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Published: August 3rd 2015
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Got up for the Halong Bay tour which was a 4 hour coach journey there. I was with a lovely Filipino family and 4 Irish girls. We got on our boat and had a huge buffet lunch with rice, fish and lots of other veg. We boated out Into the bay, which is beautiful. There are lots of big limestone cliffs dotted around. We came to a cove type cliff and got out to go and explore a cave. They had made it a bit touristy inside with lights but the stalactites and stalagmites were amazing! If not a little weird haha after we boated further out into the bay where we stopped for kayaking. I got partnered with a Vietnamese guy who spoke no English but talked to me the whole way... Somehow we managed to get to some rocks and back with lots of pointing! On the way back we took a different route to see more of the bay. The bus back went quickly and I got dinner when I got back and chatted with a Canadian couple.
I had a really good sleep and woke up feeling refreshed! I went out to the market and got a
few bus before meeting Jadine and Iona (from Hoi An). We went to a cafe and got a few drinks which weren't great hen we said our final goodbyes to Jadine as she moves on. So Iona and I found another cafe to hang out in for most of the day before deciding to find a Pizza Hut for dinner. It was good! Then we got ready for our bus to Sapa, further north in Vietnam. We got an excessively cramped minivan -22 people in 11 seats!- before getting on a coach and arriving in Sapa at 5.30am.
We chatted to a local lady when we got there (they dress in the funkiest outfits here!) and she showed us to our hostel. We couldn't check in until 1 so we waited/ napped in the communal area. We went for lunch and got soup as it's a bit colder up here! We went for a walk around town to see your prices and booked with a lovely guy named Hung. We had fajitas for dinner and had an early night ready for our trek.
We had breakfast and then started our trek. Sapa is beautiful and full of rice fields and
hills as far as you can see! Cam our tour guide was so lovely (and little... I love being tall in Vietnam!) We were joined on the trek by local tribes women who walk with you, talk and try to sell you things. The trek was pretty much not on a track so Sa helped me and Ze helped Iona! They were really lovely and made us hearts out of some leaves. At lunch those tribe women left and a new group came from a different village. Mine was a lovely lady, only 20 who told me all about her family and life! It started raining so she held an umbrella over us for the journey. Iona and I bought some funky scarves off of her haha then in the afternoon we arrived at our home stay with a Vietnamese family. It was much nicer and had more amnesties than I thought it would! We had time before dinner so Iona and I explored the village and found somewhere selling ice cream which we ate overlooking the fields. When we got back more people had arrived. We all played with some puppies and kittens they had there. Yen the mum
was lovely and bought us out these incredible garlic chip things as a snack until dinner. We played cards and chatted. Dinner was huge and we could hardly make a dent in it after eating chips before! Then they bought up some Vietnamese rice wine which is gross but we drank it anyway to be polite! We spent the evening chatting and trying to get used to rice wine- we still couldn't though!
Had a good sleep and got up ready to do day 2 of the trek. We had a new guide, Singh. He was fun too. The second day was harder than the first. Where it had rained the ground was unbelievably slippy and within half an hour half the group had fallen over and was covered in mud. It was funny though. Singh seemed to be following an imaginary path over rocks and trees! At some parts he had to hold our hands so we didn't fall down hills! Then halfway it started pouring and we were absolutely soaked through but had to keep going as there was no shelter or road so we carried on- I somehow managed to not fall over! After lunch the rain
was ridiculous so we decided to skip the waterfall we were meant to do and go to the end point. We were soaked in the van back but it was such a fun two days it was totally worth it! When we got back we had the best hot shower ever!! We spent about two hours drying our stuff with a hairdryer so we could pack it. Then we had burritos for dinner before Hung picked us up at 9 to go the bus station. The bus back to Hanoi was well driven but I couldn't sleep for some reason - maybe I'm used to the reckless driving so the calm driving threw me!
The bus was meant to get in at 7... But we were woken at 4.30 and told we were there! Luckily we knew our way round Hanoi and walked to Green Hanoi backpackers again. The guy on the desk (who we woke up!) was lovely and said we could go to a room and sleep- without paying for that night! The next day we were pretty tired but found a really good cafe with amazing smoothies so we chilled there before going to the post office
and sending out Nan's postcards! Then we sorted our bus to Laos tomorrow - Iona is going to be with me for all of it 😊 then we got ready to celebrate our last night in Hanoi/Vietnam! We went out with some people in our dorm. It was a good night.
I got up for breakfast the next morning before going back to bed until check out at 12. We were both feeling a little fragile so we went to a hostel we knew sold cheesy chips- always a problem solver on a hangover! We chilled out/ recovered before our bus. We had an early dinner and said bye to trang, the lovely lady at the hostel- she said she would miss us! We were meant to get the bus at 5 so waited at 'Anna's place' where we booked our bus chatting to her and hoan who worked there. We were still waiting at 7 and were finally picked up and on our bus which left at 8! Iona and I were on different sleeper bits which was fine as I slept 9-11 before a bus break where I stretched my legs and slept 12-7am!
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