The Final Flight...

... the flight home, has been booked! And it made me sad. When I pushed the 'Confirm payment' button, I realized I had held my breath, and the world froze for a few seconds. Oh, no!

Of course, I knew the day would come soon, it just came sooner than expected! We could not get our boarding passes to the flight from Sydney to Auckland without having a confirmed flight out of New Zealand within the next three months, so it had to be done. Andy was on the computer next to me, so we could coordinate the bookings.

March 4th it is, but you can only whisper it, as I don't want it to know! Until then, we are going to have a blast here in New Zealand.

Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park

The flight from Hanoi to Dong Hoi took just over an hour. Even though the distance is just over 500km, it would have taken us 10-12 hours by bus or train.  We were told that in Vietnam, the average speed by bus or train is about 40km per hour. The train trip would have cost almost the same as the flight, and the bus would have been much cheaper, but we just didnt feel like going on a sleeper bus, and wasting all that time.

The driver from Phong Nha Farmstay (PNF) met us at the airport, and took us the 35km to Cu Nam village. The Farmstay overlooks an ocean of rice paddies, run by a very nice Australian-Vietnamese couple, and a great base for activities in the park.

We walked around the village, and thoroughly enjoyed not being asked to buy anything; a very welcome change. A couple of children came running and showed us some crabs they had caught, and people shouted 'Hello' as we walked by. Rural Vietnam is great.

THE PARK

The park was designated a Unesco World Heritage site in 2003, and contains the oldest karst mountains in Asia, formed around 400 million years ago. There are 300 caves and grottos with a total length of about 70 km, of which only 20 have been surveyed by Vietnamese and British speleologists. In 2009, a team redisovered the largest cave in the world, Son Doong. It had been originally discovered in 1990 by a Vietnamese man named Ho Khanh, who stumbled on the cave , while looking in the jungle, for the rare and valuable wood of the Aloe tree. By law, the cave allows only 84 tourists a year. The price for a 6 day trip into the cave is a whopping $3,000, so totally out of our league! It is huge, it is over a kilometre from one side to the other, and can easily fit in several NFL size stadiums.

PARADISE CAVE

But the Paradise Cave was in our league! We were the only people going on the trip (luxury), and we agreed to do the 40km to and from the cave on the back of motorbikes. It was a fun experience. 

It was a bit Jurassic Park (without the dinosaurs), to go on the golf cart to the cave entrance at the base of the mountain.

This cave only opened to the public in 2011, and it extends for 31.4km. It is said to be the longest dry cave in the world. The cave is really breathtaking,with its cathedral-like space full of colossal stalagmites.

And glimmering stalactites of white crystal resembling ice sickles. 

When we reached the end of official part of the cave, our two guides gave us headlamps, and we went through the gate into the darkness leaving all the tourists behind. A couple of them wanted to join us, but they had not paid for this part of the trip! It was amazing walking another 3km into the cave being shown all sorts of amazing formations. 

Cave man......?

We then sat down for lunch, carried into the cave by one of the guides. The chicken, spinach, and rice were still warm. At some point, we were told to turn off our headlamps and keep walking; the darkness was claustrophobic, and we totally lost sense of direction, but what an experience. Due to heavy rain the river in the cave was too high, so we could unfortunately not do the boat ride another 3km into the cave on the river, so we headed out again.

It was the most amazing cave we have ever seen. We also realized that we had the inner portion of the cave totally to ourselves. This is very rare according to our farmstay hosts, as usually there are many tour groups, with lots of flashlights, in the inner portion of the cave. Lucky us!

Change Of Plans

Originally, after Vietnam we had planned to travel to Cambodia, Hong Kong, Macau and Hawaii before heading home at the end of January. But at the end of our time in Nepal, Andy said

'I think we should go to New Zealand'.

Dorte argued that our 8 nights in the Amalfi coast had exceed our budget (820 Euros for the apartment alone), as had the month in Jordan due to lack of public transportation, and the flight tickets would be expensive. We hadn't booked any part of the remainder of our trip, and the more we discussed it, the more we got excited about the possibility. On the sleeper train from Sa Pa to Hanoi we shared a berth with a couple from New Zealand, and that was too much of a coincidence for us to ignore (that good karma we learned about in Nepal)!

When researching flight tickets to Auckland, we found that it wasn't as expensive after all - around $700 per person, and when we also discovered we had reward points enough to fly from Auckland to Vancouver, the excitement reached new hights!

But the living costs would still be higher than the average of $50-60 dollars/person (or less) a day we were living on in Asia...... We could do some more volunteering to cut down on accommodation and food costs for a week or two, but most of the opportunities were farming, and our experiences at the hazel nut farm in Italy taught us our bodies ( and backs) are not young enough for that type of work!

