The route: what everyone does - Hanoi to Halong Bay, Hanoi to Sapa, down to Hue and Hoi An, back to Hanoi.
7 accommodations, 2 sleeper trains, 3 long bus rides, and lots of minibuses and walking.
Vietnam is the images in photographs and documentaries. Flooded rice paddies, water buffalos, conical hats and bicycles, mopeds; markets, bowls of pho and baguettes (banh) on every street corner. Bonsais bigger than me, carved dragons decorating rooftops, wooden boats on a wide, muddy river. Twelve foot wide faded yellow buildings patterned with moss and mildew, stacked four stories high, with miniscule balconies decorated with plants (and maybe a dog). Electrical lines that make you nervous about the buzzing noise. Temples and tombs embedded in misty mountains and overgrown greenery. Heaps of herbs and noodle soups. Women carrying baskets full of everything, balanced delicately with a wooden board slung across their shoulders.Groups of friends and families gather on miniature plastic stools on every street corner sidewalk, sipping tea or coffee in the rain. Hundreds of mopeds. Occasionally, one with 50 geeze in baskets (live ones), squawking that things don't seem right. Sometimes a truck laden with pigs in baskets (live ones) stacked 8 high and 5 deep. They use horns for brakes on the roads. Stoplights are merely suggestions, not rules. Use earplugs and cross your fingers as you cross the street!
This is where things are made. Laminate boards lay out drying for miles, 400 tailors call a town of 30,000 home, thousands of insense sticks are rolled by hand. You'll find whatever you are looking for (or it will find you). As westerners, all you need is a smile, patience, and the ability to tune out the "Hello! Where you from? You buy something! Motobike 50,000 dong! What you looking for? Shopping! You need hotel?!" and all the other sales pitches. And you can enjoy the energy and vibrancy that we seem to have lost in the states, with all of our comforts.
I would love to come back.
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