Sabaii De Pii Mai

14 Apr 2016
Happy new year from Laos! The water festival is the celebration of the new year. It begins on the 14th, which is the last day of the old year. Laos people clean their houses and prepare offerings of perfume, flowers and water. The 15th is the "day of no day" because it doesn't fall in the old year or the new year. The 16th marks the first day of the new year.
On the 14th there was going to be a big parade down the main street in Luang Prabang. Tash and I bought our water guns (they sell them everywhere on the streets and if you don't have one you're in serious trouble!) and then headed to the parade. Within the first 5 minutes of our walk we were soaked. Everyone participates; locals, tourists, monks, young people, even elderly people! The locals put huge bins and pools of water outside of their storefronts and passersby are allowed to fill up their guns- the only catch is that while you're bent over the bin filling up, you're getting buckets and buckets of ice cold water dumped over you!
Some locals even used colored dye to wipe on tourists' faces-- my face was definitely a casualty!
After participating for the day, Tash and I decided to chow down at a street food vendor that tons of people had been raving about. Tourists were flocking to her vegetarian stand because she was an american running a stall-- she assured us her food was safe.
Fast forward about 6 hours later: those tons of people who had been raving about the vegetarian street food were all sick. My time would also come, but not for another day. #donteatlaosstreetfood

Landing in Luang Prabang, Laos

13 Apr 2016
We took a prop plane from Vietnam to Laos. We landed late Wednesday night in a tiny, tiny airport in Luang Prabang. We took a taxi van from the airport to our hostel and it only cost us 25,000 laotian kip, or 3 USD. Once we got to the hostel, our first mission was to find food. We told ourselves we weren't going to eat street food (we had been warned that the quality wasn't great), but after walking for about 45 minutes and finding nothing else, we decided to try our luck. We ate at a sandwich stand but promised one another we would only order toppings that couldn't spoil: avocado, tomato and lettuce sandwiches for us! While there we met Ali and Rachael, two girls we spent a decent amount of time with while in Laos. They entertained us with tales of their horrible travel experiences while we ate our sandwiches and crossed our fingers that we wouldn't get sick.

Halong Bay

12-13 Apr
If you're going to Vietnam you better go to Halong Bay. If you're going to Halong Bay, you better do a cruise. This is what people kept telling us, so Tash and I decided to do it. We had a few options: we could: 1. take a booze cruise for cheap, cheap, cheap or 2. take a two day one night 5 star cruise for 189 USD. These two grannies decided to splurge on the 5 star cruise and we were not disappointed.
The van picked us up at our hostel and to take us to the dock. We encountered a backup on the highway so our driver decided to do some offroading through the Vietnamese countryside. This was a great way to see the other side of Vietnamese living, however it was not a good way to keep from getting car sick.

After about halfway through our drive, we stopped at a rest stop that employs people with mental disabilities. The money these workers make supports their families, many of which have suffered tragedies from the Vietnam War.

We reached the dock safely and boarded a small boat that took us to the cruise ship. The ship slept 36 people-- Tash and I were the youngest by generations. We met a Vietnamese couple in their 50s traveling from Seattle. The two had grown up in 'Nam and had escaped to the US as refugees. The husband had been back since fleeing, but this was his wife's first time visiting since she'd left.
Our room aboard the ship was amazing. There were two beds with multiple pillows (this is a huge luxury!) and a large bathroom complete with a jacuzzi bathtub, robes, slippers and toiletries!

Every meal aboard the ship was 6-7 courses long (Tash and I felt so badly because we were never able to finish all of the food!)

Our first day included cave exploration, a spring roll cooking class and squid fishing. The caves were absolutely amazing! Our tour guide Tom was incredibly knowledgeable regarding the caves, or so we thought... at dinner that evening the Vietnamese couple informed us that much of the information we were being given was inaccurate, even down to the number of islands clustered throughout Halong Bay (we're told there are 1,969 islands because the year 1969 is incredibly important to the communist party) This was the second time during our trip to Vietnam that I realized, on a deeper level, how lucky I am to be American born.

