千里之行 始于足下

For your convenience, please refer to The Journey for the itinerary and the latest updates.

Weather: Fine

Distance covered today: 215km
Distance traveled from Guangzhou: 2,029km
Distance remaining to Singapore: 3,075km

Fact of the day: The Tay Trang/Sop Hun border between Vietnam and Laos (the one I used in this entry) was only opened to foreign travelers since May 2007.

The usual suspects all turned up at the bus station before the scheduled time of 5.30 am. Two more French turned up and brought the total to six. I would later find out that they were university students on exchange in Shanghai.

BP and I were browsing the stalls beside the bus stations before boarding the bus. They were open early for business and I decided to grab some biscuits as I was left with quite a bit of VND. This proved to be one of the best decisions for the trip.

My bus for the trip:

The bus to Laos

Probably first seen on Korean roads two decades ago

According to a friend who could read Korean (no prize guessing who), one of its former incarnation was a bus belonging to Hansei University.

The bus got moving before 6am but stopped off somewhere to pick up more passengers and cargo. Another French backpacker caught the bus which brought the total number of French to seven. Although the border was rumored to be 35km away, the bad conditions of both the roads and the bus made the journey seemed forever. Along the way I was treated to one of the most surreal sights in the world; felt as if we were above the clouds.

The valley engulfed by fog

It was already bright (around 8am) when the bus arrived at the immigration building on the Vietnamese side (KM 1849).

Vietnam's last outpost on this road

Tay Trang International Border Gate

The Vietnamese officials at the border were friendly and I got stamped out in no time. We would wait a while before everyone had their documents checked.

So long Vietnam

The Lao immigration building was several kilometers away. Laos would be the eight Southeast Asian countries that I visited. Only Brunei, Philippines and Timor Leste left!

Lao immigration building

The building was partly financed with Vietnam's donation

The Thai guys and I didn’t need a visa so we handed in our passports after writing the arrival forms. One of the immigration officials asked us whether we had any VND which we wanted to get rid of. I didn’t think that the exchange rate was fantastic but I got rid all my VND for some Lao Kip (LAK).

I was charged 7,000 LAK for the privilege of entering Laos on a Saturday; part of it was “stamping fee” and the other part was “extra time charge”. I forgot the breakdown but there was a proper receipt. It seemed that these fees were ‘official’ so I wasn’t too unhappy. The Europeans had it worse as they had to pay extra time charge for their Lao visa-on-arrival (on top of stamping fee plus late charge).

BP and I chatted a bit more while waiting for the rest of the passengers to be legally checked into Laos. He thought that all the extra fees seemed to be a ripoff; my (weak) explanation was that corruption in other countries (Cambodia for instance) in the region was much worse. BP didn’t like Vietnam so much as well; the Vietnamese are generally less friendlier than Thais and hardly anyone speak any English outside Sapa.

Our bus

The bus had to stop again due to road works after barely leaving the Lao immigration building.

Roadblock

Luckily we only needed to wait about 15 minutes.

The bikes had to wait too

We came across quite a number of bald hills on the windy road. It was kinda worrying as the lack of trees increases the likelihood of landslides.

Bald hill

Roadblock II

I drifted in and out of sleep for the remaining journey to Muang Khua. Although the distance between the Muang Khua and the border was only 75km, the bus’s wretched conditions meant that we rarely went beyond 20 km/h.

Lao's lush forest

The bus finally reached Muang Khua (KM 1924) at almost 2pm. We would need to cross the Nam Ou river for our onward journey.

Nam Ou at Muang Khua

Beautiful river

One had to pay 2,000 LAK to cross the river in the long boat.

Long boat

The French travelers chatting while waiting for the boat

Across the bank, we met another traveler coming from the other direction. He had arrived earlier in the day from Udomxai and pointed us the way to the bus station. BP and some of the travelers needed some local money but the bank in Muang Khua was closed on a Saturday afternoon. Arriving at the station (sawngthaew from ferry crossing point 4,000 LAK per person), I bought myself a ticket to Udomxai. I forgot the time of departure but I was quite certain that it was between 3.30pm and 4.00pm.

