Hanoi, Sapa and Halong Bay Trip - December 2007

This must have been the most unlucky and worst trip we've ever taken so far, mainly because we had our cameras stolen, but other reasons had to do with the service we received - we had to put up with the numerous tourist scams, poor tour organisation and bad attitude from the locals.

The only highlight of our trip was the first two days spent at the north-west region (Sapa) of Vietnam, where the ethnic minorities lived at. We were happy there and felt so at ease with the ethnic people. They're a lovely bunch of helpful, friendly and simple people. During our stay there, we did not encounter a single hiccup. It's a pity though, as we've lost the only pictures and videos that described how much we loved Sapa, their people, the scenic landscape and their hospitality.

Disclaimer: The photos used to illustrate Sapa and the surrounding regions have been taken off the Internet because the SD card was stolen along with my camera. Other photos were taken with a camera phone and a disposable camera.


Day 1: Reached Hanoi, boarded overnight train to Sapa


We reached Hanoi around evening time and headed straight to Hanoi Paradise Hotel at Hang Chieu St. to collect our train tickets to Sapa. On this very first night, we witnessed how violent certain Vietnamese men are. We were in the taxi and were making our way to the train station, when we saw a man beating up another man on a motorbike. We didn't know why he did that as we had missed the part that led up to the fist fight. But when the man (who got beaten up) turned around, we could see blood flowing profusely out of his nose. He didn't put up a fight and simply rode away on his bike. Thank goodness we weren't walking past but were in a car.

The first "tourist scam" we encountered was when the driver (who is a staff of the hotel) insisted we give him more money because he had been pulled over by the police for committing a traffic offence. He wanted us to pay him more in order to compensate for the bribe he had given the police. We insisted we were not to be held responsible for that and refused to pay.

Hanoi railway station was an eye-opener. Nothing fancy about it.

4 berth cabin - Tulico train

Day 2: Trekking tour to Black H'mong villages in Lao Chai and Ta Van

We reached Lao Cai station around 5 in the morning and took the mini van transfer to our hotel - Bamboo Sapa Hotel.

View of Sapa town and Mt. Fansipan from the hotel


Mt. Fansipan - the end of the Himalayan Alps


Streets of Sapa town



Black H'mong girls in Sapa town - some of them are tour guides hired by the hotels to bring tourists around, whereas others hang around in town from morning to night, selling handicraft to tourists

Our first tour upon reaching Sapa was to visit the Black H'mong people at Lao Chai and Ta Van. Our Black H'mong guide, whose name is pronounced as "Sher", brought us to there along with two old ladies. We trekked to their villages (about 15km, I presume) and throughout the whole time, the two old ladies, who were close to 50-60 years old, were grabbing hold of me and Bunny while we trekked because the route there was extremely treacherous and dangerous at times. The H'mong women didn't seem to have any problems climbing up and down.

Along the way, they each made a horse out of straw for the both of us, which I've framed up:

The yellow building at the top of the hill is one of their schools

Rice terraces

We went up and down the fields, mountains and valleys. We also managed to see plenty of streams, rice terraces, animals and people during the trek. It was actually rather cold when we started in the morning and we were blowing mist out of our mouths each time we talked, but once the trek started, it became really hot and we were soaked in our own sweat.

A typical hut - this one is well looked after. The other huts we saw were rather old and dilapidated

Rice mill

View from the top - the higher we climbed, the more we could see

Bridge - our destination at Lao Chai. Lunch was just across the bridge. We were feeling ecstatic upon seeing this bridge because it meant that we could finally sit down to rest and eat. Phew!

Once we reached our lunch destination, we saw big groups of Black H'mong women and children crowding around the entrance areas of the huts where we were having lunch, waiting to sell stuff to tourists. We bought some items from the two ladies who had followed us all the way from Sapa and it was customary to do so since they had offered us help. The lady who followed me, called Su, gave me two embroidered bracelets after I bought a cushion cover from her. She said that one of the bracelets was for my mother. How sweet!

Black H'mong women

Thank goodness we didn't have to trek all the way back to Sapa again! The tour guide had arranged a jeep for us and we arrived back at Sapa within 20 minutes, as compared to the 3 hour trek we did before!

We decided to chill for a bit, so we sat somewhere sipping Vietnamese coffee and soaking in the peace and serenity of Sapa. There were another group of villagers, the Red Zao, who frequent Sapa and the Love Market that is held there.

