Sa Pa, Vietnam

Sa Pa is a small town in the mountains of northern Vietnam. It is very close
to the Chinese border and is surrounded by villages of minority people who
fled China in the 19th century. Each minority has its own culture, language,
and unique and colorful clothing style. Their main source of livelihood is
rice farming and the mountain slopes surrounding Sa Pa have been carved into
vibrant rice terraces. Unfortunately, today Sa Pa is over-touristed and
many visitors are not respectful of the people or their culture. This has
caused many of the locals to stay away from outsiders and their flashing
cameras. Other locals, however, have capitalized on the tourist economy and
flood the town daily to sell their handicrafts. Many children also sell handicrafts because the Vietnamese government does not provide them with school supplies...even though they are officially a communist country!

The beautiful Sa Pa scenery

We spent our first morning in Sa Pa visiting the village of Cat Cat, home to
the Black H'mong minority group. The hilly, three-mile trek through the
village rewarded us with views of lime-green rice terraces,
adorable children playing in the river, and a foaming waterfall. We enjoyed
a lunch of barbecued pork, rice grilled inside a bamboo stem, and a taste of
the local apple wine. In the afternoon we walked through a park up to a
vista point, where we had great a great view of the town below us.

Sticky rice and veggies wrapped in pork: A delicious meal!

To see the other villages, we signed up for a guided trek, overnighting in
a homestay. We were very disappointing with the tour agency that we signed
up with because they gave us a lot of false information about the trek. They
told us that we would be visiting six villages, that we would have a minority guide, and that all meals would be included. Instead, we only visited three villages, we had a guide who had grown up in Hanoi, and they did not provide us with lunch on the second day (even though the trip was scheduled to end at three pm). But all that aside, we still had a good time. This was mainly due to the fact that another group joined us at our homestay. All they people in the other group were really friendly and fun to talk to, and they had a super sweet and amiable minority guide named Ling.

The first day we hiked through a H'mong village and stopped there for lunch. The hike was beautiful, with great views similar to those we had seen the day before. As we were hiking we accrued a small following of H'mong women who were going back to their village. They made conversation with us with the little English they knew and presented us with little gifts of bamboo origami that they had deftly created as they were walking. Their company was enjoyable, but we knew that they were buttering us up in hopes that we would later buy their handicrafts.

Some villagers made Leslie and me hearts out of ferns

After lunch we hiked to a Dao village, where we would stay overnight. Our hosts were nice, but knew very little English so we couldn't really talk to them. We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring their farm (they had rice paddies, fruit trees, and some cute fat pigs) and chatting with our group mates and Ling.

In the evening we had a delicious, home-cooked meal - a definite highlight of the trip. The family had cooked four or five different stir fires with interesting veggies, and there was plenty of food to go around. After dinner I helped with the dishes and took the opportunity to get to know Ling a little better. She was completely conversational in English, even though she had never had any formal schooling. In fact, her English was even better than our guide's, who had a university degree in the language! All the English that Ling knew, she had picked up over the past two years just from talking to tourists.

Ling was one of the nicest and knowledgeable guides we met

The next day we hiked through a bamboo forest to the top of a waterfall. It had rained the night before so the the path was really muddy and slippery. But this just added to the fun and adventure of it all. After the waterfall, we had to split off from Ling and her group. We continued on for another couple of kilometers, hung out by the river for a bit, and hiked up the road to get a ride back to town. We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the markets in Sa Pa, where we had the chance to see many different minority people in their colorful outfits.

Girl from Black H'mong minority hilltribe

Zai minority hilltribe women at the market

Dzao minority hilltribe woman. We bought some postcards from her.

Ha Long Bay

We arrived in Hanoi in the afternoon and had a trip on a boat out to Ha Long Bay the next morning. Before we left the city though we stopped by the local water puppet theater to see Vietnamese water puppetry. It was developed by farmers possibly during the flood season. Using carved wooden puppets with movable joints, the puppeteer is able to control the puppet from behind a screen and the mechanism for controlling the puppet are hidden under the water. Most scenes are pastoral and show farm work and comedic episodes. Mythical dragons and lions make an appearance as well. It was a very impressive display of skill in an artform we had never seen before.

