Day 5-6: Cat Ba Island

Day 5:

Had a pretty good day today. We did a one day boat cruise from Cat Ba (300,000 dong each) to Lan Ha Bay. The tour included kayaking, a wonderful lunch, swimming and a short, but steep, hike on Monkey Island. Although the hike up Monkey Island was short, I highly recommend you wear good shoes if you plan on attempting this hike as it is very steep and technical, and those in flip-flops definitely struggled. Although we enjoyed our day very much, it reminded us that we don’t enjoy touristy attractions as much as other aspects of travel. Monkey Island felt like a zoo. The monkeys are fed by the tour guides, and have become semi tamed. At the same time they are wild, and dangerous. One man in our group was very nearly attacked by a snarling, vicious monkey who was being teased by a tour guide. The attack was unprovoked by the man, and he had to throw a large rock at the monkey to prevent what I’m sure would have been an ugly event. Another woman was bit while feeding the monkeys, something encouraged by some tour guides (our guide had cautioned us again this, so no one on our boat fed the monkeys).

So do I recommend this tour? Yes. Cat Ba Island is beautiful and a boat cruise is the way to see it. But with continued development of the area, it won’t be long before this island is nothing more than a crowded, party island with beauty that is overlooked by the drunk tourists who enjoy it. Tomorrow we are opting for solo trekking in Cat Ba National Park.
Dinner was at Vietnamese Soul Food again. We wanted to try something different, but no one on our boat of twenty people had anything good to say about the other restaurants in town. So Soul Food it was. And again it was wonderful!

Day 6:

Awesome Day! Much more enjoyable than yesterday. Doing our own thing is definitely our thing. We drove around Cat Ba on the bikes and did the following:

– Lookout Tower Trail. I highly recommend this hike as the views are stunning. Wear good shoes! Park entrance fee is 40,000 dong pp and another 5,000 dong to park each motorcycle. There is free parking at the cafe directly across the street, next to the animal statues. The hike took us 45 minutes up (steep grade) and about 30 minutes down. We met an awesome couple from the Netherlands who we met up with later in the evening for drinks. I think my favourite part of travelling is the people you meet along the way. Everyone has a story and you learn something from everyone you take the time to get to know.

– Truong Tràng Cave. Very worthwhile stop. Take a light if our want to venture through the entire cave. If it’s closed, walk around the gate. The price is included in the National Park fee.

– Ride North to Ben Pha Gia Luan. Beautiful ride to the North of the Island. If you want a really epic adventure, climb the green “ladder” to the radio antenna on the top of the mountain. The ladder can be found approx 200 meters south of the ferry.

– walk or motorcycle to Cannon Fort and enjoy the sunset. Even if it’s cloudy, the views are wonderful.

If you want to do the longer hikes in the National Park, you must start before 10:00 am or you will be turned away. Thank you Chris and Cecile for the tip!

Another option is to do the full day trekking tour to Viet Hai village. This got great reviews from the people we met who opted for this guided tour. Note: you can only do this trek through a guide.

November 5, 2017

Vietnam Day 3 – Egg Coffee & Hanoi Hilton

Another great day in Hanoi, but I am ready to watch the busy streets of Hanoi fade away to be replaced by open road. I can’t wait to get on two wheels!

After spending an hour or so completing our contracts for our rental motorcycles, which we pick up tomorrow, we headed out for our last day of exploring Hanoi.

Today we hit the big attractions:

– Hoa Lo Prison (aka Hanoi Hilton Hotel). You have to check out the prison given it’s historical significance, but it certainly isn’t a highlight. The exhibits largely focus on Vietnamese political prisoners. The most interesting part of the museum is the insight into the Communist Party of Vietnam.

– Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. We watched the changing of the guard at 3:00 PM at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. Note: The HCM Mausoleum and museum are closed Friday’s.

