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In Laos at internet cafe. Isn't really free wi-fi here so will not be posting as much the next few weeks. Managed to book overnight bus to 4000 islands so leaving for there tonight.

Seen a few sights in Vientiane. It's a rather laid back town. Barely any cars (let alone any horning), and everything's just rather peaceful and quiet.

Till next time...

At the airport waiting for my flight to Vientiane, Laos. Got about 30 min to go till boarding. All things going to plan should land in Vientiane round 9:30am and try to find Emily at the airport,

Other than that I think Wizard blocked my credit card. Probably didn't help that the first time I used it I put like 3 transactions in one day totaling a few hundred dollars. I think they might have tried and ring me but I cancelled the call as it costs me to answer. Might try to find a payphone...

Probably going quiet for a few days too as going to try and head to Si Phan Don (4000 islands) and they only just got electricity last month.

So over the last 24 hours or so I've had quite a few interesting conversations with people. Starting back in Sapa, after lunch we headed up to the square as the sun finally came out and I wanted to sit in the sun to warm up. Sitting in the square makes you a target for hill tribe ladies to sell you goods though.

However this time I had a rather engaging conversation with a Man May a lady from I think it was the Red Dao (Dzao) tribe. She did try and sell me some stuff and I did bargain for something I saw that I liked, but apart from that our 2 hour conversation was really interesting. Plus she indirectly shielded us from others who also tried to get us to buy from them.

It was interesting to find out lots of little bits of information that I otherwise wouldn't know. Like buying a water buffalo costs about 10 million dong (approx 540ish USD). Man May had water buffalo in the past however in Sapa because it is very cold in winter sometimes the water buffalo die. After having lost a few buffalo to the cold she said that they no longer have their own water buffalo as it is too expensive. Instead if they need a buffalo to help plow the fields they can borrow one from a friend for 200,000 - 300,000 VND a day. Or that the rice crops they grow these days grow to maturity in 4 months whereas in the past it took 6 months... Another interesting thing was her showing me the different type of stitching they do for their sewing handicrafts and the age groups that a girl starts learning a particular type of stitch as some are harder than others. We eventually parted ways as Man May was getting hungry. She asked us to wait for her to come back but we had to go get ready to leave for Lao Cai so we wished each other goodbye and went our separate ways.

Next interesting convo was on the night train. Met a Belgium woman who currently lives in Hong Kong with her family as her husbands job is in HK for the time being. Had a couple of interesting conversations with her about random things from her time in HK to her love of Asian food more than Western food to the difficulties children of expats face when moving to a country where the language spoken is not their native language.

And lastly, today we had two girls from Hanoikids take us out to Bat Trang and show us around. Got to play around with some clay and try and make something - have come to the conclusion that I will never be an artist of any sorts though. It was quite engaging to be able to talk to young locals who were helpful and knowledgeable about their city and country whilst also being able to share information about Australia and help improve the conversational and English skills of these two girls.

Oh and as for the froggy, took the girls out for lunch as a thank you and went to a Vietnamese place that definitely was more authentic. Froggy was part of one of our dishes and it did taste somewhat like chicken if not a little more chewy. Not sure if it's my cup of tea though... Next stop crickets?

All in all it's been a rather interesting last day or so and I'm really glad I had the chance to talk to such a diverse group of people.

So we've checked out of our hotel and are kind of lazying around not doing much. Our ride back to Lao Cai to catch the train isn't till 4:30pm though. Could've done another walk and was slightly toying with getting a moto out to Thac Bac (Silver Waterfall) and walking to the fall but it's a bit out of town and the weather today is rather gloomy. It's definitely winter weather today as the town is covered in fog and visibility is under 15 metres. Asked a few locals and with this kind of weather the fog stays around all day. So not really the kind of weather to be trekking/walking up hills down stairs and all. Nice weather to be holed up in a cafe with coffee/tea and a book... except that I've finished my book and most of the books available in Sapa are in French... Maybe I'll try and get one in Hanoi or trade mine in...

Anyways going to finish my tea and decide what to do... it's kind of a really small town and you can walk from one side to another in like 10 minutes or so... maybe I should go buy a knock off North Face jacket... (except I don't want to carry it around for the next 2 weeks...)...

Next stop Hanoi for 2 days then it's onwards to Laos!

So today we hiked/walked out to Cat Cat Village and back. But first, in the morning I had breakfast at a bakery next door. I was facing the window/road and it was quite amusing to watch the hill tribe women/girls run down the road following an arriving minibus, ready to pounce on unsuspecting (or suspecting?) tourists.

The hill tribe women speak the best English you will hear in Vietnam and are great at talking to tourists etc but they are illiterate. So often when bargaining with them rather than punching numbers out in a calculator you have to play around with real money instead to show how much you will pay and vice versa.

That said I did engage a few of them today though looking for things to buy. Though if you buy from one be prepared for a hoard to suddenly appear in front of you asking you to 'you buy from me...'.

Back to walking though... did a walk to Cat Cat which is the nearest village you can walk from Sapa. Took a few hours but we made it back all good. Though I'll admit that some of the local women in flip flops overtook me and made it back up first!

Sunrise from our room - just roll out of bed, grab a camera and you're set!

Red Zhao hill tribe women

So we arrived in Lao Cai at 5:30am and caught a minibus to Sapa which is about 1.5 hours away. I think most of the people on the train were tourists as the train station kind of resembled an airport and our train carriage was full of 'kiasu' Singaporeans.

