Hanoi and Sapa... 

I love Hanoi.. it is absolutely so crazy and fun. You can't walk two steps without having to navigate around a person, scooter, shop stall, hole in the ground. You have to be alert. 

The streets in Hanoi are named after what is sold on the street. This tradition started when folks moved in from the villages. You can find the paint street, the hardware street, lighting street and here.. the christmas street - made all that much more fun given that Christmas is not even celebrated here. 

We revisited that University temple where we were able to wish Mira luck on her exams as people have been doing here for centuries. 

Traffic in Hanoi... Paul taking a picture of me taking a picture of him. 

Sapa 

We decided that we should travel up to the Chinese border to Sapa to hike the rice paddies this time. We have a capable hiker this time. It was good fun. We selected the Sapa Sisters, a group of teenage H'Mong women who have created their own guiding company. This allows the women of the area to gain a better wage for guiding and to cut out the middle men. We were so impressed with the company. We were able to hike off the beaten trail for three days - three very wet days, which made the clay as slick as ice and I managed to get close to nature a number of times. Let's just say, I am not that nibble on my feet! We were very well fed and able to work some muscles. 

Fog rolling in.. 

View from our homestay... 

Our fantastic guide, Mia. She was so amazing. 

This is all we saw of the highland town of Sapa Town. 

Sights in Hanoi... 

Night time in Hanoi... so beautiful. 

Christmas preparations at the Catholic Cathedral. 

We took three different trains in Vietnam, all night trains. We went to and from Sapa and most recently, we took the 16 hour train from Hanoi to Da Nang. We paid the extra for the 'soft sleeper,' which has a mattress but my back tells me that it wasn't that soft... you rock and roll and kind of sleep but the train gets you to where you want to go. We are on the tracks here where our train traveled through Hanoi. As our  train traveled through, we were able to see that every t.v. was trained on the soccer match - Vietnam beat Malaysia to win the Asia Cup... Hanoi went nuts. 

Light street - Hanoi

We have arrived in Da Nang. We had hoped to spend time on the beach and chilling. It hasn't stopped raining, pouring, like monsoon rains since we arrived, so we may have to move along... here is Kate in the swells and rain. While the beaches are beautiful here in Da Nang, they are so terribly polluted with plastics. 

Hotel Breakfast is included... 

Opinion Post: 

Garbage is an issue here. 

In Japan, we couldn't find a garbage can for love nor money. While everything, and I mean everything was wrapped in plastic in Japan (even individually sold bananas), you can't find a garbage anywhere. I don't know what they do with it. 

In Taiwan, the garbage truck would come around with a loud 'ice cream truck like music recording' telling everyone to bring out their garbage. 

Here in Vietnam, the garbage is collected by folks that walk the street late at night pushing a bin but mostly, the garbage gets tossed on the ground. The streets are littered with garbage. Even in the Sapa highlands, there were trails covered with plastics. Beaches, streams and streets are covered with litter. Unfortunately, Vietnam has some work to do here. The big hotels are being built and the country is gearing up for tourism and something will have to give.