57k on flip flops from Kalaw to Inle lake in Myanmar (Burma)

Why would someone choose to trek on flip flops for 57km (35m)??? Well, as you could read in one of our previous blogs (Life lesson 13), we fell off a moped and my leg had serious grazes on it. My foot was badly injured and it was not possible to wear converse only a few days after the accident. But I was really looking forward to the trek and I did not want to cancel it. Natasha could barely walk so for her it was not even an option to come along. We booked a nice hotel for her and she had some proper chilling time at the pool (smart lady).

My left foot in a bandage with a sock on top with the toes cut off and wearing flip flops. I looked like a real beauty and with the pain in my foot I was seriously questioning why I signed up for this. Luckily we had a fantastic group and everybody got along really well from the start. Two friends Valerie and Eliane from Belgium, Alex from Canada who was travelling with three ladies from the US and one from France: Jessica, Aisha, Molly with her big curly hair (which ruined most of my photos… Just kidding :)) and lovely Juliette. Christophe and Dasha from France and Belarus, but living in Brussels completed the group. I had a nice chat with Valerie at the beginning which made me forget my leg and got me going. Jess, Aisha, Molly and Alex – as you would expect from Americans and Canadians – could not stop talking, so there was enough distraction :).

Our lovely guide Pew (aka Pe Pe le Pew) took us through the hilly landscapes of Myanmar. He had been doing these treks since he was 15. Now with 20 years he was still the youngest of our group, but with five years of trekking experience. He sometimes doesn’t see his wife for three months as their trekking schedules do not align. He had been trekking for 21 days in a row!

The first day we went through beautiful scenery and with the great weather this gave some good opportunities to take photos. Along the way we saw many locals doing their daily business. Carrying stuff from village to village and working in the rice fields. We quickly stopped at a lake where we could swim. But after Pew told us it was full of leeches there were no volunteers to try 🙂

We had an amazing lunch at the top of one of the hills with fresh avocado. We definitely needed a second round of those bad boys. Pew told us that the Burmese avocados are quite temperamental and you never know from the outside which ones are tasty on the inside, so there was not chance of seconds. There were two cute puppies that were peeking at us from under a fence which kept me occupied for a bit.

All the beautiful flowers were completing the picture. You can also see on the picture the yellow spiders, which scared most of the girls in the group. If you get bitten by one of them, you may end up in a coma for a few days, nice!

Pew took us to another village and it was great to see the kids playing near their school and Pew letting us try the chilli peppers.

In the afternoon we continued walking on train tracks, which was an interesting experience. After a while walking got quite uncomfortable, so I was glad when we got to our destination where we would spend our first night.

The American girls slept in a separate room and the rest of us together in a big room. A body cleaning was desperately needed and luckily our luxury accommodation had a shower. Shower – in this case – means a big well with water and a bowl which you can use to poor the cold water over your head. Not everybody was familiar with the shower procedure, so Molly almost took a bath in the well. Would have been a great story, but I guess the locals would have been less amused.

We wanted to get a few drinks before getting to bed so we went looking for a little shop. They just got a delivery and we helped them offload the truck. In return we got a few interesting cigars which were happily smoked by some of us. We were all quite tired from the trekking so everybody was in bed at a decent time.

The second day started early with gorgeous walking through the hilly landscapes. Flower fields, water buffalos and chilli pepper fields were everywhere for very colourful vistas (I went a bit crazy with the photos… Oops, I did it again!).

Unfortunately I was now feeling the first discomfort from my Havaianas. They are great, but maybe not for a trek. The first blister – the size of a pancake (a small one :)) – appeared under my foot. Alex and Pew helped out and I could continue walking… We stopped at a village for some refreshments and an old lady was making a scarf by hand. Great to see how that is done and absolute top quality scarfs!

A bit further down the road, school just finished so the kids came running out of the class room. No matter where you are in the world, kids are always happy to be released from school:).

I have to say this day was challenging. Most of us were starting to have some issues with our feet. Blisters, rashes (Molly is still thankful for the Thanaka paste that got rid of her caterpillar rash) and other kinds of injuries, we all had some issues. We were all very happy when the day was over and we could celebrate our arrival in the last village with a cold beer. Dasha and Christophe were still fit enough to play some football with the locals as you can see below.

