No Love From China

Well no pictures to go with this posting... yet. We're back in Hanoi and trying desperately to get out! China is next on the list and we're already running late. We wanted to be there at the beginning of May, but Vietnam is a vortex that just sucks you in. Unless you have to be out, it is easy to loose track of time.

Problem we have now, getting our China visas. Tomorrow our Vietnam visa expires and we have yet to even get in the door of the China embassy. They just opened the doors after a 2 week hiatus and the numbers that need visas don't match their very limited and sad ability to accommodate such demand. They open their doors for 2.5hrs only per day, and for the last 2 days we have waited in line without even getting near the gate. Unfortunately it has taken us the 2 days to realize that they are only processing about 20 people per day.

Our plan: Derrick gets to sleep on the sidewalk tonight on the streets of Hanoi! The only way we're going to make it in is if we're first in line, and that is what we intend to be. I'll be on the front lines while Jillene runs supplies like beer and kebabs. We should be able to get our visas in one day, but it'll cost us the outrageous fee of $120 US to do so. We'll deal with the Vietnamese authorities regarding the 'over stay' on our Vietnam visa when we get to the border. We just hope that few else have the same idea. 20 people isn't very many with the crowds we're seeing.

If that doesn't work we'll have to do something drastic like fly to Bangkok and arrange a visa there, and then another flight into China. Lets hope it doesn't come to that, and that our next entry on the blog will be from China. Fingers crossed... we'll let you know how it turns out. Hope all is well for everybody back home.

With Love,
Derrick and Jillene

Sapa

Off to Sapa by train. A mountain town in the north of Vietnam. People go here for the beautiful views and to take in a little culture of the 'ethnic minorities'. By what seems like Vietnamese tradition we were sold hard sleeper seats at soft sleeper prices, and we were off to Sapa over night in anything but style! Not a ton of room, but we managed just fine...
All worth it when you greeted with such views.

Then you get to town and are greeted with this! All these ladies, and only one of me. These tribal ladies are all very good humoured and very friendly, but make mistake, they are fierce sales women.We did a little hiking out of town just to see stuff like this...But as always we took to the road to get further out of the crowds. Start with a paved road which still shows you some beautiful country side, and interesting sights. But then pick a dirt road and drive as far as you can. We were rewarded countless times with some beautiful scenery and warm greetings form the tribal people in their village.
Rule number 1, never be daunted by anything in your way. The 100cc Honda wave will go anywhere!
These 2 pictures speak for themselves.

One thing tourism has apparently done for Sapa is allow for well fed kids. This baby was a monster! No hungry kids here...
More friends made. This girl is amazingly 19 years old. She was married when she was 16 and already has 1 baby. An incredible girl with a great personality and unbelievably smart. Yet she has 'very little' school behind her as she put it, and can barely read or write. Doesn't know much about dates or months really, just seasons. I have little doubt if she were born in a western country she would be a doctor or something of the like.
Stopping the bike along the way for a pretty picture.
Don't worry, it didn't work. Jillene is now safely back with me in Hanoi.

Hanoi And Halong Bay

Oh crazy Hanoi... if we could only escape it! We do like it here, it is a great city, but a person only needs so much (more on that later). You do get so see great things like below. Who needs delivery trucks when you have 100cc Hondas.A change of profession. Jillene takes to selling fruit on the street. Little time was wasted and we were off to Halong Bay. A gorgeous group of lime storm islands with steep cliffs jutting out of the green water. A truly beautiful and relaxing place to escape from the loud streets of Hanoi. We spent 2 days one night here on a boat cruise. Oh, and we weren't alone. There were hundreds of other boats as well. Below is how they park. Anywhere else in the world and I am sure the neighboring boat captain would pull out his gun...But if you think you're safe here from the children/adult vendors you were mistaken. When there is no land to follow you on, they do so by boat.
We did some kayaking, and below is a small cave/tunnel in one of the islands. Go through and on the other side you have a beautiful cove. The only way in by water is through this small tunnel! Storybook type place, just amazing...

And a few views that speak for themselves.
A small fish farming village. Their homes are essentially built on floating docks.

Halong Bay in the morning after 1 night on the boat. A great place to wake up...