Minibus dropped us of in the middle of town and after working out our direction we made our way to the Mountain View hotel. It's a budget hotel, but if you want a room with a view it's a bit more pricey at $25 USD a night. But it is worth it as it gives you a panoramic view of the valley and it is facing the direction the sun rises.

We weren't planning on doing any trekking/touring today but in the end we did as the weather is very good today in Sapa. In December it can be sunny one day and miserable with low visibility the next. Dad wasn't really up for trekking as it was going to be too far for him o we went off on a motorbike tour again of the mountains, valleys and hillside villages. The roads were sealed in some places, but once we got further out they were dirt, rock and dust which made for a very, very bumpy ride. The views were pretty awesome even though the rice season is over. Because it gets very cold in Sapa there is only one rice season where they have to grow enough for the year.

Tomorrow I am planning on walking to Cat Cat Village and if I am adventurous maybe the hill that the radio tower is on too. Not sure if dad is joining me as it's pretty uphill/downhill.

And lastly, some pics from the last day or so...

Halong Bay

Kayaking in Halong Bay - thank goodness for my waterproof bag and cheap camera...

Sapa - this is the view from our room!

Cruising the Sapa countryside

So short post as I'm eating dinner and using some hotels wireless signal that my computer is picking up...

So Halong Bay was quite good. At night we had some karaoke, and I'll admit that I did get up (for my second attempt at karaoke ever!) Probably helped that I'd had a cocktail and a beer and a half by then. Did some kayaking in the morning through some caves into a bay. That was pretty good because it was just the people from our boat. Then swam a bit. I wasn't go too, but went 'what the heck, only here once' and went for it. Plus some Malaysians wanted to go in but were worried it was cold, so I was the first one in, told them it wasn't cold and in they came. Except they thought it was cold which it wasn't. Warmer than the beach in Sydney. Also jumped of the second level of the boat. Didd't do the roof as the guide said it was low tide and the water wasn't deep enough to jump from the roof.

Eating dinner now (and typing) as it's onwards to Sapa tonight. Hopefully it's not cold. We've found that what the locals call 'cold' is actually quite hot for us and were mroe than comfortable to walk round in shorts and tshirts.

So back in Hanoi again...

Yesterday we headed out to Cuc Phuong where we checked out the Endangered Primate Rescue Center and also did some trail walking. There weren't many people around and we only stumbled across 2 people early in our walk heading back towards the start. Other than that it was just us. Which was rather interesting at times as the trail wasn't well marked (signs had faded or been destroyed), and logs had fallen on some sections which required climbing over etc.

Had an early dinner and went to bed by 8pm as we had to leave by 2:30 am to walk to the train station for a 3:10 am train. We were the only people getting on at the train station and it was rather worrying as the time got closer, as we would hear the train in the distance as no one had woken up yet to let us through. At the train stations in Vietnam you wait in like a waiting hall, and when the train is close to arriving they unlock the door and let you through (there are never multiple trains arriving/leaving at the same time). It was rather reassuring when at like 2 min to go some loud alarm went off to wake the station staff up. Then to add to confusion the dude for carriage 2 didn't open the door, so we had to hop on at carriage 1 and make our way down... where people were in our seats. It's sort of like a plane, if a seats free someone else might take it, as the person who actually has that seat might have already gotten off. Or in our case hadn't boarded yet. The people moved back to their seats and I had a nice 2 hour snooze back to Hanoi.

Walked around the Old Quarter today, checked out the temple on Hoan Kiem Lake and caught the water puppet show in the evening. Leaving seeing some of the other sights for when we return to Hanoi (again). I only really want to go out to the Ho Chi Minh Complex and the HHoa Lo Prison (aka Hanoi Hilton). Not to crash hot for the museums. We are going out for a half day tour with Hanoikids though. Hanoikids is a student club in Hanoi that offers free tours of the city. The group slogan is "Be more than a tourist”. Well be going out to Bat Trang with them so I'll do a write up post outing.

Other than that, it's off to Halong Bay tomorrow for the day/night then more train journeys north to Sapa.

Time for bed now...

So it's rainy season up north, but it's a bit odd. Hoi An totally rained every day (with some dry patches), Hue was hot, Hanoi isn't as cold as the locals say and it was pouring in Ninh Binh where we are now.

We left Hue on the overnighter last night. It was a bit late but it made it into Hanoi on time. There we backtracked south 2 hours on the train again to Ninh Binh. Found a place to stay near the station, had breakfast then rented some bicycles to cycle out to Tam Coc. The weather was pretty dismal this morning, and it rained most of it. In fact just as our boat ride at Tam Coc finished, the sky torrentially opened, and it totally poured. I think our cameras stayed reasonably dry.

Tomorrow we're heading to Cuc Phuong National Park for the day, then the following morning catching the 3:10am train north back to Hanoi.

As for the blog post title, woolen socks have a habit of not smelling... hence 3 day old socks... except by the end of our bike ride today I had boots fullish of water and wet socks. At least my feet still felt warm.

Limestone karsts

Getting rowed through caves

Totally raining

In 6 hours or so we'll be hopping on the train to Hanoi, though at the moment I'm pottering how to run the gauntlet of cyclo drivers and whatnot who would be more than happy for me to part with my money for a ride to the station.

Other than that we're at the half way point of our Vietnam adventures and have Ninh Binh, Hanoi, Halong Bay and Sapa left. Then it's onwards to Laos for me. Met some Aussies yesterday who have come across from Laos and they loved it. Said it's more laid back, people are friendly etc. And not so many people trying to rip you off (fearing taxi metre scams in Hanoi already lol...)

Just resting this morning, not much else to do... till next time... hopefully there is free internet in Ninh Binh...