sapa& beyond to Dalat!!!

Hi there everyone,
Im getting so confused about where we are up to; because on every computer in Vietnam, we have never been able to view any previous posts!!!!! so I keep wondering where the hell were we????
So, today or should I say tonight.... I think Ill just confuse myself & you a little more by writing about today.......
because I keep thinking Im never going to catch up. now weeks have rushed by & you probably dont even know where we are!!!!. 2 friends have thought we were in Thailand; we haven't described or shock horror!!! even sent photographs of the food that weve been eating!!!!
OK... ready....
I am sitting on a plastic chair, at a round steel table; there is so much noise around me. Possibly added to with the dalat markets which are about 50 metres away. Its busy, alive & vibrant. There is a scrawny malnourished cat slinking around the other tables in this cafe; I can tell it doesnt want to be noticed.The night is slowly moving in. Its cold ,but I have my eskimo jacket (as tashi calls it) wrapped over me; so I sit calmly holding this moment close to me.
I am the only westerner here, but that too feels like an advantage. Many people stare shyly at me; sometimes I smile at them; sometimes I giggle just for no reason other than it feels good. They often respond in a similar way.My food arrives. Its Pho Bho pronounced fir birr!!!( but without the red meat or pork, instead its chicken!)
I eat joyously. The food here is exciting, delicious & different. Ive just finished my papaya shake, tashi had a strawberry shake. The total bill comes to 31,000 dong ( less than $3.00!)
Here in dalat the tourist stats are different from other places in Vietnam; 90% of tourists here are from Vietnam. We have a respite. The hawkers harrass the vietnamese.!! I like it!!!
Whenever we said we were going to Dalat next, locals from vietnam sighed softly & said " Ah, Dalat.... Romantic!!!"
Its so cute. we cant really determine why this place is so romantic to them, except for the weather!! It is winter & it is cold!! Here is the only place where there is no air conditioning in the rooms; & the" Valley of Love"( vallee' le mour) where the tourists get their photos with these guys on horses dressed as (american) cowboys!!! but the cowboys are vietnames anyhow. The ultimate in vietnamese kitch is to get married in this valley of love. It all sounds sooooo tacky but I think it could be fun, ( to see!)although we decided against it because instead we had this strange exhilarating experience !!!!
We were told by the 2 aussies on the train to Sapa, that in Dalat if you get the lucky the "easy riders" will find you. ie. you dont find them!! they have to find you ! The easy riders are a group of about 75 ex vietcong who ride large motorbikes (not like the 4 million other scooter riders here!) & will take you on a tour of dalat & surrounds for around $10 (USD); anyway as tashi & I were arguing in the street today about how to get to the cable cars (about 5-8 kms away); she wanted to get a taxi & i wanted to get a motorbike taxi!!!!
Its very weird. in many ways we have reversed roles!!! she has become the parent /mother & I the child!! she wants safety & security & propriety & i often dont care!!!
Anway, next thing I hear. "Hello Madame!!!" Thats another thing here that I really like; "AGE" is respected & revered. Teenagers are like nothing , which is of course the opposite in Australia!! We all know "teenagers rule!!" But here, everyone defers to me & treats me with so much respect; & it annoys Tashi, that no matter what ,they always honor me!!!