Hoi An And Hue

Next stop Hoi An. A great little town with a nice beach HUNDREDS of tailors. Wants anything made cheap, spend some time here and you'll have a bawl. Some people say there is some nice architecture here and that is why they come. I think their just closet tailor fiends...

Like everywhere else in Vietnam, the women are sun haters. This women demonstrates that well, can't leave the house without mask, full arm gloves and your cone hat! Don't worry, it's only 35 degrees outside.

Jillene loves to make friends. Believe it out not this women asked for her picture to be taken with Jillene. And no the shutter didn't snap at a bad time. This women exudes friendliness! Jillene, she warms everybody up...
Okay, we couldn't help ourselves. Jillene made a couple of these - and other things! And I made a couple shirts as well. When in Rome...Did a day trip out of Hoi An to Danang and China beach via Marble Mountain. This is Marble Marble Mountain. I'll give you 3 guesses what it is made of. The locals here take the marble and carve below. There are hundreds of shops with thousands of carvings in each shop. This is just a small sample of their skill. The stuff is amazing. If we only had a container that could follow us where ever we go and then be shipped home...
One of the temples on Marble Mountain. "No thank you, I don't want to buy some incense, can't you see I'm trying to pose for a picture"? Can't escape from it!

Onward to Hue. Nearly got stuck here because we arrived during the Vietnamese Liberation Holiday Long weekend. Had to give up on some bus tickets already purchased and buy new ones just to get out. Managed to see some sites before doing so though. Below is the Citadel, inside the Forbidden City, and a few thousand Vietnamese vacationers. A market in Hue. Pretty standard stuff for Vietnam. Big place, packed tightly with hundreds of stalls all selling the same thing.
Oh yeah, it rained here. Just a little though...
Did a river cruise that took us to a number of tombs built by past emperors. Below is one of them. Some great sights of local people along the , all the different boats and their daily activities.

Dalat and Nahtrang

Went from the beach to the hills - which they call mountains - of Dalat. A beautiful little town with surrounded by some great scenery and the opportunity to escape from the tourist trail. We did what we seem to always do and used Dalat as our base and by way of motorbike toured the country side and villages most people don't know of or see. How do we pick them you ask - we don't, we pick a road, drive as far as we can and see where it takes us. Most times we get lucky, in Dalat out luck continued... But before that we had to do the 'tourist' thing and see all the sites that are on the tourist map. This included a number of waterfalls and parks. All nice, but none overly spectacular. They are however on the local Vietnamese tourist's to do list and in turn have been turned into amusement parks instead of a park like we would find at home. Not kidding, below is how we made our way down to a set of falls. You could hike down if you wanted for free (after paying your $.75 admission) or you could pay a little more ($1.50) and ride this roller coaster cart down. Now what would be more fun? So fun we made 2 trips to the falls.

Other funny things the Vietnamese like to do in their amusement parks is dress up like cowboys/cowgirls and get your picture taken with a horse. It is too funny! This horse obviously was as excited about the idea as we were, as he was struggling to stay awake. We've never seen a horse do this before... he couldn't keep his head up and would rest it on this stool then fall asleep. When his legs would give out and he would start as if he was going to lie down he would jolt awake. We love this picture of him sleeping...
Once we had our fun we were off exploring on our motorbike. We made it through some great villages and travelled about 60kms on some 'barely road' to get here.
Coming into another village. You can always tell when you're somewhere most tourists don't go, because the kids are way happier to see you. It is a novelty to see white skin and they go nuts.

This road was a little nicer (just outside Dalat), but as you can see we had to fight traffic. A storm that got us. Doesn't look as daunting as it did in person. And we had to drive through it unfortunately. Never in my life have I got so wet so fast...Next to Nah Trang. A beautiful beach, and a great town to get some more sun. Had to be careful here, it was easy to get stuck here with the great/cheap food, great accommodations, and easy life.
Where else in the world can you get fresh lobster and crab served to you on the beach?Did a four island tour and some snorkeling from Nah Trang. Was a good time and the snorkeling was okay. They treated you right though and as you can see laid out a great feast.They also went out of their way trying to make it a good time. At on stop they put out one of their staff on a little boat to create a swim up bar. People were slow to follow, but as you can see I kind of liked the idea. Jillene was right behind me...