It turned out that not all the travelers would get on the same minivan; BP and the Thai guys would have to wait for the next departure. As I was among the last to board the bus, I got a makeshift seat on the aisle along with a few others. The minivan was definitely in a better condition compared to the cross-border bus and so were the roads. We were in Udomxai in less than the three hours expected.

The minivan would pass through Udomxai town before the bus station and I was surprised to see that many of the shops there had Chinese signs. Apparently a large number of the residents there are Chinese. Once at the bus station, I checked out the timings for next day’s buses to Luang Prabang. After noting down the time of the earliest bus, I saw two guesthouses across the street. The guy outside the one without Chinese signboard beckoned me over and asked me whether I was looking for accommodation.

He showed me the better room first (is it an essential sales tactic?) which came with attached bathroom, two beds and satellite TV. As in Cambodia, the satellite TV in Laos came from Thailand’s True Corporation. I asked that if there was anything cheaper and I was shown a room with a large bed, no TV or attached shower. The choice wasn’t too difficult as I didn’t mind watching some movies to while out the night. It turned out that HBO was showing The Dark Knight and I ended up watching quite a bit of it before convincing myself the need to find some dinner.

I went to town and decided to eat some barbecue. The girl at the store couldn’t reply to my English and I tried my luck with Mandarin. She replied in very thickly accented Mandarin (almost incomprehensible to me) about the prices and I asked for rice to go with my food. It was a welcoming meal as my last proper one was the dinner the previous night before at DBP.

Like DBP where evenings are as exciting as watching grass grow, I retreated back to my comfortable room after dinner. HBO was showing Charlie Wilson’s War and No Country for Old Men after the Dark Knight.

I caught the former but was too tired for the latter. I also made a mental note to read up about Charlie Wilson when I got the chance.

For your convenience, please refer to The Journey for the itinerary and the latest updates.

Weather: Fine

Distance covered today: 285km
Distance traveled from Guangzhou: 1,814km
Distance remaining to Singapore: 3,290km

Fact of the day: Dien Bien Phu was the site of the famous battle during the First Indochina War in 1954.

It was New Year’s Day but nothing changed. I still had to wake up early to catch my bus. I was asked to arrive by 7.00am at the travel agency for the scheduled departure of 7.30am. Like everywhere else in this part of the world, the minibus arrived late and I was shoved inside it which was already packed with passengers.

Our route for the day

It turned out that about half of the passengers on board were locals and the rest tourists. French seemed to be the predominant nationality among the tourists and we picked up two Thai guys on the way out of Sapa. It was a tight squeeze; seats meant for three had to accommodate four. Vietnamese safety standards are clearly not quite the same as back home. There was a guy who acted as an assistant to the driver. He would got everyone sorted and seated in the correct position. He wanted me to move behind to squeeze with three other tourists in the last row and I claimed that it was impossible. Luckily he didn’t insist and my row only sat three persons throughout the trip.

The road out of Sapa definitely wasn’t one of the best that I traveled on.

Room for more improvement definitely

Although I can’t deny that the scenery was spectacular.

Fantastic scenery

We stopped at a roadside restaurant about 2.5 hours after Sapa. It was a little too early for lunch but I got some pho in anticipation of the long journey ahead. After lunch, our driver would yet pick up another passenger on the cramped minivan. The assistant kept hitting on the new lady passenger (which irritated the hell out of me) which finally stopped when she got car-sick and didn’t want to talk anymore.

