The second sleeper bus was better. Only one aisle with single bunk beds down one side and doubles on the other (thankfully we kicked out a snorting Chinese woman and scored a double). There was the usual chain-smoking and insane driving, with the added joy of a complete nutter trying to make us pay extra for our backpacks as a "gasoline tax". After a long argument I eventually tossed him one dollar just to get him to shut his cakehole and leave us alone and then 10 minutes later he came back trying to extort more money out of us for no apparent reason. When I refused he made a big deal of repeating "Are you sure? Last chance..."
I'm still kicking myself for not taking that chance.
There was also a lady with a week old puppy that was just about the cutest thing I've ever seen. Anyway we survived the ride and got to the border early. I nearly got tackled by a border guard for blithely trying to wander through before it had officially opened for the day and then spent over an hour walking around town trying to change Chinese yuan for Vietnamese dong. The "official" money changer in town (as pointed out to me by three separate banks) was an old guy in a plastic deck chair sitting in the street out front of the Industrial Bank with a sports bag full of Vietnamese notes. I am now the proud owner of a fine stack of 54 notes, each one worth a whopping 8 Australian cents. Could be worse, the Aussie girl I met on the bus has over a hundred of the worthless things.
Fast forward a couple of hours - SAPA! Vietnam is amazing so far. We were a little sad at leaving China after having such a great time, but within a couple of hours we were loving this place so much better! Genuine warm friendly smiles from everyone in the streets (as opposed to slack-jawed gawking or cloying "Hellooooo"s), delicious food, incredible mountain scenery and most importantly NO SPITTING. Not sure if we're jumping to conclusions about the whole country after a grand total of 6 hours here, but bugger it, we love it!!!
Off on a 3 day trek through the mountains tomorrow. The lightening outside bodes a little ill though. Ve shall see.
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3 comments:
...my name is RANI.
SAPA! I love Sapa - Ez and I had a ball there, despite the cold. Are you going to be there for the market when all the Hmong and Xhau (spellings?) peoples come into town? It's so colourful, you'll get great photies.
Although a word of warning: DO NOT EAT spring rolls en route from Sapa to Hanoi - I was the sickest I have ever been after those little b#st@rds got into my system.
Keep blogging - it's great distraction for the workers. Although JSS did say it's a wonder you ever have time to do anything with the amount of travel blogging there has been...but I say bring it on!
Bye for now.
Mikie Mike! Glad to hear you are loving Sapa, its a fabulous place and the trek I did through the region still stands out as a travelling highlight.
Missed you in Hong Kong - Jo and Meta said you guys are doing well and you are still doing insane things like running up and down the Peak every day. The office is empty without you and I have to say Im not necessarily coping...
Keep having a great time!
Love Gill
Mike Race GREAT title Guten morgen Vietnam. I am actually looking for home decor related information to give my customers on my website. I paused at the title and ran out of time to read, but will book mark you and come back latter to check you out some more. I am off to find some other home decor related blogs. Thank you.
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