Free wine and water puppet theatre?

January 24th, 2002 at 12:00am

So, I decided to spend another day in Hanoi to figure out a bit of a plan and buy more layers of clothing…yesterday I bought a fleece, a hat, and a pair of gloves and I felt MUCH better about being here after that. I am still wearing socks with the Chacos though – although they have tons of stores with fake Nike and Adidas sneaks I have not actually bought a pair yet. I could still kick myself for leaving my sneakers in Bangkok!

Yesterday I was having a coffee and met some really nice girls that had just come from the north so I was eager to hear about their experience. They had been climbing on Fansipan (Vietnam’s highest peak) and they told me all about it – a wet, muddy, poorly maintained trail with no views at the top and very average food (just another day on the Appalachian Trail, right – hah!).

Yeah so I’m thinking about doing it but I am going to take the train up there and see what the weather is like. Don’t know if I can handle anything much colder than Hanoi! Tomorrow I am taking a bus out to Halon Bay on the coast then I’ll come back Saturday and take the overnight train to Sapa in the far north of Vietnam, just 3 km from the Chinese border. Holy remoteness! It sounds beautiful though – in my guidebook Sapa is described as having’hillsides covered in terraced rice patties resembling giant staircases.’

Last night I met up with the girls I had met earlier in the day…actually they had mentioned a wine tasting event near the Sofitel which is a five-star hotel in Hanoi so I went into reception and asked about where it was and they pointed me to the pool area where these Korean businessmen were having an open-bar private party so I scored a few free glasses of red wine there before finding my friends for real. Two of the girls had just come from 2 months in China and another two had come from 2 months in Nepal so there were a lot of good stories going around. Fun evening with good people.

I am now off to see some real live authentic water puppet theatre in town – supposed to be quite a show. Then it will be an early night so that I can be on the 7am bus tomorrow…

Water Puppetiers

Entry Filed under: Hanoi,Vietnam