12th June - Mai Chau

Our stilted house seemed to amplify sound and so we had quite a restless night of shouting villagers, cockerels and early-rising locals passing on the morning's news at full volume.

We took a walk from the village to the local town with Toke. Not much at all to see but we did duck into the shade of a covered market and came out with a parasol brolly and a new fruit knife in the shape of a fish that Matt accidentally aggressively bargained for.

To avoid the dullness of the town, we ventured down a few alleys and made our way back through the rice fields in the baking heat. I was really grateful for my umbrella but have no idea how people manage to work at those humid temperatures. It's very humbling.

We were in a different area to yesterday's rice-field walk but you could see how everyone was on a very similar schedule and that progress had been made since yesterday. More of the houses in the village had big piles in rice or were drying the husked grains on big tarps in the street.

We considered moving to somewhere cheaper but liked the atmosphere at the place and felt too lazy and cheeky to pack up and then come back for dinner so we spent evening chilling and chatting with Toke. We learned a new card game and found out that Denmark has more pigs than people before saying our final goodbyes and heading to bed.

11th June - Hanoi to Mai Chau

We said our goodbyes to the wonderful Tuey and her helpful staff at Viet Fun and followed the man who came to collect us to take us to the bus. The man was much more helpful than any tour guide we've had so far so we were sorry he was only taking us to the end of the road. 

It turned out that instead of the huge crush of a full consignment of backpackers and their hefty bags squeezing on to the minibus, there was just Matt and myself. It was pure luxury - but only while we were stationery. It also made Matt's ticket search of yesterday quite entertaining as there must have been a very patient man at the end of the phone agreeing to the same price each time.

We bounced around mountain roads and our driver stopped for us to take pictures over-looking an impressive vista. Very soon afterwards we had a terrifying near death experience as some girl pulled out in front of our speedy minibus on a push-bike. The driver slammed on the brakes and swerved, leaving half of the tyres on the road and the bus filled with the pungent smell of burning rubber but thankfully avoided the girl. Even the driver was shaken up and so it wasn't so long after he'd climbed out and berated the girl that we stopped for a cup of tea.

The place may have been a restaurant-type affair but was filled with huge pieces of wood that had been carved into sculptured animals and big pieces of furniture. We sat with the driver as he investigated Matt's phone, drank tea out of tiny cups and stared at a giant wooden toad before setting off again.

The bus dropped us off at The Nature Place in Mai Chau where there were already lots of people sat having a delicious looking lunch. Matt went for  quick check around a few of the MANY other homestays but nothing else stood out so we decided to stay and join them for food.

We sat with a very nice Japanese couple and found out that the group had been there on an organised tour for a couple of days but that it had been too hot for them to get up to much. We were joined by their tour guide who was a very friendly and chatty young Vietnamese woman who showed us lots of interesting photos on her phone. She had started organising photography trips for tourists around some of the more beautiful areas of the north. They were really catching on but she had trouble promoting them further or responding to requests because, even though she spoke great English, she could not read or write it.
Just before the bus set off, Matt noticed a missing wheel nut that he thought might not be so great on the twisty mountain roads. He mentioned it to the driver and he didn't care a jot so we waved goodbye to the group and hoped that they got there okay.

We wandered the village for a while and explored some of the local handicrafts that most of the houses had on sale. It was much more low pressure than we expected and in many of the places, they were too busy having their afternoon nap to even notice us.

One of Matt's favoutire stalls made basic but effective bamboo pellet (stone) gun and some rather hefty-looking crossbows. Thankfully he concluded that they were a little bulky for our luggage and that we may struggle to get them onto a plane and o we left them and the village and headed off throught he rice paddies.
In most of the countries that we have visited, we have spent many hours looking out of bus windows and watching them working the fields. I've often wished to be closer and see more but they are very far-removed from the bus stops in major tourist towns and difficult to get to. Even if we could get there, the idea of just strolling through while everybody toils away seemed ridiculous and rude but today, that's just what we were encouraged to do and just what we did and it was great.

