Hanoi to Sapa

Hanoi to Sapa by Vietnamese train. In for a penny in for a pound as they say we had decided in Hoi An to overnight train to Sapa which was a journey of approximately 9 -11 hours. These tickets were booked well in advance by our delightful hotel receptionist in Hoi An and were "soft sleepers" with only 4 bunks in the same small cabin size. They come with a bottom sheet, a pillow and a duvet of sorts. Clean or not clean who knows!!!! Leaving our hotel by prearranged taxi we arrived in plenty of time to do some people watching in the waiting area. We must have looked pretty lost as we were approached by what we thought was a "train station worker" who asked if he could help us. This station was so busy with hundreds of people coming and going it was a relief to put ourselves in the hands of this English speaking man. He looked at our tickets and exclaimed: "these are only vouchers, you need to go to the other train station to exchange the vouchers for tickets then come back here!" "How do we get to the other station and how far away is it?" we ask. "You can take a taxi. You will need to go quickly to get back in time for the train". "NOooooo" I wailed "we can't do that we will miss our train". Meanwhile in the background Gary had looked at the tickets and had seen a number that could be rung but we had no local cellphone. "I will ring the number for you" the young man happily says and after a quick phone call in Vietnamese he announces that someone will come to us from the other train station and sort out our tickets. (Bear in mind these "vouchers" we had had "ticket" on them not "voucher"). "He will be here in 10mins"!!!!!! (10mins in Vietnam is the obligatory time that everyone quotes. If it happens earlier you are lucky but it generally happens well after). So we wait and we chat with this helpful young man who decides after 15mins to rephone the elusive agent. "He hasn't left yet but he is coming now" he tells us!!!!!! A short time later another young man approaches us and I gushingly say to him "oh thankyou, thankyou for coming". He looks slightly confused as the first young man says "no, no this is my friend I have been waiting for and I must go now - it has been a pleasure to help you". He was a traveller too, nothing to do with the train service, and amidst explanations and thankyous we said our goodbyes. Standing in a crowded station area with vouchers in hand and highly visible with concerned looks on our faces we wondered how this man from the other station was going to find us - but he did. With a few minutes to spare we got our reprieve. Not long after the magic door was unlocked and following the crowd over railway lines, past parked trains in the yard we found our train to Sapa. We are at the end again, in carriage 13 again, but so is the engine. Looking better. We climb the 2 and a half foot step up into the carriage easily as we are only travelling with a backpack each on this journey having left our main luggage in the safe care of the hotel. So to find cabin 13 and bunk 13 and 14. Yes! It is empty and we hold our breath in the hope it will stay that way. Making ourselves comfortable on our designated bunks we also have a complimentary bottle of water, a wet towel and toothbrush and toothpaste. This is different! Obviously crossing everything, and holding our breath to boot, was not sufficient as the door slides open and a Vietnamese man yells "this is my bed for my mother" and the mother promptly almost sits on top of me pinning me in. "Look, ticket ticket, this is my bed". "Ok, ok," Gary and I both say, "sorry, sorry our mistake" but I cannot get out of the enclosed space because mother is virtually sitting on me. "Look, look" and he keeps pointing angrily to the bed configeration on the outside of the carriage. "Ok we get it, just let me out and mother can have her bunk". Hands in the air in defeat I manage to squeeze out, Gary heads to the top bunk and I have the bottom one. This was not a good start to the trip and yes it was our mistake. We thought we had booked the 2 lower bunks but the lovely receptionist in Hoi An had booked the two left hand bunks. When 'mothers' son said his farewells we sat hoping she was upset enough to look for a new cabin to spend the night but instead she just used her cell phone presumably to let everyone know how unhappy she was. Anyway we finally got under way with a spare bunk in the cabin and settling down to read I made use of the spare pillow on the spare bunk. This was not a trip that necessitated salad sandwiches. Sometime during the night a fourth person arrived in our cabin (not sure where he came from as this was a non stop train) and realising he had no pillow apparantly kicked up a big fuss yelling down the corridor for the guard. Now I was fast asleep but, in my sub conscious, I could hear something going on. Gary however was wide awake and alert. All the conversation was in Vietnamese and at a very rapid and high speed. The guard comes into the cabin, sees I have 2 pillows and yanks the top one from under my head. Gary is on the top bunk yelling at them all to "fuck off" and I am wondering what the hell just happened. Eventually order is restored and we all settle down to resleep apart from those whose cell phones are going 13 to the dozen and that does not include Gary or me. Sleep did not visit us for the rest of the night and I was heard to shout out on a couple of occassions "turn those damn phones off"!!!!! Arriving at the station which serves Sapa and just in time for the sun rise, we were collected by a minivan which would take 1 and a half hours over the mountain ranges to take us to our final destination which was a beautiful hotel overlooking a valley of paddy fields and Dragon mountain. The rice terraces were magnificent to look at as they tiered each and every way down the mountainsides - a real testimonial to the stamina of the Sapa mountain people, who are called Hmong, and wear traditional dress as their everyday clothing still. We really enjoyed our time in Sapa which was very hilly but quite small. We walked a lot, found a great place for a beer and a reprieve from the sun, (Sapa is mountainous and it often rains but we were lucky), visited a Hmong village deep in the valley and went 3 up on a scooter to come back out of it. Bought our Northface jackets from a really nice guy in Sapa whose twin boys looked angelic but kept hitting me with North face walking poles when his father wasn't looking. Walked around the lake and stopped in at a beautiful old church on the way. The market was an interesting place with lots of Hmong women trying to sell their treasures under the guise of being "locally made in the village" but are freely available for sale everywhere. It was here that a local Hmong schoolgirl attached herself to Gary and spent about 2 hours wandering around Sapa with us. She spoke English beautifully which is why we couldn't shake her however hard we tried - she wanted to practice her English non stop. She looked about 13, they are a very miniature race, but was 16 years old. We see a bright future for her if she ever is able to leave Sapa and explore the wider world. We only had 3 nights and 2 complete days there but it was time to go back to Hanoi and get prepared for Paris. Our return sleeper train trip was uneventful. We shared our cabin, correct bunks this time, with a father and daughter from Germany and slept like babies knowing that Hanoi was the final train destination and that when it stopped - we got off. We grabbed a taxi to our hotel where we arrived at 4.30am to a street totally opposite to the one we knew and was unrecognisable. We had only witnessed the street during the bustling day and evening time and at this time of the morning it was deserted. The night porter welcomed us and we were to stay a further 2 nights before heading to Hongkong and ultimately Paris. X