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Published: February 18th 2009
Leaving hotel at the crack of 6:00 am (on Feb. 16) proved to be a challenge. But we made it with minutes to spare. To give you an idea of our morning the headline in the paper read: Government Inspectors Get Hard on Prostitution, Vow Stiff Fines. And off we went, laughing all the way in the dark.
Even though Mr. Tung sent a large comfortable van, we filled it to the brim with our luggage. After a 2 hour trip to Hai Phong City we portage'd said luggage onto the hydrafoil ferry to Cat Ba Island. There we met Mr. Tung and emptied the ATM down the street. Paying 32,000,000 dong for the 4 day portion of our trip. What A Deal!!!! Then onto the junk. From there we went for a short swim at a secluded beach, then a great lunch and proceeded on to a gigantic cave filled with stalactites and stalagmites. Then the crew found a beautiful secluded bay for us to spend the night. All meals were fresh seafood and were delicous. Roger and Brenda slept on the top deck under the stars, much to the bewilderment of the crew. It was great!! After a quiet
morning in the bay we went off and found a spot to go kayaking where only kayaks could get to through rock tunnels into a secluded area. The tunnels were only accessible at low tide and we felt grateful to be able to have the place to ourselves. Paradise on earth.
We then backtracked to Hanoi and boarded the night train to Lao Cai. We shoe horned ourselves and same luggage into our compartment on the train. After much giggling, we were exhausted enough to get our required jammies on and became closer friends. (Closer as in proximity) Imagine 4 beds in a 6'X 7' space.
We were met at the train station by Mr. Hai who with our driver Mr. Tao brought us up the winding mountainous roads to SaPa. We are in a beautiful hotel, what they deem as 3 star, but it is great with fantastic views off the balcony. Off on another adventure today.
We are exhausted! A 14 km trek was more than we expected. The terrain was rough but we had some help from some women of the Black Hmong ethnic village. Surprise, surprise, they had handicrafts to sell us as well. Bob seems
to be a real popular (pushover) fellow with the GIRLS. We visited 2 villages and looked in on their elementary schools. Kids appear to the same in every part of the world. We had a welcomed rest at a Homestay house, and Lynda is getting extremely good at standing up peeing. The guys have a huge advantage here. The bus was a welcome sight to bring us back up the mountain. We will be going out for an ethnic dinner tonight to celebrate Bill's birthday. Nothing like a little celebration to end a perfect day.
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Mike
non-member comment
Surprised
Didn't know you liked camping Roger. Amazing to see you with a bottle of water! It is only -18 here so I hope you and Brenda are enjoying yourselves. Sure looks like you are.