Hitting the dunes...

Our next stop was Mui Ne, Vietnam. Again, the further south we got, the heat got more intense. We were told to stop in Mui Ne to see the sand dunes. We got a little package tour that started off stopping at this beautiful creek with red dirt, a few cows and a little waterwall at the end. We walked up and down the creek barefoot, played with the cows for a bit and then headed back.

Our next stop was at a fishing village. The sight was spectacular. It's amazing to think that they live and work out of that boat day after day after day.

We took a jeep ride out to the dunes and on the way stopped because we had a flat tire! It was fine because we got to walk around for a bit. I loved the striking difference in the red dirt, the blue ocean, and the green trees.

We went to two different dunes; the white dunes and the yellow/red dunes. The first ones, as you will see, were absolutely stunning. At times I felt I was in a movie...and in the scene where you are in the middle of the dessert, walking for hours, with no end in sight! The protocal was to rent these little plastic sleds from some of the local kids and then  trek up to the top of a dune and slide down. Sounds easy enough right? Well, let's say I had a few problems on the first dune and ended up rolling head over heels down most of it! 

As we were driving away from the dunes I looked back and found it to be such an interesting sight.  It was as if someone took a gigantic dump truck and unloaded all of this sand in the middle of nowhere! We were covered in sand from head to toe and enjoyed the ride back to town. That night we met up with a gal from our earlier travels and had dinner on the beach. We sat and chatted for hours. For the first time in all my travels, I finally stopped and looked up at the sky. The sight was amazing. The sky was so big, bright, clear and full of stars!  In life, we can't forget to stop and take a step back and enjoy what's around us and appreciate the extensive beauty!

Remembered forever...

We took another night bus back to Hanoi which was even worse than the first one I had been on! That night we had made plans to go to a water puppetry show, to get a real taste of some culture! To say the least it was quite interesting...almost a bit creepy! I'm glad we did it though!

This was the band of musicians during the show.

The next day we went to see Ho Chi Minh's embalmed body at his masoleum. We went through quite the ordeal to be able to see him. First you get your bag checked. Then you go to another station and you have to leave your camera. Then you walk a long way and stand in line. There are guards with guns all over the place. Cailin and Chelsea got yelled at for being too loud and having their hands in their pockets! There was a lady who looked to be about 100 years old, who was earnestly bowing and speaking to the case with Ho Chi Minh's body.  His body was so real and alive looking. It gave me chills down my spine. Do we have someone in our nations history who we think is so great and did amazing things that we would want to embalm them and remember them forever? Hmmm.

I will say that at first I was a bit nervous about being in Vietnam, thinking that I wouldn't want to say I'm from America, in case there were still alot of bad feelings, but I was told it was fine. I didn't find the Vietnamese people to be quite as friendly as Thai people, for whatever reason.

I found myself missing home while I was in Hanoi because we would always pass this big cathedral that would have all these Easter banners hanging up. Easter is a time that I love at home because of the family time, the services and the biggest thing; the Chancel choir music!

I also had my first experience on a sleeper bus! Unfortunately, it wasn't as glorious as it had showed in the pictures at the travel place we bought our tickets from! We arrived in Hue, Vietnam very early in the morning and I found myself low on sleep again. We got surrounded and harassed by about 10 men, wanting us to stay at their hotel. I knew I was low on sleep and it was early in the morning because I found myself snapping at one of the guys saying, "Can you just give me a minute, I just woke up!"

That afternoon we rented motorbikes and drove about 20 kilometers to check out the countryside. I'm starting to have a small obsession and liking for motorbikes! I love being in the open air checking out the scenery!

When we got back to our hotel the power was out and they said it would be out for a few hours. I have found this happens alot throughout southeast Asia. Power is constantly going on and off.  It was in Hue that we started a bond with a group of about 15 people that continued to travel together for the next week and a half.  I met people from Germany, Iceland, the UK, Australia, Holland, Switzerland, and France.

Next we were off to Hoi An. It was a struggle traveling with such a large group, going from hotel to hotel trying to find space for all of us. Chelsea, Cailin, myself and our new friend Carly from Canada said let's just find our own! We ended getting the last room this hotel we had, which we all agreed we thought it was where the workers of the hotel lived! It was quite shady and simple, but the Mennonite in us couldn't pass up this cheap offer! Hoi An is known for making good, cheap, tailored clothes, so we went out and had a few things made for us.

