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I was surprised at how much I like Hanoi. I had thought it would be just another city, but it's actually really nice to walk around in - there's a big lake in the middle and lots going on. I arrived after 12 hours on a sleeper bus, which actually wasn't that bad this time, and booked myself straight onto a city tour. When the tour bus arrived I discovered that everyone on the bus was at least twice my age, which was a bit of a shame! But the tour itself was actually good. The tour guide knew his stuff and was able to explain everything really well, rather than the tour just being a car service to each site. We saw a pagoda on a lake, which was pretty as pagodas are. Then we went to the Ho Chi Minh complex, which was definitely the most interesting part of the tour. It consists of a mausoleum, his house, garage, gardens and a palace. We went to the mausoleum first and were told that you weren't allowed to take in cameras or phones and they made you go through security to check. Then we were told to stand two by two and joined an absolutely gigantic queue of mostly Vietnamese. The queue moved quite quickly and soon we were making our way inside the building. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting from a mausoleum, but seeing the embalmed body of the late president Ho Chi Minh definitely wasn't it! He died in 1969 and apparently they take his body to Russia for the embalming. Everybosy was ushered through the room quickly, still in two's. It was all a bit disturbing really. The rest of the complex was interesting though. After that we went to the Museum of Ethnology, which showcases exhibits from minority cultures in Vietnam. After the first exhibit we moved into a room where they have an exhibit all about HIV/AIDS. Considering the work I was doing in Saigon, I got quite excited about this and started reading the whole thing, making my way round in my own time. The guide told me that we had to be quick in order to see everything, so I asked to be left behind and he went off to show the rest of the group more of the museum. The exhibition was really interesting and definitely a highlight of the tour. We then had lunch before going to the Temple of Literature. It was a large temple with quite a lot of history behind it, but while there I realised that I've got to the point where temples are starting to look similar and I'm not needing a lot of time in them. After the tour I collected my luggage and made my way to another tour company to book a trip to Sapa before heading to the hostel I'd booked into. There I had the best shower I've had in two months - hot AND powerful. I felt like I'd found the holy grail! I ran into some guys I met in Nha Trang and spent the evening in the hostel bar. The next day I was feeling a little fragile, so went for a walk around the lake in Hanoi, which I really quite enjoyed. I then went to a water puppet theatre show, which was enjoyable, but I did think an hour was maybe a bit too loing. I then walked around for absolutely ages trying to find an internet cafe, which I eventually did and settled there before heading to the ET Pumpkin tour office to embark on my trip to Sapa.
An Australian couple and myself were picked up in a taxi and taken to the train station, where we were told to wait for ages before being shown to the train. It's quite strange as you just walk across the tracks here. The sleeper compartments were quite nice really, and I was in one on my own for a while, until a family of six Vietnamese adults and two children walked in. I felt my expression change to one of wide-eyed horror, which was probably really rude, but I couldn't help it as the compartments are only for four people! I was sitting on my bed, planning the rant I was going to have once I got to the tour company at the other end, when another man joined and claimed the last bed. However, most of teh family actually left just before the train went, so it went down to a man, a woman and their baby. The other Vietnamese man could speak a little English and was quite nice. I managed to fall asleep easily, but this was punctuated by the baby crying several times during the night and having to endure the stench as the parents changed its nappy. Ugh - I was so happy when I got off that train! When you get off at Lao Cai you're bombarded with offers for minivans to Sapa, but I knew that I was being met by someone with a namecard so it made everything much easier, especially as it was 5am and I was bleary-eyed. The driver of the bus crammed as many people as he could in. The views along the mountain roads were absolutely stunning, a taster of what was to come. I was given breakfast when I arrived at my hotel before checking in and heading upstairs for a shower and a nap before my trekking tour started at 9.30am. I borrowed some wellies from the hotel and met my guide, Ya in the lobby. I also met the other members of my group, a mother and daughter from LA, Rebecca and Arezu, and a South American couple, one from Colombia and one from Uruguay. It was raining so I dashed to a shop nearby to buy a raincoat - a very fetching orange number. We set off, everyone was chatting and the trek started well. We were walking along the road for a while before we turned off onto a dirt track. It turned out to be hilarious making our way down the mountainside on this track as the rain made everything really slippery and we were all struggling to stay upright! Ya found a bamboo stick at one point, which she gave me that made things so much easier! The views were incredible as we walked down - somehow the rice paddy fields make the mountains more spectacular. We trekked a long way, taking in the scenery and encountering local people, until it got to lunchtime. Ya was carrying our lunch from the hotel and we all went to her house, which is in one of the villages outside Sapa, to eat it. We met her family and it was really interesting to see how she lives. The house wasn't large and was quite dark inside, but they had everything they needed and it was nice to have lunch there. We spent quite a long time there before continuing the trek. The rest of the trek was just as stunning. We visited two more villages on the way and I enjoyed the whole thing, though it was a relief to get on the bus at the end! Ya said that we had walked about 12km. She was such a fantastic guide, she was very sharp, despite the fact that she couldn't read or write, and had learned English a few years ago just by talking to tourists. She was pretty incredible and was one of those people who have really deep eyes. Once back at the hotel I took a mmuch needed shower before dinner. It was a candle-lit dinner for one, which would normally be a bit sad, but I knew that afterwards there was a king-sized bed waiting for me, which I had all to myself - a nice change from buses, trains and dorms! They fed me enough food for two people and I couldn't eat it all, which made me feel quite guilty, especially as I left a lot of rice and just earlier I'd discovered how much hard work actually goes into producing a few grains of rice. After a good night's sleep I woke up at about 6am for no apparent reason. After a good breakfast I met Ya, Rebecca and Arezu again and we set off for the next trekking