Took that midnight train to sapa

We recently took a midnight train to Sapa, a village in northern vietnam along the Chinese border. The southern tip of the Himalayas reach Sapa! I'm excited about that.

Getting on the train was an adventure. First, Val, who is 5'0 and has a heavier backpack than me, rested her pack on a table. This was rude, and an equally short Vietnamese woman ran out and slapped her! It was pretty hilarious.

Then we proceeded into the train "station" which was actually just the tracks themselves. Led by our fearless Sherpa from the Golden Sun Inn, we braved the bustling tracks and leapt onto our car.


The car was small and cramped. There were four beds in each stall. Fortunately, chris and I bought some whiskey for the ride, which smoothed the edges off our discomfort.



By the end of the night, we were all pretty chill. We wound up debating/discussing fiscal and developmental policy until the wee hours of the morn. This upset Val, who found our respectful disagreements to be emotionally unsettling. The rest of us had a great time though. Unfortunately, Danielle didn't sleep much that night due to her uncomfortable bed but she was a trooper the next day.



I apparently slept fine.

Location:Sepang,Malaysia

Fedoras

I bought a fedora from a street vendor. In fact, we all bought fedoras.


Aren't I fedorable?

Independence Day

Did you know vietnam's Independence Day is September 2? It's. True! We just celebrated it's 65th anniversary and there were fireworks.




Also, here is a video of what it's like to walk around Vietnam.

Location:Yên Thái,Hanoi,Vietnam

Perfume Pagoda

Yeah I finally got some appropriate headgear.





Today was perfume pagoda day.* Cyrus recommended it at our fortuitous meeting in the Ho Chi Minh/Saigon airport (I embarrassingly forgot they were one and the same city and said something stupid about it, but no one picked up on my error).

Anyway.

Perfume pagoda is a trek away from Hanoi. To get there, one takes a two hour bus. Our bus was special in that there was a woman sitting in front of us who vomitted every five minutes. Then then an hour canoe ride through what I called the Mekong Delta but which was actually some other river. They were rowed by very strong women, who take people back and forth all day for a pitiful wage.





We were so fat that we almost sank the ship. Our guide says the boats fit six Vietnamese or four Americans. This one barely fit three!





Still, as you can see, we enjoyed being there. Lots of great scenery along the river that I used my other camera to capture. There were even river people who spend their whole lives along the banks of the river!

Once we arrived at our destination, we came to what was essentially a strip mall of bedraggled locals who subsist of of selling tourists useless trinkets. I say strip malls metaphorically - these were shanties or even just sheets covering up a small enclosure. There were plucked chickens running everywhere, and emaciated dogs.





Fortunately, we got to eat some fairly gross local food instead of roasting our own chicken.





Then we took a cable car through the rain forest!





However, then I started using my real camera for a while so there's no real documentation of the actual pagoda. It was in a cave and smelled of perfume. Pretty cool.





Lastly, we saw a caged monkey which was pretty sad. Here's a video.

When we got home, danielle's friend Valerie will be joining us. We know very little about her but have decided that she is a lesbian bc she went bryn mawr.

*note: this actually took place last Thursday but I'm blogging about it today.

Location:4D,,Vietnam

Capuzzi

"I hate the term Fallopian tubes"

Location:Yên Thái,Hanoi,Vietnam

Cheese tofu

I love cheese. This tofu had cheese marinade or something and it taste amazing.


From our first real night in Hanoi.

I had salmon for dinner and pumpkin soup.


I like Hanoi a lot! Bustling city. After dinner we went to an expat bar where we met an obnoxious and patronizing American. He did help us get a good up close image of some snake wine though. It's apparently a good tool to boost virility.



Yes, that is a snake in the giant jug of wine. A cobra!

Then we went to another bar and debated education policy until it closed at about 1AM. Good talk too!

Location:4D,,Vietnam

I am the worst

At blogging that is. Sorry followers! Let's play some catchup.

On Tuesday-Wednesday we took a boat to Halong Bay. We slept on it! I love boats. We also went kayaking, explored a cave, and swam in the bay.



There were hundreds of these giant eruptions of rocks throughout the bay.


Here's chris relaxing around sunrise.


Our boat dining area


There were lots of river women who would pull up next to the boat and try to sell us crap.


This is Vinh, our very friendly and short guide!


Chris and Danielle were worn out by the adventures. I, however, am of heartier stock and read my kindle.


More posts soon.

Location:4D,,Vietnam