So this guy starts talking with me in quite good english & then he says "We are the easy riders & we would like to take you on a tour today!!" Well this was my answer come true!! but not so for tashi.; her pout became longer & she wasnt playing!! Please (Mum) I pleaded with her but no, she wanted the safe taxi. I wanted the thrill of these guys & the bike experience. Maybe bring back a bit of the freedom that I felt as a teenager on the back of my boyfriends speeding karge motorbikes!!!!
Well, I won & we were off up the mountain. My rider was called Biens. I liked him & felt really safe with him. It was a cloudy cold day & it was exhilarating. They dropped us off at the cable cars which we went across the valley in; all very exciting & challenging for me as I hate heights. Tashi got hers back by rocking the car & reminding me the windows were open, & "Oh its only perspex!!!!" we met them at the other side & walked down to the beautiful Tuyen lake& Truc Lam meditation Centre. Beautiful flower gardens, views, a couple of forlorn caged monkeys, incredible architecture & a young girl weaving silk on a hand loom brought us back to the easy riders & another thrilling ride to the Datanla waterfalls. But this time Tashi got hers back again with the sight of the "Coaster bobs" a little car that runs on a rail built for asians but not for long legged aussies!! well I am not going on that 90 degree drop (dream world like) ride. But how could I say that when tashi had begrudgingly come on the easy riders tour with me.
So off wewent !! she worked the brakes & promised to go steady. It was wild & scarey but wild & fun!!!. My rider calling out "would you like me to protect you madame.??over the railing I so wanted t say yes!! but refained !!!
Now, this guy Biens, was so nice to me. He kept saying "with me by your side, you will always be safe!!" good line huh? but I think he meant it! We talked a lot. I asked him lots of questions about the vietcong. Its all very fascinating. After the war these guys were sent to reeducation camp for 3 years! to work & be brain washed. Anyway its about time I got so much attention from someone. he said he will be waiting for me when I return.....
Tashi is normally the one getting all the attention!!! The vietnames guys almost fall over when they see her!!! She has already been proposed to in Nha trang by our lovely friend Huan we met at the 'sailing club' on the beach (even though there were no yachts!) When he real;ised tashi was only 15, he said he could wait 5 years or could he marry her sister celeste who is 19; I said I didnt think he & celeste would be such a good match; he then said " well could I please be his Mum, cause I didnt have a son & then he would be tashis brother & could he have his other sisters birthdays & addresses please. he was so cute!! Calling me Mum all night!!!
He was an aquarian & we had such fun with him it was delightful!!
Its amazing how close weve become to a few people, its been hard to leave them & when they touch you physically, its euphoric!! I cant explain it but its true.
I have a lot more to wite but every thing is shutting down.
Our days are usually packed full. the trip with the boys was only half a day. Theres a whole other story.. but I must pack now as we leave at 7am tomorrow for Ho Chi Minh city for new years eve tomorrow night.
We have visited the dalat foreign language school here & sat in on some classes.
If accepted & all goes to plan I'll be on probation for 1 month & then Ill consider a 6 month contract.
Tashi & I both love Dalat!! Its very french & very picturesque. The traffic is still wild but Im praying I could get used to it. Many do....... I might even get a scooter!!! OMG!!!! I can see us living here!!!! We will find a 3 br apartment so you can all visit us 1 by 1!!!!:)
Happy New Year My loved ones.
I love you & I miss you. Ill try & wrte more.regularly.... so much to tell..... keep well. be kind & loving with yourselves.....
All our love from the travelling tandem
Isabella & tashiXXXXX
PS Ill try to load some photos afterXXXXX

