Hanoi & Sapa, Vietnam

When we landed I was kind-of-really excited to finally be in Vietnam, being half Vietnamese and all that. It was so weird hearing a familiar language, picking up bits and pieces of conversations, and being able to partially read signs. We parted from Molly and Lucy before we went through customs and after getting our bags we hunted down some ATMs to get out local currency. We quickly found out that Harrison’s debit cards weren’t working, his bank had really strict rules about going to countries in Asia and having to contact them with specific dates of travel, otherwise the card won't work. But since we were being spontaneous and flexible with our dates he hadn’t been able to reach them and also because he didn’t have any cell service to call. And so, from this moment on, I became his very own personal ATM. T-god for Venmo. We eventually made our way to Tomodachi House which was in the middle of the city, with lots of restaurants and shops, squeezed into a alleyway that was only wide enough to fit motorbikes. After long benders, Harrison and I always liked picking hostels that were nicer, cleaner, and with no partying just to recoup whenever we got to new cities. So this hostel was very quiet.

After we had a shower, we headed out to the street to try Harrison’s very first bowl of Pho! Luckily there was a woman selling Pho basically on the doorstep of our hostel. We sat on tiny little plastic chairs and I lowkey felt like a badass because I ordered for the two of us in Vietnamese. If you’ve never tried Pho, I don’t really know what you’re waiting for?

It was the most proper and Vietnamese way to start the country. Somehow even after such a short flight, we were exhausted, we spent the rest of the night chilling in the comfort of the AC in our room and watched documentaries on Vietnam history on Harrison’s laptop until we went to bed.

May 24th

After our complimentary breakfast at the hostel we chatted with the very helpful front desk staff about places to visit and we decided to walk to the prison museum.

Where they kept Vietnamese male prisoners

The museum was nicknamed ‘Hilton Hanoi’ by the American prisoners of war that were held there because of how well they were treated. We found the prison pretty interesting because they had actual video footage of the American prisoners doing things like playing basketball, smoking cigarettes, and celebrating Christmas in the prison.

It was all just so surreal seeing pictures of young Senator McCain and reading about his time here at the prison because everything about the war seems so distant because we weren’t even alive during it but at the same time so fresh because there are so many people still alive who experienced it first hand.

We mutually decided it was too hot to do any more sightseeing so we looked up the best places to get a craft beer in Hanoi and we found Pasteur Street Brewing.

They had AMAZING air conditioning, we shared a (subpar) chicken sandwich and each ordered a flight of their beers.

One of our favorites was the Jasmine IPA.

A memory that stands out specifically from Pasteur was seeing a woman sitting outside with one shoe on, peddling things from the back of her bike.

For some reason in that moment I remember feeling some sort of guilt, thinking about how impoverished the country is. It was surreal that my parents grew up here as kids and I thought about how BLESSED I was that they made the long and dangerous journey to immigrate to the United States during the war. I felt so grateful that I was back in Vietnam for the second time in my life as a tourist and my parents were a huge reason why I could financially afford to travel here. They've worked so hard since they first got to the states and I feel so proud thinking about how far they've come. I texted my mom while we sat there reminding her how grateful I was.

Legend beer was also a suggested place online for beers.

Most likely for their balcony that you could watch the busy street below from.

Then we sent some fan-mail to our friend from Oregon State @johnlikesstickers (Instagram) and disappointingly didn't make the cut for a S/O.

We spent the rest of the day walking around a fancy mall, wandered around the infinite number of narrow alleyways, had some street Chicken Pho for dinner, and walked around some more for the rest of the night.

Traintracks down one of the narrow alleys

May 25th

We were finally done recouping our bodies from Laos and decided it was time to move to a livelier hostel. We chose Republik Backpackers Hostel, they had pretty good reviews so we walked to go check it out. When we got there we immediately decided to book an overnight bus to Sapa to see the rice fields, they had a pretty good deal that if you booked through the hostel you could leave your big pack in the luggage room and you also got a free nights stay in Hanoi for when you got back from Sapa.

Since it was morning time and we weren’t getting the bus till night time, Harrison went to go find a gym. But don’t forget Harrison still didn’t have his big backpack so the only shoes he had for working out were his Tevas. LOL. I spent the morning on his laptop, writing a post probably about Thailand at that time. I can’t really remember what we did for the rest of that day (whoops I guess that happens when you wait 7 months to write hehe) and then we boarded the night sleeper bus for Sapa.

