Another amazing trip comes to an end

Here's some funny highlights!
Monk cutting toe nails in front of us when we're the only visitors for months
Girl serving beer then cleaning out her ears with a key and wiping wax on black jeans
Steering cruise boat with feet whilst playing game on phone - thank goodness Harlong bay channel is so wide
Rat running through my legs whilst crossing road in Hanoi
Mouse trapped on our first class sleeper cabin
Man violently shaking his hard whilst showing us a restaurant menu
Me needing to get a bra mended - in Asia a c cup is the equivalent of Jordan!!!

What an incredible trip - amazing to catch up with Em, we're already planing our 50th birthday adventure!  And so wonderful to come back to Vietnam after 16 years!!! It was so hard to travel in before, but a fantastic experience as tourism was relatively new then. This is why I headed to Myanmar last year, just as I did to this part of south East Asia all that time ago as an independent traveller travelling in new frontiers. I also went back to Loas a couple of years ago and enjoyed travelling in air conditioned buses on paved roads. In the nineties there was just a bumpy road from the capital Vientiane to Luang Prabang and I had to take a truck for 18 hours with an armed guard to stave off mountain bandits!!!!!
I'm now having a beer whilst I wait for my night train to take me back to Hanoi. I'm on the Vietnamese/ Chinese border town of Lao Chai and have 24 hours left before I fly hope. Yet again I have been overwhelmed with the kindness of strangers. From the Sapa hotel staff who packed me a dinner for my train trip tonight, to the hill tribe kid girl who gave me a bracelet, to the tax men at their staff meal who serenaded us with jingle bells on their guitar just before Christmas, to the nine hill tribe women who got me down to the villages today and the seamstress who mended my bra without looking shocked about the cup size!!!!
Ok the weather was not great, too much cloud, but the warmth of the people really made up for this.  What more can I say - great food, amazing people and fascinating places to visit    and you feel safe and supported along the way!

Crazy not lazy!!!

Wow this morning presented a HUGE challenge for me. I decided to trek to the local villages of Lao Chai and Ta Van. Getting a lift to the start was the easy part and then the realisation of what lay ahead left me shaking in fear as my vertigo kicked in. Yep I'm taking the winding hairpin bending road down to the valley floor and I was shaking like a leaf!!!! Soon I was surrounded by nine women who clung on to me with today's mantra of slowly slowly as we inched our way down the steep path dropping into the valley. What a way to start the day! I was trying to tell that I was crazy not lazy.... Not sure they believed me, but when we got to the valley floor they could see that I was walking ok and crazy not lazy!!!!!

You buy from me

Heading back to Sapa was an incredible experience. Nestled in the mountains near the Chinese border, this hill town offers incredible views of cascading rice terraces and mountain tops, but you have to be patient as it is often covered in dense mist and you can't see further than your hand!!! It reminds me of my stay in Darjeeling when I only saw the beautiful view of the Himalayas once!!!
Here you are quickly targeted by the local H'mong or Red Zao women, who become your shadow when you walk through town. "You buy from me" is the mantra here, as the selling is gentle but with some persistence.
Wanting to make the most if my last few days and the subsiding mist revealing incredible scenery, I headed out with a guide to a couple of villages, attracting two Red Zao women as my walking shadows and making great foregrounds for my landscape shots!
It's so interesting to see where all of these women live and then descend on town every day. One of the Zao women showed me round her house, which she shared with three sons, daughters in law and grandchildren. The fire is the centre of the wooden house, but there is no chimney for the smoke to disperse, so the wood is blackened. The dirt floor must be freezing at night but the warmth of the fire and the family must see them through.
Although education is free the tourist pull of Sapa is huge and this ensures that the grandmothers, mothers and grandchildren maintain their traditional dress and head into town to sell their handicrafts. But tourism brings income and a more sustainable way of life. My guide had left school at 14 and at 21 was married with a small child, living in Sapa with her chef husband. She was able to make an independent life and see a brighter future, which is great. There's a trekking company here set up by three sisters, so the independence of women here has progressed, but they still work harder, longer and have to support the family in every aspect.

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I remember when the only way to communicate whilst travelling was to call or arrange to pick up mail at post offices. Now there's wifi everywhere - even in the middle of Halong Bay!!! Everyone is busy tapping away on their phones, collecting facebook friends along the way, instragraming pictures of their exotic meals and rating all the restaurants and hotels that they stay in. The world is now so connected and small and chimes to the ring of your mobile phone in your pocket!   

Keep paddling !!!!

I never anticipated that kayaking would be a highlight of the trip !!! After climbing down the ladder on the side of the boat and getting into the kayak we then went around the secluded bays and through natural tunnels in the rock - this was both exhilarating and challenging. as being a city dweller i still get excited at the sight of open water and I hadn't  kayaked for 16 years (the last time being in Katherine Gorge in the Northern Territory of Australia and I fell in!!!!) After ti chi on the deck at sunrise the world was my oyster and this three day cruise was the perfect opportunity to experience all that Halong Bay had to offer. 

Have fun on the outside

So many times hotel staff have said this or when we have been waiting for transfer pick ups have said have you booked the tickets on the outside? And have checked our reservations! There is a lot of fun to be had on the outside and in Hanoi you take your life in your hands as you cross the street. Unlike HCMC where your slow steps across the road cause the traffic to gently swerve round you the Hanoi motorbikes head straight for you and your nerves of steel are tested. If you  can cross the road here you can cross the road anywhere!
Coming back to Hanoi after a beautiful three day cruise in Halong Bay was an assault to the senses. The noise of the traffic, the smell of food cooking in boiling vats of oil on the street corners or BBQ sweet potato sizzling, and streets lined with shops crammed full to the rafters, this is crazy intoxicating Hanoi.
Halong Bay is a stretch of almost 2,000 islands scattered in the South China Sea. Each uninhabitable and mainly unnamed island juts out of the sea covered in green foliage, hiding monkeys and birds of a variety of species.  This has been designated as a natural wonder of the world and quite rightly so.