I observed that the locals are more susceptible to car-sickness compared to foreign travelers in mountainous areas. My little hypothesis (perhaps someone can prove it please) is that despite living in regions with curvy roads, the locals didn’t travel on motor vehicles much. Most of their rides are short ones and they only travel out of necessity. Meanwhile the foreigners are often hardened travelers who have more than their fair share of bumpy roads and thus less likely to get car-sick. Makes sense, doesn’t it?

At about 2.30pm, a roadblock (KM unknown) prevented us from continuing our journey. Prior to that the roads weren’t too bad and the vehicle was burning the distances at pretty good speed.

Roadblock

Apparently a rock had fallen from the cliff and killed someone. The police officers closed the road for investigations and only motorcycles could pass through the affected sector.

My ride

Everyone's waiting

Upfront nothing seemed to be happening

During the stop I chatted with some of the other travelers. Like me, they were all going to cross over to Laos the next day. I guess one really had to be patient traveling in this part of the world; nothing really runs on schedule and roadblocks like this happen all the time.

There was a dam construction project right beside where the accident took place.

Dam construction

While a new dam would bring economic benefits, dam construction and tunnel-building were known to cause soil erosion and landslides. Was the dam to be blamed for the unfortunate event? I had heard all about how the dam projects affect the ecosystem in Sikkim. The location might have change but the impacts were eerily similar.

Finally our vehicle got going after almost two hours. I was puzzled why the police officers couldn’t open the road earlier but I shouldn’t criticize things that I didn’t understand.

Something interesting en route:

Banana man

The lost hours would cause us to arrive at Dien Bien Phu (KM 1,814) after sunset.

DBP bus station - boy was i glad to get there

The Thai guys were able to communicate with some of the people at bus station in Thai/Lao and through them we knew about the connecting bus to Laos the next day. After registering and paying for the ticket (88,000 VND), getting accommodation was next on the agenda.

Fortunately I had made use of the unsecured Wifi in Sapa to research on Travelfish. It is a really comprehensive online portal for backpacking visitors to Southeast Asia and it is highly recommended for anyone going to the region.

I ended up with Viet Hoang Guest House, located diagonally across the bus station. I shared the room (Twin, 150,000 VND per room) with a British backpacker from the bus. I’m sorry that I forgot his name and let’s just call him BP.

We had a rather expensive dinner at a eating place two shopfronts away from the guest house and managed to trade some travel stories. He was on a two month trip to Southeast Asia and was going back to Thailand after seeing Laos. There didn’t seem to have much going on at DBP in the evening and both of us turned in early. BP was especially tired since he had a late night on NYE in Sapa while I wasn’t looking forward to yet another early start the following morning.

For your convenience, please refer to The Journey for the itinerary and the latest updates.

Weather: Clear in the morning but misty from afternoon onwards

Distance covered today: 328km
Distance traveled from Guangzhou: 1,529km
Distance remaining to Singapore: 3,575km

I woke up bleary-eyed when my train (SP1, dep Hanoi 21:15) pulled into Lao Cai Station (KM 1495) at 5.30am. Mr Manh asked me whether I wanted to follow them and his offer was eagerly accepted. We were whisked to a minivan for Sapa (30,000 VND) which lies around an hour away.

Reaching Sapa (KM 1529), Mr Manh made me another offer which I couldn’t refuse: I would share a room with him and his wife for the night. The room had two beds and I got my own. Mr Manh also asked me whether I wanted to follow them on a tour to the surrounding villages. I had to decline their kind offer as I wanted to catch some more shut-eye and most probably I would not understand the Vietnamese-speaking guide.

Sleeping in the cold weather was nice but my hunger woke me up. I was out into the town on mid-morning in search for some food and a little sightseeing.

The street to where I stayed

The trees gave the place an European feel

School

School's out

Some sculpture

I was pretty lucky to enjoy good weather in my only day in Sapa.

