Travel – The Kinetic Canuck

Sapa Rice Terraces: Part 3

In my final post about the Sapa rice terraces, I wanted to show you a little of the beauty we saw while we were up in the mountains. We visited many small villages while we were there, including Lao Chai, Ta Van, Catcat and Sapa city itself. We went all the way up mountains and saw some spectacular views. Here are some of my favourite photos of the trip!

It was a restful and restorative holiday!

Sapa Town

We didn’t spend a lot of time in Sapa town (we were there to see the terraces, not the tourists), but the little time we spent there was pretty cool. With about 40,000 people living in the town itself (and double that number in outside villages), Sapa was bustling during the holiday week.

There were so many people out while we were there!

This town was mostly unknown to outsiders until the French arrived in the late 1880s. For a while, it hosted a sanitorium for French soldiers, a military garrisson and villas for wealthy French colonists. In the 1940s 50s, a lot of the colonial era buildings were destroyed in conflicts between the Vietnamese and the French, and many of the locals had to flee the area because it was to unsafe to inhabit.

The old colonial era church in Sapa Town

In 1993, Vietnam officially opened the town to international tourism. Thousands of Vietnamese and international tourists flock to this beautiful area every year, and as a result, the population has boomed. Our guide, Ying, told us that the area is hardly recognizable from her childhood. The population has increased because there is more wealth in the area, thanks to tourism.

The Rice Terraces

I took a lot of photos on this trip, and I can’t actually remember where I took them all (sorry!). We saw many different villages and spent a lot of time on the motorbike, just meandering from village to village, appreciating each area’s charm.

Although we generally like being able to explore things on our own, we did pre-book one tour with Mountain Dragon Family, and we were really happy we did! We saw some of the nicest terraces on that trek, enjoyed some incredible local food, and learned about the area. We saw indigo plants, salmon farms, and so many beautiful views.

An indigo plant that Ying pointed out to us. The Hmong fabrics are dyed with these leaves.

Our host at the home stay recommended that we travel up one particular mountain to take in the views. We were glad we did! One really nice thing about choosing a home stay is that the locals can tell you where to go to see the best stuff. We stayed at a place called Peace Home, and it was absolutely lovely!

My favourite picture on the mountain. The church, surrounded by rice terraces, with villages below…it was picturesque to say the least!

Sunsets in the rice terraces were especially beautiful. We experienced one with our impromptu Hmong guides after trekking through the bamboo forest. We saw others on the road, while on our way back from seeing the sights.

I think the pictures speak for themselves!

Seeing the terraces both on foot (with our guide Ying) and on the motorbike gave us really cool vantage points. We also made our way down the paths right into the terraces a few times. Being surrounded by these giant man-made fields is awe inspiring!

Plans for Future Trips

We already know we want to go back to Sapa (and hopefully, it’ll be soon!). On our next trip, we want to do a multi-day trek, staying in homestays as we make our way through the mountains and valleys. We also plan to see Mount Fansipan the next time we’re in Sapa. It’s Vietnam’s highest peak, and although it’s one of the most popular places to see in Sapa, we skipped it. We were enjoying the peace and serenity of the fields too much and we didn’t really want to be surrounded by throngs of tourists. Luckily, this beautiful spot is only a few hours away from us, so we can go back any time we have a long weekend!

We’ll have to come and take pictures when the rice is about to be harvested!

My next couple of posts will be about our Tet trip to Hue, the ancient imperial city! We had a great time there, but there’s so much to write about, and I had to do so much research, that I haven’t gotten to it yet. Now that classes are finishing up, and my post graduate project is complete, I’ll finally have time to tell you all about that trip too! Check back soon!

I’ve got a nice picture or two to share with you all!

Sapa Rice Terraces: Part 2

As I mentioned in my last post, there are several ethnic groups located in the Sapa rice terraces. Most of our experiences were with local Hmong (pronounced a bit like ‘Mung’), so in my second post, I want to tell you a little about the Hmong people and their culture.

Traditional Hmong attire that you can rent for instagram purposes. There are a LOT of shops renting these outside of Catcat village.

History

The Hmong people can be traced back 8,000 years, beginning in the Yellow River basin in China. There, they farmed barley, buckwheat, rice and corn (and later, opium). As the Han Chinese moved westward, however, the Hmong had to move too, or face persecution. Eventually, many fled to South East Asia, settling in Vietnam, Thailand and Laos. Some Hmong stayed in China, of course, and they are now called ‘Miao’. We visited several Miao villages when we were living in Guizhou, so the culture was already somewhat familiar to us.

A Miao (Hmong) village that we visited in Guizhou province while we were living there in 2015.

Hmong Culture

In China, the Miao are easily identifiable by their silver jewellery and colourful traditional costumes. In Vietnam, the focus on silver isn’t as pronounced (we recently watched a documentary on China’s obsession with silver, that was really interesting!), but the textiles and traditional costumes are still gorgeous!

I found this info graphic on Quora. It shows the differences between modern Hmong and Miao cultures.

Hmong people don’t tend to dress this way nowadays, other than at weddings, festivals and, of course, in tourist hot spots. In Sapa, many people were wearing the traditional clothing, including leggings that were meant to protect them from insects and injury to their legs while farming. We booked a local trekking tour while we were in Sapa, and our guide told us how tight those leggings are and how she can’t bring herself to wear them anymore because they’re so uncomfortable. I can’t say I blame her!

You can see the leggings here. I watched these women pull their shin wraps up multiple times so they don’t seem to stay put either…

The Hmong people in Sapa still eat many traditional foods, including a lot of plants that grow locally, like bamboo, and other natural-growing greens. Our guide pointed out several different ones that her family eats, but she didn’t know the English names for them (and I would have forgotten the Hmong names).

We were lucky enough to be invited to eat a meal with local Hmong people while we were in Sapa. We sat on the floor on a big blanket and ate communally (a much better way to eat, in my opinion, because you get to try a little of everything) with locals, some of whom spoke a bit of English. They served salmon (farmed in Sapa!), bamboo, corn & tofu, chicken, greens and the best spring rolls I think I’ve ever eaten!

The owner of the home apologized for not having a bigger place to host us, thinking that we had expected something grander…but honestly, it was one of the most perfect meals I’ve ever had. Home made, with meat grown right in their back yard and vegetables farmed from their own fields. It was delicious and we were so lucky to have the experience!

As always, Dave makes friends wherever he goes!

Hmong Textiles

Hmong textiles are abundantly sold all over Sapa city and in most little villages in the area. You will see women with baskets on their backs while you’re out trekking or in town, and these baskets are often full of pillow cases, table runners, shirts, stuffed toys, wall hangings and myriad other hand-made textiles. They’re beautiful!

Coasters. We actually saw some women making these

If we had had more time, I would have loved to take a textile making class with a local group. The indigo plant grows naturally in the area, and is used in many of the Hmong textiles. They dye hemp with it and use it for cross stitched and woven textiles. They also dye pieces of fabric indigo, but before they dip the fabric into the dye, they cover parts of it with bees wax. After the dying is complete, they remove the wax and a pattern is left behind.

