At last, Southeast Asia!

After a fun, but intense and tiring, few weeks in China, we finally made our way into our next Communist state, Vietnam. Despite the similar political philosophies, Vietnam has actually not been very similar to China at all so far! (I'm certainly not a history buff, but for those who are, I'm guessing this might not come as a big surprise... I don't think China and Vietnam are very good friends.) First, and most obviously... China blocked our blog, while Vietnam doesn't filter the internet at all (as far as we know)! Second, and more importantly, finding food in Vietnam has been MUCH easier. In China, I used to call it our Thrice Daily Challenge. There were very few restaurants in China that had English menus, and even in the restaurants that did, the waiters and staff almost never spoke English, so asking questions about the dishes was out of the question. In Vietnam, MANY people speak English and there are lots of restaurants that have English menus (not to mention stores, hotels, street vendors, and even beggars who have signs and information in English!). In fact, except for the ad hoc sidewalk restaurants that are usually set up by neighborhood families with little plastic tables and chairs and that usually only serve food that appeals to Vietnamese locals, almost all restaurants can accommodate non-Vietnamese visitors. As a side note, eating out in Vietnam is also very cheap! We usually spend about $2/person/meal here for mid-level restaurants. Third, the "backpackers trail" in Vietnam is a bit more clear than it was in China. As soon as we arrived in Hanoi, our hotel (which was only $10 with a nice bed, private bathroom, AND A/C!) and all of the surrounding travel agents (which made up about 25% of all of the surrounding commercial establishments) began to tell us about the local tours we could take and all the destinations we would want to go to next on our trip. We also discovered something called an "Open Bus Ticket," which Amit and I recently purchased, that will take us from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City (commonly referred to as Saigon, with no perceivable tension) with several stops in different cities where we can get on and off as we please for as many days as we please. Overall, our time in Vietnam so far has been much easier... and very enjoyable! We started off in Hanoi, where we spent a few days taking in the city sights, and then we took an organized tour (not our usual mode of travel, but this seemed like a good buy) to Halong Bay, a very scenic coastal area about two hours from Hanoi. On our three-day Halong Bay trip, we spent a day cruising the bay on a restored "junk" (fishing boat) and kayaking through the grottoes, a day hiking up a mountain on the largest island in the bay (Cat Ba Island), and a day biking along a mountainous road on Cat Ba Island. All very cool adventure activities... and topped off by nights sleeping in a beach bungalow on a private island in the bay! See pictures to the right... After our Halong Bay trip, we briefly stopped back in to Hanoi to swap out clothes, and then we set off on another short, four-day trip to the mountainous region in Vietnam's northwest, casually referred to by travelers as Sa Pa (actually the name of the most visited city in the area). The exciting things to see in this area are hill tribes (small groups of Vietnam's ethnic minorities who still live according to their ancient traditions), the local markets (which also provide a lot of hill tribe exposure), and the beautiful scenery... rolling, lush green hills/mountains and lots of beautiful rice paddy terraces. And on our visit, we got a lot of all of these things! Our first two days were spent visiting markets, which are only set up on certain days- Saturday, we took motorbike taxis to the Can Cau Village market and then on Sunday, we spent the morning wandering in the Bac Ha Sunday market, the largest and most exciting market in the area. At the Bac Ha market, you can buy local traditional clothing (this is where most of the women do their clothes shopping), vegetables, rice, meat, tourist souvenirs (e.g., purses, scarves, table clothes, chop sticks, Buddah statues), rice liquor, storage baskets, a plow or other farming tools, water buffalo, chickens, ducks, pigs, puppies, and pretty much all other life necessities. It was a terrific experience, but maybe more for the people-watching than the shopping. Amit got a bit tired of my obsession with the hill tribe women, but they were so unique in their dress and amazing to watch in their socializing! See more pictures to the right... Finally, on our third and fourth days in Sa Pa, we hired a local guide who is a member of one of the hill tribes to take us trekking through the hills and rice paddies. We started off the trip with a visit to the market to buy our food (much of the food in the villages is bought in the city and carried or biked in), and then we began our trek, taking the local "commuter" path that the hill tribe people take to get in to Sa Pa city, rather than the normal tourist route (hurray for having a great guide!). Our guide's aunt walked with us from town, and we ended up stopping at her home for lunch. Although we had brought our own food, the family of our guide's aunt asked us to join them for lunch and share their food. It was an amazing experience... about 10-12 family members came in from the fields to have a lunch of steamed rice and stewed vegetables. This was one of the most unique experiences of our two-day trek, because we got to experience a normal family in their normal life... not a special set-up just for tourists (as some of the things in these villages are). After lunch, we continued our trek through some terribly muddy but beautiful hills, and ended in a village of the Dzay people, where we stayed for the night. The next day we trekked through a Red Dzao village, again off the normal tourist trail, and despite my unfortunate fall into a rice paddy, it was an amazing day of scenery and people! In total, we saw five different hill tribes, all within 10 km of each other, all speaking different languages, wearing different clothes, and following different traditions. It was truly an amazing few days! In our first ten days in Vietnam, we've had some very positive, unique, and beautiful experiences. On the flip side, however, we have also been regularly fighting the unfortunate tourist price inflation (which many people warned us about in Vietnam), and I thwarted two attempts by pickpocketers to steal my wallet from my backpack (while it was on my back!) in Hanoi. So all is not roses and bon bons here, but overall we have gotten off to a great start in our second country in Asia. Please stay in touch, comment on our posts, and send us emails... we miss you! Lots of love, Dena (& Amit)

A neighborhood sidewalk restaurant in Hanoi (not for foreigners) Halong Bay One of the restored "junk" boats that litter Halong Bay Kayaking in Halong Bay Posing with my motorbike taxi driver, overlooking beautiful mountain scenery Amit at the Can Cau Market Hill tribe women selling fruits and vegetables at Can Cau The crazy Bac Ha Sunday Market Hill tribe girls shopping for new skirts Amit in the animal section of the market (those are pigs in the cage beside him) Our guide on the left and her aunt on the right (both of the Black Hmong tribe) The house of our guide's aunt Beautiful Sa Pa rice paddies and mountains Amit and me on our trek through Sa Pa