Mai Chau photos are also up below, now!!
What a mmmmmmmmmmarvellous week this has been!
I got back to Hanoi, was chatting to lots of people, as I've told you. The day after my last post I was invited to lunch with a group of people I'd been drinking with the night before. Well, lunch was divine, they had this barbecued beef that was utterly beautiful, I've not had such wonderfully cooked beef in a long time. Whilst still gorging upon it, I'm told they're all planning to get the night train to Sapa that evening, and would I like to join them?
"Goodness, I'd love to.... but it just feels really last minute, I'm not really sure.."
Dave then replied "Well, why not?"
"Excellent point. I'll start packing, see you at half seven!"
and so there it was. I got all my things together, tried to charm the girl behind the desk into letting me check out late, but to no avail.. I got my next night at half price though, so I must still have a sweet smile at least.
Alas, Charlie and Dave had to pull out at the last moment, which was a shame but it was understandable. Things like motorbike injuries and needing to sell the very same motorbike meant that they couldn't reeeeaally leave Hanoi. On the upside, we still had Luisa, Tristan, Erik, Jenny and Anika, AND I got to use Dave's ticket so didn't have to pay for the train. There was Pauline too, but that was more of a downside, as it turned out.
Jenny and Anika went for the soft sleeper option, opting for squishy beds and a clean compartment. The rest of us though, we were hardcore and went for the 'hard sleeper'. Basically, we were on boards of plywood that had a bit of pleather over it to make it seem more upmarket. But it wasn't so bad, we got some booze and then some Aussies came and joined us, hotboxing the comparment as they did so. Good chats, but one of the Aussies pissed me off no end with his sheer arrogance and condescending manner, apparently knowing the minutae of how Vietnam works and us apparently knowing miniscule amounts by comparison. Cock.
Still, we kept them with us so we didn't have to pay so much for transfer from Lao Cai station up to Sapa village. 25000vnd saw us there at stupid o'clock in the morning, and it had just gotten light by our arrival. A brief moment of confusion later and we were at the door of our hostel. A brief moment of door opening later than that, someone flicked a switch and everything outside was drenched under mother nature's power shower.
Relieved and impressed with our timing, we checked our surroundings - the reception was empty, the electricity was out, no-one was to be seen nor heard. Accepting it might still be a bit early, even by Vietnamese standards, we crashed out on the seating in the foyer, only to be woken by the receptionist half an hour later. Bleary eyed we checked in, had a nap for 3hrs and woke to see glorious sunshine hitting the mountains all around.
This place was just magnificent. So indescribably beautiful, it was extraordinary. Wisps of cloud just whirled around the peaks and we went for our breakfast, anticipating great things for the day ahead.
It was there that we met Katie, Alex and Shane, all special in their own way. Katie was travelling alone, but linked up with Alex and Shane when crossing the border from China. Busy with her omelette, I didn't chat to her too much at first but Alex came down and just with him greeting me I could tell what a nice, genuine bloke he was. Didn't actually see Shane until a bit later, but he's very funny and just slightly perverted :) We all had similar ideas to get some motorbikes and tour the various villages and immerse ourselves in the landscapes surrounding us, so we linked up to form our biker gang - "The Emos". Named as such owing to the very un-manly "Emotion Hotel" emblazened across the front of our bikes. Lots of jokes about having semis began and we eventually set off, going down the windy road to explore Lao Cai.
Lao Cai was pretty dull, but the ride was magnificent and we managed to get seperated on the return journey but it was still a marvellous day, bar the little spill that saw two of our riders get better acquainted with the tarmac. They were going very slowly though so it was just a little bit of roadrash that we cleaned up, dressed and then carried on. Come the evening it was standard food, bar and bed, with the exception of the mahoosive thunderstorm that gave us quite a show as we smoked on the balcony watching it all around us.
Next day was more riding, with an even BIGGER gang, so we practically owned those mountains. Again, stunningly beautiful, but it was time to get back to Hanoi so it was a so-called sleeper bus back. The last sleeper bus wasn't too bad, you could actually kind of lie down, but this was just a coach where the seats reclined slightly more than normal, was much more scarily driven, and had lots of people on board being sick into plastic bags. The worst offender was the man sat infront of me who at one point used my knee for support. Not really wanting to tear it away for fear of causing offence, or worse yet a spill, I just had to sit there with him vomming over me.
