Here I am in a Hanoi backpackers' hostel, a very lovely place with a sort of St Christopher's Inn kind of vibe to it, there's a rooftop bar and bbq, nice rooms with non-squeaky beds and it's filled with wonderful people! I'm just so happy to be here after what's actually been a pretty demoralising couple of days.
Tuesday was wonderful though! I got up early and went over to Jen and Helen's hotel in time for the bus transfer to Ha Long Bay. We unfortunately didn't sit next to each other, but that didn't stop us making rather loud conversation in the otherwise silent bus. Jen fell asleep, but Helen was close enough for us to play rounds of gin rummy as we rumbled over the uneven road. She was pretty damn good, I must say, and beat me quite thoroughly. Still, we got to Haiphong where we boarded our boat and were served a meagre lunch as we pulled out of port. Ha Long Bay then appeared out of the mist and we found ourselves surrounded by this amazing karst scenery rising out of the water. A visit to a floating village and then a pretty impressive cave was included in our afternoon adventure through this amazing part of the world. The caves were vast, they made Cheddar look like camembert and we were in awe of the scale of these stalactites and mites (tites on the ceiling, mites on the floor), they looked like cathedral organs.
Back on the boat and it seemed like no time at all before we were back on land and bundled into the bus, and really the transfer had taken so long that we only really got 5 hours on the boat.
Another silent bus journey, bar the squeals and giggles eminating from the back! Helen slept for half of it, but Jen and I chatted like mad things about mad things, until we stopped at the halfway point and Helen woke. Back in the bus again and the driver had put on his "Best of Backstreet Boys" cd - amazing. We sang along, attempting the harmonies at times, failing mostly.. We then got bored and cracked out my ipod, with such things as George Michael. Oh we had a good George sesh. Then, then came out R Kelly with Bump 'n Grind. With an earphone in the left and deaf in the right, I had no idea quite how loudly I was singing along. For a good 3min the bus was resonating with Fred voicing his moral opinions on bumping and grinding. Personally, I don't see nothing wrong, with a little bump 'n grind. What completed the moment, however, was the couple sat just forward of us who then took inspiration from this and proceeded to make out right there and then while we sang to them. Slightly surprising, but bloody hilarious! We got back and said our goodbyes, promising to keep each other updated on our various endeavours around China in their case and Vietnam/Europe in mine. Rather sad, we did get on ever so well, but I'm sure we'll see each other again.
Wednesday morning I galvanised myself to go down to Mai Chau. Mai Chau is a cluster of little villages in this valley, populated by a White Thai ethnic minority who live in these stilt houses with bamboo floors and a thatched roof. I had decided on taking a local bus in order to get there cheaply, so headed for the Ha Dong bus station in South West Hanoi, riiiiiight on the outskirts. The taxi chucked me out at this rather nondescript part of the Ha Dong suburb and said "here, here". I looked around and couldn't really see anything and was a little skeptical but he pointed down the road so I assumed he just wasn't allowed to drive into it or something. I got out and was hounded by xe oms and people trying to sell me things, and one of them said Ha Dong station was infact 7km away (my arse) and I just tried my best to shed my little following to walk around and find it myself. I walked in the direction the taxi driver pointed. And I walked. And I walked and I walked and then I walked some more. No bus station. Maybe I'd just been really blind and it's on the other side. So I walked and walked and walked some more, still no bus station. Maybe it was actually in the other direction...? Again, I walked and walked, crossed over and walked some more. No such luck. I came to the conclusion that there was infact no bus station, and so started eyeing up a bus stop to see if I could see one with a sign for Hoa Binh (en route) or Mai Chau. By this time I was sodden from the drizzle, my legs were muddy and I was pretty knackered. An old man asked me where I wanted to go, I said Hoa Binh and I was surrounded by a group of very enthusiastic Vietnamese people saying "Hoa Binh! Hoa Binh!!" and pointing at a bus. I got on, said to the bus driver "Anh oi! Hoa Binh?" He grumbled and shook his head so all these people starting pointing at another bus, and the same process was repeated but it was third time lucky when I got on this other one, said "Xin loi, Hoa Binh?" and received a nod from the driver. Marvellous. I sat down and gazed out of the window, though not before thanking my local supporters and removing my mahoosive bag.
