It was a rather chilly night in an unsurprisingly comfortable bed. Beds are usually very hard in this part of the world and in some cases the mattress is made of wood. That's not a joke! When I was living in Guiyang in China, my first house had a mattress that was too firm for me. I didn't mind, or better said, I didn't notice it the first night, because after an endlessly long journey, my housemate, my superior and some colleagues had the idea of going out, so we went pubbing and clubbing and I was dead tired when I went to bed. But I did notice the firmness after two or three days. I couldn't sleep and my body ached. So I went to the shops to buy something soft to put on the mattress. This helped a little.
When I moved houses a few months later and was in search of a flat, I was taken to a beautiful flat in Huaguoyuan overlooking the square with the fountains, the lake and the shopping centre, but was shocked to see that the beds had plywood boards as mattresses. The two Chinese who were with me were not surprised with that, they were surprised with my reaction and insisted I should take the flat. Well, I didn't, and got a different one in a nearby building that had a very hard mattress.
When I asked them why the mattresses are so hard, they said that the like to have a straight back when they sleep. And this is why you see them sleeping everywhere, like on the floors, on benches, really everywhere, and they have no issues with it.
Anyway, this one here has a good one, so 'Warmduscher' like us can sleep on it. The night however was humid and chilly, but I managed to wrap myself in the blanket and stay warm. Oh, how I wish I had my sleeping bag with me!
Since I went to bed late last night and since we won't start before 10am or 10:30am, I decide to sleep until 8ish. I hear that many others are up already and imagine a queue in front of the one loo, one shower and one sink. Bloody hell! I should have asked the agent to show me photos and give me more info about the accommodation. The photos would surely have been photoshopped, but still, it gives you an idea of what to expect. Expect the unexpected as we used to say with my colleague Leslaw in Shanghai.
When I finally decide to get up, I am surprised to see no queues at all. After a long hot shower I get out to the patio to have a look around, because it was already dark when we arrived last night and you couldn't see anything.
After taking these photos, I go inside to dry my hair. As it is quite long now, I carry a hairdryer with me. Some other travellers give me a funny look when they hear the noise and see me, but I don't really care.
With my fresh hairdo, I then go out and sit at the table with the others. We start a conversation while waiting for the breakfast to arrive. The owners are a bit later with serving, because they want all of us to be gathered at the tables, so nobody misses it. But since the Singaporean lady is still somewhere inside, we have to wait and wait and wait.
The French who were dinking beers, smoking pot and doing bong last night seem to be fit and in a good mood. The British girl is still coughing, so I give her half my Strepsils to soothe her throat.
I sit next to a Dutch, a Canadian and two French. We talk about travels, how long we have been on the road, why we came to Vietnam, how long it took to get here, what places we have visited before Sa Pa, what places we are going to visit after, etc. The Dutch says that he quit his job, gave up his flat and has started a journey that will probably last a year. He visits countries with either no visa requirements or countries you can easily get a visa for up to a month. He was in South Korea, Japan and China before coming to Vietnam and will continue through Southeast Asia for the next half a year. When he decides that he's had enough of travelling, he will return to the Netherlands, get a flat and a job for the next few years. He says something I like, when asked by one of the French if he doesn't get tired of travelling, sightseeing, etc. He says that sometimes, like in Korea, he took a holiday from his holiday and spent a few days on the beach with doing nothing.
I ask the Canadian how long it took her to get here and if she visited some other places. I ask her this question, because I remember something Ken said on the boat in Ha Long Bay.
When will you tell me the frequency Kenneth? I started listening to R.E.M since that day on the boat and have been listening to 'E-bow the letter' again and again. It's such a beautiful song and Patti Smith's voice is just magical.
He said that he left the US on a Tuesday, crossed the Pacific and arrived in Hanoi on a Thursday. So, Wednesday never happened. Is this considered time-travel? The Canadian reports the same and she says that she will gain that lost day on her way back.
The breakfast ladies come with two heaps of pancakes and all of us are relieved to see that it's not rice and noodles. They also bring bananas and some honey. The disappointing bit is, that it's only one banana for each of us. Which means we are still hungry.
The tour guides arrive in the meantime and go around with lists trying to find their victims. I get to be with the Singaporean lady again and our tour guide says that we will be all together up to a certain point and then split. The guide tells the Singaporean lady that she will be brought back to Sa Pa by bus after lunch and tells me that we will continue trekking until the afternoon. Oh boy!
