Sapa Vietnam Trekking

Mr. Tony Vo,… bon vivant and general advisor, the “front office manager” at my hotel, the Hanoi Imperial Hotel in Hanoi, http://www.hanoiimperialhotel.com/ had talked me in to going on a side trip, a “Sapa Trekking” trip. I was to understand I would take the night train with a sleeper car to Lao Cai and then bus up to my hotel in Sapa. I had a hazy understanding I would go out to some native villages of hill people who are ethnic minorities in Viet Nam and walk around a bit and take pictures as a high-fiving white guy tourista, it sounds good no?

The PDF file e-mailed to me describes this mental image “Sapa is an incredibly picturesque village that lies on the Hoang Lien Son mountain range near the Chinese border in North West Vietnam, it is called the “Tokinese Alps”……

Ok go already

They sent someone to get me on the train; I thought sharing a sleeper car with three other people was a little odd, but whatever. I had bought some brand new Keen shoes before I left the States from REI. I put them under the bottom bunk, I never saw them again. The train was super noisy. There was a small angry man with a deadblow hammer berating the train roof all night long (my only explanation). I did take an ambian and managed to get some sleep. In the morning I lurched to the “café car” the workers, who wore very impressive uniforms, were playing cards for money. It was so deliciously seedy I wanted a photo, I brought up the camera, they panicked and brought up the waving hand, I got a shot anyway but said “yeah ok, cool you bet” and sat down.

When I got on the minibus I said “my shoes, my shoes my precious shoes”. The guy running things didn’t say “fuck off” he said “it will be very difficult”… I said to call someone to check.. “It will be very difficult”. I said something about “lost and found”; he found this very funny that I thought this was a viable option for the return of my shoes. I explained in terms of bad karma that taking another man’s shoes were more or less at the tip-top of badness… my fellow travelers listened on with amusement

When I got to my hotel  http://www.boutiquesapahotel.com/I was a little tired and cranky. It said I would check in immediately and I could take a cool shower. I figured I needed to get ready to trek, remember I had no shoes, just some Teva sandals on my feet. Eventually I did go to my room and the view was breathtaking. I took a shower, cooled down and was feeling good. I checked on the tour and then walked up the street to the market it turned out I needn’t have worried. Apparently all kindsa people show up unprepared there were several shops selling North Face stuff; shoes, packs, jackets, you name it. I got some cheap shoes for $20.

My guide showed up at the hotel and off we went. Her name was Zaza and she rocked, she is a Black Hmong from a small village near Sapa. I assumed we were walking to a car of some type. We were not.

She explained we simply were going to walk the entire thing from where we were. Hmm, glad I gots me some shoes then. She spoke very good English and I was able to really learn about the area (I had lots of questions). Since I had booked the tour by myself it was just me and her taking a stroll, a long, hot ball busting stroll. (Key Gilligan’s Island theme song here). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfR7qxtgCgY

It was fun and informative and the whole thing was good, lots of photo options and we eventually got to the bottom. Zaza seemed to assume I would want a car or motor bike to get back up to the hotel. I told her I thought I could make it if we went slowly. So I walked all the way back and was very proud of myself. The hotel, Boutique Spa Hotel provided free breakfast, lunch and dinner by the way and the food was excellent; ask to stay in room 403.

The next day I was hurting and sore. The previous day I had suggested we do something different because it was just the two of us, I told Zaza I could rent a car and we could go way out and visit a village not normally bothered by tourists. But today was a little different a young woman from Florida named Megan joined our group and Zaza had invited two of her girlfriends. So as a merry group of five off we walked.

We hit a trail and it got very narrow and muddy and steep very quickly. Megan and I both slipped and fell in the mud on our asses in no time. I started to worry about my camera getting wet; I also couldn’t well take photos with a muddy hand. I sprained my thumb trying to break my fall. I started to try and grab plants for support. My guide Zaza said “ok, this plant is fine; don’t grab the one next to it because it is poisonous”. Zaza and her friends helped us along, her girlfriend helpers now seemed to not to have been invited by accident. I was looking for a walking stick for support but couldn’t find one. At one point I was trying to walk along a section of bamboo fence to stay upright and a branch hit me in the face—zoop, I felt my contact lens shoot out.