Tash and I were up and ready at 6:30 the next morning for a tai chi class on the top deck. I have never done tai chi before and it was very relaxing-- the views of the bay were gorgeous and it was actually a bit cool out. After we had a buffet breakfast with pancakes and peach juice- yum!
Then we got ready for our morning excursion which was a trip to a pearl farm. There used to be many pearl farms scattered around the bay, but the government shut them down. Now there's only a handful left. The Vietnamese workers aren't allowed to live on their boats, so the government built small water houses for them.The people must pay rent to live in these houses. There used to be a teacher who came to the water community, however now the water school house is not used. If children want to go to school they have to go to mainland Hanoi and live with friends or relatives. The water village we boated through consisted of only 10 families. Everyone does their part to help sustain the village. Women take tourists back and forth to the farm in paddle boats. Men work on the farm collecting oysters. A pearl is formed when an "intruder", such as a grain of sand, slips between the two shells of the oyster. The oyster immediately begins to secrete layers of nacre to protect itself. The layers of nacre coat the sand until a pearl is formed. Instead of waiting for this process to happen naturally, the pearl farmers collect oysters, inbed their own "intruders", then wait for the oysters to start protecting themselves, which in turn forms the pearls. Ladies, here's a tip: if you want to know if your pearls are real or fake, set fire to them. If they burn, they're not real pearls.

After exploring the pearl farm, we headed back to the ship to "check out". Tash and I missed the memo that we had to be out of our room, so we laid down for a nap. To get us out of our room, the boat staff started blaring horrid pop music through our room speakers; the music didn't stop until we vacated the room.

Our journey ended with a 7 course lunch and a beautiful view of the port- Land Ho!

Because this is what adults do

11 Apr 2016
As we ventured through Vietnam Tash and I kept seeing advertisements for "traditional water puppet shows" so we decided to check one out in Hanoi. It takes place in a theatre. The show has a live band, singers and puppeteers who stand in the water behind a screen to control their marionettes. This form of entertainment was originated by farming families who needed something to do when the rice paddies flooded. Each act incorporates a story or song from Vietnamese folklore. It was a good cultural experience, but nothing I'd say is a must do when traveling Vietnam.

Cuisine in Hanoi

10-11 Apr 2016
One of the famous local dishes in Hanoi is Cha Ca, which is a fish that is de-boned, spiced, wrapped in banana leaves and cooked over coals. It's served with noodles, peanuts, spice veggies and fish sauce. Tash and I found Cha Ca Zhang Long, a restaurant that had one thing on its menu: Cha Ca. We figured this was the best place to try it! After walking for over 40 minutes (this was another time in Hanoi that our map failed us) we finally found the restaurant, however they said they weren't open for another 2 hours. What? We popped in a hostel across the street to ask for another local recommendation, and when we came out we saw that there were patrons in Cha Ca Zhang Long. We went back and the owner said he'd open early since so many of us wanted to eat there. Yessss! We cooked the fish in a pan at our table and added the spices as we ate- it was definitely interesting!

Another thing Tash and I had to try while we were in Hanoi was the local street food. There's plenty of street food in Thailand, however when you sit at a stall to eat you're sitting at tables that are "normal" sized. In Vietnam, miniature sized tables and chairs are squished together on the sidewalks, so that people are only a foot and a half to two feet off the ground while they eat. The food was delicious and the company was interesting. I couldn't help but stare when the girls next to us ordered chicken feet for dinner!

What goes better with local food than local beer? Tash and I had to try the bia hanoi, which tastes exactly like any other light beer in SE Asia-- that's to say, nothing special.

The best though was probably when we stopped at a late night food stall for lebanese food. Again we were sitting at miniature tables on the sidewalk. Tash and I ordered hummus and when it arrived that's all it was- hummus- there weren't veggies, or pita bread, or any dippers whatsoever. When we questioned the owner, he smirked and offered us a spoon. Was this really how lebanese people ate their hummus? Tash and I were not sold. What made matters worse? Tash headed to the bathroom to discover that the only sink in the entire joint was in the bathroom-- the restaurant dishes were stacked on the bathroom floor, waiting to be cleaned. And the clean ones were...? In a different stack on the floor?
Meh. Maybe we didn't want that hummus after all.

