Vietnam for the Holidays

With Leanne's mom in town and two weeks off from work for the holidays, we headed to Vietnam to see and experience some of the incredible sights that the country has to offer.

We took a bus to Ho Chi Minh City on the afternoon of the 23rd after celebrating Christmas in Phnom Penh. For three days we took in the history of the city including the Cu Chi Tunnels occupied by the Vietcong during the war and the Vietnam War Remnants Museum. The history of the Vietnam war is pervasive throughout the southern part of the country and all three of us felt like we gained great perspective and knowledge during our time at these sights. Ginger took a day trip to the Mekong Delta and Leanne and I enjoyed some time watching live bowl games on ESPN. Amazing!

From Ho Chi Minh, we flew to Hanoi and were in awe from the instant we touched down. If you have never been, I believe Hanoi and Northern Vietnam are a must-see. The tight alleys, incredible street food and bustling Old Quarter must be experienced. I have never seen a city that is so traveler friendly yet still seems wholly authentic. We enjoyed the lake, went on some runs, saw the sights and ate bucket-loads of Pho Ga, chicken soup with rice noodles and countless other ingredients. Both nights in Hanoi were capped off drinking Bia Hoi, a cup of local beer that costs about 8 cents. Hanoi was already a unique experience but much more was to come.

We took off from Hanoi on our third morning there and headed to Ha Long Bay. Being from Colorado and New Mexico, Leanne and I both miss the outdoors and open space living in Cambodia. Ha Long Bay afforded us the opportunity to trek, bike and kayak in and around the endless limestone peaks that shot hundreds of feet from the green water. We stayed on a small boat for two nights and enjoyed the silence - a rarity living in Southeast Asia.

After returning to Hanoi from Ha Long, we quickly showered, ate a New Year's Eve pizza and boarded an overnight train headed for the mountain town of Sapa, which is just a few kilometers south of the Chinese boarder. Sapa is just like Boulder, Colorado minus the pretense and ego. It was about 35 -40 degrees in the evening and we had to stoke the fireplace in our hotel to keep warm at night. We took a guided day trip to a distant market that was unlike anything I had ever seen. The market was flooded with the colors of local H'mong women buying cloth for their new outfits and men looking to purchase new farming tools, water buffalo or horses. Both Leanne and I had to take a seat for a minute just to take in the sights and sounds of the market, it has been a long time since we were both so overwhelmed by a travel experience.

From Sapa, we took a two day trek through the ancient rice terraces that surround Sapa. Our descent on the second day was the muddiest experience of my life. We trekked through inches of mud for three hours, slipping throughout. I had a face-to-face experience with a local farmer and his eerily ill-tempered water buffalo as we battled for the last piece of solid ground on a slippery path. I knew I was in trouble when the farmer yelled at his kids to hide in the bushes to the side of the path should the buffalo lose its footing. There was about a three second period, after I was given a solid shoulder bump by the buffalo that I thought I was either going to be gored, trampled or a nasty combination of both. Luckily, I have cat-like balance and I was able to avert danger by falling on my side and sliding right past the legs of the farmer and his animal.

We departed Sapa and headed back on the night train to Hanoi. We spent one final day eating street Kebabs for lunch and an amazing Vietnamese meal for dinner. It was a relaxing way to end a trip that included bikes, boats, trains, buses, taxis, kayaks, motos, cars and cyclos.

Leanne's mom is now in Siem Reap, spending the next two days at the temples of Angkor Wat. She was such a trooper on this trip, doing and eating everything we did, often times with more gusto and energy than either Leanne or myself. For Leanne and I, it is business as usual, we are already busy sorting through the accumulated emails, taking down the Christmas decorations and planning for classes and meetings starting in a matter of hours. At the same time we are trying to process all that we did and saw in Vietnam.

We hope you all had a very merry Christmas and a great New Year's celebration. Do not give up on those resolutions yet, maybe wait until the second week of January for that. Here is to 2011!