Vang Vieng

     Our next stop was Vang Vieng.  Due to recent flooding, landslides, and the major news event of week being a deadly dam break in southern Laos, there was a buzz about which road was passable from Luang Prabang.  There is an Old Road and a New Road.  The new one is faster but was rumored to be washed out or currently not in use.  So we booked our mini-van transport and figured we were in for a long ride.  

     Surprise!  The driver did take the New Road.  The route begins at about 1000ft and tops off at a pass near 6200ft. In America you rarely see road incline warnings of more than 6%, however here we saw 9, 10, and 12% grade steepness.  As we ascended, the clouds took visibility down to a semi-truck length ahead.  Some areas of the road were indeed washed out, but our tenacious driver pressed on with little hesitation as to how to delicately encounter each detour or obstacle.  Once Genna was alarmed to discover that the road had become the river (pictured above) and Jeff noticed pavement buckling and sections eroded into the abyss.  Map geeks can check out a segment of the route on GoogleEarth at 19º23'07"N 102º08'46"E.  I later noted that our Embassy regular advises travellers NOT use this road.  Thank goodness we snagged the front seats, this is not a trip for weak stomachs!

     Once we were safely on flat ground in the valley into Vang Vieng we passed a presumably fatal motorbike accident.  2 fallen bikes on the shoulder and 2 bodies in the road... the responding ambulance was headed out as we entered town.

Vang Vieng is known as an adventure hub in the region.  You can kayak, river tube (booze optional), and go climbing, caving, and ORVing.  However, due to the aforementioned incessant rain and the heavy river volume we were not feeling water sports this week.  The girls amused themselves with umbrellas, banana pancakes, and a rental pool at a nearby hotel.

We did some walking throughout town and explored Tham Chang Cave and its blue spring.  Had some fishy papaya salad, terrible BBQ/hotpot, and many fruit shakes.  Did some shopping on the night walking streets and witnessed a sky lantern launch.  

Laos = "Land of a Million Elephants"

     Our most positive experience in Laos was visiting the Vang Vieng Elephant Sanctuary.  It is about an hour drive south of town near the vast Nam Ngum Reservoir.  The Sanctuary pays the wages of work elephants so they and their mahouts can live here.  This is presently their best financial strategy, as opposed to buying the animals outright.  They currently have 12 and hope to increase the population via rescue and local-wild-mix-breeeding. The experience begins with hiking a kilometer through the stream, lakeshore, and jungle until you encounter a pair or so of pachyderms.  I admit some apprehension as 2 large girls trundled towards our family. Since they know you are each carrying a bucket of bananas, they promptly join your party and delicately extract their snack from your paws.  It didn't take Maya long to get with the program and tackled the task of treat-time. Genna was a little unsure and hung back a bit.
     When our baskets were empty our leader announce that "We go swim with them now", as if it was up to the elephants to decide their daily schedule.  They do advertise that visitors are here more as volunteers rather than guests to be entertained. We learned that elephant's spines are not meant to carry loads and other excursions that offer rides are inhumane (not hard to guess).  Also, while elephants can live to 100 years, those that experience an existence of hard labor have greatly shortened lifespans.  There is some spoiling involved in these tour visits, but they attempt to rotate animals so none of them become accustomed to daily sweet fruit treats or too much human contact.  I wonder how that notion, combined with their hope for wild interbreeding will effect the program.  If it becomes unsafe for tourists to visit an increasingly wild stock of elephants, they may stop coming and thus decrease the sanctuary's revenue.

"We Swim Now!"  But don't dilly dally (Maya and Genna!!!). These elephants decide when they are done and are not made to entertain you.  Maya got a short chance to splash in their bath before these ladies decided it was time to move on to the next mud-hole to reapply their sunblock and bug repellant. 

After the mud bath we all go back to base camp for BBQ lunch for us and chopped pineapple for them.
Genna finally warmed up to her new friends.

     Nam Ngum Reservoir is the largest lake in the country and is dotted with islands and surrounded by jungle, mountains, and villages.  After the joyful afternoon we had with the elephants the icing on the cake was that a bit of blue sky was peeking through and our return trip up the mountain offered some fabulous views.  The rainy season couldn't beat us down today!

Luang Prabang

An ominous introduction to Laos.