May 26th

We arrived very early, maybe 4:30 AM in Sapa and had to wait until 6 to get off the bus when the shuttle picked us up. The ride to our Homestay was down a very bumpy and narrow road on a very steep mountainside, the driver seemed dangerously fearless and definitely made me a little anxious.

At the homestay we settled into our beds, rested for about 10 minutes before we went down to have breakfast as a group where we all introduced ourselves and had small talk. We then got ready for our hike, our hosts had prepared packed lunches for us to take on our hike, and before you had time to even think about a power nap were off on our hike.

I’m gonna be completely honest… I didn’t like this trek, first of all, my foot was still grossly raw and sore from the accident in Pai, so hiking in Nikes was so painful. Secondly, I think it had rained recently and so when we were walking on the edges of the rice paddies sometimes the mud walls would collapse under your feet and your legs would get stuck in the soft mud. My sneakers were muddy, wet, anddd with a sore foot, hiking for hours was less than enjoyable for me.

The views would probably have been BEAUTIFUL if we had come a few months later, when we went in May they were just beginning to plant the crops so it wasn’t very lush and all you saw was a lot of brown water.

We finally got to this little hut that was actually a schoolhouse to have our lunch. It was crazy to see how far kids from all over the village would hike up the mountain everyday to come to school there.

We had come right during school holidays so it was empty but it was interesting to see really how rural these villages are just by looking at their bare schoolhouse.

After lunch we hiked back down to the homestay and decided to walk down the street for some beers until it was time for dinner at the Homestay. Harrison claims that this was one of his favorite meals in Vietnam; it was a whole lot of stir-fry dishes, vegetables, and rice all family style. It reminded me how good I have it back at home with my parents Asian cooking.

After dinner our whole group went out for drinks down the road where we played drinking games and just got to know each other. The night ended pretty early because we had a waterfall hike the next day so we all went back to the homestay to catch some z’s.

But before we went to sleep, as everyone started to settle down for bed, Harrison got startled because he thought he saw a bug, without even looking at what he was talking about I reacted by spinning around into a full sprint to get away.... Right into a wood interior column.

In about 2 seconds flat my forehead ballooned and everyone came over to my bed to check it out, we ruled out a concussion and I held a cold coke can to my head as a makeshift ice pack to bring the swelling down. Eventually it deflated and then we all went to bed.

HA

May 27th

The next day our pregnant (with her second), mid-twenty-something-year-old, tour guide lead us up and down mountainsides to get to the waterfall, it was again pretty underwhelming, we are very fortunate to have such beautiful scenery in Oregon and so a muddy waterfall in Vietnam has a lot to compete with.

We got back to the homestay where we had one last lunch and then laid around, napped, and hung out before catching out ride to the bus station.

View from our homestay

Sapa was no doubt gorgeous but I think I would like to come back to visit the rice fields someday when they are green and lush. It was definitely an awesome experience getting to stay at the Homestay and see how the people in these villages live. It’s a very humbling experience and despite my distaste for the hike I’m glad we got to go. We can call it type 2 fun or whatever.

Oh my goodness… At one of the bus stops/ bathroom stops a passenger came back aboard the bus and claimed that someone stole money from her bag while she was in the restroom. Apparently it was a lot of money and it became a huge deal. It was absurd because then the bus staff then said that they would have to wait for the police to arrive, everyone was to write down how much cash they had with them, and that we all had to get off the bus and leave everything including electronics and phones so that they could go through everyone’s things to find it. It was interesting to watch this all unfold because I could understand the locals on the bus who complained about the situation saying stuff like how it was the lady’s fault for not bringing her valuables with her to the bathroom, how annoying the whole thing was, and how it was insane how they could be expected to know her cash from anyone else’s, etc etc.

Anyway, this whole situation held up the bus from getting back on the road so we arrived in Hanoi VERY late which caused us to miss the shuttle from the bus stop back to Republik backpackers, luckily the bus company offered to pay for our taxi rides to the hostels. After this whole incident we were just grateful to be back to the city and for a clean shower. It was past midnight at this point so we just went to bed and regrouped in the morning...

Lessons to take away from this post: Make sure to talk to your bank before travelling, wear closed toe shoes while on mopeds (so that you don't eff up your feet and can't enjoy hikes for the rest of your trip), and take your valuables/ money with you if you get off a bus to go to the bathroom (unless you have a friend to watch your things).