The girls and I had four days together in Hanoi. Soon after we arrived they headed off on a one night tour of Halong Bay so I hung around the hostel in Hanoi making friends and exploring the city. When they returned we made plans for St Patrick's Day which just so happened to coincide with our last day together. We were determined to make it fun and carefree with not a worry in the world about any cultural business!
St Patricks day dawned overcast and humid - how unusual for Hanoi! (NOT!) So after spending hours in front of the computer giggling over our photos and attempting to concile a 'best of' CD we headed out to lunch for some traditional Pho Bo - I know not a very Irish start to the day. We soon fixed that by walking to the southern lake for some beers on the lakefront. Much to our pleasure the beers had green labels which fitted in with the St Patrick's theme and matched our naturally green clothes. How best could we fill in an afternoon and combine all our passions we pondered over these beers... EASY - lets find an icecream buffet! Mission accomplished we spent a few hours at an upmarket cafe in central Hanoi ploughing through bowl after bowl of icecream - 4 bowls was the record! AND to top it all off the 'sticky rice' flavour (which I actually quite liked) was GREEN! That night we painted our nails sparkly green (Ireland being the emerald isle after all) and consumed copious beers in celebration of that great saint - St Patrick.
Unfortunately the girls had to leave at 6am to catch a taxi to the airport so I dragged myself out of bed to say goodbye. It was really sad to see them go and I had tears in my eyes as I waved goodbye to my now great friends and my travelling companions of the last two months. Still hopefully I will see them soon in the UK and we can reminisce about our crazy travels through SE Asia. Over the next 3 days I booked a trip to Sapa in the country's North West and a trip to Halong Bay. Whilst I waited to head off on these tours I passed time walking around Hanoi and absorbing the local atmosphere while catching up on journal and postcard writing and enjoying the local foods. I also managed to tick off a few tourist sites including the Women's Museum, Hoa Lo Prison Museum, Eating Icecream on Trang Tien street and checking out the local architecture of the Opera House, History Museum and Revolutionary Museum.
As you might have guessed I was getting very ready to leave Hanoi and experience something new so I was excited when the minibus picked me up for my night train to Sapa. A large group of us followed a small authoritative man with a big flag but it turned out that the organisation was a shambles with people leaving on three different trains in various classes. Fortunately I left on the second train so I didnt have to wait too long but I found myself in the 'hard sleeper' cabin. IF this was my first overnight transport in Vietnam I would have been horrified at the 1 inch thick foam mattress, lack of headroom, seedy blanket and squat toilet facilities. HOWEVER I was pleasantly surprised as it was flat, the blanket was long enough (unlike ever other night bus) and I pulled out my invaluable sleeper sheet and settled straight in for a good night's sleep.
The train pulled in at about 5am where our guide with the big flag greeted us and led us to minibuses for the 1hr ride up to Sapa. The surrounding mountains seemed to be shrouded in fog so we could see little but as we drove higher and higher we emerged from the clouds and into the sunshine. Sapa is at an elevation of 2600m and was markedly colder than the rest of Vietnam. The air was fresh and clean and the town perched on the side of a hill surrounded by mountains and luscious green rice fields.
The tour organised a room at the Sapa Summit Hotel which albeit a little shabby on the outside was like a palace inside when compared with my usual backpacker standards. I had a huge corner room with big windows all to myself with a tub - yes a TUB - in the bathroom. I vowed to put the tub to good use when I returned and set off to meet my group for the morning trek. Turns out my companions for this trek were Tony, Jip and David, 3 middle-aged Malaysian business men who had a fantastic command of English and were entertaining and lovely companions for our 2 hour trek. Our female guide walked us down through Sapa town and then we meandered down and down and down into the bottom of the valley stopping only for photos and the odd handicraft on the way.
The area around Sapa is astounding with huge mountain ranges, terraced rice fields and traditionally clothed Hmong people wandering around. At the bottom of the hill we reached a waterfall with an attached century old French power station. We stopped here for unique grilled snacks including sticky rice cooked in a bamboo tube dipped in a dukkah like mixture of salt, chilli and nuts, whole sweet potatoes and pork sticks. After our snack we began the trek back up with 2 of the boys opting to take a motorcycle when faced with a walk back up the hill but Tony and I continuing on with our guide. It was a nice feeling of accomplishment when we got to the top and I felt I had earned a nice big bubble bath. A bath was relaxing until I realised that I had not quite made it into 4 star yet as when I pulled out the plug the bath emptied straight onto the floor consequently soaking all the towels and flooding the entire bathroom. Hmmmm. After a fabulous lunch I spent the afternoon relaxing and enjoying a book and the fresh air before joining my trekking friends for dinner and a trip to the 'Love Market' in Sapa town. Traditionally highland villagers used to use the weekend market as a place to socialise and meet prospective partners - hence the title.
The next morning I set off on a day trip to Bac Ha Market. The bus ride started early as it was a 3hr drive to the market. A man on our bus was very car sick due to the incredibly windy roads so I spent the whole drive with the window open breathing in the fresh air! The scenery passing by was gorgeous as we drove up and down mountains, along incredibly bumpy roads and through rural villages. Bac Ha market is a huge circular hodgepodge of lively market stalls with the most colourful tribal people - the flower Hmong's - going about their daily business. There were handicrafts, fabrics, fruit, vegetable. butchery and even live animal areas where they sold pigs, dogs and ponies. None of which looked ultra happy at the prospect of being dinner that evening. I enjoyed a traditional drink of black bean and desiccated coconut with sugared water poured over the top - well enjoyed is probably too strong a word. Lunch was at a cafe in town before we all piled back onto the bus for the ride back. We stopped on the way for a short walk to a flower H'mong village where we were shown inside the house by a local villager. The flower H'mongs have a different religion to the rest of Vietnam and believe in lucky paper. Hence there were sheets of brightly coloured stencilled paper hanging over doors and windows which had different meanings. The piece of paper over the door of the house we visited meant we had to enter with our right leg first and if you were pregnant you had to go through the side door. We also got to sample corn wine which is only produced in the Bac Ha region which, as with all local liqeurs, tasted ghastly and was incredibly strong. That night in the hotel I celebrated Easter Sunday with my own mini chocolate buffet and a few beers in my hotel room!
