Hanoi to Cat Ba Island

We started our last morning in Hanoi with an obligatory visit to the wonderful little french bakery that we've been to each day now, hoping to find the chocolate croissants that have been elusive since the first morning. After coming too late the past two days, this time we came to early. Oh well. Then for a final visit to the lake, mostly because we heard it was a popular place for locals to get up and stretch. We found some inferior chocolate pastries and had a seat on the western shore which was scattered with older Vietnamese women all hopping and stretching and chatting. Then back for a final breakfast of Pho and on to pick up the motorcycle. The owner of the shop was out of town on a tour, but his partner was just as easy to deal with. A quick check over of the bike with a short ride to gas and a good few minutes with about 10 bungee cords getting our bags secured on the little rack, and we were set to go. 

Our trip started with a relatively uneventful ride on the highway (4 lanes, plenty of busses, trucks, and other motorbikes) - about 100 km and two hours - from Hanoi to Haiphong, a major port city towards the coast. Haiphong was an interesting place to ride through. Even though we only saw it quickly from one end to the other, it gave us a bit more of an idea of the everyday Vietnam. Trusting the too-small road map and our collective memory of a few minutes of google mapping before leaving Hanoi, we continued on towards the Dinh Vu ferry, which promised us the cheaper, less tourist travelled route to Cat Ba island. Nothing we researched even hinted that the road to the ferry would lead us through a dusty, diesel truck dominated, pothole ridden industrial wasteland. I have never seen a place like it. Mile after mile (km after km) of a world controlled by smog billowing factories, towering ship building yards, and not a single sign or hint that we were on the right path to what is often described as one of the most beautiful places on earth. We each had our first  "oh crap what did we get ourselves into" moments of the trip, but these were luckily assuaged when we started seeing our first signs of the coast. We finally rolled up to the ferry, bought our 30,000VND ticket (~$1.50) and scooted up to wait with the rest of the passengers. Turned out we were just in time. It also turned out that the ferry took us to Cat Hai island, and then required a 15 minute ride to another ferry port to get on the boat that actually took us to Cat Ba, but at this point, we were just happy to know we were on the right path and honestly a bit proud to be the only non-Vietnamese people taking this route. It also turned out that Cat Hai was a wonderfully charming, relatively undeveloped island with quiet streets full of kids playing soccer, free roaming ponies and quiet seaside lakes. The second ferry was a short ride and gave us a small preview of the scenery to come. 

Now I've been on some scenic drives before, and maybe it was the incredible contrast from escaping the industrial wasteland and maybe it was being on the bike in the open air, but I had never driven along a road this breathtaking. Twisting and climbing along sheer drop offs to the Pacific, surrounded by the dramatic foliage covered limestone peaks that are emblematic of Cat Ba and Ha Long Bay, dotted with amusing signs that casually animate cars falling off cliffs - all as the day is slowly winding down towards twilight. We'll try to get better pictures/video on the way out tomorrow, these don't begin to justify it. The only interruption to the beautiful final kilometers of the day was a stop along a local road to try to track down gas - the needle had been pointing dangerously towards empty for some time, and signs promised another 20km full of steep climbs before our destination. For only 5,000 VND, a smiling local guy trotted to a neighbors house to fill an empty 1L aquafina bottle full of fuel for us, topped us off, shaked our hands and sent us on our way.

We finally rolled into Cat Ba town, our eyes pealed for the Duc Tuan hotel, which many tripadvisor reviews promised to be a great deal. We met the charismatic owner, Tuan, and were told that he had one last room, that is normally rented at a higher rate for 4+ people. After taking one look at the enormous, top floor, harbor view suite (and talking him down to $14/night) we settled in - fully content, a little proud, and feeling like we're  well on our way. 

Russian 125cc Minsk - an emblem of an older era of Vietnamese motorbikes

This beauty is on the tank of our bike.

Through the wasteland and ready to board the ferry

Couldn't ask for a better passenger

Really wish I knew how to say "Excuse me miss, can I buy your helmet" in Vietnamese. Wouldn't have fit  my big head anyway

Happy to leave the factories behind

Along Cat Hai

Relaxing on ferry #2

Reward for the long day

This picture does zero justice to the beautiful twisties on this coastline mountain road

   

The grin says it all

Not a bad view for $14 a night!

The bike of a fellow American trekker

A few well deserved beers after a long, rewarding day

Hanoi 4

Today was filled with lots of firsts.  We started the day off with a quick breakfast at the hotel, Pho Bo (beef noodle soup) for Elliot, and Pho Ga (chicken noodle soup) for me. After talking to the front desk, we rented a semi-automatic 110cc Honda wave scooter from the bike store next door and explored the city by bike for most of the morning.  With our upcoming road trip down the coast, it was a good way for us, especially Elliot, to get used to the traffic. It was a little more difficult to get used to the size of the helmets..

