Not a good start! On checking out of our hotel in Sapa, Hotel Pinocchio, we were informed, more matter-of-factly than apologetically, that they couldn't return Paula's passport to her because they no longer had it. Someone else had mistakenly taken it (Facebook profile: "DaveandMarit Go Travelling" (they half-heartedly contacted Paula a few days later) - check out their profile pic - clearly t***ers!), and it was now at Bamboo Hotel in Hanoi! I think one generally retains a degree of comfort from having one's passport close to hand whilst far from home, so naturally we were far from pleased, however we'd already booked our train back to Hanoi from the North-West region for three days later, so there wasn't a great deal we could do about it but double-check they definitely had it at Bamboo and wait.

Anyway, fast-forward to the present, we're thankfully now in Ninh Binh, a couple of hours South of Hanoi, as planned, and have retrieved Paula's passport after an exceedingly frustrating morning. Paula will testify that I actually displayed anger at one point, and those who know me will know that this is a quite a rarity! To be precise, it was at the point that the taxi driver who had just ripped us off, by taking a 7km loop to cover a journey that should have been less than 2km, drove off with our Lonely Planet while I was trying to get the small change to pay her what we rightly owed and not the disgraceful amount she was asking for. Not that it makes any difference, but my cursing was directed at our bad luck in not having small change at the moment we really needed it; a Vietnamese person trying to rip us off is a daily occurrence, so that in itself was no great surprise! What also added salt to the wound, though, was that we had only taken this taxi, back into central Hanoi from the train station, to retrieve Paula's passport. Otherwise, we'd simply have got on another train. By the time we were sitting down to breakfast a couple of hours later, we'd bought a new Lonely Planet, walked to where it showed Bamboo Hotel to be on the map (hauling our full rucksacks, of course), discovered the map was telling porkies, Paula then walked to the correct address for the hotel, found it to be the wrong one of two locations, and then finally got hold of it at attempt number three! (And check back to my original blog entry for Hanoi for a description of how easy it is to walk around there!) So yep, after a poor night's sleep on an overly air-conditioned train, it hasn't been our favourite day!

Back to Bac Ha, though, briefly. We spent three nights and two days there, in what was described as Sapa-esque, but far quieter and without the tourist hassle. Which is true, to a degree, but the weather was a bit dull, our guesthouse wasn't quite as nice, as there just really wasn't as much to see or do. Two days was fine, but I think three would have been too many. It was nice, however, to see that the local villages were similar to those near Sapa, in terms of their tribal dress and lifestyles, which meant that the ones near Sapa were genuine and not just putting it on for the tourists! We pretty much covered the same routes through the hills and villages on both days, but day one was on foot, and day two was on our first hired moped. Which, on steep, winding, muddy, pothole-ridden roads, a single lane wide and shared at times with plenty of other vehicles, was tricky to say the least! But we survived without going to ground, so considered it to be a success! And that's it, really. Next report, Ninh Binh...