The last two days in Vietnam were another highlight, we visited Ha Long Bay... a UNESCO world heritage in the northeast of Vietnam. I think the scenery is unique, take a look at these amazong pictures, which can only give a slight imagination of the size there... HUGE!!! More than 2000 rocks poking out of the water.






We went on a private tour on a boat for 12 people including one night on deck. Fortunately, we had very good weather, another group from NTU went there 3 days ago and they had nothing but rain :( The second day we did some kajaking for 2 hrs and I jumped from the mountains in the water (about 7 meter)... very nice! We could even jump from the boat. 

A Vietnamese graveyard: even they are build in rice fields. The Vietnamese religion says that people live on rice, so it is the rice which gives life to men. Consequently, they go back to the rice when they're dead... amazing philosophy



THE sentence to describe things in Asia... love this T-Shirt 

One of the only Lenin statues (in Vietnamese, it's Le Nin; for some reason the cut all the words in between and 99% of the words are 4 or 3 letters or less, looks very funny) in the world.




Another popular guy (undoubtable... the name is EVERYWHERE) is Ho Chi Minh, here his statue in the National Museum in Ha Noi...



I think these in french called "pousse-pousse" (push-push) are only for tourists and a ride in Ha Noi is about 1 Dollar...



The standard form of transporting stuff if you're too poor to buy a motorcycle, also a lot of vendors try to sell sth. using this "device" 

Hanoi, capital of Vietnam... whether you like it or not heavily depends on your ability to cope with noise, stress and dirt. Of course the standards are very low compared to europe and the honking is everywhere, since it is normal in Vietnam to honk a) when you overtake somebody and b) when you enter a road turn to "warn" somebody coming from the opposite direction. This can really get on your nerves, but after a couple of days you don't recognize it any more :)



Beer is sold everywhere in the Old Quarter, Hanoi's most interesting part, and if you don't mind 1) sitting on chairs not taller than 25cm, 2) hygiene and 3) some noise from the roads... you can enjoy your beer at 2000 Dong, which is 0,10 EUR. Unfortunately, the nightclub we went to was not very nice, just techno music, 80% guys and unappealing people.



There seems to be one house size in Hanoi, all the same. There is one road where all shops sell shoes: DON'T go there with your girlfriend. The market is quite big and you get a lot of stuff there, especially nice seafood, but since you're supposed to cook it on your own, we couldn't buy anything.




Motos are the most typical thing for Hanoi, I've never seen so many... for 7 mio people, there are 4 mio motos... if you're not planning to commit suicide: don't drive one on your own! 

Some nice sample pictures of the buddhist shrines... of course we always worshipped the weather god to have good weather by lighting some joss sticks... except for two days, we were quite lucky. For this trip it was nice to have a guide who explained some details about the ancient dynasties.


 

The concept of these temples is more or less the same. You go up some stairs and the temples will form a U facing you. Inside, there are shrines of prominent members of some dynasty, depending what time the temples date back.


Since it was quite rainy that day, the quality is not very good. I had to "dry" my camera overnight, very humid air....! 

Halong Terrestre is like Perfume Pagoda, but this time, your boat will pass under rocks just leaving you less than 1 meter space. Duck or hit your head :)




Suddenly we had to stop and help our "driver" to pass some path... the river continued on the other side. 

For two days, we had a private guide and a new car (1 month) to bring us to Cuc Phuong National Park southwest of Hanoi. It definitely was a highlight of our trip, there was NOBODY in the park except one couple we met at breakfast in the middle of the jungle.





We did 4 hours of jungle trekking and saw a thousand year-old tree (pictures later...). Thank God, I had no problems with mosquitos :) We wore longsleeves and used DEET repellent, no problem... 

A Trip to Perfume Pagoda near Hanoi (just 2 hours trip), a buddhist shrine in a cave on a mountain you can go to by boat.




Paddling was yesterday, the people here invented their own style: by feet.




Unfortunately we had rain the whole day so we had to trek up the mountain in heavy rain and all our things became wet on the way there cos we didn't have the rainponchos before. 

The last day in Sapa, we ate some local food in some little house during our trek, just light the ends of 3 bamboo sticks et voila: thats the kitchen. Food was amazing but the original Sapa rice wine with pear taste will not become my favourite drink; still nice trying.



Motion picture of our motorcycle trip.




Bye bye Sapa... the oldest jeep I've ever seen! 

Near Sapa, there is this very nice waterfall, which has not too much water but is very high. Normal tourists can get up the stairs to take a closer look.



But we knew better and climbed another 50 Meters up to take a shower under the waterfall. I had some wonderful pictures but since my camera got stolen i just have this one, which shows me changing dress :) we only had one shorts for 3 people thats why all the tourists had to watch us changing clothes :) was great fun... thanks Chris and Steph!!!



Buying some souvenirs is part of a trip and here I am about to bargain with some local girls selling bracelets...




In Sapa, there is a typical dress for all women which slightly differs from tribe to tribe. Since our personal guide, Sisi, was very nice and we immediately became friends, she borrowed one of her dresses to Marine. When walking through town, EVERYBODY looked at her. A blonde in that dress was a unique thing in Sapa... I think i have never seen so many people staring at us :) 

if you plan to go there, plan some time to enjoy the views