zainib

Coming to you direct from the Club Lounge at the Metropole, here is my first attempt at a trip report. Having previously committed the mortal sin of failing to report back on a trip two years ago to Thailand and Cambodia built largely on the information contained on this forum, this time around I’ll try to get on the good side of the Fodors Asia forum gods (oh great Panda, I do beseech you) and jump-start this one while we are still on it, Day 2 of 14 to be specific.

We— my wife, my 13-year old son and I—are experienced travelers, having done the aforementioned Thailand/Cambodia trip along with our then 16-year old daughter as well as other family trips to Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Costa Rica, China and Turkey. Our daughter is in college now (in rhkkmk’s neighborhood) and on a different spring break schedule, so this time it’s just the three of us. Based on recommendations on this forum, we used Tonkin Travel to book the Metropole in Hanoi, our Halong Bay cruise, and flights from Hanoi to Luang Prabang. For all of these, I found Tonkin’s prices to be superior to what I was getting on my own. And they were very responsive via email. They also arranged our Vietnam visa approval letters for a modest fee ($15 each). I booked our Sapa train tickets through our hotel in Sapa (no, not the Victoria), and I found that booking our Luang Prabang to BKK tickets on Bangkok Air directly on Bangkok Air’s website was less expensive than doing it through Tonkin.

I read many trip reports on this forum (thank you scomars, craig, ekscrunchy, kristina, and many others) and posted a few questions myself and have appreciated all the responses. When it comes to travel for a lot of the families we know in Los Angeles, their first (and often only) idea is to book a ski trip at a “name brand” ski resort or a beach vacation at whatever is the latest luxury hotel in Hawaii. They are amazed by the trips we take, and I am quick to credit the vast quantity and unequaled quality of information that’s available on this forum. I doubt any of them will alter their travel habits, but it does keep us coming back for more.

So, on with the report…

Day 1: LA to Hanoi

The good news about our flight on China Airlines is that it took off on time from Los Angeles as scheduled at 1:15 AM bound for Hanoi via Taipei. The bad news is that our economy class seats were maybe the worst we’ve ever experienced. I kept hitting the recline button and thinking, “this thing must go farther back.” We have hundreds of thousands of frequent flyer miles but never seem to be able to get our act together far enough in advance to score some business class seats.

Getting through immigration and customs at the airport in Hanoi was a breeze. If you’ve prearranged your visa approval, as we did, look to your left and behind you as you come down the stairs to the immigration area and you’ll see the “Visa on Arrival” counter. We handed over one photo each along with our approval letter and, before we could finish filling out the one-page form they gave us, they’d already finished processing the visas and stamped our passports. As we passed through immigration, the young official was at first baffled and then seemingly amused by my attempt to say “thank you” in Vietnamese. We will definitely be working on our pronunciation of some key phrases, as I’ve found, as I’m sure most of you have, that attempts—no matter how horrendous—to say hello, please, thank you, and the like are much appreciated in whatever country we find ourselves in.

The car we’d arranged through Tonkin was waiting for us, a large SUV with plenty of room for us and our luggage. It seemed completely worth the premium price Tonkin charged ($25) versus arranging a taxi on our own in our sleep-deprived state. We stopped at Tonkin on the way to the Metropole to pay the balance of our bill, which took just a few minutes. A highlight of the ride was watching the driver, who seemed to have missed the turn-off for Tonkin’s office, first attempt to back up in traffic and then instead execute a three-point turn in the middle of the highway directly into the oncoming traffic. Our first introduction to the exhilarating style of driving they do in Hanoi. The driver had some trouble finding the Opera wing entrance to the Metropole but, after a couple of times around the block (and another “Let-me-see-if-I-can-back-up-into-the-traffic” move), I spotted it and pointed it out to him.

The Metropole: there is not much to add. People on this forum are quite familiar with it. We do not usually go for the 5-star experience, but my wife was especially interested in staying at this historic hotel. Once we made that decision, it was easy to talk ourselves into a Grand Premium room on the Club level. It’s a lovely place and having the Club Lounge right down the hall is very convenient. With its fantastic breakfast buffet and afternoon tea (which includes another buffet of sweets and savories) and the early evening cocktail hour (with yet another buffet), one might be tempted to never leave to explore Hanoi’s other food choices. But, then one would be a fool, n’est pas?