– Tay Ho. We walked 1 km of the 17 km shoreline of West Lake and visited the Tran Quốc Pagoda, the oldest Buddhist temple in Hanoi. Reminder, it is poor taste to wear shorts or sleeveless shirts in a Buddhist temple so dress accordingly.

– Weekend Night Market Old Quarter. A typical street market selling various gadgets, clothes and toys.

– Dong Xuan Market. Crazy experience – worth a walk through of this wholesale goods market.

Great Eats:

– Cafe Pho Co. Egg yolk coffee. Creamy dreamy “Tiramisu” for breakfast? Yes please. Delicious!

– Hanoi Social Club. Foodie guides call out Hanoi Social Club for its funky atmosphere and great food. I can see why it is highly rated as the food is very good, and offers a nice change from the local fare. We feasted on a chicken roti wrap and a tempeh reuben sandwich, both delicious.

– Green Farm. Dinner was at the highly rated Green Farm restaurant in Old Quarter. This restaurant is also highly rated for a reason. The service was outstanding and the food (both Vietnamese and Western) is excellent. Again this caters to tourists, so although very good, lacks the experience of the establishments we enjoyed on our food tour.

– King Roti. Dessert was sweet buns from highly rated King Roti. These delicious buns filled with vanilla (our favourite), chocolate or matcha definitely hit the spot after a day spent walking.

Transport Lessons:

– Uber is by far the cheapest way to get around! 15,000 dong for a 10 minute ride.
So, not going to lie. I am terrified about tomorrow. Watching the utter chaos of driving the streets of Hanoi is mind boggling. Imagine a narrow road – just wide enough for two vehicles to pass. Just wide enough. Not North American wide, I’m talking the width of two cars plus a foot, period. Now imagine three dozen scooters, a handful of cars, several bicycles and pedestrians fighting their way through this street in both directions. No traffic rules, I mean none. You will see scooters driving into oncoming traffic on the wrong side of the street. Vehicles stopping without warning, or cutting directly across the path of traffic. Insane! Yes I am terrified of having to navigate this strange city, on a new motorcycle, with no discernible traffic laws, along with millions of other vehicles. Terrified. But hey, it’s gonna be epic!

November 5, 2017November 5, 2017

Vietnam Day 4 – Two Wheel Fun and Cat Ba Island

Best day ever! After being terrified of motorcycling out of Hanoi, it turned out to be one of the most fun things I have ever done – ever! I was laughing with joy and was utterly amazed at how smooth everything went. It reminded me of why living life epic is so important. I almost let fear win. But by pushing through the fear, I had one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life. I can’t imagine my life’s epic story without this chapter.

Of course it didn’t go perfectly, we had the privilege of sightseeing Old Quarer a bit more than intended (ok, we got lost), but it just added to the fun as we got to spend more time navigating the chaos.

Chaos. You are riding a motorcycle down a street with people coming directly at you by driving on the wrong side of the street (cars and scooters), cars and scooters inches off your motorcycle, cringing through every free for all intersection, dodging pedestrians and cyclists who are also competing for a price of the road, all while trying to navigate your way to the freeway. Epic fun! We did have a few whoops moments. We landed up in the car only lane on the bridge – no one cared. We missed a few turns to Cat Ba, but locals would ride up next to us to point where we wanted to go. Being allowed to ride the wrong way down a freeway turned out to be a great way to double back to a missed turn ( and ever so slightly terrifying).

We left Hanoi at 10:00 am and arrived in Cat Ba at 4:00 PM. This included a few extra turns in Hanoi Old Quarter, a stop on the freeway to find an alternate route before accidentally heading down a City Highway (scooters and motorcycles are not allowed on City Highways, marked in Orange on Google Maps), a stop for gas, a brief lunch stop and a few rough spots due to road and bridge construction. We were able to take the new bridge to dao Cat Hai, which drastically reduces the Ferry time. The bridge opened September, 2017. The new bridge and surrounding infrastructure is not on Google Maps yet, so we relied on the help of fellow drivers who constantly pointed the way for us, without us even asking! The Vietnamese are incredibly friendly, and I have never once felt unsafe (besides driving that is!).

