Category: Asia

Last day of Vietnam and lots of travel to  get home! We started the day super, super early so that we could get one last day trip in before our flight home.

We woke up some time around 5am so that our guide Thao could pick us up at 5:35am. I was bummed to go without our lovely hotel breakfast, but sacrifices must be made! We loaded into a small van, the first passengers, and proceeded to pick up a Welsh couple and an Iranian family with a little boy.

The destination was My Son sanctuary, a series of temple and building ruins from an ancient people with spiritual resemblance to Hinduism. We arrived hours before the ruins officially opened, just after sunrise, so we had the whole place to ourselves. It was beautiful and quiet.

Okay, well, the Iranian boy was not quiet, and he was only interested in climbing on the temples and ruins (not allowed!), but I thought he was cute. At one point he found something interesting on the ground and called out, “Eh-rrr-lee-bo-dy! Eh-rrr-lee-bo-dy!” as he beckoned us excitedly to him. I was the only one to look. I think it was some bugs, haha.

And speaking of bugs, the cicadas were out! Here’s a molted skin that our guide tried to get us to hold. (No, thanks!)

There was an interesting conglomeration of stones making up the buildings – some original, some attempted restorations from various periods of history. The fascinating thing was that the original stones actually looked the newest because the techniques used then were so much more robust.

Some of the buildings could be entered, but it was a little scary inside with no lights!

The whole compound was extremely beautiful, and I’m really glad we visited.

After the tour, we wandered back and were driven to a little spot where we had some noodle lunch (yummy but very greasy!).

Then we had a couple hours to kill back at the hotel, but check-out time had passed, so we lounged by the pool with our last set of cheap, yummy cocktails.

My biggest regret from Hoi An was not swimming in this pool! It actually started pouring rain after a while, which only made me want to swim more since it was still so warm outside. I did dip my toes in, though!

It was time to make moves, though – moves to downtown Hoi An for a visit to the hospital to get a pre-flight Covid test. ‘Twas quite stressful trying to get the test sorted out because our time window between testing and flying was only 24 hours, and it was a big Vietnamese holiday, so everybody’s hours were strange. The test went off without a hitch, though! Both negative! Phew! Sean accidentally cramped his shoulder because he tensed up so much when the nurse administered his test.

We then had a fairly frustrating last few hours in Vietnam spearheaded by our driver who had taken us to Hoi An from the airport. I really regret giving him my phone number! Why did I agree to that?!

He started messaging and calling us at 10am even though we didn’t have our flight until the evening. Finally, I was so bothered by being bothered that I just told him he could take us to the city we’d be flying out of – Da Nang. We were starving, and the day ended up gorgeous, but he had booked a hotel room for us somewhere in the city to nap. I don’t know, man, it was all very strange.

We passed by some beautiful beaches filled with kites, and so many times, I wanted to just shout, “Actually, let us off here! We don’t need the hotel!” I wish I had, but I was so confused and tired that I was just going on auto-pilot.

He dropped us off at a hotel that his wife worked at (I tell ya, the tourism industry is so intertwined!), and it ended up being a pretty lackluster and sketchy hotel. The bathroom wall was leaking yellow water, our key card didn’t work in our room, etc. Very frustrating. All I wanted to do was eat something and take a nap on the beach, but it felt like we had to nap in the hotel so as not to waste the money. So strange. Big regrets!

We did manage to get a nap in, but it didn’t help much since we were so tired. We stumbled outside and around the corner to a giant seafood restaurant for dinner. The entire center of the restaurant was filled with tanks where you could choose your own fresh seafood, live and ready for the pickings.

We ordered a seafood noodle dish and oyster congee, and boy, did our eyes bug out of our heads when the congee was delivered! The bowl was huge!

The waiter was confused that we were so shocked. “So big!” I said, and he replied, “No, it’s small!” Lol, what??

Both dishes were yummy. We then got our last strange taxi ride, across the famous Dragon Bridge, and to the airport.

Our flight ended up leaving very late, and I cried in the airport because our layover in Hanoi was only two hours long. I was sure we would miss our flight to Seoul and that we’d have to buy new tickets, and it was all my fault because I hadn’t planned for a longer layover in case something like this happened.

Sean tried to console me, but I was pretty inconsolable. We were also waiting in an area surrounded by massage chairs that kept telling the people sitting in them to pay or leave. It was not a great time.

We left around an hour and a half late, and we sat in an emergency exit row at the front of the plane. We tried some really sketchy airplane food (bad idea), and then explained our predicament to a flight attendant. His eyes widened when we told him the departure time of our next flight, and he helped us disembark the plane first.

WE RAN through that airport, but we actually had to exit the building and run to a completely different terminal for the international flights. It was probably a five minute run with our bags, and my body was not happy about it. When we got to the desk agents, we then had to do a Covid test verification and visa verification, and man, was it stressful. Everybody else was so calm, and finally, they assured us we would make our flight.

Turns out the big Vietnamese holiday was causing delays all over the country, so our flight to Seoul was also delayed. I was so relieved.

I ended up feeling super nauseous on the five hour flight to Seoul, and Sean was sitting in the row behind me instead of next to me, which sucked. I spent over half an hour on my knees in the airplane bathroom. Not a fun experience, let me tell you. And the poor girl next to me was probably terrified because I kept taking off my mask and bending over my sick bag. I never did puke, but it was like a terrible dance for five long hours. It was also fun trying to explain “nausea” to the Korean flight attendants. (I resorted to miming, and that got the idea across pretty quickly.)

This day was capped off with ten hours in the Seoul airport, because it turned out South Korea had different testing requirements than the US, so we were not permitted to leave the airport. Foiled again!!! This day, man.

It was probably for the best though, since I was still recovering from my nausea. We napped in various resting areas of the airport, shopped around a bit, ate a bunch of snacks, and saw a little traditional dance performance.

The flight back to Seattle was much nicer and less nauseating. Asiana’s meals were also much more delightful than the scary food we’d had on that first domestic flight.

All in all, this day was so long and eventful. And boy was it nice to get home!

Thank you Vietnam for a lovely trip. (No thanks for the nausea at the end.) You were just as beautiful as I’d hoped!

