Vietnam
Cốc Tục

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    • Day 1

      Hanoi

      March 5, 2017 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

      It was goodbye to China and hello Vietnam. First stop...Hanoi. Our hostel is located right in the old quarter so right in the middle of all the action! Our first stroll around we was pretty much dodging the shit load of bikes that zoom past. And the problem is that the bikes are parked on the pavement so there's pretty much no choice but to walk on the roads where the bikes are zipping past. It took us ages just to pop down the road to the shop though there is no 'popping' anywhere in the old quarter. More like slowly maneuvering around parked and moving metal (mopeds). The first impression we got was chaotic and very different to china. Had a very different feel and look and much more Westerners here. The food in Hanoi is good ...unlike china where we struggled slightly with the food. We have ate vietnamese each day...trying the rice noodle, sandwiches and smoothies. Oh and not forgetting the delicious banana pancake we get served for breakfast every morning. We have also done some sightseeing
      ..visiting Hoan kiem lake and the Prison. The prison was very sad but also interesting to hear about some of the history of vietnam.

      Within our Hanoi trip we booked two tours. One to halong bay on a cruise and then to BaBe national park. The cruise was truly amazing! Great food, good facilities and the kayaking was so much fun! Proper was a highlight of our travelling - kayaking and then the lil beach trip in the middle where we got to swim was nice. Overall great experience. The range of food they served us was expansive....had beef chicken and a lot of fish. The prawns were the freshest prawns I've tasted.
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    • Day 29

      Mountains, Waterfalls and Caves

      October 27, 2017 in Vietnam

      So we obviously did not drink enough of the corn wine last night as the firm mattress and sounds of the countryside won against our sleep. Up just after sunrise for a surprisingly hot shower before homemade pancakes, bananas and honey. We said goodbye to the host family and drove even further north, stopping at a village known for forging. We got to watch the blacksmiths at work making knives (with no ear defenders, eye protection, gloves or even shoes).
      Our next stop was the Ban Gioc–Detian Falls, a huge waterfall straddling the Vietnam-China border. It consists of multiple smaller waterfalls creating an impressive display. We were able to walk around and get some pictures before boarding a wooden raft which took us closer until we were in the spray. Long enjoyed borrowing our cameras to take photos before hiding under a lifejacket from the spray.
      Next we were taken to Nguom Ngao Cave, which translates to Tiger Cave as there used to be many tigers in the area and locals believed they lived in this cave. Long took us inside, around a kilometre of impressive stalactites and stalagmites.
      We had a long drive to Ba Be National Park, stopping for lunch and to enjoy the views down Snake Pass. When we arrived in the park Long told us about the ethnic minorities that live within it and how livelihoods have changed from fishing-based to tourism (mostly Vietnamese from the cities). We got to Ba Be Lake where we quickly changed into our swimwear and got a boat out to a small island where we then jumped in for a swim. Long directed us up the island to a place we could jump off from, it was about 5m high but felt more like 50m. It was a great way to cool off and stretch our legs after a long drive. We clambered back into the boat and were taken the rest of the way to our next homestay - Mr Linh's.
      After showering and a beer we sat down for dinner, another array of foods was laid out in front of us, including some purple sweet potatoes and green sliced pumpkin. Once full we headed up to our room to relax and get an early night (the mattress feels a little more promising tonight).
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    • Day 70

      Ba Be Nationalpark

      December 30, 2016 in Vietnam ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

