Del mar a la montana/ From the sea to the mountains

Perdon por los acentos y enyes....

Hemos abandonado Hanoi y con ello el ruido de fondo de la circulaci'on a motor. Ahora mismo escribimos estas lineas desde las montanas del norte de Vietnam, a 30Km del pueblo mas grande de por aqui, Sapa.
Antes de llegar aqui, estuvimos en el mar (o... la mar...Quique???) en la maravillosa bahia de Halong, a la que llegamos tras 4 horas de "flagoneta" por una carretera como aquellas de nuestros pais en los 70's. Lo mas interesante del trayecto fue el ver como en el arcen de la carretera a veces se juntaban grupos de 10 o 15 mujeres todas vendiendo lo mismo, barras de pan. Los franceses han dejado una interesante herencia cultural y culinaria por este rincon del mundo.

Yendo al grano, visitamos la bahia de Halong en compania de un grupo de 4 fotografos australianos, 2 profesionales y 2 amateurs, y un aleman solitario. Hago referencia a su profesion porque habia momentos en que disparaban sus camaras como verdaderos posesos....y eso que yo me creia un pesado....No obstante, hicimos muy buenas migas con ellos y compartimos charlas, risas y cervezas Tiger.
Halong es uno de los sitios que verdaderamente atrae turistas en Vietnam y por ello, pese a la belleza del lugar, en algun que otro momento (el primer dia en el mar) coincidimos con mas gente de la que esperabamos. No obstante, gracias a Dios, la gente se concentra en las 2 paradas casi obligatorias del recorrido pero una vez pasadas estas podias volver a sentir la magia del lugar. No se como describirlo, pero Halong es una bahia en la que se concentran unas cuantas miles de islas (juro que subo fotos pronto.......) que se superponen en el horizonte unas a otras. Si a esta superposicion sumamos la neblina que envuelve el lugar, a veces teniamos la impresion de estar desplazandonos por espacios irreales, como si de una de esas pinturas chinas de montanas redondas siempre envueltas en niebla se tratase. Muchas veces nos sentabamos Diana y yo en la cubierta del barco y mirando al horizonte parecia que las islas estuvieran en tres dimensiones.


Lo bueno de coincidir con los australianos es que ya habian visitado Vietnam unas cuantas veces y otras cuantas la bahia donde habian entrado en contacto con la gente de uno de los pueblos flotantes. En esta ocasion traian material escolar a la escuela y a decir verdad, ver como repartian el material entre los ninhos y observar sus caras, reacciones y miradas ha sido unos de los momentos algidos de estos primeros dias.....


Tras pasar tres dias en Halong tomamos la "flagoneta" de vuelta a Hanoi y esa misma noche nos metimos en el tren nocturno a Sapa. Que recuerdos de interrail me vinieron tomando ese tren...carlitoss!!!! Pero sobre todo esto escribiremos mas adelante...

Hoy no English!!! Un beso a todos!!!
............
It is amazing to me the concept of time when one is travelling. Here I am writing about Halong Bay four days since i've been there and i honest to goodness feel like it was three weeks ago. It's such a bizarre feeling...

So the trip over to Halong Bay started with a four hour van trip from Hanoi to Halong city. I was so damn tired (the wonders of jet lag) that i kept going in and out of sleep during the bumpy ride. It was actually one of the rides that ended up being more "miserable" than it should have been only because i wasn't prepared for it (i actually thought it was like a one hour drive). Anyway we got to Halong Bay and got in our junk (that's actually the name of the old beautiful wooden boats used to cruise the Bay). We were going to be sleeping on it for two nights and i have to say it was fantastic. All the amenities (even hot water) and something very romantic about the whole thing.

Our boat roommates were four ozzie photographers (aitor was in heaven) and a really nice german lad. They were great companions i have to say. We spent some good times sipping on tiger beers and just having a laugh. But that first day, after the four hour bumpy ride we visited this super touristy cave (beautiful but with 100 people inside, who could tell?) and an overcrowded island. So i was somehow feeling disappointed despite the fact that the boat ride to actually get here was absolutely spectacular. Thousands and thousands of lil islands in a permanent fog made it feel that if you blinked too hard the whole thing would disappear.

But the next day made it all worth it. The food on the boat was fantastic (one thing we are discovering is that we LOVE vietnamese coffee. It's damn good!). One of the advantages of travelling with the Ozzies is that one of them actually comes to vietnam about every six weeks (he organizes photography journeys) so he asked if we would mind if we could stop off in a floating school to drop off some school supplies he had bought (umm of course not!!). It was absolutely awesome! I promise to put up some pictures soon but besides the fact that the kids were absolutely adorable, when school's over, they just hop on their boat and row their little bums home. Even the five year olds!! And some even row with their feet! Ah, humans. we really can do almost anything, can't we?

We then did this unbelievable kayaking trip passing through this rock like structure that barely had a hole large enough for our kayak (and our heads!) but after ducking our way through we came upon this unbelievable emerald lagoon. The most peaceful place one can imagine really. I think when they invented the word breathtaking they were thinking of a place like this. God, it was beautiful... So yes, this second day was really really spectacular. Pictures to come soon.

Okay, since i'm writing from a computer which is from like 1989 i'm going to log off before the whole things goes kaput. Good night vietnam...