Sapa (Harriet the Spy)

Evening all,

I must apologise for my horrendous memory and try my absolute hardest to remember all I can about Sapa I hope you aren't disappointed!
I must also apologise for my frankness in my last blog, and I hope my slang didn't offend you, I must have come across as quite rude but believe me, it was only because I was in a rush.

I'm not quite certain where I was in my last blog, but I'm pretty sure we had just finished the mouth watering brekky!

So, after we were finished in heaven we walked out, nodding and thanking the lady at the 'gates of heaven' (desk at the entrance of the restaurant).
We signed in and went up to our room which I (of course) fell in love with... I was beginning to like Sapa more and more by the minute.
The colour co-ordination in our hotel room was perfect, deep crimson reds, crisp whites and glossy golds.
The 'single' beds looked like double beds and were quite tough, it felt like there were planks of hard wood underneath the mattress but Isabella and I loved them!
We had a balcony which overlooked the myserious misty hills surrounding Sapa and neat and orderly vegetable patches.
The first two out of the three days we spent in Sapa were quite warm, like a mid Spring day in Australia, but our tour guide kept telling us that this was odd weather and the weather quite resembled the weather in summer.
Trying not to be (naiive?) we didn't believe him as (like I said before) our first two days were quite pleasant, so on our third and last day in Sapa I only wore a T-shirt and all suspecting Isabella wore her eskimo jacket 'just in case'. Well 'just in case' was just the case and all throughout the day we were surrounded by a thick, damp fog making it difficult to see 5 steps ahead of us.
My teeth were chattering with 5 minutes of walking through the little market place.
But before I get ahead of myself... A bit too late now, I should tell you about the first unusual weather days when Longan took us trekking.
So while we were eating breakfast (I'm going to have to be brutally honest here) I noticed a strange man walk into 'heaven' and talk to the waitress, but, trying not to be rude or nosy I looked away.
The man, in my oppinion, looked a bit like a monkey that had suffered from malnutrition... excuse my horrid, wicked, evil honesty, but thats what first came to mind, he left after that and was shortly thereafter forgotten.
whilst up in our cosy yet open hotel room the phone rang, I refused to answer it (damn my shyness) so Isabella picked it up, apparently there was a man waiting to see us.
"That must be our tour guide" Isabella said surely.
Our tour guide? What tour guide? We have a tour guide?!
I fumed quietly to myself and made a mental note to interrogate Isabella later, we walked back to reception to find (surprise surprise) the mal-nourished monkey sitting (very human-like) on a couch in the foyer.
Apparently he was to be our tour guide, Isabella walked up confidently and introduced herself without hesitation, I went less eager to meet the monkey-man and so I cautiously snuck over and with great apprehension and met his 'wet lettuce leaf' handshake with a firm one.
I've never had a weak handshake, its not exactly strong but its never limp, I always wondered where I got it from and wonder to myself why don't all men shake hands firmly doesn't it mean you're a wimp if you don't?
Ahhh well, maybe its different in Vietnam I re-assured myself.
So, the man's name was Long, which means 'dragon' in Vietnamese, like Ha Long bay, which means 'descending dragon' and it was later decided that we would call him Longan.
Isabella and he talked for a while whilst looking at the map.
We asked him if we could meet him in a couple of hours and he readily agreed.

I must write later as I'm being shunned off the computer
Miss you all!
xXx Harriet the spy

Hill Tribe Ladies, Black H'mong,

Harriet decided she wanted to eat a rose

Isabella, the chesire cat

Cute little Black H'mong girl in her village

Longan blowing on the bamboo marriage pipe in a village hut

The view from our chau long sapa hotel balcony

finallysome photos

Hi dear friends

Here we are the travelling tande, & our diaries. OH... we havea so much to say & so little time & 4 vietnamese screaming (drunk!!) in the background & waves of tiredness with a 7am departure by bus in am!! But I hope to get some photos to you. My darling travelling partner tashi off to bed in disgust with these frustrating vietnamese computeres( internet connections ) etc,,,,

well we hope you all had a great christmas & best wishes for new year 2008 the year of the active dynamic rat

Love the travelling tandem, promise some stories next post!!!

ZZZZXXXXXXX

some photos for trial.

hi everyone

we are still trying to get the photos off the camera!! Have had lots of problems with the picture card in our camera ; so we have cheated & just put some i/net images of sapa;

we are long gone from sapa now but still have lots more to write, well I do at least. The virgo moon loves the detail!!:)

But we are tired again!! & need to get a drink & off to bed so we can leave this place ; one of our most favourite places; hoian!!:) weve become part of a family here & are firm friends with them all forever!! but more about that later.

we leave by train tomorrow morning for Nha Trang ( a 13 hour train trip) well stay for 2 nights there & blog again in more detail!!!

Hard to fit the blogging in.

But really in this blog we want to wish you a happy christmas ;even though it doesnt feel one bit like xmas!!

love to you all

Isabella & tashiXXXX

Title?

