On yet another sleeper train back from Sa Pa to Hanoi. I can't say our sleeper train experience this time round is any better than the previous trip. When we left Hanoi for Sa Pa, we were in the same cabin with a peaceful and kindly Vietnamese couple who kept mostly to themselves and even offered us some snacks before promptly going to sleep.
This time round, we had two separate local travellers, one male one female, who each came into the cabin with another Vietnamese who was probably sending them off. I don't know much about the culture here, but I personally found it a little offensive they would talk so loudly and and stare at us the whole time.. And even coming over and sitting on our beds, placing their hands and feet everywhere, so that they could face each other and talk amongst themselves.
Not my most fond experience. :/
Anyway, I'm really glad to finally be leaving Sa Pa. It was a beautiful place but it's always misty, with loads of rain and cold.
You know, going to Sa Pa, I had no idea what Eric signed us up for.. Eric told me I needed shoes, and that we would be walking to paddy fields. I was like "Huh paddy fields? Will my shoes get wet?" To which he assured it me it would not. So I packed my f21 boots that I wore to trekking in Australia.
Boy, not only did my boots get wet. They went swimming in mud.
We trekked 9km on our very first day. The pace was really quick, ground was really muddy, and I barely had time or energy to look around and enjoy the view. There I was thinking I run ~9km at least once a week.. Trekking that distance should be easy peasy. Boy oh boy I was the last person for every leg of our journey.
Imagine terraces of paddy fields stretching far and wide, and how does one get to the other side? No, we won't go up and around it.. Let's trek along the edge of each terrace, risk falling into one, oh and yea soak our shoes in mud. Thankfully, my boots were very good boots and kept my feet dry throughout the whole journey. But to be honest, the trek sucked big time. I hated it so much.. the disgusting mud, the breakneck pace.. I didn't even have time to enjoy the scenery! :(
Oh and ya, the one day we were supposed to have an easy trek where we could wear slippers, I decided to be conservative and wear sports shoes instead of boots. Bloody hell easy trek my foot! It was so slippery, still muddy, I slipped and fell and landed on my tailbone.. :( it was so painful I couldn't move and teared like a big baby with everyone else watching. Eric had to literally pick me off the ground as I was pretty much paralysed with pain. Even lying flat on my back as I am now, I can feel the bruised area. :(
The whole experience was not completely horrible though.
The trek was made so much more bearable by the people we trekked with. We met a group of Swedish, a Mexican staying in Austria, an Italian + Czech couple, a Taiwanese, and two Australian girls. This group of oddballs really made the trip so much more bearable. The Mexican has half past six English, and every sentence is peppered with German words. It's hilarious to watch this guy. And his favourite phrase to anything you propose to him is "neinnnnnnnn", dragging out his rejection to whatever you said. The Australian girls were really sweet and it just feels nice to be around them. The Italian and Czech pair were really friendly and the group as a whole just really bonded to the point we've added every one on Facebook hahah. One memorable thing about this group of people that really touched me was how they would all chip in to help clean up the mess after we were done eating our meals. I mean, people are paid to do it for us right? But they still help stack the plates together and wipe the table. (:
Eric extended our trip by one more day after all the trekking to stay at the Victoria Hotel in Sa Pa. it's supposedly to be the most upz hotel there with the best view. We were really excited.
It was a wet and tiring walk to the hotel. I was so so so tired from the three days' trek.
The hotel was very cosy with nice big fireplaces but it seemed more unfriendly than the one we stayed previously. They had a pool table in the main lobby which I lost 3 games total to Eric. ;/
They also had a sauna, steam room, and heated pool that was free for all guests. Eric forgot to tell me about the pool so we didn't use it as we didn't pack any swimwear. I used the sauna and their shower facilities today and I felt really pampered heehee. The place smelled wonderful and the staff were very helpful. (they also had a water dispenser where we filled our bottles so we wouldn't have to buy anymore for the rest of the trip! =P)
We had mist and rain all day yesterday and today. It was such a pity we did not manage even a glimpse of the view from the hotel that we booked this hotel for. Visibility was so bad yesterday we could not see ~10m ahead of us in the fog that we got lost going back to the hotel at 6pm! It was dark by then.
Our afternoons to ourselves were mostly spent drinking coffee in two cafes owned by two Norwegians. We got to listen to relaxing English music (a first in Vietnam), and drink westernised coffee, plus play a couple of board games. I taught Eric how to play Backgammon and managed to beat him in a game of chess by pure luck! So he and I are even as he won three games of pool and I won three board games.
I have some good memories of our experience in Sa Pa, but a lot of painful ones too. I am soooooo happy to be going back to Hanoi.
Sian the idiot is shouting into the phone again and it's already lights out in the cabin. What an ass! >_<