      Wir kamen schon um 3 Uhr morgens in Hanoi an 😥 Es war noch mitten in der Nacht 🙈 Völlig verschlafen quälten wir uns aus dem Bus und machten uns auf die Suche nach einem Lokal. Wir gingen mit unseren Bachpacks zurück zu dem See, da wir hofften, dass dort etwas geöffnet hat. Wir suchten per Offline Map nach Burger King. Aber leider machte Bk erst wieder um 8 Uhr auf und McDonalds oder andere 24h Lokals gab es leider in Hanoi nicht.
      Wir setzen uns dann auf eine Bank im Park bei dem großen See, da wir nirgendwo hin konnten. Gott sei Dank war es in Hanoi deutlich wärmer als in Sa Pa. Trotzdem teilten wir uns meinen Schlafsack und hörten ein Hörbuch, um die Zeit bis 7 Uhr zu überbrücken 🙈 so gegen halb 5 begegneten wir einen gruseligen Mann, der alle paar Meter anhielt und laut in Richtung See schrie 😕
      Gegen 5 Uhr kamen richtig viele Vietnamesen an den See und trafen sich dort, um Morgen-sport zu machen 😂 viele ältere Leute, die kleine Fitnessübungen machten wie die Arme kreisen oder Kniebeugen 😂 es war echt ein witziges Bild den vielen älteren Vietnamesen bei ihrer Morgengymnastik zu beobachten 😂
      Gegen halb 7 gingen wir dann Richtung des Treffpunktes, wo uns der Minivan einsammeln sollte.
      Erst gegen 8 Uhr wurden wir schließlich von einem größeren Minibus abgeholt. Wir waren die Letzten und bekamen deshalb nur Plätze in der letzten Reihe 🙈 außer uns und zwei europäischen Männer waren nur Asiaten im Bus 🙈
      Wir fuhren knapp 4 Stunden bevor der Bus das erste Mal hielt und wir uns anschauten, wie eine vietnamesische Familie meterlange Nudeln herstellte und in der Sonne trocknen ließ.
      Kurz danach, nach einer sehr kurvenreiche Straßen hielten wir in einem Restaurant, wo wir zu Lunch aßen. Wir saßen an einem Tisch mit zwei Pärchen - einem Belgier mit seiner thailändischen Freundin und einem Engländer mit seiner vietnamesische Freundin. Das Essen, was sie uns servierten, sah nicht gerade appetitlich aus. Jeder bekam einer kleine Schüssel mit Essstäbchen und in die Mitte wurde größere Schalen mit Reis, Fleisch etc. gestellt, von denen sich jeder nehmen durfte.
      Das Fleisch war größtenteils sehr zäh, fettig und ungenießbar. Die anderen an unserem Tisch füllten uns immer wieder etwas auf und da wir nicht unhöflich sein wollten, probierten wir alles zumindest. Trotzdem waren Laura und ich nicht angetan vom vietnamesischen Essen...
      Danach fuhren wir nochmal knapp 2 Stunden. Die Landschaft war einfach unglaublich. Viele hohe Berge und tiefe Taler. Es erinnerte mich sehr an Norwegen, nur tropischer und exotischer. Wir sahen auch viele Ackerfelder, die ähnlich wie in Sa Pa durch terrassenförmige Erhöhungen vom nächsten Feld abgetrennt waren 😊
      Wir erreichten dann unser Tagesziel: Ba Be Nationalpark. Wir hielten an einem riesigen See, an dem wir von den Bus in ein Boot umstiegen. Wir fuhren knapp 2 Stunden über den See durch den Ba Be Nationalpark. Der See hatte eine grünliche Farbe und wurde umrandet von riesigen grün bewachsene Bäume 😍 wieder erinnerte mich die Landschaft an Norwegen nur tropischer 😂
      Wir fuhren dann in eine Höhle ein, die das zu Hause von vielen Fledermäusen sein sollte. Fledermäuse entdeckten wir zwar nicht, aber die Tropfsteinhöhle war trotzdem sehr sehenswert 👌
      Auf dem Rückweg hielten wir noch an einem Tempel, der auf einer Insel in der Mitte des Sees stand. Der Tempel war nicht so besonders, aber es war wieder beeindruckend, dass auch die Vietnamesen so viel Wert auf ihren Glauben legen, dass selbst hier ein Tempel nicht fehlen darf 😀
      Anschließend fuhren wir zu einem anderen Bootsanleger, an dem unser Gepäck von Motorroller zu dem knapp 1km entfernten Dorf gefahren wurde. Wir liefen dorthin. Inzwischen war es dunkle geworden und wir entdeckten ein paar Glühwürmchen im Dunkeln 😊
      Im Dorf wurden wir dann in einem Hotel erwartet, welches ganz niedlich war. Wir freuten uns besonders über die dicken Winterdecken, da es inzwischen wieder kälter geworden ist 🙈
      Kurz darauf aßen wir mit einem Teil unser Gruppe im Hotel Dinner. Das Essen war dieses Mal deutlich besser und wir wurden einigermaßen satt 😂 neben den Pärchen von heute Mittag war auch ein junges vietnamesisches Pärchen in unserem Hotel untergebracht 😊
      Kurz nach dem Dinner gingen wir dann auch schon zu Bett, da wir ja bereits seit 3 Uhr auf den Beinen waren🙈
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    • Day 59

      Ba Be Lake

      May 13, 2018 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

      We are so so tired. The Ha Giang Motorbike trip has really took it out of us. We had quite a reasonable lie in but a neighbouring house were singing karaoke all night so we had very little sleep. In the morning we were had plans to do a 15km hike, but it was too much so we decided to take a 4hr boat trip around the lake with the owner of the homestay. It really is the hot season at the moment just sitting still makes me sweat relentlessly!! On the boat it was nice and cool for most of the journey so it was definitely the right thing to do. We even spent sometime planning our next steps!

      In the evening we booked our flight to Malaysia (woohoo we go in 2 weeks) and then had yet another super yummy dinner at the homestay. They grow and catch their own food and it's just super simple and tasty!

      The next day I woke up with once again very little sleep. I know it sounds ridiculous but I'm actually beginning to worry about coming back, getting a job and having a "normal life" again. I think if I hadn't gone through a redundancy it would be fine, but annoyingly it does still upset me. The plan for the day was to get up super early, pack and go for a hike. We had no idea if we could make the bus back to Hà Nội at 1pm or whether we would need to stay another night. It all depends on how long the hike took.

      Well we were up early and began hiking. It was hot, really really hot. I felt really nausea and had to keep stopping. We ended up cutting the walk early and booked our trip back to Hà Nội instead. Our main reason to get back to Hà Nội as soon as possible is to see Svenja again and be guided round by a local!

      So having had only a pineapple we jumped in the minivan, which dropped us off at a boat, which dropped us off at a bus. The bus is an absolute dream!! We have the whole bus to ourselves!!! There is no way this will last for very long. I'm sure he will drop us off on a street corner where we will be picked up by a bus full of people, animals and furniture... let's see...

      Well I can confirm that the bus was empty the whole way! Everytime the bus indicated we held our breath waiting for the driver to tell us to move bus. I honestly cannot believe it! We couldn't sleep for 6 hours as we were just waiting to be randomly kicked off haha how ridiculous. The journey was great and it dropped us off right in the old quarter. I think today is our lucky day as Svenja's friend has a spare room which she has let us stay in too. So we are sat in our cosy room just chilling. We were going to meet Svenja but ended up just going to bed!
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    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Cốc Tục, Coc Tuc

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