As it is summer in New Zealand in December, and Christmas, many people go on vacation, and Dorte suggested that maybe we could try to house babysit. That would probably entail looking after a cat, dog or other pet,  but we

- would stay put for a while

- be able to cook our own food

- drink tap water (you can't believe how you feel about bottled water after 5 months)

- spend Christmas in a house and not another hotel room

- would stay for free

Sounded like a good plan... We researched many housesitting websites, and decided to sign up with HouseCarers.com for a fee of $50 for one year. We put up our profile, and read the list of available jobs over Christmas. and there were quite many. We applied for three positions: one without pets (our priority #1), one looking after a rabbit ( a cutie named Stanley), and one looking after a cat. 

So, as you might guess, we were successful, and will be housesitting in a three bedroom house in Auckland from December 16 to January 24. There are no pets to have responsibility for - just the house and the garden, which gives us much more freedom to explore during the day! The funny thing is, and maybe that is why we got the job among 14 other applicants, the owners are going to Vancouver to visit their son, and he lives in Burnaby, where Andy teaches!

Once done with the housesitting, we will rent a car or a camper-van, and travel around the rest of the country before heading h... (don't say that bad 4 letter word!) at the end of February!

Ha Long Bay - The Descending Dragon

We got picked up at our hotel and driven by minibus the 180km and 5 hours to Ha Long Bay, where we boarded the Christina Cruise Ship.

Ha Long Bay consists of more than 2,000 islands rising from emerald green waters, and it is very beautiful, even on a rainy day.

Ha Long means 'where the dragon descends into the sea', and the legend claims that the bay was created by a great dragon. When it charged towards to coast, it's flailing tail gouged out valleys and crevasses, and when it finally died and plunged into to sea, the area filled with water, leaving only the pinnacles visible. It was designated as a World Heritage site in 1994, and is dotted with wind- and wave-eroded grottoes. We visited the Hang Sung Sot cave (Surprise Cave), which has three huge chambers, and is very impressive.

Somebody is hiding in the karst, and only the feet are visible!

Then it was time for a visit to TipTop island for a hike up to the viewpoint, 

a kayaking trip among the karsts,

and a swim! for some! The air was 20C and the water 22C (according to a German tourist with a thermometer).

Back on board the ship we had a nice dinner, and then it was time for some squid fishing - we didn't catch any!

The following morning we visited a pearl farm, and it was interesting to see how they insert the 'seed' into the oyster, 

put it back in the ocean, and 'harvest the oyster 18 months later. They only have a 30% success rate - no wonder pearls are expensive.

We checked out of our cruise ship, transferred to a smaller boat and sailed to Cat Ba Island. Here we went for a bike ride in Cat Ba National Park, which was fun and very beautiful.

We biked through villages, and this lady is grinding something.

We spent the second night at Nam Cat Resort on Nam Cat Island, which is 

located in a secluded and isolated cove, and wonderfully peaceful.

Andy went for a swim, and we relaxed the rest of the day in these spectacular surroundings.

We got picked up by the boat the following morning, sailed back to Ha Long Bay, boarded the minibus, and was back in Hanoi in the afternoon.  It was an action-packed trip, and still time to relax and enjoy. Should you ever come here, we definitely recommend doing a 3 day/2 night tour and spending the second night at Nam Cat Island for a taste of paradise.

Sa Pa - A Two Day Cultural Trek With A Homestay

It was quite a spooky scenery when we started our trek,

but soon we were beneath the clouds and could see the valley and the way forward.

The hands of the Hmong women following us never stopped working, and we were given gifts of nature on the way - they were very creative!

Creativity from natural materials

We walked through a school in Y Linh Ho village, and it was fun to see the children playing like we used to.

Playing the good old way

The Hmong build their own houses of materials found in the area such as wood, bamboo, rattan and rock, as it is abundant. They don't have sawmills, so all the wooden beams are cut and smoothed using hand tools and carried out of the mountains by 2 people, often over distances of 20 km or more. Lots of labour with zero cost. Sweat equity at its best! The big branch outside this house is a sign telling that outsiders are forbidden to come in because there is someone ill in the house. It is the sign that the sorcerer has driven the evil spirit out, and it can return along with the outsiders, and make the person sick again.

It takes about three years to built a house using mostly local materials.

Each house and each room has a ghost, and offerings such as pigs and chicken are made regularly, For example, if an unexpected guest turns up everyone must keep silence because the ghost would not dare to eat if hearing a strange voice. In the next 3 days the mistress has to sleep on the floor and must not sweep it to keep the ghost from running away.

