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We left Sa Pa by overnight train and arrived back in Hanoi at 4:30am. We took a taxi to our hotel only to find the security bars lowered and all lights off. Hmmmm… we were told someone would be there to let us in. In any event, we slept well on the train, and actually it was a good chance to be among the early risers of Hanoi.

Hanoi starts bustling as early at 5am with swarms of motorbikes on the streets, housewives raiding markets for fresh fruit and vegetables, but most striking were the morning gymnastics at Hoan Kiem lake. In every public space around the lake, hundreds of women practice aerobics to high tempo techno music while men stretch and perform martial arts. As we admired this energetic and coordinated display of routine, we were approached by one of the street vendors. She was a small, middle-aged lady carrying a large basket of bread and cheese for sale – clearly designed to appeal to the many European tourists. We hadn’t eaten yet, so we purchased some bread and cheese, after which she said: “I cafe lady.” We looked puzzled at her basket to see where she might have concealed her brew, but to no avail. She continued to gesture that she had coffee, so we said we’d take two cups. She smiled, and motioned for us to make space on the bench between us, where she placed down her basket, and then hightailed it across the street and around the corner out of our sight. Amused, we waited. About five minutes later, she reappeared from around the corner, dodging motorbikes across the street with each hand wrapped around a glass of sweet milk coffee! Out of breath and with a big smile she handed us our badly needed cup of morning joe.

Vietnam was a bitter-sweet experience. Our trip to Sa Pa was a great adventure and a fantastic way to experience the “real” people and culture. The experience with the “cafe lady” by the lake in Hanoi was a touching example of Vietnamese hospitality. However, the constant bustling of touters and vendors and incessant honking of horns soon became annoying. It felt at times like the Vietnamese would only approach Western tourists to take advantage of them. One of the best examples of this is the guide book boys who would approach with a basket of Lonely Planet guidebooks appearing to sell tourist information. The would say: “you buy book.” Then before you could even tell them “no,” they would follow by saying, almost under their breath: “you buy marijuana, you buy opium?” To your relief or dismay, we never did.

We left Hanoi Sunday and arrived in Phuket, Thailand. We’re both very excited about the beach and SCUBA. Pete will start his Open Water Diver certification today with our local friends and dive instructors Miz & Thien at a nearby pool. Tomorrow Pete will graduate from the pool and we’ll dive together off the boat at nearby Phuket dive sites

We left Hanoi 2 days ago on an overnight train bound for Lao Cai, in northern Vietnam. It’s only about a 300km trip, but over old, war-torn tracks, the train can only travel at 30-40 km/h, so the trip takes a good 8-9 hours. We shared our sleeper cabin with 2 Brits who traveled with their own bottle of cheap rum, but we all managed to get some sleep after chatting and watching a movie on my MacBook!

We arrived in Lao Cai, and took a bus the additional 38km to our final destination of Sa Pa in the Hoang Lien Son mountains. Unfortunately, the weather was miserable – misty and drizzly and chilly. We checked into our hotel, and decided not to do the trekking trip that day. Instead, we bummed around Sa Pa on foot, visiting the Sa Pa day market and hanging out at various cafes.

This morning, the weather was even worse, but it quickly cleared up, and we decided to take a guided tour to Ta Phin to learn about the H’mong and Red Dao peoples. It was a fascinating trip, mainly because our private tour guide, Dan, was well studied in these minority ethnic cultures. We visited two families in their homes, one of the H’mong tribe and one of the Red Dao tribe. We learned about witchdoctors, marriage and religion, or lack thereof in the H’mong tribe. On leaving, we of course left a small gratuity for each family to thank them for their hospitality.

We returned to our hotel for lunch, then donned the warmest clothing we had packed, and hit the open road on a couple of motorbikes, lead by our tour guide Dan. It was very entertaining watching Pete operate a motorbike for the first time. He started the trip off crashing directly into the back of me.

We rode the twisty, mountainous roads with vertical cliffs on either side – one straight up, the other straight down! The views of the Muong river valley were magnificent, including water falls and endless rice paddies and mountain-side corn fields – not quite like it’s done in Iowa and Saskatchewan! It soon started to drizzle again, so we cut the bike trip short, and returned to the hotel to dry off and wait for our shuttle to Lao Cai for our overnight train back to Hanoi.

