After arriving from Indonesia with a few days delay, it was time for a new chapter in our book: Vietnam. It was the first country neither of us had visited on our world trip and at the same time, due to circumstances, also the first one to explore partially in group. So, here’s our tale on how it went down those first three weeks of November.
We arrived late afternoon from Singapore and were the first ones to deplane, one of the perks of travelling in business class. That also made that we were the first ones of our flight to arrive at the visa counter, where we still had to get a valid visa in our passports. Since we are staying longer than 30 days in Vietnam, we were obliged to get one instead of the easier and more hassle-free e-visa. As a note of advice be aware when searching online for either of these two visa systems. Check out more about this here. Luckily not too many international flights arrived at the same time, so our waiting time was still OK with about 30 minutes. We breezed through immigration. Of course, our luggage was waiting for us already besides the baggage carousel. A driver was waiting for us, courtesy of Ethnic Travel, to bring us to the restaurant where the rest of our Joker group was waiting: Yin & Yang. Booked thanks to and by a very helpful saviour in distress: Bruno, a colleague of ours at Karavaan / Joker, who was free to guide Véro’s group from Brussels to Hanoi. Luckily, due to the fact that both me and Véro came from Indonesia, two airline tickets were free, so also his wife, Kris, joined. They would be travelling on their own for three weeks, while we did our itinerary with the Joker-group. Our first impression and taste of the famous Vietnamese kitchen was delightful and plentiful: noodles, fresh spring rolls, cold beer and warm soups. The table was full, the conversations easy-going amongst a fairly young and like-minded group of people.
After our diner, we headed towards the hotel where the bags had been stored in a room for the afternoon and where we had to collect them to go to the train station, to grab our night train to the northern city of Lao Cai. Since the price difference is marginal, our tour guide, being Véro, had booked first class sleeper tickets. She was still a bit groggy and weak from the long and arduous travels from Manado to Ha Noi and was asleep almost immediately. I had more time to appreciate the old wooden and somewhat rickety carriage design. The mattress was soft, the pillow stuffed and the light agreeable enough, so it was an all-in-all comfortable ride.
Early Tuesday morning we arrived on time at Lao Cai, where we were awaited by a private bus driver whom took us on a 3 hrs drive towards the small provincial capital of Bac Ha. We checked in to our basic hotel / guesthouse, went for breakfast at the café / restaurant next door and tried our first Vietnamese coffee: ca phe. It’s a sweet variant of the wider-known americano coffee and usually served with condensed milk and sugar. Not really my cup of tea – euhm, coffee… After breakfast and some down time (Véro took another nap), we went for lunch at a very local restaurant. Not anything we know or see in our western world, but just a shack, nothing more than some tarp, wood and small plastic chairs and tables set up to serve customers on a small unpaved road, smack in the centre of Bac Ha. Choice between chicken or tofu noodle soup. The owner even managed to provide us with a plastic bottle of locally brewed beer, which didn’t even taste that bad, and at least better than the coffee we tried that morning. In the afternoon, the tour company, which is also the owner of the restaurant we had breakfast and the hotel, arranged for us 10 drivers with motorcycles to drive us around Bac Ha’s mountainous countryside. We visited a waterfall and had an impromptu visit to a local school. As we would see throughout the country, school are pretty well maintained and plentiful, even in more remote villages we passed. In the evening we ate dinner at a restaurant recommended by the tour guide of last year and went to bed early enough to be able to enjoy a good night’s rest before heading out tomorrow for our first adventure: a five-day hike around Bac Ha.
So, on Wednesday we packed our bags, left the big ones at the restaurant and set out with our guide Sa on foot. After a warming up on the tarred road leading out of Bac Ha in the same direction we took yesterday on the mopeds, it went steeply uphill and with less and less walkable paths, through villages (lots of barking guard dogs), already-harvested rice field paddies and near-jungle-like forests. The views still were spectacular though! Véro had us prepared for very basic sleeping conditions, so we had all packed our sleeping bags and pads, so our surprise was big when we arrived at our first homestay. What seemed a brand-new wooden house, even with a tiny cute garden, a playful dog, and a communal sleeping hall on the first floor. Build in dark, rustic and very soothing wood, the space was, as said, a welcome surprise after a long day hiking. There were bed sheets, thick mattresses and even privacy curtains. Just outside the door there was a western toilet and even a shower. That too was unexpected. We had prepared ourselves, through toilet talks on the walk, for squat-like ones. After freshening up and lounging some, our impression even got bigger when we saw the feast spread out on the dining table. Vegetables, soup, spring rolls, tofu, grilled beef, chicken were too much for us to eat. Phieuwie!
The following morning the breakfast was a bit less feast-like, with pancakes, bananas, some honey and sugar. But it was sufficient to fuel ourselves for the second day of hiking. However, Karlien had developed a nasty cough overnight, so Véro would take her back to the hospital in Bac Ha by means of the tour company’s driver. That left me as stand-in number two, after Bruno, to guide the group safely through the second day. Have to say, that went without a glitch. We ate lunch at a local road-side shack, served deliciously hot noodle soup. After lunch and a short, fairly easy walk, we arrived at our second homestay. This time in a bigger village and a bit more basic, but still no need to get out our own sleeping bags and mats. Véro and Karlien joined us again to enjoy a beer before dinner. And that was another feast with too much on the table to be devoured by our stomachs. As on the first night, the local spirit, called dubiously happy water, was served royally to toast on good health. Of the owner. Of his wife. Of the guide. Of the group. Of the family’s friends. Basically, a tad too much for me, so I politely declined each serving. There were others enough to happily accept the toasting invitation though!
On day three, Friday, we first went to the local village market, where almost everything is sold: from trinkets and souvenirs, over cloths and electronics, to cows, ducks and pigs. Lots of traditionally clothed women, but although our group photographers wanted to, none allowed them to take pictures. We started walking once more, ate lunch on a hill with bread and hard-boiled eggs and water melon brought by the tour company’s driver, and walked to our next homestay till mid-afternoon. What an idyllic setting, oh boy! Sunset over the rice paddies and valley, long table, cold beer… Later on, we shared the dining room with another group of (motorbike) tourist, being served yet again a delicious but way too large meal. After the obligatory toasting with the hosts and guides, we went to bed.
On the fourth day more walking was done of course. We arrived at the most basic of all four homestays, where we did have to dig out our sleeping bags and mats to be able to get a good night’s sleep after another big diner. The fifth and last day walking route had to be changed because of the lack of water in the river where we’d be taking the boat for the last part of our journey back to Bac Ha. We walked an arduous 12 km downhill following an uneven gravel road, had a toast bread lunch along the river bank and boarded immediately afterwards a steel longboat for a short half-hour ride to a bridge where a minivan would bring us back to Bac Ha. Evidence of the extremely low water level was provided when one of the two boats got stuck on a rock, and only after removing some weight (aka dumping the two boys) was freed again. With some delay, we arrived at the bridge, got in the van, and were slung seasick by the enthusiastic driver during our half-hour ride back to Bac Ha. We all showered, collected laundry, and ate dinner at the same restaurant where we had breakfasts and served as our non-proclaimed base camp. Now without the happy water though.