Men and women of all ages wore their conical hats (sorry I don't know the name!) and maxi-cover clothes as they waded through the water-logged fields, scything, bundling, piling and carrying the harvest. Many said hello or smiled at us as we passed and none of them seemed at all annoyed that we were there.

We tried to walk up one of the huge hills and couldn't find a path and so just meandered down the main road for while. Groups of farmers sat by the roadside having a bit of a rest and a chat while other individuals scooted past us on nbikes piled high with crops. Big, scary ox rested by the roadside and stared at us as we passed. Some houses were already working on the seperating the grain from the stalk using pedal-powered machines and called 'hello' as we passed. A few more had no anumals to feed the stalks to and so were burning piles of them, sending  plumes of sour smoke into the road and air.

On the way back to the village we came across two groups of women carefully heaving and steering their carts of crops down the narrow, raised paths between the fields. They stopped to gather their breath before having to attempt the steep slope that we had just walked down. After a short exchange of gestures and words, we helped them trundle their carts up the small hill. They loved this and were delighted at our joining in. The carts were heavy though and I imagine probably the last thing you want to deal with after a long, hard day harvesting in the hot sun.

Back at the homestay we were given such a large amount of food that we wondered if we were expected to help ourselves and pass the rest on but apparently not. A Danish guy came over and had dinner there too and he was given almost as much to himself and so we heartily tucked in, enjoying the break from noodle soup. We were also given rice wine, decanted from a 10 litre container into a 2 litre one and then served by the cupfull. They give bigger servings of tis pure ethanol brew than they do their tasty coffee.

We chatted to Toke for a while then Matt went to bed as I went with Toke to try and find the 'bonfire, music and dancing' we had been told about and encouraged to go to. After a few wrong turns down very dark paths with no torch to rely on, we finally stumbled across the only thing that resembled what had been described to us. There was no bonfire and it looked like a private show that had been put on for a tour group but we stood with the locals at the other side of a broomstick barrier and watched for a while. It was very similar to the life-based dance that we had seen so often in Asia and though it is nice to watch, I really struggle understand why, after such a hard day toiling and working in the fields, they would want to dance about working and toiling in the fields.

It was quite relaxing though and we soon wandered back to our respective stilted house to get some rest.

10th June - Hanoi

This morning we finally sold the bike. 200 long-awaited American dollars were handed over by New Yorker Norman and his Vietnamese girlfriend. It wasn't as much as we'd hoped but we were glad to finally be able to move on.

I showered and got hooked on back-to-back episodes of Glee (I know!) while Matt went in search of bus tickets to Mai Chau. They were originally twice as expensive as we'd thought they'd be and so he trailed from place to place trying to find out the best price. He eventually realised that they were all just continually calling the same place and so came back to our hotel to book them from there.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful: the highlight being our search for machine lubricant for my Ladyshave and Matt's multi-tool so probably best not to dwell on that too much.

We spent the evening at our favourite haunts for our celebratory goodbye to Hanoi. We went to Beer Hoi 45 again for our last few jars and then popped to the noodle stall at the end of our road to squat on teensy stools and stuff our faces. After several days of waiting to leave, it was almost sad to be finally going.

9th June Hanoi

Woke up with a bit of a hangover. I printed out more bike adverts to replace the ones that had been removed over night. 

Decided to wander through the french quarter to Lenin park which is between Thien Quang lake and Dao Hoa lake.  Just before the entrance to the park was an old SEGA arcade which was dark and dingy inside and had most of the machines switched off. One of the few machines working was air hockey so we had a quick game.

Had a wander through the park, watched people fishing and a man playing on his own with a paper plane. The park has a few old fairground rides, some of which are covered in rust and some which look like they might not be so deadly. The park also has a "muscle beach" style workout area full of muscular Vietnamese men.

