I’m furiously typing away to attempt to capture some of my thoughts and experiences from the past 3 weeks in the single hour that I’ve found to be able to commandeer Neil’s keyboard away. I’m sitting in a coffee shop in Hanoi enjoying a strong Vietnamese iced coffee and getting ready for the adventure of a lifetime - a bike journey from Hanoi all the way down to Ho Chi Min. We went yesterday to find our bike rentals (alternatively you can buy and resell) and had quite the thrill/survival moment when I followed our guide and Neil (riding on the back of the bike) out to an area where we could “practice” riding the bikes. The ride out there was all the practice I could ever need! We swerved through rush hour traffic, crossed a 500m bridge while being swarmed by other bikes, drove on highways, turned left across major through-ways and rode through bumpy dirt roads all in my first session on the bike in Vietnam. Luckily I grew up with scooters and have ridden a few while traveling (Portugal comes to mind), but this still felt like a whole new game.
 |
| My bike that took me across Vietnam! |
We’ve been in Vietnam for about a week now. We arrived here on the night of July 10th after 2 weeks in Nepal, which I’ll eagerly try and capture soon. We flew into Hanoi, spent our first night at a cute clean and new little hotel that had rose petals all over the place ($30/night!), and then started our Vietnam journey with a bang the next day. We first booked a tour/night bus to SaPa, which is a township in the very northern part of the country almost on the border with China. We booked it through a place called Central Backpackers Hostel, so we were able to just leave our bags in their storage room for the day after checking out of our hotel while we went and explored Hanoi. We had a few orders of business to attend to: 1) FIND MONOPOLY DEAL - a card game we grew addicted to in Cambodia after playing probably over 100 hands with our friends from New Zealand, Australia and Mexico. 2) Buy some more athletic gear, 3) Get a few spa services (my goal not Neil’s). We successfully accomplished all three, even though the shopping part was a little frustrating since there were more men’s options than women’s. I even found a BEAUTIFUL silk/linen dress and top that I added to my wardrobe. We ended the day feeling very accomplished and satisfied, and headed back to the hostel for our 9 pm pick up for an overnight bus to SaPa where we would spend the 2 full days and a night.
 |
| We found Monopoly Deal at a bookstore in Hanoi - it was even a unique version :) |
Overnight buses are quite the phenomena. They’re wider than your normal commuter bus, and they have 3 rows of bunk bed like seats. You have to take your shoes off when you enter the bus and put them in a plastic bag that they provide, then you pad off to the seat they call out for you, climb in, and put all your personal belongings on top of you since there are no ledges or room for storage. The bed has an ergonomic shape to it, and your feet go in this little cubby that slants downwards. The top of the cubby is the place where the bed in front of you reclines the head part. The journeys are normally 6-11 hours on these buses, and they stop at various major rest stops. The rest stops are very different than they are in the states - far less commercialized. There are little vendors selling all sorts of foods, but almost no chains or recognized brands. You also have to pay for the toilet. Most of the time I’m very comfortable on these buses, but the only time I’m not is when some idiot passenger doesn’t use headphones while they watch YouTubes or movies or podcasts or whatever. It’s obnoxious and irritable. It also happens ALL THE TIME.
We arrived in SaPa at 4:30 a.m. but they let us stay on the bus until around 5:50 a.m. before they kicked us out. We were quickly greeted by a guide that had our names on a list and shuttled us into another small van that took us to a hotel where we left our bags, freshened up in a bathroom and enjoyed breakfast. From there, another guide from the H’Mong Black ethnic group came and called out our names with 6 others for our trek. We walked 12 km through the town, corn fields, rice paddies and more until we reached another small village where we did a “home stay” and slept for the night in dorm-like accommodations. The walk was gorgeous, but the trails were exceptionally muddy and we were slipping and sliding all over the place. My shoes are STILL coated in mud from the experience. It’s also pretty darn touristy now unfortunately. Our small group was one of 50 other small groups that we kept encountering on the same trails, so it didn’t feel very special. It’s also a fairly new tourist destination in the scheme of things, so some of the practices are a little quirky. For example, there were a number of precious small children that did the entire 12 km walk with us - the boy that I walked with must have been 5 or younger, but he was sweet and even tried to hold my hand a guide me through the tougher, more slippery spots. I originally thought they were the children of the guide(s), but when I asked I learned that all of the people who accompanied our trek were doing so because they hoped to sell us handicrafts at the end. In my case, the little boy who was helping me took me to his mother, but there were also a number of women on the trek who were selling their own things. They sold bracelets and handwoven goods like bags and belts. It would have been OK, but once women started selling they did so in a frenzied manner - you’d talk to one and another women would come waiving the same items in your face and saw “buy one from ME!”. The other odd part was the little girls would say “buy one 10 thousand” in very monotone voices that had no joy in them at all. It may have been the english or an act but it was odd and in general the other travelers in my group did not enjoy it.