After four days in Bangkok, we were ready for a change of scenery, so we boarded a Nok Air flight to Hanoi, Vietnam. We landed and proceeded to customs, where we presented our papers. After some brow furrowing on the part of the customs officials, we were denied entry into the country and were scurried off to the immigration holding area.

Truth be told, we were not entirely surprised by this “special” treatment. We had prepared in advance for this trip by contacting the Vietnamese consulate in San Francisco and had our visas issued and mailed to us before we left the US. Unfortunately, they stamped the wrong entry dates into our passports (August instead of April), and since we had limited time to correct the mistake, they faxed us a letter explaining the situation, rather than issuing a corrected visa. They told us that our passports with the fax would be sufficient to allow us entry into Vietnam.

WRONG!

At immigration in Hanoi, we were told the fax was not sufficient, and that they needed the original letter from the consulate. After 2 hours of debating, we were told we needed to purchase new visas to enter the country, or we could board a return flight to Bangkok. We opted to buy the visas with plans to write a colorful letter to the consulate in San Francisco requesting full refund for their carelessness.

This would prove to be the start of a very interesting journey through Nam…

We left the airport with the intention of heading to a hotel that we had researched. Apparently, the taxi companies are in cahoots with the tour operators to ensure their passengers also end up in their hotels. However, we had already decided that it would be fun to adventure outside of Hanoi since we had just done a big city for 4 days. We had read about trekking trips to see H’mong tribal life in SaPa in the northern region and also about boat tours and kayaking on the Halong Bay. We initially thought we’d do an overnight trip to Halong Bay as the trip to SaPa required 2 nights in a 9 hour sleeper train.

After realizing the rest of our vacation would be spent sea side in Phuket & Maldives, we decided to suck it up and take the train trip to SaPa to see the “real” Vietnam. Today, we will spend the afternoon in Hanoi and adventure around the Old Quarter and board our sleeper coach to SaPa this evening. After the immigration debacle we are hoping chill out with a beer, enjoy the cooler weather, and explore the traditional Vietnamese and French Colonial architectural mix here in Hanoi.

I know if Johnny V is reading he’ll be proud of Pete enjoying this huge German beer in the Hanoi Old Quarter.

I’m so ready for vacation … I haven’t had any big “for fun” international travel plans since my last visit to Phuket in December 2006. Pete & I are gearing up for a big adventure across south east Asia. We leave Friday at noon on the ever so sub-par United Airlines. We have laid out a fairly flexible itinerary and started to make ground plans. Here is what we’ve laid out, if you have any “must do’s” please hit me up!

Leg 1: Chicago to Bangkok via Tokyo – April 18, 2008

On Friday, United Airlines will fly us on flight UA881 with economy plus service on my favorite aircraft the Boeing 777-200. We’ll be leaving at 12:01 CST from ORD and will arrive Tokyo’s Narita airport about 13 hours later. After a short 3 hours in Tokyo we will depart on UA853, again on a 777-200 in economy plus and arrive about 7 hours later at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport … also commonly referred to as the “New Bangkok Airport“. We’ll arrive about 24 hours later + 12 hour local time change, at 23:10 ICT Saturday April 20.

We plan to spend Saturday – Wednesday April 23 in Bangkok. Our goals of this leg can be summed up in pretty much one word SHOPPING! Our list of items that must be exported continues to grow. From new suits to new furniture we hope to have lots of goods to DHL home. If you’re lucky, maybe there just might be something for you when we return!

Pete has never been to Bangkok so we’ll be sure to do the touristy things … floating markets, visit the amazing Buddhist temples, and of course hit up my favorite eats at Cabbages and Condoms followed by the night market and Thai style night club Bed

This will be my longest stay in Bangkok. I’m really excited about getting to see more of the city and fufilling our shopping list.

Leg 2: Bangkok to Hanoi – April 23, 2008

After spending a few days in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) back in 2006 I fell in love with the culture and people in Vietnam. I wanted to travel more of Vietnam and explore the north but didn’t have the time. This trip we’ll be setting off to Hanoi for 5 days. We’ll depart BKK (New Airport) on Nok Air’s flight DD3200 at 10:15 and arrive Hanoi less than 2 hours later at 12:05 ICT. Nok Air is a hip Thai discount airlines associated with Thai Air. They mainly fly TG’s retired 737-400 fleet … they’ve repainted the TG livery giving each plane a bird theme topped off with a beak on the nose cone, so cool! Nok means Bird in Thai and beak in Persian, which is exactly what forms the no-frils airlines logo.