To be frank, the Grand Premium room was a little disappointing size-wise. And the layout is strange. The bathroom is completely open to the bedroom (although there is a separate toilet “stall”). When you sit in bed, you are staring at the sinks, tub and shower. As my son put it: “This is a very luxurious room, but it isn’t very practical.”

After checking in (our room was available for an early check-in), we decided to immediately go on an eating adventure (no fools we). We taxi’d to Ca Cha La Vong in the Old Quarter where the reception was not exactly friendly but the food was good and fun. Only one dish is served and it’s fish (monkfish, I believe), cut into small pieces and presented in a small pan cooking over a charcoal brazier that’s brought to the table. The waiter dumps a pile of fresh herbs including dill, which one doesn’t necessarily associate with Vietnamese cuisine), into the pan and after the mixture cooks a bit, you put some cold rice noodles in your bowl, add the fish, top it with some spicy vinegar sauce and some roasted peanuts. Eat and repeat. Periodically, someone will come over and dump some more herbs in your fish pan, thus stretching your fish supply for another several bowls worth of noodles. Finally, the server consolidates all our remaining noodles into the fish pan to soak up the last bits of fish and herb-stained oil. Total cost for 3 along with bottled water: 393,000 dong or about $20 at today’s rate.

After our late lunch, we decided to walk home through the Old Quarter (testing our “just-plunge-into-the-traffic-and-keep-on-walking” skills) and then along Hoan Kiem Lake, stopping for some ice cream at the famous Fanny’s and eventually winding up back at the Metropole. My wife decided to do some laps in the pool in an attempt to stave off the effects of jet lag. And later we all decided to make a meal of the hors d’oeuvres at the Club Lounge happy hour. An evening walk around the lake and by 8:00 we could fight it no longer and were all fast asleep, dreaming of dill-infused fish and hordes of Hanoi motorbikes.

marya_

Great start. Looking forward to more.

Kathie

I always love a good trip report! Keep it coming!

Craig

Very, very prompt and a nice beginning. More, please.

dgunbug

Looking forward to the rest.

zainib

We're back home now having had a great time on our two-week trip. Keeping up with the report "live" proved to be a little harder than I thought. But, I took notes, so let's get started.

Day 2-“The Kids are All Right”

Our Hanoi Kids guide “Thao” met us in the lobby in the morning and we were off to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum where we ran into hundreds and hundreds of kids. It was apparently a school holiday of some sort and seemingly every child in the city was there to pay respects to their Uncle Ho. Thao attempted to talk our way into the middle of the line to no avail. So, we decided to postpone our encounter with Ho himself to another morning and go straight to the HCM Museum. The museum is not chock-full of must see items, but the upper floor has some interesting exhibits, including a copy of the signature page from the Paris Accord signed on behalf of the United States by…no, not Henry Kissinger, but then Secretary of State William Rogers.

Thao is a fourth year student at Hanoi University studying business. She is from Haiphong City and is the first in her family to go to college. She told us that her 70-year old grandfather was a soldier in the American War and fought in the south. We hit the Temple of Literature and then headed to Quan An Ngon for lunch. I had suggested another seafood place we had read about, but Thao steered us to Quan An Ngon, which was fine, as it was also on our list to try. But it does seem that HK is getting a little formulaic. We had written asking to include the food market on Hang Be Street on our itinerary for the day, but Thao insisted that there was very little there to see and took us instead to the Dong Xuan Market in the Old Quarter. We found it completely boring—stall after stall of ordinary household items and touristic tchotkes. We walked around the Old Quarter, which wasn’t boring, but all of us, Thao included, were starting to fade and so, after stopping for a look at a typical old merchant’s house, we headed back to the Metropole.

We enjoyed our day with Thao. If you want to wind up at the end of the day knowing the exact date Ho addressed the masses and made his declaration of independence, then hire a guide or bring along a good guidebook. But, if you want to have a bit of a cultural exchange and spend a little time with a “real person,” then I highly recommend the Hanoi Kids experience.

Quan An Ngon restaurant was very crowded and the menu is a bit overwhelming. It’s a good way to experience a broad range of Vietnamese specialties but, as we will learn later, the quality of the dishes just doesn’t match up to what you can get at the stalls and stands in the Old Quarter. The bill for the four of us for about 5 dishes plus various fruit drinks came to 300,000 dong ($16).