The next morning we set out on a junk cruiser from Ha Long City and immediately started taking in the wonderful shapes of the bay. The limestone islands come in beautiful shapes that are a feast for the eyes. We lunched on our way to Bai Tu Long bay, which is less frequented and just as beautiful. While there we visited a floating village. Clusters of families live on floating houses in the bay and earn a living raising and farming fish. We took a small row boat around the village and stopped by the floating primary school they have for the children. We also had a chance to swim around the waters of the bay, which were very warm and there were almost no waves. it was like an enormous salt water pool.
Our junk cruise ship
Floating through the village
Absolutely stunning views
We moored in a bay for the evening and had a delicious dinner of seafood, seafood and some more seafood. It's hard to remember all the different aquatic animals we ate, but they were very fresh and delicious. The air outside was so nice Rashmi and I decided to sleep out on top of the boat and watch the stars. This worked out great until it started raining at 3 in the morning and we had to retreat to our cabin.
A sunset picture
There are many of these pictures...
Next morning we woke up and set of kayaking along the islands near Cat Ba island. Our guide showed us a lagoon that can only be entered by paddling through a tunnel in the island. The scenery was overwhelming with giant scarred cliffs covered in flowing greenery while chirping birds and insects buzzed inside. We took a dip at a private beach and continued kayaking after lunch, exploring the cliffsides. That evening we went onto Cat Ba island proper and checked into the nicest place we stayed at this entire trip. It was a 4 star hotel, although it's sheets smelled a little mildewy, it was still a very luxurious and enjoyable place to relax.
Kayaking in the lagoon
The view from the balcony of our hotel
Almost like James Bond island
Cruising about the bay
The next day we took a ship shaped like a rocket back to the mainland. It had an enclosed cabin which was a definite necessity as it bounced and skipped along the water back to shore. We definite had a great experience on the trip and it was nice going through a tour company for once as it had things taken care of and we still got to be active on the trip. We arrived in Hanoi in the afternoon with enough time to catch the night train up into the mountains to visit Sa Pa!

Hoi An

Hoi An is a beautiful little city on the north-east coast of Vietnam. It is one of the few places that was not bombed in Vietnam's many wars, so many of the buildings here date back to the late 19th century and are a rare example of the old Chinese, Japanese, and French style architecture. The city has also held on to many cultural traditions, including lining the city streets with bright, colorful lanterns on the night of every full moon.

Lanterns on display

A popular activity for tourists in Hoi An is getting clothes custom tailored for a relatively cheap price. Hundreds of tailor shops line the streets and the competition drives down the prices. A good-quality men's suit can be made overnight for $50-70. Leslie and I were tempted to get some clothes made, but we know so little about cloth and stitching quality, and we don't really need anything, so after much debating we ended up opting out. But I still had fun walking by the shops and looking at the motley of silk dresses that were on display.

Birthday Desserts!

We actually spent most of our time in Hoi An at the beach. It is so hot during the day that we couldn't really get ourselves to do much else. There are two beaches about 2 miles away from the city, Cao Dai and An Bahn. They are equally beautiful and relaxing. And the ocean is as warm as bath water! Leslie and I spent over 2 hours each day soaking in the salty water, until our fingers and toes wrinkled up like prunes.

Another highlight of Hoi An was Coral Club's bakery. It made some of the most delicious desserts Leslie has ever tasted! They reminded me a lot of the fancy cakes and torts one can get in Germany. We ended up stopping by the bakery multiple times, and tried chocolate mousse cake, mango cheesecake, passion fruit mousse and chocolate cake, and black forest cake. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

Store front displays of dresses

Overall, Hoi An was a nice, relaxing break from the jam-packed schedule we have made for ourselves in Vietnam.

Sporting our fresh new haircuts!

