Karaoke followed by a very long day of travel!
Trip Start
Dec 26, 2005
1
47
289
Trip End
Jan 25, 2009
Cat Ba Island, Vietnam
Saturday, February 25, 2006
After 4 hours of sleep I felt surprisingly refreshed. Lucky because we spent most of the day travelling. It started with a very basic ferry ride from the shores of Cat Ba Island back to the main coast. Unlucky me, I had the back seat next to a very disgusting toilet. But I love travelling on the local public transport. The beauty of this tour so far is that we are experiencing many forms of transport. On this particular ferry ride, I was quite amused at old ladies gargling and rinsing out their mouths whilst attempting to spit the remaining fluid out the door but landing on the boat's interior floor. The toilet was also quite a task with me having to aim through a very small hole and navigating the very wet and dirty floor. All of this with a mild hang over.
Following the ferry ride to the mainland, we caught our 2 hour van ride back to Hanoi where we boarded our overnight train for Lao Cai. I have yet to make a decision as to whether Vietnamese trains are better than the Thai trains. With my train ride, Bangkok to Chiang Mai I had a bottom bunk which made it very comfortable. The lady above me went to bed early so I had the freedom to make up the bottom bed when I wanted to. The Vietnamese trains consist of small compartments of 4 beds... two bunks which are very close together. You wouldn't want to be very obese or have a disability... on this train journey, I shared with Claire, John and Dave. The train had a carriage for drinks etc. which made for a very enjoyable night. I slept surprisingly well until being awoken at 6am:( Yuck. There is nothing worse than travelling for such an extended period of time and being awoken so early. You could tell this amongst the other group members. Not happy!
On arrival in Lao Cai, we caught yet another vehicle to Sapa which is located 33km from Lao Cai, very close to the southern border of China. Alas, we checked into our hotel and relaxed for the rest of the day until taking a walk to the nearby Catcat village.