Evening old life,
or should I say afternoon (where I am).
It's Harriet by the way (Tashi to those of you who don't know my 'real' name), and don't worry, I'm not like Isabella and I'm not going to tell you the inner workings of my bowel and whatnot.
I don't exactly know what I'm going to tell you, I'm not much of a blogger you see, but Isabella pulled me down the stairs (she won't let me use the elavator to go down one level, gosh!!!) amd forced me onto a computer.
Well, we're in Hue' (pronounced 'Hway' ) but apparently, according to our blogs we've only just arrived in Sapa, which was like 6 days ago haha, funny how times flies!
Speaking of flying i got a plane to Hue' and I've been on a bus car taxi tuk tuk boat and plane in the last three days, talk about diaries of the "travelling" tandem!
One of the things I'm scared about when I get home is...
Well you know how we told you how crazy the traffic is, they have no rules except 'beep as much as your sanity allows you' which is quite a bit I've noticed.
so yeah anyway, I'm extremely scared that I'll get home in like byron or somewhere and forget about traffic rules (exclude the beeping) and try to cross the road not at a crossing in a busy trafficky road and get hit by a car or something!
but truthfully i think i was more susceptible to car accidents before i came here.
so yeah, the drunk but alright Aussies were a bit shocking at first but we survived, and in Sapa we went on amazing treks though the Cat Cat village (its called cat cat because a French man named it 'cascade' cos theres a waterfall there but the locals couldn't pronounce it so they just made it cat cat cute hey?) and other surrounding villages.
Pretty sure Isabella is saying all and more about it (as usual) and she has probably said enough for me to not have to go into details phew!
nope, I just checked with her and she wants me to write about Sapa, Damn!!!
so, sapa, what can I say?
Erm, the first two days were quite warm considering it was supposed to be around 6 degrees, it was probably around 18, but like I said before Isabella will probably tell you all that.
so, we got off the train, found the sign with our names on it, ( I felt so proud when I saw my name on that sign!) followed some asian guy to a little restaurant where he told us to sit down and wait.
Incredibly long story cut incredibly short we waited for like 1 hour and 15 minutes until we caught some public bus back to the hotel.
But we had no idea when it was coming. No-one in the restaurant knew when it was coming let alone spoke any english so we were pretty pissed off cos it was like 5am so we paid some guy 20,000 dong to call Mr Hai (its arrogant to not say mr) so i guess its 'to call Hai' just kidding... sorry, anyway (I ramble if you didn't notice... see!) erm, um, yes, right... so yeah, we paid the illiterate guy all that money and woke Mr Hai up who asked us to put the illiterate on the phone, we did, then some public bus came and picked us and 4 other people who were supposed to be picked up as well and took us on a 90minute drive to the chaulong sapa hotel, I remember the name cos I have this really bad habbit of collecting things, so I have like the toothbrushes and combs and shampoo and all that crap from all the hotels haha.
hate to, right?
But to our great surprise and sigh-able relief our baggage was taken from us and wheeled inside then we were given a warm glass of apple and cinnamon tea, (which was so delicious!)
mental note: see if mallams sells it... possible?
I think not
Then we were given our brekky coupon and were directed to the eatery haha
From here on I cannot describe my euphoria!
On the first table there was an array of french food; french sticks, croissants, (edam?) cheese, butter, profiteroles, cakes, and little french pastries.
I was in heaven... without dying... and without needing to actually believe in heaven.
pretty cool huh?
I thought so too.
on the next table was a huge selection of local fruits like: dragon fruit, pappaya, mangoes, banana, nashi pear, apples, watermelon, pineapple, mandarin, oranges etc.
shit, sorry, can't think of the rest, I'm kind of having a coughing fit, and struggling to regain my composure.
phew, then there were like tons of noodle dishes in between the tables.
If you went down to the end of the room near the bar, you could order omelettes and noodle soup, which you watched them make right in front of you, its quite amazing, the yuse chopsticks to flip the omelette and stuff and you get to choose what you want in it.
Now thats just the food!!!!!
If I could describe the scenery. Unbelievable!!!Rolling soft 'myst'ical mist seeping across the amazing valley of sapa. The architecture.. well... I'll leave that for Isabella's next blog.. she likes to write about normal things like that >>> but as for me...
I really can't think straight at the moment, so I'm going to go up to the room and eat some chocolate or do some other constructive thing with my time hehe
well, it was nice chatting to you and I'll write soon I hope.
We have to catch a bus in the morning at like 7am so I'll try to get an early night
I hope all these different points of view (Isabella's and mine) aren't confusing you
so ciao ciao
or should I say 'tam bien'
xXx Harriet the Spy

Beyond Hanoi

When we last left you I was racing to find a toilet near the hotel computer. No ammount of arsenicum & coptis would stop the spasms/ shivers & total belly gut wrenching diarrhoea. I had a feeling when tashi wanted to eat from the little side street cafe( where there were no westerners I might add!!) Yet I reluctantly agreed.

