JakerVibe06

The text from this point on is unedited thoughts on the page from my journal. Apologies in advance for the poor structure, punctuation, grammar and spelling.......



















Taxi to Airport from Saigon to Hanoi. Driver turned on Ace of Base "It's a Beautiful Life". Proper omen and optimistic sign of times to come. Since living in Asia I know now where all the one hit wonders go. Still alive and kicking right here!

Flight delayed. Arrive in Hanoi at 2:30am. Haggle cheap taxi. Drunk dudes. Tried to rip me off.

To Melia Hotel to Meet Anne's friend Lena to pic up my train tickets. Woke her up, felt bad. I was so tired I forgot to pay her. paid her next day and gave a bottle of wine as well. Got tickets and had to find a hostel in the dark. Entire city shut down. Found a place and had to wake them up to get in. 8 USD slept till about 10am next day.

Tofu, rice noodle and herbs breakfast. Funky viniger and duck blood sauce. 10,000 VND.

Full day tour, American B-52 crashed in lake and made into memorial, Pagodas, ethnology museum, pottery makers, lakes. Back to hostel for my pack, brushed my teeth and on to train station.



















Xe Om (motorbike driver all day) changed the price we agreed on at last minute. Got other Vietnamese guys to shout at me. Don't know what he told em. Ripped off 400,000 VND. Never again!

Board train followed by some crazy guy onto train. Vietnamese seem to just let the riff raff come and go as they please. Crazy bum on a train trying to steal my stuff, wounded beggers in restaraunts and loud drunk dudes with a giant turtle in a bag at the climbing gym. (yeah)!


9hr train. Air conditioned soft sleeper. Easy. Meet a nice guy from Isreal. Looked exactly like a guy I went to college with (Matt Bird). Funny. Metal squatter toilet with no door. Good to be a guy for this one....




















Arrive groggy 5am-ish in lao Cai. Small bus into Sapa 25,000 VND. First glimpse of mountains and Hmong tribes walking around in the hills. (excited not tired anymore)

Found a guest house. 10USD and had to share with someone I would meet later.

No shower, quick breakfast and onto hike. To Cat Cat village. passed through around 7am. locals getting set up for the day, oxen, kids with no pants and a 2 hour long trek through the forest following a river.

Super sunny. Hot. Swam in clean river. Coldest water ever swam in. Jumped in muscles froze up and all air left my lungs. River runs from china and eventually meets up with red river into Hanoi/ Halong bay.



















Peacful, happy, relaxed!

Trail ended, back through Cat Cat and further into valley past sapa/ plantations. 6hr trek through mnts/ valley. Amazingly beautiful. Several breaks. LOVE.....

Pat/ Vu great duo. Western guy and Hmong girl. he was on a 3 day homestay trek with her. Only westerner I saw all day. Good Feeling....Modern chaos and now, right now these people are living simple and true to root lives tending crops, water managment and craft.



















Had to find a road again. Steep tiring hike. found a road and took Xe om back to Sapa. 30mn nap. rented a motorbike. Fog, rain couldn't see. cold and muddy. Maybe tomorrows ride will be better.

Beer, food sleep. I love pizza.
To Bac Ha tomorrow.





















































Night walk in sapa. hazy, sillhouettes creeping through town and glow of shop signs. surreal. Meet Be and Chi, Hmong girls. Taught them what emotion means. Back to room meet Sebastion my French roomate. Cool guy. I don't know what it is, but when I travel some how I always get paired up with Frenchmen. Always turns out good. Really funny guy. He lives in Hanoi. Told me about the Minsk bike. I will rent one tomorrow to carry me through the rest of trip. %10 Oil to petrol when re-fueling.


















7am leave Sapa. First try on Minsk, stalled alot. Down for 1st, up for 2nd and 3rd and half click up for neutral.

It was a champion through mnts. Loud Comfy. Sapa-Lao Cai cool and foggy 38km. Lao Cai-Bac Ha Hot and sunny spectacular lowland plantations 75km.

Bac Ha arrive Hostel 60,000VND 4usd. Found out no atm's in Bac Ha and only have 400,000 to last me three days....Interesting!


Raining. just noticed my sunburn from trekking yesterday.

Bought an umbrella 25,000VND/ rain walk. baby frogs everywhere! Think I stepped on a few. 2hrs. ooops

















Rain cleared, bike to Ban Pho Flower Hmong Territory. Too muddy for bike. parked and hiked 3-4hrs. Lush Quiet small shacks. (clean). Valley vista/ plantations and small village. Only sound of daily activity. Someone playing flute. Icing on the cake. Seemed to echo for miles.



















