My week 'holiday' started on Friday as I waited for my taxi to Da Nang airport I was greeted by 2 of my neighbours offering me 1.5 litres of water to take on my trip, I tried to drink it out of politeness but it led to one hell of a bladder control exercise two hours later on the plane whilst touching down... you'll be glad to hear I didn't wet my pants... just! Especially difficult was controlling my face contortions as the pretty girl next to me on the plane was clearly wanting chance to practice her English... she must have thought I had a facial twitch by the end of the flight! I arrived at 1730 pm, got a minibus form the airport, where I was blatantly charged a third more than everyone else on board (all Vietnamese locals), I don't mind being ripped off a little here, you do get used to it, but not when it is so blatant! The minibus took me to 'downtown Hanoi' where the procession of motorcycles lit up the roads like a Christmas parade! A Chance conversation with another passenger led to him getting me a local price $1 motorcycle ride (with backpa
ck on) to the travel agent, where Anne (from week 8 blog) was waiting, and where we picked up train tickets. Another taxi ride took us to the train station where we boarded the overnight sleeper train, but not before a street food meal and some supplies for the train journey were collected. The over night train was fantastic, and we had a four-bed share compartment, complete with 2 upper and 2 lower beds, a small table with a bottle of water. a sweet, and a tooth brush and toothpaste set, complete with comb! Our only other companion was a Vietnamese tourist guide for Spanish speakers, (Hi) who was very helpful with pointing out what to do in Sapa. So get your maps out and you'll find Sapa in the North of Vietnam, inland a fair bit, here lies the tallest mountain in Vietnam! We slept well on the train, despite an intrusion by two Vietnamese men, pointing at the spare bed, and were not woken until the guards knocked on the cabin door at 0500 in the morning to say we had arrived! A negotiating process, which we lost out in, took place to get us a minibus to Sapa itself, where we trekked around in the rain, to find a room with a view! That was not difficult here as most of hotel look out over the mountains. Our hotel cost just $15 for both of us and we were soon settled after a ridiculously hot shower! Day one included, a look around the crazy market place, where local women and kids in traditional dress try and sell their hand embroidery or anything else to be honest! We both ate at the local market place for just 30,000 dong (1 pound) and then set off on a trek to the Cat Cat village and waterfalls.... oh my lord, it was so stunningly beautiful, yet we only knew this for sure on the way back, as the walk there was completely covered by mountain cloud... once under the cloud cover you could see that almost every inch of land had been cultivated for sugar cane or rice fields....a truly amazing fete! Little, self made wood huts showed off more local produce, until you hit the water falls at the base of the valley! More stunning scenery surrounded our return climb, and a quick 'call of nature' led me to find some great nature shots of a red dragon fly on surrounding greenery. After this trek 
and an afternoon nap, we headed out to the Saturday night 'Love Market' (where traditionally, local teenagers met for courting rituals), as we could find no such thing, we headed to the nightly food market, where Anne was to find 'love' with one of our fellow diners. He asked my permission to have coffee with Anne, before Anne retorted with a quite funny description of her 'big, strong boyfriend at home' and then mimed what her boyfriend was likely to do to the poor guy... he soon got the message but remained happy enough to poor me three shots of what was either rice wine or local firewater... one each to drink with him and his two friends! My beer was enough to keep me merry, and as the heavens opened once more here, a group of younger Vietnamese people joined our table and offered some translation for everybody, as the original three guys could only speak Vietnamese and we could only speak English. Still as the alcohol flowed, we talked away for most of the night regardless!!! That was until the young lady next to me mistook my hitting her arm (because there was a mosquito on it) for a gesture for her to get up and let us leave.... a rather few confusing moments ensued until we worked out what each other actually thought was going on!
Today the rain continued, but as this was now a second day where I was not actually sweating, (unlike Hoi An) I was happy to be feeling cool for once! We had lovely pancakes for breakfast before checking out and heading for more nice sandwiches in a little local bakery, then up to the local moun
tain, where we enjoyed traditional ethnic dancing... hmmm me thinks this was purely for the tourists as I saw dancing, scenery and costumes that would not be amiss in one of my local pantomimes! Though the shout of 'he's behind you' were sadly lacking! One more feeding at the local markets was enough to prepare us for the minibus to the train, and then for tonight's return overnight journey, before we head straight to a 3 day tour of Ha Long bay, staying on a boat overnight the first night.... Highlights to come include the 3 days around Ha Long bay, before Anne leaves and I spend some time with a newly acquired Vietnamese friend Phuong, and visit an organisation working with street kids (Blue Dragon) in Hanoi.
