First stop was Hanoi, Vietnam.  Walking around Hanoi proved to be pretty hard work; you couldn’t walk along without tripping over the sizzling pan or bubbling cauldron of a street food vendor or bumping into a long row of parked motorbikes!  If walking along the road was difficult then crossing it was near impossible!  The road was full of erratic speeding  motorbikes and on first sight Rach suggested that we not cross any roads at all!  That would have restricted our sightseeing somewhat however, so we had to go for it, and it went something like this:

• Wait patiently for a break in the traffic
• Realise there is never going to be a break in the traffic
• Say a quick prayer
• Take a deep breath and step out into the road right in front of hundreds of oncoming motorbikes
• Walk slowly and steadily across the road hoping that, as you have been told they will, the swarm of bikes will all avoid you
• Breathe a sigh of relief as you reach the other side

So far so good, until the next time anyway!

One Pillar Pagoda, Hanoi

Old Quarter Street, Hanoi

Snake wine

Hanoi was great fun but it tired us out after a couple of days, so we splashed out on a luxury cruise around Halong Bay on a Chinese Junk.  As we relaxed on the sun deck with a beer and cruised around the 3000 or so limestone islands we felt like we were in the Bond film “The Man With The Golden Gun” but as I’m sure all you know that was actually filmed in Phang Nga Bay in Phuket.  Although the word on the street here is that Halong Bay is much more spectacular.  We certainly thought that it was very magical and mysterious, especially around sunset.

Junk

Halong Bay

Halong Bay

Halong Bay

Halong Bay by moonlight

Feeling refreshed we took a sleeper train north into the mountains near the Chinese border.  We visited the rural hill village of Bac Ha for its colourful Sunday market, then, resisting the urge to buy a cheap Water Buffalo or a couple of pigs, we headed deeper into the mountains to the rice growing region of Sapa.

Bac Ha Market

Bac Ha Market

Water Buffalo for sale

Flower H

Sheltering from the rain, Bac Ha Market

We hired a local guide who took us on an amazing trek through the lush green rice fields.  It was planting season so we got to see the people from the local hill tribes strengthening the terraces and planting the rice.  This in itself looked like hard work, then add that the women all wore their full traditional dress, and often had a baby strapped to their back.  It was very impressive.

We stayed the night with a local family in one of the remote hill villages.  It was really interesting to see how a rice farming family lived, to eat dinner with them, and then share a few glasses of rice wine!

Rice terraces, Sapa

Rice terraces, Sapa

Mountain village

Rice planting, Sapa

Endless task

Enjoying a kitchen without other peoples dirty pots and pans!

We decided a turkey dinner didn´t quite fit with the heat and humidity of Buenos Aires so instead we chilled ourselves a bottle of champagne and headed out on a christmas picnic.  On boxing day we kept up the christmas spirit  with a trip to the cinema to watch Scrooge in digital 3D.  Unfortunately in our excitement we forgot to check the language and had to sit through the entire film in Spanish – at least the 3D special effects were good!

We used the normal void between Christmas and new year to explore the city.

Puerto Madero

Plaza de Mayo

Street art, San Telmo

Antiques, San Telmo market

Browsing at San Telmo antiques market

Floralis Generica (The petals even close at night!)

Evita´s Grave, Recoleta Cemetery

Recoleta Cemetery

Impressive graves at Recoleta Cemetery

Madres de Plaza de Mayo

I had hoped to watch some futbol while in Argentina but unfortunately the season finished in mid December so I had to be happy with just a tour of the Boca Juniors stadium (Maradona´s old club).  Rach didn´t understand the passion and history involved, so mumbling something about not paying good money to look at an empty stadium, went off for a wander around the colourful streets of La Boca instead!

Boca Juniors stadium

Colourful La Boca

La Boca

On New Years Eve we splashed out on a nice restaurant and wined and dined our way into 2010.  We hope you have all enjoyed the blog so far, please keep the comments coming and we will see you later this year!

Going out for new year

The cast: Colombian indigenous people.

The location: The small town of Silvia, population 5000.

The action: The bustling and colourful Tuesday morning market . Through some kind of intuitive female shopping instinct Rach had arranged it so we were in the right place at the right time to go! There wasn´t much of interest for us to buy – it was mainly fruit and veg with the odd live chicken and pig, but as the only tourists there, is was really interesting to watch the locals go about their weekly shop.

Indigenous people, Silvia market

Silvia market

Indigenous woman, Silvia market

Stall holder, Silvia market

Potatoes at Silvia market

Scene 2: Cowboys

The cast: Us!

The location: San Agustin. This rural town can only be reached by travelling 120 km along a bumpy unpaved road. A journey that took an unbelievable 6 hours, including 4 stops to pump up the tyres, and 1 to tighten the wheel nuts. Between the 6th and 14th century a mysterious group of people buried their dead here leaving behind a collection of monumental stone statues.

The action: Us becoming cowboys for the day to ride around the archeological sites. I´m no expert but I´m pretty sure we made a canter, and no accidents to report. We had an amazing time and our guide was great. He didn´t speak a word of English and yet we managed to understand all his info.

Rob riding Dray

Rach riding Lucio

Parque Arqueologico, San Agustin

Parque Arqueologico, San Agustin

El Purutal, San Agustin

La Chaquira, San Agustin

San Agustin

Alto del las Piedras, San Agustin

And that was it – Colombia – DONE!
We couldn´t get enough of Cowboys and Indians though, so went straight in for some more in Ecuador!

Scene 3: Ecuador Indians

The cast: Ecuador indigenous people.  No pictures here though as we felt we were imposing a bit when we took the camera out.

The location: Otavalo market - the largest market in South America, selling everything from ponchos to Panama hats and pigs trotters to chicken feet.

The action: Loads of stuff to buy here and we had fun wondering round and bartering with the sellers. Rach left a few pairs of earrings richer, and I got a much cooler cowboy hat.

Scene 4: Ecuador Cowboys

The cast: Us again!

The location: Lagunas de Mojonda – an old volanco crater lake.

The action: Fresh with my new hat there was no stopping me. A 3 hour ride up the lakes then a 45 minute scramble to the summit of cerro Taurichupa (3950m) to get some proper views.

Rob the cowboy

Rach at Lagunas de Mojanda