Ok... time to update the old blog- but this may be a short entry cause this keyboard is formatted to input Vietnamese so it keeps putting weird letters and accents in place of regular English-- so pardon the "Chinglish" if I make numerous typos... hahaha the joys of traveling. I asked the two night-time guys here to help me but they're total tools, and no speaky too good... soo yah... hêre ưe go!I arrived back from Halong Bay on Friday at 5pm and Ruby and I caught the night train to Sapa at 8pm. Pretty quick turn around.. but we made it! I had planned to buy a return ticket from Sapa to Hanoi from the train station, but the ticket lady was super rude. After standing in line for 15 minutes, she said a return ticket would cost $300,000 dong. I got my money out and handed it through the glass, and then she said she was too busy to help me, and told me to go away. Meanwhile, she carried on helping all of the Vietnamese people in line trying to buy the same tickets for a fraction of the price. Eventually I gave up after three failed attempts with two sêparate ticket agents and conceded to buy one from a travel agent in Sapa for an even HIGHER price... I was super confused because I haven't been treated so badly before by any of the countries I've visited, but I soon learned- such is life as a traveler in Northern Vietnam- people are downright nasty up herrrrrrr!!
We arrived in Sapa around 5:30am and Ruby had called a tour company to arrange a seat on a shuttle bus to take us from the train station to Sapa- about 30 minutes drive. This ended up being a huge P.I.T.A. because the driver dropped us off at a hotel that had no vacancy, and then some random "tour guide" showed up and wouldn't leave us alone until we allowed him to take us to a hotel (that paid him commission). The deal was, if ưe stayed in this hotel, the bus would be free- otherwise, god only knows what the price would be--- this is why I never pre-book stuff when I travel, but Ruby is much more trusting than I am... So... anyway, buddy takes us to this dive of a hostel, for $11/night, which is about $5 more expensive than anything else in town, and about 10x more dodgy. But we dropped our stuff off so we could avoid wasting any more time arguing with anyone.
From thêre we continued on to the Sapa market where I picked up a cheap North Face knockoff jacket, and a few souvenirs. I also wandered through the "local" market where they sell mainly household items, produce, spices, and meat- Here is where I found FRESH BUTCHERED DOG FOR SALE! AHH!
The hill tribe people were EVERYWHERE, and very much "in your face" at all times. I'm normally pretty patient with this kind of thing, and I usually enjoy talking to peddlers and lôoking at their stuff- just for kicks, but thêse people were awful! I got sooooo claustrophobic cause they'd basically attack you mob style and give you no way to escape them until you were forced to snap and tear a strip off someone. Asking politely for space, or saying no thanks one hundred and fifty times, goes nowhere!
Later that day I bumped into an Aussie that I had met a couple weeks ago in Nha Trang. We got to talking and decided to check out a waterfall nearby via motorbike. Well- this ended up being a gong show too because first of all, the bike wouldn't start, then it needed another part, then it was dropped on ít side, and cracked a display case in a merchant shop- which cost the Aussie $200,000 dong, by the time we were finally ready to go, it started monsooning!! We grabbed a coffee to wait it out, and were confronted by a young girl peddler- the rudest of the bunch. She continued to stand beside our table verbally abusing us for not buying from her for the next 45 minutes. Despite asking her to leave about 100 times, she refused, and dropped so many F-bombs I lost count. I wonder who the jerk-face tourist was who taught her that!? :-(
The weather finally cleared up so we took off on the bike- only it started raining again within 5 minutes of the trip. I quickly got drenched, and we ended up breaking down again, and taking a wrong turn somewhere before heading back without seeing any waterfalls...
Soaking wet and cold, I went to find a place to have dinner with Ruby. While at dinner, I had a great idea to call one of the nice hotel/spas and see if we could go use their hot tub... The front desk clerk said we could use their hot tub for $10 and that would include use of their steam room and sauna... SOLD! I spent the next half hour walking in the rain (thêre are no taxis in Sapa) up a large hill to the hotel/spa, only to discover- NO HOT TUB! The hotel people were huge jerks about the whole thing- which was not surprising by this stage of the game- and Ruby ended up buying a $55 massage just so she could get a ride home as her knee was hurting too much to walk back.
Later that night, I ended up having a domestic díspute with my hotel because thêre were no sheets on my bed, and nobody could speak English to understand what I needed. I said "no sheets, I NO PAY" which they miraculously understood, and then presented me with a bill for $11 for the room + 40,000 dong for the shuttle bus!!!!!!!!!!! This made me snap because the ONLY reason we were even thêre was for the free shuttle-Meanwhile, a room full of Vietnamese people across the hall thought it would be hilarious to try and pimp out tưo older men to me, who started trying to enter my room while making sexy noises and pelvic thrusts... this action resulted in an appearance by super-grumpy Christy who ripped up the hotel bill, threw it on the ground, and slammed the hotel room door in the face of the two men. Nothin but class...
The next day started out well- We ưent to the Bac Ha market- about 3 hours away, which happens only on Sundays... The market was great! So many amazing costumes, and cool handmade things to look at and buy. I took loads of photos of the locals wearing their traditional costumes. We stopped for lunch (which was HORRIBLE) and then continued on to a small villiage to have a short walk, and then to the border of China/Vietnam where I snapped a shot of the China side before loading up in the van again to head home....
This is when day two took a turn for the worse- around 7pm, I had a light supper of a veggie sandwich, and tea and started feeling realllllllllly sick... I managed to stagger back to my room before becoming violently ill and spent the next 24 hours wanting to die-- FOOD PÔISONING-- not fun... but it was bound to happen at some point on my SE Asia tour, and might as well have been the dang N. Vietnamese that did it!
The following day, I was still feeling a bit woozy, but I caught the night train back to Hanoi and went back to the hostel I stayed in before. Sooooooooo, all in all, Sapa wasn't my favorite part of the trip so far- in fact, aside from the gorgeous scenery, cool costumes, and markets- I don't have many great things to report. Maybe my expectations ưere too high, as many people I've met said Sapa was one of their favorite places... or maybe I just had a string of bad Karma- either way, the last few days have made me MORE than ready to be blowin this popsicle stand tomorrow to head to Bangkok. It's too bad this had to happen at the end, as it left a bad taste in my mouth for the Vietnamese- however, if it happened at the beginning I may not have wanted to see the rest of the great things the country has to offer- so maybe its a good thing....
Oh and by the way, thêre ảe about 10 other brutal incidents that happened with people ripping me off being unbelievably rude (including a parting F-you from the night time staff at my hostel in Hanoi) I opted not to report for tưo reasons - 1. It's negative, and I don't need to focus on that, and 2. This keyboard is driving me mental...
So with that, I'm out! PEACE
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