Hello! Losing a bit of momentum when it comes to writing this blog regularly as it is proving to be quite the time consuming task. Do let me know if you are reading this so I have some motivation to continue writing...
I spent a very uneventful 4 nights (I think) in Vientiane. Although the city was pleasant I wasn't a massive fan of it as it paled in comparison to Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng and there didn't seem to be much to do. Also I was sharing a dorm room with the most ridiculous man I have ever met. So I arrived in the evening and bumped into my friend, so went and got some tasty fried rice on a stick in the night market, then had an early night. I was in a three bed dorm; one of the beds was occupied when I went to sleep but the other guy was out. He was there when I woke up at about 8am the next morning, so we introduced ourselves. His name was Corey and he was from Tennessee (this was his first trip outside of Tennessee). He was in his early 20s. One of the first thing he asked me was if I minded if he smoked a spliff in the bedroom. I said I'd rather he didn't. He later told me his whole life story about how he had been planning to meet his girlfriend (of 6 months) in Vietnam so they could teach English together, he'd sent her 500 dollars and then she'd broken up with him, so he was angry and bitter, trying to proposition every girl he met and planning on finding work in Laos instead. He didn't lack confidence ('finding a job should be like shooting fish in a barrell', 'two weeks of training and I'm ring worthy' - on boxing), but he did lack manners and social skills (he told me I was unreasonably uptight when I said I didn't like people writing in my books and tried to smell my bag of dirty laundry). I could go on, but anyway his presence kind of marred my Vientiane experience. Other than talking to Corey I wandered around the city, visited the night market, people watched and watched the sun set by the river, but was a bit bored as there didn't seem to be much else to do and it would have taken me too long to get to anywhere else in Laos and still make it to Hanoi in time to meet Alice. I did have an amusing night out one night though, where we visited a bar where there was a live band playing YMCA, and finished off the night in a club on the second floor of a hotel which was full of lady boys, and which was playing Justin Bieber when I walked in; I danced the night away. Oh, and I also visited the Buddha Park one day, about 25km outside of the city, which was just a park full of Buddhist sculptures/monuments. Quite nice.
Anyway, I was glad to be leaving Vientiane, but very anxious about my bus journey to Hanoi, which I'd read bad reviews of (after I had paid for my ticket). I got picked up and taken to the bus station at 5pm, where I befriended some Dutch girls. They lent me a pen knife as I was having trouble opening a particularly pesky bottle of water. I then proceeded to cut my finger open and bleed all over the floor and the girls had to patch me up with steri strips... We got on board the 'VIP' bus, which was very far from VIP. It was a sleeper bus, so it had these weird fake leather seat things which fully reclined. No toilet though. The girls and I were forced to sleep in a row of 5 seats, rather than in any of the two seater sections as those were reserved for the locals, who clearly paid a lot less than we did. Sleeping in the row of 5 meant that the people in the row of 5 behind us had to clmb over us anytime they wanted to get out which was inconvenient. I was sat next to a local guy who seemed ok, but one of the Dutch girls was sat next to another local who tried to feel her bum in the night, until she screamed at him. Anyway we set off at about 6pm, stopped for dinner and a disgusting squat toilet break at about 9, and then drove to the border with Vietnam. We arrived at the (closed) border at 1.30am, where the driver turned off his engine, and where we sat without any aircon until 6.30am when it was light enough to get out and use the toilet. All the locals went promptly to sleep, with no qualms at all about spreading out and resting their legs all over us, snoring, and even playing music without headphones at one point. The bus was really hot and uncomfortable and absolutely stank of durian fruit as someone had put some in the luggage hold (it smells like sewage). I did not have a good sleep. We went through border control at about 7am, which was a disorganised mess with people pushing and shoving and absolutely no sign of any kind of system. Back on the bus where we got shouted at by the locals as 4 other girls and I decided we would all sit together on a row of 5 so we didn't have to have our personal space invaded by any men. We were supposed to get to Hanoi at 4pm, but the bus kept breaking down and a petrol smell kept pouring out so we didn't arrive until 7.30pm, 14km outside of Hanoi, where we had to get a mini bus to the city centre. Was very happy to be off the bus, and happy to find Alice waiting for me at the hostel. We went for some Pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) and a beer in the evening and then had an early night.
