Return to Hanoi

Today, we return from whence we came, back to Hanoi, and the start of the eventual long haul back home...but not yet. Our flight doesn't leave Luang Prabang until 5:30 tonight, so that gives Mario and I ONE MORE DAY to enjoy Laos. One more day to soak up as much of sunny Laos as we can before heading back to the smoggy big city and then snowy home. But first, time to look at my backpack woefully, and start the great re-packing of everything for the flights. We organize and stuff, re-organize, trade heavier items for lighter items and vice-versa, plan out our clothes for the next 48 hours which we tuck on the top of our bags, making sure we don't have to undo all that hard work for a forgotten pair of socks tomorrow. And then breakfast, a slice of vanilla cake with homemade sweetened yogurt, a plate of scrambles eggs, toasted baguette with butter and kiwi jam, a dish of fresh fruit, a strong coffee - mornings have been one of my favorite parts of this hotel, of every hotel on this trip. Every place had a great breakfast and my days have been better because of such a wonderful start. I love southeast Asia.
Since we'll be sitting in a cramped airplane for 1+5+13 hours total, not to mention the waiting time in the airports, now is the time to do nothing else but WALK. Stretch our legs as much as possible and tire them out, so that all of the obligatory sitting will be welcome. We walk up our quiet little alleyway, away from the river and into town. We walk to the Wat across the street, that we have passed on numerous occasions but never gone in to visit. We walk clockwise around the main temple, as it represents the course of the life of Buddha, admiring the architecture and the surrounding statues. We walk past the monks' living quarters, orange robes hanging out to dry in the sun, brooms lined up on balconies, balls of rice stuck on a stupa as offerings. Piles of ants enjoy the feast.
We walk to the largest grocery store in town for a few last-minute souvenirs, bags of coffee, and cold tea to fuel our meanderings. Further up the side of sacred Mount Phusi, we walk to the TAEC, Traditional Arts & Etnology Centre, a museum showcasing the history of clothing and artisan crafts of the various tribes of Laos. Inside, we admire the handicraft, weaving and sewing, use of colourful dyes and fabrics, and the subtle differences that distinguish each tribe from the next. We listen to music instruments and traditional song, recognizing the knene from Garavek, and other instruments we have run across during our adventures here. Needless to say, the shop at the end of the museum offers some beautiful handicrafts, much more hand-made than what we have seen in the night market, and with all the support the museum is giving back to these people, we have a hard time only picking one or two pieces to bring home!

We walk back into town, to the food market, where another tasty chicken baguette with chili sauce and cilantro fuels the rest of our day. We walk along the water, where tuk-tuk drivers offers rides, and boat captains offer rides, and scooter renters offers rides, and still we walk on. One important note for anyone travelling in Laos - the vendors here are very much NOT pushy in their sales tactics. Unlike other parts of the world, where you might feel almost PUSHED into a shop, or get insulted for not considering a service offered, the Lao simple ask once, often very gently, and then back off immediately when answered with a polite, "No, thank you". It is so very welcome, that I am often taken aback when they don't persist in trying to sell me something!

Past the Mekong, we walk back along the Nam Khan riverside, past sleepy Wat Sopsickaram, where rice "cakes" have been fashioned and left in the sun to dry every day that we have been here. I think this must be the leftover rice from the morning's meal, or possibly what was received during the giving of the alms ceremony pre-dawn. Regardless, these large, flat cakes of sticky rice are lined up on bamboo racks, and left high on a wall in the sun, drying out for storage, I'm guessing. Having seen(and eaten) them, I think the cakes are then fried in oil to puff the rice, making the galette very light and crispy, and very good with spicy dips and sauces. We walk past Le Banneton, serving what is reportedly the BEST pain au chocolat in the city, and stop in for a moment to cool off with an iced coffee. The chocolate pastries are all sold out.

The sun in getting lower in the sky, and so we walk back to Cold River Guesthouse one last time, to collect our bags and transit to the nearby Luang Prabang International airport. We are suddenly blown away by so many groups of young monks, easy to spot in their saffron-orange robes, walking back from school into downtown Luang Prabang. With more than 30 monasteries in such a small area, and a reported 1500(!) monks, there are bound to be plenty of school-aged monks-in-training, and we are seeing all of them returning from their studies right now. We even catch sight of a taxi pick-up filled with a mass of orange robes ahead of us, likely driving a group to one of the farther monasteries. What a sight!
We walk into tiny Luang Prabang airport, through security, through customs, and get stamped out of the country. It's official - we have begun the long, long trip home. The short hop to Hanoi is easy : we board a prop plane from the tarmac as the sun goes down behind us, and the plane barely hits cruising altitude before we begin our descent into Vietnam. Would you believe, even in that short time, the in-flight crew serve us a MEAL? We are handed a paper package containing a tasty sandwich, an oatmeal-chocolate chip cookie, and are offered a drink service ON TOP of that! Eat your heart out, Air Canada, Lao Airlines has you beat on ALL the important stuff.

Get this: we WALK out of Hanoi's Noi Bai International Airport, along perfectly smooth, paved walkways, to the strip of airport hotels about 15 minutes away, to our home for the night. When I was booking this last stop months ago, it seemed a little implausible that we would be able to walk to our hotel, and I was sure we would have to take a taxi when actually here. I mean, how many airports do you know of, big international ones, that you can just walk out of and not be presented with inaccessible 10-lane highways? In Hanoi, you can, and so we did, even crossing on of those 10-lane highways the same way we crossed every other road in Vietnam - slowly, at a constant speed, and without hesitation. It worked.

One last walk before trying to get some sleep: we walk out of Chio hotel and apartments, which proves to be a very clean and lovely airport hotel, especially for the price I paid. We walk along the road that runs parallel to the airport, its bright lights glowing in the distance. We are on one last mission : the great search for a Vietnamese coffee filter. Close to the hotel, we find nothing but restaurants and karaoke bars, but I expect nothing else, since overnight travelers to Hanoi, staying at an airport hotel are only looking for a good meal and a little entertainment, not coffee filters, right? The offerings thin out, and we soon find ourselves walking next to dark agricultural fields - maybe rice, maybe something else. Maybe it is time to give up the search - maybe it is hopeless. But I see more lights in the distance, not too far and still on the same straight road running parallel to the airport. We walk on.

Soon, more shops appear, more food options, a market, a pharmacy, a flower shop - and we realize we have re-entered a lived-in neighborhood. We begin scanning shop fronts for signs of kitchenware, of cooking tools, anything. Mario pulls out a photo he took while we were cruising through Halong Bay, when he fell in love with Vietnamese coffee. One shop owner recognizes the devices, has none - but she points us in the right direction. The next shop over proves to be the answer, as an old woman and her grand-daughter look at the photo, dive into what seems like Alibaba's cavern of hidden treasures, and return victorious with the small silver filter in hand! Mission Complete!
We walk all the way back to hotel, stopping once for a meal of rotisserie duck, and again for late-night snacks from a man who looks like he raided an old pharmacy to set up his little shop. Bags of chips and bottle of drink are lined up neatly behind the sliding doors of glass cabinets, which he gingerly pulls open one by one to offer us still more snack items(you want...Oreos?). With that, we walk back, I try to blog, Mario tries to read, we try to sleep, knowing that our 3 am wake-up will come way too soon.