Elliot: While the sheer volume of other motorbikes, cars, trucks, bicycles, pedestrians, pedal carts, giant push cars full of flowers (and so on and on and on), combined with the completely stark lack of road rules might make you think that hopping on a scooter and driving into the whole beautiful mess might be a bad idea for a couple of Americans. Maybe it was, but whether it was the self-preserving instincts instilled from the few years of dealing with Philadelphia drivers or the or the way in which the chaos of moving around the city seems to self orchestrate - it wasn't too scary and was fun as heck. More on this later...

Elliot getting gas before we head out for the day

Instead of visors on the helmets most people cover their faces with scarves or what look like 

padded surgical masks

An old Honda from the 60's we spotted during our ride

After getting familiar with the roads, we decided to take a trip to the outskirts of the city to a village called Le Mat, more commonly called the snake village.  The small community that lives in Le Mat has preserved a tradition of snake farming and cuisine, passed down for many generations.  We made it to the village without much trouble, and explored for a bit until we came across a small family's home with the picture of a snake painted on a sign outside, below which looked like a menu.  We went in and met the very kind family, and were then prompted to go into the back patio, where the eldest woman of the house asked us to pick out a snake.  A little bit like picking out a lobster from a lobster tank, we chose a medium sized fairly feisty grass snake, apparently suitable for dinner for two.

After quickly stunning the snake a few times, she quickly drained it's blood into a glass of rice wine, and removed its beating heart.  We were brought upstairs to the dining room by her son, and were told that she would be cooking the rest.  He then filled two small cordial glasses at our table with the rice wine and blood.

Snake heart

The food arrived soon after our drinks, and all the parts of the snake were used in them:

Snake skin cracklings, a little bit like pork rinds

Spring rolls, really delicious and lean

Sesame rice crackers

Spicy snake croquettes, and filet seared in a mild lettuce

Overall a very fulfilling and unique experience, and honestly very delicious food.  We headed back to the city, and explored a bit more on the bike into the evening.  Because of jetlag we've been having fairly early nights, but we took a short walk and enjoyed a local beer, Bia Hanoi, and some people watching tonight.

We stayed up until 9pm! It was a great last night in Hanoi.

Hanoi 3

Third day in Hanoi was pretty relaxed. After the hotel breakfast of toast, eggs, some sort of watermelon, and some delicious passion fruit juice, we B-lined (well, once we remembered where it was) to the French bakery from yesterday. No pain au-chocolate today, but they regular croissants were just as perfect, and Cindhu's doughnut-type thing was pretty darned good too. From there, our agenda was to try to sort out our much talked about plans to make our way down the coast via motorcycle. A bit of searching online lead us to http://hanoimotorcyclerental.com/index.php which looked to be only a 10 minute walk from our hotel.

The shop owner, Mr. Phung, was very straightforward, if initially a bit skeptical of our semi-ambitious plans. But after a short conversation and conveying to him that I knew my way around motorcycles to some reasonable extent, we worked out a plan to rent their 160cc Honda GL (which will continue my streak of only riding Hondas) for about 9 days, down a route mixing coastal routes and roughly following the Ho Chi Minh Trail, ending in Da Nang, where we can drop off the bike for them to ship back to Hanoi. Not quite the full country trip that we had imagined, but this gets us off the hook for having to deal with the notoriously chaotic and dangerous traffic in Ho Chi Minh City. 

The rest of the morning followed a lazy route back to the hotel, including a few amusing sights, some incredibly cheap and delicious roadside beer, the wonderfully engaging and delicious experience of what was described as a "hot pot" but was more like a sizzle platter - in any case we were brought plates of rice, marinated beef with fresh lemongrass, vegetables and a thinner pepper sauce and given a cast iron plate over a small flame and left to our own accords. The experience, while wonderful, also marked our first clear case of being ripped off (and cemented the idea that we should always agree on a price before sitting down- no surprise that haggling doesn't work after you eat). All in all about $16 for the two of us is not THAT bad. 

Bia Hoi - fresh brewed, unpasteurized, super cheap street beer, people watching

I think these people were on our plane

Delicious AND interactive

Not much photo documentation of the rest of the day, but it was mostly full of snacking around the city and planning the rest of our time in Vietnam. Food highlights included 30cent soft serve cones from KFC - believe it or not, grilled pork skewers (Nem Nuong) could not be passed up after we smelled them from half a block away (50c each), our first Banh My (translates literally to bread, but in this case was filled with cinnamon spiced roast pork, pickled cabbage, green papaya, carrot, cucumber, a touch of mayonnaise and chili sauce - $1). While this set off all of the traditional food poisoning warnings, we both agreed it was one of the best sandwiches either of us has had. Then back the hotel with a brief stop at one of the many little produce stalls on our small street for a delicious giant mango for dessert.