session. The trek was lighter than the previous day's, all on road or paved stairs. We walked down to Cat Cat village where there are lots of shops selling local emroidered products and a waterfall at the bottom of a very steep set of stairs. We spent a while at the waterfall before beginning the long climb up. We walked for a long time, heading to another village before we headed back towards Sapa. It was exhausting with so much uphill climbing, but it felt like such an achievement to get to the top! Along the way my hotel rang Ya to ask where we were as I was supposed to have lunch there, so I walked on ahead quite fast with Arezu and went back to the hotel as quickly as I could. They gave me another feast there and Ya came in while I was eating, so I said thank you and tipped her. I would definitely recommend her to anyone going to Sapa. After lunch I showered, packed and checked out. When I got on the bus back to Lao Cai we were waiting for a while and these guys took a polystyrene box out of the hotel which had a pig in it that was squealing so loudly and at one point I actually thought they were going to put it on the bus! I was given dinner at the tour office by the train station, then set off to get on the train. As I was about to go through I saw Rebecca looking confused and went over to say hi. There were loads of Vietnamese tring to swap tickets with her, and as I spoke to her a woman handed her two tickets for the same company as me, which through somemiracle happened to be in the same compartment as mine! We were very excited bythis and went to get Arezu. It was so nice being on the train with people I could talk to and no babies crying. We chatted until we got tired, and then tried to cover up the air conditioning vent on the ceiling with blankets as it was too cold, which turned out to be quite a funny activity. I slept really well on the train this time and didn't want to wake up when we arrived. I parted ways with Rebecca and Arezu, and caught a xe om (motorbike taxi) back to the hostel. I had three hours to kill at the hostel before going on a trip to Halong Bay that I booked through the hostel. Hanoi Backpackers are well known for their 'Rock Long Rock Hard' tours to the bay, and though I was scared about the idea of sleeping on a boat I decided to go with them as I knew I'd be with people my age.
I started chatting to people before we got on the bus, which I was glad about as there's always the slight worry that you won't meet people. The bus journey there took 4 hours, including a stop on the way, but it went quite quickly as everyone was chatting. At the harbour we got onto two small boats to transfer us to the bigger ones. The group had about 40 people in total, so it was a good size. We had two big boats, one just for sleeping and the other for meals and socialising, as well as sleeping. We had lunch before being allocated rooms. I shared with an English girl called Amnah, who I'd been chatting to since the hostel. After lunch we sailed for a while, enjoying sunbathing on the top deck before we stopped. We then had the chance to swim. We were encouraged to jump two storeys off the top deck, but I got to the edge and chickened out after much deliberation, so jumped about 2 metres off the front of the boat instead - much more enjoyable in my opinion! The water was lovely and it was a great way to cool off. We chilled out on the top deck again after swimming until we were called for kayaking. Amnah and I got in the same kayak, then realised neither of us had a clue what to do, so we switched so that we each had a Vietnamese crew member with us. Kayaking is so much harder than it looks! We had about a kilometer trip from the boat to a cave and it felt like forever! Once we got to the cave we donned our torches (well, those who read the leaflet and had actually brought them did, unfortunately I wasn't one of the sensible ones) and headed into the cave. It was pretty cool, there was a lake in the middle and some stalactites and stalagmites, but I have seen better caves in Greece. Once we'd seen the cave it was the dreaded time of kayaking back to the boat. I was with an English guy this time, and after a few cases of involuntarily heading in the wrong direction, we eventually made it back to the boat for our well-deserved dinner. After dinner the drinking began. Everyone was chilling out on the top deck chatting until we were called down for the drinking games. I sat with an American girl, Kelly, who I'd been talking to. We all sat around one long and played a massive games of 'kings', where each card represents a different rule, and each person picks a card at random. They split us into two teams and it was fun, but a little tame from most people. One of the tour guides, Dan, however, was new and so he didn't have an easy time at all. The other tour guide made him turn away from the group and pull his shorts down, then stuck a length of toilet paper between his bum cheeks, which was then set on fire and Dan had to shotgun a beer before he was allowed to put the fire out. Another dare saw the poor guy smoking a cigarette out of his arse, and he had so much to drink that he kept being sick.On one occasion he went to be sick overboard and put his head through a window as he didn't see the glass! After a while though the game ran its course and everyone headed back up to the top deck. People gradually started going to bed, and a few of us were star gazing on the sun loungers. I was lying next to an American guy, Scottie, and we decided to go to the other boat where there wasn't alight so that we could see the stars more clearly. It was pretty cool, though I missed a shooting star and I fell asleep on the sun lounger so had to go to bed. The boat didn't sink - hooray! - and the next morning we sailed around slowly, basking in the sun on the top deck. We dropped off people who were staying two nights and picked up another group of people who had just stayed two nights, before heading back to the port. The bus journey back felt like it took forever, not aided by the fact that the bus was late so we had to wait for ages in the heat, but eventually we made it back to the hostel in Hanoi. Kelly and I went in the same dorm and we had dinner with another girl from the cruise, Freddie. I left them after dinner to go to bed as I was flying early the next day. It was a dorm of 12 people,but I didn't hear a sound and slept right through until I had to get up for my flight. I overslept a little, so was a bit rushed, but made the taxi. I was alone in the taxi,then after about five minutes of driving we pulled over by a minibus. Then the bus minibus driver took my bag and put it in the bus while my driver told me to sit in the front of the cab. I was really confused as to what was happening,but it turned out that a couple from the bus were joining my taxi and my bag actually should have stayed with me. It was annoying as the hostel were supposed to tell you if people wanted to share so that it makes it cheaper,but I paid full price. Anyway, I got to the airport safely (just about - the driver was on his phone A LOT) and on time, so I can't complain too much. After killing time in the incredibly expensive airport, I boarded my flight, bound for Bangkok.
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