Dear Friends and Family,
It’s hard to believe we arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam only a week ago. This is our second visit. We were here 4 years ago. We spent 7 weeks falling in love with the country as we travelled from Hanoi southward to Ho Chi Min City. This time, we chose to explore a northern area, near the border of China.
Our flights from SFO to Hanoi felt like forever…13 hours to Hong Kong and a 1 hr layover, followed by a 3 hrs to Singapore and a 3 hr layover. Then we flew 3 hrs to Hanoi and took a “speedy” bus 45 minutes to lovely Hanoi Guesthouse in the Old Quarter. We couldn’t sleep on the planes, but we enjoyed our 3 hour layover in Singapore’s beautiful Changi airport. Linda had her calves massaged near the indoor gardens. Upon arrival at the guesthouse, we slept soundly in our flower-laden “honeymoon room” bed, even though the sleep/awake times are the reverse of California. Vietnam is 14 hours ahead of California! In the morning, we ate a great traditional Vietnamese breakfast of “pho” (rice noodle soup with your choice of meat). We then went off to explore the city and tried to stay awake until nightfall.
Hanoi was not as wonderful the second time around. Some things, like a first kiss, are the most magical simply because they are a first. Hanoi felt more touristy and less traditional. Except for a wedding party we happened across, we counted only three women in traditional Ao Dai, the silky form-fitting tunic worn with loose pants. On our past visit, we really admired that form of dress and found it to be part of the magic and charm of Vietnam. We did see lots of people in the traditional non la, conical sun hats.
Hanoi was crazy busy before, but seemed even more so now. Street crossing/walking was perilous! We felt like the motorbikes would mow us down, but somehow they slid past us, each other, cars, bicycles, and continuous stretches of street vendors spilling into the roadways. Alarmingly high number of motorbike drivers were on their cell phones! Cell phones were not so popular just four years ago. We adjusted to crossing the streets with the flow, but it took a couple of days. At first we kept doing the middle of the road squirrel dances!
The heat and humidity were just like we remembered, almost unbearable. The first day, Linda was pouring sweat and kept dabbing herself with Kleenex. In no time, she looked like a guy who got cut shaving, with bits of tissue all over her face and neck. After that experience, she used a bandana and a fan! Our seventh-floor room had a balcony that we enjoyed in the early mornings and late evenings. A famous Bun cha restaurant we revisited still served scrumptious bun cha. Sadly, they served it with scowls, rather than smiles. We think they are burned out on tourists. We’d recommend the copy-cat place next door, or one of the many other places now serving bun cha that are probably equally good. Bun cha is really tasty. It is a rice noodle soup with fried pork in it, mixed greens, and a lime squeeze, served with pork spring rolls. It all goes great with ice cold Hanoi “bia,” beer.
We were completely ready to escape Hanoi after two days. Our next stop was the spectacular Ban Gioc waterfalls on the Chinese border. Most visitors to the falls stay in Cao Bang, Vietnam. We took a 7 hr minibus ride through dramatic green mountains and valleys to Cao Bang. We have never seen such beautiful scenery! The mountains are limestone karsts, like we saw in Ha Long Bay, but covered with jungle foliage. Every inch of the landscape is covered in greenery. The terraced rice fields were just ready to harvest and heavily laden with grain similar to wheat, but very, very green and grown in small clumps, close together. The rice fields were interspersed with corn, sugar-cane, and lettuce. There were narrow canals with green water flowing everywhere. It rained for about half an hour on most days. The bus driver and the smiling locals were so kind to us foreigners, though no one spoke a word of English. At one of the rest stops, they shared some fruit with us and helped us order lunch. The driver went out of his way to drop us in front of our hotel. Our Jeanne Hotel room featured an enormous king-sized bed. We needed binoculars to see each other! Turns out, it was a “family” bed, meant to sleep up to five people!
Cao Bang was not as busy as Hanoi, but still frantic with 2 wheeled traffic. The heat and humidity let up in the morning and evening, a tiny bit. Outdoor markets were a wonder. There were absolutely no supermarkets or variety stores like Safeway or Wal-Mart. Different stalls, or tiny shops sold water, kitchen supplies, and/or clothing, but food is purchased at the street market. People slowly moved around on motorbikes, collecting plastic bags filled with bean sprouts, greens, rice, fruit, fish etc., meant for a future meal. Pedestrians, jostled by bicycles, motorbikes, and women with long bamboo poles slung over their shoulders, a large heavily-laden basket on each end, worked their way through the “aisles” as they shopped. Farmers bring in fresh fruit and vegetables, and animals for slaughter. We ate a bowl of pho on one of the teeny-tiny plastic chairs provided, while a woman was busily plucking a chicken a few spaces down. The “meat sections” included butchered pigs, fish heads, live fish, chickens, ducks, frogs, eels, and even weevils! Poultry is transported to market in cages woven from bamboo reeds, and then transferred to smaller cages by the buyer.
Food was inexpensive, except for Pedro’s authentic Italian pizza. It was a bit pricey, but a nice change of fare. The owner’s daughter was the only Vietnamese person in town we met who spoke English well. Contrast this with Hanoi and its many English savvy tourist venues. It felt good to be off the beaten track in Cao Bang, where very few tourists venture! People were as in awe of us as we were of them, and they weren’t shy…One lady in the market about Linda’s age shocked her by grabbing her butt and giving it a good squeeze! Linda took the woman’s hand away but she did it again, all the while chatting away in Vietnamese. She seemed to appreciate the shape. We have seen pants with built-in butt pads for sale here before. Maybe the woman thought Linda was wearing a pair. Ha! While standing at a crosswalk, a man went up to Bruce and physically tried to remove one of his flip-flops! He was selling low rubber heels that supposedly add comfort. We spent an otherwise peaceful few days in Cao Bang, checked out the river, took walks, played cards, and sipped Vietnamese coffee until we were buzzing like Jeff Goldblum in “The Fly.”
The Ban Gioc waterfalls were a 2 hour bus ride away, over the Ma Phuc pass, on winding mountain roads. As you can see by the pictures, the falls were awesome, and we could see Chinese tourists on the other side. The Ban Gioc falls are the fourth largest waterfalls in the world. The trails through the jungle to the different levels of the falls were closed off, probably because of the wet weather. We spent a couple of hours there, got some great photos, and took cover under our umbrella during a brief rainstorm. There were rice fields around the falls, so we walked around and saw them close up. Vietnamese scarecrows dotted the rice fields and butterflies were everywhere!
We returned to Hanoi during nightmarish 5 pm rush hour traffic. We were besieged by taxi drivers and got a good deal from one who managed to get us back to Hanoi Guesthouse in only 1 hour for $6.67 (150,000 dong). The traffic scene was unbelievable, countless motorbikes and cars fighting for space, inching their way home. Our driver rubbed the belly of his Buddha statuette, kept his composure, and never once honked his horn.
Today, our last day in Vietnam, we walked around Hoan Kiem lake, revisited temples and pagodas, and wandered around the Old Quarter. Many of the streets are named for the products sold, Hang Bac, “Silver St.,” Hang Bo, “Basket St.,” Lan Ong, “Traditional Medicine St.,” etc. Bruce bought a pair of sandals on Hang Dau, “Shoe St.” We found our bus stop location for tomorrow mornings return to the airport and our flight to Osaka, Japan. We ended the day with a delicious vegetarian dinner.
Tam Biet, (good-bye), for now. We’ll write again soon. Love, BnL
Love, BnL 
bnlmos 