Our nice hostel in
Hanoi packed us off on our night train to Sapa. When I say packed us
off, I mean they literally carried all of our bags, put us in a taxi,
got someone to meet us at the train station and then put us on the
train! The night train was our first train in Vietnam and it was a
lot higher quality than Thailand. Comfy bunk beds and a cabin of
four. We shared with two Vietnamese men, one of which had tissue
stuffed up his nose. I slept ok, the train was still as shaky as
those in Thailand but not as loud but the air con was far too strong
and I shivered the whole night. I woke up with a sore throat and
running nose, no prizes for guessing who I got it off.
Night train
Our train arrived at
6am and we were met by a minibus that took us along some winding
country roads into the mountains of Sapa. The scenery was out of this
world. Layers and layers of Rice paddies, greenery, blue skies... it
was stunning. I was very tired though. We got to our hotel and they
gave us breakfast (egg and bread) and then we checked into our room,
had a shower and had about an hour to get ready before our trek. We
were both so exhausted! Anyway, we got ready and our guide met us
downstairs in the lobby (a little tribal woman with a gold tooth) and
then took us out into the town with 4 French boys and 3 Malaysians.
As we began walking along the road towards the mountains, a group of
hysterical tribal women began following us (we had seen this group
earlier when our minibus pulled into the hotel, they were all
screaming and running after the minibus). The group consisted of
about 20 women, all carrying baskets on their backs, and being naïve
and new to the ways of Vietnam, we had no idea why they were
following us.
The women who followed us
Then they started talking to us and asking us questions
'How long you been here? Where you from?' and we got chatting to
them. I naively assumed they just wanted to practice their English,
but it was a very stupid assumption to make; why would a group of 20
women follow us on a 4 hour trek in the mountains just to speak
English? Anyway, the trek went on, and we clambered through and
across rice paddies, those ones that are like steps and lead all the
way down the mountain. It had been raining earlier and it was
extremely muddy and slippery, to the point where EVERYONE in the
group fell over at some point. Jemma actually slipped off the edge of
one of the rice tiers and jumped into the one below, submerging
herself up to her knees in water. She was very lucky she didn't go head
first and soak her whole body.
The rice steps - Jemma slipped & fell from one level to the one below
We were all so muddy, having slipped
on our bums so much. I slipped down a steep hill at one point and
just gave up and slid down the rest of it on my bum because I
couldn't stand back up in the mud. It was kind of fun though. And all
the long, the women were there to help us, holding our hands to stop
us from falling, catching us when we slipped. How lovely the
Vietnamese tribes are we thought! What a great authentic experience
we are having, trekking with a tribe in the outer reaches of rural
Vietnam.
Stunning Scenery
And then we came to the cafe in the mountains where we to
have lunch and what happened next can only be described as a swarming
attack. The women were all over us, in our faces, 4 women to a
person, shouting at us for us to buy what was in their baskets.
'Please buy from me, my baby needs food' 'buy me I helped you' 'buy
present, buy for my village, I need money'. The 8 of us were sat
around these little tables and we had no escape. The tour guide
disappeared and our lunch would not come until we had all bought
something. I wouldn't mind, because the women had helped us a lot
during the walk, but the prices they were asking for were so
unreasonable and they wouldn't budge on them at all. We ended up
buying two purses that we didn't even like/ want/ need!
French boys being hassled
Then the food
came, and then after that, the tour guide, who we hadn't seen for the
whole of the trek, reappeared and announced it was time to move onto
the next village, at which point the first tribe of women scurried
away, and we were joined by a new 'tribe' of women, dressed slightly
differently, in different colours who swarmed around us and each one
latched onto a different person. 'Where you from? How long you been
here? I from new tribe, different tribe, poorer than that other
tribe. How old are you? Do you have brothers or sisters?' We walked
through a small village that was scattered with 'home stays'. The
French boys were doing a home stay, we weren't, and when we saw the
home stays, which were actually just concrete hostels that had been
put up in the middle of a village and had nothing homely about them
whatsoever, we were glad we weren't staying there. We were especially
glad, when we saw a minibus pull up to take us back to the main town
of Sapa. We literally had to run into the bus and tell the women 'no
we don't have any money left on us!!!' They chased us and I shoved
the equivalent of about 40p into their hand and jumped on the bus.
They weren't happy, and shouted at us they wanted more, but
thankfully the bus drove off, and I was so relieved to get away. The
countryside had been so stunning, breathtaking, like nothing I have
seen before, and I had been so enchanted in the beginning to be
getting an 'authentic Vietnamese experience' but the women just
ruined the whole thing completely for me and I would never want to go
back.
Village
Just wow
But far too much hassle off the various tribes
We got back to the
hotel that afternoon and went straight to sleep. I felt so ill, fluey
and my nose wouldn't stop running. It was the worst cold I've ever
had in my life. I dragged myself out of bed for dinner, where we had
a lovely meal and got chatting to a Chilean and Israeli about
politics, but then I had to go to bed early because I felt so rough
and couldn't breathe because my nose was so blocked. I had the most
sleepless night of the whole trip, literally could not breathe and
went through about two toilet rolls from blowing my nose every two
seconds. We were supposed to go on a second trek the next day, but I
was too ill, and Jemma couldn't be bothered with the women hassling
her, so we stayed in the room and I slept whilst she watched films.
She went out to get me some medication and I took it and it knocked
me out. Then we had dinner, before getting on the night train again,
back to Hanoi. I wore extra layers this time, in preparation for the
freezing air con, which was a mistake, because the air con in our
carriage was broken and I sweated the whole night long. At least I
was sweating the cold out though. When we got back to Hanoi at 6am,
the guy from our hostel came to collect us, with a brolley to shelter
us from the rain, and we checked into our hostel and slept for the
whole morning.
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