Tomorrow: scooter trip to the Snake Village!

Hanoi 2

The second day in Hanoi was pretty amazing, a little less jetlagged (although it is 5:30 in the morning right now and we fell asleep around 7:30pm..) but lots of fun exploring the city.  We started the day with a light breakfast at the hotel and went out to explore the city.

Yen Thai Street, where our hotel is located.  Tons of fruit vendors and fish and meat stalls.  Today we saw the biggest live shrimp swimming in a bin for sale.

We didn't make it far in our walk before we got to a small french bakery Banh Ngot Phap Anh Hoa on Phung Hung street, where we picked up what was essentially a hotdog wrapped in a croissant, and the most amazing chocolate croissants either of us have ever had.

One of the cities most charming features is that just about everywhere you go, you'll find randomly placed, hanging cages with little songbirds.

We then went further into the historical district of the city, and saw the some of the beautiful architecture and monuments, among which were 

Cua Bac Catholic Church - pretty amazing architecture (although only built in the 1930's)

Beautiful old temple built in the 11th century

The massive statue of Vladimir Lenin.

The Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum (you can actually go see his body, unless its one of the few months of the year where is body is taken to an undisclosed location for "maintenance"

and The Hanoi Botanical Gardens, full of adorable couples partaking in their wedding photo shoots, as well as,

this baby monkey and his family.

In the afternoon it got fairly warm and humid, and on our walk back to the Old Quarter where we're staying, Elliot thought a quick road side shave would be nice.

Who knew it would come with a complimentary hair cut?!

Nice!

After a bit of relaxing and a cup of Vietnamese coffee (which is a bit like Turkish coffee without the grounds, and is served with condensed milk-- which looked a bit like frosting), we took a walk around Hoan Kiem Lake.  We ended the day with an amazing meal of bun cha, a traditional northern Vietnamese dish. 

The meal is made of a large bowl of rice noodles and an equally large bowl of small fried pork meatballs and bits of grilled pork, soaked in a delicious rich broth.  On the side are sliced lightly pickled cucumbers, a bowl of amazing spicy chilis, garlic, ginger, and onion finely minced, and a plate of fresh herbs and lettuces.

Our plans to visit the nearby "Night Market" were cancelled by our jet lag - rescheduled for tonight!

Hanoi 1

Into Hanoi a bit delirious, but safe and sound. A few highlights of the first day:

• delicious Chinese dim sum on the dragonair flight
• a huge tour group of caricature-like English couples (they all looked like characters from an episode of Wallace and Gromit) eagerly queueing at the Visa-upon-arrival window, despite our visas being returned in no particular order
• non-existent airport pickup (had been advertised on the hotel-booking site)
• entire families riding 4-up on a small scooter already laden with about 8 bales of hay (I am loving the endless permutations of scooter passengers and cargo).
• adorable "honeymoon" welcome package from hotel including Vietnamese wine, a few pieces of fruit (the mango was gone very quickly), and the words "i love you" circumscribed by a heart, all laid out in rose petals on the bed
• slightly confusing process of purchasing a cheap cell phone that will work throughout SE asia from a trendy mobile phone shop staffed entirely by tiny 16 year old (my surely inaccurate guess) girls (only one of whom spoke a very small amount of english). 500,000 Dong (~$23) later, we were able to successfully call our parents
• a lazy hour spent sitting at the edge of Hoan Kiem lake, highlighted by a gregarious young local guy  sitting himself down right next to us, eager just to spend the good part of an hour teaching us a few Vietnamese phrases, trading thoughts and questions about American and Vietnamese food, travel, weather, and a few other things that we could find a shared english vocabulary for. We're sad we didn't get a picture with Tuon (I'm missing an accent or two), but may look for him at the upscale Chinese restaurant that he works at. 
• Delicious dinner at Pho 24 - common chain in the region - the Pho was as good as any I've ever had, "broken rice" with shredded pork (delicious with the unnamed brown sweet/barbeque/soy sauce offered on the table), and a few spring rolls. All around $8 or so - we're looking forward to doing cheaper and dodgier, we passed a number of promising candidates.

That's about it for now! If you have the motivation and means to call us, as far as I can tell, our number is: +011 84 1636143499.

View from the cab

But we just met you, adorable hotel receptionists

View from the hotel room

St Peter's Cathedral

Hoan Kiem Lake

Closer look

Sans our new friend Tuon. So tired.

Focused

16 hour flight down, one more flight to go to get to Hanoi.  Time to find some noodle soup for breakfast/dinner/what time is it?  Waiting for our connection on DragonAir..