By Way of Asia

Hanoi, Vietnam: Hey everyone, this is Zach. We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to bring you the story of a real adventure in Vietnam - getting a haircut.

Once you’ve been traveling for more than a few weeks, real life catches up to you a bit - you have to figure out how to handle all of the day-to-day things, like doing laundry, buying toiletries, updating your blog (ahem), or getting a haircut.

A buzz cut followed by six weeks of growth isn’t the most appealing style, and I haven’t been shaving too often either, so it was time to go get cleaned up. I left our hostel in Vietnam, turned left, and at the first street corner found what you might call a barber shop - except it was just a dude, a mirror, and a box of barber tools, stationed illegally between all of the parked motorbikes (apparently he’s only there in the morning, because in the afternoon the police would come after him).

70,000 dong (~$3.50) bought me a haircut and a shave - my first ever shave with a straight razor - from the world’s most meticulous barber. He literally shaved all the way up to my forehead (including shaving my earlobes - that was weird), and he even trimmed my nose hairs! How’s that for service?

In any case it turned out to be a pretty decent haircut so I gave him a 10,000 dong tip ($0.50), which he very much appreciated (apparently Americans are the only people in the world who tip). Ash even took a few pictures to commemorate the occasion.

Sapa, Vietnam: A few final sights from our second day trekking…on to Laos!

Sapa, Vietnam: One of the best parts about Sapa has been the adorable kids and plethora (yes, plethora) of animals we’ve gotten to see both on our treks to the villages as well as in Sapa town. On our walks, we ran into buffalo, ducks, wild pigs, really cool shiny beetles, butterflies, horses, dogs, cats, the list goes on. And since the H’mong and Dzay ethnic minorities get married around 13 and begin having children shortly thereafter, there is no shortage of completely lovable little ones either playing around town or strapped to their siblings backs (who themselves can’t be older than 10 - we weren’t even allowed to be left home alone at that age, let alone take care of a newborn!)

Also, on a bit of a side note, today we saw the craziest thing we’ve seen so far on the back of a motorbike. We’ve seen some pretty ridiculous things carted around on two wheels over the past five weeks - families of six, bushels of dead chickens, a giant ladder, a woman breastfeeding - but this one takes the cake………..a dead horse. Yes, scout’s honor, a man was riding a motorbike and attached to the back was a full size, black horse. Oh, and he was riding on a dirt path on the side of a mountain at a 10% gradient. Talk about good balance.

Sapa, Vietnam: Hello world! We have found our favorite place in Asia. It’s called Sapa - a mountain town north of Hanoi, accessible by overnight train. We’ve spent a few days here trekking around and seeing the nearby villages. We couldn’t really imagine trekking anywhere else we’ve been, but this is the first place that we’ve been that hasn’t been CRAZY hot - Sapa is full of cool, mountain air, which has been a nice change of pace.

We’ve got lots of pictures to share, the first of which are the beautiful scenery. The first thing you’ll notice is that the mountains here are terraced to allow for wet rice farming - our tour guide tells us that many of the terraces are 100 years old!

Halong Bay, Vietnam: During our last day in Halong Bay, we made a visit to the Amazing Cave (that’s actually it’s name - you’ll see why in picture #6 above). Our guide spent most of the tour pointing out to us the various animals and figures that people have noticed in the rocks over the years. Extra points if you find others that we didn’t call out.

Halong Bay, Vietnam: During our three-day cruise of Halong Bay with Ocean Tours, we made a bunch of new friends, did some kayaking, swam in the bay, and enjoyed some wonderful Vietnamese food - some of the best food we’ve had so far on our trip. We also got to sleep on the boat, which was fun (for one night). Here are some of our favorite shots!