After resting up at the Metropole (and partaking in some of the afternoon tea sweets and snacks), we headed out in search of Bun Cha for dinner. Alas, Dac Kim, the place recommended so often on this forum and in many guidebooks as well was just closing up when we got there. Too tired to start searching for another place, we dropped in on Pho 24 near the south end of Hoan Kiem Lake, part of a chain. The pho was fine, but it made us appreciate the quality of our own local Los Angeles place, which is far superior to Pho 24. Of course, eating at a chain pho place in Hanoi is like visiting New Haven in search of some great pizza and eating at Domino’s instead of one of the places on Wooster Square and wondering what all the fuss is about.

Kristina

zainib-Hey, thanks for the shout out. I missed this report when you first posted it.
It does sound like the Hanoi Kids are getting a bit formulaic. I agree that the Dong Xuan market was boring. We went on our own and kept looking for something of interest there. never found it. And I thought Quan An Ngon was only "ok" certainly not the best food we had in Hanoi.
Hope you made it to the Hang Be market!

zainib

We did. Stay tuned.

zainib

Day 3-Our visit to Uncle Ho-Take 2

After another Metropole breakfast buffet in the club, we set off for the Mausoleum. Upon arriving, it was quickly apparent that “Every School Child in Vietnam Visits Uncle Ho Day” was apparently a two-day event and still going on. This time, we joined the long line, which seemed to be moving quickly. We found ourselves in the middle of two school groups and got a kick out of some of the kids who tried out their English on us, which mostly consisted of saying “Hello” enthusiastically. This continued with another group who had spotted us behind them and started yelling out “Hellos” across the parking lot While on line, we watched as some people crossed through the line and headed for a building near the final stretch up to the Mausoleum. Later, we watched as a large group left that building and headed straight for the Mausoleum bypassing the line. VIP’s we assumed. (I later read in a guidebook that foreigners who bring a passport with them to prove their “foreignness” can bypass the line, check in at the building we saw the people heading for, and be escorted directly to the Mausoleum. In this case, all foreigners are apparently VIP’s. I’m curious as to whether anyone on this forum has successfully used this method.)

The visit itself was, as many have previously reported, seemingly over before it started. Our son, who is a sensitive type, deemed the whole idea of seeing a dead body “creepy,” and refused to look as we shuffled through the small room. I myself actually found it pretty interesting and am now intrigued to see Mao and Lenin to complete the troika. By the way, are these the only leaders of countries whose bodies have been preserved and put on public display? I can’t think of any others—the Egyptian pharaohs don’t count since I don’t think anyone (except perhaps in the after-life) was supposed to see them.

At the start of the line, I had left our bags at the check station and received a claim check. And later, there was a separate check station just for cameras. Exiting the Mausoleum, there was another stand where the cameras had been transported ready for pick-up. Very efficient. But where were our bags? No official seemed to know, each one vaguely pointing in various directions. Eventually, we figured out that we would have to retrace our steps back to the beginning of the line where we had originally left them.

We hopped into a taxi (Thao had taught us the previous day to use only Mai Linh brand taxis to avoid rip-offs) and it was off to the Museum of Enthology or, as I would come to think of it, “The Land of a Thousand Hellos.” We started outside where there are a dozen examples of actual homes and other structures of the various ethnic peoples of Vietnam. The place was completely overrun with school children, though, and we had to rush ahead to get to see some of the buildings before they were “invaded.” At every turn, we were greeted by boisterous “hellos” from dozens and dozens of kids. At times, I began to feel like a rock star being accosted by his fans. At one point I clambered up a crude steep ladder to the entrance of the Bahner Communal House, and then realized that I was trapped, as a large class of kids had started making their way up the three ladders. While waiting for the traffic up the ladders to dissipate, I had this identical conversation with about a dozen of the kids:

Enthusiastic Eight-year old Vietnamese Kid: Hello
Me: Hello
EEYOVK: How are you?
Me: I am fine. How are you?
EEYOVK: I am fine. What is your name?
Me: My name is Rob. What is your name?
EEYOVK: My name is ______. Nice to meet you.
Me: Nice to meet you too.
EEYOVK: Goodbye
Me: Goodbye

The inside of the museum is equally interesting and, if we didn’t have a sullen 13-year old with us, I could have spent a lot more time exploring the very well laid-out exhibits.