This pillow case showcases both of the types of textile art we saw. In the middle, the colours and patterns are woven in with dyed yarn and string. The stripes on the outer square are dyed using indigo and beeswax.

Hmong Home Stays and Tours

If you’re a traveler, like me, and are planning to visit Sapa yourself, I HIGHLY recommend staying in a home stay outside of Sapa town. You’ll get to experience a lot more of the Hmong culture (and you’ll see Dao and Tay culture as well) and you’ll learn a lot more about the area. Sapa’s surrounding countryside is riddled with home stays to choose from, at all different price points, so you’ll certainly find a place that meets your budget and needs.

I also recommend booking a tour with a local guide. They aren’t hard to find, and there are always women walking around the center of Sapa town offering to take you on a tour if you’d like. When you choose to do a tour with a local, rather than a big tourism company, you help support a whole family. Many of the people in Sapa rely on tourism income to make a living. Best of all, you get insight into the culture that you won’t get from mass tourism, and most local tours are one on one, so you don’t have to deal with a big tour group.

This is a much nicer way to see the country side than with 100 other tourists who are disturbing the wildlife!

We booked with Dragon Mountain Family. You can check out their website here. They provide a lot of different types of tours. We didn’t have much time so we just did the single day tour, but they do longer ones and ones that are in other areas of Northern Vietnam as well.

One of the many beautiful sights we saw on our trek with Dragon Mountain Family

We also did an impromptu tour with 3 local women who found us lost on the rice terraces. What started as a motorbike road, turned into a small path and we were struggling to find a good place to turn the motorbike around. We’d been looking for the bamboo forest at the time, and suddenly 3 Hmong women appeared and asked if we were lost. We explained that we were just looking around, and they offered to walk us through the bamboo forest. It was honestly so nice! They didn’t charge us a fee, but of course, we bought textiles from all three of them. I absolutely love bright colours, so the Hmong indigo art is hard for me to turn down.

We learned a little bit about Hmong culture from them as well. I was really surprised to hear that they learned most of their English just by chatting with tourists like us. Our guide from Dragon Family repeated that same experience. We were in Sapa during a national holiday, so kids were home from school, and more than once the owners of restaurants had their kids bring us our coffees or food and strike up little conversations. What a great way to learn a language!

The three ladies all had textiles on their backs. I’m assuming they’d spent the day in town, selling their goods. They wove a little heart out of ferns for me. I had to get a picture with that background!

So, I hope you’ve learned a little bit about some of the culture you can experience in Sapa. If you’ve never been to this beautiful area, you should definitely consider visiting! Before we’d even left, we were talking about coming back! Lucky for us, it’s only 6 hours away by bus!

I’ll be back with one more post about Sapa, and that one will include lots more pictures of the terraces and Sapa town! Stay tuned!

Sapa Rice Terraces: Part 1

My next couple of posts will be about our May Holiday trip to the Sapa rice terraces. I’ll be writing as we travel, so I’m not sure how many posts there will be, but I promise some incredible pictures!!

Sapa is located about 6 hours away from Hanoi by bus

I’ve wanted to visit Sapa for years. We visited Vietnam twice before moving here, and we did a great deal of traveling on those trips, but we never made it up to Sapa. This was partly because we had already seen the Longji Rice terraces in Guangxi, China, and partly because there are so many amazing things in Vietnam to see, that you kind of have to pick and choose when your time is limited.

Me in the the Longji Rice terraces, back in 2014. I can’t believe it’s been 10 years!!

Since we saw the LongJi rice terraces in autumn, right before the harvest, we thought it would be grand to see Sapa in spring, while the rice was still young. It’s been a different but equally beautiful experience.

Dave in the terraces. Young rice looks a lot like quack grass

All About Sapa

Geography

Sapa is located 380km North East of Hanoi, very close to the Chinese border. It lies within the Hoàng Liên Son Mountain Range, which is home to Vietnam’s highest peak: Mount Fansipan. The weather is cooler here than in Hanoi, and they even see some snow in winter. In fact, it’s the ONLY place in Vietnam that sees snow.

There are a tonne of dogs in Sapa too and they’re all friendly! It looks like these ones were excited for the snow last winter!

History

The building of Sapa’s rice terraces began more than 300 years ago. 3 ethnic groups moved to the area from what is now China, in search of fertile land.

These ladies are from the Hmong cultural group. Tay and Red Dau minorities are also still present in the area, 300 years after arriving.

Although agriculture in a mountainous region might seem a little confusing to North Americans, in Asia, they found some pretty good work arounds. Instead of the flat farms that we see in the prairies, farms in this area of the world are sometimes built vertically. Terraces are carved out of the mountainside, … kind of like really big stairs. Streams or natural springs are fed into the top of the terraces and water gets trapped on each “step”, allowing for agriculture to flourish.

An up-close view of the terrace “steps” they’re quite big.

Of course, in this kind of farming, you can’t exactly use big combines so everything is done by hand, using hoes, sickles and spades. These tools are often made and maintained by the farmers themselves. Traditional farming practices have been passed on down the generations and still widely used today. When you see the scope of the terraces, keep that in mind….

Now, imagining making those steps, by hand, all the way up a mountainside. And then a bunch of mountainsides…

Crops

Several different types of rice are grown in Sapa. The most common are sticky rice (one of my faves and used a lot in Vietnamese food), fragrant rice (often used in desserts) and black rice (which is very tasty and nutritious too!). There are harvest festivals here where you can get local dishes that involve… You guessed it… Rice!

One of my favourite sticky rice desserts: Banh Da Lon

Although the majority of Vietnam’s rice is grown down south in the Mekong Delta, Sapa is where people flock to see the agriculture in practice. Part of this is because the area is so culturally interesting (I’ll be writing about that later on).

Other crops are grown here too, such as corn, cucumber and peppers, and fruit crops include apples, plums, oranges and more! There is quite a bit of farming here too, and we’ve had to slow down for ducks and cows crossing the road.

Nothing too see here… Just a farmer herding his ducks

240 hectares of space is also used to grow medicinal plants for Vietnam, including the herbs used in Hmong baths (I’ll be writing about that too!). Although the area is famous for its rice, rice is not the only thing to see here!

Getting to Sapa

There are 4 main ways to go to Sapa. By private car is the most expensive, of course. The cheapest way is by motorbike. If we can get our hands on a long distance bike, we might do that yet, but 10 hours on our Honda Visions would be tough.

I love my beautiful red Honda Vision… But that would be a LONG time on her!

The train is the most comfortable ride, because you don’t need to worry about winding roads and bumps, but it was quite a bit more expensive than the 4th option, which is the one we took: night bus.

Looks like a regular bus, but inside, there are beds instead of seats

Now…we knew we wanted to go to Sapa, but we only really decided to go a week beforehand, just because I wasn’t sure of my holiday schedule. I took care of the hotel right away, and then we realized we needed to book the bus… But we’d waited too long. As a result, we ended up in tiny half beds that I’m convinced are actually cargo holds. Also, our heads were directly above the bus wheels, and we didn’t have plugs. It was a long 6 hours!

So there’s my intro to Sapa! I have at LEAST 2 more posts coming to show you more about the landscapes here and about the Hmong people!

Check back soon!

