tisiwoota

I figure while sitting in one airport (Oakland) it’s as good a time as any as to post these pics from another. The sculpture depicts a legend about Hindu gods and demons using a giant snake to churn the milky ocean to extract the nectar of immortality.

I went to Sapa via a tour company affiliated with Sapa Summit Hotel. I’m told that it can be pretty difficult to book a train ticket there without being part of a tour, especially on a weekend, since the agencies book many tickets in advance. I’m glad I shopped around though– most of the two-day/three-night tours I’ve seen advertised around Hanoi (by Sinh Cafe, Kangaroo Cafe, and smaller operations) were over $100 US. My tour was well below that figure, but quite satisfactory (and though the hotel was “only” two stars, the room was a good size, had AC & a bathtub, and the view was great… with just the minor carp that it didn’t have high-speed internet).

Anyway, the itinerary went like this:
1. Eight-hour overnight sleeper train from Hanoi to Lao Cai.

DAY 1
2. Minivan for about an hour to Sapa Town itself.
3. Check-in around 7am-ish, eat breakfast in downstairs restaurant (included in price)
4. Free time for several hours, then short tour of nearby villages from 2 to 5pm-ish? led by a local H’mong girl.
5. Brief stint in central marketplace (lots of handmade textiles and crafts), then dinner (again included in price).

DAY 2
6. Checkout in early AM, leave for 10 kilometer tour at 9:30AM. Tour groups generally have 6 people per guide, but due to sickness/pregnancy concerns of several members, my group consisted of me and two other people (one from Australia, the other originally from Romania but living in London). We were also accompanied by several even younger Hmong girls, who spoke English better than many workers in Hanoi. The trail was very muddy, especially going downwards, so they were a help for many big or ungainly westerners who needed steadying (or at least pointers on where to step). For the most part, I exclude myself from that category of tourist– um, except for the one time I slid down a small embankment when I tried to find a new way around an extra-gloppy patch. On the plus side, our slothly, low-impact jaunt through the muddy stretches (including pretty much the entire downward portion of our trek) meant that none of us got very sore.

And fortunately the ickiness was worth it– the scenery was beautiful and we got to stop by several villages inhabited by people from a handful of different ethnicities.

7. In the mid-afternoon we went back to the hotel, where we showered in an outbuilding (since we had checked out already) and ate an early dinner. For some reason we were dropped off at the train station two hours early; which was a pity since it would have been nice to linger and see more of Sapa Town itself. This last night was less restful for me since I’d booked my tour too late for a sleeper car and instead had to take a normal train seat for the night. At least we got in so early (5am) that I was able to sleep in my hotel bed for several hours before having to do anything requiring any degree of alertness.

Anyway, it was a fun time and hopefully sometime in the future I’ll have a chance to take a longer trekking tour, perhaps one involving a homestay.

Speaking of Sapa, here’s a clip of two young H’mong girls chatting with a little tourist (and helping her with the grass garland on her head, I think).

Another notable thing about Ho Chi Minh City was the proliferation of bats above every street after dusk. They are fairly plentiful in Hanoi as well, but not quite as many as in HCM. As a former card-carrying member of Bat Conservation International for over a decade, this sight was very pleasing to me. It also made me speculate whether the relative paucity of bats in US cities is reflective of a less robust ecosystem overall. (Besides bats and birds, I saw some sort of tawny owl at one point as well).

And in Sapa, I found a huge glut of dragonflies– just dozens and dozens hovering around and darting about. I imagine that’s what it was like in the dinosaur era– except with dragonflies twenty times the size. An amazing thing to picture…

So, the other night in Saigon there was a massive motorbike rally after Vietnam’s soccer team advanced into the Asian cup for the first time ever. From teenage boys to families with babies, people were riding for hours in a loop of city blocks at the heart of downtown District 1, cheering and waving flags. Quite a spectacle– and people got so ridiculously excited by my merely taking pictures of them as they passed by, that when I walked by a woman selling small flags for less than a dollar, I figured hey, why not amuse the crowd even more?

At first I carried the flag in my hand and walked beside the motorbikes, but soon felt too self-conscious to actively wave the flag. So I pulled up my hair and stuck the flag in my ponytail instead. Much better. So I walked along for a while, and it seemed to make a lot of people’s nights– lots of cheers and laughing, a few people (including what seemed to be professional-photographers) asking to take my picture. So it’s very possible I’m in some random publication or other…

And better, a clip of the rally– which ends with a cute Vietnamese girl wearing a USA top.

And the thing I’m kicking myself for is that I accidentally deleted a clip a small band (drums, other instruments) who paused at a monument to strike up some patriotic song that got everyone into a(n even greater) fervor.

I just learned that last year there was some big debate on the intarweb about which is better (for expats), Hanoi or Saigon. Article here.

The clear answer; as I’ve implied before, is Hanoi– with the caveat that HCM has more higher-paying job opportunities for foreigners. Other than that, in terms of _living conditions_, Hanoi is far better. Sure, it lacks some fancy amenities (omg, the motorbikes are manual rather than automatic? Troglodytes) but it’s _beautiful_, whereas Saigon is… under construction. Constantly. Hanoi is charming even on many of the worn down streets, and the interactions with people on the street are far friendlier.

Thirty years after the end of the war between communist North Vietnam and US-backed South Vietnam, the two regions continue to have distinct accents, cuisines and customs - and many in each city centre tends to consider the other inferior.

Trendy Saigonese often consider Hanoians plodding oafs clinging to the past - as opposed to the southern city’s bright lights and bustling markets. Hanoians tend to see Saigonese as crass money-grubbers, lacking in culture - unlike the 1,000-year-old capital’s serene temples and lakes.

It makes me feel motivated to invent an appropriate hand gesture to express North Siiiide...

So the law firm I’m working with in Hanoi is paying for my stay at Memory Hotel as compensation. I don’t think it’s particularly interesting to see what it looks like, but apparently other people do. Here’s the outside:

The small lobby:

A shot from my room:

(on the opposite side, there’s a TV, mini-fridge, and bathroom. And there is one small window).

It’s a totally fine place for the price (A/C, and sometimes blessed with stolen wireless from across the street) but I’m definitely looking forward to staying in a nicer place the next few nights courtesy of the NGO. (And by the way, I’ve arranged to work remotely from the law firm while traveling to NGO meetings– basically lawyers there will email me documents as they need them reviewed.)