Town square (with mountains in the background)

Stalls catered to the tourists at the town square

Sapa is touristy. I think that the town exists almost solely for the purpose of tourism. Most of the shops there are one way or another related to the industry. Tourists most probably outnumbered the locals when I was there. As described in guidebooks, there were many ethnic minority women (I think most are Hmongs) dressing in their traditional costumes and went around the town selling trinkets to tourists. I was accosted as well and I somehow managed to reject their offers politely.

The famous Sapa Market

After lunch, I consulted the guide uploaded to my iPod. Obviously most visitors to Sapa would at least do some trekking and the easiest one was to Cat Cat village, 3km downhill from Sapa town square.

Seen along the way to Cat Cat Village

Terraces

Doesn't feel like Vietnam at all

Cat Cat Village

Pregnant sow

It cost 20,000 VND to enter Cat Cat Village. Judging from the footpaths laid for the tourists, the money were being spent in the right area.

Footpath will lead down to a waterfall

Cat Cat Village close-up

Water buffalo

Clearly it wasn't the planting season

Some of the my co-users on the footpath:

Puppy

Rooster

Puppy

One would need to cross this bridge to reach the waterfall

Waterfall finally

The waterfall was kinda underwhelming but I didn’t expect much in the first place. Instead of taking the route which I came from, I followed the trail which led me to the other exit of the village.

Harsh light for photography

It was a uphill walk back to Sapa town and I decided to reward myself with some desserts.

Instant gratification

What do I like about touristy places? It has to be the presence of WiFi. There were many unsecured connections around the town which I could tap on for free.

Fog desceded onto Sapa by mid-afternoon

I sorted out my transportation to Dien Bien Phu (US$12 or 216,000 VND) at one of the numerous travel agencies before taking a rest back at the guesthouse.

I ventured out in the evening again for dinner.

Full moon

Yet another humble dinner

Neon-lit church

After dinner I went to a cafe to take advantage of the WiFi. I would go back early (around 9 pm) because I had quite a long day and there would be another one coming up the following day. How exciting for NYE.

Fog was really bad by then.

Could hardly see beyond 5m

I chatted with Mr Manh when I got back to the guesthouse. It was really interesting hearing about his story. He is 72 years old and used to study in San Antonio, Texas. Prior to the fall of the South Vietnamese government, he worked in the navy and had to became a driver after liberation of Saigon. He has a son who left Vietnam on a boat in 1980 and lives in United States now.

Reading or watching movies on history was one thing but talking to real people who been through those times was another experience. Meeting interesting people is what makes traveling amazing, isn’t it?

Mr & Mrs Manh with me

For your convenience, please refer to The Journey for the itinerary and the latest updates.

Weather: Rainy

Distance covered today: 0km
Distance traveled from Guangzhou: 1,201km
Distance remaining to Singapore: 3,903km

It wasn’t my first time visiting Hanoi (KM 1201); the first time was back in 2006 with my mother. Since I had seen much of the sites, I would spend most of my time walking around and retracing some of my steps.

Hanoi’s busy traffic

Now you see him....

... but now you don't!

Hoan Kiem Lake

At the Hoan Kiem Lake, I was approached by one of the peddlers. He could speak pretty good English and started to talk to me about SEA Games football once he knew I was Singaporean. At the end, he made a sales pitch to me and I was willing to buy a postcard from him since he was quite entertaining. It was only then I realized that I dropped my money! Although the amount that I lost (48,000 VND) wasn’t significant, my expression must have made the guy believe that I had lost a couple of millions. I excused myself and escaped him.

There was an area around the lake guarded by police who restricted public access into the place. I didn’t know what was going on but the police did let me go in. I think that the restricted area was the celebration venue for the 1000th anniversary of the founding of the city.

Hanoi Emblem

Part of the decoration

Historic Arch near the lake

Banner

Hà Nội

Man in traditional Vietnamese costume

Temple

Vietnam is still a socialist country

Away from the lake I walked towards the Old Quarter.

Old Quarter

Many tourists in OQ

After exploring the Old Quarter i walked towards the French-styled buildings in the peripheral area.