Quite a bit of construction around Hai Phong as Vietnam is investing heavily in making Cat Ba a major tourist destination. New 8 lane highways, bridges and an airport expansion. This made navigating hard and the riding fun! Sticky mud and gravel. Ironically as we set out for a beer after dinner we came across a celebration of Cat Ba’s 2 millionth tourist and 450,000 international visitor. It was an interesting event to witness, and we were “seat fillers”, being encouraged to sit in the VIP section directly behind the guest of honour. The guest of honour, the 450 thousandth international visitor to Cat Ba, was coincidentally the Czech Ambassador to Vietnam. The Vietnamese put on quite a show for him, and he was honoured to be in the “right place at the right time, again” to receive such prestige.

Todays Tips:

– Recommend a motorcycle helmet with a visor. It was very windy today, with dirt and debris from the road plastering us with grime. The visor helped, even wearing sunglasses underneath. I also recommend a face mask if you have a half visor. There is a reason the locals wear them!

– Gas station scam. It’s a good thing my husband is still mad about getting scammed at a gas station in Peru, as he was watching for a scam today. Nothing elaborate, but the gas attendant was trying to short change us by a) not going us change at all b) giving us the incorrect change by assuming we couldn’t tell the difference between 10,000 dong and 100,000 dong.

After settling into our hotel, with incredible views of the bay, off to Vietnamese Soul Food for dinner. A popular and funky restaurant with incredible homemade food. We had the mixed spring rolls, grillled octopus with lemon grass and sea bass with tamarind. All excellent! Better than any meal we had in Hanoi.

November 2, 2017

Vietnam Day 2 – Hanoi Street Food Walking Tour and Scams

Breakfast of dragon fruit, passion fruit and Vietnamese coffee with sweetened condensed milk. Delicious!

One of the big attractions of Vietnam is its food culture. What better way to explore the city and its street food than a street food walking tour. After a light breakfast we headed off to explore the streets of Old Quarter and its salivating street foods with Ms. Moon as our guide (hanoistreetfoodtour.com). It was a fantastic tour and we enjoyed bun cha (BBQ pork), green papaya salad, steam cake, pillow cake, spring rolls, fermented pork, mixed tropical fruits, Hanoi beer, glass noodles or Mien (made of a root vegetable) with octopus cake, egg coffee and apricot rice wine. It was all terrific, with the green papaya salad being my favourite.

First, a lesson on where to eat:

– Look for a certificate on the wall. Establishments with a certificate have undergone local inspection for food safety and offer the same price to both locals and foreigners. The water and ice should be safe for consumption (I.e bottled or filtered water), but I would ask to make sure.

Rice crepe with beef, mushrooms and shallots.

Glass noodles with beef and octopus cake.

Spring rolls, pilllow cake and fried chicken!

Next a lesson on scams:

– There is no such thing as a “free taste”. If offered anything free, say no. The ladies selling mystery fried balls will more or less force a fried thing in your mouth then demand you pay for a bag of these “goodies”. The food tour guide said the locals won’t eat these treats as the source of their grease is a great mystery.

– Watch for men trying to glue or shine your shoes. They will demand money if you stop long enough to let them get a drop of glue on your shoes.

– Watch for the women carrying goods from long sticks. They will take your picture with the stick of goods and demand money.

– Tipping. Although tipping is not customary in Vietnam, people will demand a tip from foreigners. Our masseuse, taxi driver and bicycle taxi driver all demanded a tip. Only the massage ladies were successful.

Next a lesson on etiquette:

– Public displays of affection, such as kissing or holding hands, is frowned upon. It is considered very rude and you may be ridiculed if caught breaking this rule.

– Do your shopping in the afternoon. It is considered bad luck by shopkeepers to lose a sale before noon. It’s okay if you are going to make a purchase, but browsing can bring bad luck to the shopkeeper.

