21 July: Lao Cai

The bus was leaving for Thai Nguyen at 06h00, so we were up at 05h00 finishing up before walking to catch the bus. The bus came past just as we arrived at the street corner where they stop. We got on and paid the 50 000 each and were on our way. The first leg of the journey lasting just under 4 hours went unhitched, the road was winding and we drove at an average of 40km/h to cover the 160km to Thai Nguyen. We even made a pit stop along the way where the men all stood along a wall to pee while the women had a small shelter squat toilet with an amazing view over the river. We stopped there for 10 minutes, being offered tea and a rice and nuts snack compacted into a bamboo shoot, which is pealed like a banana, before covering the last 2 hours.

Just before reaching Thai Nguyen, we wrote down in Vietnamese where we wanted to go next and that we wanted to take the bus. The collection boy on the bus helped us find another bus to our next destination, Tuyen Quong. From here on the day started to turn a little sour, before we had gotten on we had fixed the price, but now they wanted more, there wasn't any aggravation of any kind and in a joking way we were able to pay what we had agreed on before. There was however very limited space on the bus, we packed all our bags on top of each other on one seat, I sat next to them, while Leanne sat on the opposite window seat, in between us there was a fold open chair on which another man sat.

This was a great ride, passing through the valleys and villages, but even slower than the first bus. The road had apparently been finished, but I think they need at least another year to get anywhere near the definition of finished. At present the road is more of a 4X4 track than anything else, the mud and clay made it a very slippery and bumpy ride to say the least and the dust filled the vehicle for the largest part of the trip. The driver didn't do to bad, we only slid badly once when we almost got stuck in the mud. In total the 90 km took us 4 hours to complete and we arrived at Tuyen Quong station at 14h00.

There we had the constant ordeal of being told there was no bus going to Lao Cai, the only option to us was to take a motorbike taxi to a town were we could get a bus. We tried to talk to all different locals for almost an hour with no success, in the end I walked into one bus and asked whether anyone spoke English. What a blessing, there was a woman who taught English at a high school and she managed to help us. She also insisted we take a motorbike, but I told her I didn't have enough money, in the end they gave us a lift to a town where we could take a bus to Yen Bai or Lao Cai.

The town was only 25km away and when we reached it we were literally dropped off at an intersection. Lucky for us a bus going to Yen Bai was waiting there almost ready to leave. We hopped on with almost no place to sit, Leanne and I shared a chair while our bags were shoved anywhere they could fit in, no respect for your personals. Up to now the day had been great, no problems or concerns, however this was soon to change, he first asked 20 000 which I barely heard, all I heard was the 200 000 from a passenger behind me. There was no way I was going to pay 200 000, but 100 000 to Lao Cai was reasonable, I made sure he was taking us to Lao Cai before paying him 100 000. Leanne had herd the 20 000, but I had already paid and it was to late. The drive was only 1 hour and already we were getting the idea that they weren't going to take us to Lao Cai, but rather to Yen Bai. I asked him twice more along the way whether they would take us to Lao Cai and every time he said yes, so I left it.

Arriving at Yen Bai, they wanted us to get off the bus, at this stage I was infuriated and demanded my money back, some people jumped on the bus trying to pull my bags off, but I got a hold of it and pulled it from their hands. We had a huge argument for almost 10 minutes before someone from the back paid gave me 20 000 and then another 20 000. Reluctant we got off the bus. Problem was the bus driver driving the next bus to Lao Cai was there when the whole thing happened.

The bus to Lao Cai was waiting there and he wanted 160 000 to take us there and he wouldn't budge a dong. We waited the 30 minutes before leaving, tried on the bus to reduce the price before paying the 160 000, only to watch others pay 30 000 each and the driver grinning from ear to ear. The trip to Lao Cai would take 4 hours and again we had limited space to sit, with our bags thrown around. After 2 hours of driving we made a pit stop where all we could find to eat was lollipops, by this stage hunger was getting the best of us. We had opted the morning to share one bowl of cornflakes and get something more later but being in transit the whole day with a maximum of 20 minute stop at Tuyen Quong we hadn't had the opportunity and were now feeling its effects.

The bus departed for the final 2 ½ hour journey to Lao Cai, we had hoped to get to Lao Cai before 17h00 to make the last bus to Sapa, but we knew now there was no hope. The bus driver had driven at a reasonable pace the past 2 hours, but now he started to make up for lost time, he raced past corners, overtook at shaky times, screaming downhill with the smell of burning rubber sifting through the bus. I think its only the prayers that got us to Lao Cai, we arrived at 20h00 and walked across the street to the nearest hotel. They showed us a room for 5.5 dollars and we took it. Not nearly the best we had, probably on the lower level of the scale, but at that stage both of us were dead tired and I was having problems with dizziness and poor balance.

Having gone without any food since 6h00 the morning we headed out to find a restaurant where we could find something worth eating. The best we could do was a small restaurant with Pho Ga, chicken soup and also a chicken, vegetables and rice dish. When they brought the rice, chicken and veg, I sent it back, it was embarrassing what they were offering us for the price and neither of us were willing to eat the chicken. The noodle soup was good, but again we declined to eat the chicken. We left to find another restaurant with better food which we found a little way further down the road where we ate a rice, vegetables and egg dish, which was very enjoyable. We spent some time chatting to a Austrian woman who sold fine art and regularly backpacked Asia before retreating to our room, having just heard the buses stop going to Sapa at 07h30, hence it would be an early morning once more.