French-styled Building - marriages are taking place there

Marriage notices

Hotel Metropole Hanoi - Swanky Place

Classic Cars parked outside

Socialist slogan

Keppel in Vietnam

I also went to eat ice-cream in a famous ice-cream place. Many locals were eating there too.

Famous ice-cream

Hope it won't become somebody's meal

Count down to New Year

I whiled some time away at a shopping mall before stopping by at a roadside stall for dinner. Most of my meals during the trip would be settled at roadside stalls like this. While the hygiene conditions weren’t what we were used to, the locals were all fine eating them. I would be fine too.

Where I had my dinner

Condiments

My humble dinner

I headed back to the hostel to collect my bag before setting off for the train station.

Ga Ha Noi

Unlike Chinese hard sleepers, the Vietnamese ones have compartments. When I located my apartment, an elderly man was already inside with his wife. He talked to me in Vietnamese and of course I couldn’t respond. He then asked me whether I knew English. I replied yes and we began to talk. So Mr Manh and his wife were from Ho Chi Minh City and were going to Sapa for holidays as well. He used to study in the United States and that was why he could speak English. He sorta took a liking of me and asked me some questions about my trip.

The other passengers soon filled our compartment and I went to sleep soon. However, my sleep was interrupted by the loud snoring of the man on the uppermost deck. I would be in for a long night…..

For your convenience, please refer to The Journey for the itinerary and the latest updates.

Weather: Cold and then rain in the morning; pleasant after

Distance covered today: 1,201km
Distance traveled from Guangzhou: 1,201km
Distance remaining to Singapore: 3,903km

From this post onwards, I would state the kilometers covered for the day as well as the remaining distance to Singapore. For overnight journeys, I would attribute the distance traveled to the day of arrival. Local travel would not be included in the distance traveled. I would also mark the important places with distances traveled from Guangzhou (KM 0). I would try to be as accurate as possible but some would be guesstimated due to the lack of information.

Back to the post itself.

The train attendant woke up the entire carriage about 15 minutes before the arrival into Nanning Station (KM 809). The train wasn’t late at all; in fact it arrived almost an hour ahead of schedule. It appeared that not only airlines pad their schedules; the trains do it too.

The train attendant had exchanged my ticket for my berth card when I boarded the train and she did the reverse when we reached the station. It was a good system in my opinion; the passengers would not miss their station as the attendant would need the berth card back. As at most train stations (some didn’t care), we were expected to surrender our train tickets on our way out of station.

Nanning Station

The temperature in Nanning was similar to Guangzhou’s considering they are almost located at the same latitude. Nanning is the capital of Guangxi Autonomous region and was an important transportation hub to Vietnam and other parts of Southwest China.

As the train had arrived early, I had to wait 45 minutes in the cold for the first bus to Langdong bus station (No. 52, 1RMB). From there there would be through service to Hanoi.

Caught probably 20 winks on the bus before reaching Langdong bus staion. Apparently only one company, Yunde, operated there. It was easy to get a ticket (150RMB)from the counter since I could speak Mandarin and I was asked whether I had a Vietnamese visa in my passport. It wasn’t a problem for me as my Singaporean passport doesn’t require one to enter Vietnam.

Langdong Bus Station - I would board my bus from Gate 17

I couldn’t recall the exact timing of the bus; it was somewhere between 8.30 am and 9.00 am. The bus was quite new and there was a bus attendant (like all other buses in China). Most of the passengers were either Chinese or Vietnamese. The guy who sat next to me was a Vietnamese student in China returning home but he wasn’t in a chatty mode. Across the aisle was a Caucasian with his Chinese (girl)friend. He was the only visible foreigner around.

The bus went on the expressway once outside the bus station and remained on it throughout. The expressway looked new and was of Malaysia’s NS Highway standard. I believed that the expressway was built in anticipation for the increase in trade between China and Asean once the FTA kicks in 2010.

