Vietnam - Halong bay, Hanoi and Sapa

On 7th May we left Nanning in Southern China by bus and arrived 10 hours later in Halong City in Vietnam.  The border crossing was very organised and straight forward.  We spent one night in Halong City and the following morning we went to the Tourist Boat Wharf.  We wanted to get to Cat Ba, the only inhabited island in Halong Bay and we opted to get there on a tourist boat. 99% of the tourists that visit Halong Bay organise their trips in Hanoi, so we ended up being put on a boat with a bunch of tourists from Hanoi.  We waited nearly 3 hours and were passed from person to person until finally we got on a boat.  We had lunch, visited a nice cave, saw a small amount of Halong Bay, which has over 3,000 islands, is a UNESCO world heritage site and is totally gorgeous.  We arrived in Cat Ba around 6pm and then we had to get transport to the other side of the island.  The only available transport at this time of day was a minibus and the owner wanted $10 per person to drive 30 minutes. This is an enormous sum of money in Vietnam.  There was 8 people needing transport and we all refused to pay $10, so eventually the man agreed to $5 each.  

We stayed on Cat Ba for 5 nights and had a very enjoyable time there.  Cat Ba is a very popular weekend destination for people from Hanoi but the rest of the time it's very quiet.  During our time here we went on a 1-day kayaking trip and we had a great time kayaking around some of the islands, observing the locals, who live on floating islands, and swimming in the lovely cool water.  It was a great place to relax after our exhausting month in China and we met some other travellers who we got on well with and hung out with in the evenings.

We left Cat Ba and got a bus to Hanoi, which we'd visited 15 years ago as part of a 3 week holiday to Vietnam.  This time we experienced much less of a culture-shock, although the number motorbikes has increased dramatically and crossing the road is very exciting!  Whilst in Hanoi we visited a few tourist attractions, including Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum.  Last time we came to Hanoi, Ho was in Russia having his annual spruce-up.  Fortunately, the queue was small but there were many groups of cute primary-school children, which seemed a bit strange.  Ho's mausoleum was built despite his dying wishes to be cremated.  It was a very interesting experience and he looked very peaceful, very white and in good condition considering that he died over 40 years ago.

Some of the cute school children in Hanoi

Someone's fed-up of being photographed!

We had 2 nights in Hanoi and then we got the sleeper train to Lao Cai.  We paid for a soft sleeper, so we only had 4 people in the compartment instead of 6 and although the standard was better than the trains we'd had in China the mattress was rock hard.  

We arrived in Sapa, feeling wrecked, at 6 am and then we got a minibus, which went up and around the twisty roads to Sapa, which is 1500m high.  We had 5 nights in Sapa and had a thoroughly wonderful time.  The scenery here is spectacular and we were very lucky with the weather and had blue skies and sunshine everyday.  We did some trekking to see some of the minority villages and because it's planting season at the moment the rice paddies are full of families working very hard.

We also spent a day volunteering at an amazing local school called Sapa O'Chau.  Please take a look at their website www.sapaochau.org

The day we spent at the school was very rewarding and emotional.  We were horrified to learn that human-trafficking is a big problem in Sapa and many of the young people in the villages have disappeared.  The school is trying to educate the students about this issue and MTV Exit are organising a concert for 40,000 people next week in Hanoi to raise awareness of this issue.  The school has been raising money to take some of the students to this concert and they were incredibly excited.  Some of them have never been out of Sapa valley and Hanoi is going to blow their minds!

We want to thank Peter (from Sheffield), his wonderful girlfriend and the rest of the team for letting us volunteer, making us so welcome, and giving us such wonderful memories.  We may return one day to volunteer for longer!

A rather large caterpillar!

A cluster of over 100 butterflies

Nice home-made stilts

Tomorrow we cross the boarder back into China and have another long bus journey to Kunming.  We both feel nervous and excited about our second month in China.  We will have no access to 'blogspot' until we reach Nepal, but PLEASE leave a comment so we know you're still following our travels.  Cheers!!!

China Part 3 - Guilin, Rice Terraces, Yangshuo and Nanning

After our Yangtze cruise we had a one-hour scenic coach ride to Yichang, a short taxi ride to the train station, a 2-hour wait, a 5-hour train journey to Wuhan, a 5-hour wait and then a 12-hour sleeper train to Guilin.  The joys of travelling!   We arrived in Guilin around midday feeling a bit spaced-out after our 26 hours of travelling.  We spent 2 nights in Guilin walking beside the lake and river, eating some great cheap street food and sleeping alot.

