Hanoi

 a snippet of Old Hanoi

My daughter and I did not cope so well with Hanoi. The temperature and humidity killed us. I was still recovering (slowly but surely) from my back spasm episode, and the chaos was hard to take with those physical discomforts. 

We had heard much about crossing the street in Hanoi, and that actually was easier than I expected (though walking did require a great deal of concentration at all times). It was the highway that traumatized me. NO, nothing happened, but I am risk-averse, and with the other discomforts...

We did not get off to an auspicious start. I was so worried about being scammed and kidnapped by the driver, that the tiny discrepancy between what the hotel had told me to look for and the actual sign the driver was holding had me in angst... is this the right driver... will we be lost in Hanoi with no way to contact anybody (I had not activated my eSim yet)? My angst transferred to my daughter, and well, I was not convinced we were in the right place until about 40 minutes later we pulled in front of the right hotel!

We tried to do touristy things every day - we did a hop-on hop-off bus tour (and met a nice Korean man whom we would bump into repeatedly over the next week!); we visited a museum, we walked around....

But we were hot and cranky, and my husband , the resident entomologist (who coincidentally was also in Vietnam on a collecting trip!), said we should go to SaPa. We organized a tour with the hotel desk, and set off for a six hour bus ride, one over night and six-hour bus ride back. Well, it was supposed to be six hours, but the race-car driver (oops, make that bus driver) did shorten it significantly! But what was the most traumatizing of this was the seating arrangements. I had never heard of a sleeper bus. I assumed it merely meant you could recline your seats.

Valley at SaPa

NOPE. The sleeper bus is a bus with bunk-beds instead of seats. You can recline the back of the seat, but you are never sitting up. The way there was okay - we had kind of private bunk bed berths. We could not really tell what the driver was doing. The bus configuration for the way back was different... it was more open-concept, three rows of ... what felt like pilot seat-beds. And they assigned us the very front, upper bunks. I frankly felt like  a projectile waiting to project. And I could see every move the driver made. Some people love sleeper busses because they can sleep. I needed to stay fully awake to 'help the driver stay on the road' (how - by telapathic powers, I guess!😂)

SaPa itself is a mountain city, and in addition to the transport, our trip included lunch on arrival, an afternoon tour to the 'CatCat village', dinner at the hotel and overnight stay, and a longer trek the following morning, and lunch. Our tour did not include the cable car to the peak. I probably would not have coped well, but in any case, they did not see much, as it was very cloudy.

Valley at SaPa

SaPa is very picturesque. the city is bustling (what we saw of it), but the surroundings are rural, mostly rice and corn farming. Our afternoon tour was a private tour (just by chance), and we walked down down, down through this 'village', where, of course, there were many stalls selling all kinds of stuff, including walking sticks. That should have been a warning! There were very many people wearing traditional dress. Too many, actually. Turns out that you can rent traditional dress and wear it for the day (like the Kimonos in Kyoto!). There were also actual local people (H'mong - we had learned a bit about them at the Ethnogoraphy museum the day before) wearing traditional dress as well. 

Weaving hemp

Hemp plants

I got to watch a woman weave hemp, and see how the hemp went from plant to cloth. It is kind of stunning to think that this plant's stem can be split, then roughly spun by hand, then spun by spinning wheel to become a type of yarn, then woven into durable cloth! (They also use indigo, and I saw some indigo cloth hanging to cure, and an indigo vat.) I decided to purchase a length of natural coloured hemp. I doubt I will make anything with it; maybe use it as a table runner...

Hand-woven hemp

Indigo is known around the world!

Indigo dyed fabric

On the second day we did a longer trek, into the valley and through several villages. The footing was tricky, and I was still feeling my back. Our guide found me a big bamboo stick, which helped (I thought I was going to have to get her to take me to the Cat Cat village to buy one of those sticks being sold there!)

Batik cushion cover

We were followed by local women and some children, and we encountered children selling bracelets along the way. What I found compellingly sad was the plastic garbage strewn along the path. Where I live we also use too much plastic, but we hide it by taking it to the landfill, or blindly putting it into the recycle bin thinking it will be taken care of. Here we just see it, a visual reminder to cut back. There is not much garbage collection in these rural areas... After some time, the local women took their leave. Of course after helping 'this old lady' down through the tricky paths, I was invited to purchase something! I purchased this cushion cover. I had participated (if only so briefly) in the batik application of a similar pattern the day before, and so could rest assured that this was hand work.

We liked our time in SaPa - it was a nice respite from Hanoi.

Lots of visitors to Halong Bay

I had also booked a day trip to Halong Bay. I used a random agent in an office along the street; the woman was very engaging, and made me feel more or less at ease with the transaction (but as daughter said, she was probably just good at saying what you wanted to hear!). After SaPa I went back to ask about the bus transportation. She assured me that it would NOT be a sleeper bus, since the trip was 'too short' (only three hours). She said it would be a 'VIP van' (the term VIP was used liberally on these vans and on coach style buses). I figured I would just refuse to go if it was a sleeper bus. 