We plan to take in the Vietnamese culture for a few days. This leg will be doing some adventure site seeing by taking an overnight trip to Sa Pa to experience the “real Vietnam” … a recommendation from our American Vietnamese friend Thien who we will be visiting in Phuket.

Leg 3: Hanoi to Phuket – April 27, 2008

We’ll depart Hanoi at 12:45 and arrive BKK (new airport) at 14:40 ICT … this is where it’s important to understand the difference between the new and the old airport. When I made these bookings I assumed the old airport (Don Muaeng) was closed and dead, as it should because it was a piece of shiz and ready for retirement. Apparently the Low Cost Carriers of Thailand lobbied hard to have it re-opened as a lower cost airport and closer vicinty to Bangkok. Very bad assumption on my part .. I booked our continuing leg on Nok Air and later after reading the fine print found out the Bangkok to Phuket leg was departing from Don Muaeng, a short 90 minute cab ride from the new airport. There was no way I could make the connection we booked so I had to beg Nok customer service to excuse my stupidity and waive the change fee to book a later flight. We’ll arrive at the new Bangkok airport BKK at 14:40 and depart the old Bangkok airport DMK at 19:15. All this again on Nok.

In Phuket we’ll be hanging out with my good friends and dive shop owners Miz & Thien. Pete will be doing his Open Water SCUBA certification training … I’ll be hitting up my stomping grounds of local dive sites and dive bars. And of course … every day will be getting a Thai massage! I’m really looking forward to hanging out in Phuket for a few days, seeing Miz & T and exploring the island. I can never get enough Phuket.

Leg 4: Phuket to North Ari Atoll Island, Maldives via Singapore, Colombo and Mal̩ РMay 2, 2008

This leg is absolutely going to be one of the best parts of this trip. It’s a crazy adventure to see my good friend Dennis at the White Sands Resort on North Ari Atoll island in the Maldives. Dennis runs the Eurodivers center on this five star resort. Newly annointed open water diver Pete & Jace the Divemaster will experience some of the best diving this planet has to offer. I’m so stoked and can’t wait for this leg.

The first part of the adventure starts with getting there… we start out leaving Phuket on Tiger Airways TR153 at 09:25 and arrive Singapore at 12:10 SGT. We have the whole day to kill in Singapore before we depart on Emirates on the good ole 777-300 EK349 at 00:30 on May 3 … 4 hours later we will touch down in Colombo Sri Lanka 01:30 IST. We then have another 6 hours to kill in Colombo (probably like Zombie tired at this point) before we depart on SriLankan Airlines UL101 at 07:20. This flight will take less than an hour to get us to Malé. Once in Malé we will take a hired air boat to the White Sands Resort on North Ari Atoll.

It will be the start of Whale Shark season in the Maldives … after 1000+ dives I’m crossing my fingers that we run into one of these beautiful monsters while we are diving the Maldivian reefs. This leg is truly going to be a treat and a very good way to wind down an amazing vacation.

Leg 5: North Ari Atoll to Singapore (back same way we came) – May 9, 2008

We make our way back to Singapore the same way we got to the island. Once in Singapore we have a couple of days to enjoy the Singaporian beauty and hang out with my friend Nicole who I worked with on my last project. Nicole & I did the research together in Ethiopia, Mali, and Switzerland. It will be great to see her and hopefully get a tour of the city.

Leg 6: Singapore to Home – May 11, 2008

This will be the sad leg … but hopefully with the help of my pal Erik Didriksen it may be a comfortable leg back to ORD. Erik has used two of his United Systemwide Upgrade (SWUs) Certificates to put Pete & I on the business class waitlist for our flight on United 896 on a giant 747-400 departing Singapore on Sunday, May 11 at 06:40 and arriving home at ORD at 14:20 the same day.

So that in a nutshell is our 3 week plan … I am so excited to see what the adventures will bring. Hope you all check back frequently for pics and stories from the road.