Taking it Easy in Thailand

The first semester of my postgrad finished up in December, and I had a week off of work over Christmas, so Dave and I did what we always used to do in these situations: we booked a trip!

Our first trip to Thailand in nearly a decade!

Right before we left though… We got some bad news…

Thursday December 21st, as I was leaving school for the day, Dave called to tell me that we were losing the apartment and that we had to move out before December 31st. This would have already been a nightmare, but we had unalterable flights on December 24th.

The ocean was calling to me…I needed to answer!!

We were faced with a choice… Cancel our trip, lose the money, AND the holiday…. Or find a new place, pack up and move within 2 days. Saner people would have probably chosen the second option. We are not sane.

We spent all of Friday (minus the 2.5 hours I spent working) looking at apartments. Then we stayed up and packed until 2am. Saturday morning we had movers come and help us load up all our things (how have we ALREADY collected so much!!!)! By Saturday night, we were already entertaining guests. Sunday morning, at 7am, we left for the airport.

Our wonderful movers, who were available last minute

Our friends David and Maggie were in town from Bangkok and we really didn’t want to give up the chance to see them, so after a long day of packing, moving and unpacking… We ordered in some pizza and had them down.

It would be deceitful to say we handled all of this in stride. It was a nightmare. Still, somehow we managed, and left for Thailand as planned. After 13 hours of sleep… We spent Christmas morning with this as our view:

A new Ken Follett novel to enjoy, a coconut on its way to me, and the sound of the ocean to calm my nerves.

We only had 6 days in Thailand, and we spent it all on a small island called Koh Lanta. We had never been to this island before, but we heard from friends that it is peaceful, quiet and has great snorkeling. It sounded like paradise to us, so although we didn’t have a super eventful trip, we did have a lovely time!

Koh Lanta is located near Phucket, but is much quieter and less touristy.

We stayed in Klong Nin Beach, on the advice of friends who had made the mistake of booking a hotel far too close to one of the big mosques on the island. The call is blasted on megaphones 5 times per day, with the first one being at dawn. I actually quite like to hear it when we’re on vacation; some of the Imams make it sound really nice… as long as we aren’t too close by…

Here’s a map of the island so you can get an idea of where we were cruising around.

Old Town

We spent quite a bit of our holiday cruising around the island on our rented motorbike. We had beautiful weather (aside from Christmas morning…when it poured rain for a while), so putzing around on the motorbike (as Dave puts it) was a great way to see the island.

The view from the road on one of our trips out on the bike.

Many of our motorbike trips ended in old Town, which has great food options, masseuses and souvenir shops. We didn’t have much room in our luggage, but we checked every store for nice post cards and found some curry mixes that we could take home with us.

Food!!

Thailand has some of the best food in the world and we made the most of our time there eating at lots of different local restaurants. Some of our favourites:

Our favorite restaurant on this trip, didn’t actually have a name, oddly enough. They were brand new, and located on the side of the highway, on the way into Saladan (the island’s main city, way up at the North tip).

The food might not look like much, but the curry was one of the best I’ve ever had in my life! They also had an incredible stir fried rice that got gobbled up before I could get a photo. The woman running the place was so lovely and friendly. She explained to us that they had JUST opened and that’s why their menu was hand written and why there was no signage. We had actually almost walked away from the restaurant, but we were greeted by a cat and took it has a sign we should stay. We’re really glad we did!

One really cool thing about this restaurant is that it’s right on the beach, and a huge colony of hermit crabs lives under their deck. The woman there feeds them and there are so many that you have to be really careful where you walk if you go into the sand!

Snorkeling Trips

Our favorite part of the holiday was the snorkeling trips we booked. We hadn’t been snorkeling since before COVID and it used to be a staple of all of our holidays. To say we missed it is an understatement!

And also…. Being out on a boat in the middle of the ocean!!

There are two types of trips you can book in Koh Lanta. Speed boat trips run more reliably because those boats can handle choppy water a little better. They can also go further out. Long boats are slower and don’t go as far out, but at far as I’m concerned, they’re a lot more enjoyable. We did both of these tours during our short 6 days on the island.

Four Islands Tour by Speedboat

I’m not entirely sure which islands we actually visited, because it can change based on the weather or tourist traffic, but our first trip out was on a speedboat. We traveled to some small islands south-west of Koh Lanta.

We had 3 snorkel stops, and although visibility wasn’t great and there wasn’t a tonne of life in the water to see, we did still enjoy the day.

Our lunch break was memorable! A huge monitor lizard came around looking for food! We also randomly ran into an old friend from Suzhou! We performed a bunch of times together. He’s one heck of a guitarist! (Sadly, I didn’t think of getting a picture until we were back on the boat)

Our last stop of the day was particularly cool because we found dozens of fish hiding in a nook just off of an island. They kind of surprised us, and they were beautiful as they scattered in the dark…all I could see was silver flashes all around me.

Unfortunately, there was a lot of seasickness on this boat. I ended up sitting between 2 people who were both vomiting, which wasn’t fun. Still… We got out onto the water and honestly, I’m glad we saved the longboat tour for last, because it was spectacular!

Longboat tour

Our longboat tour was a lot nicer. It left from the old town pier, which wasn’t quite as chaotic as the Saladan peer, where we left on the speedboat. The boats are much smaller, which means smaller groups go, and there’s something about being on a traditional wooden boat felt good!

We had much better visibility on our longboat trip and saw some really cool wildlife! We spotted clown fish right away and Dave’s underwater camera got some good shots of them!

At one point, I went off swimming on my own. I like to choose a fish and follow it around for a while…you might say that I like to stalk the wildlife…Anyway, I saw something move from under a rock and it didn’t really look like a fish. I figured my eyes were playing tricks on me, so I looked again, and a Giant Moray Eel came out from under a rock and swam right near me! This is super rare for a snorkeler to see (divers see them often), so I was SUPER excited! I stayed at that spot and watched the moray for ages. I’d pop my head out of the water now and then to try and flag other snorkelers over to see (I couldn’t get anyone’s attention!). Finally Dave came over and I was able to point out the moray to him (at this point, just its head was sticking out from under a rock). He managed to get a video.

Another cool part of our longboat tour was our stop at the Emerald Cave. You stop outside what appears to be an island, but actually, there is a lagoon inside. They gave us lifejackets (that were WAY too big) and told us to follow the guy with the flashlight. It was eerie swimming through the darkness, but the views in the lagoon were gorgeous (but unfortunately, there were a lot of people there).

Of course, the best views we had were from the islands during lunch and breaks. The longboats are really very beautiful and we even got to see a bit of wildlife.

Our Thailand trip was over far too soon, and we had to head back to Hanoi (for a while). It was a wonderful break from the chaos of living in Vietnam’s capital. Upon our return, we were inspired to start cooking again (up until this point we were mostly just eating at restaurants). We’ve made some killer curries and I learned how to make Thai fried rice and cashew pork. In our beautiful new apartment (which is actually a lot nicer than our old one), we’re starting to make a home.

My next post will be about our trip to Hue! It might take me a little longer for the next one, because we’re back home now, and I’ve got a gig tonight!!!

A Surprise Holiday in Ninh Binh!

