Talk about perfect timing! (Vietnam part 3)

It's Wednesday now and I had to stop typing yesterday because my new roommate arrived. Well actually, I'm his new roommate since he already lived here, and just came back from a month in Beijing, where he is from. His name is Neo and I have to share my room with. He seems like a fun guy who likes sleeping, since it's 1:40 pm now and he just got up. Well, anyway, I think I am going to finish the Vietnam retrospective today. I noticed it's becoming quite a big story, so not everyone will have the patience to read it all. Well, let's say it's just fun for my parents and myself in the future to read it back. Well anyway, here it goes again...

Before I proceed with the story, I uploaded a video from the motorbike 'adventure'. It was Jamie's first time on a motorbike and the road was a bit questionable... Well see it for yourself:



Ok, so we were at the floating village. When the boat stopped many small boats approached us to sell fruit or offer a short boat trip around some smaller Islands and through some caves. We bought some mandarins and went on one of the boats. It quite hard to call it a boat actually, since it just looked like a piece of wood with a motor. Well, at least it served its function. After we went back on the boat we went to a floating fish market. Fish markets in Asia are way different than the ones in the Netherlands. First of all; all fish lives. The fish market consisted of several holes in in the floor which served as a basin for the fish. When somebody wanted to buy a fish, one would be taken out and beaten to death. That's the big idea at least. However, the fish we saw being beaten didn't die. It was full of blood but still trying to get away. Not really a pretty sight...
After that we got back on the boat to head back to the shore. Arriving back on the land we had to wait for a little while before the bus came and took us to a restaurant where we had lunch. Unfortunately I couldn't eat much since my throat was still really thick and aching. When lunch was finished, we headed back to Hanoi. After a three hour drive we arrived back at our hotel. Before we left for Halong Bay we already bought train tickets to Sapa for wednesday the 21st; the day we came back from Halong. That wednesday afternoon we arrived back at around 3 pm and had to wait until that evening to get the train. We wandered around and had some dinner before heading for the train station. We bought soft seat tickets and we expected the same kind of seats that we had on the two previous train trips. This turned out to be a bit different. The seats were partly soft and in the back there was a strange construction with wood and a sort of basket that would support your back. However this was far from comfortable, so when I woke up the next day my back didn't feel as fresh as it did before. Ah well... I suppose we have to take that kind of things for granted.
The train didn't go to Sapa directly but to a border town called Lao Cai, all the way in the north of Vietnam, almost in China. From there we took a cab/van that brought us to Sapa.

Arriving in Sapa we had to find a hotel. Sapa has become more and more touristy over the years and this is well noticable. Most of the buildings in town are actually hotels or restaurants or both. The lonely planet guide suggested some hotels that were supposed to be cheap and offer and amazing view from the room. Of course, they were either full or non existent any more. We than went to a hotel that offer a lesser view but was recommendent by the lonely planet because of its good and knowledgeable personel. The room we got was 7 USD for one night and was the best value for our money we had so far. Both beds had mosquito nets, which can come in handy in this malaria region. That day we went to a nearby village which was a 3 kilometre walk. It was easy to walk since it was downhill. The name of the village was Cat Cat village and we actually had to pay to be able to enter it. The villagers where all part of a hill tribe called the Black Thai. Back in Sapa I bought a bracelet from them that is hand made. There were actually selling all kinds of stuff that they were making right there on the streets. They still wear traditional clothing and their main survival method is producing rise throughout the year. They are self-providing, so all products that are produce are meant for themselves. The Black Thai people look like this:


So that afternoon and early evening we walked through Cat Cat village and the surrounding mountain passes. We found a road that led straight trough the mountains. Not many people went there and the nature was absolutely beautiful. The night before in the train we didn't get much sleep, so when we finally were heading back we felt very tired, and we still had to climb the mountain back to Sapa. Since we ran out of money we could pay a motorbike guy that offered to bring us back to Sapa, so walking was the only way. When we finally got back to the hotel we were so tired both of us immediately fell a sleep. It was only 6 pm by that time. We got up at around eight again to get some food but after that we went straight to sleep again.

Cat Cat village and surroundings:


The next day was friday and was the last day before setting off back to China again. At 9 am we set off for a hiking tour that would last untill three o'clock in the afternoon. This trip was really amazing. We had one guide and a girl from the States joined us, so the group consisted of four persons. This was a tour that tourists normally don't do, which was true because we didn't see much tourists untill the last 1 or 2 hourse since we walked to a village called Ta Phin, which serves as a tourist attraction. Instead of hiking most tourists prefer going to the village by bus or taxi...
The tour itself was really amazing. The weather was great and the views were even better than on the first day. So many rise fields make this place one of the best spots I ever visited. Some impressions:


That same day we had to get back to Lao Cai to catch a train back to Hanoi. This would be an overnight train again. After some troubles we managed to get a hold of some soft seat tickets, where at first we could only get hard seat tickets. Luckily this time, the seats were actually the ones like we had the first two times so this night was a bit more comfortable than the previous train journey. We arrived back in Hanoi early at 4 am and took a cab to the bus station. We still had to wait a while for the bus going to Lang Son, on the way back to China. On the bus station we met three chinese people, two guys and woman, that were also heading back to China. They wanted to reach Nanning that day, the same as us. So we travelled with them. They were also the reason we found out that we could have had way cheaper ways of transportation on the way to Vietnam, since they way bargaining way better than we did. This is not really surprising since they didn't have the problem which is the language barrier, but still.
When we arrived in Pingxian we found out that all busses to Guangzhou and Zhuhai (Places near Macau) were all full. A bus to Nanning was 4 hours away so we decided to rent a taxi with the five of us for the three hour drive. The bus was in the worse condition and I wasn't to sure it would even make Nanning! Fortunately we got there, to only find out that we could get a bus ticket at 7 pm the next day to Zhuhai. We had to wait 27 hours! We now had to chose between either waiting on the bus station or search for a hotel with the chance of them all being full. Fortunately for us, the chinese woman knew a man who knew some other man with money. So we managed to get into a four star hotel for only 12 euros per person! This was really heaven after all the busses and trains we had to sleep in. Completely rested we spend the next day in Nanning and went to the bus station that evening.
In the bus to Zhuhai I could sleep and when we finally arrived I slept for about one hour in total. We still had to wait for the border crossing to Macao to be opened, which would be at 7 am. We arrived in Zhuhai at 4.45 am. I was home at about 8 am and had to be back on school at 11 am. Talk about perfect timing!

Well, this finishes my story about Vietnam. I must say that I had a very tiring but memorable and above all great time. I would recommend the country to anyone, since it holds so much beautiful places and the people are (or at least can be) really nice. Well, for now... Thank you, bye bye!