23rd April 2010

It turned out to be a good job that we had bought our North Face coats yesterday, this morning we awoke to torrential rain and a thunderstorm. We were lucky to have done our trek yesterday and that we were going back to Ha Noi later this evening.

With such dreadful weather, there was no rush to go out, so we spent a good part of the morning chatting with our Israeli friends Batya and Nir in reception. They have given us some great information and recommendations for Cambodia, Laos and Japan all of which they have visited recently.

We ventured out briefly for some more shopping at the market late morning and got absolutely drenched. Ed invested in a pair of waterproof trousers - again good for home, but also good for here right now.

After a spot of lunch we spent some time spent hanging around various coffee shops trying to get a decent coffee (I really don’t know what they do to it here, but it always has a sweetness to it) and a decent internet connection (difficult with so many power cuts).

We made our way back to our hotel to wait for the bus to take us to Lao Cai. Back at the hotel we chatted with Nam Hong, the hotel owner. He’s a really nice guy who spent 2 years studying in New Zealand so his English is really good. He suggested going to his house for a cup of tea while we were waiting for the bus, so we got in his car, which is a real status symbol here in Vietnam because they are very expensive to buy and attract 150% tax, and headed off to his place. He had a lovely big house which he had built for him, his parents and his little girl when he came back from New Zealand. While we were over there, Ed did some IT support to help him get his wifi connection working and I typed an email in French, so we both worked for our cup of tea.

Soon enough, the bus arrived outside Nam Hong’s house. The people already on the bus must have been quite confused as to why we were getting on there, but we were soon winding down the mountain roads back to Lao Cai for the overnight train to Hanoi. This was just the beginning of a 21 hour journey for us, after Hanoi, we would be flying down to Da Nang and finally finishing in Hoi An. We weren’t particularly looking forward to it.