Extended Absence

extendedabsence now has a little youtube video to sweeten things up. I shot this quick one last night while my banana crepe was being fried up. At the end he sprinkles on condensed milk and sugar. Yummy.

Did I mention I like street vendors?

On to the second tourist pull of the north! I took a three day-two night tour of Halong Bay on the last three days of 2006. Despite it being clogged with people, this was the highlight of the north for me. There is something very serene about sitting on the top deck of a boat cruising between beautiful islands. On the trip I spent a night on the main island (Cat Ba) which is also home to a national park. The second night was on a boat. I was back in time to celebrate new years eve, but I crashed at 9pm and that was it for 2006. To those that know my sleeping patterns, this will not come as a shock. I'm now done with Vietnam for the next few weeks, I kick of 2007 by flying to Luang Prabang in northern Lao.

If you are into nonstop noise, scooters, dirt, pollution, etc etc, Hanoi is your town. I, am not, so Hanoi became more of a base for me to jump to Sapa and Halong Bay, two very "touristic" (as the Europeans like to say) locations in northern Vietnam.

Sapa was my first stop. It is near the Chinese border in the and was orginally a French Hill station. It is like the Vietnamese sister town of Simla, for those of you who have been to the Himalayan foothills in India. I was in Sapa for a couple days, and got to go on a couple walks to see two villages, one from the Red Yao people, and one from the Black Hmong people. Both these people are indigenous to the area.