The daily commute

We stopped for lunch in Lao Chai, and were quickly surrounded by women trying to sell us their goods; it was quite overwhelming, as they were very persistent. Luckily  the 2 Canadian girls from Toronto each bought something, so that got us off the hook!

'Hello, where are you from? Would you like to buy this...?'

We reached our home-stay in Ta Van village, which has a nice location by the river and overlooking the rice fields.

We stayed at the big house to the left of the trail

It was early afternoon, and we went for a walk to explore the area on own, and to check out the Charm Destiny Spa recommended by Tim, our guide. Andy had a Swedish massage, and Dorte had a facial with local products. Each massage was an hour long and cost only $20 each! Must get one more before we leave Vietnam for New Zealand!

Luxury with a heating fan!

On the way back to the home-stay we meet people coming home from work. The basket is home made woven of bamboo and rattan.

A day at work

Back at the home-stay we got put to work as we learned to make spring rolls!

Using banana leaves as a plate

This is the kitchen at even though the conditions are primitive compared to our kitchens, the food was great. 

Our guide was also educated as a Chef

Our host barbecuing pork

The 'boys' had several rounds of toast as is local custom, with 35% homemade apple and rice wine. Andy had a smoke from the bamboo pipe, and the tobacco was very strong. 

Cough, Cough, Cough!!

They are cultivating rice, barley, vegetables and corn, and they corn is drying inside the house.

Home decoration by nature. Real homemade popcorn anyone!

We had great fun playing with the son of the house.

Very cute with a great imagination!

The following day we hiked through rice fields; admittedly we were not as impressed (becoming spoiled!) as we had  already seen them in Nepal!

A slippery slope (foreshadowing-see 2nd pic below)!

But the bamboo forest was a new adventure for us, and interesting to walk through.

Happy hiker

Ouch!

This boy below is trying to make a fire, maybe to impress his girlfriend! Look at the way he is crouched into the rocks! Asian have amazing flexibility!

Determination at work

These two Hmong women had walked with us all day. They often helped Dorte down the slippery muddy steep hills, and didn't leave her alone after her fall. They spoke English quite well. As we were not interested in buying anything from them, we asked to have a picture taken with them, and paid them for it - they were very pleased, even though you wouldn't know!

The Team

We were driven back to Sa Pa by minibus, and were happy to find a place which served hot wine, and a fire to warm us up.

A taste of Christmas

A Visit To Cat Cat Village, Sa Pa.

Sa Pa is located 350 km northwest of Hanoi, very close to the Chinese border, and it took 11 hours by sleeper train to get there. We had a 4 berth to ourselves, and it was nice to be vertical, but we didn't get much sleep due the bumping and rolling of the train! This is Andy at 6:40 am!

At Lao Cai station we were met by a guide, and driven the 35 km up to Sa Pa, located at 1650m above sea level. Unfortunately, the city was covered in clouds and it was misty and raining, and it stayed like that during the 4 days we were there. We had a nice welcome at the Casablanca Hotel, and after breakfast our guide talked to us about the program for the next 3 days. 

As soon as we left the hotel we were surrounded by local women greeting us, and asking where we were from. They were not trying to sell us anything (yet). Our guide, Tim took us through the local market where you can by some for us unusual things. Worms for dinner anybody?

and interesting medicinal drinks......

Yes, they do eat dog meat in Vietnam. No, you won't see a picture!

Followed by the Hmong women we walked down the valley to Cat Cat village, which is inhabited by the Black Hmong minority. There are around 800,000 Hmong people in Vietnam, and they have successfully preserved their language an many cultural traits, both physical and non-physical, defying changing environmental and social conditions.

They are really living off the land, and hard working people. They take the bark of the hemp tree and also uses flax fibre, and twist it by hand into thin strings used for weaving. Along the way, many of the local women following us were spinning flax fibre as they walked. Flax clothes is 3-4 times more durable than cotton.

They pick leaves from the indigo tree, and colour the cloth over many times to give it the blue colour. Andy bravely tested the colouring of the leaves, and had a memory of it for several days after!

To make patterns, they use melted bees wax to draw their chosen pattern on white flax clothes, which they then dye many times to get the desired colour. Then they dip the cloth in hot water to melt the wax, which leaves patterns on the cloth.

The Black Hmong sow colourful patterns on string of clothes and sow it on their clothes. Every time we took a break on the hike, some women pulled out their embroidery and got to work. 

The animal and the children roam free.

Primary and secondary school are free for the minority children, and they learn their mother tongue, Vietnamese and English in school. They will have to pay for going to university. We were pleased to see so many schools in this area.

We then continued further down the valley to see a waterfall, and then made our way back up to Sa Pa in the clouds. 

An enlightening day.