Yangon, Myanmar

Yangon, formerly known as Rangoon in the British colonial days, is a large city in the south of Myanmar. It retains many beautiful old colonial buildings, as well as lots of new development following the opening of Myanmar to foreign investment.

The people we met in Yangon were very friendly. They dress quite modestly, and the first thing we noticed at the airport is that everyone had their knees covered. Most men wear a longyi, long ankle length wraps. Many women have a clay paste smeared on their cheeks which acts as a sunscreen/ moisturiser/ make up.

We stayed at a guesthouse near the Sule Pagoda. This pagoda was built 2200 years ago, and is now in the middle of a roundabout near the city centre. We had Myanmar-style breakfasts, which consisted of roti bread, curry and a banana.

We met up with Torrey's mate Lachlan, who is an Australian advising the government in economic policy. We had a few beers at a craft beer bar called Father's Office. It is named for the building across the road from the pub, which was the British administrative centre of Yangon, and site of Aung San's assasination. Aung San is a national independence hero, known as the father of the nation. He is also the father of current president Aung San Suu Kyi, although he died when she was 2 years old.

We also visited the famous Shwedagon pagoda, one of the holiest sites in this devoutly Buddhist country. It is a beautiful gold stupa surrounded by smaller stupa and temples.

Hanoi

Hanoi is as crazy as advertised. Lots of people, shops, traffic, you name it.

We have actually stayed in Hanoi three times as a base to visit China and Northern Vietnam. Each time we stayed at the Old Town Hanoi Hotel on Hang Chieu Street. It's one of the most comfortable places we have stayed, with staff that are almost too friendly.

Although heavily geared to getting those tourist dollars, the Old Quarter is a fascinating place to spend a few hours wandering. The daytime heat and humidity is almost unbearable, so this wandering is best done in the evening when the streets come alive with locals doing their business.

The first time we visited Hanoi we were treated to an epic lightning storm and subsequent downpour while out strolling.

The second time we met up with Kiwi friends we met in Dalat, and hit up the bia hoi (30 cent draft beers). We visited Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum where his body lies in state. It is a strange but interesting sight, especially as it is a pilgrimage for Vietnamese people to pay respects to the father of the nation. Apparently he goes to Russia every year for maintenance, where they have experience preserving Lenin and Stalin. He currently looks pretty pasty and wax-like.

The third and final Hanoi trip we checked out some museums, including Hoa Lo prison a.k.a. the Hanoi Hilton. It was built by the French to imprison and occasionally execute subversives. The guillotine is still on display. It ended up being a place where the independence movement was nurtured and solidified amongst detainees. It was used post-independence by the North Vietnamese to imprison American captives, including, famously, John McCain.

We really enjoyed Vietnam. Attached are some photos of some delicious meals we had. Next stop: Myanmar.

Ha Giang

Ha Giang province is the northern most in Vietnam, and by all accounts (including this one) the most stunning mountain passes in the country.

We hired a 125cc Honda motorbike for a 3 day trip. Describing the scenery is beyond my vocabulary, so just look at the photos.

Our first day was marred somewhat by an early crash on a steep gravelly corner. Torrey bravely took some of the impact with his left leg, taking half the skin on his shin and his ankle. Both of us got scrapes and bruised hips.

We managed to find a homestay in the rain and darkness run by two very friendly Vietnamese hipsters. They helped clean up Torrey's leg and Kellie's thigh, and gave us opium wine for the pain. They cooked a mean meal, and we met a couple of Dutch travellers who we convoyed with the following day.

We proceeded with caution and the rest of the drive was incident free. We stopped once to fix a noise coming from the chain- it just needed tightening and oil, and the mechanic charged 10,000 dong (70 cents).

We visited a huge cave, which required some actual caving/crawling to reach an underground lake. We also visited the Vuong Palace. Home to the last ruling family of the northern province. The last king gifted his lands to Ho Chi Minh in the 1940s when North Vietnam's borders were created.

Sapa

We headed back to Vietnam for a week to visit the northern provinces, as lots of people told us that the Sapa and Ha Giang areas are unmissable.

