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Published: August 4th 2012
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When we first started organizing our trip to Vietnam ( mind you it was about 2 weeks before we got into the plane) we were told by many not to go in August. One overseas tour agency even tried to convince us to go in Febuary instead. Those comments were very disconcerting but at one point during the 14 day countdown Jeff and I decided that neither rain nor heat would dampen our fun.
I have to admit that I was rather uptight about going up north especially since everyone was asking us if we had been vaccinated - which I had totally forgotten to do until it was too late! I was even more uptight by the fact that there was so much rain in Hanoi and I had read a blog from a women who was in Sapa two days before describing how she narrowly escaped a large land slide. With that knowledge and with a lot of angst we headed for the Hanoi train station for a 10 hour train ride to Sapa Vietnam.
Now the last sleeper train we took was in Bejing to Xian. It was also called a soft sleeper (private room +
private bathroom - which wasnt so clean but it was private). So as we neared the train station that looked like it was updated about 60 years ago, Jeff and I started laughing when I said " I guess we are going on the ORIGINAL Orient express. In front of us stood in its somewhat glory an old train. We slowly boarded, found our cabin with 4 very hard bunk beds, no bathroom. I let our a good and very nervous laugh as I remembered reading a blog of a women who had a wonderful surprise when a large family entered her cabin claming that they all paid to share a bed! In a panic and wanting to shoot myself I asked the train attendant if we had a room alone - She quickly typed something into her iphone that translated it to the following. "give little money and you will have room alone". Well the two managers (that's Jeff and myself) made a quick executive budgetary decision to bribe the conductress but within a second two women put their backpacks on the top beds and we just assumed the bribe plan was off. I asked one of the girls
where they were from , the answer- Basque country. Like in Spain? Are you sure ?No we are from Basque - we want to be independent!! she exclaimed, while taking out a very sharp scissor to cut open a package of salami that her and her friend were about to eat. I continued, YOU don't want to be apart of Spain? I see Jeff cringing from the corner of my eye, as this young women stated a very clear NO. The condustress returned to take her fee but we told her the deal was off- it was much more interesting to say we rode in a train cabin with some Basque revolutionaries.
The train rocked and rolled and made noises that were so loud I didnt hear Jeff snoring and subsequently woke up in a panic about 10 minutes before arriving in Lai Cai (the last stop before getting into a car for an hour drive to sapa) sure Jeff had died peacefully. But THANK G-d he was ok.. Off the train we went- to meet our guide Behn and to explore Sapa.
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eric
non-member comment
hope you are having fun
and talking to as many strangers as possible