Trân trọng/ best regards,

Lizzy-wa

Ah, the last stop in Vietnam! We had planned three days in Danang/ Hoi An to round off our trip, and though we didn’t really spend any time in Danang in the end, Hoi An was really, really lovely.

When we departed our Halong Bay tour on Wednesday, our guide Tiger set us up with a taxi straight to the Cat Bi airport. He had a panic when he first thought we were flying out of the Hanoi airport, which was too far away to make our flight time. Hooray for advanced planning!

At the Danang airport, as we searched our ride apps for a driver, a random gentleman approached us and told us he would drive us for the same price. Strange.

He was quite a friendly gentleman, and he wanted to give us all kinds of recommendations. It was about a forty-minute drive to our stay in Hoi An, and he made sure to call our reception to tell them we were arriving. The only catch was that he wanted to drive us back to the airport at the end of our stay and insisted on swapping phone numbers. I would later come to regret this exchange, but Sean was a fan.

After the relentless scootering and honking of Hanoi Old Town, the silent streets in the outskirts of Hoi An were soooo refreshing. Our hotel was a sort of bungalow villa, and the check-in staff were so sweet.

It didn’t take us long to conk out for the night.

Something about the bungalow vibe, the heat, the mosquitos, and the quiet surroundings had us moving sloooow in the morning. We barely made it out of our room to get breakfast at ten, but I’m sure glad we did! The spread was so yummy!

Sean wasn’t as into the breakfast me, but I was pretty much in full bliss-mode. Passion fruit, congee, shumai, sweet potato, and some local dishes. YUM.

The Vietnamese coffee here was so rich it was almost like a syrup. It tasted divine, but we both had our fair share of bathroom trips afterward…. Bahahaha.

I didn’t mind the lazy pace. Just look at this place! There was a swinging bed on our back porch facing the pond!

I also made a point of booking a room with an outdoor bathtub because it looked heavenly, but the mosquitos were so bad that I never dared to test it out. Sad.

After a very lazy morning, we played some pool by the pool (I think I won?), and then we finally dragged ourselves out onto our hotel’s free bicycles. Sean had heard about some rice paddies in town, so we went on a little adventure.

It was so pretty! We’d heard the rice plants turn a beautiful golden yellow when they are ready for harvesting, and it was so fun to see it in person.

We pedaled along as the rice swayed in the wind. Different fields were at different stages – some this golden color ready for harvest, others bright green with new life, and some were being burned to make way for the next round of planting.

It was a little precarious navigating the small paths sometimes, and we were almost bowled over by a little truck one time, but the truck driver and its passengers seemed unconcerned and unphased! We have very different car-to-bike comfort distances, haha.

We stopped in at Tra Que Village for lunch. I was skeptical of Sean’s choice in lunch spot because it had a funny name (Baby Mustard), but boy was I glad he was in charge today! We almost left because we couldn’t find anybody around at first, but just as we were heading back to our bikes, a man wandered out and assured us lunch was on.

We felt compelled to order the “Secret Drink” off the menu, and I was honestly sad we didn’t just order three of these – passionfruit deliciousness! We also got watermelon juice, Banh Xeo (a local dish), and stir fry. It was all sooooo yummy. The Banh Xeo was one of the tastiest dishes we had on our whole trip, despite its simple appearance!

Positively delighted and stuffed, we mounted our bikes and headed to the beach. We passed tarps and tarps full of drying rice in the streets. Quite a funny sight.

The beach was nice and breezy.

At the end of our beach walk, I asked a man at a beachside cafe if I could use their toilet.

“Yes, yes, free toilet. Free chair. Free water!” said the smiley man.

“Free drinks?” Sean asked with a smile.

“Aaaaaaahh!!” The man laughed, pointing at Sean. (That was a no, lol.)

When I came back from the restroom, though, I laughed as I found Sean lying in a chair with his feet propped up and a beer in his hand.

On our ride home, we stopped for a taiyaki snack (a fish-shaped waffle filled with chocolate!), and some bubble tea.

This was just an appetizer, really. After a (somewhat scary) ride home in the dark, we fought off some ants that had found some dirty clothes in our room (oops), and then headed to our hotel’s restaurant for dinner.

I ordered Cao Lau, a local noodle dish, and Sean ordered a curry dish. Both were so yummy, but the Cao Lau took the cake on this one! We paired our dinner with some delicious and super cheap cocktails. Gotta love cheap cocktails.

In the morning, we had another yummy breakfast and took it easy on the Vietnamese coffee.

A shuttle bus took us into town, and we were immediately scooped up by a lady who wanted us to shop with her. Hoi An is famous for its many tailors and clothing makers, and we were whisked away into a cavernous warehouse of fabrics and samples. I looked at a design book and thought about getting a dress, but in the end, I decided it was too much pressure to buy something before being able to see it and try it on. The fabrics were very pretty, though.

I was in heaven in the fruit market. So many colors! So many fruits! Long, skinny watermelons! So many things I hadn’t tried before! I picked up a nice sampling to snack on as we walked. I was especially excited about the lychee, rambutan, and longans. Lychee is one of my favorite fruits, but I’m allergic, so I had to eat these very slowly!

Hoi An Old Town was a delightful walk, despite the heat. It was also super dangerous for shopping. (Not safety dangerous – just dangerous in that we were blowing through all our cash, tehehe.)

The heat was killer, too. We paused for some tea, and Sean expertly modeled one of my new scarves.

Our late lunch was a smattering of brunch items – I got a smoothie bowl and Sean got some avocado toast. I got some of the café’s homemade Greek yogurt on the side, and Sean tried a blended peanut butter coffee with was to die for.

I think after that, we went back to the hotel for a nap, but we wanted to venture out again to explore Hoi An Old Town by night.

We started by visiting a famous banh mi shop. The little shop was busy, but the line moved quickly, and we were ushered to a table. The sandwiches were so yummy! I can’t with the food here. All just so cheap and so delicious.

Hoi An by night was even more bustling than it was during the day, probably because people were more willing to be outside once the heat had dwindled.

The night market stalls, paper lanterns, and lights over the river were all so mesmerizing.

At one point, we stumbled across a joyous musical event that ended up being a sort of bingo game! The two narrators were singing constantly the whole time while people held up paddles when symbols matched their card, and ladies walked around handing out little flags. I believe three flags was a winner. It was quite a spectacle. We snacked on a frozen treat while we watched.