One thing that I have loved on my travels is meeting all these other travelers from around the world and hearing their stories and view on things in life. I love how they are usually all very open minded and are very keen on exploring the world to gain new experiences and learn about new things. I feel all of them agreed that it is the relationships in life that matter most; not the material things. I feel they care about the world and the people in it. In many talks my heart has been warmed to hear others talk about wanting to do something in life to help other people.

Part of our big group decided to rent motorbikes and head to these old ruins in the jungle called My Son. It was around 50 km away. Again, it was a great ride out there, driving in and out of little villages and seeing nature. It was soo hot at the ruins that we didn't stay as long as anticipated.

Next we were off to Nha Trang, Vietnam. Carly and I walked around the town for a while and found the best iced coffee at a little stand with a bunch of locals, so you knew it was good! This coffee rivaled the potency of Linda's coffee! We decided to relax on the beach for a while and then impulsively I decided to go parasailing! In my normal life I am not one to do very adventurous or potentially dangerous activities....it must be something in the air here! There you are....strapped in....you look behind you and see this big parachute....in front of you there is a big rope that is attached to a boat in the water. They tell you that when the rope runs out and it starts tugging, then you start running on the beach until you will be lifted up. This whole process takes about 3 seconds....I was NOT ready for it! Before I knew what was happening I was being shot up into the air....screaming! While screaming the whole time, I was taken back by the amazing view from so high up! Unfortunately I don't have any photos of this because my camera got stolen that night!

Here we are with our friend Anthony from Liverpool. We traveled with him about 2 weeks total. We had alot of fun with him and enjoyed when he would do his American accent!

We rode on his huge cable car across the water to this island that had a waterpark! We were all pretty excited because it was very hot out! It was kind of a break from reality. Again, I don't think of myself as too daring, but I did try my luck on quite a few big slides!

The sights and scenery of Sapa...

First a few pictures and stories from the rest of Ha Long Bay. I met a gal from North Wales, Sue, who was in the military and it was very interesting to hear and learn about another country's military and how it funcitons. She really stressed that when they go into another country, before they leave they try to rebuild and do as much as they can for that country. She felt that they truly tried to help people. It was a very lovely, open talk.

The water was so blue and beautiful and it was always a bit misty and foggy in the bay.

Th driver let me operate the boat for a bit (NOT!)...as you can see it's pretty serious business! :)

There were a few ladies that came out on their boats selling their fresh fruit on the bay.

With some great new friends; Fiona from Ireland and Megan from Louisiana.

Whiskey is huge in southeast Asia and everywhere you see it there are numerous animals in it! My thoughts on the picture after this one.....bugs should only get to be so big...and this one is WAY too big!

We were taking a train to Sapa,which I was very excited about because I had never been on a train! Let's just say that I got a little too excited because it didn't really meet my expectations! I can't believe it wasn't just like I've seen on TV! Ha!

It was a bumpy ride and I was up at 5am....the train stopped at 6am and we took a one hour bus ride to Sapa. I am running out of different descriptive words to describe the beauty I see...but it's truly breath taking. Almost right away you were attacked by little girls, asking your name, where you come from, how long you are staying, do you have a boyfriend, how many brothers and sisters do you have, etc. It's cute until they start harassing you to buy stuff and claimed that they talked to you first so you should buy from them or to remember them when you get to their village. It was saddening. We trekked for hours up and down the terraces until we reached the hilltribe village that we were spending the night in.

It was sometimes a bit scary walking on the terraces! It was almost a balancing act!

I felt like an old lady with my walking stick, but it came in quite handy!! I never fell in any of the terraces into the mud and water, unlike some of the other people!

The guides stopped us and had us rub indigo plant all over our hands....thus making them green....for quite a few days!

The amount of work and effort that went into and continues to go into creating, farming, and maintaining these rice terraces is beyond my comprehension.

While walking through many hilltribe villages we got to see many things. Here I got to have a try at working the corn mill! It's harder than it looks! They also had a rice mill that was run by water and we got to see how they dye their clothes with indigo.We also got to visit their school, which was very unorganized and didn't seem to be functioning very well.

Too often on our trekking we saw children taking care of children, with no parent in sight.

I felt this knife was a bit too big for this little guy...but again, there was no parent around to tell him otherwise!