Red Zao women

After a nap, we went out for dinner and had a wonderful meal of beef hotpot, Vietnamese style. It was pretty cold at night, so we wandered around for awhile before heading back to get some rest before next day's tour.

Oh, and did I mention that the Black H'mong people speak better English than the locals in Hanoi? It's so much easier communicating with them here than in Hanoi.

Day 3: Bac Ha market, Chinese border and back to Hanoi

We went for another tour with the hotel, this time to the weekend market - Bac Ha market, where people from the Flower H'mong village would gather weekly to buy their daily items and socialise with other people.

It was a 3 hour drive up to the Bac Ha market, with magnificent scenery accompanying us along the way.

Bac Ha market


Packed with Flower H'mong people


Lunchtime


Buying livestock such as water buffaloes, pigs and puppies (as food, not pets)

After our excursion to Bac Ha market, we then took a 3 hour drive to Lao Cai (where the railway station is). The guide brought us to the China-Vietnam border, which was close to Kunming:


The van dropped us at Lao Cai, where we showered at a guesthouse for 1 USD/pax and waited for around 3 hours before we boarded the train back to Hanoi.

Lao Cai railway station

Day 4: Hanoi

This was the day we came back from such an amazing tour to Sapa and it was also the morning where we had our cameras stolen and our pictures of Sapa gone along with them.

I will not repeat the story again, because it's such a long one. But after that incident, we made our way to the hotel and it was CLOSED! We weren't able to check-in and we insisted on going to the police station. The staff called a cab for us, but the driver brought us to the district station where we were turned away and told to go to the station just around the corner from the hotel. The police in Hanoi do not speak a single word of English. Not one. So they just handed me a statement and I had to fill it in myself. They then stamped it and that was that. Case closed.

We returned to the hotel around 7am and it was STILL closed! By this time, we were really tired, stressed, upset, hungry and extremely pissed. We even had an argument with the receptionist because we found out that the hotel DID offer transfer from Hanoi railway station back to the hotel! She insisted she didn't know that we went to Sapa but that was bullshit because a few days ago, we were there talking to her and we even left some of our luggage with her! Argh.

Anyway, we decided not to stay there anymore and let them earn our money, so we went to a Hanoi Elegance 1, where the service was impeccable.

Hanoi Elegance 1 at Hang Bac St.

The staff were friendly and always willing to help. They were genuinely concerned and offered assistance whenever they could. Although the room we managed to get at the very last minute didn't have a view and only had a small window, we enjoyed our stay there.

Streets of Old Quarters, Hanoi

We only stayed for one night instead of two because we wanted to get out of the chaotic city, so we changed our itinerary a bit.


Day 5: Halong Bay and Cat Ba Island

Everything we saw at Hanoi reminded us of the thief so we extended our Halong Bay tour and stayed on an island there instead. We boarded the junk at Haiphong, which was a 3 hour drive from Hanoi:

Haiphong pier (spot any lovey dovey couple in this picture?)

Our junk - the Santa Maria Cruiser


Waiting for lunch to be served on board


Having fun on deck


Chillin'


Cruisin'

Our first stop of the Halong Bay tour was at Sung Sot Cave (Surprise Cave). This cave was massive! I think it could be as big as a football field.

No, that's not the cave. We're IN the cave.





Viewpoint from the cave

After visiting the cave, we separated from the rest of the group travelling on the Santa Maria and made our way to Cat Ba Island on a smaller boat, that went soooo slowly, we thought we were never going to make it to Cat Ba.

By the time we reached Cat Ba, it was dinner time so we ate at the hotel's restaurant (meals included in the tour) and wandered around the streets for a bit. It is such a quiet town, mainly because it was winter and non-peak season. The streets were pretty much empty, except for a few tourists and a handful of locals.

View from the hotel room


Holiday View Hotel

There was nothing to do that night, so we turned in early.


Day 6: Cat Ba island, trekking at Viet Hai and one night on the junk

As we arrived after dark the previous night, we woke up at 5.30 in the morning to catch how Cat Ba island looks like in the day before we packed our bags to leave at 7am.

Cat Ba at dawn



One of the beaches at Cat Ba

Leaving Cat Ba

We left Cat Ba in the morning and the next activity in our itinerary was to trek at one of the karsts near Cat Ba. But first, we had to pick up to tourists from the junk. While waiting for them to get on board, Bunny bought a seashell from one of the girls from the fishing villages:



Our small boat brought us to Viet Hai for trekking. It was quite a challenging trek through the rainforest, but not quite as difficult as the one we attempted at Sapa. What's more, Bunny trekked in her flip-flops! Mind you, the rocks were slippery, there were thorns from plants and it's not easy balancing yourself on uneven ground with slippers. But she managed to do it and she deserves a medal!