I still have no reception, while being at the restaurant, which is in a village, but I spot a WiFi router on the wall and ask for the key. I see that one of the guides talks on the phone and realise that the Vietnamobile SIM my first host provided me with in Hanoi, may have 150 GB of data and I don't know how much talk time, but it's rubbish compared to other networks. If I get a signal it's up to 3G and not LTE and I can't use my phone as a hotspot. I will later discover that Viettel offers the best coverage, has a good reception with good speeds and you can use your phone as a hotspot.
After lunch, a bus arrives and we all are asked to enter. I ask where the bus is going, since I know that most of the people are leaving today and have to go back to Sa Pa, and am told that all of us are returning to Sa Pa. I have to say that I am relieved about this and don't ask further questions. The reasons?
1. Even though it's sunny and hot now, it looks like the weather will change soon.
2. Sa Pa means hotel, and not a dodgy homestay.
3. Looking at the time, I somehow doubt that there will be time to have a shower at the hotel before heading back to Hanoi. And I will be right about it.
I fire up one of the maps on my phone to see where we are and see that we are only 10 km away from Sa Pa. However, it says that it takes one hour to get there. Seriously? Yes. Why? First of all, we have to drive to another village on the way to drop off the guides, and secondly, the road is a narrow bumpy dirt road. So, after an hour, we arrive at the hotel in Sa Pa.
As soon as we get to the reception, we are asked for our names. The ones who are leaving pretty soon, are asked to collect their luggage and go down the steps to the bus, which will take them to the coaches to Hanoi. So, there really is no time to have a shower.
I am so happy to be staying here tonight!
I go for lunch first and then one of the personell helps me with my luggage and shows me my room. I want switch on the air con and have a hot shower, but discover that the A/C is not working and that there's no hot water. I call reception and they flip a switch somewhere and both work.
Another reason why I am happy not to be trekking until tomorrow is, that by doing so, you don't get to see Sa Pa at all. The little I saw, it looks pretty.
After having a shower and spending some time in my room I go down to the restaurant for dinner and then go for a walk. In the restaurant, I bump into two danish ladies who were at the homestay last night and the trek this morning. They are students and have taken some time off to travel through Southeast Asia. Two Spaniards are brought to our table and we get to know each other. While the Danish ladies say that the liked the homestay and that it was very warm on the upper floor where they slept, the Spaniards say that they arrived this noon and did a trekking tour to a nearby village. They will spend the night in the hotel and go on a day long tour tomorrow and spend the night in a homestay somewhere. They are worried about the weather and are not sure if they want to go on that tour. They will decide tomorrow morning on what to do.
We do the usual talk about travels and I ask them about the 'El Camino'. One of them did the shorter version from Portugal to Spain. I didn't know this route, until a Filipino couple from our running group mentioned it. The Spaniard says that part of the route is quite demanding and I joke that this here is training for it. My plan is to do the entire 800 km and beyond Santiago until the sea.
I say goodbye after a while and go explore Sa Pa. Well, I don't get to go far, because the city is stretched out and the hotel is quite far from the centre. However, I walk for half an hour until I reach a massage place. There I think, that a foot massage would be great now and enter. I request a 60 minutes foot massage, and boy it's good!
It is quite spooky and cold now, fog has covered the city and you hardly see anything.
In the morning, day 3 in the meantime, I go to reception to ask a few questions. I am told that checkout time is 12 o'clock, pick up time is 2pm and departure time is 3pm. I then go to have breakfast.
I leave my room at 12 and spend two hours in the restaurant, where I also have lunch. The Danish ladies left by night bus last night and the Spaniards decided to go trekking, so, nobody is around.
At 2pm, a bus arrives and the reception area gets busy. The same procedure as yesterday and as every day. Those who are leaving with the 3o'clock coaches, have to collect their stuff and leave immediately. So, no time for a shower. We are all taken to the various agencies in town, from where we will get on the coaches.
The lady in the Fansipan agency speaks of VIP buses and point at two buses parked directly opposite, but one of them is more VIP. It's the one with the fewer and wider beds and the WiFi on board. Unfortunately, I get to travel with the other one. My coach has 40 narrow beds in three rows. Luckily, it's not fully booked. Again, we have to take off our shoes and put them into a plastic bag. The trip is scheduled to last six to seven hours and as we will soon discover, the bus has no heating, but only cooling. I take three blankets and wrap myself in to stay warm.
It is after 10pm when I arrive in Hanoi and walk the sort distance to my Airbnb place. The place is well hidden inside a gated community, but easy to find if you follow the instructions provided by the host. And this is what I have booked:
When I moved houses a few months later and was in search of a flat, I was taken to a beautiful flat in Huaguoyuan overlooking the square with the fountains, the lake and the shopping centre, but was shocked to see that the beds had plywood boards as mattresses. The two Chinese who were with me were not surprised with that, they were surprised with my reaction and insisted I should take the flat. Well, I didn't, and got a different one in a nearby building that had a very hard mattress.
