Friday, October 22, 2010

Cat Ba Island.......


It's always interesting when a friend comes to visit (ESPECIALLY for me.....twelve time-zones away from everything that I know, that a visit from a friend just does amazing things for my well being).  You tend to actually GO to neat places nearby your home that you'd never visit on any ordinary day!  Like, how many of us in Buffalo actually GO to Niagara Falls?  How many of us in Denver actually GO to Nederland?  And, in Portland, how many of us go to Bend?

Cat Ba Island is one of those places - technically, it IS ruled under the jurisdiction of the Hai Phong City/District People's Committee (because it's only 90 minutes away by "fast boat"/180 minutes away by "slow boat"/30 minutes away by "swimming" from Hai Phong)....BUT - with air that can actually be breathed, water that appears safe to actually wade into, and an astounding lack of concrete....it couldn't be more night and day when compared to Hai Phong City proper.

So my friend Anthony flew in from Scotland (after a four-day stop in Siem Reap/Angkor Wat, Cambodia) and was fully expecting to fall in love with Viet Nam.

Landing in Hanoi in the middle of the 1000th anniversary of the city's founding gala and it being similar to Times Square on New Year's Eve with wall-to-wall-to-wall-to-wall humanity and the airport shuttle bus driver declaring - "OK....me not go further.  Too much crowd!  Everybody out here!" about a good 2 miles from our hotel and THEN finding that the brand new unused SIM card that I gave him (that I bought ten months ago and never once used) refused to function (oops!) and not having a clue WHERE exactly he is in one on thee most bizarre street layouts in the world, followed by being badgered by everybody for "Motobike!  Motobike?"  "Massa?  Massa?  Boom-Boom? Boom-boom?" "Me get you hotel with special price!" all day every day QUICKLY soured his views on Vietnam.

Now, I really despise ANY large city in Vietnam (Da Nang being the only possible exception, 'cause it doesn't feel or act like a large Vietnamese city) and I ONLY use places like Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City to escape the skull-crushing boredom that IS life in Hai Phong......but, man - coming from Siem Reap and the Cambodian Countryside straight into Hanoi hell.......that hadta be a bit of a shock!

Anyways, he found the hotel, and he took a train to meet me five days later in Hai Phong.  Helped me do a few classes ('cause the kids always love to see a new Tay, especially one as enthusiastic as Anthony is, 'cause the Tay generally avoid Hai Phong), and he really got to enjoy Hai Phong!  

So, on his last coupla days here, he really wanted to see Halong Bay.....so we headed out to Cat Ba Island!





















Anthony with my friend and fellow English Teacher, Mrs. Hien

















A lake on the interior of Cat Ba Island

















View of Halong Bay from Cat Ba Town beach number 1

















Hidden Pagoda along a road (if you can call it that) on Cat Ba Island

















....and, about a mile past the pagoda, we were told by workmen intentionally creating rockslides (kinda like how they do avalanche control in the Rocky Mountain West) that we hadta turn back.

































So we turned around, took a different road, and saw some cool rice paddies.....

















....and a piglet parade.

















The Beautiful Game - Vietnam Countryside style!

















Fishing vessels along the shore - Cat Ba Island

















....but I have been performing acts of Social Evil since 1968!


Still, though - that'd be a great name for a band:  "Acts of Social Evil"






Travel time over.....back to work.....more soon.....




-E-

Monday, October 4, 2010

Made it back.....


Sadly, had to leave Sapa on Tuesday Morning.  Grabbed my laundry, packed up the skooter and headed off into the sunrise (well, no....not really - it was 1PM when I took off, but still).......


Took the back mountain roads of QL 4D (which was ripped to shit from landslides and a near-total lack of actual paving) and a much better QL 32 (which was only partially ripped to shit from landslides and had a partial lack of paving on it).


No place to stay along the road with Internet in it until I got to Ha Noi.  There was a cafe in a town called Nghia Lo that had Wi-Fi....but I really wasn't up for leaving my room, soooo......


By the time I got to Ha Noi Thursday Afternoon, it had struck me that this IS THEE closest that I am gonna get to enjoying  anything resembling a real city (and that term being used on Ha Noi is a stretch) forra while.  So, even though I had easy Internet access, I put away the computer and went out and hit the town Thursday Night......and the town hit me back!


Too much fun out in Ha Noi 'till the wee hours on Thursday Night led to a 1PM Friday Morning Afternoon departure and a few days of recuperation when I got back to Hai Phong!


I'm alive and missing Sapa badly.  Trying to talk my wife into moving there....explaining that we can milk cows for a living up there whilst we teach them English (the cows, not the residents).....


So, from Sapa to Ha Noi, here are some more National Geographic-style pics from the ride home!


Hope you enjoy 'em.....







































More madcap, zany wild times from Hai Phong coming up in a week or so....


-E-