– Always offer and accept gifts with both hands. The rules are slightly more complicated than this (and depend on age), but using both hands is a good rule of thumb.

Next was a lesson on Vietnamese:

– The word “thit” when pronounced correctly is meat. When pronounced incorrectly is f*ck. So don’t go around asking for thit unless you are fairly confident in your language skills.

– Learning “thank you” was equally challenging. I tend to tell people to shut up. The difference is “come on” as an English person would ask you to join them (aka “shut up” in Vietnamese), vs two very distinct sounds “come ung”. To make the “ung” sound you need to stretch your moth into a big , wide smile. Now you got it!

Next was the Long Bien Bridge, the highlight of our day. The bridge was constructed from 1899 to 1903 and is an impressive 1.7 km long. It was designed by none other than Gustav Eiffel. That’s right the same designer as the Eiffel Tower. Today it serves as a major crossing for scooters and motorcycles, and from it the views are incredible. We went at sunset – which I highly recommend.

From here off to Beer Corner and dinner of Nom Thit Bo Kho (green papaya salad with dried beef) from Long Vi Dung on 23 Hoan Kiem. Yum! 70,000 dong (approx $4 CAD) for two delicious salads.

November 1, 2017

Vietnam Day 1

Arrived in Hanoi today, Wednesday November 1st, 2017. Weird that we left on Monday and arrived on Wednesday- missing out on Tuesday (Halloween) altogether!

– Cab ride from airport to the Old Quarter was $18 USD in a nice, clean Toyota Corolla. If the driver asks you for money or a ticket for the toll road, shrug your shoulders. We had no ticket and refused to give him money until we were at our hotel and it wasn’t a problem.

– Air Asiana was great. The service was great, the airplane was clean and the media service was great. Not a bad 30 hour trip at all. We did have to go through security at every transit point, which was odd. Go figure the Canadian’s took away our extra liquids (we were over our 1 quart bag by two small bottles), and no other airport security (USA and Korea) even asked us to remove our liquids.

– Got SIM cards at the gioi di dong – the big yellow store. 3 GB cost $8USD and is good for 30 days. We also added 40 minutes of local calls for 100,000 dong.

– The rooster outside our hotel window doesn’t care what time it is. He likes to remind us of his presence constantly.

– Dinner at Pizza 4P’s and Pho for lunch. Pizza 4P’s really is fantastic! The service was amazing and the pizza with homemade cheese is great!

– Hotel is great – so far all is good! Looking forward to getting on the bikes in a few days!

October 29, 2017

It’s On! Epic Adventure #3 2017 – SE Asia

My husband and I quit our jobs 8 months ago to travel the world. Our first Epic Adventure was a road trip from Alberta, Canada to South Padre Island, Texas. The goal was to avoid the cold Canadian winter by becoming a “Winter Texan”. We spent a few months windsurfing on SPI before making our way back North to mountain bike in Colorado and watch the Salt Lake City AMA Supercross Championship in Utah. Our next adventure was spending 7 weeks in Europe. We motorcycled Ireland, hiked in Scotland, bicycled in the Netherlands, and ate chocolate and drank beer in Belgium.

All of these adventures were great, but something was missing from each. Real Adventure. So we have decided to leave behind the comforts of North America and Europe, and head to SE Asia.

We leave for Vietnam tomorrow – a one way ticket to Hanoi. We are starting our trip by motorcycling around Northern Vietnam, along the Laos and China borders, visiting Ba Be National park and staying in various small villages. After that, who knows? We might try some windsurfing in Mui Ne, might head to the Temples of Angkor Wat. Might just find a beach and do nothing. We have time, a little bit of savings left and a desire for some Epic Adventures to add to our life story. Follow us on Live Life Epic to see where the road takes us!

October 28, 2017October 28, 2017

Live Life Epic – and with Luxury!