Alex and I – The medical dream team

With 10 highly skilled hikers, we obviously did not need a medical team. Ahum… It seemed that every hundred meters someone in the group had a new injury. We were all trying to steal each other’s thunder to get some attention. During the three days Alex and I developed into the medical team. I was mainly providing the supplies and being the nurse (a role that suits me very well, so I might give up accounting). Alex performed the complex surgery, varying from cleaning scratches and wounds to popping blisters. Luckily we were well stocked with plasters, bandages and antiseptic, so everybody was able to continue their journey.

I was carrying some small presents for the kids in the village. This seemed the right moment to hand them out. I went on a little stroll around the village and I had footballs for three kids in a family. They (including their dad) were so grateful. Only problem was that behind me ten other kids gathered and saw what I was handing out. Unfortunately I had only one more football, so I suggested for them to play together with the three footballs I already given them.

I gave my last football to the daughter of our host and I had some smaller gifts for her younger brother, which you can see on the photo. Such lovely people, I hope they have a nice memory of our stay.

We had a lovely evening with a few beers. Most of us were listening to Dasha’s Russian jokes, which seemed to have no beginning and no end :). Juliette and Eliane threw some questionable Belgians and French jokes into the mix but we all had a good laugh. Molly and Alex both went off on their own for a little adventure in the village (with a bottle of whiskey obviously!). The next day they were slightly struggling to get out of bed, but the hair of the dog helped Alex to shake it off.

The last day was less walking, but unfortunately the trek got more challenging with rocks on the road. Even before it got difficult Dasha thought it would be fun (weird Russian humour ;)) to go for a dive on the ground, which unfortunately led to a big scratch on her knee. Aisha and Molly had big blisters on their foot. I could not let them get all the attention, so I decided to kick a few rocks to get two bruised toes and lose part of my nail on my big toe. That will teach them to steel my thunder!

In the distance we could see our final destination, Inle Lake… It wasn’t that far anymore, but we were all in pain so it felt like ages.

We found a lookout tower made from bamboo. Pew said the tower wasn’t that stable, so obviously Alex wanted to try if that was actually true. On the pictures below you can see his little journey up. Let’s just say we were all glad he came down safely… Especially because he was our doctor and we needed him desperately :).

Early in the afternoon, we finally arrived at Inle Lake for a nice lunch. It was such a good feeling to know the walking was over. The rest of the afternoon we would spend in a boat crossing the lake and enjoy the scenery. Fishermen were doing their business and it was pretty cool to see how the people live in the floating villages around the lake.

We went to a beautiful floating hotel, so we all got really excited. The people from the hotel came outside and made music to welcome us… Then we figured out that Dasha and Christophe were the only ones staying in this beautiful place, we were all so jealous! Unfortunately, it was time to say goodbye to them :(.

We still had some distance to cover by boat to Nyaung Shwe on the edge of the lake, but luckily there was enough to see.

When we arrived, we went for what felt like a massive walk through town (it probably only took 5 minutes). We dropped off Valerie and Eliane at their hotel and continued to find the hotel where our bags got dropped off. Obviously I forgot where Natasha was staying so I was starting to get worried if I would be able to find her (she had our phone…). But when we arrived at the place that our backpacks had been dropped off at, she was standing on the balcony waving at us. Such a nice feeling to see her. I was happy we made it and we could just stay where we were. Unfortunately the hotel was full so the other guys had to find another place. They were not even allowed to have a well deserved shower in our room because the owner was a grumpy lady…

How are the flip flops doing?

Well, my beautiful flip flops which I walked on for three months – day in day out – have sadly passed away. While walking in Bangkok a few weeks after the trek, they could not handle the smell of my feet any,ore and decided to quit :). I immediately bought the same colour Havaianas on Khao San road, so no hard feelings!

So what did Natasha get up to?

