Day 028 : Kuala Lumpur

I was supposed to fly from Hanoi to Mumbai yesterday with a layover in Kuala Lumpur, but due to a canceled flight I ended up spending the night in Malaysia! Thankfully Malaysian Airlines put me up in a hotel room and paid for all of my meals. My downtime was put to good use by sorting through photos and trying get up to speed on the blog. Next time I post I'll be knee deep in curry...India here I come!

Day 026 : Halong Bay

Today I spent most of the morning sailing back to Halong City en route to Hanoi. On the way I passed 'Chopstick Rock' and some tough little women full of fuel!

Day 025 : Halong Bay

This morning I woke up early for a mystical boat ride through the foggy waters of Halong Bay. The boat was headed to Cat Ba Island where I would hop on a bicycle to check out some of the local villages on the Island.

Many of the homes on the island made use of the natural materials in the landscape. The most striking was the use of straw and earth brick. Throughout my travels I have also become more and more drawn to the ways in which people create architecture to their relatively primitive uses of water for cleansing various things like the body, produce, objects, etc.

I couldn't help but capture this texture.

Click here for Halong Bay photos!

Day 027 : Hanoi

No photos from today as I spent all of my time at the Hanoi and Kuala Lumpur airports!

Day 024 : Halong Bay

This morning I hopped on a bus headed to Halong Bay. I had been axiously awaiting this portion of my stay in Vietnam - I was ready to see the floating villages. Along the way I passed some pretty beautiful water-filled rice fields that seemed to be laced together with towering electric lines.

As we approached Halong City the lumpy rock formations became more visable.

I hopped on a boat as soon as I reached Halong City. I had seen plenty of photographs of Halong Bay so I thought I knew what to expect...But upon arrival I realized that no photograph could ever describe how absolutely amazing this landscape is.

As I began to weave in and out of some of these thousands of islands I stumbled upon several floating homes. Typically each is a humble little home perched on a system of floating docks. The docks may be joined with others to create in a sense a floating neighborhood. The people that live here must genuinely love living on the water. My initial instinct was that the inhabitants of Halong Bay make a living via fishing, but that is not the case. Because Halong Bay is a World Heritage Site any time of commercial fishing is strictly prohibited.

As the sun began to set the monumentality of each rock island became more and more impressive.

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Day 023 : Hanoi

Today Chi and some of her past students were kind enough to whick me away via scooter to the Red River. I was shocked when I arrived. I never expected the river to look more like a beach. Apparently in the summertime it is quite a popular spot for people to kick back and relax in the sand.

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Day 022 : Hanoi

Today was a rather quiet day in Hanoi. I spent most of the day recovering from Sapa. In the evening I headed out for a walk around town where this reflection caught my eye:

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Day 021 : Sapa

During my second day in Sapa we woke up early to a wonderful crepe breakfast prepared by Dong. She aspires to start her own restaurant in Sapa some day and I don't blame her...she's a darn good chef! After filling our bellies we set out for a more intense day of trekking. The muddy path took us through several smaller villages, through the woods, down the valley, then eventually up the valley. We reached our destination around 13:30, just in time for lunch. The lunch spot was in the home of a local minority woman. Immediately I began checking out each nook and cranny in her home (with her permission of course!). Below are a few of the interesting things I found:

This front room serves several purposes, it is basically a living, sleeping, and dining room all in one.

Watching Dong prepare lunch was actually quite an educational experience. In the kitchen there was a large catch basin that collected natural spring water which flowed down from the hills. From this larger basin Dong would then transfer smaller amounts of water to a relief in the floor to wash produce and prepare the meals. This depressed floor space also caught any produce peelings, access water, etc. From here the slightly sloping concrete then washed the access to the exterior of the home.

A similar catch basin was found on the exterior as well.

Bamboo Gutters

Family Portrait

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Day 020 : Sapa

I took a night train to Sapa last night. This morning I arrived at Lao Cai Station at 5am. From there I took public transportation to the mountain village of Sapa. It was very cold and very foggy!

It was a bit intimidating at first, but Dong, a local guide lead the way and soon we were on the right trail. Today (me, Amy, Alex, Valeria, and Ivan) trekked down the hills deep into the valley through several minority villages. Tomorrow we will continue our trek out of the valley back towards Sapa. The muddy trail wound through the beautiful hills and rice terraces.






Along the way I was able to see how the locals work and live (both of which primarily revolve around rice and livestock). The architecture was incredibly simple yet seemed to work well. As I suspected, all of the spaces were constructed with natural materials found from the landscape.



The steep terrain of Sapa and its surrounding village provides plenty of gravity for natural irrigation systems. Most of the homes have large collection wells like the one seen below. When preparing food, washing dishes and clothes, etc. the people transfer water from the large storage into smaller bowls (seen at the base). Any excess water, food scraps, etc. are tossed on this concrete (or stone) surface, then washed away at the end of each use. Bamboo is used for most of the irrigation systems.

This was the eerie situation I found myself in when I stepped off the overnight train and waited for my Mini-Bus to Sapa. Imagine waking up to these blairing speakers every morning!

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Day 019 : Hanoi

Chúc Mừng Năm Mới! That's 'Happy New Year' in Vietnamese! This morning when I hit the streets it was completely silent! Everyone was at home celebrating the first day of the new year. It was actually quite nice...the streets were peaceful, no one saying 'Madame, Motobike, Motobike' at every street corner. Even the markets were empty. For me being able to see Hanoi in such a rare state was quite special...

In the afternoon Chi was kind enough to involve me in a Vietnamese New Year Tradition : A visit to the Buddhist Temple. We went to three different temples in the afternoon. This one was my favorite:

Another intriguing alleyway on the walk home - There are so many!

Click here for Hanoi photos!