I said Ok, everyone STOP for a moment.

I asked if anyone had a mirror. Mah, Zaza’s friend pulled a jagged piece of mirror glass out of a cloth purse which looked like a dagger. I said “this looks like a weapon”. I looked for my contact, it was gone. Zaza suggested we go look for it. I gave the same laugh the guy gave me when I suggested we go look for my shoes.

I said “so where are we going here, I see no destination in mind, is this really a trail your tribe uses or are you just going cross country to be weird or what”???

An amused Zaza looked at me and said “this is what you asked for Ed”

I said “How is that”

She explained “you said you wanted to go where there were no tourists, do you see any tourists? And yes this is one of our regular trails, and I would use this everyday but when I go on this trial I would normally wear my boots and I would run the whole way, we don’t walk, we run everywhere we go”

I thought …”ach! Fer crying out loud”!!

So sure enough, about five minutes later a dude who had been working in the fields along side of us came out and wearing nothing but a pair of shorts and sandals he RAN down the trail and disappeared from sight in about 2 seconds. It dawned on me I had a brutal hike ahead of me. We literally were walking along on the lip of those rice paddy dikes a narrow muddy band of dirt about eight inches wide. The Black Hmong women trotted across these like giddy little pixies. Megan and I skulked warily.

It seemed either straight up or straight down. We eventually came out on a high aqueduct type of bridge with no guard rail. Megan was afraid of heights, I was glad it wasn’t windy. Zaza talked about having lunch. I asked what we were going to eat? She said my lunch was on her back. Hmmmm

There was a large snake by the trail. Zaza said “Ed can’t you see that snake”, I said “remember I am operating with one eye here”. Megan said is that snake Poisonous”?, Zaza said “oh yes, all the large snakes like that in Vietnam are poisonous, the bright green tree snake called the leaf snake is the worst”. Some boys grabbed bamboo sticks and went after the snake.

We stopped for lunch and the baguette sandwich Zaza had prepared was excellent. Zaza’s two friends peeled off here and came back selling stuff, I didn’t recognize them. I said I didn’t want to buy their goods but to give them a nice tip for helping to keep me in one piece (more or less) on the trail. A small cadre of girls came over and started their perpetual chant of “

“You buy one from me ..too”

“You buy one form me ..too”

They sounded like doves cooing.

I started to imitate this which made everyone laugh.  We were finally at the bottom and walking along a village in a flat area. Some Red Dao women walked by. Zaza pulled out an umbrella Megan was red and cooked on the shoulders and neck. There came up a wooden walkway bridge and then a small building. Zaza asked if  wanted a car? I said “yes I want an air-conditioned Mercedes with a bed and a masseuse”. She laughed and said “I will ride with you then”.

I said “you are sweating Zaza you are exhausted”

She said no she wasn’t and she could walk back the way we came.

I said “yeah right”

We sat down and she tried to call her friend for a car ride. He was already busy.

Next she asked f we would ride on the back of a motorbike. I said yeah.

They showed up and off we went, the road back was a long ways up! I really felt like I had in fact got to really see and experience that part of Vietnam. It was a hell of an adventure and I highly recommend it.

I can’t really convey at this point how tired, sweaty, sticky and worn out I was. My knees were swollen, I had a blood blister on my toe, my thighs were screaming and all the Gatorade in the world wouldn’t have helped. But I really felt like I had accomplished something too.

So I had two hours to clean up and then back to the night train again. I decided to just throw away my muddy shoes. Someone at the hotel wanted them. When I got to the train it was just me and one other in our sleeper car. I had a bottom bunk. I turned out the lights, locked the door and went to sleep.

