One of the most highly recommended off-the-beaten-track adventures in Vietnam is the North-West Loop, a 5-7 day loop out of (and back to) Hanoi which takes in some of Vietnam's most beautiful and inaccessible territory. Getting to places like Dien Bien Phu and Sapa is easy enough, but to really hit the remote areas a 4WD was required and - with foreigners not allowed to hire cars in Vietnam - Jen and I enlisted the services of a guide and driver for the journey.
Day one saw us travel to Mai Chau for a hike through the nearby rice fields and a village homestay, which provided two memorable highlights - first, the eating of fried crickets:
And secondly, a traditional dance performance by a local troupe:
We continued the following day by proceeding to Dien Bien Phu - a place prominent in 20th Century history as the town in which the final French garrison attempting to control Vietnam fell to the Vietnamese in their struggle for independence. It was also on this day that we got a true picture of the "abilities" of our driver, Mr Nguyen Thanh Tung. He would use his indicator just to go around a gentle bend in the road, he would leave the indicator running for an interminable length of time after any turn had been taken, he would accelerate hard going into a corner, he refused under any circumstances to ever change into top gear, and his depth and distance perceptions seemed questionable to say the least. Mr Nguyen boasted proudly of how he had been the official driver for the former French President Francois Mitterand when he visited Vietnam in 1993. Given France's - ahem - questionable history in this country, I wouldn't be surprised if they had given this guy to Mitterand as payback.
Day three was initially going to see us hitting Tam Duong in the far north-west, but due to inclement conditions and an overnight landslide, the road was closed and another route was taken. Tam Duong is, by all accounts, rather remote, but our change in itinerary actually took us even further off the beaten track to an out-of-the-way place called Than Uyen, where we gratefully managed to chalk up another only-foreigners-in-town experience. A evening village trek capped the day beautifully as we made photographical stars of the local kids and were invited in to share tea with an extraordinarily friendly and welcoming local family, who were I think just stunned that any female could be as tall as Jen.
The fourth day of our journey was probably the most spectacular, taking us first over the highest pass in the north-west called "Heaven's Gate", with a view of Fansipan, Vietnam's tallest peak...
...then past the aptly named Silver Waterfall...
...and finally on to Sapa, the most celebrated destination in the country's northern quadrant. Sapa is a gorgeous amalgam of Swiss-style mountain chalets and Mediterranean-style villas overlooking beautiful forested valleys from the side of a mountain. Of course, being the current go-to destination of northern Vietnam it is also therefore swarming with tourists - quite the contrast from our previous evening! But the views of the town and surrounding countryside more than made up for this.
Day five began our descent from the mountains and back to Hanoi, with a final stop in Yen Bai - where accommodation was in short supply due to us having timed our visit to coincide with a Communist Party conference being held in the town. We did, however, get to treat ourselves to a free open-air concert in the middle of town, presumably put on to show the party bigwigs a good time.
And so finally, 24 hours later, and six days after beginning our journey, Jen and I, our excellent guide Mr Chu and our not-quite-so-excellent (but still very friendly) driver have arrived back in Hanoi. Our friend Issy is due to arrive later this evening to join us for the next week and a half, but I'm sure Jen will have plenty to say about that in her next entry...
Things Jennie will remember:
1) The windscreen wipers breaking down on the jeep when it was pouring with rain (thank goodness we weren't far from a garage)
2) The tyre puncture on the way back to Hanoi that meant Sean and I spent 40 minutes on the side of the round surrounded by 30 crazy giggling school girls all making us read passages from their English text books - they put Take That fans to shame with their screaming!
3) That the Chinese will pay $5,000 US for 1kg of tiger - so no wonder people kill the things - our guide was proud of how much this was when he told it to us. And let's face it when you're broke and starving are you really going to care about the tiger population? Demand needs to stop to save the tigers me thinks.
4) That the Vietnamese equivalent of a wedding ring is, for the Thais tribes, wearing your hair up in a large bun on the top of your head. Quite a sight when they try to put their motorbike helmets on!
5) The mountain views in Sapa. Incredible.
6) "Thit Cho" aka Sean's worst nightmare... dog meat. We saw a butchered dog in one market. And another dog sniffing the butchering table. Can't help but think that dog is slightly stupid. Run doggie run!!!
7) Pho, Bun, Nem - noddle soupy and spring roll goodness all for pennies.
8) That the Vietnamese bury their dead twice. The first time for 3 years, then they dig up the bones, clean them and place them into mausoleums.
9) The black and white Thai dances that we were shown at our homestay in Mai Chau.
10) That if you're ever drowning in Vietnam not to be so unlucky as to be drowning next to a fisherman. Because they won't save you. Instead they think that the water god wants you and since they don't want to upset the water god - you're a gonner!
11) Our driver, Mr Nguyen Thanh Tung (crazy but lovely leaves-indicator-on-all-the time man) and our guide, Mr Chu Huy Hung.
12) Helping harvest the rice in the paddy fields (I wasn't very good!!!)
13) That silk worms are actual worms in a cocoon and that they rattle. Boil them up though and that's how you get silk....
14) All the pretty tribes of Northern Vietnam - H'mong (Blue, Black, White and Flower - wore the black round hats) , Thai (Black and White - wore the coloured black hats), Black Dzao and Pazi (wore the red hats).
Here are the pictures:
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