Da Lat and Nha Trang

We arrived at the mountain town of Da Lat after a long bus ride. Da Lat was used by French as a vacation town as its atmosphere and surrounding environment are the closest to the scenery of the mountains in France. Pine trees line the hills and surround the lakes that the town is based around. The fresh and cool air is definitely a nice change from the steaming lower lands. Much of the original european style architecture was preserved as American and French forces had a tacit agreement not to bomb the town. This adds the the European atmosphere of the town.

We took a bicycle through the mountainous roads for about 16 km to a waterfall area. After some tiring hills, missed turns, and gesticulating with locals we found the way to the waterfall area. We hiked through the hills, enjoying the air and looking at the farms built into the hill side. Finished with our wandering we went the the waterfalls themselves which has been transformed into a tacky park for locals. The story of the Tiger falls is that a great hunter was able to mortally wound a ferocious tiger that lived in the cave by the falls, but with a great roar the tiger disappeared, leaving only the cave. The park area had many large tiger statues, mushroom shaped benches, and even a statue of tiger missing a leg to represent the wounded tiger. The falls themselves were very impressive and we spent awhile just gazing up at them. A hike, a blazing fast downhill bike ride, and a 2km trudge with a popped tire later we were back in the mountain town.

More pitcher plants!

Hiking through the hillsides of Da Lat

Wrenching the tiger's mouth open

At Tiger Falls

The next morning we took a bus ride out to Nha Trang, Vietnam's biggest beach town for a 4 hour layover before our sleeper bus ride to Hoi An. The stopover at Nha Trang was jsut what we needed as we strolled along the water side and sipped fruit shakes at a beach table. Refreshed and relaxed we boarded our night bus to be whisked away north to Hoi An. The sleeper bus itself wasn't bad, and while trying to fall asleep I imagined the bus to be a space ship, and the passing lights to be stars as we hurtled to our destination.

Rest stop at Nha Trang

Ho Chi Min City

We are in Vietnam now! We arrived in Ho Chi Min City (HCMC) a couple days ago. So far the trip has been very interesting and educational. Yesterday we spent the day checking out the city's three main museums. We started at the History Museum, where we learned about the history of Vietnam since the days of early man. The first humans to inhabit the land were Homo Erectus, half a million years ago! As we wandered through the museum, we saw the evolution of the culture from the stone age, to the bronze age, to a 1000 year occupation by the Chinese, and to their independence from the Chinese and later from the French in 1945. After learning about their history, I have really gained a new respect for Vietnam's national pride and persistence. They were able to fight off every super power that has tried to occupy their country. They were even able to stop the Mogul Empire from expanding into their borders.

The next stop was the Ho Chi Minh Museum. It covers the history and culture of the southern capital and gives a brief introduction to the many minority cultures of Vietnam.

Our last stop was the War Remnants Museum, which covers the US and Vietnam war. Learning about the war from the Vietnamese perspective was definitely eye-opening! My American history textbook barely had two pages on the US - Vietnam War and I was shocked to learn about some of the horrific war crimes committed by the United States. Through pictures taken by brave photographers who gave up their lives to document the war, I was given a very visual lesson of just how destructive America was in Vietnam. Not only did US soldiers often attack and dehumanize whole villages, including women and children, they destroyed entire ecosystems with their chemical warfare tactics. The dioxin-based chemical, Agent Orange, that they used to wipe out Vietnam's natural resources is still responsible for many unnatural birth defects and diseases seen in Vietnamese children today. And the United States has not taken responsibility for it. My visit to the museum left me disillusioned by America's military motives and leaves me wondering if the same thing is being repeated in the Middle East today.

War Remnants Museum

Today we went on a tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels, an extensive underground tunnel system (200 km long!) used by the village of Cu Chi during the 20 years that the United States had their soldiers stationed in and around HCMC (then known as Saigon). The villagers hid out in these tunnels, and used their strategic position of being below an American military camp, to stage guerrilla attacks on the enemy soldiers. The villagers were very clever and creative in keeping their secret tunnels hidden. They had three levels, the bottom which reached down 20 meters. When the US soldiers tried to burn them out of the tunnels, they just went down to a lower level until the smoke subsided. When the enemy tried to flood their tunnels, they went to the upper level, and let the water drain down to the lower level of the tunnels and into the nearby river. They also set up some pretty debilitating booby traps for the tracking dogs and soldiers who tried to penetrate the tunnels. Overall, the Cu Chi tunnels played a strategic role in breaking the American offensive in South Vietnam.