Hoa Lo Prison

11 Apr 2016
Tash and I visited Hoa Lo prison, which was built in Hanoi in the late 1880s, when Vietnam was still part of French Indochina. The French called the prison Maison Centrale, meaning central house. The Vietnamese prisoners referred to it as Hoa Lo, which means "fiery furnace" or "hell's hole" which more accurately describes the conditions of the prison. The prison was intended to hold Vietnamese political prisoners who were rallying for independence from the French. The prison was built to hold 460 inmates, but has held more than triple that number at one time. Because of the crowded conditions, inmates had to lie on top of one another to fit in the unsanitary cells; they were malnourished and disease was rampant. The sweltering heat made things even worse. Inmates would prop up the sickest amongst them so that they could try to breathe fresh air through slats in the top walls of the cell. On display in the prison were torture instruments, including the guillotine, which was used repeatedly to execute prisoners.
As we walked through the prison, we entered communal, as well as solitary cells with lifesize statues held in chains.

Once Vietnam gained its independence, the Vietnamese people took control of the prison. During the Vietnam War, the prison was used to hold American POWs. John McCain was held here for 5 years.

One thing Tash and I couldn't get over was the stark contrast between the prison's account the of treatment of the vietnamese prisoners during the french occupation (small food portions that were mostly rotting, disease ridden, crowded cells, torture) and the prison's account of the treatment of the American POWs during the Vietnam War. The POWs were shown together in the courtyard playing basketball, they were shown near Christmas trimming a tree and making a feast, complete with roast chicken, for dinner. There were even prisoner testimonials stating how friendly the interactions were between the guards and prisoners.

This just didn't add up to Tash and I. After doing some online research, we found that many of those photos and testimonials were forced propaganda and that the American POWs were subjected to torture and solitary confinement, much like that of the Vietnamese prisoners. How could a prison, repurposed as a historical museum, present misinformation to thousands of visitors each year?

This was the first of three key experiences in Vietnam that made me realize, on a deeper level, how lucky I am to be American born.

Hanoi Vietnam

10 Apr 2016
We were originally going to take an 18 hour bus ride from Hoi An to Hanoi but then Tash found a one hour flight that cost less than $50 so we opted for that instead (thank god, because later in our trip we came across two girls who endured that bus ride from hell and barely lived to tell the tale!)
Before getting to Hanoi I couldn't for the life of me keep straight Hanoi and Hoi An. Which town was which? Where were we? Where were we going? I had no idea. After spending one day in Hanoi, I will never confuse the two again. Hoi An is small, laid back, quaint and clean. Hanoi is huge, heavily traffic-ed, loud and dirty. (Crossing the street here is actually somewhat scary!)
Our flight landed in Hanoi at midnight. We then took a large van from the airport to the city center. Tash and I were determined to walk from the bus to our hostel but there was one problem... the signs on the map didn't match the signs on the street (little did we know that this would be our first of many, many failed excursions due to inaccurate maps, not inaccurate map readers) so we hopped on motos instead. Tash and I snuck quietly into our room around 2am. After only 4 hours of sleep, our roommates decided to rise, flip on the lights and have a full conversation... in french... at 6am... The only plus side to this- I made it to the rooftop breakfast and snapped some amazing photos of the city.
Tash and I did some exploring during the day which included seeing a Vietnamese History Museum (it only went up to the year 1945), trying some not so delicious small white fruits covered in brown shells from a street vendor, encountering an "Ask Me Anything" group of students near the river (they spoke Russian, Chinese, Japanese, English, Vietnamese and French and would translate anything for anyone with the purpose of uniting tourists and locals) and my favorite part, eating 12,000 dong ice cream cones (that's 54 cents) in an indoor market that motos drove through.