We would make two stops on the Chinese side; one would be a restroom stop (no idea where was it) and the other was a lunch stop near Pingxiang (KM 1024).

Misty mountains - the terrain from Nanning to the border was fairly mountainous

My ride

Lunch place - lunch included in the ticket

I also exchanged my remaining RMB with the multi-lingual money-changer (Vietnamese, Mandarin & Cantonese) at a slightly poorer exchange rate. The money-changers at the border would offer 2700 Vietnamese Dong (VND) per RMB compared to the 2600 VND that I got.

Remember the Caucasian man on the bus? Turned out that he’s Russian. His Chinese girlfriend (she spoke fluent Russian) thought that I was a Vietnamese and asked me about the exchange rate. We started to talk a little bit and they were heading to Vietnam for holidays. She was surprised to find out that I am Singaporean and was heading to Vietnam alone. I didn’t tell them about my entire plan (as not to scare them); I just said that I would be going to Laos after Vietnam.

A few kilometers before the actual border, some soldiers boarded bus to make sure everyone has a valid visa for Vietnam. Red Singaporean passport wasn’t common there but it wasn’t hard for me to convince them that I didn’t need a visa.

Reaching the border at Youyiguan (Hữu Nghị Quan in Vietnamese, KM 1036), the passengers were asked to disembark and those with tickets to Vietnamese destinations were ushered to a golf buggy which took us a short distance to the immigration building on the Chinese side. As it all happened so fast, I didn’t have time to take any photos at the border. I wouldn’t dare anyway considering the military presence around.

I realized that there was a HK girl on my bus as well; the border security wanted to see her Home Return Permit instead of her passport. It turned out that she was venturing into Vietnam alone on her backpacking trip. Very adventurous indeed.

Immigration on the Vietnamese side was a little chaotic. Nobody told us where to get arrival cards (to be filled in) and we had to ask for them. Then nobody told us to place our passports at the counter and wait for our names to be called. Somehow HK girl figured it out and I just followed her. We were among the first ones from our bus to be processed because we knew enough English to fill the immigration cards. The other Chinese passengers seemed to be struggling. We also had to pay 2 RMB for a piece of “medical paper” for reasons unknown.

There were also some other foreigners who were crossing the border. I didn’t think that they knew about the direct bus which I took from Nanning. Most probably they had followed the guidebooks and took a series of local transport to reach the border. I felt quite lucky to be on the bus as I didn’t have to go through the process of finding correct onward transportation and getting the fair price. It would be too much hassle in my opinion.

Vietnamese side - Roads were noticeably worse off

On the Vietnamese side, we boarded the buses from Yunde’s Vietnamese partner. They were two buses; mine was heading towards Hanoi while the other one was to somewhere else, possibly Haiphong. After all the passengers had been accounted for, we set off from the border town of Dong Dang for Hanoi. I adjusted the time on my iPod to the Vietnam time which was an hour behind China. I would stay in this timezone until Malaysia.

The equally hilly northern Vietnam

The bus stopped only once for about half an hour for a break. There were local produce on sale and the salesperson could speak Mandarin. I chatted a little more with the Chinese-Russian couple and they were once again surprised that I had been to India as well (considering how kiddie I looked). Since the girl said that she had been to Singapore twice, I asked her whether she viewed Singaporeans in China as foreigners.

She said that she doesn’t see Singaporeans as foreigners because we (most Singaporeans) are ethnic Chinese. She also said that going to Singapore didn’t feel exactly like traveling overseas because of the large ethnic Chinese population here. I just nodded and smiled but plenty of thoughts were going through my head.