     While this photo was taken in the daylight a few days later, this represents our initiation to Laos.  From Hanoi, we opted to fly to Luang Prabang in lieu of the 24-hour cramped bus ride through the mountains.  We arrived in a storm severe enough that the pilot opted to delay our landing a bit.  A few days back in Hanoi, we were getting suspicious of our hotel booking as we had not had any confirmation.  When we arrived, in the dark, at 9:00pm, in the rain, we encountered the contents of the hotel unpacked onto the sidewalk and no one around to communicate with.  Smartly we booked a back-up guesthouse (in a less ideal, farther location) and was able to find someone to explain to the cab driver to take us there instead.  That turned out to be the worst accommodation of the trip.  The "Family Room" turned out to be a jabbingly springy twin bed and a slightly less uncomfortable king.  At the hour we arrived, we had no choice but to accept and crash for the night.  As awkward as it was to fit 3 to the king, I think the short stick was the person who had the evil, pokey, twin bed - so we ended up rotating through that it for our 4 nights here.  For the price, we could have given in and gotten an extra room, but somehow we just got resolved to the situation.  

This photo summarizes the comfort level of the room.  WHY IS THERE A LAMP PAINTED ON THE WALL AND NO REAL LAMP!!!!!!!

     Poor Luang Prabang, and Laos in general, is going down as "hard to recommend" in our book.  I am sure it is exquisite in the dry season, but we were so tired of going out in the rain, mist or at least 100% cloud cover EVERYDAY that we couldn't give it a fair shake.  We never woke up early to observe the Monk's alms collecting ritual.  We didn't walk up Mt Phousi or tour the Royal Palace.  We discovered that the food was almost double the cost as Vietnam.  The people were not unfriendly, but were just more reserved.  The night market stall sellers don't even call out to you.  Sounds positive, but it was weird.  After 6 weeks on the road we were admitting that the trip was probably 2 weeks too long.  

The highlight for the girls was playing with this baby while Papa booked a tour with her mother in their storefront tour office/living room/smoothie stall.

The night before a 2-part day trip I fell ill, so I sat the morning out while Jeff soldiered on with the girls to Pak Ou cave up the Mekong River.  I was able to meet them after lunch to finish the day's outing to Kuang Si Falls.  These are picturesque blue springs and delightfully terraced waterfalls... in the dry season.  In late July they are flowing torrentially and muddy.  

Despite the color, the falls were impressive.
The park grounds also house an interesting exhibit of protected Asiatic Black bears.  

Another day Jeff and Maya made an excursion across the Mekong by boat ferry and explored a Buddha cave, escorted by this young guide (below).

     While they were there, Genna and I visited a village school run by Big Brother Mouse.  Genna was the youngest volunteer that day amongst a large group of British Highschoolers, some German backpackers, and a single Aussie retiree.  Genna enjoyed practicing flashcards with the youngest students and playing board games with the young adults.  The program was great (for us) but a regular parade of volun-tourists has to be rather disruptive to the classroom routine.  The school has another component where you can meet older students in town to just chat and practice English.

Ha Long Bay

     One of our biggest splurges of the trip was an overnight trip on Ha Long Bay.  The general reviews for these cruises is that regardless of what you pay, you may get the bait and switch when you arrive and not end up in the accommodations you expected after the 4 hour bus ride from Hanoi.  However, we can report that we were pleased with the level of luxury aboard the Bellezza. Mind you, less than 24 hours are spent aboard.  Upon tendering to the ship you are greeted with welcome refreshments, a 9 course lunch, and posh cabins as the boat heads out through the famous karsts (but not really too far).  We were in the supposed less-touristy end of the Bay where only 30 cruise boats troll the waters.  However, they are generally all on the same itinerary.  After a bit, we got to our overnight anchorage where we were ferried off for an afternoon of kayaking and beach time (it rained).  When we returned to the Bellezza, the cove was full of the other night trippers.  We did enjoy spotting some large, yellow, stringy jellyfish off the top deck.  

Our host used the phrase "Sunset Party" at least a dozen times to ensure we were present for the top deck cocktail hour.  By a stroke of excellent fortune, after weeks of grey clouds and rain, the sky opened up and provided the most brilliant sunset of our entire 8 weeks. The girls got to hang out with some other kids for a change from London, Ireland, and Americans (currently expats in Riyadh).  The Garcia teens were, in fact, the only other American children we encountered on the entire trip.  The boat had room to host 5 families and we got to know them in a laid-back setting, rather than a "party boat" which is common in this racket.

Maya was bummed that swimming was discouraged at this beach at Fairy Cave.  The warning was due to jellyfish, which are common in these waters.  So is trash.  It was disappointing to see a disgusting amount of plastic caught up in the current.  For all the pride they have in this Unesco-Wonder-of-the-World, they don't make a lot of effort to preserve it. 

