Christmas

Christmas Dinner (lunch) was on a rock. To get to the rock from Hanoi took 8 hours on a train, 1 hour on a bus, 45 minutes in a jeep and 5 hours hiking. Lunch was 2 bread rolls, 1 piece of cheese, 1 hard boiled egg, 1 cucumber, 1 tomato, 1 banana and a bottle of water. For company I had Penny, Erin and our guide who was a 15 year old Vietnamese girl called Chai. It was a fair bit different to usuall. Since the bus ride in the last blog we'd spent 3 days in Hoi An getting clothes and shoes tailor made for us. This was meant to be 1 night but once we got our first order of whatever back Penny and Erin needed "maybe just one more pair of boots" and a skirt and jacket and shirt and whatever else. And as we were staying anyway the extra shirt and shoes that I got meant nothing. I was happy to stay anyway because I could have spent many days going round the old town and little shops in it. Once we did manage to get out of Hoi An we spent 7 hours travelling to Hue, 5 hours on a motorcycle tour of Hue and then straight on to the 14 hour bus trip to Hanoi. From Hanoi we did a three day boat tour Halong Bay which included many a fine feast, killer monkeys, falling 3.5 metres down a hole in a cave, having way too much home brewed rice wine and "medicune wine" and swimming 500 metres in the middle of the night to another boat to get Tiger beer for 10 cents cheaper than on our boat. I guess that would make a good blog one day. But on the night of the 13rd we were on the sleeper train heading for Sapa, a small village in the mountains of north-western Vietnam. The scenery around Sapa is the most fantastic I've ever seen. Our hotel was high up on mountain with a view down onto the rest of the town and out onto mountains that rose much higher again. In the morning the sun would come up behind the mountains creating tremendous silhouettes with rays of light shooting out around them. During the day the bright sun would reflect off the river as it wove its way through around the base of the many overlapping mountains. At night the clouds would settle in the valley below us only occasionally rushing up the mountain to envelop us in an icy fog before blowing away again just as fast.

On Christmas eve the hotel threw a party on the balcony just outside my room. With about 10 Vietnamese people and 10 tourists sitting around a small bonfire toasting spicy pieces of pork marshmellow style and attempting to start singalongs while constantly toasting each other with shots of a strong but sweet tasting 'apple wine'. The most vocal of the toasters was three young girls dressed in the traditional clothes of the many tiny villages that surround Sapa. These girls, who were proudly proclaiming that they were up to their 8th or 9th shot, looked only about 12 but were apparently 15. They outdid me completely as not only was the memory still strong of the after effect that the rice wine I drank in Halong Bay had, but I was also concerned about having to get up at 8am the next morning to set out on a long hike. This excuse, however, stand up so well once I found out that one of the youngest looking girls was actually our guide for the next two days.

On christmas day itself I was up and happy at 8 in the morning only to hear the old British bloke that I'd shared the room with tell me that "it had been pouring out" of him all night and that due to "the shits" it was probably best if he didn't go on the two day hike. Oh well, it was just me Penny and Erin again with our guide who impressively showed up at 9 on the dot with a big smile on her face saying "10 apple wines no problem for me, lets go".

The hike was amazing. Up and down and around mountains. Through dense forest and stepped rice paddies. From tiny village to tiny village where the women were weaving, looking after kids and tending to animals while the men were out working in the rice paddies and forest. We walked past water buffalow, pigs, chickens, dogs and a black and yellow striped snake. We walked up and down paths that were so steep every step involved a risky calculation of balance and slipperyness. We walked around sheer cliffs on a thick bamboo pole that was strung up by thin bamboo rope. And half way was the Christmas dinner.

Late in the afternoon we made it to the small village and the large, open bamboo house where we were to spend the night. The family who lived in the house did not speak english so we didn't learn much but just to see their house and how they lived and eat the huge meal that they prepared for dinner was worth the hike and more. We slept in an open, loft style area just above the family's own two beds. In the morning we milled our own rice flour (a token amount compared to what they had, its hard work) and cooked pancakes to eat with banana, lime and sugar. A bit more of a hike, a swim or wade in the river under a water fall, a bit more of a hike and then we were at a road and a waiting jeep. The following drive back to Sapa was the only truly scary drive I've ever had in my life. The road was cut into the steep mountain side with a sheer drop right next to it. It had potholes so deep that I've got bruises and a small cut on my knee from councing so hard that I hit the roof and the seat in front. But what made it truly scary was that the road was still being built. A few times we had to wait up to 20 minutes for the bulldozers, front end loaders, steam rollers and other heavy machinery to finish flattening the newy laid rocks and let us pass. Once a traffic jam formed as trucks from both directions on this narrow dirt road covered in heavy machinery were just going for it and trying to push their way past anything in front. About ten cars, trucks, motorbikes and a steam roller were jammed, facing in all directions. The reversing and manouvering that was needed to get through this was incredible as back wheels went over the edge, people on motorbikes climbed over cars and drivers tried to direct other drivers out of the way. I was sitting in the back seat on the side of the cliff and just as we got through the jam and were picking up speed a chip into the road appeared. With my face right up against the window i couldn't see any road below us. The back wheels hit the missing section of road and the whole back half of the car slipped about 10cm towards the cliff, skidded a bit and then got out, back onto the normal dirt track. I've been on the rides in Disney Land but that road was so much better.

While waiting in for the train back to Hanoi on the night of the 26th we went to China to fill in time. The border was only about five minutes on the back of a motorcylce. It was night so I couldn't see much but at least I can now say I've been to China, not actually on Chinese territory but standing next to the river that is the border has to count as being to China. The train arrived in Hanoi at 5 in the morning and we got a taxi straight to the airport for our flight to Bangkok. Vietnam was amazing and I already want to go back some time to see it in greater detail.