Jenna and I booked an afternoon flight out of Bangkok on Tuesday (we had to eat the cost of our Monday flights because we didn't have our visas-- that's twice now I've done that. third time will definitely be the charm, right?!) We landed in Vietnam but had quite awhile before our overnight sleeper train, so Jenna grabbed some "bia ha noi" (beer from Ha Noi) from one of the airport vendors to try.
We headed to the train station and had an awful run around trying to get our tickets. Once we got them, we waited for a few hours to board the train. Normally, when we took overnight sleeper trains, Tash, Jenna, Ben and I would take them together, so it would be the four of us in one car. Tonight, however, it was just Jenna and I rolling the dice on two random train roomies. We hit the jackpot. Our bunkmates included an older solo gentleman who spoke spanish and a younger train attendant who spoke vietnamese. Jenna was creeped out that we were sleeping with a train attendant so at one point tried to lock him out of our bunk. Jenna's an incredibly heavy sleeper however, so all this did was ensure that she slept through his incessant knocking and that I would be the one to have to get up and open the door. How does one say "I'm sorry my friend attempted to lock you out of your room" in Vietnamese? An awkward shoulder shrug and a pointed finger at the perpetrator sleeping blissfully unaware while donning an eye mask and earplugs would have to suffice. This also ensured that I was completely and totally unable to sleep the rest of the night for fear that the vietnamese train attendant would try to retaliate.
We arrived in Lao Cai about 7am the next morning. Jenna and I had read up on all types of ways to travel from the train station in Lao Cai to Sapa, our first stop on our Vietnam itinerary. Once you exit the trains you are immediately swarmed by tons of taxi and bus drivers, all trying to offer the lowest fares to Lao Cai. There are rules about which ones to take and which ones not to take and which ones will rip you off and which ones will get you there safely. Jenna did not want to take a bus for fear of it falling off the side of the mountain and sending us crashing to our death, so I engaged her fantasy and settled for a cab. Like most times in SE Asia, what you see is not what you get. The taxi man who we arranged a ride with was not the actual driver, nor was he standing in front of the actual car we would be taking. But, nonetheless, we made it safely up the mountain without crashing to our death (The mountainous gravel "roads" are scary and treacherous though, barely wide enough for two cars to pass one another, sometimes riddled with fallen tree branches or flooded by gigantic puddles).
We stopped along the way to take some pictures because the setting was absolutely gorgeous. The photos don't do the vast green expanse justice, nor do they capture the perfect fog that was rising over us and the dew that had settled beneath us. The perfectly layered rice paddies scaled the mountains and went down for miles and miles until meeting in a valley well below us. We were in awe.
Our taxi dropped us in the center of Lao Cai and we were immediately approached by women who wanted to take us to their villages in the mountains.
We decided that we had to get to a hostel first to find some information before booking with one of these women. Thank goodness we did. We found a hostel with a nice downstairs cafe that looked out into the small, bustling city center that was Lao Cai. We had breakfast, warmed up and used the wifi to do some research. Jenna and I both needed some warm weather gear, so we opted to stay for a night in Lao Cai (in a private room for $2 each per night) and to try to book a Sapa tour for the following day. Thank goodness we did, because we needed rain jackets, hiking boots and warm leggings for our excursion. After dropping our bags in our room upstairs and using the bathroom (it had a massive hole in the wall that exposed us to the outside world while we were showering and using the toilet. Hey, Hey Vietnam!) I laid down for a nap and Jenna headed out to do some exploring.
Later in the day, we set out together to have a nice lunch of pho which was so yummy! We then went to a local grocery and bought some food for our trek- peanut butter, bread rolls and fruit. The night ended with Jenna and I eating french rolls with peanut butter (spread not with a knife, but instead by using the opposite end of a toothbrush) in our beds, listening to the outside world via the hole in our bathroom wall.
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