Ho Chi Minh and the Mekong

All the motorbikes at the light ready to go!

Sleeper bus #2... much better than sleeper bus #1. Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) was our next stop. Here we spent time in the Vietnam War, or American War as it’s known in Vietnam, museums. It was remarkable how little animosity there was towards us as Americans. When we asked our tour guide about it he explain it as it’s in the past, no need to dwell on it and carry on hate… He also said that a lot of the population is young (born at the end of the war or after), a lot of the older generation stayed mostly home, not around in the cities (as their family cared for them) so we weren’t interacting with them as much. It was heartbreaking to read about and see all the images from the war, definitely led to lots of questions and reading more to find out more about the war.

Floating down the Mekong

Our homestay dinner!  YUM!

After a few days in the busy motor bike filled city of Saigon we made our way down the Mekong river towards Cambodia. We spent two days touring the Mekong, making stops at the floating markets, rice noddle making factories and enjoying one night at a homestay (where you stay with a local family, eat and cook (some) with them). Doing the homestay is definitely a great way to see the daily life of the locals and enjoy some good home cooked local meals.

Happy lady at the local market near our homestay.

Early morning coffee while floating down the Mekong... no problem!

Floating Market... the pinapple on the top of the boat shows that they are selling pinapples :)

Most of our time in Vietnam was spent in the cities and extremely touristy areas so it was exciting to see the daily life of locals on the river as we floated past.

Happy to help make some rice noddles :)

Facing My Fear

Biking past the rice paddies on our way to the beach!

Exit mountain trekking enter beach time! We traveled south to a small town called Hoi An, the home of tailors, anything and everything you would like can be made for you here. We weren’t terribly interested after seeing and trying on a few of the completely unflattering flowered jumpsuits they had for sale in the windows. Instead we rented some bicycles, $1, for the entire day, and biked our way to the beach along the rice paddy fields. The best food I’ve had in Vietnam was in Hoi An at this gourmet style street food restaurant called Morning Glory, amazing!

Fried Wonton... so amazingly good!

The next evening we were hoping on a night sleeper bus to Nha Trang, a beach town along the skinny center part of Vietnam. Our arrival at 6:30am in Nha Trang with a check in time for our hotel at 12pm meant that we quickly found ourselves longing on the beach and enjoying breakfast at the ocean front restaurants. Our time in Nha Trang was a bit of a recovery time spent lazing on the beaches and surprise, surprise scuba diving! I have strangely feared scuba diving and have attempted a few times only to bail before barely even starting. I say strangely feared, because you would think after being a competitive swimmer for 13 years I wouldn’t fear the water but it’s just the opposite, it’s my biggest fear! I had a one on one instructor and he was wonderfully patient, dealing with my million questions I threw at him. I think it also helped that he was a cute, French and had beautiful blue eyes, couldn’t bail… haha! Anyways, I had a wonderful time and can’t wait to go again, if we had had more time I probably would have taken the time to become certified! Maybe next year, I already can’t wait to go back!

Next up… Mekong river delta exploring!

It is a small world...



After our trek on Cat Ba island

As we complete our hike on Cat Ba island we climb up the viewing tower to enjoy the views and breeze and recover before our trek back down. As we are sitting there other trekkers are making their way up and doing the same, we begin chatting with a few of them including 3 boys who are deaf, coincidently Mimi knows sign language. As we or should I say she introduces us and ask all the introductory questions, names, where are you from, how long are you traveling, etc. I discover that they go to Galludet University in DC. A few moments later I wonder if they are from the area or just go to school there, quickly I discover that they went to the MD School for the Deaf, in Frederick, the one guy lives in Baker Park area and had Michelle Shearer (Ms. Meredith) as a teacher while attending the MD School for the Deaf. Incredible!

Halong Bay Cruzin'

Back in Hanoi off the night train at 6:00am we are greeted with a rain storm and dishonest taxi drivers trying to charge us three times the amount it should cost to get back to our hotel… grrrr, sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and go with it. Back at our hostel in Hanoi they are so gracious to supply us with a room to wash up in before we catch a bus to take us to Halong Bay. The next 3 days will be spent on the water, exploring caves, climbing to the highest point on Cat Ba Island and relaxing on the beaches.