Natasha went to a lovely hotel with swimming pool to get some rest and recover from the moped accident. The room was great and the swimming pool very nice. She had discovered the small town, went to lovely restaurants to try the tasty food and laid by the pool, trying to get a tan. Unfortunately money went missing from the room, which spoilt the experience a bit. The manager was very unhelpful and even searched Natasha’s bag as he did not believe the money was gone, absolutely ridiculous! Anyway that is a bad TripAdvisor review for this guys…

We had one day together in Nyaung Shwe at Inle Lake, so we thought it would be nice to rent a bike to go around the lake. On the way we saw some puppies next to the road, so of course we had to stop and give them some TLC. I have no idea how I got Natasha to leave, I thought I was going to have to drag her away kicking and screaming!

After half an hour on our bikes we figured out that going around the lake was not an option (as there was no road :)). We saw some nice villages, but we had to change our plan. On the way back we saw a sign for a winery, which is always a good plan B. It was a tough ride up the hill to reach the winery, but it was definitely worth it, amazing views from the top. And of course, who did we see there? The guys from the trek! Lovely to see each other again and have some wine and food to end our beautiful experience in Inle Lake!

This was the final blog in a series of four blogs on Myanmar. What an amazing country! The people are so lovely and there are beautiful things to see. I would love to come back at some point in the future (maybe with better shoes). I truly hope Myanmar will keep its authentic character now it is slowly opening up to tourists.

Next up is our two week trip together in Thailand with Natasha’s sister Danielle!

Life lesson 13: If a dog jumps in front of your moped, you will fall

Many life lessons we have learned during our beautiful trip around the world. Most of them positive, some of them expensive (The story of the stolen passports) but this one was rather painful.

Riding a moped is one of the best ways to explore the countryside. You have the freedom to go wherever you want, stop whenever you want and all of this at your own pace. The downside is that you are only on two wheels and vulnerable in the chaotic traffic in Southeast Asian countries. Add a massive number of stray dogs with a mind of their own to the list and a new life lesson is in the making.

We rented a moped from the hotel in Mandalay that we were staying in and went on our way to explore the surrounding villages to see the authentic Myanmar that we were looking for. We were not even outside Mandalay and a dog appeared out of nowhere and ran onto the street. My gut reaction as an animal lover was obviously to break and try and steer clear of the dog. But breaking and steering at the same time – as you all know – is not the best thing to do if you want to stay on a moped.

So down we went… My leg got stuck under the left side of the moped that was sliding on the ground. I immediately tried to look what was happening to Natasha and I saw her rolling on the ground behind me. As traffic was heavy I was afraid she might get hit by traffic behind us. Luckily they all moved around her and she didn’t get hit.

Immediately about 10 to 15 locals came running up to us, some with antiseptic, others with bandages. We were in a lot of pain, but also overwhelmed with all the people helping us. Natasha had a big hole in her knee with blood gulping out. She needed to sit down as she was feeling a bit light-headed. My whole left side of my leg was open and in Myanmar there is a big danger of getting diseases with open wounds, so we had to get to a medical center. The locals offered to take us there.

In the medical centre we both got a tetanus jab and they stitched up Natasha’s knee. They treated my wounds with antiseptic and I got a bandage around my foot. The bill came to a shocking £5 ($7.50/€6). One of the guys that drove us to the medical centre picked up the bill and didn’t want to accept my money. This is quite a significant amount in Myanmar, so of course I kept nagging him until he accepted. The locals took us back to the place where we came off our mopeds. We sat down in one of the shops to rest and have a glass of water. Our drivers left as they had other commitments. So nice that they just helped us throughout this.

We are so grateful to all the people that were there to reach a helping hand. Thank you beautiful people of Myanmar!

So how did this story end?
First of all we had to take a few days rest to start our recovery. Natasha could barely walk, especially stairs were a torture. I could walk, but was in a lot of pain. Every time I stood up from lying down, all the blood would rush to my foot and it took me a few minutes before I could walk.

Stubborn as I am (I am actually not, no really, I am very flexible! :)), I went for a 57km (35m) trek through Myanmar a few days later which did not help my recovery (more on the trek in a later blog). Natasha wisely took some rest in a nice hotel with a pool.

A week after the accident we had to go for a check up in Bangkok. The doctor took the stitches out of Natasha’s knee which made it feel better. Five weeks later she still feels the swelling but it is getting better day by day. They found out that my foot was infected and it was swollen up to about twice the size. My ankle wasn’t really visible anymore. They decided amputation was the only option. No, just kidding, I was put on a drip for three days which was quite uncomfortable. Antibiotics, silver cream and a proper bandage did the rest of the job and currently my leg is looking so much better. See below for pictures five weeks after the accident, amazing how your body can heal!

