Bicycling around Luang Prabang

Earlier this week, Dale and I rented bicycles and explored some of the area surrounding Luang Prabang.

First impressions of Luang Prabang

After a 55-minute flight from Hanoi, we arrived in Luang Prabang this morning. Our guest house overlooks the shallow Nam Khan river, where fishermen cast their nets from pole boats, young boys float in inner tubes, and Buddhist monks in saffron robes cross a bamboo foot bridge. After the chaos of Hanoi, Luang Prabang is idyllic. The architecture is picturesque, and food so far is excellent.

And then the set began to burn

On the night before we left Hanoi, we went to the famous water puppet theater. The puppetry and musical accompaniment were interesting, but the part we'll remember best is when a flaming hoop got too close to the fringes on the backdrop, and they caught on fire. Someone came running from back stage, through the thigh-deep water, and began splashing water on the backdrop until the fire was out. The performance continued. There were a couple other goofs that had Dale laughing so hard he had to cover his mouth. It would've been fun to witness the backstage antics during the performance.

Halong Bay

On Sunday we took a 3-hour shuttle from Hanoi to Halong Bay, where we began an overnight cruise of this famous Unesco World Heritage Site. We took a short excursion into a cave on one of the islands and kayaked past soaring rock formations and floating villages. When we got back to the boat at sunset, we jumped from the top deck into the warm bay below. This morning we took a leisurely cruise back though more stunning rock formations and the drive back to Hanoi. We have tickets to the Water Puppet Theatre tonight (a 1000 year old tradition), and we leave tomorrow morning for Laos.

Tam Coc

We took a 2-hour bus tour to Tam Coc today. It was one of the highlights of the trip. After touring an old temple in the previous capitol of Vietnam (back around 1000 AD) we rode bicycles amid a spectacular landscape of karst mountains, on narrow lanes through small towns, past flocks of egrets flying low over rice fields, to a town where we boarded small row boats paddled by locals. For the next two hours we glided on a river through the same landscape, passing through three caves along the way.

Hanoi

Now that we finally have a great internet connection, we're just way too busy to (want to) post pictures. Hanoi is a wonderful, intense city. We've spent much of our time wandering around the bustling colorful Old Quarter and vibrant but tranquil Hoan Kiem Lake, watching people and eating great food. Our best meal so far was green papaya and dried beef salad, shrimp wrapped in shredded potatoes, duck cooked with dried fruit, and a sizzling seafood platter. Total cost with four drinks: about $20.

Sapa

From the China-Vietnam border we took a taxi to the hill town of Sspa. It's a huge change from what we saw in China. Lots of women from the Black Hmong, Red Hmong and Red Dhao ethnic minority groups followed us (and the many other western tourists) constantly, offering to sell us their hand-embroidered crafts.

We've had absolutely perfect weather here, which is rare in November. This is the only part of Vietnam where it snows, but instead we have temps in the mid-70's and cloudless skies. We have a perfect view of 10,000+ foot Mount Fanxipan, the highest peak in southeast Asia, across the valley from us. Today we hiked downhill to nearby Cat Cat Village and took a taxi back. In a few moments we board the overnight sleeper train to Hanoi.