When I asked them why the mattresses are so hard, they said that the like to have a straight back when they sleep. And this is why you see them sleeping everywhere, like on the floors, on benches, really everywhere, and they have no issues with it.
Anyway, this one here has a good one, so 'Warmduscher' like us can sleep on it. The night however was humid and chilly, but I managed to wrap myself in the blanket and stay warm. Oh, how I wish I had my sleeping bag with me!
Since I went to bed late last night and since we won't start before 10am or 10:30am, I decide to sleep until 8ish. I hear that many others are up already and imagine a queue in front of the one loo, one shower and one sink. Bloody hell! I should have asked the agent to show me photos and give me more info about the accommodation. The photos would surely have been photoshopped, but still, it gives you an idea of what to expect. Expect the unexpected as we used to say with my colleague Leslaw in Shanghai.
When I finally decide to get up, I am surprised to see no queues at all. After a long hot shower I get out to the patio to have a look around, because it was already dark when we arrived last night and you couldn't see anything.
And this is what you see
I then take a few photos of the ramshackle hut they are calling homestay
The entrance with the breakfast/dinner tables
This is on the right hand side of the building. See the two doors? The far right is the loo, the middle one is the shower and the left, the open one is where the hosts live. If you look closely enough and have good eyesight, you might be able to spot the sink and the washing machine.
err, yes.
ground floor sleeping area with my room on the right. There was another room directly opposite. I think there were the only separate rooms.
Upstairs sleeping area.
Click here if you want to learn more about homestay.
With my fresh hairdo, I then go out and sit at the table with the others. We start a conversation while waiting for the breakfast to arrive. The owners are a bit later with serving, because they want all of us to be gathered at the tables, so nobody misses it. But since the Singaporean lady is still somewhere inside, we have to wait and wait and wait.
The French who were dinking beers, smoking pot and doing bong last night seem to be fit and in a good mood. The British girl is still coughing, so I give her half my Strepsils to soothe her throat.
I sit next to a Dutch, a Canadian and two French. We talk about travels, how long we have been on the road, why we came to Vietnam, how long it took to get here, what places we have visited before Sa Pa, what places we are going to visit after, etc. The Dutch says that he quit his job, gave up his flat and has started a journey that will probably last a year. He visits countries with either no visa requirements or countries you can easily get a visa for up to a month. He was in South Korea, Japan and China before coming to Vietnam and will continue through Southeast Asia for the next half a year. When he decides that he's had enough of travelling, he will return to the Netherlands, get a flat and a job for the next few years. He says something I like, when asked by one of the French if he doesn't get tired of travelling, sightseeing, etc. He says that sometimes, like in Korea, he took a holiday from his holiday and spent a few days on the beach with doing nothing.
I ask the Canadian how long it took her to get here and if she visited some other places. I ask her this question, because I remember something Ken said on the boat in Ha Long Bay.
When will you tell me the frequency Kenneth? I started listening to R.E.M since that day on the boat and have been listening to 'E-bow the letter' again and again. It's such a beautiful song and Patti Smith's voice is just magical.
He said that he left the US on a Tuesday, crossed the Pacific and arrived in Hanoi on a Thursday. So, Wednesday never happened. Is this considered time-travel? The Canadian reports the same and she says that she will gain that lost day on her way back.
The breakfast ladies come with two heaps of pancakes and all of us are relieved to see that it's not rice and noodles. They also bring bananas and some honey. The disappointing bit is, that it's only one banana for each of us. Which means we are still hungry.
The tour guides arrive in the meantime and go around with lists trying to find their victims. I get to be with the Singaporean lady again and our tour guide says that we will be all together up to a certain point and then split. The guide tells the Singaporean lady that she will be brought back to Sa Pa by bus after lunch and tells me that we will continue trekking until the afternoon. Oh boy!
As you can see, it's a lot of us today.
We pass by some houses
Some locals join us, who will later try to see us different things they make themselves
It is quite demanding to trek here, especially when the ground is wet, which it is in many parts.
First stop after a while
Bamboo jungle
Second stop. There are two possible routes from here, the longer, which goes up the mountain and the shorter, which goes down the mountain. Both meet at the same point.
Rocky Mountains
Art made by locals
a horse
a bridge
Don't go chasing waterfalls..
Please stick to the rivers and the lakes you're used to ... (TLC, Waterfalls. R.I.P. Liza Left Eye Lopez)
Is your eyesight good enough to spot the bridge?