Thanks to Louise – our ‘family nurse’ for all the helpful tips! Thanks to Natasha for replacing my bandage every day and helping me recover.

Singapore and Hong Kong…. Night and day

The travel blues have slightly kicked in. Many of you will think, what are these people complaining about? But it is quite common that, after about five months, you will get a bit tired of living out of a bag, boarding planes and haggling for everything all day :). The additional fact that Singapore was not a great experience for us, didn’t help to get a bit homesick as well. Luckily Hong Kong was there to save the day!

Some interesting facts about Singapore

1. You can find the national anthem of Singapore in microtext on the back of the $1000 note.
2. Sang Nila Utama, a Srivijayan Prince from Palembang saw a creature he thought was a lion and named the island Singapura which means Lion City in Sanskrit. But truth be told, there were no lions ever in Singapore. It is more likely that the Prince saw a tiger.
3. The first ‘Hug Me’ Coca-Cola is in Singapore. The machine dispenses a bottle of Coke when a person wraps his or her arms around the machine!
4. According to a research by the British Council, Singaporeans have the fastest walking speed. On average, they walk a distance of 18 metres in 10.55 seconds. That’s approximately 6.15km in an hour!

We got used to people staring at us in Asia and we were absolutely fine with that. But if you smile at someone in Indonesia or Vietnam you get a big smile back. In Singapore we only got grumpy looks and smiles were nowhere to be seen. Rude people in restaurants, on the streets and everywhere else, I just don’t want to write too much about it. Our worst experience was when we left Singapore. When arriving at the airport we got our bags and wanted to disembark the train. A middle-aged guy barged into me and then he drove with his suitcase over Natasha’s bag and into her leg. Natasha kicked his bag, but no response. Probably not the first time he did that…

Singapore does have a very nice zoo, which we truly enjoyed. See below for Natasha’s pictures:

Other than the zoo, the only nice things were a lovely beach we found for some sunbathing and the views of the city.

I truly hope our experiences in Singapore were just stand-alone, but unfortunately we have heard from many other travellers that this is not their favourite destination. Let’s quickly move on to Hong Kong!

Exactly one year ago at the end of October, I was in Hong Kong for work. I was organising the biggest event of my career life and had an unforgettable time here. Now I was back with Natasha and we had another great experience. Even though we were staying in the tiniest room you can think of, it was still fantastic :). The room was as big as a small bathroom in London! Unfortunately it was too small to take a decent photo.

A little bit of history on Hong Kong

After defeating China in the Opium Wars, The United Kingdom was given control over Hong Kong in 1842. Under British control, Hong Kong grew into an important trade, banking and finance center for all of Asia. The Chinese government regained control over Hong Kong in 1997, awarding Hong Kong status as a Special Administrative Region. Hong Kong has many expats but the Chinese definitely have the final say here. The protests from last year for more democracy seem to have cooled off and not much has changed politically.

So Hong Kong is officially part of China, but it has an amazing international feel to it. Neon lights are everywhere which gives it a very Asian character. Most people speak at least basic English and you can find food from every cuisine you can think of.

It is shopping heaven in Hong Kong and as usual we couldn’t control ourselves so we decided to buy a beautiful MacBook Pro. Just to make sure we spend all the money we have :). Hong Kong is a city with a really nice buzz and there is so much to do. Beautiful views of the city are everywhere. One of the main attractions is the star ferry which costs less than one dollar/pound/euro. However, this time we did not have to take it as we were staying in Kowloon across the water from Hong Kong island where we had similar views from the shore.