Sean had several awkward encounters were market salesman. One of them continuously dropped the price of a pair of earrings Sean had decided he didn’t want to buy, and then he looked so sad as we walked away. Another man had these cool flying gadgets that Sean was legitimately considering buying, but we wanted to walk around first and not carry it the whole evening. We tried to explain this to him, but as we walked away, he shouted, “You lie! LIAR!”

It was crazy. I mean, it was pretty funny, but poor Sean, haha. We were kind of scared to go back at that point, so I guess he called out a self-fulfilling prophecy.

We capped off our night with a romantic little boat ride on the water as the whole town wound down.

Such a fun couple of days! I’ll finish off the trip in the next blog.

Trân trọng/ best regards,

Lizzy-wa

Hi friends!

Last we talked, Sean and I had just boarded a bus from Sapa back to Hanoi. We had to do a bunch of finagling to even get onto this bus, but we made it in the end. It’s strange how interconnected the tourist business is. Everyone seems to be in cahoots with everyone else. Luckily, this generally worked to our advantage, since everybody wanted to make sure we were taken care of.

I was surprised there were none of the same people on this bus as had been on our first trip, but there were no familiar faces. We were both on the “bottom shelf” this time, to my dismay. I only took one picture on this ride, of Sean passed-out with the help of a creative blindfold, but I’ve been asked not to post it. Bahahaha.

If you read the first Sapa post, you’ll remember that our first night bus took extra long stops so that we wouldn’t arrive in Sapa until 6am. By the time we got to Sapa, the city was alive (even though we were not), cafes were open, the sun was up, and people were bustling around.

Well, on this bus, there was no such stopping. We paused one time for a bathroom break, and then we were suddenly booted from the bus at four in the morning, in pitch darkness, far from the city center. It was very disorienting. We had to transfer onto a smaller van-bus, and then we were plopped in the middle of Old Town around 4:30, still in pitch blackness, and with nobody around. We were TIRED. All we wanted to do was sleep, but literally nothing was open.

We wandered for a long time, were bitten by several mosquitos, and followed several misleading Google reports of hotels with 24-hour reception. We were starting to become cranky and hostile. It was less than pleasant.

On our way to a supposed 24-hour café around 5:30, we stumbled upon a motel with several tired staff members in the entryway. They all jumped up as we approached and quickly found a room for us. We chose the 2-hour rental option. Bahahaha. Sketchy.

I fell asleep pretty much instantly, but Sean spent a bit more time trying to get cleaned up. When his alarm went off after two hours, we had quite the dispute on whether we should stay longer (my vote) or not (his). We finally decided to stay and sleep a little longer, and I kid you not, five minutes after we reached this decision, the loudest thumping began right over our heads.

My top theories were 1) a giant was walking around in high-heels, or 2) there was something hard like shoes rolling around in a washing machine upstairs. Sean thought someone was trying to unclog a toilet. IDK what it really was, but it lasted solidly for the next hour, making sleep entirely impossible, though the whole situation was very comical.

When we’d had enough of the silly noise, we packed up and headed out for some delicious chocolate buns by the lake.

And then it was off to a real hotel to check in for the day and night. We had landed on a hotel which had super kindly held our belongings for our day trip to Ninh Binh, even though we weren’t guests there. We decided actually staying there was a decent way to repay them.

We hadn’t originally planned on spending this day back in Hanoi, so we didn’t really have much else we wanted to accomplish here. I fell back asleep pretty much right away, and Sean followed soon after.

When we awoke from our slumber and stumbled to a very late early-afternoon breakfast, we were delighted with the cocktails (good morning!) and brunch entrees.

After a lovely meal, we prepared ourselves to wander in the heat again. We walked the shops a bit and then walked around the lake in search of a famous water puppet theater, but it turned out they are only performing on the weekends right now due to decreased tourism. Bummer!

We had a little tiff over manicures (a long story) and then went back to the hotel for another nap. I tell ya, those short night buses are just not conducive to productive sleep patterns.

Our only other plans for the night were to go back to our brunch spot for live music. Sean set off earlier than me, and I joined just before the second artist. I believe she was either a Brit or a Kiwi, and she was living in Vietnam as an English teacher. Very cool!

Her set used a lot of cool effects on both her voice and her guitar. We rounded off the night with a bowl of goulash. Yum.

When we got back to the hotel, we had our laundry waiting for us, all folded and packed up! So cute!

The receptionist also asked us a series of questions that he likes to ask all tourists: first book you can think of, first song you can think of, and first movie you can think of. We had just been talking about Air Bud, that movie where the dog learns football, so that was all I could think of at the moment. Lol. Sean did most of the answering.

In the morning, we were up bright and early again for another day trip. We stopped for some breakfast pho around the corner, and Google Translate did a lovely job of helping us out with the menu. There were about ten different kinds of pho, and Google provided us with ten lines of “Noodle Soup.” Ha.

When we boarded the bus, our tour guide introduced himself, but I missed his name because he immediately followed this up with, “Or, you can call me my nickname – Tiger.” I thought this was supposed to be some kind of funny macho-man joke, but he continued: “Some people say that when I have a hat, I look like the famous golfer.” Again, I thought this was just a joke, until Sean said, “Woah, he kind of does!” I looked again, and I kid you not – this guy was a Vietnamese Tiger Woods. Bahahahaha. I wish I’d gotten a picture.

We had a two hour bus ride before arriving at the port to the famous Halong Bay. Traffic was minimal on the drive, so we had time to mill about the port lobby before our boat left. I walked across the street to the restroom as our departure time approached, and when I was making my way back inside the port hall, I heard a surprised, “Elizabeth?” from behind me.

I turned around and saw none other than Handsome! Our tour guide to Ninh Binh several days before! Ha! 

“What are you doing here?” he asked, a huge smile on his face. I told him we were off to see Halong Bay, and he told me he had just finished a 7am tour of the same. He really wanted to shake my hand, but it was wet from having just washed it. “It’s okay,” he said, and squeezed tight. “Bye, bye!” he yelled, waving happily as he boarded his van to head back to Hanoi.

