Jenna & Jason's Adventure Book: October 2010

When we first arrived into Hanoi it was hard to tell if there were more motorbikes or people surrounding the area. I think the final conclusion was motorbikes and the first thing we learned was that crossing the road is an art form! The key we found is to just keep moving - if you stop you will be dead meat - literally! We probably couldn't have spent more then a few days in Hanoi but the few we did spend there was incredibly stimulating on all levels - sounds, sights & smells. Its amazing how everywhere has such a distinct smell...
Side note: I was telling Jason the other day in Singapore that I could tell which MRT (subway) stop we were at by its smell. I think he thought I was nuts but I guess that's just what a heightened sense of smell will do to you.

Our friends Johnny and Litta from home came with us on this trip and our friend Quinn. I'm happy to report here is a video of us crossing the road successfully!

This lady had a good selling strategy...rope the tourists in by slinging bananas over them for photos and then they will buy your bananas from you...turns out they were the best bananas we had ever had, Jason thanked her and gave her hat back after paying. It was a pretty endearing experience...even if it was a tourist trap...

Obviously after all the traffic dodging we were hungry - we probably had one of our best meals at Green Tangerine a french influenced restaurant with a Vietnamese twist. Probably the best Pho I have ever had! We stayed one night at a cute little hotel, Conifer Boutique Hotel, in the french quarter before heading out to Halong Bay for our boating adventure.

On our way to the boat we stopped at an artists colony that supported people who were affected by Asian Orange. We bought this art piece - all hand stitched by this artist in the photo.

This was our junk (not really a junk just what they call the boats there) The Dragon's Pearl 3 was a beautiful ship and one of the newest on the waters. All booked through Handspan Tours and they did a great job on all accounts- there that was my plug for them...

Our room on the water :)

We frequently have the debate who has bigger muscles...

Life is rough.

Gorgeous sunset on the boat!

The next day we visited a floating village, Vung Vieng, and were paddled around by these sweet ladies, with probably bigger muscles then us, due to doing this everyday for tourists. They came up to the dock to greet us and even supplied the typical Vietnamese hats for us to wear.

After we said farewell to our two days in paradise we headed out to Sapa Vietnam, a busy little mountain town up north, on the overnight train. We spent the evening playing cards and drinking corn whisky (well not all of partook in that delicacy). We were rocked to sleep by the sounds of the clinking and clattering of the tracks, to arrive the next day at 5:20am in Sapa.

We were met in Sapa by our adorable yet witty tour guide, Mo, who stood no taller then 4'9 dressed in her traditional Hmong clothing other then her Adidas sneakers. She gave us some time when we first arrived to get breakfast and take a shower, unfortunately I think she left us just long enough to get food poisoning...bad news, but the good news is it didn't hit until the next day so I at least had one full day of trekking in Sapa.

On the overnight train!

I was able to stick around just long enough to see our hike to a local waterfall, encountering a few Hmong women trying to sell us various trinkets, a few goats, a few thousand rock steps and of course coming up with our favorite phrase of our trip "Reealllyy", which came from Mo. Every time we would say something she would say "realllyy?" Not sure which tourist taught her that along the way but it was particularly cute as she said it in her Vietnamese accent and of course the boys had a good laugh when they thought they could convince her of anything until she realized they were not as innocent as they appeared and fired back with a witty response, something along the lines of I'm not listening to you idiots anymore! She earned their respect :)

Here's Mo!

I had to buy something for this photo of this charming little lady

Hey look what I can do Mo!

The boys finished the morning trek with a cold swim.

In the afternoon we went on yet another trek up to the top of Ham Rong peak with a great view of Sapa! The photos look clear with blue skies here, but later that night it turned into a torrential downpour complete with thunder and crazy lightening.

Mo relaxing on the lawn, so cute!

The next day everyone went to Lao Cai & Ta Van village. I was in bed for this portion of the trip :( with that food poisoning that I spoke about earlier. But they had a great time hiking through the mud to the villages. They were joined by four little ladies that helped them through the hike in hopes of becoming enough of a friend in the end for them to buy some of their trinkets. They also visited a school in the village and had lunch at a local house/restaurant. I didn't get to experience this but I did get a very nice hand carved vase from my wonderful fiance!