One of the main attractions is ‘The Peak’ where you can go by an easy bus ride from central Hong Kong island. It takes you up a hill which gives you amazing views of the city. We chose to go at night, so we could see the whole city light up. As you may know I like photography, so I played around a bit with the settings, no photoshop applied…

Some interesting facts about Hong Kong

1. Hong Kong consists of approximately 200 islands of which Hong Kong island is the main one.
2. Hong Kong has the most skyscrapers in the world by far. Over 8,000 buildings top fourteen floors, which practically doubles up New York City.
3. We may think of Hong Kong as a city of skyscrapers and human congestion but three-fourths of the land mass is relatively wild including some twenty-four nature parks and four marine.
4. Where mainland Chinese love to eat dog for dinner, people in Hong Kong like their dogs better as pets.
5. Everything is illuminated. Forget Las Vegas. Hong Kong takes the cake when it comes to ambient light.

Some cities you just have to go to and experience what it is like. Like London I felt at home here and it is easy to move around. See below for some more pictures.

The next blog will be Laos where we will get to by flying to Bangkok first and then taking the overnight train to Vientiane.

How did Vietnam get so expensive?

It was time to take the foot off the gas after our busy schedule in Indonesia and stay a bit longer in one place and enjoy city life. That also meant that we had to get rid of one of the countries in our slightly overambitious plan for our seven month trip and unfortunately that was China. No holding pandas for me :), but there is always a next time…

Vietnam weather is different in every part of the country and especially in October it is difficult to see the whole country in decent weather (like most of South-east Asia in October). We therefore decided to limit our stay to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), the former Saigon, in the south. In the north we stayed around the capital Hanoi and close-by the beauty, Halong Bay.

Some interesting facts about Vietnam

1. Vietnam is the largest exporter of cashews in the world, and the second largest exporter of rice.
2. Although Vietnam is a developing country, it has a literacy rate of 94%.
3. Ruou ran (snake wine), a Vietnamese specialty of rice wine with a pickled snake inside, allegedly can cure any sickness
4. The Vietnamese language has six different tones. A change in tone changes the meaning of the word. This makes their language somewhat difficult to learn.
5. When a new store opens the other shop-owners in the area send massive flower bouquets to the shop to wish them luck.

Ho Chi Minh was a lovely change from the unwelcoming people in Singapore (more about that in a separate blog). Refreshing to see people smiling again and to interact with kind people who are interested in you. It’s a simple thing, but can have such a big impact on your mood. I always thought of Vietnam as a country of rice fields with people wearing the characteristic Vietnamese hats. Well, the hats you indeed see everywhere, but HCMC is a metropolis with ten million people and five million motorbikes, quite different from the tranquil rice fields I was expecting.

 

HCMC was our favourite city in Vietnam as it still felt very pure. Hanoi is much more visited by backpackers because of nearby tourist attraction Halong Bay. We spent almost a week in HCMC of which a large part shopping, especially in the Ben Thanh market. Vietnamese people make beautiful ornaments and most things are incredibly cheap according to our western standards. You can eat dinner for around GBP 1 (EUR 1.25) which makes Vietnam a great location for budget travellers. If you sit down in the city centre, students will come up to you have a chat and try to improve their English. We also watched a group of guys on their daily martial arts practice, quite impressive!

Before our trip, Natasha already decided to give our new London home (which we do not have yet :)) an Asian theme, so she was in shopping heaven. And with a nice dress going for GBP 3 to 4 (EUR 4-5) there was more to purchase :). After a number of days of shopping combined with visiting coffee shops and relaxing, we think we got most things we need for our house (and more). We can probably start our own shop in the UK :). Slight miscalculation was that we bought about 35kg of stuff so we ended up paying GBP 200 (EUR 250) to send it all home… Damn you Ben Thanh market!

We only had one negative experience in Ho Chi Minh City…

The story of our lost phone…

So there we stood with 35kg of souvenirs and presents. It had been very easy to get a Vinasun metered taxi in HCMC which is very cheap. But of course now we needed a taxi urgently, they were all taken. We decided to take another taxi that stopped for us which had a meter. We loaded all our stuff and took off. 30 seconds into the trip we already felt uncomfortable. The meter started at a price ten times the price of the Vinasun taxis and went up rapidly. After the shopping there was not much money left and as the traffic was crazy it would have cost us a fortune to get back to our hotel. We asked the driver to stop at the side of the road and as he stopped he started to act really aggressive towards us.

