Sapa - Halong Bay - 24/05/2009

Sapa

Sapa really was a lovely place. Despite the constant rain in the first 2 days, the temperature was nice and cool compare to the 30s that we had experienced throughout Vietnam.

The train ride was also very cosy. It was a shame that I thought the train would arrive at 7am rather than 5am when I went to sleep at midnight. The bumpy ride did not help either.

The room we stayed in at the Darling Hotel in Sapa was seriously a bargain. We even had a bath tub which I used to have a nice warm bath.

Some of these hill tribe girls had the most persistent must-sell attitude I have ever see. We constantly saw lone tourists being swamped by these hard-core sellers in their traditional constume demanding that the tourists buy at least one thing from them. I took some pictures in which you could only see the tourists' feet and a LOT of colourful dresses.

It was also true that these Dutch tourists we met on the mini-bus to Sapa from the train left after only 1 night. I think they were a bit optimisitc wanting to climb the highest peak in Vietnam (Mt Fanxipan - around 3000m) without a rain-jacket or good shoes when it was raining like hell.

During the tour to the Bac Ha market, I was surprised to hear from our Hmong tour guide that Hmong husbands are the luckiest ones alive. Apparently the wives do all the cooking, cleaning, make the handicrafts and sell the handicrafts at the market and to tourists etc. The men go to the market on Sunday to get drunk on rice wine - the wives pick them up after the market closes at 1pm and carry their drunk husbands home (sometimes as far as 5 km). What a life! I am not exactly sure what the men do besides going hunting in the forest and growing rice.

The scenery was very spectacular there in Sapa. It is one of the most beautiful places I have been to in Vietnam. Mountains, waterfalls, rivers, rice terraces, colourful tribal outfits, fresh air...it was good all around.

Naomi decided to spend big in Sapa. I had no idea how much a woman can shop until I saw Naomi spending days/nights and more days just haggling for clothes/bags/dresses/earrings. I have no idea where her energy comes from especially since she was pretty sick from a cold at the time. I guess people do extraordinary things when they are in crisis. In Naomi's case, shopping gives her strength...

I did manage to find my parents some handmade wall hangings and a silk scarf. I really liked them. I also bought my sister a cheap handmade purse. I doubt she will ever use it, but hey, at least it was cheap and she won't know the difference anyway.

We did conquer a mountain while we were there - Ham Rong Mountain. It offered a great view of Sapa town and the surrounds. Except that when we got there, it was very foggy - we saw a lot of cloud though. Very exciting stuff.

It was sad to say good bye to Sapa. I think Naomi did wish that she could just spend a whole year just in Sapa and buy everything she can from the H'mong and the Red Dzao people.

Train ride back to Hanoi was ok. I did manage to squeeze in some sleep.

We got to Hanoi at 5am and had to sit outside the steps of our hostel for like 45 minutes waiting for them to open.

Halong Bay

Now, this is seriously the most controversial part of northern Vietnam. There are so many scams and dodgy travel operators doing this profitable route. Just about every single traveller come to Halong Bay. The 3 day 2 night package (what we wanted) started from $US30 to something ridiculous like US$180. I was actually happy to pay for cheaper end of things like maybe $40-45. But we ended up going with the original Sinh Cafe tour (allegedly a reputable tour operator) on Naomi's insistence for $60.

Just a side note, remember how everyone tried to rip off the deaf restaurant owner in Hue??? Well, there are literally hundreds of "Sinh Cafe" offices here in Hanoi. Just about 1-2 every single street in the Hanoi Old Square. And of course, there are only 2 real offices. Others are just there to make a quick buck trading of someone else's name.

Before we booked the trip, Naomi and I had so many debates on whether to do it ourselves or through a tour company and which one etc as we heard so many dodgy stories from fellow travllers and reviews we read on the websites. Apparently there were rats on some of the cheap boats, sand in the food and people couldn't sleep because of loud generator noise.

Anyway, so much for (the real) Sinh Cafe's promise that there would only be 16 people max on the boat and that the passengers were all booked through their Singh Cafe office - we counted 18 people on our mini bus plus 2 children and some randoms we picked up at the dock in Halong City, totalling 24 people. PLUS, we were put in a room right next to the engine/generator room. Amazing...

