{"id":2459,"date":"2012-11-26T04:50:59","date_gmt":"2012-11-26T11:50:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thejohnsonsjournal.com\/?p=2459"},"modified":"2012-11-26T04:54:04","modified_gmt":"2012-11-26T11:54:04","slug":"out-about-around-hanoi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thejohnsonsjournal.com\/?p=2459","title":{"rendered":"Out about around Hanoi"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Hanoi we made a couple trips to the surrounding areas of Sapa and Halong Bay.<\/p>\n

Our trip to Sapa started with an overnight train into the mountains. \u00c2\u00a0We booked a 4-berth sleeping cabin, thinking we would sleep nicely. \u00c2\u00a0Oh boy were we\u00c2\u00a0wrong! \u00c2\u00a0It was so loud and bumpy that it felt like we were stuck on the Indiana Jones ride all night long!<\/p>\n

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These trains were in a different league from the trains we rode in China!<\/p><\/div>\n

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Scott fit just perfect in the sleeper car…head touching one end, feet touching the other.<\/p><\/div>\n

We arrived after our sleepless night in Sapa to meet our guide, Tu. \u00c2\u00a0With a group of manly German’s we started our trek into the\u00c2\u00a0neighboring\u00c2\u00a0hill tribe villages. \u00c2\u00a0Vietnam has 53 minority groups, most of which live in the jungle and in the\u00c2\u00a0mountains. \u00c2\u00a0The area around Sapa is home to 6 of this tribes, many of which still use more traditional farming methods and wear traditional dress, while\u00c2\u00a0supplementing\u00c2\u00a0there income selling handcrafts to tourists.<\/p>\n

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This poor guy got swarmed by women after he said he would buy one bracelet. They were like the sea gulls from Finding Nemo<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

We found it to be a bit made-up since it seemed like they were only dressing in traditional clothing for the tourists, but the the mountains and rice paddies made for a very lovely trek.<\/p>\n

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Many of these rice terraces have been here for generations.<\/p><\/div>\n

We stayed with a local family for the night, which was probably the highlight of our\u00c2\u00a0experience\u00c2\u00a0in Sapa. \u00c2\u00a0The family cooked a wonderful dinner for us.<\/p>\n

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The husband cooking our dinner on a wok on an open fire.<\/p><\/div>\n

Their 3 year old son was very friendly and we enjoyed dancing and playing games with him.<\/p>\n

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Happy Movember!<\/p><\/div>\n

Oh, yeah, and there was homemade rice wine…<\/p>\n

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Rice wine out of a water bottle… Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!<\/p><\/div>\n

… and more rice wine…<\/p>\n

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Empty! Please don’t fill…oh, ok just one more.<\/p><\/div>\n

… and more …<\/p>\n

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Oh dear, that was a lot of rice wine.<\/p><\/div>\n

After returning to Hanoi on another long night train we traveled to the coast to the famous Halong Bay World\u00c2\u00a0Heritage\u00c2\u00a0Site. \u00c2\u00a0We booked a one-night trip on one of the traditional junks.<\/p>\n

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Our “Junk” for the trip<\/p><\/div>\n

After a 3-hour bus ride from Hanoi, we arrived at the dock in time for a seafood lunch and a cruise along the bay to do some kayaking and visit Ti Top Island.<\/p>\n

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Part of the floating village we kayaked through.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Sunset from the peak of Ti Top Island.<\/p><\/div>\n

Our cabin was pretty spacious for a boat and offered great views of the surrounding karst features. \u00c2\u00a0In the evening we enjoyed the quiet of the bay and another good dinner and cocktails on the boat.<\/p>\n

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Mr. Hung, our bartender making Courtney’s Passion Fruit Margarita.<\/p><\/div>\n

The next morning we visited Sung Sot cave before returning to the dock and\u00c2\u00a0transferred\u00c2\u00a0back to Hanoi.<\/p>\n

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This cave is known as Surprise Cave because the people who found it were surprised at how massive it is.<\/p><\/div>\n

It was a beautiful part of the world, but having less then 24-hours on the bay we didn’t really get to see very many of the over one thousand islands.<\/p>\n

As always, you can see more pictures from Sapa<\/a> or Halong Bay<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Hanoi we made a couple trips to the surrounding areas of Sapa and Halong Bay. Our trip to Sapa started with an overnight train into the mountains. \u00c2\u00a0We booked a 4-berth sleeping cabin, thinking we would sleep nicely. \u00c2\u00a0Oh boy were we\u00c2\u00a0wrong! \u00c2\u00a0It was so loud and bumpy that it felt like we were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90],"tags":[115,63],"class_list":["post-2459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vietnam","tag-vietnam","tag-world-heritage-site"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejohnsonsjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejohnsonsjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejohnsonsjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejohnsonsjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejohnsonsjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2459"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/thejohnsonsjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2473,"href":"https:\/\/thejohnsonsjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459\/revisions\/2473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejohnsonsjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejohnsonsjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejohnsonsjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}