Vietnam and a sub standard alarm clock

I am currently sitting in a travel agent at about 1500m altitude in Vietnam near to the china border in a place called Sapa.  The night after my last post i had a flight booked from Bangkok to Hanoi in Vietnam as it was a 7am flight necessitating a 5am start i had brought an alarm clock to ensure i woke up.  But i made the fatal mistake of not testing it before going to bed. Result was that the alarm clock stopped at about 3am and i woke up at 6:30am.  There was nothing for it but to go to the airport to catch the next one.  Of course being a budget airline (airasia) i had to pay for another flight.  And just to make my day even better when i got to the airport at 10am i found that the next flight at mid day was full so had to sit around in Bangkok airport from 10am till my flight at 6:30pm that night meaning arrival at the guest house i was staying in around 11pm (a very long day).

Arriving in Hanoi i got into a minivan into town with the usual inflated prices that one expects traveling from an international airport to the city.  We were asked which hotel we were going to so they could drop us off (standard practice so that any hint of someone who doesn't know where they are going will be dropped off at an expensive hotel that pays commission to the van driver).  The guide books were full of warnings about hanoi transfers from the airport so luckily i was looking out for some sort of subtle scam as it turned out their attempt was a fairly pathetic one they drove to a street about 1km away from the place i had asked to go to then pulled up outside a place with a big neon sign saying "happy hotel" and proceeded to tell us we were here "it is hanoi backpackers" also i had been following the trip on the map in my guidebook so i new we weren't even in the right street.  When i pointed this out to them they said "ok" then turned to the guys in the seat behind me and tried to convince them this was the Hanoi backpackers it wasn't overly surprising when these guys who had heard the whole exchange with me also declined to get out of the minivan.  Then the driver got back in the van and drove us to the correct hotel we had originally asked for and shook our hands farewell with a big smile (i guess god loves a trier).    

So happily settled in my accommodation the next day was spent wandering around Hanoi which is an absolute mad house with motorbikes everywhere.  The horn that the local laws of physics seem to dictate is pushed at least ten times per minute and an on going competition to see who can get the most and weirdest things onto a scooter (moped).  Standard fare is mum dad and the toddler standing up on the seat between them but i have also seen large panes of glass, a shop lot of blankets, 3 meters lengths of reinforcing steel bar, and last night i was talking to a guy who saw a live donkey strapped on the back of one.

At the temple of Literature this was a place where you got your PhD and every graduate has thier names engraved on these plaques

Vietnam is much more Chinese influenced with square pagoda's and a lot more christian elements (8% of Vietnamese are christian) also there are strong elements of Confucianism so a few different things to look at including a very cool temple to Confucius.  The next day i took off on a three day tour of a place called halong bay

Halong Bay (file footage once again due to difficulties uploading photos)

Me and a couple of girls jumping off the third story of the boat in to the sea

Looking out across Haulong Bay near sunset

Very beautiful area with steep cliffs diving into deep clear water and a boat to sleep on that was quickly turned into party central and a few drinking games later the 16 of us on the boat were best of mates.  A great  couple days at the end of which the partying had definitely got the better of me so when we got back in the afternoon i decided to head straight off up to do some trekking (to work off a few of beers i had drunk in the previous couple of days)

The town we were headed for was a place called Sapa which is a center for a number of the hill tribes that live across the borders of China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Burma.  This is small town in the mountains up by the China Vietnam border an over night train trip from Hanoi. We arrived in the morning and after breakfast and a shower in a local hotel were given a few hours to wander around the markets and see the local people in traditional costume all of whom can speak almost perfect English that they have learned from tourists.

Sapa Town

The local ladies hasseling a firend of mine to buy some stuff

 Local lady in traditional dress

We spent the day walking around rice paddies, visiting local shops seeing how locals de-husk rice.

Me on the trail

That post had to end there unfortunatly as the keyboard suddenly decided to go into vietnamese mode.  A little hard to type when W doesn't work and any word with a repeated letter in it turned into an accent will continue the story on the next post