I was so frustrated abut the lies we were told by the supposedly original office. After we got on the boat, I complained to the tour guide who said there was nothing he could do about and that was the way it was. I rung the travel agency and complained to them and they offered to put us in a better room - this was also confirmed by the tour guide. After we had lunch, the guide then told me that the boat was full and there was not any other rooms....I was not sure how he would not know that there was no room before and only realised it later. He also offered us free air-conditioning provided that we didn't tell the travel agency in Hanoi that there was no change in room, which we relunctantly accepted. I think he may have done a deal with other operators at the dock and got some commission for it and didn't want the office in Hanoi know about it.

The boat ride was nice. We went to see Sung Sot (aka "Amazing") Cave and cruised around the bay. We also had most of the afternoon swimming in the sea which was perfect given the hot weather. It was stunning sitting on the top deck of the boat looking at these little rock islands sticking out from the sea. Apparently there are something like 1800 rock islands in the bay.

People on the boat also seemed very nice. We got into talking with quite a few European tourists our age. There was also an American couple, an Sri Lankan family and an Australian couple on the boat.

We overheard one of Sri Lankan guys talking to the American guy about the end of civil war that recently ended in Sri Lanka which went for 18 years. The American guy looked puzzled and asked him what country he was referring to and said he never ever heard of it before. The Sri Lankan guy (so did we) couldn't believe what the American guy just said. We thought maybe he was joking, but then he asked what Sri Lanka was again to the Sri Lankan guy. Everyone around us just couldn't stop laughing when they heard that.

At night, we just chatted with other passengers on the top deck while some enthusiastic people tried karaoke downstairs. It was soooo relaxing having few drinks on the top deck. It apparently cost $2 for a beer and $1 for corkage for beer if you BYO. As my beers only cost about $0.40, there was no way in hell I was going to pay $1 "service fee" for the beers. So I quietly put them in my empty water bottle and sipped on them all night long. It was great and definitely made me very relaxed in the end. :)

We stayed in a hotel in Cat Ba Island the second night. It wasn't anything flash...definitely wasn't the 2 star hotel that was shown in the pictures anyway.

We climbed a mountain in Cat Ba National Park in the morning. Walking in the rain was a little slippery, but fun nonetheless.

The sea-kayaking was good in the afternoon though. I really enjoyed that. We just kayaked around these little islands in the sea. Naomi got a little bit scared by the small waves that hit our boat and she thought we were drowning. As I sat down the back and paddled my guts out, she started screaming. I could not see what was in the front, so I automatically thought we must about to hit an island or something. Seconds later, I discovered that there was a jellyfish and a dead squid in the water.

We also stopped by this remote island for a swim by ourselves. It was really nice as there was no one there at all and just us and 2 other couples sharing this pristine beach.

Oh, before I forget, we also met these 2 Czech guys on our boat who were also on a 3D2N package. Some people came to Vietnam for food, for a suntan, for shopping, for scenery, these guys came to Vietnam for 1 thing and 1 thing only - working on their beer guts. They were those older generation Czechs - they had beers for breakfast, lunch and of course dinner. They kept saying Vietnam does not have good Vodka so they brought their own 53% alcohol content vodka from the Czech Republic as well as a Finlandia Vodka from duty free. Oh, I forgot to mention that they also had a bottle of wine each over dinner. I was very amazed that when most people had tea/coffee over breakfast, they walked over to a shop across the road and brought back 2 large bottles of Tiger beer. We had problems communicating in English, but understood each other well over a couple of drinks.

It was a pleasant experience overall thanks to the companiy we had. We exchanged email addresses with the Australians, the Dutch and the French. Hopefully we will see these guys again in the near future.

Hanoi

We have been back to Hanoi for the last couple of days now. Just doing some last minute sight-seeing and shopping etc. We went to see Uncle Ho's Masoleum where his body is kept. He goes to Russia for make-over from September to December every year. It was quite lucky that we got to see him. He's been asleep for like 40 years now. I think some Vietnamese people still think that he will wake up one day.

We are about to embark on a 20 hour bus journey to Vietiane, capital of Laos. The bus is like 50 minutes late to pick us up, so fingers crossed that it will eventually turn up.

Peace and out - Paul