I was awakened by the rattling train the next morning; the train is still packed like a refugee train and Jess was still dead sleeping beside me. Well, we were ripped off the night before by train touts, and I just somehow felt lucky that we eventually got into the train in one piece. Still, with the language barrier and the non-helpful train conductors, I was starting to worry if we had missed our stop (and ended up in the China!). And I was't alone; the gwailou who sat behind us was as worried too.
Finally we reached our destination - Lao Cai, a small town located very near to the Chinese border. Still drowsy from our 10 hours train ride, Jess and I staggered out from the train station, and ended up getting ripped off again, this time by the minivan touts! Damn! Somehow I was't myself that day, maybe the train ride has made my brains cuckoo! Still, we were so tired that we just gave up and did not put up a fight. Anyway, karma works in a wonderous way, that the touts did get a traffic summons on the way to Sapa! Revenge is indeed bittersweet!
The journey from Lao Cai to Sapa took us around 2 hours, and it was the worst ride I had in Vietnam! Already down with fatigue and the horrendous feeling of being ripped off, again, I was nauseated as the minivan crawled its way up the serpentine roads leading up to Sapa. The gorgeous views outside the vain was somehow comforting, as we could see the legendary rice field terraces, but my motion sickness was getting all over me and I was trying my best not to puke in the minivan! Fortunately, the touts were playing 70s evergreen songs which I hummed all the way just to distract myself from throwing up! I can't remember how many times "The Wedding - Ave Maria" got played again and again!
Ultimately, the tortuous roads led us to Sapa - our destination - but we were engulfed by the thick fog! The visibility was horrible as we couldn't see more than 5 meters ahead from us, and we were like blind men twiddling our way around Sapa. We stumbled into the local tourist center, where the receptionist annoyed us the the max! Just because we were independent travellers who were not keen to join tours (she gets commission for tour groups) she was just like trying to get rid of us. And the stupid local map costs US$5! Damn.
Well, we decided to wander our own way to our pre-booked hotel using our own navigation skills and an outdated Frommer's! And we made it! We found our hotel and God we were so happy, as we desperately needed a warm bath and cosy beds! Since we arrived a bit too early, and while waiting for our rooms, we decided to explore the local market since it was Saturday!
We were tailed by several Black Hmong locals who were peddling their wares.
"Hello, please buy something from me."
"Hello, cheap cheap here."
"Hello, you want souvenirs?"
"Hello, you help me?"
I wasn't really interested with the stuffs they sell - local made purses, ?silver ornaments, and etc. - and I have read that they charge tourists if we take photographs of them, so we just ignored them and made our way into the local market. The market itself wasn't that grand and the wares they trade were rather meager, mainly vegetables, meat, fruits and some household wares like pots, cutlery and cleaning utensils. And you can see Black Hmong children overwhelming foreigners like swarms of locusts, trying to get their wares sold off or begging money, which was a bit unnerving. The evil of tourism has worked its way into these local people, but then again, these indigenous tribeswomen speak better English than the Viets.
We grabbed a fast lunch at a nearby restaurant and trekked back to our hotel, which surprisingly prepared a honeymoon suite for us. Probably they thought we were married! The decorations of the bedroom was adorable for newly weds I've got to say, and Jess was like so in love with the swans that they had folded using towels that she somehow felt reluctant to use them!
We decided to nap a while and wait for the heavy fog to subside, but it did not. I was a bit disappointed as we actually planned to trek around Sapa. So it gave us a good reason to stay indoors, watch cable TV and sleep!
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