Flying Through

Trip Start Jan 22, 2007
1
53
75
Trip End Ongoing


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Flag of Vietnam  ,
Friday, December 7, 2007

A bus journey worse than our previous overnight trip was difficult to imagine but quite possible, it seemed that the driver was deliberately looking for pot-holes to bounce us around. Just getting on the bus was a bit of hassle since a guy outside tried to tell us that we must pay more since petrol had increased in price, he then asked people for an arbitrary sum of money some of whom paid (as soon as we walked towards the ticket office he said we could go for free). The border crossing next morning was simple even if they did check Dom's passport for a long time and "stole" our lonely planet (it's considered contraband in China since Taiwan is shown as a separate country).

Our first impression is of colourful buildings, strong coffee (just what we need) and lots of English spoken compared with China. Still we don't recommend staying a day in the border town of Lao Cai, nothing to do other than practice Vietnamese from a book and one guy who came up to see what we were doing sitting by the monument to communism. On our rapid trip through to Ho Chi Minh via Hanoi we took the night train and flew in for the last 1000 odd kilometres. The trains have perhaps harder beds than in China but they are in compartments so you suffer less from the noise of your fellow passengers. A 5am arrival in Hanoi let us out of the station with the market just setting up in the dark and once light broke through we set off for some street food. On the street people just set up their cooking stuff, be that from a trolley or just a small stove and some odd stools, we had some pork and rice - tasted great no idea what it's called.
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Comments

baroudeuse
baroudeuse on Dec 17, 2007 at 05:12PM

Good morning Vietnam !
Le train de nuit de Lao Cai à Hanoi un souvenir mémorable !! Quel dommage que vous ne faites pas la région Nord Sapa et ses somptueuses rizieres en terrasse et Bac Ha son marché pittoresque !

Je vous conseille de tester l'alcool local, le café vietnamien, et de fumer la pipe à eau terrible !!

Que de bons souvenirs le Vietnam ! Bon voyage à vous deux !

sidom
sidom on Dec 19, 2007 at 10:14AM

Re: Good morning Vietnam !
Qu'est ce que tu as fait dans le train ? Nous ne l'avons pas trouve aussi memorable :) A vrai dire nous etions claque apres les heures interminables anterieures.

On va vers le nord actuellement nous avons deja goute le vin de banane et allons boire le vin de Dalat.

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