Getting stuck in the Cu Chi Tunnels

One of the many ruthless booby traps. Stepping on the trap causes the barbed spikes to pierce and hook your leg

Rash emerging from a fox-hole, used by villagers to avoid passing patrols

The tour also took us to the temple of the Cao Daism, an bizarre religion that combines the philosophies of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Christianity (go to www.caodai.org to find out more). It was founded in the 1926, and at one point had thousands of followers, its own semi-independent state, and an army of 25,000 strong! The temple that we visited was possibly stranger than the religion itself. It looked like a picture out of a child's coloring book, decorated with primary colors, dragons, clouds, and silver stars. Their symbol is a human eye, which very similar to the eye on the back of a dollar bill. We got there in time to see the noontime prayer, which consisted of mainly elders dressed in white robes sitting in rows and chanting. Frankly, I was pretty weirded out by the whole thing.

Look at the fluffy white clouds!

Entrance to the Cao Dai Holy See Temple

In HCMC we also learned how to cross the congested and chaotic streets of Vietnam. Leslie equates it to an extreme sport as one just steps into the intersection and walks slowly into passing traffic. If you walk slowly, you will most likely not be hit because vehicles will make an effort to go around you. But if you walk quickly (as instinct tells us to do), you have a higher chance of being hit because drivers have a harder time anticipating your where you are going. But don't worry...we have now mastered the technique!

Sampling sea snails...rubbery!

Phnom Penh

We spent just a few days in the capital of Cambodia. What was striking to us was the lack of many towering buildings, most structures were no taller than 3 or four stories. Walking through the streets was an adventure in itself weaving around stalls, people, whizzing motorbikes and garbage.

One of the major sights to see in Phnom Penh is the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum. It is in the heart of the city and was a high school before it was converted into a "security" center by the Khmer Rouge to torture prisoners in the 70's. The prison was left much in the same condition as when it was found by liberating troops. Within, many photographs and captions illustrate the horrors that the Khmer Rouge inflicted on its own people.

In 1975, Khmer Rouge troops evacuated Phnom Penh by declaring that the US was going to bomb the city. City folk packed their things in a hurry and rushed out into the country side goaded by the gun-toting Khmer Rouge. Overnight, the country became a forced agrarian society whose major export was rice. Those with education were persecuted and tortured and the increasingly paranoid Khmer Rouge began to "reeducate" its own workers in security prisons. Curiously, many of the leaders of the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot included, were intellectuals who had studied at universities abroad.

The Genocide museum was an eye-opening experience to say the least. Rooms where bodies were found were eerily preserved, with a rusted bedframe, shackles, and a bucket all that was left in a room once used for teaching. It was shocking to us that a country could bounce back from such a grisly time so quickly. Everyone over 30 was directly affected or a part of what happened.

Barbed wire to keep prisoners from jumping out of the building to commit suicide

At the waterfront stands the royal palace and the national museum. In the evenings, the park in front of the palace is filled with locals enjoying the cool river breeze and relaxing with family and friends.

In the courtyard of the National Museum

One thing that we stumbled across while in Cambodia was a program called Child Safe. It is put on by a NGO named Friends and does great work in helping the street children of Cambodia. They provide schools and job training to help the children learn skills that will lead to success in the future. The opportunities and education that Child Safe provides keeps children off the streets and out of the way of the heavy negative influences that a life of poverty in the city can have.

Siam Reap and the Temples of Angkor

Siam Reap and the Temples of Angkor has been my favorite part of the trip so far! It will be very difficult to put into words just how incredible the last few days have been. It was as if someone thought, "What are all the things that make Rashmi and Leslie happy?" and then put all those things together in this one amazing place.