I tried to pay him the money we owed him, but somehow some of the notes disappeared. I had all my money and my phone on my lap and showed him this was all the money we had. We were trapped as we had all our bags in the car and couldn’t just jump out. He kept acting aggressive, going through our money and grabbed Natasha’s arm as she tried to calm him down. At some point we managed to agree on some sort of price even though I still don’t know where some of the notes went. We got out and took our things with us and we drove off. Just when we went to the pavement trying to understand what had happened I realised that I dropped my phone in the taxi in the commotion, so that was the second one gone on this trip! We decided to get a new phone that same night and try to forget about the whole thing. Next time a Vinasun taxi again!

So you can imagine Vietnam got a bit more expensive than we thought!

Some more quick facts about people and living in Vietnam

1. People make about 200 to 300 U.S. Dollar a month.
2. 90 million people live in Vietnam (more than for example the UK, Germany or France) of which about 5% is considered rich.
3. About 80% is Buddhist and 10% Catholic.
4. Vietnam is a communist country which means a very present government. About half of the 200 big companies are still controlled by the government.

A big part of the Vietnamese history is of course the Vietnam war (called the ‘American’ war in Vietnam) which lasted from 1954 – 1975. The main reason for the U.S. to get involved was to fight communism working its way down from North Vietnam. The communism was backed by China and the Soviet Union (now Russia). The U.S. supported south Vietnam to fight the North Vietnamese army (‘NVA’) and the notorious Vietcong army. See at the bottom of this blog for some more background if you are interested.

HCMC has a very impressive museum (not suitable for children) which gives the Vietnamese perspective around the war with stunning but shocking photos taken during and after the war. The museum shows some horrendous acts by the U.S. army where soldiers are posing with cut off heads of Vietcong guerrillas, which reminds of some recent acts by ISIS (or ISIL) in Syria.

Stories of the U.S. army killing women and children appear all over the walls in between the photos. Wars are horrible and it is always important to keep two perspectives into account. The U.S. perspective on this is that these women and children were often members of the Vietcong and did not hesitate to kill U.S. soldiers. The most impressive part of the museum is the story of agent orange which was used to destroy the jungle where the Vietcong was hiding. After the war a range of bad effects were reported, which are still visible on the streets of Vietnam three generations later.

Agent Orange, which contained the chemical dioxin, was the most commonly used of the herbicide mixtures, and the most effective. It was later revealed to cause serious health issues – including tumours, birth defects, rashes, psychological symptoms and cancer – among returning U.S. servicemen and their families as well as among the Vietnamese population.

Effects of Agent Orange on Vietnam
Vietnam has reported that some 400,000 people were killed, injured and disabled as a result of exposure to herbicides like Agent Orange. In addition, Vietnam claims half a million children have been born with serious birth defects, while as many 2 million people are suffering from cancer or other illness caused by Agent Orange.

In 2004, a group of Vietnamese citizens filed a class-action lawsuit against more than 30 chemical companies, including the same ones that settled with the U.S. veterans in 1984. A federal judge in Brooklyn, New York, dismissed the suit and another U.S. court rejected a final appeal in 2008. The harshest part for the Vietnamese is that the U.S. veterans that used agent orange as a weapon have received compensation in the U.S. but the people who were actually targeted have not received anything.

After families in the U.S. asked president Johnson for the return of their kids and grandchildren, the U.S. gave up the war 21 years after it started. Interestingly most of the younger generation in Vietnam do not live their lives in hate over the war and they do not seem to have any problems with U.S. citizens visiting their country. They look forward, are proud of their country and are happy with the money tourism brings in.

About an hour outside HCMC, the Vietcong maintained a complex system of tunnels to protect themselves from U.S. bombings. The tunnels of Cu Chi were built over a period of 25 years that began sometime in the late 1940s. The Vietcong expanded and used these tunnels extensively during the Vietnam war. The tunnels were built in the hard red soil of Chu Chi which made it ideal for shelter against bombings.

The tunnels have three levels at 3m, 6m and 9m deep. The tunnels are a sophisticated underground system with kitchens, meeting rooms, secret entrances, and army rooms. The government has opened up some of the tunnels and you are allowed to crawl 20m underground in the tiny tunnels, which you can imagine was challenging with my 1.90cm (just over 6ft 2in). A very interesting experience to walk through the area with the tunnels and learn more about its history. See below for some photos.