 |
| Two young girls who were a part of our hike frolicking in the fields |
 |
| A gift from one of the guides |
 |
| It was MUDDDDDY! My buddy and the rest of the group trying to traverse a steep and slippery section |
 |
| The rice fields and greenery are unparalleled |
 |
| Attempting to rinse off the mud from our shoes |
 |
| Selling goods and handicrafts |
Our “home stay” was also a little bit of a disappointment, as it really wasn’t much more than a hostel with a family that tended to it. We had over 15 people staying in ours, so it wasn’t cultural in any sense of the word. The beds and pillows were also rather uncomfortable, but hey, that’s the backpacker life. The location was nice though, and we could see a ton of beautiful rice paddies and even a waterfall. We took advantage of a free afternoon to play many rounds of monopoly deal.
The next day we walked more and took a bunch of cars and buses back towards Hanoi to arrive at 9 p.m. back to Central Backpackers Hostel where we stayed the night in an 8 person dorm ($6/person). The dorm was quite comfortable - very clean and the beds had a lot of storage and even curtains for privacy! We were only there for a short bit though because the next day we left early to go on our next excursion to Ha Long Bay. We were picked up around 9 a.m., boarded a bus with a bunch of other people, and drove 3-4 hours to the port where we took a small boat to the larger boat that was our party cruise. The party cruise was grand - the rooms were gorgeous, we got to swim, jump off 3 and 8m platforms, jump on a water trampoline and kayak in the lagoons, and the view was unbeatable. The bay is absolutely stunning - I had NO idea how big it was from all of the photos I’d seen, but there are 1969 islands in over 1500 km. Freaking awesome place. The food on the cruise was meh, but that wasn’t really the point. We enjoyed some drinks with other travelers (who, thankfully, were all around our age vs. the 19-20 somethings that tend to dominate the hostels), hung out in the various hot tubs across the boat, danced, did karaoke and enjoyed some games and mini shows put on by the staff. The next morning we had to leave the boat around 9 a.m. to take another 2-3 smaller boats to a small private island where we spent the next night in dorm accommodation (8 beds / room, A/C only at night). Not great accommodation since the beds were super close together with no real privacy, but the mattresses were hella comfortable and the focus of the night was more hanging out anyways. I was super absorbed in my book so I spent most of my time on the island playing Monopoly Deal and reading in hammocks and what not, but everyone else played a lot of games and danced until late.
 |
| The top deck of our party boat cruise |
 |
| Ha Long Bay Islands - there are more than 6900 of them! |
 |
| Freedom Island bungalow |
The next morning was another long travel day. 4 boats back to port and a 3-4 hour bus ride back to Hanoi. We checked back into Central Backpackers Hostel in a 4-bed dorm ($8/person) and were lucky enough to get the room to ourselves! That was last night, so you already know the rest except for the fact that I had an awesome dinner at Duong’s Restaurant 2 - the chef won Master Chef Vietnam! I had a delicious duck breast dish while Neil had a salmon dish. 5 stars. Vietnam was been great so far, and we still have 3 weeks left!
OK, so now that I covered all of that (had to get it out while it was fresh), it’s time to try and tackle the Nepal portion of the journey. I really messed up by not writing while it was still fresh in my mind, and it’ll be a little more challenging to capture some of the vivid details now, but a summary will have to suffice.