In November, I had a surprise long weekend, when all of my Friday classes were cancelled (with notice!!). This was a rare opportunity for a long weekend, so we grabbed it, rented a big motorbike, and head for beautiful Ninh Binh.

Halong Bay to Ninh Binh Travel Map – Hanoi Explore Travel

Our drive there was so beautiful and so much fun. We opted to take a longer route there, because it took us along part of the Ho Chi Minh trail, which has many breathtaking sections.

The karst mountain side, fields and trees allowed for spectacular views.

We stopped now and then to stretch, get some water, or to caffeinate, and each time we stopped, we were greeted by locals (often children), who were excited to see friendly foreigners.

This adorable little boy (next to me) even gave me a little key chain as a gift. It’s going on my luggage and will travel with me wherever I go. He was the CUTEST kid…

We stayed at a gorgeous little guesthouse in Ninh Binh. It was family run, and everyone was so helpful and friendly. The guests were all really nice too. We ended up chatting with them both evenings we were there, which is why I never posted about the trip until now.

We stayed at Viet Anh Homestay. They have the CUTEST little puppy named Moon and they adore him. He went missing our last night there and they were out searching for him for hours. Just as we got back to Hanoi, I got a message from the owner saying that she knew how much I loved him and so she wanted to tell me that he had been found. He spent the night in one of the guests’ rooms.

We only really had 1 day in Ninh Binh, because the drive took up a lot of our time (but was very worth it!). We decided to focus on the natural side of the area, and avoided the bigger tourist activities (you can take little trips down the river on boats… With lots of other tourists… So we skipped that). Here’s what we did do.

Hang Mua Peak

Mua Peak (also called Mua Cave) is located about 10km South West of Ninh Binh city. We took our motorbike out there, which is definitely the best and cheapest way to travel.

The area has been important throughout history. Historically, the peak was used to spot Chinese invading armies, as a royal holiday location, and also as a triage hospital to help wounded soldiers during wars against the Americans & the French. The area has been in use for nearly 1000 years.

Before going up the peak, there are some cafes and shops to visit. There’s also a public bathroom. There’s supposed to be a fee but no one was there collecting it.

If we had read a bit more about the place beforehand, we could have saved a few thousand dong and parked for free near the entrance. Instead, we were flagged down by a local for paid parking a little ways out. We did see some cute goats as a result though, so as far I’m concerned, it was money well-spent.

The second piece of advice we should have followed was to go early in the morning. It was brutally hot and humid that day (yes… it’s still quite hot in Vietnam in November) and climbing those 500 steps up to the peak was no joke. We saw several people turn around and give up. By the time we made it to the little shop near the top that sells ice cream, my legs were pretty wobbly and I was starting to get dizzy. I sat down for a bit, using the handy fold up fan I bring with me everywhere (I have like 10 of them haha!) and enjoyed a Haagen-Dazs. Dave continued to climb and then came back down to tell me that the peak wasn’t too far off. I’m glad I mustered up the energy to finish the climb!

There is actually a second peak a little higher up that I missed. We only stayed up here for a few minutes because there was no shade and the mid day sun was threatening to give me heat stroke. Still… It was worth it.

We hiked back down and then head back to our hotel to enjoy the swimming pool, until the sun was a little lower and we could go out again.

The hotel had a pristine pool and they made a good lunch, so we were happy to chill here for a while.

Thung Nham Bird Park

Once we cooled down, we hopped back on the motorbike, looking for some of the cool pagodas that we knew were nearby. We saw some more of Ninh Binh’s natural beauty as we cruised around.

Thung Nham Bird Park

Finally, we head for a tourist site that isn’t as popular or well known. We read online that it is a nature lover’s paradise, and well… that’s us! We made our way to Thung Nham Bird Park.

Tickets seemed a bit pricey (140,000 dong or $8 Canadian), but we figured that seeing as how it was a sanctuary for birds, the money is probably put to good use. We were correct. The price also included 2 boat rides which ended up being really cool, so it was really good value for money.

The whole park is beautifully maintained, with walking paths everywhere and gorgeous trees. We were there right before sunset so it was pretty empty, and it made for some really nice photos.

The final stop at the bird park was a boat ride to an area where hundreds of birds nest. We honestly went into this park without knowing much about it, so we were really surprised at the number of birds flying overhead as the sun set.

Our guide didn’t speak any English but she did speak some French! We were rowing along and suddenly she said ‘beaucoup, beaucoup oiseaux!’. That threw me off!

She was right… There were a LOT of birds! 45 different species of birds call this sanctuary home. I couldn’t get many pictures because the sun had almost completely set by the time we made it to the nests, but I did find some photos online so that you can see the kind of birds we saw.

These photos are from https://vinpearl.com/en/thung-nham-bird-park-ninh-binh. You can learn more about the bird park there too.

My own pictures didn’t turn out as well:

Ninh Binh is definitely somewhere I’d like to visit again. We can hopefully make our way back there some day to do a river tour and see more of the beauty this area has to offer!

Maybe I will even be able to find this little boy again, and bring him a gift! We got them some potato chips but I felt so bad that I didn’t have anything he could keep.

My next post will be about our Christmas trip to Thailand! Stay tuned!

Beautiful Ba Vi

After being stuck in Suzhou for so long, first due to the pandemic, and then as we saved up for our move, we decided early on to do as many day trips as possible once we moved to Hanoi. Our first one was to Ba Vi National Park, about 60kms from Hanoi.

The Star is Hanoi, the circle is Ba Vi National Park

We did the trip on a Honda Vision, which I wouldn’t recommend for 2 people. I had to get off the bike at one point because the mountains were too steep for 2 people on a 110cc bike. It was ok for most of the trip though.

Definitely mask up for the drive. The roads are pretty dusty on the way there.

The drive there wasn’t spectacular, but considering it was our first trip out of the city, we were pretty excited anyway. Once you reach the Ba Vi mountain range though, the scenery becomes spectacular.

As soon as we got there, we realized we would want more time than we had, so we’ll definitely be going back when the weather is nicer again. For this short day trip, we only made it to one attraction: the old abandoned Catholic Church.

From the early 1800s until the mid 1950s, Vietnam was a French colony, referred to as French Indochina. That’s why there is such great bread and coffee in Vietnam. It’s also why some of the older generation speaks French. In addition to architecture and cuisine, France also left a religious mark on Vietnam. We’ve spotted many churches in Hanoi.

We stumbled upon St.Joseph’s Cathedral in Hanoi by chance. We were out looking for Pokemon, and found this!

Ba Vi National park was a popular destination for wealthy French colonists, so naturally, they built a church there. The church was abandoned when they left, and what remains today are some spectacular ruins.

The way that the moss and vines have taken over the building makes it really beautiful. There is often a fog in the area too, because it’s quite high up a mountain. There weren’t many people when we were there, so it was blissfully quiet and peaceful.

The roof decayed long ago, leaving only the walls.

There’s a bit to see around the church as well. We found an old fireplace and a building where the priest must have lived. There wasn’t a tonne to see, but it was well worth the trip just for the peaceful atmosphere.

