Last Days in ‘Nam

I have a confession to make… I LOVE Thai massage!   LOVE, LOVE, LOVE.  When I get home, start running again, working and generally doing more every day, I think I will invest in Thai Massage.  Yes, that is what I will do.
Now that I have that out of my system, I will fill you in on our past few weeks.  If you can believe it, our 6 month stint in SE Asia has come to an end.  We are currently in Bangkok, Thailand waiting for our flight to Amman, Jordan tomorrow.  It blows my mind- time is flying by, it seems like just yesterday we arrived in KL, Malaysia but I guess at the same time it feels like forever ago.  So here we are on our last day here, sitting over our last truly Asian meal on this trip, talking about what we will miss, our favourite experiences and our favourite places.  I know I will miss the rice- if you can even believe it.  Since it is a staple in my everyday meals, I have grown to love it.  I will miss the geckos on the walls, the frog parties and Asian organization.  What I won’t miss: the shady cuts of meat, the humidity and constant aroma of fish sauce.  It is true that my love for the Middle East still outweighs my feelings toward Asia,  but I am glad that I came here.  I am happy with the time we spent and as we leave I feel that we had the time and opportunities to explore SE Asia to its fullest.
Though we are finished with our trip through Asia, I do want to fill you in on our last few stops before we left Vietnam.  Here are a few pictures of our last two destinations- Sapa and Hanoi.

Sapa was a beautiful, sleepy, albeit chilly, mountain town. This picture was taken on our last full day, and the fog just got thicker by the hour. It was always fairly foggy, which made getting pics of the spectacular views a bit frustrating, but when it was clear, it was breathtaking.

These ponchos are quite baggy on Vietnamese people… Not in this case. To Bac Ha Market!!

I think if I lived in the mountains, I would live off berries and not go through all this work… CRAZY! It seemed as though 3/4 of the mountain sides had been shaped into irrigable land for growing rice, tea, corn, etc.

After an awesome ride through the mountains, we arrived at the town of Bac Ha, and their weekly Sunday Market! The minority tribes people come from all the surrounding villages to sell their wares, livestock, etc.  A very colourful bunch!

Mmmm Chillies! 

On our way back up to Sapa… This was the lowest point between the two towns, and Sapa is waaay up near the top.

Sitting at a roadside fresh-beer stall in Hanoi. And when I say roadside, I mean our plastic chairs were places on the road, so the motos would come rather close at times! The woman who ran this ‘establishment’ was notorious in the backpacker crowd, as she wouldn’t serve you if you asked politely; you had to rudely demand what you wanted and insult her to get a beer. Very strange :S

Very light traffic on the narrow streets in the Old Quarter of Hanoi.

I’d say at least 85% of the vehicles in Hanoi are scooters or motos (motorbikes). Imagine how much more space we’d have in Canada if everyone drove one of these instead of a car/truck/SUV?

Our Swedish friend Robert donning the uniform of a banana vendor on the street. We paid 10,000 Dong for this photo :P

Not a real 7-11  X)

Not a real Half-Man-Half-Noodle, but a pretty interesting restaurant!