All this was made much worse by Pauline, the pathetic French girl who just never stopped complaining, moaning, worrying, panicking, basically just to get attention. It's a horrendous trait to have, but she would basically give the nearest man puppy dog eyes so that he might close the window for her, might take her bag for her, might actually kill her. Gaaahhhh, and I'd been doing so well - giving up criticising the French for lent did me a lot of good, I hadn't been cheeky about them since, but then Pauline rather spoilt it for the Gauls..
Still, I felt I got a huge amount out of going to Sapa, I am so glad I did it. Also, I left it so that when I come back one day, there'll be plenty of reason to go back :)
Arriving in Hanoi, we were rather rudely awoken by thumping Vietnamese techno and pole dancing on the tv screen. All a little too surreal for one who's not slept, myself, Pauline, Katie and Tristan pile into what's normally a trustworthy taxi, and thus began 45min of being taken around the houses. I'd done the trip from the bus station to the hostel before, I knew it was only meant to be about 100,000vnd, so as he carried on taking the piss, we started to feel slightly smug that we were only going to give him a 100 note, and every extra detour we took was just going to get him in more trouble with his boss for acting like such an arse. Literally never had a problem with Ma Linh taxis, but this guy just took the piss!! Eventually we arrived, and made sure to put our bags on before giving him the money just incase we needed to dash, and we prepared ourselves for loads of shouting and anger on his part, instead we were just the recipients of a chuckle with a "Haa, you got me" kind of tone. The bastard delayed my breakfast!!
The day was then spent wandering around with Katie and Nathan, helping them to find a cheap Ha Long Bay tour, something I wasn't really planning on doing. Every time we stopped, however, every time we were given this wonderful images and painted beautiful scenes I felt more and more inclined to join them. I bit the bullet, changed my dental appointment and booked a flight so that I could spend three days with 17 other people whom I all knew by this point at a cheap cheap $37 for 3 days, bed and food included. And Pauline excluded (she'd already booked elsewhere). Being so many people, we pretty much had the boat to ourselves. We boarded in Ha Long City, started motoring out as we ate our lunch, all pretty similar to last week's daytrip. We then went to a different cave with a rock hard erection (photos to come.......!) and had a hilarious hour's kayaking where Josh and Nathan managed to sink their kayak whilst everyone just pointed, laughed and took photos. Aoifa got a brilliant one of them clinging to the tiny portion of the bow that was still sticking out of the water :)
What followed when we got back to our surprisingly lavish boat was just the loveliest moment of travelling since Jonny's wedding. All of us rather hot and sticky, we peeled off our garments and jumped from the top of this 5m high vessel into the sea. I treaded water for a bit afterwards, and all the splashing had settled down. I looked around me, encircled by all these rows of karst scenery jutting out of the water, with the sun getting low in the sky giving everything an orangey hue, and I was just in disbelief that I could be somewhere so extraordinarily beautiful, so stunning, really just beyond comprehension, with some amazingly friendly people, I just felt so intensely happy! Really really happy! And so relaxed, too - the water had just washed away any of my preoccupations. What's more is that I know I use all these words quite a lot, I've described Mai Chau and Sapa as such already, but I do find it so thoroughly difficult to get across what it was like.
Riding this high, we had supper and an extraordinary night! Proper vodka doesn't exist here, it's all made with rice, but we inadvertently ran out of mixer, so started drinking fingers of straight rice vodka to keep participating in all the games that were going on. It's at that point that I go completely blank. Not a single memory, however distant, remains from after our running out of fanta. So unlike me, too! But nevertheless, there it went and I was apparently rather a source of entertainment, being carried away to bed later on with people singing the song from the night nurse advert :) I realise now I've been rather remiss, but essentially what with giving an eye exam, assessing a motorbike wound and broken ankle, then more motorbike mishaps in Sapa, I was adorned with the name "Nurse" for the remainder of the week!
I awoke in a slight daze and the bedroom door wide open, with Katie lying beside me (innocently, we'd agreed to share a room) and yet no hangover. Went to breakfast, still rather drunk I realised, but feeling really rather refreshed for my night's sleep. Everyone, myself included, echoed warnings of what was to come, but it just never did. I felt lovely all day, until the lack of sleep caught up with me..
