Our trip to 'Nam

Last week the Odell tour of Asia rolled on--this time to Vietnam. We never anticipated having an interest in visiting Vietnam as it is always portrayed as a war-torn, depressing country. However, we kept hearing fellow travellers and friends talk it up, so we decided to give it a shot. As it turned out, Vietnam was probably the most vibrant and culturally distinct country that we have visited thus far, as well as one of the most beautiful.

We started off in Hanoi, the capitol city located in the North of Vietnam. One thing we noticed first off was that Hanoi was a crazy-busy city. About 90% of the vehicles on the road are motorcycles and they literally drive every which way with seemingly no respect for traffic laws, sidewalks or pedestrians. Another charming part of this was that Vietnamese drivers LOVE their horns and will keep one hand on the wheel and one hand on the horn, honking almost continuously. I think they feel it is their patriotic duty to ensure that someone is always honking a horn. Any self-respecting Vietnamese person has also installed a souped up horn, such as a friendly melody, or my favorite, a horn that gradually fades away (although sadly horns that play 'la cucaracha' have not yet made it to this corner of the world). Crossing the street was a little terrifying at first. Basically you step out into the road and the motorcycles swarm around you as you cross. It took a couple of days for us to get used to the method behind this madness.


One of the highlights of our stay in Hanoi, was a trip that we took to the Perfume Pagoda, a complex of pagodas and Buddhist shrines built into the karst cliffs of the "Mountain of the Fragrant Trees"(sounds like a place straight out of Princess Bride, right?--"behold the cliffs of insanity"). We took a small row boat along a river that was nestled between limestone cliffs and rice paddies.

Maisy loved the hour long boat ride, especially when she found that if she waved and smiled at boats passing by, they would throw her a choco-pie.















The pagodas/caves were really busy, as we happened to be there during the second lunar month which meant that thousands of Buddhist pilgrims were also there for some type of festival. We stopped at one of the many thousands of food stalls/restaurants that lined the way up to the pagodas. Nearly every restaurant had a large array of skinned and dried animals there to welcome you. I'll let you use your imagination to determine which animals are shown below (and yes, skinned cat was one of the favorites--seen here on the far left).


After three days in Hanoi, we headed East to the coast of Vietnam and went on a traditional Vietnamese 'junk' (boat) cruise of Halong Bay. Halong Bay is one of those amazing places on earth that is impossible to describe in words. We are finding that pictures just don't do it justice either. Imagine 3000 or more limestone karsts and islands jutting out of the peaceful bay as far as the eye can see. We cruised on the boat for two days and admired the scenery as it stretched on and on before us. The overcast weather (which is typical year round) made it a little misty, adding to the magical and ethereal feel of the landscape.




The "Junk" we stayed on was beautiful, and despite it's name, very fancy...complete with rooftoop lounge chairs, delicious seafood, and massages for all (even for Maisy who convinced her Dad that she too needed one).

These are some pictures of the locals who live in Halong Bay. I can't imagine a more picturesque place to live! Below is a picture of a floating village that we stopped at.

After two days at sea, Maisy proved that she was "sea-worthy" and the captain let her try her hand at the wheel for a while. The video below makes us think that Maisy may someday pursue a career as a pirate, judging by how natural (and maniacal) she seemed behind the wheel.


As the final part of our cruise we stayed a day and a night on Catba, the largest island, and one of the many national parks located in Halong Bay. We went on an amazing hike through the jungle when we first arrived to a tower located on one of the tallest of the islands many mountains. Our guide was a local islander who may just have been the Vietnamese Tarzan. Maisy loved him because he was constantly doing something really funny like creating musical instruments out of branches and leaves or suddenly swinging 50 ft in the air from the vines.


View from the top of Catba National Park

The beautiful views from the summit seemed like a fitting climax to our trip. Shortly thereafter we were driven back to Hanoi, from where we returned to Chiang Mai.


Hey Dan...Jellyfish, by Shaun