Caves, floating villages and fried cheese

Reporting live from the cloudy but beautiful Sapa, where we have just arrived. In Dong Hoi we met Mr. Tom, a Vietnamese man of 65 with a small street restaurant. He told us about his work, life and family, and poured us full of rice vodka. The next morning we went to drink coffee with him and he explained to us how to get to Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park. We drove between beautiful rock formations through the jungle to the Paradise Cave. I am unfortunately not poetic enough to describe how big and beautiful and impressive it was there but I've never felt so small and quiet, in a nice way. That evening we took another night bus, to Ninh Binh, where we arrived at 4 o'clock in the morning, stepped into the pitch black street and found a place for tea and biscuits while we figured out what to do that day. Eventually a motorcycle ride again, and we found a women on a rowing boat to Tam Coc: breathtaking little river between the rice fields and then a little trip into the caves. The pagodas here are also caves high on the hills, that you reach by huge steps, in semi-darkness and cold rock with incense everywhere, very mysterious. The next day again a national park, Cuc Phuong, where we did a small hike of 3 hours through the mud and between centuries-old trees. At the end of the day we visited the shelter where monkeys and turtles from illegal (mostly Chinese) markets are saved and held untill they are ready to go back into nature. And then it was time for Ha Long Bay. In the end we found not some tour but a local boat to Cat Ba Island. One large construction site and high season by now but we ate fresh fish at the harbor, enjoyed the beautiful views (although it was unfortunately cloudy), went with a sea kayak to explore, clambered to the top of one of the limestone islands and visited crazy floating villages. We saw how big blocks of ice slipped into the fishingboats through a sort of rollercoaster and how women with a special kind of rake search for shellfish the beach. Then it was time again for some urban madness: Hanoi. Never seen so many motorcycles together, taxis with all their lights blinking while honking over the intersections, and take a full fifteen minutes to safely cross a street. Many attractive markets, the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh (whose body was in Russia for maintenance), a huge statue of Lenin on a square where local youth hangs out to skateboard and make selfies. Fresh beer, fried cheese and a bunch of drunken Irishmen made our day complete untill it was time for the night train to Lao Cai and from there this morning a bus to Sapa. This morning we got to know a hill-tribe woman from a village nearby that will take us tomorrow for two days thru the rice fields, mountains and villages nearby. Furthermore, we have just done something administration and I can state with some pride that we are apparently on budget :D Who would have ever thought.

#vietnam #donghoi #ninhbinh #cucphuong #halongbay #sapa #travel #asia #catbaisland #laocai