Farewell Vietnam

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The night train

After our arrival and discovering that all the tourists sites were closed, despite what the lp said, we hit the travel agents to see what tours we could do in the less than delightful city of Hanoi. We decided in order to maximise our time we would head off that evening to the mountains of Sapa. We agreed with our hotel that we would check out before 5pm and she would only charge us 50%!o(MISSING)f the room, as she happened to also be our travel agent.

The only way to get to Sapa is on the night train, we had booked a soft sleeper compartment, not 1st class. When we got to the train station we were a little concerned that not only were we not on the same train as the rest of our group, but the carriages we walked past looked old and had what looked like a piece of plywood for a bed. However we were relieved to find that our cabin did have soft thick mattresses, but no fancy lamp like the first class people, however we slept like logs.

The burnt hotel

After an hours mini bus ride we arrived in Sapa, around 7 ish. We were supposed to be staying at the Sapa Summit hotel, but were told that 2 days previously it had a gas fire and burned down, so they dumped us in another hotel which definitely seemed inferior as it was freezing and there was no hot water. We all thought the hotel story was a scam to charge for a higher rate hotel and put you in a sub standard hotel as we had a general lack of trust for the north Vietnamese.
Any way after a cold shower and a lovely deep fried Vietnamese breakfast we went to meet our guide.
Although our start at Sapa was not to favorable, our guide changed everything.

Cat and Lam

Her name was lam and she was about 4ft in height and a ball of smiles and laughter. The saying is true dynamite comes in small packages. Although she said she was 22, she did not look a day older than 12. She spoke excellent English and had an infectious laugh, that made everyone grin from ear to ear. She first off took us to meet her mom and aunty's in the market. Who were selling beautiful wares, to be bought later on. Our group was quiet small and included to German girls and an Australian. We headed off on our walk to cat cat village. On the way we picked up some little who could not stop asking us questions in perfect English. They were not trying to sell anything, just practice their English and even gave us bracelets. We arrived in the village with an entourage. After short while wondering around the village we headed back to our hotel for lunch. By this time we had also picked up 2 more people, an English and Italian girl.

Things at the hotel did slightly improve as we managed to secure a 1 bar heater free of charge and an extra blanket. Lunch was big and tasty.

Shopping and chocolate

As it was very cold in Sapa, and we had the afternoon free, nothing warms the heart better than some shopping. We went along with the Italian and English girl we met earlier, to the markets, but harder than u would have thought as the fog only allowed 1-2 meters visibility. The mountain people made beautiful colourful fabrics. After completing the shopping, we went to a bar recommended by lam, which had a roaring fire and tasty hot chocolate.

Deja-vu all over again

As there were no English channels on th tv and our Vietnamese is non existent, we went for an early dinner. We were a bit surprised that we were presented with the same menu as lunch time. Despite asking for some tofu, they said sorry but there was nothing the could do. However we found the answer to making our dinner worthwhile. The English girl ordered tea with milk on the side after dinner. Now they don't have real milk in the mountains, so it was condense sweet milk. We all tried a bit, it was so yummy that all 4 of us polished off the bowl. No wonder, the next day, we all asked for tea with milk on the side and at one stage we were all given a full can, which not even Steve could finish off.

Lams village

The next morning after a hot shower and a bowl of soup for breakfast, we headed off on a 12k hike. This time we were joined not only by our Italian and English friends but a load of elderly ladies. Before the major decent we were accosted by a gang of kids brandishing bamboo walking sticks which turned out to be a great investment (15p each). The walk turned out to be extremely slippery in places due to the recent rain and the old ladies proved invaluable in helping everyone down. However they did not do this for charity and successfully tried to sell us their wares.

After a delicious lunch we headed through several villages including Lams. En route we saw a recently married couple who were only 15!

After returning to the hotel and cleaning our boots we went to a nearby coffee shop for nice coffee and cake.

