Ahhh, so much time has passed, so many things have happened, no time to write!
So I was very sad to leave the north of Vietnam - it was really amazing, more minority people wearing their different traditional clothes, more villages, beautiful terraced rice paddies, another really nice homestay and a female guide! The guide was a really nice Black Hmong girl called Za Za - it was really good that the agency I booked with only hires minority people to be guides in their villages.
So, first we caught the sleeping train from Hanoi to Lau Chai - it was really nice and felt like first class (I think it was). It was also amazing cause the train drives right past people's homes as if it's cutting them in half as people sit in the living rooms and you can see right in their homes! AMazing!
Then we drove up to Sapa which was actually really cold and met the group and guide to start what I had been told would be a short walk to the village. Meanwhile, the other girls in the group had been told that it would be an all day trek - noooooooooooooo!!! Not another trek!! So we start to walk and this group of Black Hmong women start walking with us and I'm thinking - oh, I didn't know they were part of our group! Turns out they attach themselves to groups of tourists and walk with them to their villages and then try to make them buy things from them!! Of course!! Anyway, they were very friendly and had learnt the tourist mantra - "Hello, whats your name, where do you come from, Sydney or Melbourne, how many brothers and sisters do you have". It was quite funny - they had really all learnt the same thing.
After a while of walking in the rain, I was really not enjoying it - my feet were killing me and I asked for a motorbike to take me the rest of the way - and they found one for me - yay! So I got a ride to a shop near the homestay to wait for the homestay women to pick me up. On arrival at the shop, about 9 or 10 kids rushed over to me to try to get me to buy these bracelets - "You buy from me! You buy from me!". So I confirmed with them that their mothers get the bracelets and then get theit children to go and sell them for the family, and I told them that I refused to buy from them cause they were children but I would get them something healthy to eat. So I found some milk poppas that they said they liked and bought one for each of them. It was really sweet - they really liked it and then some of them came back to me to give me some bracelets as a thank you. So that felt nice.
Later I was picked up by the homestay woman for the walk back to her house - I think she was a Zao woman? It was really nice and cosy being at the homestay - they cook over a fire, sleep under these heavy soft blankets and are generally more communal. Of course we all had rice wine with the meal - the minority people all make rice wine and have it with every meal! Then afterwards we had a lot of fun playing cards and drinking games.
Next morning we woke early to drive the 3 hours to the Phalong Markets to see a minority market in the mountains - it was so beautiful and of course I loved it. These people were Flower Hmong but dressed differently to the Flower Hmong people I saw in another region of Vietnam. So colourful and detailed! And it was also good cause we were the only westerners there.
That night we stayed in a lodge in a village and I walked around at first on my own for a bit when we had some free time. The people were also Flower Hmong and also friendly cause they were used to tourists. One man invited me into his house for tea and what I found out later was corn vodka that they make!
Next morning we went to another minority market right near the border to China - Mung Khong Market. Again there were many Flower Hmong people and a few other minorities like Red Zao, but this market was off the road - more in town and VERY busy!! Lots of honking!! I ended up sitting on the edge of the road just watching everyone and taking many pictures!!
After this we visited the chinese border and saw all the Vietnamese coming across the bridge with their bicycles and huge baskets bringing in all sorts of good from China to sell in Vietnam. I also saw some Chinese Hmong women wearing their specific traditional clothes - really interesting!
After this we ended up going back to the place to catch the train with many hours to spare unfortunately which I was not very happy about cause we could have spent more time in Sapa or somewhere!! And I was sad to leave!! I still felt that I could have spent another week going to more villages and seeing the north east... oh well, another time!
So again the train back to Hanoi was really good and I went straight back to my guest house to be picked up for my 2 day 1 night Halong Bay tour. It turned out I was actually really lucky cause I went just after a typhoon finished and just before a new one came. So the weather wasn't fantastic but it was much better than it could have been in this typhoon season! It was a good tour and I met a nice Austrian girl who I shared the room with on the boat - that was really nice going to sleep on the water and waking up on the water in Halong Bay!
That night I went to the airport to get my flight from Hanoi back to Bangkok - I really was a bit sad to leave. On the plane it was bizarre - it was really empty!! Arriving in Bangkok was a bit of a drama - I landed at 12:45am but didn't end up leaving the airport until after 2am because of a bloody administrative nightmare with getting hold of an arrival card! Usually they give them out on the plane but this time they didn't. So I'm waiting for about 20 mins in the line at Passport Control until I realise that some people have arrival cards. So I go off to look for one and of course there are none in the boxes where they should be. So finally someone lets me know that I need to find this one particular man in uniform who is handing them out. So I walk up and down trying to find this man and FINALLY I find him!! So I'm like, um, can I have one?!?! CRAZY that you have to find this ONE man instead of them putting them in their designated boxes!!!
So I go to fill it out and off course all their pens don't work. Finally I manage to find a working pen and end up going at the back of a very long Passport Control line. And FINALLY I get through and find that my bag is the very last one going around the conveyer belt.
So after 2am I leave the airport and get into my hostel at 3am. Then I'm shown my bed in the dorm but the guy does not tell me that my pillow and blanket are in a locker - why would they put it in the locker instead of on the bed?!?! So all night I slept with no sheet or blanket and no pillow! Not very happy!
Next day I worked out that I need to go to somewhere close to Bangkok cause I only have 4 days till I fly out of Bangkok. So I figure out that the closest island to Bangkok is Ko Samet - and here I am now!! It's not the nicest of all the islands but it's still really nice and I've met some nice girls who I'm hanging out with and sharing a room with - one Parisian girl who is really friendly and one english girl.
The only thing is I have lost my glasses somewhere on the beach this morning :( At least I have my prescription sunnies and will have to wait till India to try and get a new pair of glasses :( So I will be walking around at night and indoors a lot with sunnies for a while which is really annoying but at least I they are prescription so I can still see far away! Oh well, when I get a new pair I will get 2!!
So I have booked a day boat trip tomorrow which is supposed to take me to the nicest places on the island and snorkling - but this island is not known for its snorkling so I'm not keeping my hopes up for that. And then the next day I leave the island and head back to Bangkok and then straight to the airport for my flight to Delhi!!! Ahhhh!!! I'm a little aprehensive about India but hopefully it will all work out...
xxx Orna