When I met back up with Sean to board the boat, I said, “You’ll never guess who I just saw.” He was confused. “Handsome!”

It’s not every day you hear your name called with excited recognition in the middle of a foreign country. It’s happened to me a few times, and it sends me smiling every time!

On the boat, we were served a slightly underwhelming seafood lunch, and then we had plenty of time to marvel at the gorgeous views around us.

Our first stop was Ti Top Island. I was really hoping to swim, but the water wasn’t the loveliest, and Sean wanted to do the hike, so hike we did! No regrets. The view from the top was spectacular!

This is Sean’s preferred picture participation style:

Lol. While we waited for our departure time, Sean successfully haggled for me for an adorable long-sleeve swimsuit. I even donned the top before our next outing.

We continued further into the bay before our next stop, where we had the choice between riding around on a boat or chartering our own little kayaks. We chose the kayak, and we paddled around a little alcove in the rocks. The water was soooo serene.

Unfortunately, I should have also donned the swim bottoms, because the kayaks were holding a lot of water. Here’s me modeling my wet butt:

Bahahaha. One of the guides assured us that this was “normal.”

As we puttered to our last stop, Sean exclaimed that there was a “little house” on top of one of the rock formations.

“Honey,” I said, “That’s the island we climbed like an hour ago.” Tehehehe.

Now, our last stop was by far my favorite part of the day. We were told we were seeing a cave, and I didn’t think much of it. We had been in and under several little caves, and I assumed this would be about the same.

But this was called Surprise Cave, and boy was it a surprise!

This place was massive! I couldn’t get over it! And every time we turned a corner, we’d see another cavernous section of cave!

Woah. I just realized cavernous and cave are almost certainly related linguistically, haha.

I was so obsessed with the cave that I kept telling Sean I was going to move in and find myself a cave boyfriend.

Here’s me trying (pretending) to climb a section of rock.

Tehe. Some of the patterns in the formations were so cool.

But, alas, we were eventually the last people in the cave, and we didn’t actually want to be left here to fend for ourselves.

We had a nice photo op. right outside the cave.

So cute. And we even saw a monkey as we boarded the boat!

We snacked on some rice pudding and took turns napping as we made the slow putter back to shore.

A lovely excursion, all in all. Off to the next town!

Trân trọng/ best regards,

Lizzy-wa

Time for day two in Sapa! Except today, we would be leaving the city.

We started with an amazing breakfast in the hotel.

The spread was so bountiful! And free espresso drinks on order! We each got a Vietnamese coffee, because “when in Rome….”

We were set to meet our guide at 9am at the church, so we did one last tour of the pretty hotel in the daylight before we left.

Then we checked out and high-tailed it to over to the church. We were quickly approached by a lady, but we shook our heads and continued on, until she said, “Maybe this is you?” She opened a paper with my full name on it (middle name included!) Haha. Awkward.

And we were off! Our guide’s name was Mimi, and she was super sweet. As we started our walk through the city, she asked about the receptionist who had connected her with us. “He’s my brother-in-law!” she said. Lol.

Once we left the city, we began our long descent along the side of the road leading away from Sapa. The views of the valley below us were spectacular.

One of the first things we saw once we entered the valley was a family of worker buffalos! Look at the babies!

The terraced rice fields were breathtaking. I’ve always wanted to see terrain like this, like Machu Picchu! It was so satisfying.

A couple hours into our hike, we crossed another group of trekkers: two Australian men and an entourage of local ladies. One of the men was a professional photographer, and he was guiding the other man on a travel photography expedition. Quite the trip! We chatted quite a bit and stopped for lunch together.

After lunch, the Australians got the ladies together to sing a song in the Hmong language. We had a whole studio set-up with lights and microphones. Sean was in charge of the static camera. I was in charge of saying, “action.” I actually cried a little because the song was so pretty, and one of the ladies had such a beautiful voice!

I was reluctant to continue our trek because it was so much nicer in the shade, but we had places to be and things to see!

Almost every house we passed had a dog or two. Mostly, they were lazing around in the shade, but their purpose was to guard the house and farm, so some of them were a little more on-edge. Several had puppies! One puppy we passed was super playful.

The mom was not, though! She was by far the most aggressive dog we passed. Mimi had to block her with a stick as we ran past the house. Scary!

At this point, we were off the paved trail. Mimi kept telling us how much the area has changed in the last decade. Ten years ago, the big hotels didn’t exist. Six years ago, the power lines were installed. And in the last two years, the first part of the trekking trail into the valley was paved. Before that, it was all dirt trails. This was Mimi’s first trek since the pandemic started, so she noticed that the trail had changed a lot.

Now, she said, we were going “the buffalo way.”

The buffalo way was muddier, but oh-so gorgeous.

It was also ridiculously hot out in the sun! At one point, I stopped in the middle of the road, stripped to my undies, and took off my under layers. I’d layered up to protect myself from mosquitos, but I still have no idea if all that work was overzealous.

Sean’s sunburn was also starting to show, especially on the back of his neck. Sunscreen only lasts as long as it takes to sweat it off.

“At the beginning,” Mimi said to me, “I look at you, so light, I think you be more tomato. But now he more tomato!” Lol. Only the tops of my ears got a little burnt outside my baseball hat. No color, either, just ouchy.

Okay, here’s some photo-dumping of the breathtaking rice paddies!

I truly couldn’t get over the views at every turn, and whenever I said it was beautiful, Mimi would smile and say, “For you!” Haha. She was saying that to her, this was just home.

Once we started our descent from the mountains back into the valley, I was ready to take a nap. It was so hot, and the hike was so long! About nine miles total. The very last bit of the trail was paved again, and very steep. My knees started acting up, so I took the paved bit backwards. Sean got a kick out of that.

We were so thankful to have had Mimi as our guide. It was nice to learn about the area. Kind of heartbreaking to hear how much the area has changed, though. I know that without the growth of tourism, this place would still be how she once knew it, but also, we probably wouldn’t have been able to visit! The increased wealth in the area has also led to some increases in living standards for the Hmong people. The song the ladies sang during lunch was about their kids being able to go to school now and all the progress that allows them.

It would be lovely to come back to Sapa some day and give back somehow. This was definitely my favorite stop on the trip.