I also spotted the largest spider I’ve ever seen in my life while we were exploring the area. Vietnam is home to may venomous spiders and snakes, but a quick google search assured us that this particular spider (a female orbweaver) was harmless. Terrifying but harmless.

She was about the size of my palm. I could have gotten a better picture if I’d have gotten closer… But yeah….I felt like I was already close enough!

The drive back was mostly downhill and we had to stop a few times to let the brakes cool down. Next time we’ll either rent a bigger bike or each drive our own, but one thing is for sure: we’ll definitely be back!

There’s actually a lot more to see here, and it’s so close by… Next time we’ll probably stay for the weekend though!

My next post will be about our weekend trip to Ninh Binh! Stay tuned… I’m on a roll!

Hanoi City – Sightseeing, Traffic & Transportation in the capital

When I’m not at work, working on my post grad or at the gym, Dave and I have spent a great deal of time exploring Hanoi and the surrounding area. Unfortunately, I’ve been slacking a little with photos because I’ve just generally been on my phone less… But I should have enough to give you an idea of what Hanoi is like. So here we go!!

One of our favorite spots in Hanoi so far. Colonel Coffee in Yen Fu, where our first apartment was located.

Traffic

It’s impossible to describe what it’s like living in Hanoi without discussing the traffic. There is no metro in this city of 8 million people, and buses are slow. Of course, it’s too expensive to buy a car (and where would we even park it?) so we get around like everyone else: on motorbike.

This is Dave on my Honda Vision, the day we picked it up. He has a similar one that’s blue. They’re great, reliable bikes that are strong enough to get me over overpasses but not so big that I feel like I don’t have control.

It’s important to mask up if you’re cruising around Hanoi on motorbike. The traffic pollution is horrendous some days and even just driving 20 minutes without a mask on during rush hour will leave you with a headache and scratchy throat. I don’t even want to think about the long term affects we’d face if we didn’t buy high quality masks.

I happened to forget my good mask that day (the same one Dave is wearing). I still went and picked up a paper mask. It’s far better than nothing!!

The driving in Vietnam is also…wild. People don’t really look before changing lanes and it’s bumper to bumper traffic a lot of the time. We’ve helped more than one tourist cross the road in old town. Traffic won’t really stop for you. You just go ahead and walk into it with intent and the bikes and cars will go around you. People often ignore traffic lights and this leads to giant traffic jams, which makes getting home from work every day an ordeal (I’m just happy that only 1 half of my commute is during rush hour).

But…you dress for it, and you prepare your route ahead of time with traffic jams in mind… and you do get places.

My favorite part of traffic in Hanoi is seeing all the crazy things people manage to pile onto their motorbikes. EVERYTHING is done by motorbike here, so we’ve seen mattresses, refrigerators, ladders and massive piles of styrofoam, all being transported on Hondas.

I’m really not kidding when I say that everything gets transported by bike. We saw this guy loading up his bike on furniture street (there’s a street for everything in Hanoi… It’s awesome)

This is a motorbike that’s been altered to have a bit of a truck bed. And yes… That’s all styrofoam being transported on it.

Tet, or Lunar New Year has added another list of ridiculous things we’ve seen transported. For the last month, we’ve been seeing countless trees and bushes being driven around on the back of Honda’s. It’s a beautiful tradition for families to get these trees for the holiday. And it has made for a few laughs for us. We spotted all these drivers in 1 short trip into old Town last weekend:

Kumquat trees are put outside a lot of buildings and schools

And of course, I’ll never forget the time we saw 2 giant VERY breakable vases being transported across the city.

Sight Seeing

Hanoi’s Old Quarter

The Hanoi Old Quarter is world famous. You can go down there any night of the week and there are full restaurants, full bars, and every imaginable souvenir for sale.

I did not deal with it very well when we accidently walked down bar Street my first week here. It was anxiety attack central!

But there’s more to the old quarter than just bars and shops. Hoan Kiem Lake is my favorite part of Old Town, and we’ve spent many hours walking around this beautiful body of water.

There are also occasionally performances in old quarter and a pretty impressive craft street (like I said…a street for everything). Whatever you find interesting…Hanoi Old Quarter is a must-see for anyone who visits the city.

They were playing Despacito… I’m not kidding

There are lots of little things to see around Hanoi outside of old quarter as well. We haven’t even come close to seeing them all yet, but here are a few we’ve managed so far.

The Long Bien Bridge

This bridge is old and it’s seen a lot. It was the first steel bridge to be build across the Red River, and it was opened to the public in 1902. It was built during Hanoi’s French colonial period, and for a while, it was the 2nd longest bridge in the world (the only bridge longer than this beauty was the Brooklyn bridge in New York).

I couldn’t get a shot this good from my motorbike, so this one is from https://vinwonders.com/en/news/long-bien-bridge-the-witness-to-many-historical-milestones-of-hanoi/

The bridge connects 2 large districts of Hanoi, and it’s rather quirky. There is a train track in the middle and bike/motorbike lanes on either side of the track (cars use a separate bridge). The thing is… The traffic goes the opposite way on the bridge. Apparently, there were big problems with traffic jams going into the bridge so the government decided to switch the directions to help with the problem. I’m not really sure if it helped (and some people drive down it in whatever direction they feel like driving…) But it’s an interesting quirk regardless of the reason.

Hanoi’s Mosaic Mural

One thing I find very charming about Hanoi is the 6.5km mosaic mural that runs along the Red River dike.

Every time we drive along this stretch of road (and we do it often), I see something new. Certain sections were designed by students, others depict cultural elements of Vietnam. Foreign artists from France, The UK, Chile, Russia and South Korea also designed sections (other countries too!) And it’s just a really cool piece of art.

It was built to commemorate the 1000th anniversary of Hanoi city, and it holds the Guiness record for the longest mosaic in the world… And I drive by it almost every week.

There’s so much more to write about but I’ll leave it here for today.

After a long, wet drive, we arrived in Hue today.

My next couple of posts will be about some really cool day and weekend trips we’ve taken since arriving in Hanoi! Stay tuned!

Home in Hanoi

Two weeks ago today, I got my passport back from immigration, and got ready to leave China for good. I would be lying if I said I did anything other than hit the ground running. We went out for dinner in the Old Quarter the night I arrived, started work 4 days later, and started motor biking around the city within 10 days (don’t worry, we’ve bought proper helmets and face masks to save us from the pollution). We’ve also been to dozens of cafes and restaurants around Hanoi, and have gotten to know the city quite a bit! The last 2 weeks have been filled with adventure, experiences and newness; exactly what I crave in my life.

My first meal in Vietnam! Fried crispy chicken in rice. Dave ordered fish and vermicelli. The meal was incredible, and one of the only restaurants that we’ve circled back to so far! There are so many great restaurants that we almost always opt to try something new!

There’s so much for me to write about, but for today, I’ll start with a short introduction to the city where we are living!

About Hanoi

People have been settled in the Hanoi area since the 3rd century BCE. More than 2000 years ago, people began creating communities along the Red River, which flows through the city. With so many little lakes and rivers flowing through the city, it’s no surprise that the area has a long history. The settlements eventually grew, and in 1010CE, Hanoi (called Thang Long at the time) became the capital city of Vietnam.

