Well i had a fantastic time in Sapa. Unfortunately i never did totally kick the cold i'd developed (not helped by the absolutely freezing temperatures in Sapa - some nights i actually wore everything i had with me!), so i did not manage to head out trekking as i'd planned.
Fortunately i was travelling with cool people and after a day of sleeping recovering from the night train (which wasnt nearly as bad as i expected actually - air con, small mattress, blanket and a pillow!) we decided the next day to hire scooters with drivers and go on a tour around Sapa. First stop was a village with some very friendly people who we could see all worked together as a community to get everything done - the women were digging out the hillside to make way for a new house, and the men were up in the hills collecting wood for it. We walked to a cave which the vietnamese have hidden in for many wars, awesome to see, and back out to of course now buy a few things off our friendly helpers.
next our scooter drivers offered to take us to a waterfall for some extra $ so we agreed and off we went, up windy half-paved roads with the most amazing views over teh mountains. we were very lucky to have booked this on one of Sapa's rare clear days and we could see for miles. The waterfall was beautiful and after much clambering we managed to make it up high for some great photos. Then back down and the drivers managed to talk us into going to a nice mountain pass view point for extra $ so off we went, more amazing views, and back to Sapa.
spent the next few days not doing a lot, trying to recover from my cold. did manage to spend the night of 'yongkipol' (excuse me for my terrible spelling its phonetic) with some israeli's and i can honesty say i've never seen people stuff themselves with that much food at once. the boys had a big bowl of beef noodle soup, then a big plate of fried rice, then hamburger and fries - and 6 litres of water!! I actually dont quite believe they were hungry by 6pm the next night!!
Anyway spent my days lazing around the town, playing cards in a cafe with a really nice vietnamese woman, eating yummy street food, exploring the town and getting harrassed by every street merchant you can imagine. they're very multi-talented and not at all lazy, i'll give them that. one guy came up to me offering me "postcard sapa, postcard vietnam, map sapa, map vietnam, book, cigarettes, motorbike to rent?". i found out the next day he'd added "cocaine and beautiful vietnamese girl very cheap" to my male companion! hilarious.
On my second to last day i met an American Paul who was new to Vietnam, straight from China. we agreed to rent scooters together the next day, and after visiting many motorbike places, and finding many didnt have working gears, brakes, rare-view mirrors or helmets we finally settled on one guy with two working good motorbikes. not before being sworn at by one of the first guys we'd looked at! He even asked Paul if he was ' a man or a dog', implying he's a dog for listening to someone as low as a woman (after it was me who'd said i didnt trust the guy or his dodgy motorbikes an inch) when it comes to renting motorbikes!
Anyway we went on our way on the motorbikes having an absolute blast. first stop was a village where a woman at a shop said she would look after our motorbikes for us - we bought a drink each to thank her (though regretted that act of kindless later when she tried to extort more money out of us for looking after the bikes. honestly the vietnamese will do anything to squeeze every last cent out of you!). the village was really nice and at the bottom was a beautiful waterfall.
After that we headed on our way back to town for some yummy noodle soup (not before arguing with the stall holder over the price - somehow the price had doubled in the two days since i'd last eaten there.) and then off down the main road through the mountains. was really gorgeous and again we were lucky that we'd run into a reasonably clear day in Sapa. took tons of photos and really enjoyed sitting on a scooter for hours on end... though i have to admit after many hours my legs were pretty sore.
anyway that night it was back on the night train back to Hanoi for me. after my minibus failed to pick me up from Sapa the man who i'd booked the ticket through kindly made a local bus wait for me 'down the road' and organised a motorbike taxi to take me to it - 20 minutes down the road we finally met the bus! Was so kind of the man and great to see sometimes there are Vietnamese people who will do kind things without exorting more money out of you!
Anyway the next day was back to Sapa and booked my tour of Halong bay, 3 days, 2 nights for US$48. Turned out i didnt have any more luck than everyone else i'd spoken to who had done tours though, as we had the rudest and most imcompetent tour people in the world! Took them 2.5 hours to get us from the bus onto the boat, with them yelling at us to give our passports, stand there, dont move (one girl was told off for moving to the rubbish bin). we had people from a variety of tours, one day, two day and three day (and one poor couple just wanting to take the boat to the island, which is apparently quite an impossible task to comprehend). there was no system, no co-ordination, just a lot of walking round in circles with our passports and telling us to 'wait here'! cant imagine that they do this every single day!!
anyway finally we were on the boat and got our lunch at 2pm. was a good lunch though nice to notice the staff had more food than us... we got to an island where there was some beautiful caves which i thought were turned into a bit of a circus with yellow, blue and green lights everywhere, even a fountain! and they had put red lights into the formations that looked like things, just so you knew where the eyes were meant to be... of course we were now late so they sheparded us through the caves at maximum speed (we were trying to tag onto other tours where the tour guides actually spoke english and actually guided), one poor guy on crutches was practically pushed through the cave!
