Wow. Adventures galore.

BIG JOHN WRITES:

So from where we left off. We went to see some temples, and the first Capital of Vietnam out at Tam Coc and Hoa Lu. After lunch we went for a row in a boat through the rice fields and out to a lake system known as Halong Bay Landing. We went through some very beautiful low caves, I had to pretty much duck under each one. From there we went back to Ha Noi via bus, where we chillaxed until about 7, when we were going to head to the Overnight train to Sa Pa.

Luxurious would be one way to describe the sleeper car- IF- we didn't have to share with 2 other people. We were the first ones into our room, Shannon grabbed the top bunk and I the bottom. Shannon spilled half a bottle of water on the mattress. Due to their being no-one else in our room, we assumed it was just us for the night. I said "No Worries" and swapped mattresses. About ten minutes later, a Vietnamese woman, with not a speck of English came in. She proceeded to get on the wet mattress. This brought a few laughs from me. However, she soon found the wet patch. Not knowing what it was, she rubbed the wet patch with her hand, and sniffed it, realllll close to her nose. She mumbled some stuff in Vietnamese, and then got angry, even though it was only water. She called in a guard, some other guy, and some woman, who along with Shannon, her and myself were all in this room no bigger than a common toilet. No-one in our cabin could speak English, and they just kept yelling. Shannon got her faux concerned face on, but I just put on my cool face and kept going " Whats goin on?". Hahahaha.

Anyway in the morning, after an ok ride to Sa Pa, we jumped on a bus with the most massive wankar of an American I've seen. In Vietnam. So then after an hour, we ended up in Sa Pa, had a quick shower and a bit of a wander. We met some girls from the Black H'Mong tribe who were very cute and polite, and tiny. About 4 and a half feet tall, at 15 years old.. We gave them toy koalas we have been carrying to hand out to the kids, and they gave us some bracelets. Very nice.

Then we were off to the mountainous jungle ranges to see the Tay and Day tribes, down through Lao Chai, and Ta Van. Stopped in at some womans house, as they were setting up for a wedding this week. Drank some tea, while our guide explained to us that the dogs we saw walking around were going to be the main course. Walked another kilometre or 2, and back to Sapa, where me and Shannon chillaxed, got lunch and we decided I should hire a motorbike and ride us both around Sa Pa. So we rode around, it was very fun and relaxing, there was minimal traffic so felt quite safe. Had a blast!

After that, we were at the markets where we met an old drunk from Perth. His name was Alfonso, and he was about 60 and the most hilarious Aussie I have met so far. Had a beer on the side of the road with him. Finished the beers, parted ways, and we headed back to our hotel, had a bit of fodder, then to a little bar called Tau Bar, where we had a few bevvies. They have a rum here called ISC which I am going to try and bring home.. its brilliant. There were some pretty disgusting people in there, so at Shannons advice, we left, and went to bed.

Woke up this morning, had some breakfast and we were off to more jungle. A bit of a trek through the mountains (about 5km) and we ended up at Cat Cat Waterfalls. They were very beautiful, but must admit, am getting a bit jungled out. After walking a couple of km more, we headed back to the road, where everyone got on Motos, back to Sa Pa. Then again, due to us being kickass, we decided to ride a moto. We rented one off a guy, and got about 2 streets away when BAM!

It's about 5 degrees here, so the roads are all icy and wet. I took a corner and BAM! Bike slid out from underneath us. Both hit the road! BAM! Picked the bike up, road it back to the fella I had just hired it from. Moto-man and I rode up to the local Moto Mechanic.. There was damage to brake caliper, fairing, light and the footpegs, and it cost me about VND400000, or about $40Australian. Shannon was ok, a couple of scratches, and I'm ok, a bit of blood on my leg, a couple of grazes on my tattoos, a cut elbow and thats it. Ego is hurting the most, feeling a little bit worse for wear due to my moto skills being superior to the av-e-rage bear. Most importantly no-one was hurt.

Tonight we leave back for Ha Noi. We get to Ha Noi in the morning (train again) and then off to Halong Bay. We are doing one night on Cat Ba island, and then back to Ha Noi for two days to a bit more shopping. After that we fly back to Ho Chi Minh.

Until then, take care. Write soon.

SHANNONEGANS WRITES:

Ok , so we've arived in the beautiful mountainous town of Sapa by train and then bus. The night train was a very interesting experience, we were stoked to find out that we got a room with 4 beds and devastated when we didn't get the whole place to ourselves. John and I were so excited at the prospect of spending 8 hours on a train that we decided to take and "Obligatory Myspace Photo", whilst trying to get the perfect angle to show off our beautiful faces I proceeded to knock over my water bottle spilling it all over my bed. Not wanting to sleep in a puddle of water for the trip John and I cam up with the ingenious idea to swap the mattresses with another bed in the room before someone else came in. This idea turned very badly once a Vietnamese lady came and sat down, realising her bed was wet, she proceeded to put her hand in the mysterious liquid and sniff it (all the while John and I pretending we had no idea what was going on). This then turned into the biggest debarcle when the guard and two other people from the train got involved! The problem was sorted when the woman swapped the matterss with another bed and they just put more blankets on it to soak it up.

Enter young Engish girl called Gemma, she did not seem to notice the wet and we had a great old chat. It turns out she was working at a school in Vietnam during her gap year. She had been here for 3 months and was loving it.

We then arrived in Sapa at around 6.30am we were then bombarded by the children of the local villages asking "Where you from?", "What your name?", "You buy from me?", we gave them some of the toy Koala's and got some bracelets in return. They were very cute and are very small. When we asked them their age I thought maybe 7 or 8, it turns out they were 15 and 16!! I seem big over here! We went on a day trip to some of the villages and were followed by some Black H'Mong women on the way down the mountain, they all find John and I very interesting, I have a hilarious picture of the women standing next to John, they were all about 30ish and look like dolls next to him!

The villages were amazing! The scenery is fantastic, it's winter here so a layer of fog hangs over the tops of the moutains, it makes all the terraces with rice growing on them look magical. I bought quite alot of stuff from the women who followed us down the mountain, my favourite was a weaved blanket, it's amazing handiwork. I've also bought some silver bracelets they make as well.

To avoid sleezy men and women (a number of people have been a bit off to both of us) we have been claiming to be husband and wife as they tend to leave us alone once this is said. This has brought many LOLS as I have come across a local village girl who forst tried to buy me from John and now keeps trying to steal me and take me back to her village to marry her brother. She has litterally dragged me down the street! (I think it's all in good fun but John is paranoid they are going to knock me over the head and run away with me).

It's our last day in Sapa and we had a bit of a moto accident today, nothing serious, just the combination of bald tyres, wet ground, a corner and a stupid man John was avoiding hitting. We are ok, just a couple of bumps and scratches. We are off to lunch now and to wade our way through the village children selling things and threatening to cry if we don't buy from them! As much as it is annoying, they are so cute!