2h30 later we pulled into Hoa Binh station, someone approached me and said "Where you go now?" - "Mai Chau" I said. "Ah, Mai Chau, Mai Chau!!" came the reply, laced with urgency and verging on panic. Bugger me, is it about to leave? No, not really. I sat down on the other bus and waited a good half an hour before the driver arrived. Sat behind me were some Vietnamese teenagers and then a couple of blokes in their 50s or 60s came and sat next to me. I thought maybe they were just curious, seeing as the majority of the bus was pretty empty. What came was half an hour of wondering "At what point does cross-cultural curiosity become groping?" as he commented on my facial hair, arm hair and muscle mass, complete with touching each thing that had drawn his attention. Not really sure if he was gay or just trying to part me with my wallet once distracted, I'm told homosexuality is extremely frowned upon in rural Vietnam, which made me wonder why he'd be so openly affectionate. Anyway, I swapped my wallet to the other pocket when I paid my fare and it was when I leaned forward to look out of the window that he surreptitiously placed his arm across my seat, so when I went back again he'd have his arm around me. I turned to him and just shook my head and after that he stopped. Still, he got off not long after that and so I was left to absorb the incredible scenery that we were driving through as we got closer to Mai Chau.
We descended down this huge mountain, coming out of the clouds to be presented with this stunningly beautiful valley spread out below, with terraced rice paddies and little villages dotted around. Upon arrival in the main village, a man came and said "Hello! Xin Chao!" - "Xin Chao" I replied. He then invited me to stay in his house, and not really knowing where else I'd stay I said "Hm, alright then I'll have a look."
At this point I should probably explain.. In Mai Chau, various families open up their house for people to stay in at 50,000vnd per night, and if you want they'll cook for you as well. All very cheap, and you get the experience of being in a traditional Thai stilt house, so it was all above board! Get it? Stilts? Above? Yeahh.
I got there and it was actually lovely. We'd gone through a not so pretty part on the xe om on the way, but then turned down this little lane which took us between rice paddies into a little village called Poom Cong, where I was dropped infront of the house. I went upstairs to have a look and was greeted with a calming, airy room with split bamboo flooring, and some rather unfortunate posters on the wall of babies wearing pink hats, a couple more babies and some airbrushed wedding photos. It was all very French. But it was comfortable, they had electricity and limited but passable plumbing. I agreed to stay there, but I didn't eat as that was a lot more than it said in the book and I thought I could do better elsewhere. I asked about bike hire, I was told 100,000 per day for a manual, twice what it should be. I tried to bring it down to 80 but he was having none of it, so I said "Fine, I'll look in the village for one." With a wry smile, he said ok and left me to it. I had a little wander around the lanes surrounding the village but spent most of that afternoon just chilling in my hut. The very sweet lady of the house brought a couple of cushions and laid some bamboo mats on the floor. The power was out so she brought me a fan she'd woven herself, all the time smiling sweetly. Day turned to night and the electricity was still non-existant, so I was brought a candle to read by. They came and put a mattress on my floor, like a thin fouton, and brought a pillow and duvet and assembled a mosquito net over all this. I climbed into my bed - it was early, but I was knackered. Listening to an audiobook of A Picture of Dorian Grey filled a couple of hours and the sweet little lady quietly shuffled around and moved my candle over to the table. It was lovely with the wooden hut illuminated in the glow from the candle, but far more so when it was lit up by the growing thunderstorm. I removed my earphones to hear the rain pounding on the roof and on the road outside. Looking out of my window I could see the mountains silhouetted against the candescent sky, I even went outside just in my shorts to enjoy the rain and see if I could time the camera with a lightning strike. Needless to say, Fred failed. But my goodness, it was magical!!
I got back to my bed, with a bit of a grin on my face. It was at this point, however, that I realised what I really really needed was someone to share this moment with. That sounds rather cheesy and absurd, but in Mai Chau I was pretty much the only Westerner. People turned their heads when I walked down the street, the language barrier in the countryside become insurmountable and I felt very alone. I couldn't help but think that if I had a travelling companion, I would have been able to share my enthusiasm with them, we would have bounced off each other and it would have been fine. It didn't help that the next morning I got up early to try and find a bike and failed dismally. No-one in this place rented bikes, not one person, despite the numerous bike repair shops. I gave up, went back to the hut and admitted to the man that he was right, there's no-where else and I'd like his bike for the day. So on I get - first time I've ridden a manual bike and so got laughed at a little when I first tried setting off. And the second time I tried. And the third. Eventually I got it going and started having a bit of fun, going up and down bits I hadn't yet explored.