Vietnam was a French colony for many years, and was later occupied by the Japanese during World War 2. The American invasion in Vietnam in the 60s and 70s also had a profound affect on the city, with many buildings and bridges being bombed. For a while, after the war, Hanoi wasn’t a very welcoming place for foreigners, which is understandable. It’s come a very long way since then.

A lot of this beautiful city was destroyed by wars

Our experience in Hanoi has been magical so far. People are very friendly, polite and helpful. People have offered us directions when they saw us looking for something, and all our Grab drivers have been very nice. English is also WIDELY spoken here; much more so than in Suzhou. Although many people study English in China, it seems that very few are willing to speak it with foreigners. In Vietnam, our experience has been quite different.

My first meeting at one of the middle schools I’ll be working with this year. I met several teachers who spoke English and even met with the Vice Principal who was able to do orientation in English. I’ve been told that the principal speaks English as well. The big difference between the two countries is that China is relatively closed for tourism. Their tourism industry revolves around Chinese people travelling around China. Vietnam, on the other hand, is a popular tourist destination, so there has been a bigger push for people to speak it here. A large part of their economy depends on it.

A Lively City

Hanoi is known as the introvert city, and Ho Chi Minh City is known to be extroverted. Anyone who thinks that Hanoi is introverted though, should really visit Suzhou! This city is SO alive! There are cafes, restaurants, pubs and bars everywhere. People seem to love being out, walking around the little ponds and lakes all over the area where we live. On any given night of the week, there will be groups of people enjoying beer and a great meal at the tiny restaurants that are scattered across the city.

This was on a random Thursday night in Old Town. There are always people out and about, and bar streets like this are a hive of activity!

We went for a little cruise on the motorcycle Sunday night, after dinner, and couldn’t believe how many were out cruising around the lake as well! The roads in Hanoi are almost always chaotic, but as long as you stick with traffic, and move with cautious confidence, it all seems to be ok. Traffic doesn’t move quickly, but it does move at least. Having a motorbike saves you a lot of time on the roads, so we didn’t wait long before getting one!

This is the area where we are currently living: Yen Phu. There’s a little lake right by our apartment and there are always people sitting outside, enjoying the view and a drink.

Foodie Paradise!

I’m planning several posts about Vietnamese food in the future, but so far, we’ve been enjoying a lot of the international food that we missed so much while we were in China.

Vietnam is much more open than China, and as a result, they seem to be more adventurous here. In Suzhou, many of the ‘international’ restaurants had to make major changes to their menus in order to appeal to local tastes. One chef we knew in Suzhou actually left his job because they wanted his food to be more ‘instagramable’. He made incredible home-cooked style Italian food but the restaurant wasn’t doing well enough because appearances is what sells. He actually left the restaurant because he didn’t agree with the mentality, but the reality is that restaurants need to do this in order to survive in China. As a result, you get less authentic cuisines.

Southern Fried Chicken from Twin Tails. I ate a LOT of this during my 6 week immigration ordeal. True comfort food was available in Suzhou, it’s just that Suzhou didn’t have much of it

It’s also more difficult for foreigners to open restaurants in China. Rent is expensive and there are a lot of hoops to jump through to make it happen. This doesn’t seem to be such a problem in Vietnam because there are international restaurants EVERYWHERE, and they all taste and feel authentic.

Some of the cuisines we’ve tried so far:

West African – Sierra Leone

North American

We even met up with some of our Suzhou friends here in Hanoi!

Ukrainian

Home made bread with garlic lard…very eastern European (don’t knock it til you’ve tried it!)

French Crepes

So there you have it, my first post about Hanoi (since we moved here, anyway!). We visited this gorgeous city back in 2017, and I knew I wanted to live here right away. I’m so glad we listened to our guts and made this move. So far, it’s an incredible adventure!

Quarantine

After a wonderful trip to Canada, where we got to see friends, family and so much of what we missed, we headed back to China, where COVID is treated like ebola, and where measures often don’t make sense and seem in excess. The trip back was a nightmare, especially at Pudong airport, where we queued and walked kilometers across the airport, going from one check point to the next. By comparison, quarantine wasn’t actually as bad.

When we booked our trip, back in March, we knew it meant 2 weeks of hotel quarantine, followed by 2 weeks of home quarantine. We booked our tickets knowing this, but were very relieved in June, when we learned that the government was reducing this time to 7 days in a hotel + 3 at home. With Omicron having a shorter incubation period than previous strains of COVID 19, the government finally loosened up a bit.

Most people experience symptoms within 2-3 days of exposure for Omicron, as opposed to 4-5 days for Delta. There were some freak cases last year that had people testing positive weeks or even a month after coming into contact with a positive case, and a lot of the government measures were based on that.

Now, I should start by saying that I’m not actually opposed to the mandatory quarantine imposed on people coming into China. With such a dense population, it is very easy for case numbers to grow very quickly, overwhelming hospitals, and leading to a lot of deaths. I believe in protecting the vulnerable, and I know I would feel AWFUL if I caused an outbreak by unknowingly spreading COVID.

It can spread so quickly if left unchecked, so I do understand why China can’t just drop all the regulations.

Still…I can say, some of it was pretty ridiculous, but hey, it makes for good reading, so at least I can blog about the experience!

Quarantine Breakdown

The current quarantine regulations for people entering China involve 7 days in a hotel + 3 at home. It can vary a little for residents of cities close to Shanghai (like Suzhou), because Shanghai simply can’t handle that many people quarantining all at once, for 7 days. So, our Quarantine was actually broken down into 3 parts instead of 2.

Part 1: A hotel in Shanghai
Part 2: A hotel in Suzhou
Part 3: Home quarantine in Suzhou

Suzhou doesn’t have its own airport, and most of the flights coming into China nowadays are going to Beijing, Shanghai, Xiamen or Shenzhen. That means a LOT of people are quarantining in those cities.

Now, I should begin by explaining that you get 0 say in which hotel you’ll be sent to, and wherever you end up, you have to pay for your room, regardless of the price. Couples are not allowed to quarantine together either, doubling the already inflated costs of these rooms. This was a pretty scary reality for us, but we hadn’t been home in 3 years, so we decided to just hope for the best, and prepare for the worst.

We had heard of some people in Xiamen having to spend $300 Canadian per night, per person. There are currently 7 days of mandatory hotel quarantine (+3 at home), which could have ended up costing us $4200 CAD if we’d landed ourselves in one of the expensive boarding facilities. This was on top of inflated flight prices and the $700 we spent on tests before we could even board the plane. Again… we would have had virtually no say in it if we ended up somewhere that was charging $300 per night.

Our faces pretty much the entire morning we arrived in Shanghai

Fortunately, the bus that transported us from Pudong Airport brought us to the Mercure Hotel, which was far more reasonable than the ones we had heard of in Xiamen. Still, we had no idea what we’d be paying until we reached that check in room, and they charged our debit accounts.

Part 1 of our quarantine cost us a total of $720 Canadian. The fees included our daily testing and meals, but was still quite a bit more than we would usually spend on a hotel in Shanghai. In a typical situation, we would spend about $250 to stay there for 3 nights. Still, the hotel was nice, and we had desks to work at, so we were relieved with the situation.

