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| Like most tour companies, ImTrav uses a number of base itineraries and then packages them into shorter or longer tours. Our first week was a discrete chunk and as such our initial group was nice and small. Some quick introductions: Quan, our ImTrav tour leader, was fantastic. He's something of a celebrity, being the first Vietnamese to be employed by a Western tour company. He previously worked for Buffalo Tours, a local firm that ImTrav (and several other Western firms) uses to support its logistics in Vietnam. One of Quan's claims to fame is that he guided Catriona Roundtree, host of the Australian travel show Getaway. Click here to see the video (select "Watch Video" near the top of the page). The hilarious Mr Hai (from Buffalo tours) was our local guide for the week. His favourite film is Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, and his English accent is Cockney, punctuated by sometimes incomprehensible rhyming slang. We also had Kim, from Brisbane, who was experiencing the tour as a trainee tour leader. Paying guests included:
The trek threw us all together in close quarters for three days and we're pleased to report that we all got along really well. Not a bad thing given that we were all sleeping on the floor in the same room during our two home stays.
But the great thing was getting so close to the locals. While some were a bit camera shy, many were happy to pose and it was refreshing seeing that some of the old ways and costumes haven't died out completely. The first night we stayed in a "Flower H'mong" village in a high misty valley (around 1,000m) between two wooded ridges, about two hours easy walk from a main road (where it goes over a mountain pass) and about 3 hours drive from Hanoi. Our delicious meal was cooked over an open fire in the home of our host Mr Gia.
I must admit that being woken in pitch dark at 4:20am by a dawn chorus of cocks (roosters, I hasten to clarify) takes a bit of getting used to. We didn't. The regular birds and insects have the decency to hold off until it starts to get light (about half an hour later) and then very suddenly phase in. The second night, in a White Thai village named Van down on the flood plain amongst the rice paddies, the houses are naturally built on stilts. The place we were staying in seemed to be home to the Big Cock of the village, which of course chose to make its presence felt directly underneath us. With a bamboo slat floor there was absolutely no sound proofing.
The hike was very pleasant, initially through tea plantations and forest, then down into the paddies, the rice at this time of year still verdant green shoots. As we descended into the White Thai valley and the mist burnt off it became very hot.
On the second night our hostess, a jolly woman named Mrs Om who spoke virtually no English, shared rice wine (a bit like Ouzo - great in shooters) and joined us for hilarious drinking games. Later we visited a make shift Karaoke bar, where Quan demonstrated quite a vocal talent and Dave just embarrassed himself.
The third day we walked along the valley and were eventually met by our mini-bus. At one point we stopped for drinks alongside a nursery school. All the kids rushed out the front and spontaneously burst into Fr�re Jacques (in French), so we sang Waltzing Matilda back and then thrilled them by taking and showing them photos of themselves.
Back in Hanoi we took advantage of a most enjoyable Vietnamese massage (relatively expensive at US$12 for 90 minutes!), which did a great job of soothing our sore calves and quads from the big down-hill the previous day.
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