Enough for this week...
Regards from Vietnam
Dan
ck on) to the travel agent, where Anne (from week 8 blog) was waiting, and where we picked up train tickets. Another taxi ride took us to the train station where we boarded the overnight sleeper train, but not before a street food meal and some supplies for the train journey were collected. The over night train was fantastic, and we had a four-bed share compartment, complete with 2 upper and 2 lower beds, a small table with a bottle of water. a sweet, and a tooth brush and toothpaste set, complete with comb! Our only other companion was a Vietnamese tourist guide for Spanish speakers, (Hi) who was very helpful with pointing out what to do in Sapa. So get your maps out and you'll find Sapa in the North of Vietnam, inland a fair bit, here lies the tallest mountain in Vietnam! We slept well on the train, despite an intrusion by two Vietnamese men, pointing at the spare bed, and were not woken until the guards knocked on the cabin door at 0500 in the morning to say we had arrived! A negotiating process, which we lost out in, took place to get us a minibus to Sapa itself, where we trekked around in the rain, to find a room with a view! That was not difficult here as most of hotel look out over the mountains. Our hotel cost just $15 for both of us and we were soon settled after a ridiculously hot shower! Day one included, a look around the crazy market place, where local women and kids in traditional dress try and sell their hand embroidery or anything else to be honest! We both ate at the local market place for just 30,000 dong (1 pound) and then set off on a trek to the Cat Cat village and waterfalls.... oh my lord, it was so stunningly beautiful, yet we only knew this for sure on the way back, as the walk there was completely covered by mountain cloud... once under the cloud cover you could see that almost every inch of land had been cultivated for sugar cane or rice fields....a truly amazing fete! Little, self made wood huts showed off more local produce, until you hit the water falls at the base of the valley! More stunning scenery surrounded our return climb, and a quick 'call of nature' led me to find some great nature shots of a red dragon fly on surrounding greenery. After this trek 
and an afternoon nap, we headed out to the Saturday night 'Love Market' (where traditionally, local teenagers met for courting rituals), as we could find no such thing, we headed to the nightly food market, where Anne was to find 'love' with one of our fellow diners. He asked my permission to have coffee with Anne, before Anne retorted with a quite funny description of her 'big, strong boyfriend at home' and then mimed what her boyfriend was likely to do to the poor guy... he soon got the message but remained happy enough to poor me three shots of what was either rice wine or local firewater... one each to drink with him and his two friends! My beer was enough to keep me merry, and as the heavens opened once more here, a group of younger Vietnamese people joined our table and offered some translation for everybody, as the original three guys could only speak Vietnamese and we could only speak English. Still as the alcohol flowed, we talked away for most of the night regardless!!! That was until the young lady next to me mistook my hitting her arm (because there was a mosquito on it) for a gesture for her to get up and let us leave.... a rather few confusing moments ensued until we worked out what each other actually thought was going on!Today the rain continued, but as this was now a second day where I was not actually sweating, (unlike Hoi An) I was happy to be feeling cool for once! We had lovely pancakes for breakfast before checking out and heading for more nice sandwiches in a little local bakery, then up to the local moun
tain, where we enjoyed traditional ethnic dancing... hmmm me thinks this was purely for the tourists as I saw dancing, scenery and costumes that would not be amiss in one of my local pantomimes! Though the shout of 'he's behind you' were sadly lacking! One more feeding at the local markets was enough to prepare us for the minibus to the train, and then for tonight's return overnight journey, before we head straight to a 3 day tour of Ha Long bay, staying on a boat overnight the first night.... Highlights to come include the 3 days around Ha Long bay, before Anne leaves and I spend some time with a newly acquired Vietnamese friend Phuong, and visit an organisation working with street kids (Blue Dragon) in Hanoi.Enough for this week...
Regards from Vietnam
Dan
1 comment:
Hiya Dan
As usual lovely to 'escape' for a few minutes and read your news (especially when you're stuck in Longsight Job Centre and it's raining outside!)
I discover we like the same authors too - Mr Coelho and Mr Albrom!! Good taste!
Wendy was poorly last week so have re-scheduled for tonight! Be good to see her and no doubt we'll talk about your blog!!
Stay well and happy!
Liz x
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