Back onto the boat and we then went to a cave which apparently wasnt included in our 'all entrance tickets included' ticket. most people protested and didnt go, much to the dismay of our guide who insisted we had to have 3 more people before they could visit the cave. After that we dropped some people off at Cat Ba island and stopped in a bay somewhere for the night. Had a nice dinner after being demanded to sit down (some french girls were told off for going outside for a cigarette while waiting for food..). played cards that night and i ordered a cup of tea.. after my tea was finished i asked for some more hot water. climbed over the furniture to reach the staff who had lost the ability to move from their TV watching position and they made fun of me while pouring water into my cup!! really classy. when i asked for more hot water later i was told the jug was empty and that was 'not possible' to boil more water. and no i was not allowed into the kitchen to boil my own water. After that we went down to someones room to closet drink beer that the german boys had bought onto the boat - otherwise they were going to charge $1.50 per beer (the beers themselves coste $0.80).
the next morning we were woken at 6.30 for our 'morning of kayaking', which was to last from precisely 6.45 - 7.15. following the guides advice of 'around here' (pointing to everywhere) as a good spot to visit we kayaked around which was nice. returned back and was told to change, then told off for changing when breakfast was ready, then told off for sitting at the 'wrong' table for breakfast, then told off for taking too long to pack my bag (do you get the picture?) we switched boats to one going to Cat Ba island. On Cat Ba island it was raining but most of us still wanted to go trekking so off we went up the mountain. fortunately it stopped raining and we had magnificent views. was a fantastic climb to the top where we could see the National Park we were supposed to be trekking in, and the sea beyond.
The pamphlet said we would be finished at 5pm from kayaking and trekking, but at 12.00 we returned to the hotel for lunch. after waiting for the staff to scratch their heads over a single room, then eventaully being told they'd found a room and they just needed to get it ready. they had lunch and upon finishing lunch my room was ready and i checked in. Met the lovely couple who had the misfortune of trying to take the boat to Cat Ba island the previous day , and they had hired a scooter to look around the island. I thought this was a great idea so joined them and we spent hours exploring Cat Ba island. Was stunning scenery with the forest and the ocean and long winding roads with hardly a car on the road.
Was very excited that night to find a bar called the 'flightless bird' with tons of new zealand posters and memorabilia around the room! there were steinlager posters everywhere so i went up the bar and ordered 'a steinlager please'. the poor waitress looked at me blankly and said 'a what?'. turned out it was just the pictures but was nice none the less. After a darts competition which i lost horribly back to the hotel ready for our early start the next morning.
again lots of waiting and we finally got from the hotel to the bus (with no working horn, yes!), to the boat, to the bus to the restaurant for lunch and back to Hanoi. I forgot to mention that the Vietnamese believe that the more you use your horn the better a driver it makes you. so you can imagine what its like driving anywhere in Vietnam - horns galore you just cant get away from it. you beep at someone when you want to pass them (even when they are in the lane next to you), you beep at them when passing, then when finishing passing. you beep at people who may pull out in front of you to let them know youre' there, you beep at scooters so they know you're there, you beep at people to say hello.. it just never ends!
anyway the next day i sent a very expensive package home and was off on my flights to Indonesia!! unfortunately my flight was delayed by several hours and i didnt arrive untl 2am. no backpackers on the plane as i'd planned and the 'dodgy' backpacker district was asleep so had to pay NZ$100 for a room for the night somewhere safe. ouch! Anyway spent the next day exploring Jakarta and got to feel why most people tell you to get out (never seen so much car fumes in my life, thick layer of smog on the ground), and took the night minibus to Yogyakarta. spent my first day exploring the local market which was great, as the prices were cheap, the shops were organised and people understood the concept of browsing!! Indonesians are much more friendly than the vietnamese and dont get angry and yell at you for any small reason!!
the next day i booked an early morning tour of Borobodur and Prombanan temples, first one being an ancient bhuddist temple and the second being a hindi temple. Found out how similar they are which i hadnt realised, and spent the rest of the day stopping for photo shoots with the locals, who obviously found us a tourist attraction along with 1000 year old temples!
the next day I took a package minibus to Mt Bromo. Long day in an 'air-con' bus with air con that was much less useful than an open window with dust and fumes flying in. arrived in Mt Bromo at 9.30, had a late dinner and shower and went to bed, ready for my 3.30 wake up call. Was just me and a british girl Anu who had decided to take the cheaper option of walking to Mt Bromo but we were glad we did it. was amazingly beautiful walking first along the desert and then up to the mountain where smoke was puffing out and the sun was just rising. definately have to be one of the highlights of my trip and highly recommend it to anyone who manages to makes it to Indonesia! walked around the crater for a while then rode a horse off the moutain.
then back to the hotel for breakfast and into a series of buses for our long trip to Bali. Was even treated to a Karaoke ferry on the way, where they had the whole set up with TV, microphone, live guitar and drums.. and speakers throughout the entire boat so no matter where you were you could hear it. how kind of them.
finally arrived in Bali dead tired and after a quick dinner and some free shots from some nice boys who had a tray of 20 shots for $10 i was off to bed. Finally got to sleep in the next day and took a wander around town and the beach where it is so hot! the most unbelievably hot place i have been to thus far. the next day woke up not feeling great so didnt go surfing as planned, and yesterday i woke up feeling even worse. it appears theres a bug going round as lots of us here have it so it was a day in bed for me yesterday and dont imagine i'll be doing much else today. What a shame at the end of my trip! Hopefully i'll kick it soon so i can go diving and rent a scooter to explore the island!
Anyway this is way long now so i had best be going.
much love,
Ingrid
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