We were all tired after our long day, so we said our goodbyes as Mimi put us in a taxi and waited for her husband to come pick her up. It was back to Sapa City for us.

We wandered around a bit, dazed and sweaty. We tried to find a place to eat dinner, but a lot of restaurants hadn’t reopened yet since tourism had just started picking up again.

Too tired to think, we ended up back at Hotel de la Coupole for dinner and mocktails.

The pho was sooooo good. Delicious broth! The noodles were wide and fresh, and I ordered the same sides as the day before because they were so yummy the first time. We were the only ones in the whole restaurant, and when we left and said thank you, we had ten smiling staff wave us off.

Time for our spa appointment!!!!

Unfortunately, the bathtub was way too hot. Even the lady who showed us the room was surprised. She turned on the cold water and left us to it, but we spent half our bath time just trying to get the water cooled down so we wouldn’t cook in the tub. Sean ditched early for a shower.

So the tea bath wasn’t as lovely as expected. Still an experience, though! And the massage!

We were asked ahead of time if there were any body parts we wanted the masseuse to focus on or avoid. I kind of wanted a foot focus since my feet were so tired after the hike, but I also didn’t want to give up any other areas. The foot massage was amaaaazing, but when my masseuse started the back massage, oh my! So good! This was only my second ever professional massage, and goodness! It really did make me wish I could get weekly massages!

I was a bit… surprised when… she straddled me! Lolol. Pretty sure that wouldn’t happen in the States. I confirmed afterwards with Sean that he, too, was straddled… Bahahahahaha.

After the shower, bath, and massage, I felt so relaxed and clean. So refreshed. It was time to bid farewell to Sapa as we spent another confusing hour trying to figure out which sleeper bus to be on, and then we were off again.

Trân trọng/ best regards,

Lizzy-wa

Let’s start where we left off: The Tall One and I had just made our way through the bustling night streets to our bus stop on the edge of Old Town.

It was close to 10pm at this point, and we did a bunch of weird hand waving as we tried to get our way onto what we think was the wrong bus going to the right place. In the end, we made it on. Check it out:

This was a double-decker sleeper bus with one lane of seats on each side and one on the center. Sean and I got top bunks. I got a window. ‘Twas surprisingly comfortable for me – less so for Sean. It was pretty clever, though. You pretty much have to lay supine, and your feet stick under the backrest of the person in front of you. Shoes must come off when boarding the bus.

We were headed to a quickly-growing city called Sapa, way north in Vietnam, just across from the Chinese border. It lies in the mountains and is famous for the beautiful terraced rice paddies.

What’s still very strange to me is that the night bus to Sapa is so common. The drive is barely five hours. While this is certainly a long drive, especially for quick trips to Vietnam, it really isn’t enough to justify an overnight. I mean, even if someone can magically fall fast asleep immediately and sleep like a log the entire drive, five hours just isn’t enough! And all the buses leave around ten, which puts you in Sapa around 4am after a couple bathroom breaks. It just doesn’t add up.

I was so tired after our day around Ninh Binh that I was truly dreading the trash sleep we were about to get. It was also frustrating knowing the first thing we were going to want to do when we arrived was to find a hotel with super early check-in so we could sleep more.

The bus took some extra long stops so that we didn’t arrive until 6am, which was nice, since at least the sun was up when we arrived. I peeled my eyes open briefly once I felt the bus climbing, and my eyes naturally sprung open the rest of the way at the shock of the beauty before me. More on that later, though!

As soon as we left the bus, we were approached by local ladies asking if we had a booking, how long we were staying, if we wanted to come to their homestay, and if we wanted to go trekking. The ladies were from local Hmong tribes, and they were dressed in traditional clothing. It was very neat to meet these ladies because I watched a short documentary on Hmong cooking methods and celebrations about a year ago! We assured each of them that we already had a booking (not true, but we had our hotel picked out), and that all we wanted to do right now was sleep. No trekking.

Some other silly things about the night bus – the toilet was non-functional, and there were no charging ports. Quite hard to recharge (physically and electronically!) under those conditions. The need to find a place to rest for a moment was even more pressing because we hadn’t done any research ahead of time on what to actually do in Sapa once we arrived. So we wandered in the general direction of our chosen accommodations.

We stopped at a little café with outdoor seating and charging ports for breakfast. Sean tried to get a Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk, but it came black on accident. I opted for the local Hmong tea and OH MY it was so delicious. Green tea with ginger, lemongrass, cinnamon, and honey. YUM. We also had some chocolate treats, and Sean had an omelette.

Slightly more rested and less panicky about our phones dying, we made the final walk to the hotel.

Hotel de la Coupole, aka the craziest, most opulent hotel I have ever seen in my life. I’d found it online, and though it was miles more expensive than the standard in Vietnam, it was still well below the average 3-star hotel price back home – just a little over $100 a night. I generally avoid hotels if I can because I find them boring and expensive, but this place seemed worth the splurge. Here’s a peek at the lobby:

Remember, it was still only 8am at this point, which meant early check-in. There was some confusion over the prices of the rooms available and the price online (online was cheaper), and early check-in was going to be another 50% of the room price. Very quickly, our ambitions to stay in this wondrous place were dashed. We resigned ourselves to the idea we’d had all along – that we just aren’t meant for the finer things.

We stepped outside (after having the door opened by several adorable doormen) and set to the interwebs to find an alternative. After a few minutes, a doorman approached us to ask if we needed a taxi. We mumbled our “no-thank-you’s” and walked further from the door so we wouldn’t be a nuisance.

More minutes passed, and then the doorman approached again, this time all the way at the end of the street. He told us we should come sit inside because it is more comfortable. We obliged, but it certainly felt strange! To be welcomed to relax in a hotel lobby after having just shunned them was not something I might have expected.

Even less expected was when a different doorman delivered two tiny cups of hot chocolate to us! While we were literally sitting there booking a room at a different hotel! What the heck?? Salt on the wound – the hot chocolate was delicious.

We guiltily finished the delicious chocolate and said our many thank-you’s as we left and went around the block to our new, very cheap hotel ($40/night). The hotel was on a pretty street strung with paper lanterns.

We had to wait a very long time in the lobby for some reason, but we were eventually notified that our room had been upgraded from our original booking and was ready for us. The view was spectacular.

