Day 92 All’s Fair in Love and War and Traveling Too 7 May 2012

After a wonderful breakfast at our hotel (French baguette with eggs, fresh fruit, and fresh squeezed pineapple/watermelon juice, coffee and tea) we strapped on our bags and walked to the Sapa bus station. We were 30 min early and when the minibus arrived we were quickly on the move! We loaded our bags and secured the best seats for the 10 hour journey. There was a German couple that got the full force of our Operation Comfort as Ana yelled to Martijn in Dutch “not the last row!” Unfortunately for them- they got the last row! And that was too bad because the luggage came out from underneath and stole the leg room making them sit with their legs folded into their chest . Also while we had a bench made for two for just the two of us they had to share their three seat bench with four people.  Bah ha ha ha! Did we feel bad? Maybe for a split second. But travel karma exists and Martijn paid dearly. Mr. Sleep Anywhere was smacked awake several times by the bumps in the road making him hit his head on the window and the little handle on the seat in front. The last one was a technical Knock Out, making even Martijn think twice before dozing off.

When the mini- bus arrived in Dien Bien Phu we continued to use our winning strategy to secure a room for the night. Ana stayed at the bus station guarding the luggage while Martijn ran to find a room for the night. His first stop was at a guesthouse across the bus station where he nailed a second story room with hot shower and tv. Again the poor German couple lost out- they stayed in the same guesthouse but had to walk five flights of stairs to their room.

Day 91 Trekking in Sapa 6 May 2012

We joined a very international group (a French couple that lives in Canada, a Dutch couple, an American wife and Chilean husband pair, and an Italian guy) for a 8mi/12km trek through the minority villages surrounding Sapa. We walked through the villages of Ta Van and Sin Chai.

Today we have been traveling for 3 months- that means we have been together for 2184hours straight, give or take a couple hours for errands like buying water and dropping off laundry – good thing we like each other!

Day 90 Lazy day with errands 5 May 2012

Today turned into a relaxed day. We had planned to do a trek into the other surrounding minority villages but after breakfast we decided that we would stay a day longer and to the trekking tomorrow. Instead we watched some movies Bean, Ace Ventura (and at night Dawn of the Dead), had lunch and walked around the town of Sapa.

We also ran a bunch of errands – we bought our bus tickets to the border, changed our money and bought a guidebook for Laos.

Day 89 Sapa and Cat Cat Village 4 May 2012

After taking the shuttle from Lao Cai (the train tracks end there) to Sapa we arrived at our hotel in Sapa around 7am . Unfortunately check-in was not until 11:30am so we left our bags and headed out for a nice French style breakfast. Upon returning we were lucky enough to be able to enter our room. The long day and night of travelling (19 hours door to door) required sleep, so we ended up taking nice 4 hour nap. When we woke up we were just in time to do a hike to Cat Cat minority village before sunset.

The village with its surrounding rice fields and beautiful waterfall was breathtaking.

Day 88 Bus Boat Bus Taxi Feet Train 3 May 2012

Today we started our travels from Ha Long Bay to Sapa and it was a typical day in Vietnam in terms of the people we have encountered along the way. The receptionist at the hotel when we were checking out – rude. The receptionist at the bus ticket office – very nice and helpful. The bus drivers – very excited about Dutch soccer and very helpful with crossing the busy street to get to the second bus. The taxi driver en route to the train station – rude and tried to rip us off with a false meter that would increase the fare with every pothole we encountered. The three subsequent taxi drivers we flagged down to take us to the train station – denied us the ride because it was too close -ugh. So we walked with our heavy backpacks to the train station ticket office for 20min in the heat. We picked up our tickets and headed out to Highland’s Coffee to wait for the night train. We settled in with all our bags in a big comfy chair to have some comfy food. We boarded the sleeper train for our eight hour ride to Sapa.

Day 87 Ha Long Bay 2 May 2012

After getting ready to an a cappella version of Justin Bieber’s “Baby, Baby, Baby Oh” in Ana’s melodic voice we headed out on an excursion to Ha Long Bay.

We boarded the boat and headed out to visit Dong Me Cung Cave and Danh Sach Cave – a couple of tourist hotspots.

The Bay is amazing with these rock formations jutting out of the water. We thought they looked like knuckles, more so than fingers.

We jumped off the boat- no- we took a ladder off the back side of the boat and went swimming in the bay. Although the bay is a little dirty- we thought when else would we ever have this chance again. So into the water we went and swam to this little beach!

The only slight disappointment of the day was that we saw no more than one Junk Boat with its double sails billowing out, while we were on the Kayak and without a camera- so no pictures of the iconic boat. This is a picture of one in Ha Long Bay with one sail – still very picturesque.

Day 86 To Cat Ba Island 1 May 2012

Today we took a bus-boat-bus combination to Cat Ba Island. Pretty easy and relaxed since we both had a book or audio book to keep us amused. We arrived and enjoyed the view from our room and quickly headed out to find some food because we didn’t have any on the way.

We found some tasty seafood (squid and shrimp) at the lonely planet’s top rated restaurant. We relaxed at night by surfing the three English tv channels available and landed on a Justin Bieber Documentary - literally - Never Say Never.