We had a pretty awful trek on Cat Ba island, no-one really enjoyed it and the guide lied to us when he said it was fine to do it in flip flops. Ohhhh, how he lied. It wasn't even worth it for the view when we got to the top, it was just rubbish. But we consoled ourselves with an afternoon on the beach with lots of swimming and I started learning poi (very backpacker-esque of me), poi which were bought in Goa (and then some). A little party in the evening, and we met two charming Canadian girls who both had incredible eyes and lovely personalities, flirted a little and then went to bed. Alone, I might add.
Back to Hanoi under the direction of our somewhat draconian and PMSing guide and I met up with Jonny and Vy for a couple of drinks, was lovely! Except for the fact that I lost everyone I'd been on the boat with, no idea where they went.. Shame, because that was my last night in Hanoi and last opportunity to bid the farewell! At least I bumped into Katie, we'd really gotten on so well, I was glad to see her. And it wasn't all bad, I saw Gaelle and James again. Gaelle is the French girl who made me feel like a schoolboy again, she was loooooooovely, and it was so nice to see her again - we were both thrilled and smiley and chatted lots, it was really nice :) James is a really sound bloke too, great to chat to, good banter and just so sweet natured!
Buggering up my sleep cycle as much as it could, my transfer for the airport picked me up at 5am thismorning, 4hrs later I was in Saigon again and here I am in a somewhat mediocre guesthouse with a sparsely populated dorm. I might see if there's an alternative nearby, but it might be as good as I'll get for the money. Still, all I have to do is merely exist for the next few days, providing the flights chaos doesn't bugger up my plans. I go to the dentist soon, will do tomorrow as well, then tomorrow will be spent in a quiet park, next to a quiet pool, by which time I should have some replacement earphones and maybe even a nice book.
Hope everyone's well back home :)
xxxxx
this didn't actually post last night, since then I have met a really nice and genuine guy called Max, a 2m tall American who walks remarkably sedately. Also got to know one of my dorm mates (who's name I'm sure I would misspell..) and it was all lovely. Now I'm off for some op la for my brekkers :)
And again, apologies for lack of photo goodness. I'll put them up thisevening.
I got back to Hanoi, was chatting to lots of people, as I've told you. The day after my last post I was invited to lunch with a group of people I'd been drinking with the night before. Well, lunch was divine, they had this barbecued beef that was utterly beautiful, I've not had such wonderfully cooked beef in a long time. Whilst still gorging upon it, I'm told they're all planning to get the night train to Sapa that evening, and would I like to join them?
"Goodness, I'd love to.... but it just feels really last minute, I'm not really sure.."
Dave then replied "Well, why not?"
"Excellent point. I'll start packing, see you at half seven!"
and so there it was. I got all my things together, tried to charm the girl behind the desk into letting me check out late, but to no avail.. I got my next night at half price though, so I must still have a sweet smile at least.
Alas, Charlie and Dave had to pull out at the last moment, which was a shame but it was understandable. Things like motorbike injuries and needing to sell the very same motorbike meant that they couldn't reeeeaally leave Hanoi. On the upside, we still had Luisa, Tristan, Erik, Jenny and Anika, AND I got to use Dave's ticket so didn't have to pay for the train. There was Pauline too, but that was more of a downside, as it turned out.
Jenny and Anika went for the soft sleeper option, opting for squishy beds and a clean compartment. The rest of us though, we were hardcore and went for the 'hard sleeper'. Basically, we were on boards of plywood that had a bit of pleather over it to make it seem more upmarket. But it wasn't so bad, we got some booze and then some Aussies came and joined us, hotboxing the comparment as they did so. Good chats, but one of the Aussies pissed me off no end with his sheer arrogance and condescending manner, apparently knowing the minutae of how Vietnam works and us apparently knowing miniscule amounts by comparison. Cock.
Still, we kept them with us so we didn't have to pay so much for transfer from Lao Cai station up to Sapa village. 25000vnd saw us there at stupid o'clock in the morning, and it had just gotten light by our arrival. A brief moment of confusion later and we were at the door of our hostel. A brief moment of door opening later than that, someone flicked a switch and everything outside was drenched under mother nature's power shower.