While kayaking I saw a monkey

My travelling companion refused to come on the morning of. I decided I would go anyway, and am very happy I did. It was a restful day. It was not the VIP van, but a VIP bus, it was along a divided highway (so no racing towards oncoming vehicles!). 

Very large cave

At Halong Bay we boarded a ship/boat where we ate lunch as we moved towards the attractions. The first attraction was a giant cave. Second attraction was kayaking under a cave like underpass and into a bay surrounded by tall rocks, then the third attraction was actual swimming! 

So many tour boats!!!

This is a VERY popular destination (see all the boats waiting for the swimmers?), but well worth it. 

FABRIC:

linen/cotton

It was a goal to buy some silk. Specifically I wanted silk for lining (for an upcoming suit, and for Brisbane-daughter's dress.) I had heard from another travelling seamstress about places to go (markets). I went one afternoon, alone, to  the Dong Xuan market. The fabric stalls are on the second floor. It was hot and humid, and I climbed to the second floor which was jam packed with fabric stalls. Much repetition between stalls. Stall keepers laying down on their stock napping, or playing video games. Quite intimidating. I asked the price of one or two items, but was not sure how to decide! And did I mention it was hot and humid? And that I speak no Vietnamese? I did learn the word for silk. I considered that my reconnaissance mission.

On the Sunday morning I went to the 'other' market that had been recommended. Travelling companion came too. This was 'Cho Hom'. We were there early, some stalls still in the process of setting up. Once again overwhelmed by the selection and the environment, I did eventually shop. I bought about six pieces of silk from one vendor, and then her neighbour invited us to look at her wares - cottons and linens. We bought several pieces from her as well. On the way out my travelling companion asked me how I chose who to buy from, I said 'she offered me a place to sit down'!

I tried to buy a mango from a vendor on the first floor - I ended up buying two mangoes, 2 giant oranges and receiving a handful of plums as a gift (for having spent too much on the fruit, presumably!) We ended up not eating the mangoes (too awkward), only one orange, but I did eat most of the plums!

Silky, but not silk?

Back to the fabric. A website says this about Cho Hom market: " The second floor is where you can find hundreds of stalls selling cotton, linen, wool, silk, tweed, brocade, and nylon materials, all of which are stacked up in piles. The prices here are also negotiable. You can often get up to 50% off the retail prices." I was not able to negotiate the price, and I know for a fact that I paid twice as much as I was quoted at the Dong Xuan market... Tourist tax.. whatever.

Now that would not bother me if my burn test carried out at home had not suggested that these fabrics were not silk, I am fairly sure they failed the test... I really should have bought from several vendors, to give myself more chance at success. The fabrics are very pretty, and they feel very nice, but silk breathes, polyseter - not so much.

fabrics in the wind

HOMEBOUND

We FINALLY left (it felt like way more than eight days!). The resident entomologist came back to Hanoi a day early, so we did meet up and went out to dinner before our flight. Over the next several days I would do three red-eye flights in two days, and spend Wednesday in Seoul, and then Wednesday in Vancouver... the wonders of modern travel!

Asian sewing ruler

The flights were a bit turbulent, and after a five hour flight we arrived in Seoul at 6:00 a.m. where we had a 12 hour layover. So we found a place to rest, then took a bus into the city. We visited the Seoul Musuem of Craft Art and the nearby Gyeongbokgung Palace. (This was another of those places where you could rent local traditional dress.. and enter the palace at no cost!) At the musuem I looked mainly at some traditional embroidery, as well as Bojagi wrapping cloths. We also visited the pottery section. What was fascinating was to learn about the hands-on role the imperial rulers took in promoting the arts. For imperial purposes, mainly, but it nurtured artistic traditions. Sadly only one of the several photos I took worked out (not sure what happened to the others... lost or not taken!) The photo I have is of an Asian style sewing ruler, similar in concept to the ones we used in the Indigo/Hanten workshop (no numbers!). This one is much more elaborate, of course!

Gyeongbokgung Palace

We gave ourselves lots of time to get back to the airport, and upon our arrival there was... a concert. Two great singers, accompanied by a smal orchestra... fascinating and invigorating!

Travelling companion's flight to Ottawa was almost immediately after our arrival in Vancouver, but mine was ten hours later... so I went into Vancouver, visited my aunt, had a shower, had dinner, and made my way back to the airport - again with lots of time to spare!

I was quite fatigued by the time I got back to Ottawa - and now I had to psyche myself up for part two of the Grand Tour. And feeling travel angst, too. 

Santorini tank, and palazzo pants

Upon my return I did quickly sew up two of the linen pieces in preparation for the Ghana/Europe leg of my Grand Tour. They proved to be VERY practical!

Stay tuned for the next leg of the journey!