In the morning a Chinese man was lying across from me reading a book on an I-pad. His eyes darted up and down in an unfamiliar reading pattern. How could he and his wife have gotten in my cabin in the middle of the night without waking me up,  I thought to myself,  “ where oh where did YOU come from sunshine”???

Pics? https://picasaweb.google.com/EddieTsunami/SapaVietnamTrek

Saltwater Disaster

So I just dipped my digital camera in the saltwater of St. Julian’s Bay in Malta and it went nuts, I fear it is toast. You might well think to yourself that is the singular most stupid thing you have ever heard, at least in modern times, hear me out however.

I have done this before, several times actually, and it worked well, albeit in lakes and rivers that were fresh water. I did hesitate a second before I did it thinking if the chemical difference in the water would really make that much of a difference and I decided if it was sealed it is sealed. It is a WR or “water-resistant” Olympus Stylus 1200 http://www.dpreview.com/news/2007/8/23/olystylus1200 and it is not remotely new, I have used it and abused it. I did actually offer to sell it to a guy at work recently for something like $120 and then I decided, hey I still need that. Living in the greater Seattle area it is very damp here with rain and water spray out and about fishing and whatnot. It has been a good solid camera.

The water resistant feature means you can hold it under running sink water and it is fine. It is not designed to take pressure however and I know that and have never asked it to do that for me. I have put it in the water though lying right on top and making sure the lens was under and taken shots that way. I also did a half-and-half, half in and half out and that also worked quite well.

Being here in Malta it is sunny and the water was clear there was a school small fish close and I wanted a pic of them. I clicked it and when I took it out I had a serried of multicolored vertical lines down the LED screen and I thought oh-oh…

…

I took the battery out and my first fear was the flash card. I have checked it and it is OK. “No pictures were lost in this movie of my life’s choices”. When I got back to my hotel room I rinse dit off with fresh water and it is drying now. I still hold out a faint hope it will live again….Saturday 9/15/2012 at 12:51 pm from St. Julian’s Bay Malta at the http://www.hoteljuliani.com/?gclid=CP3Q-6S1t7ICFUJd3god9igAFw

to be continued.........

Malta - the exotic battle

5:30 am, the alarm goes off. I didn’t sleep well, was too excited about going to Malta. My back kinda hurts trying to stretch it out. It is supposed to be 86 degrees here in the greater Seattle area today September 7, 2012, WTF?? I hope Bud takes care of my plants and yard. We haven’t had any measurable rain for 46 days. No, that isn’t all THAT unusual in the Emerald City, we haven’t broken the record yet and the record isn’t that old. It really doesn’t rain here all that much it is just often gray more than needed.

All packed, all ready to go, looking at the clock it is 7:30 am and my ride to the airport (shuttle express here is Seattle), has said they will be here at 8 to 8:20. I figure that means 8:30 in English. I am OK with that because I discovered last night my flight has been delayed an hour. I am supposed to leave now about 1pm. So much slack time is built in now with the TSA and the fear mongers. THANK YOU GEORGE W, you idiot!!

Just called the bank for my debit card, I Almost forgot….. that might have been bad. Almost no one now uses traveler checks any more. I needed to tell them I would be out of the country. I had already talked to the Visa people but I might need some cash out of the cash machine and that is one of the bestest, easiest ways to convert money now in a foreign country.

I am packing light, only one fairly small carry on suitcase, my laptop bag and my camera. This is basically all the airline legally allows you to carry on. I learned this from Cary, (thanks Cary), travelling VERY light truly rulz the world. I remember those people we ran into in Lima, Peru and later we ran into them in a hillside street market and the airline had “lost” all their luggage, they were so screwed. I take all cotton clothes and plan on some laundry.