Back in HCMC, I wanted to buy some work outfits and Natasha some dresses, so we went on a stroll around the city. We found two good places to buy the suits, shirts and dresses for a much better price than in the UK.

After some more shopping and nice street food, sadly it was time to leave HCMC and move on to the capital Hanoi. Also a lovely city, but not with the same buzz. Even more than in HCMC, students will come up to you to improve their English, especially in the central area around the lake. We were even invited to come to their English class but unfortunately because of some miscommunication that did not happen…

They told us that there used to be loads of turtles before the Vietnam war. During the war many died and now only one old turtle swims around and he has his own temple in the middle of the lake.

In the afternoon we went to a traditional water puppet show. It was great to see how skilled the people behind the curtain are performing a show that we – to be honest – not fully understood with our limited Vietnamese :).

From Hanoi we booked a three-day trip to beautiful Halong Bay with its 1,600 islands, one of the ‘new seven wonders of the world’. The tour also took us to Cat Ba island where we did a jungle walk and it also includes a stop at monkey island, which was obviously Natasha’s favourite part of the trip.

There are many dodgy boats in the area that sell very cheap tours. One of them even sank some years ago, so we decided to take a tour in the mid-range. The boat wasn’t fantastic and the food got worse over the course of the three days, but we were mainly there for the views, so that didn’t bother us that much. We had lovely people on the boat and one night that resulted in Natasha and I, a Swedish couple, a Chinese couple and their assistant ending up in a seafood restaurant and later on in a Karaoke bar… Not even sure how, but definitely a great night!

See below for some pictures of Halong Bay and Cat Ba island.

Then it was time for monkey island. We were warned that some of the monkeys could be aggressive, so we should keep our distance. They are incredibly cheeky and steel anything if you don’t pay attention. A girl’s bag was stolen, a guy got his hand bitten and we even saw one drinking a stolen can of beer :).

 

On the way back we went through traditional floating villages and had beautiful views of the rice fields surrounding Hanoi.

 

We loved our time in Vietnam, especially in HCMC. The people are very friendly and it has such an interesting history. We would love to come back to see more of this beautiful country… of course also to do some more shopping. But next time we will try to make sure it fits in our bags!

Our next stop is Hong Kong!

Overview of the Vietnam War

Vietnam was the longest war in American history and the most unpopular American war of the 20th century. It resulted in nearly 60,000 American deaths and in an estimated 2 million Vietnamese deaths. Even today, many Americans still ask whether the American effort in Vietnam was a sin, a blunder, a necessary war, or whether it was a noble cause, or an idealistic, if failed, effort to protect the South Vietnamese from a communist government.

Between 1945 and 1954, the Vietnamese waged an anti-colonial war against France, which received $2.6 billion in financial support from the United States. The French defeat at the Dien Bien Phu was followed by a peace conference in Geneva. As a result of the conference, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam (together Indochina) received their independence, and Vietnam was temporarily divided between an anti-Communist South and a Communist North. In 1956, South Vietnam, with American backing, refused to hold unification elections.By 1958, Communist-led guerrillas, known as the Viet Cong, had begun to battle the South Vietnamese government.

To support the South’s government, the United States sent in 2,000 military advisors–a number that grew to 16,300 in 1963. The military condition deteriorated, and by 1963, South Vietnam had lost the fertile Mekong Delta to the Viet Cong. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson escalated the war, commencing air strikes on North Vietnam and committing ground forces–which numbered 536,000 in 1968. The 1968 Tet Offensive by the North Vietnamese turned many Americans against the war.

The next president, Richard Nixon, advocated Vietnamization, withdrawing American troops and giving South Vietnam greater responsibility for fighting the war. In 1970, Nixon attempted to slow the flow of North Vietnamese soldiers and supplies into South Vietnam by sending American forces to destroy Communist supply bases in Cambodia. This act violated Cambodian neutrality and provoked antiwar protests on the nation’s college campuses.

From 1968 to 1973, efforts were made to end the conflict through diplomacy. In January 1973, an agreement was reached; U.S. forces were withdrawn from Vietnam, and U.S. prisoners of war were released. In April 1975, South Vietnam surrendered to the North, and Vietnam was reunited.