The taxi sharks were waiting outside the entrance to the museum, and I resigned myself to getting ripped off on our ride back to “downtown” Hanoi. Sure enough, our taxi had a “hot” meter and the trip wound up costing much more than the trip there. Luckily, in Hanoi, “ripped off” means paying only a couple of dollars more than one should have.

We went directly from the museum to Dac Kim, the famous bun cha place. We are intrepid foodies, but I have to say that, had I not read positive reviews here and in some guidebooks, I never would have set foot in the place. I avoided watching the woman washing dishes in a tub next to the curb and all the other preparations going on and just headed straight upstairs for what wound up being our best meal in Hanoi. Bowl after bowl of rice noodles with slices of pork and little fried spring rolls, piles of fresh greens and herbs, pickled green mango (or maybe it was green papaya), and a tons of chopped raw garlic and hot red chiles. This was perhaps the first time I have seen my teenage boy completely full and there were still a bunch of spring rolls left on the plate that we just could not finish.

After lunch we walked around the Old Quarter, grateful for a bit of exercise after our bun cha bacchanal. Eventually, my wife and son decided to head back to the Metropole while I continued exploring and taking photos. At one point, I turned a corner and found myself at…the Hang Be street market. It was fantastic, stand after stand of live fish (and frogs and other living foodstuffs), dried fish, spices, fruits and vegetables, flowers, prepared foods, chickens (with heads and feet attached), and what looked suspiciously like half a bbq’d dog. Curiously, the stands are almost entirely manned (no pun intended) by women. It’s a picture-taking paradise and, in contrast to Dong Xuan yesterday, I was the only tourist around. The lanes between the stands are very narrow and every few minutes a motor scooter roared through. Even if you’re not as fascinated by local markets as we are, this small one is definitely worth a visit for a look at where the “real people” shop.

We were still way too full from the bun cha experience to go out to dinner, but the appetizers at the Metropole happy hour were too tempting, so those became dinner. Later we walked back up to the Old Quarter and stopped at a bia hoi stand. Without our asking, our son was immediately served a big glass of beer—apparently there isn’t a minimum drinking age in Hanoi. The beer is nothing to write home about, but you go for the experience of sitting on a tiny plastic stool on the sidewalk next to the street. Again, we were the only tourists there. We circled around the lake making another stop at Fanny’s for ice cream before heading “home” to the Metropole.

dgunbug

I'm taking notes and enjoying your report.

zainib

Day 4-In the Fiery Furnace

Today was our last day in Hanoi and we still had several items on our agenda, like the Water Puppets and the Hoa Lo prison. Plus, we wanted to try to squeeze in a meal at a “real” restaurant before getting on the train to Lao Cai in the evening. We had a little trouble juggling the schedule, especially since our Metropole butler said that they wouldn’t know until noon or 1:00 if they could get us tickets to the Water Puppets. While my wife got in some last laps in the Metropole pool (“nice but cold” she says), my son and I went for a walk through the Old Quarter to do some souvenir shopping. We are not big shoppers, but we do have one obsession—magnets! They are the perfect souvenir—cheap, easy to transport home, usually kitschy but sometimes clever, and ubiquitous. Except in Hanoi. The only ones we had seen thus far were badly reproduced photos slapped on a flexible magnet backing. But, finally, in one Old Quarter shop I spotted an acceptable plastic model featuring the Turtle Tower in the center of Hoan Kiem Lake. Keeping with the theme, my son found a small turtle made entirely of tightly folded paper in another shop. We also visited the Ngoc Son Temple on the northern shore of the lake, which we would rate a miss.

Back at the Metropole, we learned that we had tickets to the 3:30 Water Puppets show, so we decided to have lunch at La Badiane, which had been favorably reviewed in the NY Times and here on this forum. It’s located just down street from Quan An Ngon, and by the end of our meal, we wished we had gone back there. It was very hot, so we opted to sit inside rather than in the garden. Maybe that was a mistake because the room upstairs was charmless and we were the only diners there. Maybe the mistake was having lunch, rather than dinner. Or maybe it was the chef’s day off. In any event, the food was expensive (for Hanoi) and uninspired.

