I will say that this was the first time I had ever seen stalactite and mites so close to the opening of the cave. 

While waiting for our road side lunch, I couldn't help but observe the chicken trade.

Apparently I wasn't the only tourist that found the process to be photo worthy.

Our guide, maintaining his propensity for understating things, said our next stop was a short 30 minute drive to a leisurely walk thru villages and rice patties. An hour later, after driving up a steep "road-like" surface, we arrived at the trail head. I had enough of his shenanigans, and forced the straight truth about what we were about to encounter. He sheepishly said it was 6km on an easy downhill trail without steps. To be sure, I started my Strava app to track our distance. The hike turned out to be lovely as we descended down through a series of quaint mountain villages and tiered rice patties. Total distance...4km (ha ha ha, Hai).

The buffaloes help turn the mud and prepare the fields for the rice plantings.

Dogs everywhere

Not sure if I have the technique down properly

Preparing the Nursery Rice. The seeds are spread in a small area then covered with a make shift greenhouse plastic cover. In 20 days, the young rice will be ready to plant in the large fields. 

While father slaves away, kids will be kids - playing in the creek and creating make shift damns.

The entire trail was lined with huge bamboo groves. Perhaps showing my ignorance, but I didn't realize these shoots grow 30 feet in one year. The Vietnamese put the bamboo to good use in nearly every part of their lives.

All for now... Next Stop, Halong Bay.

* The shop was a place where people, affected by the agent orange we doused on Vietnam, have perfected the art of embroidery and make magnificent threaded artwork. We picked up a small bit of art.