Genna was almost as interested in fishing as the Irish Boys.  They shared their table scraps with her so she could try bacon, bread, and apple bait.  What was scheduled as a night-time-only squid fishing event was carried over to the morning as we trolled back to the dock.  None were successful.

Part of the 2nd lunch was do-it-yourself, billed as a "cooking class" where you get to make fresh spring rolls and observe the chef carving produce garnishes.  All of the meals were multi-course and generously portioned.  Even the Carrolls had a hard time finishing everything that was offered.  If we could make a suggestion it would be less QUANTITY and more QUALITY.  The food was not bad, but some of it was a little blah.

Hanoi

We paired up with a couple of ladies (IRE and AUS) from our cave excursions who were going our way from The Phong Nha Farmstay to Dong Hoi to catch the night train on to Hanoi.  This time on the "SOFT BERTH" sleepers.  It was a step up in comfort and privacy with a 4 bunk cabin to ourselves.


Hanoi is a lovely city.  We stayed at the Golden Land Hotel in the Old Quarter.  The streets were busy and shared by pedestrians and traffic as the sidewalks were used for motorbike parking.  The architecture was great and the narrow frontages and mysterious alleys were intriguing.  We should have ventured out of Old Town more.  Just a few blocks away the streets were wider and offered less touristy dining options and cheaper ice cream! 

There was a lot of shopping to be found in the Old Quarter of Hanoi.  The girls' favorite shops were a stationary store and this man who carved personalized wooden stamps.  Jeff got several Communist Propaganda posters.

(Wow, these photos are horrible, we'll never be invited to instagram).

     In our last city in Vietnam we took a "Street Food Tour" (itinerary pictured above).  It would have made more sense to do this within the first week of arriving in a country to familiarize ourselves with the various specialties we could have kept our eye out for... for the LAST 4 WEEKS!  The tour was enjoyable, but not exactly "street" as all stops were in sit-down restaurants.  My favorite new item tried was Banh Cuon, which is a steamed rice crepe that wraps sautéd mushrooms and pork.  Reminded me of a peirogi.   

     Genna cozied up to our young-guide Sunny.  As they linked arms to share an umbrella and cross streets, Genna chatted to her about home and school life.  Genna did a great job of making pleasant conversation with many new people we met and the locals were eager to pinch her baby cheeks and learn more about her. 

     We also enjoyed Egg Coffee on the tour and several other times.   There are many "famous" Bun Cha (top right photo) places in Hanoi.  It is OK to order just 2 portions for a family of 4.  There are so many components to this meal and it arrives in generous amounts.  It is often a place with a set menu, so you just sit down and they bring the spread to you.

This was more like it - street food on the street.  We had many Bahn Mi throughout Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos.  Some better than others with variations in lightness of baguette and quality of filling.  Some of the best were in Kampot, Cambodia and HoiAn Vietnam.  The saucier the better (IMO).





More war memorabilia in the Hanoi Hilton.  The interpretation is skewed to show the torture endured by the Vietnamese at the hands of the French in contrast to the comfort provided to the American POWs held here.  Perhaps we should read John McCain's memoir to compare perspectives.  Again Maya and Genna were turned off by the horrors of mankind's gruesome tendencies.






Most days' forecast 😓
For some reason we didn't buy an umbrella until Laos.

Jeff took a GRAB (motorbike taxi) on a solo excursion.  

Turtles at the food market.

     There was a "Craft Village" across the street from the Temple of Literature.  It was fairly dead this morning, but the girls wandered around and decided to try (the least culturally relevant activity) acrylic painting on canvas.  Other booths offered kite making, lantern painting, calligraphy, pottery, etc.  Regardless, it was an enjoyable break for them before we were off to another boring attraction: the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum.  

     We also enjoyed the Water Puppet theatre one evening. We don't typically fawn over tourist-trap venues like this, but the water puppets were actually really cool. They could probably sell tickets to a behind-the-scenes access or at least an interpretive museum to explain the magic.

Phong Nha National Park

Phong Nha National Park is home to the largest cave in the world: Hang Son Doong. Not the LARGEST cave system, or the longest, (which is Mammoth in Kentucky) but the largest single cavern.  Now, truth be told, we did not specifically visit Hang Son Doong, as it cost thousands of dollars and requires a 4 day trek.  We did, however spend 4 days in the area and visited several interesting caves (some members of our group may suggest we saw TOO many).  But if it's raining ALL day, you might as well spend your time in a cave.  Sadly the Rainy Season had enveloped the entire region.  Cloud cover obscured those classic karst views that I was looking forward to.  We had fleeting peeks of the layers upon layers of those humpy hills on the horizon, but at times could not see any contours beyond the valley floors.