Just outside the park we stumbled across a frozen yoghurt store where we could pick our flavours and toppings. It turned out to be fairly expensive but was lovely. Being all modern I decided to have a look on Foursquare for recommended food places nearby and we set off to a food stall nearby. After a few minutes walk we were at the location shown on the map but couldn't find the correct place so we we just sat at the nicest looking street stall and ordered some Bun Rieu Cua which we'd never heard of but looked good. It turned out to be crab noodle soup and was as good as it looked.

Wandered back in the general direction of the hotel, past the opera house and towards the lake. We walked into a small square where skateboarders were attempting to jump some steps so we stayed and watched them for a while before heading back to the hotel for a nap.

We'd been craving lychees for a while and there's normally at least one person selling them on the street near our hotel but not tonight so we wander around a few streets with no luck until heading back and bumping straight into a woman selling them from her bike right near the hotel.

8th June - Hanoi

A pretty uneventful day. We've seen pretty much everything that there is to see in Hanoi. Despite being crazily busy, there isn't that much to do other than a few museums that we're not really interested in and going to see Ho Chiu Min's body at the Mauseleum - which we're never up in time for.

A good few hours were spent looking for a pair of shorts for me. New clothes are always a bit of a trial because Asian women are so tiny and I am not. I tried to look at some things on a stall in the huge indoor market but got my hand slapped away by the woman, who gestured that I was too fat for them.

I found a pair in a shop that had been recommended as selling 'big' sizes by Tuey. Matt helped me pick up everything that was in the largest size and I took them to the changing room, stepped over the woman working there who was asleep in the middle of floor and proceeded to try and squeeze my chunky, sweaty limbs into them. Nothing was very suitable and I soon went off the idea because of the heat and the unlikeliness of finding anything.

After we'd been shepherded down a particular set of stairs and out of the door, Matt spotted a more suitable pair of shorts in the bargain bin and so I made my way back to the sticky-hot changing room. This time, the woman inhabiting it was awake and playing with her phone, though she was still prostrate on the floor. The shorts fit and so I happily made my way downstairs to pay, only to remember that we hadn't been to the ATM and so we had no money.

All that sorted, we pretty much spent the rest of the day mooching around before deciding to go and see how much beer hoi you had to drink to get a hangover. At Beer Hoi 45, we met Harry and Sabi - an Australian guy and French girl. They were really nice and we made our way through many beers, talking about Harry's career as a chef and Sabi's experiences as a language assistant in Birmingham.

On our first visit to Beer Hoi 45, the guy there had shown us a picture of a hugely fat English guy and told us that he had drunk 17 beers. We worked out that those 17 beers had still worked out cheaper than one pint of lager in the UK and much cheaper than in Paris and Australia!

On our way for some food at the end of the evening, Harry's arm was clipped by a bike. He was fine but the bike went down and skidded down the road a bit. The driver was uncharacteristically apologetic but as there was no real damage done, we all went on our way. Given the sheer volume of bikes and people, I'm amazed it wasn't much worse but thankfully it was a quiet time in the street and so no-one else was hurt.

7th June - Hanoi

Had a few calls and emails about the bike in the morning but by the time I'd responded other bikes had been bought, etc. Eventually an Australian guy called and I took him up to see the bike in the parking garage. This parking garage also has a number of Honda Wins for sale and when I was getting my bike out to show the guy, the owners of the garage took them to look at their bikes. Eventually I got the bike out and the potential buyer took it for a ride. When he returned he complained that the back end felt loose and when we looked the rear wheel had come loose and shifted forward, leaving the chain very slack. I found this very odd as the bike had been fine on the ride to Hanoi and hadn't been ridden since. 

I took it around the corner to a mechanic who told me it needed a new chain and sprocket which I didn't believe so tried another garage a couple of doors further down who straight away said all it needed was the rear wheel putting back in position. Two minutes and $1.50 later it was sorted and riding fine. Unfortunately the damage to the sale was done and I didn't hear from the Australian again.

When I returned, Anji had got chatting to two people from the hostel across the road, Bo and Loic. We decided to go for some beer at the Bia Hoi place Anji and I had been to the previous day so headed over there for a few before moving on to the Bun Cha restaurant that had been recommended by Tuey, the manager at our hotel.