I stayed on the balcony staring for a long time before retiring to the reclined lounge chair in the window. The room was quite large, with a sitting room, a bedroom, and a bathroom that had a fancy shower and a Japanese-style bidet toilet. After a shower and a proper toothbrushing, we passed the heck out for several hours.

We woke up hungry, and we’d already decided that if we couldn’t sleep in Hotel de la Coupole, we were at least going to eat there, if just to explore the halls.

We made our way back around the block for afternoon tea, but we were disoriented when we were led not to the café but to the cocktail bar on the tenth floor. We took the mistake as an opportunity to explore.

The pictures online did not lie, let me tell you.

So crazy! Every detail was interesting, thoughtful, and vibrant. And the scale of the thing was just mind-boggling itself.

The view wasn’t so bad, either.

We wanted to dink around up there some more, but we were also very hungry, so we asked for directions back to the café on the ground floor.

The afternoon tea came with a choice of beverage – Vietnamese coffee for Sean and hot chocolate with homemade marshmallows for me. Mmmmmmmmmmm….

Check out the spread! We didn’t even make it to the top tier and had to take those as leftovers.

The whole time we ate, we chatted about the wonder of this place and Sean researched online. Turns out it was built just before Covid hit (oof), and it had already won several awards for fine hotels in Vietnam and greater Asia. It was crazy, but we decided we couldn’t not stay here.

Immediately after tea, we headed back to the booking desk, this time with better knowledge of the price and without the early check-in fee. We were asked to sit and were given another round of tiny hot chocolates. “Same like this morning,” said the adorable doorman who probably thought we were the crazy ones. Nobody seemed concerned that we didn’t have luggage. They just showed us to our room and answered all our questions about trekking. One receptionist, Su, even offered to arrange a trekking tour for us with a knowledgeable local guide, and we accepted.

All in all, I think our first hotel had a bigger room with more amenities and a better view, but everything else about Hotel de la Coupole, especially the staff, service, and décor, was superior.

Already into the early afternoon, we decided today would be our treat-yoself rest day. Our only objective was to enjoy this crazy hotel. We took in our new room and new view, and then it was off to explore.

The hallways were beautifully decorated, and we found some hidden, unused ballrooms.

The bathrooms all used clean, rolled-up washcloths for hand-drying, which I was obsessed with! No pics, haha.

I will present you with far too many pictures of the crazy pool, though:

So beautiful….. So crazy….

We made plans to return for a swim later, and then we wandered into the spa, where the attendant lady insisted we sit down to peruse the spa menu. I obliged, though I could tell Sean was a bit caught off-guard. No turning back now, though, because another lady arrived with two cups of hot tea for us! Gah! It was just like the delicious Hmong tea I’d had that morning. Gingery and honey-ey and delicious. I was hooked.

I’d already been considering a massage, seeing as how they were about half the price of a similarly nice spa in the US. I’ve actually never had a massage in the states! Only once in Mexico on a random side street for $30. That was actually quite a funny story, but I haven’t written that blog yet. Whoops!

Another “menu item” that caught my eye was a bath in Red Dao healing herbs. I love a good bath. And bathing in tea??? Could I possibly pass this up? I just wished there was a package deal that combined the bath with the massage. Then all my dreams could come true.

AND BEHOLD. There was such a package! A couple’s package!!! Bahahaha. Poor Sean. There was no saying no to that one. We scheduled our appointment for the next evening and bid our farewells.

We felt rather guilty about two-timing our other hotel, and besides, we needed our swimsuits. So we moseyed back around the block to gather our belongings, check out, and enjoy the beautiful view one last time.

The paper lanterns lining the street had come to life as the sun set, but the mosquitos were also coming out to play, so we high-tailed it back to de la Coupole.

Time to swim! We had the pool all to ourselves, and half of the pool was bubbling with jets. Haha. So silly.

I didn’t get a great picture of it, but at the head of the pool was a bronze man diving in, and when I swam up underneath him and looked up, it was a pretty weird feeling – like he was about to dive right into my arms. I couldn’t help it. I spread my arms open for a hug and laughed at my hilarity. Sean was occupied elsewhere, so I had to demo again for him later.

After a good play, we lounged on the ridiculously plush lounge chairs to dry off. Another couple came in and the man took pictures of his lady friend posing near the pool in her swimsuit. What fun was missed!

Reluctantly, we headed upstairs to clean up, dress up as best we could, and head up to the tenth floor for dinner. Up, up, up.

I gotta say, dinner was a surreal experience. There was very much a “Be Our Guest” feel to the whole thing. There was only one other couple in the massive, decadent restaurant, and around ten staff members were tending to our needs. We ordered and were delighted to be presented with bread and fancy pairings while we waited for our food.

The bread, though delicious, was a mistake. We were about to experience yet another “less is more” lesson.

Yummy food! Sean ordered a lychee cocktail, and I ordered a shot (I thought it was a glass, okay?) of Hmong wine. The wine was strong – really just hard alcohol. Oops.

We ordered garlic-fried Hmong greens and sticky purple rice fried in bamboo shoots (my favorite!) for sides. Sean’s main was braised Sapa sturgeon in a clay pot. I don’t know why exactly, but I was super skeptical of his dinner choice. Turns out I should have trusted him. That fish was sooooo good. I ordered one of the chef’s specialties – duck with potato terrine and butternut squash. It was super tasty, but we were so full by the time they brought it out that we could barely enjoy it.

We weren’t able to finish all the food, so we took leftovers back to our room and hoped we’d have time to finish them at some point.

Sleepy, sleepy, we rested up for a big day ahead.

Trân trọng/ best regards,
Lizzy-wa

Goooood morning! I woke up bright and early again on our second day in Hanoi. In fact, I think it was actually still dark when I woke up. The jet lag is real.

I dinked around on my phone for a while and tried to go back to sleep, but no luck. Once we were well past sunrise and out of the mosquito zone, I tried out the delightful outdoor bathtub.

The uh… Hot water wasn’t working, haha. But it turned out to be really nice since it was so hot outside! I don’t think I’ve ever taken a cold bath, actually.