Paradise Cave
These caves did have some great formations, compared to Mammoth which is largely dry and "dead" these are still clearly living and growing.

We stayed at Phong Nha Farmstay.
This was another case of not knowing what to expect from the area as you attempt to blindly pre-book a room without understanding the logistics of the location.  We realized that The Farmstay was 6 miles removed from the town, but it seemed like the town was so small that it would have been of no consequence.  You have everything you need at The Farmstay if you are content with relaxing, drinking on the veranda, biking anyplace within biking distance in bad weather (which is no place, really), and eating exclusively at the guesthouse restaurant.  This was not an ideal setting for us.  The town, though skewed towards backpacker hostels, had plenty going on to have kept us.  We prefer the freedom of finding cheap local restaurants or eating from the market, or just walking around a town and people watching.  The Farmstay was a collection of guesthouses down a rural lane. There was "no room in the inn", so to speak, for our size family at the courtyard-pool-adjacent rooms.  So we were lodged 100m down the muddy road in a newish but rustic family bungalow that had cows and chickens in the driveway.  While the room had A/C, the bathroom was somewhat open-air.  By the end of the 1st day ants had infested much of the food we had imported from the grocery in Danang.
Overall, the weather really put a damper on our perception of the place and our moods.  Anyone else who stays at The Farmstay cannot help but gush that "it's just LOVELY!" (in non-American accent)

From The Farmstay we arranged treks and tours into the National Park.  The first one we did was MaDa Valley. It included a 9km trek through thick jungle, leeches, and poison ivy, then a stop at (another) elephant cave, fording the stream, swimming and cliff jumping at the blue MaDa lake, then swimming though Tra Ang Cave.  It turned into a rainy day and I was not happy about the water temperature so I passed on the dip in MaDa pool.  However when we reached Tra Ang, there was really no choice but to fully get in and go with the program.  With life jackets, helmets, and head lamps, we swam 600 meters to the dead end of this large cavern then back out.  The water was surprisingly not freezing, deep, and had a noticeable current.  That is one and a half times around a track - one way, swimming awkwardly in sneakers, in the dark!  The current helps the swim out.  I felt this was an incredibly unique experience and was glad to have done it! 

One morning (that The Farmstay host promised it would not rain until 2pm) we took the complimentary bikes out to try to find 2 churches, whose steeples we could spy across the river.  The map he provided specifically states that "not many tourists venture to the other side and you will be a rockstar if you go visit the locals".  After passing many brown cows, running over one small snake, wondering if we were lost, hailing a ferryman from across the River Song to fetch us, we did in fact receive a warm welcome and many cheerful "Hallo's", "Where are you from?" from many friendly people.  By the time we arrived at the first church (below), it started raining.  Thank GOD (LOL) for the wrap-around porch of this Catholic church.  We camped out there for 2 hours while it rained.  (I fully disclose that we let the girls watch YouTube Mermaids on the phone). At 11:30 people began arriving.  It was Sunday and perhaps there was a mass at noon, but we couldn't stay to find out as it stopped raining so we booked it across the nearest toll bridge and made a course for home.

"Madonna of the Golden Dragons" (j/k)

The end of another day-long cave tour.  Contemplating the view at a scenic overlook... or what might be a view had it not been misty!

     The second day-tour we did was Paradise Cave and Dark Cave.  Dark Cave was known to be a wet, muddy endeavor which may have appealed to our typically adventurous nature had we not been wet, and everything we own getting musty for the past 3 days.  We almost backed out, but decided to tough it out for the sake of not wishing to plan an alternative.  As a surprise the guide rearranged our itinerary to do Dark cave first, (due to rising water). So we could potentially be wet and muddy for the entire remainder of the outing!  We were experiencing significant Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) by now.
     In another effort to suck it up and just do it, we resolved ourselves to the DARK CAVE experience.  It begins by crossing a river (which would have been an idyllic green in dry times). If you are within a certain weight limit you can zip line across.  Maya wanted to try that so I did it with her and Jeff and (lightweight) Genna crossed on kayaks.  I was nervous that Maya would chicken out on the zip but she wanted me to go first and leave her to follow.  In reality, you have no choice, as the handler gives you an irrevocable shove after clipping your harness in.  It was a nice thrill!  Upon landing you make your way to the mouth of the cave.  After fording the knee-high cave river for a hundred yards or so you take a right turn into a side cave canyon.  We felt it so closely resembled our familiar desert slot canyons, except for being dark and totally enclosed.  After a few ups, downs, and turns, you arrive at a dead end which is a pool filled with thigh-deep liquid mud where you can bathe, slather, or wallow (or like me, just cling to the edge and investigate the clay until everyone has had their fill).  Then it is out the same way to wash off in the river of the main chamber.  Again, I felt that the experience was such a unique adventure it left a more positive impression than I expected.  No where in America are they letting you defile the fragile ecosystem of a cave with this sort of recreation.

