This morning I arrived in SaPa; northern Vietnam. As my only
excursion outside of Hanoi I had sincerely hoped it to be amazing. I have
information from various travelers that there is a Kiwi run bar and what
backpackers is cheap and a expat married to an ethnic minority woman who will
sort me out a genuine SaPa experience rather than a tour run by money hungry
women dressed to play a part rather than teach and show the real ways and life
of their people.
It is raining. A few days ago was a huge storm, so even in
Hanoi the weather has been a bit wet, but here as it is a mountain town
surrounded by small villages of the local ethnic minorities, and stunning views
of rice paddies, well its all fog now. You can’t see ten meters in front of you
and its damp and wet. Not too chilly though which is good, at around 4am on the
bus I felt the cold, which is strange coming from steamy Hanoi.
So my last days in Hanoi were great, we would meet up with
new friends Kaz and Greg, both from England, Kaz came to Hanoi for work, and
Greg is traveling around and will fly out of KL to NZ 5 days before us, so
hopefully we can sort him out a good Christmas and new years!
We went out to half man half noodle for some drinks on my
last night there, and silly me lost my ipod, probably fell out of my zip-less
bag. I was distraught when I realized the next morning, especially as I wasn’t
even drinking, as a true backpacker doesn’t! So Matt gave me his mp3 player,
incredibly nice of him to do so! I hung out with Kaz who was sad to see me go,
he is the most wonderful friendly giant I have ever known, and it touched me to
know how much I meant to him after only being friends a few days. He gave me a
ring made from a watchstrap that is super cool.
So my
bus to SaPa was long and very uncomfortable, I think my seat was skinny so I
got very little sleep last night. Woken at 4.20am in Lao Cai, luckily I asked
before stumbling (literally) off the bus, as it was another few hours before
SaPa, but I was so tired it went really fast. On arrival a woman asked if I
wanted the backpackers, to which I replied ‘is it blue?’ she said yes so off we
went. The instructions I had were perfect, blue building up a slope by the
square. I didn’t want the three-bedroom dorm for $6 a night, so I got a
king-size single bedroom for $5 a night. Think Ill stay at least one more
night.
