We and I have traveled all over China to the SW part of Yunnan and Guizhou which border on northern Laos and Vietnam. Now we will see the other side of the Mekong River, or Red River as it is in Vietnam. It is the most culturally diverse region of Vietnam and a gorgeous mountainous region of layer upon layer of green rice paddies, trees and flowers. What makes it so, of course, is the huge amount of rainfall and we are about to experience that too!
The weather forecast is grim, heavy ain for Friday, rain for Saturday but maybe sun Sunday for the famous Bac Ha Sunday market, which attracts people from many different ethnic groups in the area.
We get here by overnight train and it's so busy right now that we booked way back in February when we first came to Hanoi. We still had to take one railcar up and a different one back. It's harkens back to Guatemala and Salvador in the late 79's, and the trip to Yunnan in W. China some 15 years ago.
We pack bags to be left at hotel for Apr 13, then two small overnight bags for the Sapa train trip. Ann and Doroty have advised to get a train carriage to ourselves so we buy the 4 tickets for the carriage and it's still not roomy. We bought silk sleeping bags for the rip, and are not sorry we did that, as the basic mattress cover and quilt cover seem clean enough but prefer our own sheets. They will be good for hot eather in the RV later.
We meet Andy & Maureen from Melbourne at our hotel who are going also so we'll go to the train station at 8pm together. Of course, we will have our handler, the hotel has babied us so much an look after every details.
It' cloudy but dry so we take a stroll around old town, find a few more souveniers, a beer and mango smoothie at a bar overlooking the busy thoroughfare, and back to while away the time til we leave at 8pm. The manager takes pity on us and lets us have a spare room for the few hours left. I enjoy a rest an Ted walks some more before a light dinner in their nice restaurant on the 12th floor overlooking the river, with Andy & Maureen then off on the train.
Our handler Anthony escorts us to the station, exchanges our voucher for tickets, puts our luggage in our car and goes off with a smile and promise to meet us again there Monday morning.
It's the VIP train but not by any Western standards. There's a western toilet at each end of the car but you don't want to go there much. The beds are hard, the room is spartan, but we have some nibbles and bananas, and a bag with a wet wipe, bottle of water an toothbrush/paste for the journey, most of which we don't need.
It leaves at 9:10pm prompt amid much shouting from the guards and officials. They do this in the middle of the night too, at various stops along the way. Asiana provded us with nice overnight kits for our San Francisco/Seoul flight so they come in handy for this journey, especially the socks. We settle in for sleep early, I listen to my Tom Clancy talking book (only half way through this whole trip...) then put out the light at 10:30 using my earplugs and eye shades to get off to sleep. It's a noisy clanky train but the hum and movement lull us off and fortunately I only have to make one foray down the hall about 2:15am. It's mostly tourists like ourselves so no noisy beer parties in our car.
The weather forecast is grim, heavy ain for Friday, rain for Saturday but maybe sun Sunday for the famous Bac Ha Sunday market, which attracts people from many different ethnic groups in the area.
We get here by overnight train and it's so busy right now that we booked way back in February when we first came to Hanoi. We still had to take one railcar up and a different one back. It's harkens back to Guatemala and Salvador in the late 79's, and the trip to Yunnan in W. China some 15 years ago.
We pack bags to be left at hotel for Apr 13, then two small overnight bags for the Sapa train trip. Ann and Doroty have advised to get a train carriage to ourselves so we buy the 4 tickets for the carriage and it's still not roomy. We bought silk sleeping bags for the rip, and are not sorry we did that, as the basic mattress cover and quilt cover seem clean enough but prefer our own sheets. They will be good for hot eather in the RV later.
We meet Andy & Maureen from Melbourne at our hotel who are going also so we'll go to the train station at 8pm together. Of course, we will have our handler, the hotel has babied us so much an look after every details.
It' cloudy but dry so we take a stroll around old town, find a few more souveniers, a beer and mango smoothie at a bar overlooking the busy thoroughfare, and back to while away the time til we leave at 8pm. The manager takes pity on us and lets us have a spare room for the few hours left. I enjoy a rest an Ted walks some more before a light dinner in their nice restaurant on the 12th floor overlooking the river, with Andy & Maureen then off on the train.
Our handler Anthony escorts us to the station, exchanges our voucher for tickets, puts our luggage in our car and goes off with a smile and promise to meet us again there Monday morning.
It's the VIP train but not by any Western standards. There's a western toilet at each end of the car but you don't want to go there much. The beds are hard, the room is spartan, but we have some nibbles and bananas, and a bag with a wet wipe, bottle of water an toothbrush/paste for the journey, most of which we don't need.
It leaves at 9:10pm prompt amid much shouting from the guards and officials. They do this in the middle of the night too, at various stops along the way. Asiana provded us with nice overnight kits for our San Francisco/Seoul flight so they come in handy for this journey, especially the socks. We settle in for sleep early, I listen to my Tom Clancy talking book (only half way through this whole trip...) then put out the light at 10:30 using my earplugs and eye shades to get off to sleep. It's a noisy clanky train but the hum and movement lull us off and fortunately I only have to make one foray down the hall about 2:15am. It's mostly tourists like ourselves so no noisy beer parties in our car.
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