The caves @ Halong Bay

After another long tour bus ride we arrive at Halong Bay and hop on the boat which would be our home for the next 24 hours. Already we can see the huge limestone cliffs towering above the waterline. The water isn’t the blue turquoise color that you would expect in the tropics but the limestone cliffs more than make up for the color of the water and as we get further and further from land the water does start to clear up some but never turns that beautiful turquoise color. We enjoy another delicious meal on the boat for lunch before spending the afternoon exploring caves and jumping off the boat for a cool afternoon swim. The boat tour isn’t quite the party we imagined it to be but we certainly make the most of it. Just before dinner we are to shower when the boat’s generated cuts out… no problem the top of the boat has sun beds and a stunning view to enjoy! Soon everything is back in order, showers completed and dinner on the table, complete with spring rolls we created, well rolled up! After a long day I was exhausted and quickly fell asleep. About mid way through the nigh I shot straight up in bed to the loudest thunder I have heard in my life, by morning the clouds had cleared and given way to another beautiful blue sky for our trip to Cat Ba island.

We made it!  Top of the mountain!

Day two on Halong Bay had us transferring to a different tour boat which we took to Cat Ba island. The morning hours were spent hiking/climbing up to view the green mass of the tropical forests of Cat Ba islands. We begin the hike ahead of the others in our tour group after our tour guide assured us that it was an easy straightforward path to follow, about 5 minutes in we hit a crossroad. The man standing there tells us to the left is hard and to the right is easy. We decide to take the easy way, which was far from easy. We get to the top and someone else tells us we went the hard way… oh well, the views are just that much more rewarding. On our way down we decide to take the “hard way” which they are telling us not to take… so maybe we did take the easy way up. We’re always up for a challenge so we dive down the hill towards the “hard” side. I wish I had had a video/pictures of this hike/climb down the mountain. The nigh before there were torrential downpours which left the mountain side extremely muddy and slick. As we made our way down I barely used my legs to climb down, I spent the majority of the time sliding and swinging from one tree to the next, including a few moments on my bottom… it was wonderful and we had a great time!

Incredibly crowded beaches on Cat Ba Island!

The afternoon we ventured to the beaches of Cat Ba which started as a relaxing afternoon/early evening on the beach but soon we discovered that the time to be at the beach in Vietnam is from sun down. For us we go to the beach to enjoy the sunshine, play in the cool water during the hot days but that isn’t the case for the Vietnamese. Around 4:30 when the sun starts to sink lower on the horizon and we find ourselves exiting the beach to clean up and go home for dinner the Vietnamese are flocking to the beach. No sun equals perfect time to venture outside and keep their skin beautifully pale and milky colored. To the same extreme that some of us tan our skin the Vietnamese work to keep their skin as pale and white as possible.

View on the trip back!

Sapa Trekking

Cities are great, new foods are delicious, the people are so intriguing but my favorite part of travel is seeing the beautiful landscapes around the world. That is exactly what we are off to do on our overnight trip to Sapa. Getting to Sapa required an overnight train, which I’m a total fan of considering it saves daylight travel hours. Upon our arrival in the tourist driven town of Sapa, high on the hill we were ushered off to begin our trek through the rice paddies. We were quickly introduced to our tour guide, who was dressed in the traditional village clothing. As we exited our hotel and began on our way we quickly realized this trek was going to be much different than other we had taken. Mimi and I are very accustomed to doing things independently or with only a few other people, especially when trekking. This day was vastly different, fist off our group was about 20 people full followed by nearly a 1 to 1 ratio of village women. In our truly American way, we are fiercely independent and want to do things on our own even if that means falling on our asses and getting a little muddy along the way. The trek through the ride paddies was muddy and some steps became a little precarious at times but nothing we couldn’t handle on our own. Every step of the way there was a local woman there to take your hand… you can imagine how much we cringed each time they tried to help us “I can do it, I’m fine, no, no no,” ripping my hand away each time. They were nice and it wasn’t anything they were doing I just can’t seem to let go of that fierce American independent attitude. Besides the hike being crowded the scenery was beautiful. The terraced rice paddy hill sides, the green green grass, the turquoise river rushing through the valley below us, it was all stunning.

That evening we stayed not in a hotel in town but at a home stay, which consisted of a mattress on the floor in the attic in a village home in the hills. We stayed there with an older couple from Malaysia/Australia and a young guy traveling on his own from Denmark. The evening was spent relaxing on the patio, exchanging travel stories and taking in the fresh air and sounds of nature. The family we stayed with was nice complete with a small giggling little girl and cute little puppies to play with. The next morning we awoke early had a quick breakfast and were off for another days trekking through the rice paddies.