We then headed over to the "Hanoi Hilton" prison museum before being told to leave half way around as it was closing and then on to Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum which was closed. After wandering around the park surrounding the mausoleum we decided to head towards Lenin park again, had a few beer hois on the way and spent some time watching the dancers.

 

6th June - Hanoi

In the morning Matt had fun trying to print off some posters to advertise the bike while flooded the bathroom. This wasn't at all intentional but was quite funny. I think I've mentioned the 'bidet' type attachments that they have in Asia, which are basically trigger-operated pressure hoses to be used instead of a toilet brush and also in the absence of toilet paper. Unfortunately, the pipe of the one in our bathroom had persished and sprang of very powerful leak which shredded the hose further and left me soaking wet, gasping for air and wondering what I could do from a remote back room of the 4th floor with no telephone down to reception. Luckily, there was a stopcock on the shower that did the trick and I got changed out of my drenched clothes and traipsed down to reception to report it.

We spent most of the rest of the day searching the many bag stalls for a Timbuk2 bag that Matt had spotted on our way past as we headed back to our hotel yesterday. Though he maintains that he didn't imagine it, we couldn't find it and so Matt started the first of a series of negotiations regarding a different one that he quite fancied.

To keep myself entertained, I considered buying some doughnut-type things from one of the very persistent woman who walk around with baskets of them hung around their necks. She tried to charge me $5 and I was just in the process of bargaining when we were surrounded by a bunch of Malaysians all trying to talk to me, her and each other. It got very confusing and when Matt turned around -  it looked as if I'd started a bit of a riot. I ducked out, had a quick chat about Malaysia with a nice couple from the group and the bag-search continued.

The next few hours were spent discovering the joys of 'bia hoi' in a very cheap place in the old town. I'm sure one of us has mentioned it before but if not, it's a beer that is brewed fresh every day and served at outdoor stalls. We were paying 5000 dong per glass (about 30p) and it is just perfect for hot weather - it's not too strong, very pleasant and occasionally very cold. It's also about half the price of water!

A nice man in the the bia hoi place helped me learn some Vietnamese words and how to pronounce them. They have 6 'tones' in Vietnamese and it's very easy to get it wrong and say something completely different to what you intended. He also showed us a picture on his phone of a big English guy who had drunk a staggering (to this guy, not so much to English people) 17 beers. I'm hardly surprised when it comes to less than the price of a pint back home!

Later that day, we watched a lovely sunset over the lake then popped back to our hotel for a quick change (stopping in each direction for Matt to haggle with a bag-shop owner of course) before heading to the Water Puppet Theatre.

Water puppet theatre originated in the rice paddies of Northern Vietnam over 1000 years ago and puppeteers were originally male (they feared that women would take the knowledge away to their husband's families) and trained for a minimum of 3 years in the art form. 11 puppeteers and several musicians make up the one hour show.

We were lucky enough to get a seat in the middle of the 2nd row, next to an interesting Swiss surgeon who was in Vietnam volunteering for Operation Smile - an international organisation helping children with cleft palattes.

The 'stage' was set with a house perched on a body of water and the orchestra played their bizarre looking instruments for a while before a man came out and banged a gong to signal the entrance of the first set of puppets. I had read that the puppets were very realistic and since the man had a big papier mache head (in the style of Frank Sidebottom), I was initially very impressed by how life-like he was. When the tiny puppets appeared in the water in front of the house I realised my mistake.

The puppet show depicted typical events from the lives of rural people, including catching a frog and collecting coconuts, and was accompanied by music and singing. The show culminated in the puppeteers emerging from the house with lotus flowers and a big chinese dragon lit by black light. It was all very pleasent and was very much enjoyed by the few Vietnamese children amongst the many Western tourists.

Final price wars were undertaken on the way back to the hotel and Matt emerged the victorious owner of a $10 geniune Jack Wolfskin bag. We'll soon see how long this one lasts him!