We then got on a bus for 3 hours to an area known as the Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces, where the rice fields rise up to 1000m high and are an amazing feat of farm engineering.  The terraces are dotted with small minority villages and many of them have guest houses.  The bus dropped us off in Da Zhai and then we had a 1-hour walk up hill to a village called Tian Tou Zhai.  It was hard work walking with my backpack but the views were spectacular.  There were ladies in traditional clothes with huge baskets on their backs offering to carry my pack for a small fee but many of the these ladies were much older than me and it didn't seem appropriate letting them carry my bag even though they are as strong as an ox and have calves like Olympic cyclists!

The Miao people live in Tian Tou Zhai and we had a very warm welcome from the ladies in the guesthouse.  The view from our window over the rice terraces was amazing.  We spent 2 nights here and enjoyed long walks around the terraces, watching the high-heeled Chinese girls struggling their way up and down the paths and hanging out with the ladies who sit outside the guest house sewing and selling their beautiful hand-made tablecloths, clothes, bags etc.  

The ladies in this area never cut their hair and tie it in this traditional way

Tian Tou Zhai

We then left the beautiful rice terraces and made our way by bus to Yangshuo, famous for its dramatic Karst landscape.  We stayed for 5 nights at The Culture House, which is run by Mr Wei , who speaks very good English, and his family.    The Culture House provides 3 meals a day and it was a great place to stay.  We also enjoyed meeting and chatting with the other guests over dinner.  

On one of the days we got the local bus to Yangdi, negotiated a price for a bamboo raft, and had a very enjoyable ride down the Li River to XingPing.   The weather was overcast but the scenery was still spectacular.  We saw a few men with cormorants, which have been used for over 1000 years by people in this area to catch fish, but are now mainly on show for the tourists. 

Xingping on the Li River

We also had a very enjoyable day on bicycles, cycling along the Yulong river.  We got lost a few times, Nic's bike got a puncture and on several occasions we had to push the bikes between paddie fields but we had a great time, the sun was shining and the scenery was wonderful.  We then cycled to Moon Hill, which has a big circular hole in the middle of it and then cycled back to the guesthouse waving and smiling at the hundreds of happy, wobbly Chinese tourist on bikes and tandems.

The beautiful Yulong river

Bamboo raft anyone?

Industriuos farmers planting rice

Typical karst scenery

Puncture repair man who only charged us 50p

After leaving Yangshuo we had a 6-hour bus journey to Nanning.  We stayed at a hostel near the bus station and the following day we caught the bus to Halong City in Vietnam.

We've enjoyed our first month in China but the overnight train journeys and the pollution takes its toll.  The southern part of China is very green and has spectacular scenery and we're looking forward to exploring more the south when we return to China in a couple of weeks.

China Part 2 - Xian, Chongqing and Yangze River Cruise

We got another sleeper train, this time from Pingyao to Xian and when we got on the train at 00.30 am there were people in our beds; however they soon got up and left once we woke them up.  We arrived in Xian at 9am feeling pretty exhausted.  We spent the day recovering and wandering around the Muslim Quarter.  Xian is a huge walled city with some lovely ancient buildings, including the huge Bell and Drum Towers.

Whilst we where here we met a couple called Marion and Dave, who used to live around the corner from my Mum and Dad.  We got on really well with them and went with them to see the nearby daily fountain show.   The place was crowded with enthusiastic Chinese tourists and there was one very stressed-out Police man desperately trying to control them.  Very amusing!

We also did a day trip to see the Tomb of Emperor Jingdi (188-141BC).  His rule was based upon the concept on non-action and non-interference (imagine that!) and he did much to improve the life of his subjects.  21 of the 81 huge tombs have been excavated and it is a very impressive and interesting place to visit.  The pits contain terracotta figurines, including eunuchs, servants and domestic animals. 

On our last day here we got public transport out to see the Terracotta Army, which we were suitably impressed with and luckily it was quieter as we arrived at lunch time.  First we visited Pit 3, which contains 72 warriors and horses and is believed to be the army headquarters.  Pit 1 is by far the most impressive and the scale of it is hard to take in.  It is believed to contain 6,000 warriors and horses, all facing east.  The level of detail on each warrior is amazing and of course they are all unique. 

Marion posing like the Chinese!

 

One of Emperor Jingdi's tombs

Mind-blowing Pit 1 - Terracotta Army

Amazing faces

Next we got yet another sleeper train, this time to Chongqing.  We were herded like cattle upstairs, along a corridor and then downstairs to the platform.  Everyone was being crushed and it was chaos; it was a relief to finally get on the train.  There was a group of people in our compartment with lots of food and alcohol and they invited us to join them.  We had a great time but ended up drinking too much and felt terrible the next day.

Partying Chinese-style!