Anyway, final resorted to the big guns & took the bottle of poi chai; I mean we had a 9 hour vietnamese train to catch.

Our travel agent Mr' Hai, now our friend took us to the train station where he struggled with our huge oversized bag & we squeezed into our 4 sleeper tiny cabin waiting expectantly for our 2 new zealand girls to arrive!

5 minutes later, 2 loud drunk aussie blokes huffed, puffed & barged through the door. we were sure they were in the wrong carriage; but no, they looked as disapointed as us!!!

I felt a wave of alarm, but I couldn't even sit on the bed without hitting my head on the top bunk.! well lucky we chose top & bottom on one side.

I told them we were expecting n.zers & the younger one said in a slur "well sorry to disappoint you!! "

I knew it was going to be a long nite!!! as I frantically searched for the ear plugs; the older one, presumably the father said Im going to buy more beer! but I could see he already had a litre bottle of the noxious toxic infamous rice wine under his arm. I groaned;

But guess what!!!

I started to pray & asked to suspend judgement on these guys & to see their goodness; & it worked! they turned out to be very interesting!

The epihphany of the nights travel came when the dad norman said this trip for me is a journey to heal my heart! He is an ex vietnam vet who was a foot soldier infantryman in the vietnam war.

They fired a few questions at me & said they couldnt believe my responses. They said theyve never met anybody from australia who believed in synchronicity!

So they said " Your whole journey will be like this if you allow it!!!"

& the younger guy, Phil kept saying to Tashi, wow, girl you are so lucky! I went to Sydney when I was 13!"

This writing could take forever if I dont shorten it a bit so here goes.......

well we want to add our images now, Heres where we used to be:

An now we went to this: bangkok airport

sorry we are having so much trouble up loading our photos. these computers here are doing our heads in!!:(

more later

isabella

Hectic Hanoi

Well here we are Isabella & Tashi, Mother and Daughter in the Old Quarter in Vietnam.
Hanoi City is the capital of the socialist republic of Vietnam, some travellers have called it the Paris of the Orient, forgive us, however, if we do not share this point of view. For us it has been a wild crazy whirling dervish, to be fair; this was possibly due to Hanoi being our arrival destination.
Hotel Hong Ngoc sits in stark contrast to the dwellings that we passed in our air-conditioned, modern chauffered car.We sat gaping at the passing traffic:

• Four people on one motorbike
• Three men on one motorbike accompanied by 3 tied pigs (more about that later)
• Huge towering billboard advertisements
• Ricepaddies ploughed by oxen and elderly villagers

The food is the exciting part, the difficulty is what to choose & how to ask qestions; The vietnamese are so polite, they mostly nod & say yes to everything. Its sweet but frustrating. Tashi & I walked randomly along streets, crazily trying to cross traffic filled dusty roads & ended at a busy market on our second day here. It was so full on & incredibly intense.

We will write more later, just wanted to get this started today as we have checked out of hong ngoc & we need to go enter the streets again, although today is sunday & a little quieter, we are hungry & we have till 8pm tonight till we catch the overnight train to sapa which lies north of hanoi in a beautiful valley, shrouded in mist, close to the border with china. is Its cold there at the moment; the locals shiver when we say we are going there! its 6 degrees celcius & we might have to go by ourselves a jumper.

We are sharing our train cabin with 2 new zealanders who we havent met yet; & we'll stay for 2 nights there. Its isolated & we are looking forward to seing some of the hill tribes & doing a few short treks!

After sapa, we will head to halong bay where we will sleep overnight on the water in a junk. we'll write later about all this & hopefully post some photos.

more from the travelling tandems next time

wish us luck

Tashi & Isabella

Bon Voyage!