March 21 ++ end of Nam


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Asia » Vietnam » Northwest » Lai Chau
March 21st 2009
Published: March 24th 2009
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March 21
So I arrived to Lao Chai this morning and after the mayhem of getting a mini bus to Sapa(many drives different prices depending on your barging.) I was crowded by people leading me to their hotel. I checked a few out before I found a sweet cheap place and awesome view of the valley. When I was being lead to the hotel a local village woman began to follow us and talk to me a little. These local women are all over the place selling things. Anyway, I went in the hotel for at least 1/2 hr and when I came out she was there waiting. I think she wanted to lead/follow me to her village. But I didn't want to trek today, I just wanted to check out the town n the radio tower look out. This woman followed me all around town though. Then wanted me to buy something from her. I even told her she didn't have to fallow me but she did anyway. I even managed to loose her at one point but she found me when i was having coffee on the street.
I felt a little bad not buying anything from her but she finally gave up and left. I spent the rest of the avo doing the radio tower climb. Which turned out much nicer than It sounds. There were a number of gardens. Which might not gave been the prettiest flowers and vegetation but best location nestled in the side of a mountain. There were a number of look outs as well that had amazing views of the city and surrounding valleys n villages. After this walk/ hike I went to the market for lunch. I though I spotted roster testicles but after some funny mining I found out they were eggs. They must have been taken from the hen because they were underdeveloped but not fertilized. They were basically just they yolks. Oh she threw in some intestines n heart into my soup as well.
I managed to contact Swiss matt n found out be was still in sapa n was on a hike but getting back soon. So he and I met up for a drink then grabbed some street BBQ, some chicken, beef, pork, some sort of sausage things and some baby ducks or chickens. They were either fresh hatch or taken from egg. We/I finished the meal with some roasted chestnuts. Then we grabbed some coffee chatted a while n went to bed.

March 19
I woke up fairly early eager to go for a hike by myself. But after breaky, when I was on my way down one of the village women had picked me up. So we chatted a little in the beginning but then it was game on and we were off n running. The valley n villages were beautiful. We were crossing back and forth from track to road, I wanted to stay on track but I think she was trying to lead me as fast a possible to her village. It was alright though because the view from the road was nicer because the it was higher. We made it really far and of course I lost the good map that matt gave me so I had to asked a tour guide where we were. After I got my bearings we charged on a bit more. When we arrived to Bao den
The women told me she was gonna stop n go back and asked me to buy something. She then showed me where to go but fearing not getting a ride back I told her I'd buy something if shed help get me a moto back to town. Seeing as we must have walk around 4+ hrs and some 20+ ks. We almost didn't get a ride back but she managed to yell at someone passing by they dropped off there passenger then came back for us. This was an interesting ride back. I was sandwiched between the guy and this women on a tiny scooter. Then we found another moto so she got on there. Then a bit later my driver just stopped. My thoughts oh man I'm gonna gave to walk back but he just stopped to pee hilarious. Then we were on the way again but he did a u-turn after and started back but we met another driver and I switched over to that one. This guy was the right one and he finally took me back to sapa. When I got back I had a shower n rested a bit until i was to meet with matt a bit later. He had rented a scooter for the day so we tried to finding the silver waterfalls but unsuccessful. The drive over the pass was very pretty though. When we got back to town matt and I grabbed some coffee. He was catching the train to Hanoi tonight so we said our goodbyes again and he was on his way. I grabbed some dinner then went home to bed.

March 23
Today was a lazy morning. After I got some stuff done l headed down to cat cat village. Again it was very beautiful but this one was super touristy as well. There was a nice waterfall n a local house you could walk into. From here I decided to hike to the next village Sao Chia. It's was only a few K on a road but it was a beautiful relaxing walk. One the way back I chilled on a hill top for a while taking it all in.
There happened to be a moto riding back and I used my good bargaining skills to get a ride back to Sapa for 60 cents or so. Once back in town I grabbed some lunch where I spoke to an older couple that had been living in China teaching English. I had also met anther USA guy who just left the us years ago running away from Bush and the economy i think.
After lunch I decided to catch up my blog then I walked around and buy some bananas for the train ride. Then again we got some more confusion with the mini buses back to the train station. We did some Chinese fire drills for a bit but were finally on our way. I was getting nervous because I had an earlier train then everyone else. But when we got to the station the time I was given was the time I was supposed to get my ticket not the train so I had almost 3hrs. So I walked around got some food n a coffee caught up on my journal n blog. I typed all of this entry on my iPhone although slow n a painful it allowed me to catch up to date. What an amazing thing. Well on the train right now so it's iPod movies and sleep.

March 24
The train ride was alright i got back to Hanoi just before 6. I rang mom and dad then went out on the town with some goals, to get weasel coffee and some last strange food. I had found online the restaurant Andrew Zimmerman had got Bull penis and testicles so i was game on. First up was the old war prison it was very interesting. It was used by the French during the French Vietnam war. In this part they kept talking about how mean and cruel the French were and the living standers were so low. Then when Vietnamese used it for USA pilots they were so nice to them. They got to play basketball, volleyball have Christmas ect. haha can you say propaganda? haha
After that i spent the next few hours trying to find this weasel coffee. Every one i asked just pointed me to a normal coffee shop. Then just when i was about to give up i asked one more place and got directed back to an area i thought i had covered but might as well recheck it. When i was walking down this road i saw a little street lady vendor with people drinking what looked like coffee so i tired asking what it was but before i knew it i got poured a glass. So i drank it down but found out later it was some trung nuyen water. I have no idea what that is. It was a little like tea but ... i dont know not bad though. I paid then went on searching again and then low and behold i found some coffee shops. I was so stoked. I had 3 different cups all weasel just different strengths. They were all quite good i must say. No there was poop taste. Oh in case you don't know what weasel coffee is they feed the beans to weasels who then somewhat digest it and then excrete it. Then farmers, i suppose, collect it from the feces. Good stuff. haha
After my coffee taste testing i went to see the water puppets show, which is very famous in Hanoi. It is just that a puppet show where the people are standing in water behind a screen putting on a performance with puppets. It was pretty good. Some of the moments must have been coordinated by a few people on one puppet. It was quite impressive.
After the puppet show i headed to Highway 4 restaurant, the one Zimmerman went to. However i was immensely disappointed, no bulls penis or testicles. I asked one of the guys if the other Highway 4 had it but he said no. I think he was getting at no one ate it or liked it so they stopped serving it, big let down for me. However, they did have some other interesting foods. The had a number of crocodile dishes but i had that in OZ. They also had pigeon and sparrow but what caught my eye was the fried crickets and the horse meat. I have heard hose meat is supposed to be super high in protein and really good. So i got the crickets as an appetizer and then the horse meat as the main. Well the crickets were actually awesome, really really good. They had some lemon grass and a salt and lemon dip, really nice. The horse meat was very tasty as well however, it was a bit chewy. Now i don't know if horse is normally chewy or if they might have cooked it wrong but it did have a very nice lemon grass flavor as well.
After dinner i went back packed up my bags fooled with my camera for a while and thought i had screwed it up and lost all my footage. Im just gonna try and get it fixed in Hong Kong tomorrow. Which leads me to the end here in Nam. It was a great journey here i meet some great people had some good and some interesting food and got too see some amazing things. Next stop Hong Kong

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