Sapa is a five hour bus ride from Hanoi. We were a bit hungover thanks to a chance encounter with some Kiwi friends, and cheap bia hoi (draught beer for about 30 cents a glass). As a result Torrey got extremely car sick on the windy roads up the mountains.

The scenery is pretty epic in this region- steep mountains and bright green terraced rice paddies. The region is home to ethnic people such as the Dao, H'Mong, Giay and Tay. These brightly dressed people have villages scattered about the mountains.

We visited Cat Cat village, the closest to Sapa. There is a river cascading through the middle which traditionally generated hydro power for their mills which they have left intact even though there is now electricity.

We drove out past Lao Chai and Ta Van villages. The scenery is stunning on this road, and the locals were friendly, but very interested in pestering tourists to buy handicrafts.

The rain was fairly relentless, and the clouds obscured the mountain tops. Therefore we unfortunately didn't get to take the world's longest cable car to the peak of Fansipan (6km long up to a peak of 3000m), as the mist was too heavy.

After a couple nights in Sapa, we spent a night in the town of Bac Ha, famous for its Sunday markets. We didn't buy anything, but then again we weren't in need of any corn, herbal medicines, chickens or water buffalo.

Kunming

Due to poor planning, laziness, and some miss reading of plane tickets, we spent quite a few days in the Yunnan capital of Kunming. It is a nice enough city (with a great temperate climate), but we could have made it back to Vietnam overland if we had of been more organised. We made the most of our time there by exploring the city, including local cuisine. 

We had hot pot, simmering broth in which you cook meat and veg skewers. At one restaurant we had personal pots on small electric hobs, with skewers to choose from rotating on a conveyer belt. 

We also had "over the bridge noodles". This dish is named for a local story where a woman took her husband noodles for lunch each day over a bridge to his workplace. She would mix it up each day by adding in different meats and vegetables. Our noodles came with a dozen odd plates of sides to mix in. If you pay for the deluxe bowl, it all comes served on an actual mini bridge.

We did some sightseeing around the city. There is a large central park where everyone gathers to dance to folk music on the weekend. We visited an ancient temple, where we were a little naughty and decided to liberate a caged wild bird.

This was our last stop before returning to Vietnam, so we have included some photos of Chinese meals we had, and inexplicable knock-off New Balance shoe shops.

Yangtze River

We splashed out on our first ever cruise, three nights on the Yangtze River from Chongqing to Yichang via the three gorges and the biggest dam in the world.

We had our own room with balcony, three buffet meals a day, and evening shows. It was pretty relaxing after a few weeks of long distance travel and communication challenges. There were 400 onboard, including 50 foreigners. We even met a family of Kiwis from a neighbouring suburb in Wellington. Parents Rowena and Stuart were visting son Hamish and partner Claudia who are teaching in Fu Zhou. It was nice to hang out with some friendly Westerners after a few weeks of being pretty isolated without any Chinese skills.

The three gorges were spectacular, even though they have lost some of their grandeur with the dam raising the river level by 80m. The dam is the largest in the world, and is an incredible engineering feat. Whole towns had to be relocated to higher ground.

Each of the three gorges are known respectively as the most beautiful, most magnificent, and most dangerous.

We made a couple daytime excursions from the ship. One to an ancient temple, saved from the elevated water levels by concrete stop banks. We took a small boat to visit a tributary called "Goddess Stream" a.k.a little three gorges. These gorges were as high as the main stem of the river, but more impressive as parts of the gorge were only 30m wide.

The last night of the trip we passed through the locks of the dam. It took about three hours to make it through five stages of locks, although we went to bed after the first one.

Chongqing

We had one night in Chongqing, so we spent an action packed day exploring this enormous city right on the Yangtze. It seemed like a pretty cool city with lots going on. Although it was, to quote Willis McDonnell, "hotter than hell!"

There was a fun cable car ride across the river with excellent views of the city. We quickly found an air conditioned beer bar, with Goose Island IPA on tap! They also had dice, so we got into our favourite dice game Greedy. We stayed at a slightly weird hostel, which seemed more like an AirBNB in a small flat in a high rise tower, but it was interesting to see how young urban Chinese people live.