Bridge
This is the old bridge next to the new one in the photo above. The old one is not in use anymore.
Playing Star Wars
Lunchtime
Master Chef
Not much, but filling and tasty
After lunch, a bus arrives and we all are asked to enter. I ask where the bus is going, since I know that most of the people are leaving today and have to go back to Sa Pa, and am told that all of us are returning to Sa Pa. I have to say that I am relieved about this and don't ask further questions. The reasons?
1. Even though it's sunny and hot now, it looks like the weather will change soon.
2. Sa Pa means hotel, and not a dodgy homestay.
3. Looking at the time, I somehow doubt that there will be time to have a shower at the hotel before heading back to Hanoi. And I will be right about it.
I fire up one of the maps on my phone to see where we are and see that we are only 10 km away from Sa Pa. However, it says that it takes one hour to get there. Seriously? Yes. Why? First of all, we have to drive to another village on the way to drop off the guides, and secondly, the road is a narrow bumpy dirt road. So, after an hour, we arrive at the hotel in Sa Pa.
As soon as we get to the reception, we are asked for our names. The ones who are leaving pretty soon, are asked to collect their luggage and go down the steps to the bus, which will take them to the coaches to Hanoi. So, there really is no time to have a shower.
I am so happy to be staying here tonight!
I go for lunch first and then one of the personell helps me with my luggage and shows me my room. I want switch on the air con and have a hot shower, but discover that the A/C is not working and that there's no hot water. I call reception and they flip a switch somewhere and both work.
Room with a view and a balcony
I love the brand name hihihihi
This is later in the afternoon. The weather has really changed and worsened. Glad, I am not somewhere out there.
After having a shower and spending some time in my room I go down to the restaurant for dinner and then go for a walk. In the restaurant, I bump into two danish ladies who were at the homestay last night and the trek this morning. They are students and have taken some time off to travel through Southeast Asia. Two Spaniards are brought to our table and we get to know each other. While the Danish ladies say that the liked the homestay and that it was very warm on the upper floor where they slept, the Spaniards say that they arrived this noon and did a trekking tour to a nearby village. They will spend the night in the hotel and go on a day long tour tomorrow and spend the night in a homestay somewhere. They are worried about the weather and are not sure if they want to go on that tour. They will decide tomorrow morning on what to do.
We do the usual talk about travels and I ask them about the 'El Camino'. One of them did the shorter version from Portugal to Spain. I didn't know this route, until a Filipino couple from our running group mentioned it. The Spaniard says that part of the route is quite demanding and I joke that this here is training for it. My plan is to do the entire 800 km and beyond Santiago until the sea.
I say goodbye after a while and go explore Sa Pa. Well, I don't get to go far, because the city is stretched out and the hotel is quite far from the centre. However, I walk for half an hour until I reach a massage place. There I think, that a foot massage would be great now and enter. I request a 60 minutes foot massage, and boy it's good!
It is quite spooky and cold now, fog has covered the city and you hardly see anything.
This is what I bought from the various kids along the way and 'Mein Führer' yesterday.
In the morning, day 3 in the meantime, I go to reception to ask a few questions. I am told that checkout time is 12 o'clock, pick up time is 2pm and departure time is 3pm. I then go to have breakfast.
I leave my room at 12 and spend two hours in the restaurant, where I also have lunch. The Danish ladies left by night bus last night and the Spaniards decided to go trekking, so, nobody is around.
At 2pm, a bus arrives and the reception area gets busy. The same procedure as yesterday and as every day. Those who are leaving with the 3o'clock coaches, have to collect their stuff and leave immediately. So, no time for a shower. We are all taken to the various agencies in town, from where we will get on the coaches.
The lady in the Fansipan agency speaks of VIP buses and point at two buses parked directly opposite, but one of them is more VIP. It's the one with the fewer and wider beds and the WiFi on board. Unfortunately, I get to travel with the other one. My coach has 40 narrow beds in three rows. Luckily, it's not fully booked. Again, we have to take off our shoes and put them into a plastic bag. The trip is scheduled to last six to seven hours and as we will soon discover, the bus has no heating, but only cooling. I take three blankets and wrap myself in to stay warm.
The door in the back is the loo
I take this photo while in Sa Pa and send it to my colleague Har-El. One of her students from last summer is called Flaco.
Disco, disco partisani!
Entry hall, bathroom to the left, rest of the house to the right
Living room with one of the bedrooms. The second bedroom is up the ladder
Downstairs bedroom
Upstairs bedroom
Here, I will spend another week, before making my way south.
Good night world!
If you would like to read more by me, find the following two on Amazon:
No comments:
Post a Comment