Angkor Archaeological Park is a collection of over 40 different temple ruins set 24 square kilometers of verdant Cambodian countryside. Each temple ruin can stand on its own as a unique and awe-inspiring sight, so it was quite overwhelming to be surrounded by so much historical and natural beauty! Because the landscape is very flat, and the temples are all so close to eachother, Leslie and I were able to explore the park on bicycles, our favorite mode of transportation.

The first temple we visited was Angkor Wat, a world wonder, and the most famous of all the temples. Angkor Wat is a massive, three-tiered pyramid crowned by five lotus-like towers rising 65 meters from ground level. It surrounded by a moat and exterior wall measuring 1300 by 1500 meters, and the temple itself is 1 square kilometer. We arrived at the entrance after a short burst of rain and were welcomed by a double rainbow arched over the the entire Angkor Wat!

Not only is Angkor Wat an architectural phenomenon, it is also a work of art - a rare preservation of the detailed and religous carvings unique to that era. The walls of the temple are covered inside and out with bas-reliefs from Hindu mythology and historical battels, and 2000 distincively-rendered apsara (mythical celestial dancer) carvings. Some of the engravings are so well preserved, it is hard to believe that they were created in the 12th century. We spent a couple hours wandering around the limestone hallways, admiring the detail and expansiveness of the artwork. We left Angkor Wat just as the sun was setting behind its towers, a sight just as breath taking as when we entered.

Sunset on Angkor Wat

We spent the next day exploring Angkor Thom, a 3 square kilometer, walled and moated city and the last capital of the Angkorian empire. Angkor Thom holds 12 different temple ruins set in a park of forest, meadows and streams. The only way I can describe it is magical. I felt as if I had walked into a fairytale! The following pictures will hopefully help convey the magnificence of this ancient city:

Face towers of the Bayon temple

Close up of the Face Towers of the Bayon

Rashmi exploring one of the more hidden temples

Terrace of the Elephants

A side gate to the Royal Palace

The third day we biked a twenty kilometer loop, exploring some of the temples that are a little more spread out. The bike ride was really pleasant because we were able to see a lot of the Cambodian woodland and the wind in our hair made the tropical humidity a lot more bearable. The following are pictures of some of our favorite spots:

Trees bursting over the ruins of Preah Khan

The overgrown temple of Ta Som

Posing for a prom picture at Pre Rup

Temple Mountain of Pre Rup

Rashmi engaged in a life-sized game of Jenga at Banteay Kdei

Fine example of bas-relief carvings at Banteay Kdei

On our last day we were a little templed out, so after stopping at a few ruins that we were unable to fit in the day before, we changed it up by hiking the trail on top of the wall that surrounds Angkor Thom. I had accidentally stumbled up on this trail two days before when I had gotten myself completely disoriented and found myself at the west gate of the city wall. There was a trail leading up to the top of the wall, and when I climbed up I was greeted with a quaint little path framed by trees, flowers and butterflies. It looked so inviting, I knew that I had to come back and show Leslie. So that last day we circumnavigated the 12 km permimeter of Angkor Thom.

The hike was really beautiful - we had great views of the surrounding country side with rolling hills, rice paddies, grazing cows, and the tree-lined banks of the moat. Each corner of the wall had a small, overgrown temple which provided a shady and peaceful place to take a short break and soak in the scenery. But what made it even more special was that we did not encounter a single tourist on the whole hike - they were all too busy running from temple to temple to take the time to explore the surrounding area.

Inviting trail along Angkor Thom's city walls

Nature 1, Humans 0

Sun Worshipping on a corner of Angkor Thom's walls

The evenings in Siam Reap were also enjoyable. We found a really nice place to stay called MotherHome Guesthouse. For $9 per night we got a very comfortable, well-furnished room with all the luxuries of a hotel in the US. The price also included free breakfast, free bicycles, free internet, and free drinking water! The first night Leslie and I tried our first (and my last) roasted cricket, a common Cambodian snack. Another night we watched a traditional Cambodian dance show. We also ate a lot of delicious Khmer food and fresh mangoes from the market.

Snacking on a cricket...Tasty!

A traditional apsara dance