Unlike her, I don’t think that I will ever see Chinese nationals as one of ‘us’. Although we might share the same roots, I share more common values with non-Chinese Singaporeans than with other Chinese nationals. I remembered being asked by a Taiwanese what my primary identity was. Apparently she had identity issues regarding being ‘Chinese’ or “Taiwanese’. Singapore’s nation-building efforts are successful in the sense that I don’t have a problem with my primary identity. I am a Singaporean first and foremost who happens to be an ethnic Chinese. I’m also a believer in S. Rajaratnam’s vision of fostering a common Singaporean identity where “race, religion and language do not matter”.

Most Chinese from China were somewhat myopic and naive in their view of Overseas Chinese. As they live in a huge country, many have little knowledge of the world outside their own country (many Americans are guilty of it too) and simply assume that ethnic Chinese people are the same around the world. Socio-political factors have conditioned the Singaporean Chinese differently from the Mainland Chinese (other overseas Chinese communities shared similar experience). Ethnic Chinese Singaporeans no longer carry the same level of sentiment or any form of loyalty to China which our ancestors had decades or centuries ago. Being ethnic Chinese also doesn’t mean that I should tolerate PRC service staff who speak only thickly-accented Mandarin and expect the customers to suit their language ability. Singapore is not China and Chinese nationals in Singapore should learn to appreciate that.

Don’t misunderstand me; I’m no anti-immigrants bigot. In fact, I believe that Singaporeans should welcome immigrants as the most vibrant cities (i.e. London, New York, etc) are often the most cosmopolitan as well. However, Singapore should not indiscriminately allow new migrants into the country without concern for the impact on the state’s social fabric. Besides their contribution economically, would-be migrants should also be assessed by their willingness to adapt to the local way of life.

I’ve digressed enough. My bus rolled into Hanoi (KM 1201) at around 4.30pm local time, nine hours after departing from Nanning. The passengers were dropped off outside a travel company office (I had no idea exactly where) and a motorcycle taxi guy approached me. It seemed that I was becoming deaf-mute; I couldn’t understand a single word and nothing from my tongue would make sense to him. I showed him the address and haggled with him for a while; he wanted to be a sucker out of me and was unwilling to decrease from his 50,000 VND asking price.

After I started to talk away, he agreed to my 20,000 VND fare. I didn’t want him to have my business by then and started to walk towards a taxi parked slightly in front. It was a big vehicle (something like SUV) and the driver ran the meter. In the end the fare to the hostel was 22,000 VND; the driver even gave me a 2,000 VND discount because I only had two 10,000 notes and the rest 50,000 ones.

Boy was I glad to reach the hostel. The check-in place at Drift Backpackers was kinda crowded as travelers arriving from China were coming in but the staff remained friendly. I got to my room quickly after checking in and took my first shower in more than 24 hours. The price was reasonable at 100,000 VND for a dorm bed and breakfast. The place was nicely equipped with WiFi and numerous computer terminals and the TV room had dozens of DVD titles to choose from. I would recommend it to anyone who is going to Hanoi.

After shower, I headed out for ATM since I needed some cash.

Evening's Hanoi

Passed by this lake on my way to ATM

After getting some cash, I walked to the train station to sort out my train ticket to Lao Cai the following day. The language barrier proved surmountable and I managed to score hard sleeper for 250,000 VND from the ticket counters at the train station. I had expected to pay more from the information found online so I was glad with my purchase. After dinner, I went back to the hostel where I met Peter, my friend for the night.

Peter also just arrived from China, albeit from Yunnan, and was staying at the place for only one night as well. He’s an American doing his masters in Politics at Harvard and his fellowship gives him the chance to spend one year studying in Beijing. It’s kinda nice talking to someone from the States who actually know something about Singapore (Peter has several course-mates who are PSC scholars). He would be meeting his friend who was arriving the next day from Abidjan before starting their tour around Vietnam.

After having a second dinner and a nice chat with Peter, I made use of the WiFi at the hostel to research about the subsequent legs of the trip. The first leg was pretty straight-forward; being in China there wasn’t much of a language problem and it was quite easy to organize transportation. The real challenge would begin from here onwards.