We had enough time before the puppets to visit the Hoa Lo prison, which was a short walk from the restaurant. The prison reminds you that, despite all the capitalist fervor, you’re still in a one-party country well-versed in propaganda. The theme of about 90% of the exhibits is “Look how horrible the French were to Vietnam’s freedom fighters,” including a guillotine, leg irons, and some truly horrendous solitary confinement cells that live up to the name of the prison, which translates to “Fiery Furnace.” The remaining 10% deal with the confinement of American POW’s and the theme seems to be: “Look at these American soldiers who happened to stop by for a visit; see them enjoying their volleyball games and decorating their rooms for Christmas.”

Our Club status had gotten us a late 4 pm check-out at the Metropole, so we returned to pack up before heading to the puppet show. Our plan was to leave some bags there while we visited Sapa, and the hotel was more than obliging, despite the fact that we wouldn’t be returning to stay at the hotel after Sapa.

Our puppet tickets were front row center, and the show was delightful. I particularly enjoyed the musical accompaniment; the musicians and singers seemed to really be engaged despite the many, many times they must have performed the same exact show.

We emerged from the theater into the Old Quarter and wandered around for a couple of hours, soaking up the “rush hour” vibe. As any of you who’ve visited know, Hanoi drivers are quick to lean on their horns, seemingly at random. But after some careful observations, I think I cracked the code of what the beeps really mean:

Three short beeps: “Hey, look at me. I’ve got a motor scooter. Wouldn’t Uncle Ho be proud?!”

Two short, one long: “How dare you slow down to avoid the car in front of you!”

One long, one short: “Isn’t that an extra inch of space I see in front of you? Please close that gap now!”

One short, one long, one short: “Don’t worry Mr. American Tourist. I’m not going to hit you. I just want to give you a scare.”

Our wanderings eventually led us to Bun Bo Nam Bo, another one-dish place you might hesitate to enter based simply on its appearance. Once again, we were in the world of cold rice noodles, this time with grilled beef and various accompaniments like sprouts, peanuts, and assorted greens. Cheap, delicious, and the perfect last meal before heading for the train to Sapa.

I had arranged our tickets on the Livitrans train through our hotel in Sapa (more about that later). We had to pick up the tickets at the Mango Hotel, which is adjacent to the train station. We had a little trouble finding the Livitrans desk, which we later learned had been moved from the lobby to a back patio after a competing train company bought the hotel. But, our tickets were there waiting for us, and the hotel had a convenient back entrance leading directly to the train platforms.

We had booked a four-person compartment for the three of us so we would have the extra room and the privacy. It was clean but far from luxurious and the beds were just short enough to prevent me from stretching out completely. Nevertheless, the air conditioning was on full-blast, and there was hot tea, bottles of water, wet naps, and four little sesame candy bars laid our for us on the table. We closed the compartment door and settled in for the night. I don’t know if I ever actually fell asleep, but around 2 am I was definitely up and sweating. The air conditioning was off and, confined in our compartment, I started to have visions of the solitary confinement cells at Hoa Lo. One of the supposed selling points of the Livitrans cars is that there is always an attendant on duty. I found her and mimed that it was too hot. Soon, I saw another employee with a wrench headed out the door of the railroad car. A bit of air conditioning eventually found its way through the vents, but it was pretty miserable the rest of the way. We were all feeling dirty and cranky when we arrived in Lao Cai at around 5 AM.

marya_

I love this -- the pitch perfect review of Hoa Lo, the accounts of repeated wandering around the Old Quarter, the multiple trips to Fanny's, the description of the regimentation at Bac Ho's mausoleum, the travails of traveling with a teen-aged boy who is less interested in museum labels, the delights of the food, and so on.

I haven't been to Sapa so look forward to traveling along with you.

rhkkmk

great reporting, thanks

Leslie_S

Enjoying your report!

Kathie

I'm also enjoying your report. I'm looking forward to more.

julia1

Great report. Love the detail. Looking forward to more. Thanks so much!

zainib

Thanks for the kind words. Sapa is coming soon!