Phong Nha Cave entrance.
The boat motors you a mile from town, then 2 oarswomen row your heavy craft with 12 large tourists 2km through the cave with the thinnest paddle you can imagine.

HoiAn

Hoi An is the darling city of Vietnam.  It features a charming (car-free) old town, a swath of bike-able rice fields, a glut of historic architecture, and its banh mi have been made famous by Anthony Bourdain (RIP). With that comes some incredibly touristy walking streets, lantern boat touts, and inauthentic night markets.  

We spent an enjoyable morning on a bike tour out of town into some local farm gardens.

They put the guests to work on the basil patch.  Maya is toting a load of seaweed fertilizer to prep the beds for transplanting. Genna attemps the shoulder-stock watering cans.

We tried our hand at making rice paper.  This is the type that is dried in the sun.  The disks are saved for later when they are char-fired over coals into crispy crackers.  The woman (in green) can make up to 600 rounds each day.  

We had this delightfully refreshing lemongrass basil drink!  I should have immediately put the word out to the Michiganders to start growing some of this so I could collect the seeds this summer.  The seeds get kind of gelatinous, like chia, in the liquid.  It is probably similar to this Indonesian recipe.

There is a nice program in town where you buy a pass to visit 5 of the 22 historic and cultural landmarks in the Old City.  (Babies are free!) Here Genna and Papa are deciding which one to see next.  

Dream on Hoi An.
This trip has confirmed our suspicions: The planet is doomed.

We collected a number of these lovely (I am not naive enough to assume they are "hand-cut") pop-up cards.  Grandma Paula would have been inspired!  If you're lucky, we'll send you one in the coming years.  

The Vietnamese version of the banana pancake: crepe batter skimmed onto a flat griddle.

An Bang beach is about 5 miles out of town.  Pleasantly un-trashy!

The Villa of Tranquility went down as the best hotel room and the second best pool of the trip (as rated by the girls - due to having their own separate large beds in a room connected to ours, with their own bathroom.)
It was a nice hotel, but required a taxi ride into Old Town or the beach.  It did have free bikes, which we would have used more if the Rainy Season had not begun in earnest.

     On the way out of Hoi An we had to transfer back to Danang to catch the train.  We spent the morning stocking up at the BIG C Grocery since we knew our onward lodging was going to be more rural and shopping impossible.  Before getting on the train we needed to find lunch and found a shop for banh mi and bun (soup) near the station.  The woman was so taken with Genna and possibly concerned that she wasn't eating enough that she took the bowl and began spoon feeding poor Genna.  G could hardly keep up with her relentless pace.  The woman wouldn't even relinquish the bowl to me when I implied that I wanted to finish assisting my own child.  Eventually Genna waved her off and the lady obliged.  Poor baby!  

     The train ride was in the late afternoon so we saw some beautiful scenery before sundown as it wound a path through hills and tunnels along the coast.

Danang

(See the size of our bags! black/blue is Jeffs, teal/orange is mine, Genna's is smaller, and Maya has a nice child size 35L internal frame)

Our first train experience of the trip was the night train from Nha Trang to Danang.  It was running late and the wait was uncomfortably hot.  We had 3 night trains total on the whole trip and progressively went up in class.  We started here with the "Hard Berth" sleeper which is a cabin for 6.  Two triple bunk beds with thin mats, a pillow, and a blanket.  It wasn't terrible sleeping but expectedly bare-bones.

We ate SO MUCH NOODLE SOUP for 8 weeks! Most of it was good.  Occasionally there would be weird things to pick around (crab balls or blood lumps), but you can't go too wrong with noodles and broth.  

We hoped to see more of Marble Mountain but entered at a minor ticketed entrance later to discover that we needed a different ticket to see the major part of the caves, pagodas, and mountain top. It was such a frustrating situation, we just left and skipped the rest.

We really liked Danang, even though we only spent 24 hours here.  The city is cleaner and traffic is lighter compared with Saigon.  There are several bridges that are lovely day and night.  

ADDICT
Here we learned that the iced coffee with sweetened condensed milk is called "Saigon" style.  It often comes with another glass of cold jasmine tea.  This cafe also served a DELICIOUS and cheap glass of fresh yogurt topped with passion fruit.