Once we arrived in the village where we were spending the night, we got to relax for a bit and then they fed us an amazing meal! While we were sitting, enjoying the refreshing cool weather and then a brief down pour, I heard some squealing. We all ignored it until I finally got up to see what was going on. Just a pig strapped to the back of a motorbike to be taken to market! Cailin was NOT pleased!I said that is farm life!

Our group consisted of Anthony, from Liverpool, Brett and Keirsten from South Africa, Cody from Canada and our fearless guide Shu. We had many laughs and good times!

Saying goodbye to and thanking some of the villagers.

It was very refreshing and energizing to spend some time in the countryside. It was sad to me that I feel tourism has kind of wrecked the pureness of these villages because all they do is hound tourists for money. I assume before they were just fine living how they were.

First impressions...

We drove for 6 hours and then the bus stopped at 1am. After a bit of research, we found out that we were at the border of Vietnam, but the border didn't open until 7am. So they parked the bus and I tried to sleep. I experienced a feeling I had almost forgotten about....being cold! I was so cold, there were dogs barking and babies crying...that there was no way I was getting any sleep that night! We were woken up by some yelling and were given the signal to go inside to get our passports stamped. We waited in this dungy, bug infested, smoke filled, crowded room for an hour, watching people with bags of passports cut in front of us and I could see that there was a bit of money stashed on top...I assumed so theirs would get done first. We then saw this humungous spider crawling on the counter and I almost lost it! We finally got stamped and then had to trek about half a mile "across" the border to another building, get stamped again, our stuff looked at and finally sent on our way. We still had 14 hours in the bus to look forward to! It was a stunning landscape before us! It was comprable to northern Laos with its magnificent, lush mountains and valleys. Even though I had got maybe 1 hour of sleep that night, I couldn't open my eyes wide enough to soak up all this amazing beauty before me.

The farmers speckled across the rice fields was beautiful to me.

We met some great people on our ride. A couple originally from Zimbabwe that now live in the UK and then Ben, who was from South Africa and also living in the UK.

We finally arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam. Once we got rested we ventured out to a history museum which I was quite excited about because I don't feel I'm very knowledgeable about the Vietnam war and history of Vietnam. On the way there we were going to grab lunch. In the window of one of the restaurants was this next picture....which made us make the easy decision to keep walking!

I felt the museum was a bit hard to follow. I think it expected you to have alot of background knowledge, which we didn't. It was still interesting none the less. Next we headed to Hao Lo prison, where Americans were held during the war. It was quite interesting to hear their side of the story...which was obviously a bit different from the American version. It raised alot of questions internally as to what was the real truth and facts behind the war and what happened and why it happened. There were numerous documents and pictures that claimed very good treatment of the American prisioners. They said they told their story to the Americans and then the Americans felt bad and saw their wrong and regretted what they did and changed their thoughts, ways and viewpoints.  All the pictures they had of the prisioners they looked so happy! It said that they let the prisioners celebrate Christmas and decorate their cells. Not saying that the Americans were totally innocent in everything, but it did sound a bit sugar coated! There was alot of stuff about John McCain being a prisioner of war there. It also said that when the prisioners were released they were given souveniers....to remember their good times? Again, it was an interesting angle to read about. It made me want to learn more about the Vietnam war.

These next 2 pictures I was going to send home to my dear mother...but I didn't think she would find it quite as humorous as I did!

This next picture looks fake, but I promise it's real! It is taken in Hanoi, Vietnam in front of the center lake.

I had an interesting conversation with someone about how if the whole world lived as extravagently as the rest of us, that there wouldn't be enough resources to go around. Would we have to change our way of living if all of a sudden some of these poor countries decided that they wanted to improve their lives (according to most peoples standards) and have a life style more like the rest of us (with all our accessories and living in excess)? Or we would we just continue on and not change our lifestyle?

The traffic in Hanoi rivals Bangkok....and that's nothing to brag about! Our new friend Ben said, "I found that if you just don't look, you won't get hit!" I did not heed that piece of advice. I did find it more safe to travel in groups when crossing the street. Scary stuff!

We ventured off to Ha Long Bay for a few days for a boat trip and some trekking. We trekked up this mountain on Cat Ba Island. It was quite the strenuous journey, but as you will see in my next pictures and from my sweat, that it was well worth the effort!

That afternoon we took a boat across the bay to Monkey Island, which we found to only inhabit a few monkey! I was a bit disappointed! Yet again though, the hikes and views were worth it!