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Published: January 20th 2006
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I met up with Claire today to go pay a visit to Uncle Ho. We headed out to the Mausoleum mid-morning to be met by a long line-up. It seemed long because everybody had to check in their bags, walk through a metal detector and check in their cameras.
There were a ton of tours there at the same time so it almost felt like we fit right in. Basically we were ushered (I was gonna say herded but ushered sounds so much better!) into the Mausoleum to be greeted by guards about every 10 to 15 paces. It was really quiet. The whole walking by Ho Chi Minh took no more than 20 seconds. All I could really think about when I was walking by his body was, "I'm looking at a dead guy!" I hope that doesn't sound too disrespectful!
Hmm, now what? We walked around some more. Hung around the lake some more. We were going to check out the Museum of Revolution (not a museum about all things that revolve by the way! haha) but it was closed because of Tet. So we headed to the Ha Noi Backpackers Hostel to hang out with Claire.
We also caught up with with Eva and Chelsea, a couple of volunteers at other postings. I actually spent quite a few hours sitting on the sofas of the hostel just reading and chatting. Claire, Eva, Chelsea and myself set out for a little walk to try and find the Kangaroo cafe and check it out. After walking up and down this one block several times we decided to look at the address a little bit closer only to discover that it was closed for Tet! DOH! We ended up going to a bar called the Funky Monkey. It was pretty empty but I got my fill of Orangina.
Then we set out to find a place to eat for dinner. The first place we go to, we sit down and then they asked for our order. "I'd like the Sweet and Sour Pork please." Reply, "No." What?? It turns out that they did not have a chef on call because of Tet and were only serving drinks. The second place we went to we checked to see if they were serving food before sitting down!
After dinner I hung around some more at the Hostel. It sort of felt like my second home that day. LOL. Perhaps that is why I am sitting in the lobby at this very moment typing up this blog!
I eventually headed off for my hotel to pick up my bag and get picked up to go to the train station. New Year's Eve and I'm catching the train to Lao Cai (on the border between China and Viet Nam) and then a one hour bus ride to Sa Pa. Apparently I missed out on all the busy streets of Ha Noi and the fireworks at midnight too. Oh well! It would have been really hectic..at least that is what I'm telling myself. 😊 Instead I was sleeping almost like a baby on the night train.
Night train to Sa Pa
Two more days of trekking fun
Hope there is no mud...
The train to Lao Cai was much nicer than the one we took up to Ha Noi the week before. Each cabin had four berths which meant it wasn't quite a cozy as a six berth cabin. I shared a cabin with a Japanese family..so I felt like I fit in haha! It was a pretty uneventful train ride since all we basically did was sleep.
The train arrived around 6AM and I was told that there would be a tour guide waiting for me with a name on a sign. Hmm, not a good feeling when you walk past everyone and don't see your name. I asked a few people but they didn't have my name and then it turns out there are several other people that don't see anybody there to pick them up as they had arranged. Apparently the contact for our tour company was late. So after a bit of confusion we all pack into a bus and head to Sa Pa, a one hour drive away on really windy roads. It was a nice drive though because the sun was just starting to come out and it looked really quite amazing. I was seated next to a couple from Toronto and we exchanged some travel notes. They were telling me all about their time in Thailand and I told them a bit of what I have seen in Viet Nam.
Since it was Tet, my tour days were switched around a bit. Instead of the hotel stay at the end of my two days of trekking I had the hotel stay first. Hmm, what to do on my lonesome in Sa Pa with nothing open??
...to be continued...
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