The next day we went out to explore Hanoi. Alice had booked us on to a free tour with a company called Hanoi Kids, where students wanting to improve their English take you around the city for free. We were taken around by two 21 year old girls who were simply delightful, and had ridiculously good English. Hanoi is absolutely mental. Motorbikes ALL over the streets so you cannot wait for a break in the traffic to cross the road, you just have to walk slowly and purposefully into the road and hope for the best. No traffic rules it seems, everyone just uses their horns a lot rather than brakes or good sense. It's quite treacherous, but also entertaining. The sound of horns all the time does get a bit tiring though. The old quarter was interesting, with it's narrow streets and people living their lives all over the pavements (impossible to walk on the pavements as people are cooking, playing cards, or even shaving their beards as I saw a couple of times). The girls took us to Ho Lao (I think) prison, where the French imprisoned a load of important Vietnamese people during their reign (I wish my head could hold the details of when this happened), and which was later used by the Vietnamese to hold American POWs during the Vietnam war. It was very interesting. Then we had a wander around the old quarter, looked at the sword lake (so called because of something to do with a turtle that took a sword and disappeared into the lake..?!) and went for lunch. The girls helped us order so we had a delicious selection of Vietnamese food including spring rolls and some kind of tasty honey beef. Then went to visit the Temple of Literature (was a university in the 11th century) which was pretty and interesting. We were glad to have the girls and their infintie knowledge as there wasn't a great deal of info written in English. Unpleasant incident on the way home. We were pondering what to do next, and a taxi driver was hanging around us trying to get us to go in his taxi. We decided to head towards a metered taxi, as some of the non meter ones are dodgy and rip you off, but this angered the man who had been hanging around so he stamped on one of our guide's feet. We walked off, and then the guy's mate came along and rammed the same girl in the legs with his motorbike. We hurriedly got into the metered taxi and shut the door, but motorbike man was still angry and he wrenched open the taxi door and violently kicked the same girl. It was horrible. We said goodbye to our Vietnamese friends after that, promising to add them on facebook - they were very sweet.
The next day we went on a trip to Halong Bay, which was absolutely marvellous, and it was blazing hot which was a surprise as it had been raining the day before. We were on a boat with three girls from my bus journey from Vientiane, and a few others. Halong Bay was really beautiful. We admired the view from the top deck of our boat, went to a cave and then went kayaking around the bay and rounded off the evening with some on board karaoke... Was more fun than I anticipated! Alice and I made a spectacle of ourselves in the evening by getting hysterical when we found a cockroach in our room and making the staff remove it (I let out some involuntary shrieks) but after that all was well. We were supposed to go to Cat Ba national park for some trekking the next day, but we had to go back to Hanoi because of an approaching typhoon, which was a shame.
Back in Hanoi we had som absolutely terrible rain so didn't achieve a great deal, despite our best efforts, although we did manage to sample 'coffee with egg' which the girls had recommended. Sounds awful, and I had been picturing scrambled egg in coffee... but actually it was really nice. Sort of like a sweet and frothy cappucino except stronger and creamier - delish. The following day it wasn't so rainy so we tried to get a bus to the museum of Ethnology which was a bit tricky at first but we made it on to the number 9, paid a cheap and cheerful 9p for our ticket and sat back feeling proud of ourselves. We were getting off at the last stop, so I fell asleep and was woken up half an hour later by Alice. I looked out the window and was dismayed to find that we were back where we had started. I just said 'shall we get a taxi then', which we did and made it to the museum where we learnt things about Vietnam's hill tribe groups and found an unexpected section on HIV - interesting but quite depressing. Went outside and caught a bit of a water puppet show, which was ridiculous. We felt like we were in some kind of dream... not a paticularly good one.
Had a night out one night with a girl I had met in Vientiane which was fun. We rejected the 1 pound beer in the bar as too pricey and found the same beer for half the price at a street stall next door (although admittedly it was warm and out of date) - gotta love a bargain. At about midnight we were told the bar was supposed to be closed so they crammed everyone who had been outside the bar drinking into what was already a very sweaty, packed bar and closed the shutter things. We had to bang on them to get out when we eventually wanted to leave...
After Hanoi we headed to Sapa on a surprisingly comfortable overnight train (didn't really sleep though for no apparent reason so we napped until about midday when we arrived). Sapa is very beautiful - amazing views wherever you look of green mountains and rice paddies. On our first day we went on a short walk to Cat Cat village, with a waterfall on route and some excellent scenery. Stopped off for lunch at a little tent/shack, and had a very tasty but modestly sized sticky rice in a piece of bamboo and some pork skewers. The next day we went on a 12km organised trek, led by a sweet hill tribe girl called Kho (or maybe Khu). She told us about how she gets up at 3.30/4am every day to cook. I couldn't be 'andling that. She also showed us a poisonous plant and told us that her brother ate some in order to commit suicide because he wanted to go to school and study but he had to get married instead. Quite a horrifying tale, but she told it quite matter of factly... The trek was very scenic and lovely, but quite tiresome and treacherous at times. A group of hill tribe ladies (some with babies on their backs) accompanied us and helped us all the way there. I wondered if they would be wanting a tip when we arrived, and as soon as we got to the village where we had lunch they whipped out their wares from their bags and tried to sell us everything under the sun. I was very grateful to my helper though, and also quite wanted a bag so let her sell me one.
Last day in Sapa today and then back on the sleeper train to Hanoi tonight. Then overnight bus to Hue tomorrow evening. Have a feeling we're going to be tired when we finally arrive in Hue!
Do send word from home and let me know all the goss.
xxx
I'm reading your adventures! Even if no one else is x Steph x
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