Back to bike. Drove north as far as I could. Almost to China border. Could see it and ran out of gas. Coasted the rest of the way down mnt to Bac Ha 12km or so.

I'm Muddy!

Dinner. Jolly old couples everywhere. great. ask a Brit to say fantastic its fantastic.

Really good sleep! Hot Shower. woke naturally at 6am. Quick breakfast and onto market. Rain. waited under tarp. meet Gabriella (Swiss) Rain stopped and walked market with her for 2 hrs.


















Muddy, but extremely vivid with color and noise. riverside. textiles, farm tools, veggies and meat. Many food stalls specializing in entrails. (yummy). intestines, horse mouth and testicles in the morning does a body good.

Purchased some goods limit 180,000 VND. dropped goods at guest house.(great stuff)

Gotta good video of the market. ask and i can email it.


















Bought some fruit and water went for 2-3 hr hike. Villages flower Hmong. followed river out of Bac Ha. All dirt roads lead to someone's house/ farm. not ever-continuous like in sapa. lots of turn arounds. Area is so much more green here than Sapa. More growth. sapa still tilling and planting. Things are all near ripe here.

















Xe Om back. Inspired by textiles. natural fabric hemp/ cotton and natural dye, fruits, seeds flowers etc. Could really start something. Brand based off sustainable material grown and crafted by Hmong. Naturals w/ electric quality look and color. (bold graphics and patterns). printed t's, head wraps, scarves, mittens and socks w/ style. Buy goods here and alter later. (backing and finishing)

















Could do the same in many countries. travel for work, learn diverse techniques to garment making.

The little amount of Vietnamese I speak came in handy today. bartar directions etc. feelin local.

I love my umbrella tool!

Lunch at Cong Fu. Great food, fried rice with veggy and mushroom 10,000VND staple.

nap-------

walk again for 2hrs. Nice people on this walk. (except) Usually wandering aimlessly gets me into some great experiences, it has this entire trip except this walk. Came to the edge of a village and saw that I could cut through a mud pit/ construction site development or go back the way I came. Of course I chose mud pit. Mud no longer amuses me! My shoe came off a few times. tractors, trucks exhaust and mean barking dogs.

Not sure if I have a subconscious fear of dogs or if its only in strange places, but I've been letting these alpha dogs show their alpha this entire time. Oh well. Grrrrrrr.....

The tourists have left (20 or so). town back to the way it used to be. descolet. I'll drive back to Sapa early tomorrow. Or after rain stops.





















Life in Bac Ha: (sunday market)
Hmong seem to trade crop w/ other Hmong and even Vietnamese restaraunt owners. sell crafts for cash. cash for modern medicine, tools and other stuff. Quite interdependent here....

As much as I hate tourists I am one myself and I feel it is 60% good for the culture. Brings revenue and a social venue for each other once a week. They seem happy. Though some (not all) it seems to poison their minds. They can get greedy and mean. I can understand the drive, when a plump rosy cheeked westerner with clean white nike's and a $2,000 Nikon hanging from his neck is fighting for his 3 cents cheaper price it could be a bit much.

















This is why I always like nature best. This trip has been great for that. I can push my body to the limit hiking. Every corner is a new sensory feast. the air is clean, sweet smelling and silent. And all day the only thing I say to anyone is hello, and thats to a montagnard that cares only to motion a greeting and move on. This gives me clarity and contentment. I can tell.

When I actually am talking in english to people, outcomes perfect sentences with carefully chosen words. Which for those who know me never happens. Its usually a ring around the rosie with adjectives and stutters. I make me smile.

Having this downtime is great. I never write.

Peoples skin here is so smooth. Must be the organic diet (hmong that is) Vietnamese have just as much acne and wrinkles as the west. Well thats not entirely true. I can think of a few times in HCMC when a local has told me his/ her age and have been blown away. Dunno, aveda should capture the gene and sell it for millions.

















I like when tourists wear the things they've just purchased.

I like watching little kids play games they've invented and trying to figure it out.

I like that vietnamese hold hands and lock arms when they walk in public. men and men, women women, groups linked together etc.

I like that most people here sing in public. loud and good too! Seems no one does that in the states, just rappers and crazy people. Humming and whistling sure.

















I think style-wise I prefer the Black Hmong & Dzao. Flower appears Peruvian almost (which is very nice) but it takes attention to detail to work such cuts, layers and gender/ status specificity into fairly conservative clothes. Dark color/ detailed up close. Many ways to wrap/ fix the hair. many hats too. mostly the round box kind though.