Kristina

Great stuff. We also really enjoyed Bun Bo Nam Bo for the beef noodles.

zainib

Kristina- I think it was your report where I originally read about Bun Bo Nam Bo. So, thanks for the tip!

zainib

A long day and thus, a long entry...

Day 4 – “On and Off the Beaten Path”

Everyone who was awake in Lao Cai at 5 am appeared to have congregated at the train station. We drifted along with the crowd from the train and wound up in the scrum of people holding up signs for rides to Sapa. We had arranged for a private car to pick us up, and perhaps now would be a good time to talk about our hotel arrangements. After reading about the Topas Ecolodge here and on Tripadvisor, it sounded like an intriguing option. But, our plan was to stay two nights in Sapa and they only had one night available. They also advertised on their website an option to go on a “trek” immediately upon arriving in Sapa eventually making your way to a village close to the lodge whereupon a van would meet and transport you to the lodge. I figured we’d do that, stay one night, and then arrange a second night in town at another hotel. The hotel I chose for night #2 was the Thai Binh Sapa Hotel, a place that gets high marks on Tripadvisor and whose owner Nam Hong is especially lauded. Nam Hong is a former math teacher (now a governmental education official of some sort) who communicated by email very promptly. He suggested that instead of the Ecolodge trek, we come to his hotel after getting off the train and he would feed us breakfast (for $3 per person) and give us the use of one of his rooms for showering (at no charge). He’d hold our luggage for us while we went on a trek that he said would be superior to the one proposed by the Ecolodge and he would deliver our luggage and us to the Ecolodge at the end of the day. Tripadvisor commentators praised the guides he used, so I decided to go for it.

Back at the train station in Lao Cai, we looked in vain for our name among the many signs being held up by taxi and van drivers. We did find a sign for the van to Thai Binh Sapa hotel but our name wasn’t on their list. We decided to get on that van anyway and just as we were getting settled, I spotted another driver walking around the parking lot with a sign with our name on it. Missing driver problem solved, we switched over to his van and headed to Sapa.

Sapa was still asleep when we arrived at the Thai Binh Sapa. Nam was waiting for us in the cozy lobby, working on getting a fire going in the fireplace. The hotel has eight rooms, which are plainly furnished but very clean. The only deficiency in the place was the hot water in the shower—the heater was the on-demand type and didn’t always produce hot water when we demanded it. Still, it was great to have the opportunity to wash off the funk of the overnight railroad ride. Breakfast was eggs, ham, cucumbers and tomatoes, and a giant baguette. And our son was happy to also get a cup of hot chocolate. Around 9:00 in walked a tiny Black Hmong woman in her native dress. It was “Chi,” our guide for the day. While we waited for the van to arrive that would take us to the starting point for our hike, Chi took us on a short walk around town. We made special note of the food stands that were just getting ready to open around the corner from the hotel. Whole chickens turning on rotisseries, sweet potatoes and chestnuts on the grill along with assorted other meats. And, most exciting of all, little bamboo tubes that we knew must be filled with sticky rice, a favorite snack when we visited Chiang Mai two years ago.

The van dropped us about 15 minutes from town and we started our hike through fields and past the occasional water buffalo. There were a few other tourists around when we started but soon it was just the three of us and Chi. Somewhere along the way—I’m actually not at all sure when—two other Black Hmong women joined us. One was carrying a baby on her back and the other looked very young—we later learned she was just 13 years old. Although I knew that eventually they were going to want to sell us something, it actually was nice having them along. They would at times chat with Chi in the Hmong language and when we stopped after a couple of hours for a rest, we got to chat with them and play with the baby.

The hike was, in a word, fantastic. For most of the first half, we were the only non-local people out there. The views were amazing—terrace after terrace of rice paddies cascading down the slopes, picturesque scenes of farmers working the paddies with water buffalo, and occasional glimpses of everyday life in and around the local people’s homes. Chi had us going up and down and up and down all day. The trail was a well-trod one, basically serving as the road connecting farm to farm. We never seemed to actually enter a village proper, but Chi explained that each village actually sprawls out a great distance and all the farms within that area are considered part of the village. The weather was perfect—cool, a bit misty, but not raining. Hotter and the hiking would have been arduous (or I should say more arduous—this turned out to be quite a hike). At times, though, it was muddy and very slippery due to recent rains. I was amused by the fact that while I kept slipping in my fancy Keen hiking shoes, Chi was steady as a rock in her cheap plastic backless shoes.