Packing Tips – The Luxury Item

You are drenched and cold from riding in the rain. Your bike broke down and you got lost – not in a fun way. Your last meal was something you couldn’t pronounce and it made you queasy. You have to pee.

Your hotel is cold, the sheets are dirty and the outdoor shower seems impossibly far away.

You are miles from home, you are homesick and you are done! What you wouldn’t give to have a real pillow, a piece of toast with peanut butter and an hour of TV.

When you adventure travel long enough, eventually you hit an exhaustion point. A point where your body has seen too many miles, you lack sleep and your body is craving the most bland food imaginable. You are not sure if you want to cry or scream – but you know you want a glass of wine, from a proper glass. You want to be warm – oh remember what that was like? You want a couch and a good book.

This is where your luxury item comes in. Whenever I pack, I pack as small and light as possible. It’s the most practical way to pack when you are travelling on two wheels, in and out of a new hotel/hostel/campground every day and travelling on discount airlines. You also don’t want to take anything with you that would break your heart should it go missing.

But let’s face it, we all have that one thing we just can’t live without. The one really unnecessary thing that adds too much weight, takes up too much space and isn’t really needed. But having it makes you happy. It makes you less homesick, and on those hard days – it’s possibly the one thing that can make you feel like you are back at home, curled up on the couch with a down pillow and a glass of wine.

So every time I pack, I allow myself one luxury item. And when I use this item, I stop to really enjoy it. When we go camping – my luxury item is often our Aeropress coffee maker. I love my coffee. And after an uncomfortable night on a barely there air mattress, nothing is better than a strong cup of good coffee. When we lived on a sailboat for a week, my luxury item was my favourite cotton hoody. It takes up a lot of space, and it’s not wool (which is far more practical on a sailboat), but something about that hoody makes me feel like I am at home, even in the confines of a tiny cabin with a bunch of strangers. When we motorcycled to Yellowstone National Park, my luxury item was my electric toothbrush. We were trying not to have too many electronics that needed to be charged, but I just love how clean my mouth feels after using the electric toothbrush, and so it came.

The concept of the one luxury item started as a way to avoid the eye roll from my husband. There was always one thing I had packed that would prompt him to ask “do you really need that?”. So I invented the concept of the luxury item. If I say “it’s my luxury item”, he knows that arguing with me is futile. He also knows I get just one, so everything else is fair game for an “eye roll sigh”. He also been known to pack his own luxury item and has come around to the fact that we all have that one item that may seem silly to others, but that makes us happy. And if travelling doesn’t make you happy – then what’s the point!

I would love to hear what YOUR luxury item is. Let me know in the comments below. Just try not to make them really awesome, I am only allowed one after all!

Live Life Epic and Luxurious!

October 17, 2017October 17, 2017

Code Words for Travel – Safety Tip

That Funny Feeling

You have been there. You are enjoying your Epic adventure when suddenly, and maybe not suddenly at all, maybe it is a slowly growing unease, something easily ignored at first, and then…something is wrong. You catch a strange look exchanged between two strangers. A crowd abruptly forms around you. Soft, friendly voices turn into loud angry voices, and the anger is directed at you.

Whatever “it” is, you don’t like it. Your instincts are screaming at you to run or be prepared to fight, and “it” can no longer be ignored.

But what if your travel companion missed “it”? They are distracted or out of viewing range. You need to warn them, but “run for your life” seems a little excessive, or could potentially put you in greater danger.

That’s when you use your code word.

My parents taught me a code word from a young age, to be used by any strangers who approached me offering to give me a lift home. If they knew the code word, they had been sent by my parents, and I could trust them. If they didn’t know the code word, I was to run and yell. I never did use that code word, but I will never forget it.