After going around for 45min or so I thought I'd head up into the mountains now that I was comfortable with what felt like a very different bike from before. But I was famished, so I started looking for places to stop and eat, of which there were plenty and now there were none all of a sudden. I saw a place coming up and so slowed down and pulled in to be greeted by a sweet Vietnamese woman, not a word of English so she talked Vietnamese at me, I talked English at her, and we kind of worked each other out from facial expressions. She gave me some tea which was utterly divine, just what I needed, and then I bought a packet of nuts for a bit of sustinence - the pork she had looked a little hairy and I just wasn't sure. For a pot of tea and some nuts from a little old lady in the countryside? 1000vnd. 1000. That is three pence. Amazing. Anyway, back on the bike and back on the road. I started winding my way up these twisty mountain roads, climbing ever higher until I got into the cloud that hugged the peaks. I was having a whale of a time, but when I stopped to take some photos, my bike wouldn't start again. I tried all sorts, but then a massive old Russian IFA truck pulls up behind me and out climbs two 15yr old boys. They help tweak the bike and try various things and eventually get it running again for me, and wave me off with big smiles. I carry on up the road and the bike is sounding rather sick. I pulled into a petrol station to refill and the truck roared by, honking as the kids waved out of the window. Feeling quite positive about having enough fuel to take me to Son La if I so wished, I was quickly brought back to Earth (whilst still having my head in the clouds, boom boom) by the bike breaking again and not starting. Lots of tweaking by the men in the petrol station still didn't get it running, so they started pushing me down the mountain and I put it into gear. A cough and a splutter and it burst into life, and down the mountain I went, now quite annoyed with it all. Not wanting to risk another breakdown by stopping, I thought I might just go back to the hut and give them back the bike, this isn't worth 100k per day. Going back through the village it then died again, just gradually winding down and eventually conked out. Wouldn't start again, so pushing commenced. Got to a little hill so I tried rolling down it to start and it just about worked and got me back to my hut. I gave the bike back to them and said "This is wrong, this is wrong, this is wrong. Could be this, could be this, maybe this." and they very nearly understood, except they thought it was because I couldn't drive the bike properly. Assuring them that I had gotten the hang of it, I tried gesturing but still to no avail. Never mind, I walked into the village, did a bit of internetting on the only computer I could find and had a good long chat with a marvellous friend who just made the world feel so much better again, as I was having one of those traveller moments when I wondered why on earth I was doing what I was doing and feeling really really down about the whole thing. But I went to bed happy, refreshed and with plans to return to Hanoi the next day.
A comparitively painless bus journey got me into a completely different suburb of Hanoi so I was lazy and got a taxi to this hostel where I was greeted by many a smiling face! Got to my room where I met Andrew from NZ, Andrea from Canada and Matt from Birmingham, then downstairs got chatting to Melanie from Switzerland, Shane from Guernsey, absolutely loads of people from loads of places. Happy hour began, drinking ensued, as did a bbq on the rooftop. Was marvellous to be surrounded by people again and I got chatting to even more people, including Charlie, Dave and Tristan. Today started with a fair amount of hanging, to say the least! But food and tea cleared us up and I was on the mend.
A few people I'd made friends with had injured themselves in various ways, be it motorbiking, Laos New Year-related injuries to the foot or a pain in the eye, so I offered to have a look at these various things. Eye exam revealed nothing, biking injuries are pretty much mended and not infected and foot is now properly dressed and padded so walking is possible. I didn't ask for anything in return, but so far I've been given hugs and beer :)
ok, ran out of time that evening, as I took a spur of the moment decision to join a group of people on the night train to Sapa, and have now spent a day here and a few stories to tell, but they shall come in due course! And apologies for lack of photos, but they shall come when I find a computer with a usb port!
And photos are now up!! There are some of Mai Chau, and some of Jen and Helen in Ha Long Bay :)
No comments:
Post a Comment