We eventually wound up at a sort of general store where other groups of hikers also were arriving. Chi went in to make our lunch for us while our two “feeder fish” Hmong hikers gently asked us if we’d buy some things from them. The sell was not hard at all, and we’d come to enjoy their company. Although the quality of their indigo dyed items was not the greatest, we bought a few pillowcases. Later, while we were inside eating, the 13-year old came in with a small, woven bracelet to give us. No charge, she said as she bid us farewell. She seemed to take some delight in being able to give us this gift.

Lunch was virtually identical to breakfast. Scrambled eggs, ham, cucumbers and tomatoes, and baguettes along with some Asian pears and mandarin segments for dessert. We made use of what I called “the ugliest bathroom with the most beautiful view in the world,” essentially a makeshift shack with a hole in the ground. But, along with its view, it’s also the only one I’ve ever encountered whose “flusher mechanism” (i.e., a bucket of water) is fed by natural spring water!

The second half of the hike took us to places a little less remote. We were starting to see other tourists along the way. At one point we stopped at a school that was clearly set up for a steady stream of visitors. At another, a house where indigo dying was demonstrated. But, Chi would often give us the option of shifting to a different trail to avoid the crowds. One of those trails led virtually straight up the slope where we eventually encountered a beautiful set of terraced rice paddies that looked like they had been recently constructed. Chi explained that this was her brother’s new house and she took us to meet her sister-in-law and her little nephews.

Chi was an interesting character. She’d been guiding people for two or so years and said that she had learned English entirely from her encounters with tourists. She’d never been to school—the Hmong people don’t have their own schools. The ones they do have now are built and run by the Vietnamese government. She told us she was 28 years old, but the truth is that she looked much older. She had recently gotten married, later than most Hmong women, she said. She had also left her family’s village to live in her husband’s village. The Hmong tradition is that the oldest son leaves the family home when he gets married; the youngest stays to take care of his parents. She had evidently married a youngest son because she was now living with her in-laws.

Chi’s English was far from perfect. She was not a font of facts and figures. But, like with the Hanoi Kids, the experience was more of a cultural exchange, and she was a delight to spend the day with. We didn’t get to go inside her brother’s house, but we did sit outside for a while with her sister-in-law and the kids, enjoying the views and the boys’ antics. Most of our encounters during the course of the day were with Black Hmong people, but we also visited a Red Dao village and encountered some Tay people as well.

At around 3:30 pm, we met up with our van and it was then about a 45 minute ride to the Topas Ecolodge. We were exhausted and our shoes and clothes were spattered with mud. But, this day wound up being one of the highlights of our entire trip.

The Ecolodge was, unfortunately, not a highlight. Yes, the setting is wonderful—high atop a mountain with great views of terraces all around. But, those views were no better (and actually a little less stunning) than what we had seen on our trek. And whether you’ll actually get to see the views is questionable (more about this later). The more we got to know the place, the more we realized that calling yourself an “ecolodge” covers a host of sins. First, there are the cabins themselves. Plain boxes, very simply furnished. But, it’s an “ecolodge” so you shouldn’t be expecting luxury. The hot water is solar heated and comes in at a slow dribble. The cold is pressurized and comes in fast. So, setting the right temp for a shower requires the dexterity of a safe cracker as you dial in just the right combination of low pressure hot and high pressure cold. A millimeter off and you’re either scalded (those solar heaters really work!) or frozen. But, you’re in an ecolodge, so please accept our apologies if you have trouble taking a shower. The hotel guidebook cautions that, because they hire local people without any experience, you shouldn’t be expecting the best of service. But, at a room rate almost five times what we’d be paying in town the next night, the service should have been top-notch (don’t they train their workers?). We’d only been provided with two sets of towels and when I asked for another set, I was told that the manager was gone for the night (this was at around 6:30 pm) and the linen closet was locked. The food is expensive, not very tasty, and impossible to avoid since it’s an hour-long ride each way to town, assuming you can get a driver to come up to get you.

But, with all its shortcomings, the place couldn’t erase the effects of our great day of hiking with Chi.