Flower Hmong I thought was a giant color clash, but quickly realized that was impossible because every color in the spectrum was woven in. even the fleuro end of the space color wheel.


















Always when I travel my feet are the last priority. just means of transportation I guess. Lost footwear, barnacle lascerations, barefoot from north to south malaysia by bus, mud, snow, frostbite and one long ass middle toe taboot. Cori laughs at it.

Cori is gonna love her stuff. It's so nice to buy her things. She is always so genuine in how much she appreciates it. And completely blunt when she doesn't. I love that realness.


I miss her as I always do after time apart. Well needed time apart. I don't know why but I go a little stir crazy when I'm around someone too much. Even the people I love most. I hope they understand. I'm sure they do, when I return and squeeze the air out of them and talk their ears off.

Another memory of Cori. the weekend I went to see her in Superior. 1st time really meeting under sober and in person circumstances. I had a slide show of my first trip to Asia (GEEK!) but at the moment she wasn't into it. She just wanted that moment. So she showed me some rocks and we lay on the floor and talked about stuff. How rocks form over the years, music, our parents. I brought a case of beer and we only drank 2 the entire weekend. good sign.

She hates the word "so" in written english its cute........

I need to take more pictutres of engrish signs.

Night in Bac Ha...

















I take back that comment about this town being descolet. It is anything but. Joy riding motorbikes around the small town, video games, karaoke, corn wine, plum wine and tobacco bong hits. Take part in did I? Hell yes. walked around town. nice light. can see mountains and clouds by moon. sat and ate barbacued yams and eggs w/locals. they bought. Strong tobacco, lasts about 15 minutes. not high just more aware.

Wish every night before bed was like this. In Bac Ha. Explored late into the night. Only westerner in town. For miles in that case. Could be happy never leaving this night. I feel alive!

Natural wake up at 6:48 am. total blue bird day! not a cloud in the sky. perfect for the drive back to Sapa. banana pancake and coffee breakfast. Onward. Coasted down in neutral the whole way. save gas. great view. ran out of gas at the base of the mnt and coasted into a gas station. perfection again! Drove slow, no rush. Saw 2 bad accidents on the ascent to Sapa. eek. Super fun rally up the mountain. Speedy in 3rd.

















Turned a corner fast into a heard of ox, dodged a couple and came really close to one who was looking to his right. Just as I passed he looked left and his giant sharp horn brushed my right arm. Holy shit! escpaed a near chest hook going 30 mph. Fwew.

Made it to sapa. only a few wispy clouds at the peeks. Hands sunburned from drive. only $6 left. went to guesthouse where renting bike from. The bike and I were super muddy and I had my pack on. people were looking at me like where has that dude been. Dropped everything off and walked. found an ATM that worked. OOOowweeee back to financial hydration. I got lunch right away. veggie curry. largest portion I ate all trip. skipped lunches in Bac Ha.

walked more. down toward Lai Chau and Tran Tom pass. Hiked a steep hill to get a 360 panorama. Nice. Played my mouth harp twang thingy for a bit and enjoyed the view. Gotta good video of this. ask and i can email it.

changed. bus to Lao Cai at 4:30. 8:00 train. Now in Lao Cai two tear dining hall outside train station. This place is fucking Loud!!!! Can tell my ears have been lapping up the silence for a few days. Hundreds of Vietnamese getting drunk and feasting in one place can reach such a high pitched chaotic note that your brain seems to dissolve inside your head. I'm leaving.

New place half the amount of noise. ate with a family. ok. minibus meet aemrican dudes andrew and scott. living in Bangkok. Kid puked. Vina accident ampitheatre. Can't wait for Air Con berth.

Power went out on train. Hot and smelly. super..... arrived in Hanoi 4-5am ish... irritable

woke same people up at hostel. full rooms. they let me sleep on the couch and use the bathroom in the morning. refreshed.....

















Hanoi looks really nice in the morning sun. (Old Quarter) Talked with a stamp and relief print maker. cool stuff. ate a Pho Ga breakfast. (chicken soup). Best Pho Ga I've had. I'm coming back for dinner. It's rediculous. MMMmmmmm.































Thats all folks. One of the best trips I've had. hope you enjoyed the random commentary and photographs. I hope to update you with my bag portfolio so ya'll can see what I've been designing for almost 1 year in SE Asia. I know I've been saying that for a while, but the catologues are almost finished. soon there will be pictures worthy of showing. Messenger and laptop bags, stay tuned.....

Cheers

jake