My last day in Sapa I had organised a day trek to Lao Chai village. There were meant to be 5 in our group but 3 people had opted to stay at a homestay at the last minute so Sonja (a lovely German girl) and I were on our own. The weather was dismal with low hanging mist and cold air but the rain held off. On the trek down we were joined by two black H'mongs called 'Me' and 'Chao' who walked along silently with us constantly stretching out hemp in their hands to make thread. 'Me' buddied up with me and was a cute diminutive woman who upon seeing me struggling down the slippery path jhumped ahead to hold out her tiny indigo stained hands to help me down - bless her! We walked for aruond 3 hours crossing rivers and walking along the edge of rice fields surrounded by beautiful valley scenery. Around lunchtime the mist cleared and we enjoyed a picnic of BLT baguettes by a gurgling river. After lunch Me and Chao met us again and walked us through their village at which point they waved goodbye. Not before inviting us into her home to show me her photos of her children and to meet her husband. I later learned that this was unusual and most people don't get invited into the local tribespeoples house on this particular trek so Me and I must have bonded! We walked on through a Tzao tribe village and back across the river before jumping into a mini bus to take us back up to Sapa. Sonja and I said goodbye with a gossip over a hot chocolate before I headed back down the hill to the train station to catch the night train back to Hanoi.
The night train was fine - again relegated to the hard sleeper I slept soundly and arrived back in Hanoi around 5am. After getting off the train I was greeted by a bunch of motorcycle touts as usual and I jumped on the back with one of them who agreed to take me to my guesthouse in the old quarter. I had my money belt on me, my big backpack on my back and he had my smaller bag in front of him. Around halfway through the drive he pulled over and asked if I could put my big bag inbetween us as it was overbalancing the bike. This seemed reasonable to me so I did as he said - not realising that I then lost sight of my smaller bag containing my camera and IPOD. BINGO - I realised a few hours later just before setting off on a tour to Halong Bay that both of the items were gone and it was obvious I had been scammed. Thankgod I had my wallet and passport on me!
I had to let it go as I was about to jump on a bus for our 4hr trip to Halong Bay. Once we reached Halong City we boarded a boat for our trip around the islands. The boat was a traditional style junk with 16 of us on board, deckchairs on top and cabins on the lower floor. I shared a room with Jenny a nice Swedish girl and met a big group of other backpackers with whom I socialised. Despite the cold and misty conditions we sat on the deckchairs and watched the limestone karsts appear out of the fog. There were tens of other boats around but it simply added to the atmosphere and looked like a scene out of 'Pirates of the Carribean!' Our first stop was at a huge cave which was a little like Hastings Caves in Tasmania except bigger and naturally - on an island! In the late afternoon we pulled up to a floating village and piled off to go kayaking. I paired up with a couple of South Americans and in tandem we kayaked around a few islands and through a tiny little hole in the rock. We paddled for nearly 2 hours, were the last to return and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Dinner was a communal social affair and we giggled the night away playing games with the boisterous Argentineans.
In the morning four of us had to change to another boat as we had elected to stay another night and stay on Catba Island. We were shortly joined on this new boat by three English girls and we played cards until we reached the island. On our intinerary a short walk through the National park was included that morning so after a ride on yet another bus we arrived at the beginning of the walk. Unbeknowingly it seemed we had embarked on a high grade TREK or should I say CLIMB up a mountain! For the next two hours we climbed, agonized and scrabbled our way up and over 2 mountains in the National Park. Admittedly we were rewarded with beautiful views - if only I had a camera! Exhausted we arrived at our hotel on Catba Island where Billy (an American) and I shared a room overlooking the harbour. We had a quick kip and an explorative walk around the harbour before meeting again for dinner. That night 7 of us headed out to a nearby bar where we wiled the night away playing cards and drinking games.
The next morning the whole group left and I elected to stay another night in the hotel. I headed off to explore the nearby beaches around midday. It wasnt quite sunbaking weather but the rain held off and I was able to appreciate the beauty of CatCo 1,2 and 3 beaches. There was a path leading around the headland which joined the beaches and the wakl afforded stunning views of the bay.
I rejoined a tour the next day for the trip back to Hanoi. I was glad I had stayed extra time in CatBa Island as this day was a complete waste of time. We waited for breakfast, then waited for the bus, then waited for the boat, then waited for the bus, then lunch, then waited for another bus AND FINALLY we made it back to Hanoi having accomplished a sum total of nothing about 5pm. I checked back in to Hanoi backpackers where it was nice to see some familiar faces.
My last day in Hanoi was packed with 'administrative' tasks like filing a police report (don't even bother trying to find a policeman that speaks English in a huge metropolitan touristy city of over 4 million people - its impossible), posting my old backpack home and repacking a new one (the old one broke) and booking an airport shuttle. Finally with everything out of the way I settled down to enjoy my last night in Hanoi with a visit to the fabulous local weekend night market in the centre of the city. I ate local delicacies like rice paper ravioli on tiny stools on the sidewalk with smiling locals, shopped and bargained hard for rip-off sunglasses and admired genuine souveniers and generally absorbed the atmosphere - finishing my trip in Vietnam on a high note.