We arrived in Chongqing with our hangovers and spent a couple of days relaxing in the hostel and booking our Yangtze river cruise.  Chongqing is the fastest growing city in China (and probably the world) with about half a million people moving here every year.  

We did a 3 night cruise on a Chinese tourist boat, which was shabby and basic.  We shared the boat with about 300 Chinese people and 6 French people and it was very enjoyable watching how the Chinese people behave on their holidays.  The first day of the cruise was very dull; the scenery was unimpressive and we had rain; however the second day was very enjoyable as we went to see the Three Little Gorges, which are beautiful, and we had a lovely sunny day.  

Whilst on the boat 2 Chinese men had a fight over a chair much to the amusement of the everyone watching.  Chinese people in general seem to be more aggressive than the people we met in South East Asia and here are some other traits that we observed on our cruise:

- shouting alot, pushing and shoving

- spitting and very loud hacking (gross)

- rushing around and panicking 

- arguing in public

- drinking tea and eating constantly 

- littering

- eating nuts and seeds without the use of hands (quite a talent!)

- not smiling when having your photo taken

- not taking photos unless there is a person in it

- carrying buckets and lots of plastic bags

- pointing alot

- really enjoying everything to the max (a very nice quality)

The man in the white t-shirt was the man fighting over the chair and this is his wife!

The people who lived in this area used to place coffins in small caves very high up on the cliffs.  God knows how they got them there.

The river was very clean here

The mighty Yangtze

China Part 1 - Beijing and Pingyao

We arrived in China on 8th April and had a wonderful but very tiring month travelling from Beijing in the north to Nanning in the south. As we can't get Blogspot in China we've not been able to update the blog for a month but now we're in Vietnam.  We're here for 2 weeks and then we'll be heading back to China for another month of exploring this enormous county.

We arrived at midnight in Beijing and had to queue for about an hour just to get a taxi.  Luckily we met a Mandarin-speaking and English-speaking lady from Brazil who's apartment was close to our hotel, so we shared a taxi with her and she gave the driver directions.  The following day we woke up to a very grey, polluted Beijing and went off exploring.  We had 6 nights in Beijing and Nic spent his 40th birthday here.  We found the people to be very friendly and we were given lots of help by the English-speaking Chinese people that we met.

We were worried about the food in China but it was easy to find really simple, cheap and tasty food but you can also get goose intestines and chicken' feet if you want them!

There are public toilets all over the place, which means that there is often an unpleasant urine smell.  We found out that many people do not have houses with their own toilet, which is why there are so many public toilets.

Whilst we were in Beijing we visited Tiananmen Square, the world's largest public square.  We also went to the Forbidden City, which is enormous and packed with lots of very boisterous, excited Chinese tourist that enjoy pushing and shoving.  Many of the women were very over dressed and wore very very high heels.

One of the highlights was the great wall of china, where we did a 6km walk along the wall, setting off in Jinshanling. We had a beautiful sunny day and it was great to get out of the polluted city.  The history of the wall is mind-boggling and the mountain views were spectacular.

We also visited the Olympic park, the Temple of Heaven and the Lama Temple, a beautiful Tibetan Buddhist temple.

Some of the many soldiers at Tiananmen Square

I think they may need some more CCTV!

Photo of Chairman Mao at the Entrance to the Forbidden City

Typical Chinese tourist at the Forbidden City

    

 The stunning Great Wall of China:

Chilling with a monk at the Lama Temple

The famous Bird's Nest

The equally famous Cube

Temple of Heaven

Next we headed to Pingyao on our first over night sleeper train.  We got a taxi through the insane Beijing traffic to the train station and we couldn't believe the size of it; it was more like an airport. We had booked hard sleepers and had middle bunks opposite each other.  We set off at 7am and arrived in Pingyao at 7.30 am; there was alot of snoring and we felt pretty tired but Pingyao turned out to be a very relaxing place and it was a relief to be out of Beijing.  We spent 2 nights here and then got another sleeper train to Xian.

Pingyao is China's best-preserved ancient walled town and it's very pretty.  There are lots of temples and buildings to visit and you can walk around the top of the walls.  We also did a trip out to Wang's Family Courtyard, which is enormous and more like a castle.  From the top of the walls we could see the still-occupied cave dwellings.  Around 3 million people still live in caves in the Shanxi district.  We also visited the Zhangbi Underground Castle, a 1400-year-old network of defence tunnels, and Zhangi Cun, an 800-year-old village above the tunnels.
 

Some very friendly students on a day trip who wanted to practice speaking English

Entrance to one of the cave dwellings

The amazing Wang's Family Courtyard

Oh dear!

The wonderful Harmony Guesthouse where we stayed

A typical Chinese scene

Looking down from the City Tower