Relieved and impressed with our timing, we checked our surroundings - the reception was empty, the electricity was out, no-one was to be seen nor heard. Accepting it might still be a bit early, even by Vietnamese standards, we crashed out on the seating in the foyer, only to be woken by the receptionist half an hour later. Bleary eyed we checked in, had a nap for 3hrs and woke to see glorious sunshine hitting the mountains all around.
This place was just magnificent. So indescribably beautiful, it was extraordinary. Wisps of cloud just whirled around the peaks and we went for our breakfast, anticipating great things for the day ahead.
It was there that we met Katie, Alex and Shane, all special in their own way. Katie was travelling alone, but linked up with Alex and Shane when crossing the border from China. Busy with her omelette, I didn't chat to her too much at first but Alex came down and just with him greeting me I could tell what a nice, genuine bloke he was. Didn't actually see Shane until a bit later, but he's very funny and just slightly perverted :) We all had similar ideas to get some motorbikes and tour the various villages and immerse ourselves in the landscapes surrounding us, so we linked up to form our biker gang - "The Emos". Named as such owing to the very un-manly "Emotion Hotel" emblazened across the front of our bikes. Lots of jokes about having semis began and we eventually set off, going down the windy road to explore Lao Cai.
Lao Cai was pretty dull, but the ride was magnificent and we managed to get seperated on the return journey but it was still a marvellous day, bar the little spill that saw two of our riders get better acquainted with the tarmac. They were going very slowly though so it was just a little bit of roadrash that we cleaned up, dressed and then carried on. Come the evening it was standard food, bar and bed, with the exception of the mahoosive thunderstorm that gave us quite a show as we smoked on the balcony watching it all around us.
Next day was more riding, with an even BIGGER gang, so we practically owned those mountains. Again, stunningly beautiful, but it was time to get back to Hanoi so it was a so-called sleeper bus back. The last sleeper bus wasn't too bad, you could actually kind of lie down, but this was just a coach where the seats reclined slightly more than normal, was much more scarily driven, and had lots of people on board being sick into plastic bags. The worst offender was the man sat infront of me who at one point used my knee for support. Not really wanting to tear it away for fear of causing offence, or worse yet a spill, I just had to sit there with him vomming over me.
All this was made much worse by Pauline, the pathetic French girl who just never stopped complaining, moaning, worrying, panicking, basically just to get attention. It's a horrendous trait to have, but she would basically give the nearest man puppy dog eyes so that he might close the window for her, might take her bag for her, might actually kill her. Gaaahhhh, and I'd been doing so well - giving up criticising the French for lent did me a lot of good, I hadn't been cheeky about them since, but then Pauline rather spoilt it for the Gauls..
Still, I felt I got a huge amount out of going to Sapa, I am so glad I did it. Also, I left it so that when I come back one day, there'll be plenty of reason to go back :)
Arriving in Hanoi, we were rather rudely awoken by thumping Vietnamese techno and pole dancing on the tv screen. All a little too surreal for one who's not slept, myself, Pauline, Katie and Tristan pile into what's normally a trustworthy taxi, and thus began 45min of being taken around the houses. I'd done the trip from the bus station to the hostel before, I knew it was only meant to be about 100,000vnd, so as he carried on taking the piss, we started to feel slightly smug that we were only going to give him a 100 note, and every extra detour we took was just going to get him in more trouble with his boss for acting like such an arse. Literally never had a problem with Ma Linh taxis, but this guy just took the piss!! Eventually we arrived, and made sure to put our bags on before giving him the money just incase we needed to dash, and we prepared ourselves for loads of shouting and anger on his part, instead we were just the recipients of a chuckle with a "Haa, you got me" kind of tone. The bastard delayed my breakfast!!