AH, the Shuttle Express is here exactly on time. The woman is older with blonde spiked hair, she has the leather coated smoker’s voice, and she so much reminds me of a friend, Sally. She is happy to be driving in the Duvall countryside on such a beautiful day. I feel like she is flirting and wonder how long it will be till she asks my marital status, it doesn’t take long. She needs to have her am news/talk radio on; she is addicted to the racket. I finally turn it way down. She has to turn it back up. We arrive at the wrong gate, United that is my fault, should be Lufthansa through United. We unload and she shuts the back door.

I say “I need my camera too”.  I start to walk away. She exclaims “WHAT, no gratuity?? We only make minimum wage ya know”!!

I give her a $20. She says “Can I come with you”? I say “No”.

So I have the long walk. I did print out my boarding pass at home that worked slick as hell. Long security line ahead, go figure. I get to do a new thingy, there is always a new deal at security right? Today it is the x-ray where they say “put your thumbs to your head and spread your fingers like antlers”! I think maybe the guy is shitting me so I look at his face, I can’t tell, so I do antlers. Now here I am at gate A13 and I am three hours early. I do some writing long hand, and then I think Christ I might as well drag the laptop out and plug her in!

Large loud talking man waiting here too, is getting his business wrapped up for the week and thankfully he has a blue tooth so he just bellers. I keep turning around and pointedly looking at him and so he walks about 20 feet away. I can still easily hear every single word.

Then this sneaking black dude starts walking around and weighing people’s luggage, another new wrinkle. I compare the stuff he is taking and making people check in to mine own. Yike, so I move where I am sitting to the other side, he considers this. I hear him say no carry on can weigh more than 8 kilos, 17.6 pound ain’t much homey. When we line up I stay over to the left the person who looks at my boarding pass has a badge that says “trainee”

We load up and the flight isn’t terrible. I got an outside seat so I can stand up and move around a bit. The woman sitting next to me is an Indian woman wearing a large shawl and traditional dress. When I watch a movie she watches my movie with no sound, she doesn’t use her own. She shuts her window shade and then leans way forward to look out the window on the person sitting in front of her. The service is pretty good on Lufthansa they bring nice hot wet towels to wash up (twice), two meals, many drinks and snacks, I like Lufthansa.

We get off in Frankfurt out on the field, we have to get on buses and I miss the first one. I have 30 minutes till the next flight loads; I am starting to worry time. They drive us all over way around I see my gate and they keep going why? They finally stop at a security check in, WHAT!! I just got off your plane and went through all that security crap already. Finally get through and have a really long walk, first down many stairs then a long straight stretch and then back up. Did I tell you I was sweating the time. I hate Lufthansa!

I get there and of course they are running behind there was no hurry. There is also no place to sit so 100 of us hardy travelers stand there milling around. I am OK with that I was just sitting for 10 hours wasn’t I? Their loading is chaotic. We finally take off. I am sitting in a row of three on the outside. They two women next to me are older, one has to be at least 75 or 80 and they are the loudest women I have ever sat next to. But at east they never shut up. I could tell how bad it was by the dirty looks the people in front of them were giving them.

Finally I land in Malta. It smells warm and humid, kinda deserty, North Africa like. Yellow limestone buildings and palm trees. I am looking for my ride, I walk through a row of people holding signs which say “Mark Jones” and “HOP” and various things but no Ed Peters to be had. I consult my paperwork and ask someone if he knows these people. He says to go to information, on the way over here is Mr Ed Peters sign. Yay! I go to get in the car in front and am confronted with a steering wheel. I say ‘so you guys drive on the wrong side’? He drives very fast on the wrong side.

We get to the Hotel and I am about to drop. I am so sweaty and tired and so on. I need a shower and a clothes change and a nap! The woman at the desk says “you know we do not check people in till 3pm”…it is 1. So I dropped off luggage and walked around the little harbor. I saw a moray eel dead floating on the water, the water was clear lots of baitfish. I was too hot, went back to the hotel. I asked the guy at the bar if he had anything non-alcoholic to drink, he said no. 

No iced tea I ask? He says yes, peach or lemon?