Our homestay for the evening.

The cutest puppy!  I got to play with him all night :)

Bamboo forests covered in butterflies!

This day was much more enjoyable as it was only the 5 of us who stayed at the home stay the evening before. The beautiful sights continued on and it seemed that every time we looked up from where we were stepping the view was even more beautiful than the last time. Bamboo forests lined a lot of the trail during the second day and once they opened up it gave way to the beautiful sights of the river rushing through the valley below, stone walled terracing for the rice paddies, women bent over in the ride paddies, men driving the water buffalo through the fields and children skipping around selling items to tourist and jumping on backs of water buffalos.

Bamboo forests

Upon our return to Sapa we caught the bus out of town for our night train back into Hanoi. I find myself repeating how much I love my life and these adventures.

My favorite from the hike.

Loving Vietnam!

After a long, night flight which was partly spent sitting outside the Kuala Lumpur airport in an open air restaurant trying to stay awake at 2am until our flight 5 hours later, we finally arrived in Vietnam. We were greeted with friendly faces at the Little Hanoi Hostel and quickly shown to our room even though check in was nearly 4 hours away. A shower and nap was our first priority, once our feet hit the ground in the early afternoon it was non stop, so much to see and do! Hanoi is a great city and our hostel was located just next to the lake in the center of town.

First on the agenda, check out the sights and get our first taste of authentic Vietnamese foods, we are loving it! The food is so fresh and nutritious, my favorite is the unexpected burst of fresh mint in so many of the foods.


We swear each time we do a tour on a trip that we will never do another… it’s too structured, we don’t get to stay long enough or we stayed too long, the tour guide talks too much or doesn‘t tell enough… all the typical complaints of a tour. But once again we find ourselves booking another structured day trip, this time to the Perfume Pagoda. As we exit the city and enter the country side the scenery, of course, changes drastically from streets buzzing with motorbikes, cyclos, expensive cars, and street vendors beckoning to streets quietly lined with rice set out in the hot sun to dry, children carelessly skipping to one another’s homes, and old women sweeping their front steps.


Just like most trips I’ve taken it wasn’t a simple hop on the bus and a few hours later you’ve arrived kind of deal. Two long hours on the bus were followed by a 45 minute boat ride. This wasn’t any fancy luxurious type boat either… imagine a National Geographic documentary on the life of those that live on the river in Vietnam… that’s what we were riding in! Six western people and two Vietnamese ( I mention the nationality because for us 6 western people you could have probably fit 12 Vietnamese in our place… I feel like a giant here) Back to my point… we were gathered or should I say squeezed on this tiny boat and one single tiny Vietnamese women rowed us to our destination while we baked in the sun. Sometimes we joke about it or giggle inside when we see someone from Asia shielding themselves from the sun, keeping their skin as white as possible, completely opposite from our culture where we do almost anything to get a good sun tan but my oh my on this day I was one of the first to join in on this fad. Just like any other white girl from the US I love my sun tanned skin but on this day if not for the umbrella shield I was using I would have had quite a bit more then a beautiful glowing tan, more like a red lobster.

Perfume Pagoda cave

Our small row boat docked and we hoped off, hopeful that we had arrived at the Perfume Pagoda… not yet! First you must climb the hill… see that way up there… that’s where you’re going. The climb wasn’t the only option we could have taken a cable car up the hill, which most did, but of course we needed to be “tough” haha. Actually I’ve found from the past two years of travel the climb is usually the best part, especially when you get to the views at the top, besides the natural exercise you get from it gives you a high for the rest of the day and usually into the next. So after 30 minutes of powering up the hill, totally covered and dripping with sweat (probably the hottest day we’ve experiences in Vietnam), to the shock of our tour guide, we made it to the top of the hill and into the wonderful naturally cooled Perfume Pagoda cave! After 20 minutes inside the cave cooling off we made our way back down the hill, played with some puppies on the way, enjoyed some more wonderful Vietnamese food for lunch, hopped back in our tiny boat, onto the bus and back to Hanoi. It was a wonderful start to our adventure in Vietnam, little did we know it was only going to get better and better!

Catching snails