The day was then spent wandering around with Katie and Nathan, helping them to find a cheap Ha Long Bay tour, something I wasn't really planning on doing. Every time we stopped, however, every time we were given this wonderful images and painted beautiful scenes I felt more and more inclined to join them. I bit the bullet, changed my dental appointment and booked a flight so that I could spend three days with 17 other people whom I all knew by this point at a cheap cheap $37 for 3 days, bed and food included. And Pauline excluded (she'd already booked elsewhere). Being so many people, we pretty much had the boat to ourselves. We boarded in Ha Long City, started motoring out as we ate our lunch, all pretty similar to last week's daytrip. We then went to a different cave with a rock hard erection (photos to come.......!) and had a hilarious hour's kayaking where Josh and Nathan managed to sink their kayak whilst everyone just pointed, laughed and took photos. Aoifa got a brilliant one of them clinging to the tiny portion of the bow that was still sticking out of the water :)
What followed when we got back to our surprisingly lavish boat was just the loveliest moment of travelling since Jonny's wedding. All of us rather hot and sticky, we peeled off our garments and jumped from the top of this 5m high vessel into the sea. I treaded water for a bit afterwards, and all the splashing had settled down. I looked around me, encircled by all these rows of karst scenery jutting out of the water, with the sun getting low in the sky giving everything an orangey hue, and I was just in disbelief that I could be somewhere so extraordinarily beautiful, so stunning, really just beyond comprehension, with some amazingly friendly people, I just felt so intensely happy! Really really happy! And so relaxed, too - the water had just washed away any of my preoccupations. What's more is that I know I use all these words quite a lot, I've described Mai Chau and Sapa as such already, but I do find it so thoroughly difficult to get across what it was like.
Riding this high, we had supper and an extraordinary night! Proper vodka doesn't exist here, it's all made with rice, but we inadvertently ran out of mixer, so started drinking fingers of straight rice vodka to keep participating in all the games that were going on. It's at that point that I go completely blank. Not a single memory, however distant, remains from after our running out of fanta. So unlike me, too! But nevertheless, there it went and I was apparently rather a source of entertainment, being carried away to bed later on with people singing the song from the night nurse advert :) I realise now I've been rather remiss, but essentially what with giving an eye exam, assessing a motorbike wound and broken ankle, then more motorbike mishaps in Sapa, I was adorned with the name "Nurse" for the remainder of the week!
I awoke in a slight daze and the bedroom door wide open, with Katie lying beside me (innocently, we'd agreed to share a room) and yet no hangover. Went to breakfast, still rather drunk I realised, but feeling really rather refreshed for my night's sleep. Everyone, myself included, echoed warnings of what was to come, but it just never did. I felt lovely all day, until the lack of sleep caught up with me..
We had a pretty awful trek on Cat Ba island, no-one really enjoyed it and the guide lied to us when he said it was fine to do it in flip flops. Ohhhh, how he lied. It wasn't even worth it for the view when we got to the top, it was just rubbish. But we consoled ourselves with an afternoon on the beach with lots of swimming and I started learning poi (very backpacker-esque of me), poi which were bought in Goa (and then some). A little party in the evening, and we met two charming Canadian girls who both had incredible eyes and lovely personalities, flirted a little and then went to bed. Alone, I might add.
Back to Hanoi under the direction of our somewhat draconian and PMSing guide and I met up with Jonny and Vy for a couple of drinks, was lovely! Except for the fact that I lost everyone I'd been on the boat with, no idea where they went.. Shame, because that was my last night in Hanoi and last opportunity to bid the farewell! At least I bumped into Katie, we'd really gotten on so well, I was glad to see her. And it wasn't all bad, I saw Gaelle and James again. Gaelle is the French girl who made me feel like a schoolboy again, she was loooooooovely, and it was so nice to see her again - we were both thrilled and smiley and chatted lots, it was really nice :) James is a really sound bloke too, great to chat to, good banter and just so sweet natured!
Buggering up my sleep cycle as much as it could, my transfer for the airport picked me up at 5am thismorning, 4hrs later I was in Saigon again and here I am in a somewhat mediocre guesthouse with a sparsely populated dorm. I might see if there's an alternative nearby, but it might be as good as I'll get for the money. Still, all I have to do is merely exist for the next few days, providing the flights chaos doesn't bugger up my plans. I go to the dentist soon, will do tomorrow as well, then tomorrow will be spent in a quiet park, next to a quiet pool, by which time I should have some replacement earphones and maybe even a nice book.
Hope everyone's well back home :)
xxxxx
this didn't actually post last night, since then I have met a really nice and genuine guy called Max, a 2m tall American who walks remarkably sedately. Also got to know one of my dorm mates (who's name I'm sure I would misspell..) and it was all lovely. Now I'm off for some op la for my brekkers :)
And again, apologies for lack of photo goodness. I'll put them up thisevening.
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