Part 2 of our quarantine was in Suzhou. We stayed at an older hotel there, located on Yangcheng lake, where Suzhou’s famous hairy crabs live. This hotel wasn’t quite as nice as the one in Shanghai, but the rooms were much bigger. Plus, the situation was much better for us in Suzhou because I managed to get a note from my doctor that enabled Dave and I to stay together in the same room. You can get doctor’s notes for a few things; in my case, it was for anxiety (turns out being cooped up alone for days is bad for the mental health.. who knew!?)

Our hotel in Suzhou even had a balcony. We couldn’t go out onto it though…

This meant that we still had to pay double for food, but we were only charged the cost of 1 room, instead of 2. Our Quarantine hotel in Suzhou came to $464 Canadian, which was a big relief. Our total cost of hotel quarantine came to just under $1200 CAD, which is a LOT better than we had actually expected to pay when we booked our trip to Canada.

The poor testing staff are forced to change their PPE after every test. They were so sweaty that they could hardly see. One of the reasons hotel quarantine prices are higher is because of all the hazard pay and extra services the hotels need to provide guests

Part 3 of quarantine is done at home. Of course, home quarantine is still supposed to be done solo, and without my doctor’s note, 1 of us would have had to stay in the hotel for those last 3 nights. Many people in Shanghai actually can’t do home quarantine at all, because it’s up to the compounds on whether or not they’ll allow it. Lucky for us, our compound was fine with it (thanks to my doctor’s note), and even let us order in groceries. We couldn’t go outside and we were only allowed to open our door for deliveries, but at least we were home!!

Keeping Busy

Once you are brought to your room, you close the door, and are only allowed to open it again for testing (once per day) & to get your food (3 times per day). If extra necessities need to be delivered (my first thermometer didn’t work, for example), they are left on the table outside of your room, and you can pick it up when you get your next meal.

I snapped a picture of the empty hallway when I grabbed my food one day

There are monitors on every door, so if you decide to open it when you shouldn’t, hotel staff know. There are also cameras in all the halls. It’s all very strict and I’m sure it wouldn’t be pleasant if someone were to break the rules. We all had to sign contracts on arrival, stating that we would abide by all government laws and COVID protection measures.

Day 1 wasn’t actually too bad. I was so relieved to be done with the airport fiasco, and sitting in an air conditioned room, with access to plenty of water… it was honestly a relief! Of course, I kept busy by reading, getting a bit of work done, and by messaging my friends to let them know we landed safely.

Our passports WERE returned to us, by the way

Day 2 was more of the same. I journaled, blogged, read…. anything to stay busy. By day 3 though, I was like a tiger in a cage… Pacing my room, stretching, exercising and basically just doing anything that requires movement. There was just enough room for me to walk around my bed, so I spent a lot of my day doing exactly that.

When you’re alone that much, you have a lot of time to think. Our dear cat, Ollie, died while we were in Canada. Of course, I thought about this a lot. Also, many of our friends moved away in June, having put up with enough of the restrictions…I thought about that a lot too. It’s difficult to be positive when you’re alone, anxious, and worrying about all the lock downs that will likely be happening during our last year in China.

Losing my best friend on the planet (aside from Dave) was devastating, and the full impact hit me on day 3. He wouldn’t be there when I finally got home.

I called my doctor on day 3, and got the note that allowed me to be with Dave for the rest of our quarantine. 3 days alone was bad enough…10 would have been unbearable for me.

I was stuck to him like glue our first couple of hours back together

The Food

When you’re trapped in your room, unable to go out or even open the door outside of meal time, food become a really important part of your day. Even though I wasn’t really looking forward to EATING the food, it was something to break up the monotony, so I looked forward to each meal regardless of what they served.

Breakfast included congee, pumpkin, steamed buns and other random stuff

Added Measures

Just as our 2nd hotel stay was coming to an end, we got a message from a government official in Suzhou, informing us that Dave had been flagged as a close contact to someone who tested positive on our flight. We were given an extra day of mandatory quarantine, and were required to do blood tests “just to be safe”. The woman who had been sitting next to Dave was also flagged as a close contact, but as a resident of Shanghai, she wasn’t given extra time in quarantine and didn’t need to do blood work. As is often the case, Suzhou was just slapping on extra measures.

Of course, there’s nothing we could do about it, so we did our extra day in quarantine, did the blood tests, and looked forward to being able to go home.

The (Extra) Strange Stuff

Swabs

On our last morning at the hotel in Suzhou, they came to do throat swabs, as usual, and then handed us half a dozen wet swabs, with a sign explaining that we were supposed to test various areas of the room, and then give them back the swabs for analysis. Keep in mind that this was after we had already had 12 COVID negative tests and had no symptoms.

Dave, expertly swabbing the light fixtures

Gloves

For some reason, when we left our hotel in Shanghai, we were made to put on latex gloves for the bus ride and trip to the hotel. This is still a mystery to me. We already had 7 negative tests at this point, and it definitely felt like more theatrics.

Bleach

Ok, this one sort of made sense to me. Bleach kills viruses, so of course you should find it in a quarantine hotel. The abundance of bleach was extreme though. All our luggage was sprayed down with it upon our arrival to the Suzhou hotel. At other hotels, they were DRENCHING people’s luggage with the stuff.

This photo was taken from a different hotel. The floors of all the buses and hotels were like this.

The bleach is also never actually wiped off, just sprayed on, layer after layer. The buses, hallways and hotels were covered in residue. The halls in our Suzhou hotel had carpet, and therefore covered with tarps and plastic… Which were also coated in bleach. It made everything look kind of gross.

Deliveries

At the Shanghai hotel, we were allowed to order things online, even coffee from Starbucks. We could order food and really whatever we wanted, as long as we only opened our door to receive them at meal time. In Suzhou, however, we could only receive things if family members or friends dropped them off. No food was allowed, and anything that came in had to be left overnight in a special room, and…. You guessed it…sprayed with bleach. Furthermore, our hotel would only deliver these things on Wednesdays and Sundays. We arrived on a Wednesday and left on a Sunday, so even if we wanted to, we couldn’t have had anything dropped off.

At least they provided us with the basics… Masks, bleach tablets (for the toilet?) And rubbing alcohol. And of course, lots and lots of hand sanitizer

Every hotel has its own rules. Last year, when a friend of mine was quarantined after being in a high risk area, I was able to bring her cake from Starbucks, yogurt, fruit and bread. As long as it wasn’t home made, it was fine. Every hotel makes up their own rules, and once more, we were left feeling like it was far more about theatrics than safety.

A perfect example… The neighborhood center near our apartment requires multiple codes, masks and a temperature check for people to enter. That same center does not provide toilet paper or soap in the washroom. The washrooms also stink of human waste.

So… That was our quarantine experience. Overall it wasn’t too bad. I do have to mention that the staff at both our hotels were VERY kind and helpful. The rooms were also very clean and comfortable, and all our food was edible. It could have been SO much worse. Especially if we’d tested positive while in quarantine. We know a few people who did, and they were shipped to special COVID hospitals, where they were given a wide range of drugs to ‘combat’ COVID. If you end up in one of those hospitals, you have to stay there until you test negative multiple times. It’s a nightmare, and I’m so glad it isn’t one that we had to experience.