For breakfast we had these crazy donuts we’d bought the day before. Matcha, caramelized banana, boozy tiramisu, and blueberry cream.

Unfortunately, they looked better than they tasted. Sad… There was just so much sugar and topping and filling and…. Less is more. Less is more.

We recouped our losses by eating some DELICIOUS chocolate-filled buns from a shop on the corner. I can’t even describe how fluffy these buns were! ‘Twas cray. They were so fluffy that they got properly squished in the few minutes we were shuffling bags around to board our tour bus.

Doesn’t look super impressive, but I promise you the taste and texture was to die for. Don’t judge a book by its cover! And don’t judge a pastry by its appearance!

We had quite a fiasco trying to find our tour bus. We weren’t staying in a hotel, so we put a nearby hotel as our pickup point, and apparently the bus showed up early, checked with reception for us, and then left when they learned we weren’t staying there. Thank goodness I checked my email to see this announcement and was able to call the guide to come back for us.

We spread out in the back seat and attempted to nap while frequently getting our heads bumped on the ceiling. Poor Sean! He’s so tall, so the head bumps were extra aggressive for him.

I also continued to admire the crazy scooter culture of metropolitan Asia. One of the craziest sights for me was women riding side-saddle on the back, casually crossing their ankles so as to maintain their ladylikeness in skirts. Families of four were regularly observed on one motorcycle, and I finally saw my first family of five! Child, dad, child, child, mom. Makes you wonder – if you can fit five people on a motorcycle, how many can you fit in a sedan???

They also have a different app for ride sharing here called Grab. You can book a car, or…. You can book the backseat on a scooter! Cray cray.

Some pretty views as we approached our destination:

Our first stop was the Bai Dinh Temple. The pagodas and peekaboo views of a giant Buddha were pretty. It was super hot, though, so my energy was so low!

Shortly after beginning our tour, a tiny Vietnamese girl infiltrated our group with her mom and began asking people where they were from, practicing her clear, adorable English

It wasn’t long before she latched onto me! She said, “You’re very friendly!” several times, and I said the same to her. Her name was Chi, and she was five years old.

She walked with us as we meandered the halls and temples, sometimes hurrying to catch up. At one point, she asked where I was going. I said, “I don’t know. I’m following him,” pointing to Handsome. “He’s the boss.”

When I asked her the same question, her response was, “I’m following you!” Bahahahaha. That one got several chuckles from my nearby group mates.

I didn’t get much of the tour after this, because I was preoccupied chatting with Chi about all things. It was pretty adorable. As we lagged further and further behind the rest of my group, she noted, “I think your boss has a lot of energy!” I agreed.

A bit later, she asked about the boy we kept catching up to. “Is he your friend?” she asked.

“He’s my boyfriend,” I responded. She silently acknowledged this, and then giggled when I told him his name, confirming that, yes, Sean is a funny name. Tehehe.

At some point, I split off to find a restroom, a bit worried about finding the group as they continued on. When I returned, though, Chi was waiting off on the side of the courtyard and greeted me with a big wave. “We were waiting for you!” she announced. We set off with her mom in search of everyone else, as she told me about her older brother and her grandma. “Can you come to my house to play?” she asked. I told her I didn’t think I’d have time since I had to follow my group. We agreed that if I had any free time, I would come come over to play and meet her grandma. Too cute.

We finally caught sight of Sean. “Look! Your boyfriend is waiting for you! I think we should go fast!” We picked up the pace, and she noted, “I think your boyfriend has a lot of energy!” I agreed he had more than me.

So that was adorable. We said our farewells and she thanked me for talking with her in English. What a cute way to start the day.

Next stop was lunch, a smorgasbord of family-style local dishes. Was yummy! We ate at the French table.

Our second destination was Trang An.

We were here for a boat tour through some of the most gorgeous mountains and caves. We stuck with the Frenchmen again.

I’m just going to photo-dump here because it was so beautiful! Otherworldly, almost. We had a couple breaks on land interspersed by more boating.

Sean asked if I photoshopped his arm in this next photo because he looks so ripped. Bahahahaha.

The guides were all tiny older ladies, and I couldn’t believe they were able to row us along for nearly two hours. Toward the end of the tour, our guide handed us some paddles, and we all got tired after just a few minutes. Gotta work out.

On our way back to the bus, Sean saw a hat he liked and a had a great bartering moment. “Two hundred?” he asked hurriedly. “Fifty,” she said. Bahahahah. (That’s about $2 USD.)

Spoiler: we later lost the hat somewhere. I’m way more sad about it than he is.

Our last stop of the tour was Mua Cave.

I’m not sure why it’s called this since it was not a cave but a mountain we had to climb. We were rushed, too, because we’d taken too long on the boat ride! So. Many. Stairs.

But so worth the view!

You know I love a good view.

We were thoroughly exhausted at this point, so we celebrated with a popsicle and a lemonade before the long bus ride back to Hanoi.

I didn’t get many pictures of our evening back in town, but we wandered the night markets again and tasted our first banh mis in the city. So yummy! We regretted not getting the large size.

Also, I had a strange encounter with the Po-Po! I was sitting on one of the tiny chairs in front of the banh mi shop. I was watching our bags and being tired while Sean got the food. Someone tapped me on the back, and when I turned to look, he made the “get up” hand gesture. I thought he was a worker trying to tell me that I couldn’t sit without food, so I just awkwardly pointed at Sean. He tapped me and made the gesture again, so I got up, and he took my chair. Then I realized he was a police officer as he and several other officers repeated this gesture to everyone else around me, taking their tiny chairs and tiny tables. The other officers passed the chairs and tables around and somehow they disappeared. Then he yelled at the employees of the restaurant, and they left.

It was so bizarre! I guess this shop wasn’t allowed to have outdoor diners? Even though everyone else did? Maybe it was because this was a bigger/ busier street than most. Not sure. The workers seemed frustrated/ guilty, but relatively unphased and somehow unconcerned that their tables and chairs had just been taken. About five minutes passed before a worker for the shop brought some of the salvaged chairs out from behind the counter and told people to sit down again. Wild.

Dazed and confused, Sean and I ordered another banh mi for the road and then made our way through the streets to our bus stop. Stay tuned to find out where we’re headed!