Halfway through the rainforest, we came to a clearing. There was an attap house where an old man and his wife live at. I assume that they're the only ones living in that particular karst:


We continued our trek up the mountain and out onto a man-made road! I was surprised to see this because the area where we entered the karst was not developed and it was only a tiny opening accessible only by sampan boat. Nonetheless, it was a great relief to be walking on flat ground for the rest of the trek towards our boat:

Struggling to complete the last leg of the trek


Looking very "peasant" like

We went back to our boat and it was time for lunch. The idea was to have lunch on a private beach and this was the "beach":


We decided to have lunch on the boat instead.

We headed back to the junk to spend a night there. The rooms on this junk weren't too bad:

Cabin 202

It was pretty small but it was just right for two people. No TV though.

There wasn't much to do on the junk so we just sat around taking pictures and waited for hot water to shower, and for the sun to set before dinner was served:


The tour guides arranged a mini party after the dinner because of two celebrations - it was the birthday of a Canadian lady and the honeymoon of an Australian couple. There were plenty of wine, fruits and cake to go around:


Everyone turned in early that night because the next day we had to wake up at 6am to kayak.


Day 7: Kayaking, return to Hanoi

We had a good night's rest on board the junk because it was pretty quiet. After breakfast, we got ready to get ourselves wet from kayaking:

A lady pulling the kayaks over to our junk


Heading underneath a karst




She loves to kayak

It's getting gloomy

Kayaking was pretty fun, although the kayaks were a bit heavier than the ones we used at Angthong. After the intense shoulder and arm exercise, we returned to the junk to wash up and check-out of our cabin. Lunch was served on board and we made our way back to Haiphong to return to Hanoi.

Another screw up occurred during our journey back. Instead of putting us on the same bus as the rest of the people who had stayed on the junk, Bunny and I were placed on another bus that was heading for lunch somewhere else! Nobody told us anything beforehand and the guide of this new bus refused to answer our questions when we asked him if we're going for lunch.

Bunny got real pissed and started scolding the guide and that was when he started being nice to us and treated us with respect. We called the office of the tour company and the manager insisted that the rest of the tour turn back to fetch us. Urgh. So much hassle and screw ups! We really enjoyed our Halong Bay tour but this just ruined everything.

And it wasn't the end of it.

We returned to Hanoi 3 hours later and went straight to their office to complain and kick up a fuss. After that, we headed to Hanoi Prince Hotel. We had booked a room almost 3 weeks in advance, but upon reaching there, they said that they were full and wanted to place us at another hotel named Sunny Hotel.

It's not the first time this has happened to tourists and we realised that this is how Hanoi operates. Many hotels are in cahoots with one another, so if they can't earn much from you, they'll refuse to take you in and dump you at a hotel that is inferior to the one you booked. And you pay the same price.

So we ended up at Sunny Hotel, which was the most basic hotel we've ever stayed at. Ironically, this hotel had the best shower water pressure, heater and TV channels we've came across in Hanoi!


Day 8: Last day at Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and Museum

There isn't much to see in Hanoi itself. The only places of interests are the common touristy places such as museums and such. So we made our way to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and wanted to see his body. However, it was closed on Fridays so we missed out on that.

Presidential Palace

Outside Ho Chi Minh Museum


"Capitalism and communism stand at different poles."



One Pillar Pagoda

We didn't spend a lot of time at the museum and memorial area, so we went back to the Old Quarters to explore the other side of it:

St. Joseph's Cathedral


Looking bloated and terribly exhausted


Bunny doesn't look half as bad as I did

We did some last minute shopping along the streets before heading back to our hotel. There weren't many things to buy at Hanoi so Bunny got a few t-shirts and we bought a few magnets, postcards and stuff. Hmm, I should have bought their red t-shirt with the Vietnamese star on it but every time we thought of the thief, we just didn't want to parade their flag around.

We finally headed home after our long and tiring trip at Hanoi. Nothing felt better than stepping on familiar soil...and civilisation.

We now wish for a scam-free holiday and one where we could just chill and relax without having to move around everyday. Perhaps our next destination will be to Boracay...sand, sea and sun!