Trains Motobikes Bia Hoi

One of the best parts about Vietnam is the potential to take the train to pretty much all major destinations. We recently took the train from Hanoi to Sapa, a mountain town in Northwest Vietnam. It is a 9 hour overnight ride to Sapa. You choose between hard seat, soft seat, hard sleeper or soft sleeper, each increasing in price by a few US dollars. We opted for the "hard sleeper" option. Hard sleeper means 6 people per cabin and a small cushion. Not bad really and we got beautiful views of the country in the morning before we arrived in Sapa.

Sapa was a refreshing change from the warm, humid climate of Hanoi. This provience has a few different "ethnic minorties," such as the H'moung people and the Red Zao people. Of the four days that we were there we rented motorbikes for two whole days at 5$/day. This allowed us to travel all around the countryside to differnet villages and meet the various people. One day we were led into a small village of Red Zao people by a younger girl, who also showed us her home and family- it was quite a privledge. While the home was a primitive structure we were impressed by the size of it and by the large halogen light inside. Motoring around also gave us great views of the land: endless rice fields, terraced agriculture, small wooden shacks, and dozens of animals we didn't know existed. Roads were generally good except for a few comic instances. I am not sure that a 100cc moped is built to trugde through two feet of mud (which we almost spilled head first into), cross rivers, or off-road on large bumpy boulders.

After another pleasant sleeper train we've been back exploring Hanoi for the last couple days. We are growing to appreciate the chaos and hustle of this city and have been able to take advantage of it's opportunities. We went to a silly but impressive water puppet show, in which seven puppeteers skillfully control hoards of colorful puppets to depict pastoral scenes and ledgends (in green murky water). Today we visited the prison which held our beloved John McCain. We read all about the horrendous conditions in which the vietnamese prisoners were subject to by French colonialists, compared to the luxeries and comforts that American pilots received while detained. Also recently we discovered the wondorus Bia Hoi. This is a home brewed beer, light in color, free of any preservatives, and sold on the streets out of a keg for twenty cents/large glass. Not that we would want to, but i've heard one can drink themselves under the table for less than two dollars. NICE!!!!

J + L

p.s. Molly and Jon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!