Again this morning we got up and had our standard breakfast, except that I decided I didn’t want two fried eggs drenched in oil, so I attempted to explain to the woman who made our breakfast that I wanted poached eggs. I basically went into the little kitchen area and showed her how I wanted them cooked. She was very nice about it, and after a little miming and demonstration she figured out that I wanted her to boil water and crack the eggs into it. The first egg she cracked had a double yolk, which she got a huge kick out of, and later we saw her tell one of the other workers about it, and he proceeded to examine the other eggs she had in a basket. When the water was boiling I told her to cover it, and then I moved it to another burner that was off, and showed her five fingers. I think she figured out that they should sit for 5 minutes. A little while later I saw her scoop them into a bowl and bring them to us. The entire time we were eating she kept watching us, and smiling. She has been very nice and helpful. Since we have stayed here so many nights she always brings us glasses of water and long spoons to mix our vitamin drinks in. I am obsessed with Emergen-C and I like to have one every morning, although I am concerned because I only have 5 left. I am thinking about having my mom ship some to Laos for me, but that might be a little ridiculous. We turned in more clothes to be laundered. And then we had to check-out and leave out bags stashed under the back stairs of the hotel. Tonight we take the overnight train to Sapa!
Kyle and I decided to walk around aimlessly. We first walked to the train station to see if there was a more secure place to store our bags for 3 days. We only wanted to bring smaller bags since we would be on a train overnight twice and trekking to a home stay. There were lockers at the station but they didn’t seem any more trustworthy than at the hotel under the stairs. So then it was off to find lunch. The LP listed a place called La Salsa that served tapas, so we set off to find it. We found it without too much difficulty, the whole way there I was excited about chips and salsa, and since it was called La Salsa I thought for sure they would have that! But of course no! They did, however, have great sangria but it didn’t have any fruit in it. Here in Vietnam, there is so much fresh fruit; I would have thought they would have fruit in it for sure. We had a few tapas, and then headed towards the lake to read our book.
We found a nice place to sit, and people watch and read. But of course I wasn’t very comfortable. The bugs seemed to be crawling up my legs, and Kyle and I were at the same part of the book so we had to share, and it was bothering my neck to keep it at an angle where we could both see the pages. Finally we found a little café to read at. We had iced coffee and mint chocolate kisses ice cream! We realized we would soon finish our book, so we decided to find a book store and pick up more books. Kyle is really devouring the books since we have been traveling.
The selection of books at the two bookstores we went to were very interesting. Kyle commented that it seemed like the bookstore owners contacted several publishers and asked if they had any surplus books. Lots of Agatha Christie, and others, but none were bestsellers. Kyle picked up The Da Vinci Code, which neither one of us has read, and I got an obscure book called Swallowing Grandma by Kate Long. We rushed back towards our hotel so we could quick grab a pizza and make it to the train station. We ate at the same pizza place we had eaten at with Erika and Robin, which made me a little sad. Our travels have been a bit lonely without them. We got back to the hotel, sorted out our clean laundry, repacked our bags, and went with a guy from the hotel to get on the train.
Now Kyle and I are very embarrassed about the next things that have happened. After having traveled through SE Asia for a few weeks now, and constantly being on guard for scams and touts, we were very dumb with how we handled this next part of our journey. It has just dawned on me that the only paperwork we had for this 3 day trip was a voucher for the train to Sapa. We were promised a breakfast when we got there, a place to shower, a guide for our trek, a home stay which included lunch, dinner, breakfast, and another lunch, a trek to a van and then a van back to Sapa, for another showered in a hotel room, transport to the train station, dinner and a train ticket back to Hanoi. And all we had was a voucher for a train to Sapa! I tried to ask the guide who took us to the train station what would happen when we got there, and he didn’t really speak English. I asked him for the number for the hotel in case we needed to call, and he did give me that. What really worried me the most is that we entered the train station in a completely different area than Kyle and I had earlier in the day to check about storing our bags. This entrance appeared to be the back entrance, and our guide took our "tickets" to several people before he actually came back to us with our "real" tickets. Later from talking with other travelers I think he bought our tickets on the black market. We had purchased the superior cabin, but from looking around the train, we seemed to have the standard room. But at least it was a soft sleeper with AC.
After our guide got our tickets he took us out to the train yard, and we walked across the tracks, while other trains were pulling in. We were weaving our way through the trains and tracks and finally after stopping at two other doors to the train our guide got us on and settled in our cabin. We crossed our fingers that there would be a sign with our names on it when we arrived in Sapa the next morning!
We shared our cabin with a couple from Austria. The train ride was uneventful, although it was like a movie. Kyle slept in the top bunk, and I was in the bottom. They served us hot tea and then we were off. I went to the bathroom to change into my pjs, wash my face and brush my teeth, all of which took time since I had to keep my balance on the train. There seemed to be many workers on the train, but they didn’t really seem to be doing much. Throughout the train ride the bathroom floor got more and more wet, and stinky, and even though there was a mop in the corner none of the workers seemed to use it. It was as if they just put on the uniform shirt to get a free train ride north. Oh well. I think both Kyle and I slept ok on the train even though it was a little rocky.