Nepal is a very interesting place. There’s a spirituality and kindness of the people that is truly inspiring, and you can tell that there is an ancient wisdom that guides many in the country. One of the best parts of my trip was taking a yoga class with a guru and getting to experience for myself some of the connectedness that the people seek with the land, others and the universe. It’s also a very poor country, and faces many challenges that stem from it’s geographical diversity as well as it’s political history. Ashu, my friend from Yale SOM, guided us through our time in Nepal and shared some fascinating stories about the political history and it’s geopolitical dependencies and positions today. The country recently transformed from a kingdom to rule by Prime Minister, is run by the communist party that is beginning to fracture, and has had civil strife during our parent’s life times. It also is an extremely diverse place. They have all sorts of geographical regions - jungles, mountains, plains, valleys, etc., multiple different ethnicities, and even some religious diversity. They embrace their diversity and seek to provide for all equally (at least that’s what the politician we met with explained). During our time in the country we got to travel to many different regions. We started in Kathmandu, but quickly departed to head towards Pokhara, Poon Hill / the Annapurna region and Chitwan before returning back to the city to end our trip. Highlights included hiking up 3210m to the top of Poon Hill to get to see a 360 degree view of the Himalayas at sunrise, taking an “elephant bath” in Chitwan, exploring a hydroelectric plant and walking through tunnels in a mountain, and paragliding in Pokhara over the lake. We had some amazing meals - Nepalese food is rather good and includes a lot of spices like you may find in India - and great company as we were traveling with a group of my friends from my MBA program. Some of the tougher moments include hiking all the way up to Poon Hill (SO MANY STAIRS) and dealing with the leeches, racing the rains on our final day of the trek to reach shelter, and getting caught in 2 major traffic jams that resulted from landslides or cars breaking down in the middle of narrow passes in the mountainside. One of the most fascinating moments was watching an excavator literally make a new road in front of our eyes by carving shale out of the mountain side to create enough space for cars to pass the broken down truck. We also had the chance to visit Ashu's father's project at a hydrodam and walk inside a mountain before the river is diverted through it, and enjoyed an absolutely lovely dinner at Ashu's home with his parents, sister, and nieces. It was an incredible trip, and I hope that the photos will convey what I fail to do through my words.
 |
| Example of traffic jam from mudslide |
 |
Traffic jam!
|
 |
| Exploring Kathmandu |
 |
| Learning about hydro-electricity and dams |
 |
Rocking the construction gear at the hydro dam
|
 |
Exploring the tunnels in the middle of the mountain
|
 |
| Group dinner at Crazy Gekko |
 |
Views from the beginning of our trek in the Himalayas
 |
Trekking through villages
 |
Hot, sweaty, and feeling accomplished - 1/2 way through the first day hike!
|
|
|
 |
Our first overnight stop!
|
 |
The top of Poon Hill after 2 days of trekking!
 |
Poon Hill!
|
|
 |
After a BIG hike to the top of Poon Hill
 |
Hanging out our gear to dry after a sweat drenching hike
|
 |
Waterfalls on the hike down from the top
|
 |
Entering the cave in Pokhara
|
|
 |
| Caving in Pokhara |
 |
| Exploring Bhaktapur |
 |
Group paragliding in Pokhara
|
 |
| Paragliding in Pokhara |
 |
Vegetarian plate
|
 |
| Cute pup from our hike to the caves |
 |
Cows and bikes - the way of the road in Nepal
 |
 |
| Thali |
 |
| Nepal's beauty |
 |
| Riding in the back of a truck with Divam |
 |
Rhinos in Chitwan national park
 |
Elephant bathing in Chitwan
 |
Kathmandu
 |
Beads in Kathmandu
 |
Temple in Kathmandu
 |
Funeral pyre in Kathmandu
 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
Mandalas
|
|
A couple of random observations... 1) trucks are painted like they are in India with really cool pattens and vibrant scenes. We often saw trucks with the slogan “Buddha was born in Nepal”, which is a smart at India - there’s definitely a rivalry between them. 2) The national foods include thali and Momo’s. I love mo mos. 3) There are no graves in Nepal - everyone is cremated, so things that look like graves are all just temples. There are SO MANY temples. Cremation is also very interesting. In Kathmandu they have cremation grounds in the main temple complex, and it’s done outside where everyone can see. During the process relatives and loved ones all gather by the pyre. 4) There's a lot of trash - the cities and villages use packaging without a strong recycling or waste management process, which leads to a lot of waste in the streets. 5) Roads vary significantly in quality, but the geography makes it pretty challenging to build roads through the mountains without damage from snow, mudslides, landslides, and more.
I hope to make it back one day. I'd really enjoy more time in Pokhara, and definitely need more time in Kathmandu. It would be epic to be able to do a meditation retreat or yoga training there.