The Journey Home

To our pleasure, we were told that our dinner was not to be at the hotel, but at a restaurant close to the train station, and we were relieved to finally have a variety of different Vietnamese food to choose from. Afterwards we headed to our sleeper carriage, and were impressed when we had something that looked more like the Hogwarts Express rather than a British Rail cast off. Instead of the cold the cabin was reassuringly warm and we both managed to get some sleep.

Ha Long Bay

With our train arriving at 5:15 in the morning, we caught a cab back to our hotel. We were greeted not by a 24 hour concierge, but by 2 of the staff sleeping on camp beds in the reception! The kind people that we are we did not turn on the lights to wake them up for another hour.

After a quick western style breakfast (muesli has never tasted so good) we were picked up for our 2 day/1 night Ha Long Bay tour. This started promisingly with a friendly guide and several friendly people in the group, although we collectively fell asleep for the 2 hour drive to the rest stop.

Upon arriving at the bay we boarded our Junk that was to be our home for the next 24 hours. Unfortunately when they were named Junks - they were right!

Had the weather not been so miserable this would not have been such an issue, but it continued to let the cold in and everyone was bundled up. Despite this we headed off for a cruise though the beautiful islands and stopped at the Surprising Limestone Caves, which were illuminated to great effect.

We then had a disappointing lunch, where we had to repeatedly ask for our vegetarian option, and were eventually given a bowl of Tofu swimming in oil, after we had finished the rice and stringy greens. That afternoon we took a kayak out into the bay and around several of the islands. Believe it or not it was warmer on the water than on our boat. During this really nice ride we went through a limestone tunnel.

That evening we managed to eventually get our veggie options towards the start of the meal. However, the crew were less than helpful and decided that they would rather watch a kung fu movie at full blast rather than let the group talk to each other!

The next day we went for a short cruise, and were dumped at the port an hour before our bus picked us up to take us to a nice restaurant for lunch and then back to Hanoi.

Water Puppetry

That evening we decided to see if there were any last minute tickets to the water puppetry show and were relieved to get some standbys towards the front of the seating. This was a really enjoyable experience seeing them come to life on a lake of water.

Madame Tussuads

The following morning was our last in Vietnam and we could not let it pass without sending our regards to Ho Chi Minh. So we hopped onto a couple of bikes and headed to his mausoleum. This was an amazingly vast complex and you are ushered in single file around his embalmed body in a huge mausoleum, guarded by several soldiers. He looks like a cross between a waxwork model from MT, with his face illuminated so it also looks like a hologram. The fact that he is so diminutive and in such a large glass case gives a surreal look.

Farewell Vietnam

Despite the war ending the year we were both born, we had a feeling that there are still 2 Vietnams - North and South, which are still divided by the old DMZ. We found the South to have lovely and helpful people, whilst the North seemed more aggressive and we had the impression that they were trying to scam us the whole time. It should be stated that this is only on the coast and NOT in Sapa.

The other difference was with the bikes in Saigon they avoided us, in Hanoi we had to avoid them.

On the whole we had a great time, but it was slightly sullied by our experiences in the north, although this was not helped by the downturn in the weather. But it is all part of the experience.

We are now in Hong Kong and have a couple of airline stories to start the next blog with.

Until then

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Comments

[Angela]

Lets get more positive
I know that there are ups and downs to travelling, but every time I see there is a new blog entry my expectation is that there is going to be more whinging than interesting story! When you travel through third world countries I know from experience that things dont always go as planned, and usually your expectations are going to be higher than what you actually get - well, you know what... deal with it! Focus on the good new positive experiences you have. I know you are veggies, but most people in those countries cannot understand why, or the concept, so why make such a big deal about every meal that you do or dont get! Moral of the story, what are you going to remember when you look back at the trip down the line - the good or the bad?

[janandsteve]

Hi, we know it occasionally sounds as if we are wingeing poms (yes J is now officially British) but we are really having a good time. If we say all is wonderful then there is not much to say. Anyway with the last part of Vietnam the issue was not so much the food but the difference in personality from the South. We are loving the food in Bali