My husband and I came up with the idea to have a code word after an uncomfortable situation in Costa Rica (check out the full story Costa Rica Windsurfing Adventure). We had driven to a waterfall hike that was very much off the beaten path, where tourists rarely venture. On our drive back to our accommodation in Nuevo Arenal, in a small town about an hour drive away, we stopped for dinner. The owner of the restaurant was very kind and quite excited that a couple of Gringo’s would stop at his establishment. We ordered our meals, and the owner insisted that after dinner we spend the night at his home. We politely declined, saying we had plans for early the next day (windsurfing!). Our dinner came and went, but the bill didn’t, despite repeated requests for “la cuenta, por favor”. Next thing we knew the sun was setting, all the other dinner customers had left, and we were surrounded by men. These men were not customers of the restaurants, but were sitting or standing all around us. We asked the owner what was going on, and he said not to worry, they were his friends and family. And that we were to stay the night. My husband threw some money on the table, thanked the owner for the meal and we marched to our truck with purpose, not looking back, and ignoring the pleas to stay.

Both of us were unnerved. We both had an “off” feeling from the time we ordered our dinner, long before the strangers descended upon us. We chose politeness over listening to our instincts. And we agreed not to do that again. We also played the “why didn’t you say anything” game for a bit, but we both knew that with the English speaking restaurant owner never far out of ear shot, we were afraid to say anything to each other about our discomfort for fear of being overheard and branded as rude. So we decided that going forward we would have a code phrase we would use when one of us felt a situation to be unsafe. This served us well in Peru, where I saw imminent danger while my husband was distracted, although in truth the code phrase went out the window and was replaced with “run!”. (Another “swarming” incident while we stopped to take a picture of a statue in Lima. We had ventured for a full day walk around the city to get our bearings and overcome our jetlag when we found a small city square that was home to a beautiful statue. While my husband was distracted looking for our camera in the bottom of his backpack, we were swarmed by 6-7 young men. Luckily a police officer on a motorcycle witnessed the event, and escorted us to safety).

The Code

I strongly recommend that before you travel, you and your travel companions come up with a word or phrase you can use to convey a possible threat. If the threat doesn’t speak English, “run” or “let’s get the hell outta here” may just work. But in more subtle situations and / or where English speaking / comprehending people are present, you may not want to let on that anything is wrong. We like to use a fake person’s name. For example, “We have to get back as we promised to call Fred tonight to arrange a pickup for the morning”. Your travel companion knows that by saying the name “Fred”, you want to get the hell outta dodge! Or in a swarming incident, “Let’s Fred on out of here”. Or your travel companion wants to try out a restaurant / hotel where you have a bad feeling, “I’m pretty sure the place Fred recommended is just up ahead a bit more”. If at a complete loss for a creative way to use your code word in a sentence, just saying “Fred” can confuse outsiders while letting your companions know it’s time to go!

If nothing else – coming up with a code word and example situations / phrases will give you and your friends a little game to play to pass time while sitting in the airport on your next adventure!

Be Epic Fred!

October 15, 2017October 16, 2017

Did a Monkey Pee on Me?

Yes. He did.

Yes, he was a He.

My husband and I were in Iquitos, Peru (one of my favourite places ever! Visit my Peru travel site for more info!). We decided to do a one day tour of Iquitos before starting our Amazon tour the next day. One of the stops was the Quistacocha Zoo. It wasn’t something we would have done, but our guide insisted and so we checked it out. It gets poor ratings for a reason. The animals are kept in very small cages with little protection from humans (and vice versa!). Overall, a sad experience.

But…

One little monkey did catch my eye. He was eating a banana and looked absolutely adorable. He was watching me, and I just had to go over for a closer look. He kept giving me these cute little eyes, as if asking me to be his friend for the day. And I was totally suckered.

Closer I got and closer I got.

Then, he whips out his monkey-hood, and proceeds to touch himself with a hysterical laugh and the look of pure evil delight in his eyes. And he sprayed me. Did he ever spray me. Both he and my husband howled with laughter much to my dismay, but eventually their pure glee won me over, and I had to laugh as well.

Wish we had gotten a better picture of the evil laugh, but here he is, moments before “the incident”. Look at where his right hand is….

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Look at the eyes, not so cute anymore!