Trân trọng/ best regards,

Lizzy-wa

Hey, hey! Long time no see! I actually did one big trip in 2021, but that blog will come later. For now, we go to Southeast Asia for yummy food and hot, humid weather.

The backstory: I got a new job! Yay! This job is actually more of a promotion, in that I’m being converted from contractor to full-time-real-employee. And with this promotion came the opportunity to take a couple weeks off. I wasn’t planning on going anywhere originally, but my new beau offered to come along, so that pretty much sealed the deal.

With less than two weeks till departure, we made a mad dash for flights, covid testing, visa applications, and basic plans. It was pretty hard to figure out some of our days because Vietnam has been closed to foreigners for over two years. Online, it was clear that a lot of tours weren’t running, but it wasn’t obvious which ones were, if any. We made the bold choice to show up with a few days unplanned so that we could figure it out once we arrived.

Our packing differences were pretty funny, and a bit of a window into our different habits for traveling and life in general.

The flight left Wednesday afternoon, with some squabbling over how early to arrive at the airport. We made the plane with plenty of time to spare and tucked in for our 12 hour flight, which turned into 14 due to changes in the flight path.

We got some gorgeous views of Kodiak and the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, and then much later, we saw a bunch of pretty islands off the coast of Japan.

The highlight of the flight was the bibimbap dinner! The lowlight was only getting two meals on a 14 hour flight. I was starving for most of it, even though I ate almost all of my snacks. The sun also never set, which was crazy. We chased that sun down!

We had a quick layover in Seoul before another four hours in the air, and we were exhausted when we landed in Hanoi around 11pm Thursday night. We spent a good chunk of time crankily trying to figure out how to get to our Airbnb, but once we arrived, I was pleased to discover it was just as relaxing and wonderful as the pictures. Then we passed the heck out.

I woke up around 5am, completely jetlagged and discombobulated after only a few hours of sleep. I dinked around on my phone for a bit while I waited for Sean (the aforementioned beau) to wake up, and we eventually set off for breakfast.

Breakfast was yummy, but it was also our first lesson in “less is more.”

Next, we wandered around and shopped a bit. I found a bunch of tiny spoons (eep!), Sean got a pretty pair of chopsticks, and I found these pants I’m obsessed with and have basically been living in ever since. We also learned lesson number two of traveling together: “Don’t let Lizzy bargain. She is bad at it.”

We stopped back at the Airbnb to drop off our goodies, change into my new pants, and do a quick photoshoot of the amazing bathtub area. I was shocked to see these guys on our roof pulling these twenty foot long aluminum rails up from the ground floor using just a small rope with a hook attached. Check it out in the background of this photo:

Off again, we walked around the lake and explored Ngoc Son Temple.

I wanted to try some of the yummy-looking fruit people were selling from carts and tables on the street, but I bargained poorly yet again, and couldn’t even communicate which fruits I wanted to try.

The jackfruit was a success! The mango was mango, and the pineapple, pineapple. I’m not a huge fan of wax apples, and the curious little red fruit was super tart! There’s still one fruit she didn’t give me that I hope to try before we leave. We also kept dropping the fruit as we tried to eat it. It was a comedy of errors.

After the fruit fiasco, we got ahold of ourselves and sat down in a lakeside cafe for coffee, tea, and pho.

It was all so delicious! Sean had another “less is more” moment when he dumped the whole side dish of chilis into the pho and made it practically too spicy to consume. Still yummy, though.

We were pretty tired and hot at this point (high of 90F and very, very humid), so we went back for a quick nap. I had also been told a lot of very scary things about mosquito diseases in Vietnam, so I was pretty conscious about wanting to be inside during dawn and dusk. (So far, we haven’t been bitten too much, but we’ve been super, super careful. I’ve been wearing long pants and sleeves pretty much whenever we are outdoors. It seems like it might be overkill, but perhaps better than getting sick!)

Once darkness had fallen, we ventured back out to wander. The city is constantly loud and bustling, but the streets really come alive with pedestrians at night. It’s hard to capture just how many people there were around us, but trust me when I say it was cray.

We had trouble finding our chosen dinner venue because it was on the top floor of a giant cruise-ship-like building, but we eventually made it in one piece. We ordered the sharing hot pot since it seemed like everyone was doing so, and I ordered a drink that looked interesting in the picture, without bothering to investigate what the drink actually was.

The hot pot was SO GOOD. The flavor was coming from straight up cow hooves and beef fat. The only other time I’ve tasted broth that flavorful was when I had that famous fish soup in Taiwan. Mmmmmm. Mouth is watering currently, haha.

We were definitely confused when the food first arrived because we didn’t know what should go into the hotpot and what should go into our tiny personal bowls. I tried putting the hard, raw noodles into my own bowl, but we aborted that plan pretty quickly. We were the only non-Vietnamese people in the restaurant, so we did our best to spy and pretend we knew what we were doing, even though it very much felt like we were messing it up! I think since it tasted so good, we must have done something right.

The drink I ordered was… interesting. It was sweet, but also tasted very vegetable-ey. Sean translated the menu with his phone and… Turns out it was vegetable juice! Hahaha.

I was surprised how long people were staying in the restaurant. Nobody left in the time we were eating, but we were so confused by our food ineptitude that we decided to head out so as not to continue embarrassing ourselves.

We were delighted to find night markets set up in the streets after dinner, so we walked the long rows of tables and Sean bartered for a skirt for me. (:

We also found some live music in the streets!

The craziest part of the night, though, was when we stumbled upon this nightlife-food street. The street was narrow, with tiny plastic tables and tiny plastic chairs spilling out from all sides so that we could only walk single-file between the center lane. The tiny chairs were filled to bursting with people eating and drinking, chanting songs before taking shots, and generally being merry. We were constantly being asked to “sit outside?” as we bumbled our way through the ruckus and noise.

When we finally made it out the other end, Sean caught up to me, and all he could do was shake his head and say, “That was crazy!” I didn’t even get any proper pictures because I was just trying to make it out alive. Here’s what it looked like on a calmer street with about a third as many people:

Fully satisfied with our day’s adventures, we admired the lights on the lake and hit the hay.

And that’s a wrap on Day 1 of my return to travel!

Trân trọng/ best regards,

Lizzy-wa