Vietnam

So, I know I haven't posted in a super-long time. To make-up, I'm gonna make 4 different posts today; one each for Vietnam, Cambodia, Chiang Mai/Songkran, and one about my life in general in Thailand. First up: Vietnam!

You may have already seen the pictures. The links should still work if you want to look at them again. But on to the good stuff...

Vietnam was not what I expected. I only visited Northern Vietnam - four days is simply not enough time to cover an entire country. I went to Hanoi and this little town near the Vietnam-China border called Sapa.

Bed news first: I didn't like Hanoi much at all. Granted, I didn't spend much time there, but the time I did spend there was less than exciting or welcoming. Now, I understand that I'm American and that the Vietnamese (especially in Northern Vietnam) have plenty of reasons to hate me. But I felt so extremely unwelcome in Hanoi - a main tourist hub in Vietnam - I couldn't wait to leave. Erika and I took a cyclo instead of a cab at one point, just trying to save some money. We tried to pay the guy $3 after the ride, which is already a generous price (average price is 15,000 dong or just under $1). He made us feel so threatened when he wouldn't accept the money, and then some other guys came up and surrounded us, watching the scene... we finally just handed him $10 and walked away as fast as we could. Then, we checked out the "Hanoi Hilton", which is now a museum. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, but the museum definitely made it sound like the American POWs were treated like VIPs, complete with little chocolates on their pillows. I tried not to scoff out loud while I was there, though - I didn't want to get into any trouble, seeing as I'm already American. Oh, and nightlife in Hanoi? Forget it. Erika and I got to our hotel around 10pm, and there weren't even any restaurants open anymore. Very sad.

There were some good parts of Hanoi though. I visited the Jade Temple (or something like that), and got to see a giant embalmed tortoise! I also went to a traditional water puppet show, which sounds boring but was actually really fun. Oh, and I bought a North Face backpack, because North Face manufactures in Vietnam, and all the things with defects go to the streets and sell for $8-15. If you know anything about NF, you know that's a damn good price. And the defect on my backpack isn't all that bad - the shoulder straps are positioned lower than they should be, but a little adjusting of one of the other 1,000 straps on the backpack, and everything works great!

Sapa was the polar opposite of Hanoi. It was so incredible! I really loved Sapa. If you ever go to Vietnam - hell, if you ever go to SE Asia - that is one place I definitely recommend seeing. It's a quiet little mountain town, but it's still got so much life. Sapa's got a healthy tourist reputation, so you meet people from all over the world. In fact, on the plane from Bangkok to Hanoi, I was sitting next to this guy Luke from the Netherlands - we ended up running into him in Sapa too. He'd been to Sapa before and knew some of the locals, so we got to meet some of the nicest people in Vietnam. This one girl, Ha, works for her family everyday from 2pm till 6am as one of the people out on the streets that carries around a basket full of everything from bracelets to blankets to pants, all handmade in one of the villages near Sapa. She's one of the only vendors that knows English, though, so she makes money (and friends!) easier than the rest. She gave me, Alex, Erika, and Danielle all free bracelets - she was really cool. The rest of the vendors don't really speak English, so all they know is "Buy from me?!", and they say it over and over and over again, following you up and down the street. It's sad, but you literally have to ignore them if you don't want to buy anything.

Sapa was absolutely beautiful too. I mean, it's this little town set up in the mountains, with other little villages scattered all around it. We visited this one village called Cat-Cat; we walked all the way down into the valley and then back up, seeing all the animals and crops and buildings along the way. There was even a little waterfall at the bottom. Seriously, this was one of the best places I've visited while I've been overseas. It was amazing.