No matter how welcoming they try to make it look, it just doesn’t look like a good time…

I’m planning on doing quite a bit of blogging about Suzhou over the next year. One thing that the quarantine experience taught us, is that we definitely don’t want to be doing it again. So, at the end of this school year, we’ll be moving onto our next adventure. Until then, we’ll keep living it up (and they’ll keep locking us down… I’m sure).

Southern Manitoba: Part 1 – Sites & Attractions

Having grown up in Manitoba, it’s very easy to take for granted what the province has to offer. Fields are common place, local attractions aren’t a big deal because you can go any time, and you have no idea what you have there unless you travel and see what other places lack. After 3 years stranded in China, without the opportunity to go home, I got to see Manitoba with new eyes. I’ve been planning this post for a long time, so I think it’s time I finally write about the place where I grew up.

Manitoba is located in Central Canada. I grew up about 3 hours from Fargo, North Dakota.

I used to pass the center point of Canada on my way to work every day. A few years ago, the government put a sign up where people can take photos. A school even donated a little library where people can leave and take books

Manitoba is known for harsh winters, mosquitoes and construction, but if you visit at the right time of year, there’s actually plenty to do! Here’s a list of some of my favourite things to do when visiting home!

Take a Drive

I’ll start with the simple beauty of the province. Located in the prairies of Canada, Manitoba is the perfect place to visit if you want to see huge skies, beautiful fields and stunning sunsets.

Pull over down a service road and just take in the beauty!

We bought an old 1981 Honda motorcycle years ago, and one of our favourite pastimes is cruising around and just enjoying the views. Taking the back roads and smaller highways can be a great way to take in lots of natural beauty, and this was honestly one of the things I missed the most in my years away.

The clouds always amaze me. They seem so much bigger when I’m home!

Sunsets are especially beautiful in Manitoba. The days are long in summer, and if you go out from 9:30 to 10pm, you’ll see the most beautiful sights. The whole sky becomes colourful, and the prairies make the skies look endless, with no buildings or mountains to hide the view.

Assiniboine Zoo

No trip to Winnipeg is complete without a trip to Winnipeg’s Zoo. I have seen zoos all over the world, and I’ve grown to be very weary of them because, too often, the animals are given cramped spaces that are very different from their natural habitats.

They even have a beautiful butterfly garden!

Assiniboine Zoo is wonderful. The animals are given plenty of space and the zoo is involved with helping many injured species of birds. The polar bear exhibit is stunning and if you’re lucky enough to be there when they’re swimming, you can even watch them swim by overhead, from an underground tunnel.

This year, one of the Bears was really showing off! We were there on a really hot day and he was having a blast playing in the water

You also need to stop by the bison enclosure…truely Manitoban!

The park around the zoo is the perfect place for a summer picnic as well. It’s a great place to bring kids and spent time with the family. Going to the zoo with my nieces and nephews is always a must-do for me when we are home. Some locals complain about the prices since the zoo was renovated a few years back, but maintaining these large enclosures and giving the animals a reasonable place to live costs money. For me, $20 for an adult tickets is peanuts when you consider these things, and all the fun to be had while you’re there.

There is lots for kids to enjoy, like a kangaroo exhibit, the butterfly garden, the dinosaur area and, of course, all the resident animals!

When you’re done, drive around the park and find a picnic table for lunch!

Winnipeg Forks

The Winnipeg Forks is an important place historically. The Red and Assiniboine rivers meet there, making it a perfect place for trade between indigenous tribes, and later on, fur traders. Now, it’s a cool little place to walk around and take in the sights.

There are plenty of pretty paths to walk, and beautiful art is found throughout the site.

You can go antique shopping, grab some craft beer, get some food and shop for local specialties. My favorite thing to do at The Forks though, is to walk the river path. There are always geese, ducks, chipmunks and squirrels to see, and if you’re lucky you might even see a raccoon!

If you’ve got time, you can also visit the Human Rights Museum, where you can learn about all sorts of social issues, both past and present. It’s a huge museum, and you can easily spend a few hours, learning about everything from Indigenous Rights, to Refugee crices. It’s been a few years since we were there, but we were really impressed when we visited!

The tall building in the back is the museum. It is quite an iconic building, and most people either love it or hate it. Since my husband pointed out that it looks like sky and wheat fields in architecture form, I’ve definitely grown to appreciate it more!

Finally, if you find yourself at The Forks in winter, rent some ice skates and skate down the longest ice rink in the world! There are little shacks along the way, where you can rest and warm up. It’s a great way to spend some time during the winter!

I haven’t been to Winnipeg in winter for nearly 10 years now, so I had to borrow this photo from the Winnipeg Fork’s website

Visit a Lake

Manitoba is home to over 100,000 lakes. In fact, 16% of this massive province is covered in fresh water. Lake Winnipeg is our biggest, and the southern tip is less than an hour away from the province’s capital.

Many of the province’s lakes exist due to massive Lake Agassiz, which covered most of the area during the last ice age. We also have a crater lake, Westhawk, which was caused by a meteor. It’s quite deep and even a popular place for scuba diving!

Historical lake Aggasiz, covering most of Manitoba during the last ice age.

West Hawk Lake is near the Ontario boarder.

It’s no surprise that plenty of people have boats and cabins in Manitoba, and this year we were lucky enough to spend time cruising around these beautiful lakes with family and friends. Most of our time was spent on beautiful Falcon Lake, named after a Metis poet. It only takes about an hour and a half to get there from Winnipeg, and it’s located in a beautiful provincial park. Campsites book up quickly, and it’s easy to see why!

We saw loons, deer and ducks, and my uncle even recently saw a bear! If you’re lucky enough to know someone with a boat, it’s a gorgeous way to spend a sunny afternoon in July!

Winnipeg Festivals

I can’t end this post without at least mentioning some of Winnipeg’s many summer festivals. The Pride festival takes place at the end of May or beginning of June every year, and is celebrated in Downtown and The Forks. Canada Day is another big one, with celebrations moving around the city. We have celebrated our country’s birthday in Osbourne village, The Forks and this past year it was at Assiniboina Downs.

My two favourite festivals are Fringe Fest & Folklorama. Winnipeg’s Fringe is always HUGE, with performers travelling from all over the continent to take part. We made it to one Fringe show this year, performed by a group that had travelled all the way from Portland, in the USA!

Folklorama began after we left this year, so sadly we didn’t make it, but we go any time we can! Winnipeg is an extremely diverse place culturally, and Folklorama gives people a chance to learn about all the different cultures represented in our great city. You can try different food and drinks, enjoy a dance or music show and generally just sit back and have a good time, learning while you do it!

Ellie and I enjoying ourselves at the Slovanian pavilion a few years ago

So there you have it: my favourite things to do in and around Winnipeg! You might be tempted to drive through on your way to Alberta or Ontario, but don’t be shy about spending a few days in this beautiful province on your way through! I’m proud to call it home.

As always, feel free to leave your comments below! I’ll be back soon with Part 2 if my Manitoba posts! That one will include some of my favourite places to eat!!