Highlights of Northern Vietnam


click for larger image 		Puppet show - in a pool...!

In Hanoi, a puppet show where oddly all the action takes place in an indoor pond. This tradition began in the North of Vietnam where puppeteers ignored flooding of their rice fields to continue their shows waist deep in water.

Until recently, there was a terrible health record for the performers who kept catching horrible water-based diseases and dying.

Now they wear waders!
People in Vietnam really do wear those great conical hats!

And the women seem to do most of the hard work too: here, tiny women haul boatloads of tourists up canals to the fragrantly named Perfume Pagoda.
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click for larger image 		Amazing Cave

Beneath the karst limestone islands of Halong Bay are a number of spectacular caves. This one has been imaginatively named 'Amazing Cave' (says it all!).

The soft curves on the roof were created by waves lapping against the roof at high tides over thousands of years.

The massive rock growths extend all the way from the ceiling to the floor (hmm, does that make them stalagmites or stalactites?!).
Paradise found

We had sweated buckets hiking up a mountain on Cat Ba island when we came across this secluded spot: surrounded on all sides by forested hills with monkeys clambering around in the trees that ringed a gorgeous lake perfect for swimming - all to ourselves.

We fished and swam and drank in unspoiled nature.

Perfect.
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click for larger image 		Sea kayaking by moonlight

Tired but happy after a full day hiking, swimming and kayaking around the islands we boarded the boat back to our hotel for dinner. "Perhaps we'll need to kayak home!", we chuckled when the engine died several kilometers from home.

20 minutes later, darkness was falling and the boat clearly going nowhere fast, so out came the kayaks and off we paddled into the Bay. With phospherent algae glowing in the sea and bright moonlight shining on the water we paddled on between the island peaks for what seemed like hours.

In fact it was hours.

We finally arrived home utterly exhausted but with such an adventure to remember, who cared?
A trip to the Highlands

For a week we travelled to the remote north-west of Vietnam, home to many of the minority hill tribes.

This required Russian jeep power to navigate the precipitous mountain passes that have kept these cultures relatively isolated from outside influences through the centuries.
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click for larger image 		The Flower H'Mong

Common amongst the hill tribes is colourful traditional dress, particularly for the women.

Flower H'Mong dress is particularly vivid and this season's fashion accessory appears to be a cute baby strapped to the back as everyone seemed to have one. The national drive for zero population growth obviously doesn't cut much ice in hill country.
Market parking lot

Old meets new as villagers ride up to market in motorbikes or for those who prefer vintage transport, a horse.
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click for larger image 		Don't try this at home

To stop our guide from badgering us to try dog meat, we decided to have a go at pig's blood soup (imagining a black pudding broth). Unhappily, the dish is fresh congealing blood with a few spring onions chopped into it.

Still, with the locals looking on enthusiastically, a couple of mouthfuls had to be choked down accompanied by a weak smile.
Cheryl the Intrepid

Facing muddy mountain tracks with woefully ill-suited trainers that had absolutely no grip, Cheryl slipped, slided (and on at least one occasion actually bounced) her way up and down the rice paddy trails until she developed this innovative 'ski-pole' technique.

This picture probably fails to capture the extent of the sheer gradients she was faced with.
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click for larger image 		Playing with Black H'Mong kids

The Black H'Mong are one of the largest tribal groups and can also be found in China, Thailand and Laos. Under persecution from the communist regime, they also formed a large portion of the Vietnamese boat people who set out for the US back in the '70s.

Unlike in the movies, the fact that this tribe dress in dark colours doesn't, in fact, make them evil which is nice. We met these Black H'Mong children on a hillside and played a game of 'hide behind the flower' (which no one was very good at).
A personal statement by Magnus

I would just like to state that we came across this waterfall lake by chance and so my 'smalls' were the only covering available for swimming. They are not Speedos, nor would I consider wearing Speedos in a public arena. [End personal statement].

In this picture Magnus does an impression of the Welsh guy in Notting Hill.
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click for larger image 		One wedding and a funeral

In Ban Ho village, at the foot of this remote valley, we spent a night in a local home without much sleep. On one side of the village was a party to celebrate the marriage of two local Tay people and from across the other side of the valley the incessantly mournful banging of a funeral drum.

The tribes people perform ancestor worship and the banging of the drum all night helps see the dead person safely into the next world.


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