23.2.23
We slept well at Heart of Sapa and went down for breakfast. The hotel is so quiet, and the staff are just lovely.
We chatted to a guy from New Zealand. Not sure what his job is but he’d spent a lot of time in Turkey with Syrian refugees.
He loved his time there and was overwhelmed by the hospitality of the Turkish people.
He was recently in Ukraine, I had so many questions about Zelensky and the war generally which he was happy to answer.
Breakfast was simple and tasty. I opted for boiled eggs, toast and jam, John had fried egg and bacon.

We left our bags and went off to the funicular.

I bet it’s spectacular when there’s no fog.

There was no point getting the cable car to the top of Fansipan mountain, the biggest in Asia at over 3000m. Here’s what it looks like on a clear day.

On the way back out to the street we saw lots of shops, and one with the Salomon shoes again.
I’d done some searching online and they really are good value at 600k. £21

As I discovered while trekking, my trusty walking shoes have lost a lot of grip so they are much needed and I bought some fake (?) Nike trainers too.
John also got some Salomons and we negotiated 50k (£1.75) off each pair.
I left my slippy old trainers there and wore my new blue ones.
John was happy as he was sick of me tottering about like an old lady. I was sad as they were so comfy.
A bit more of a wander and we bumped into Nick from Zizis Homestay.
He’s getting the 2pm bus to Hanoi too.

We thought about exploring nearby Cat Cat village, started walking down, realised we would have to walk all the way back up again, turned round and went back to the little place Sassy took us to yesterday for more delicious beef pork noodle soup.

Collected our bags from Heart of Sapa, said goodbye to the lovely family and walked the 15 minutes to the bus stop.

We saw something we’ve not seen for a long long time.

No sign of Nick, hope he didn’t miss it as we left 6 minutes early, hopefully he’s going with a different company.

No lower bunk seats left but more adept at clambering up now surely. . We were actually first to arrive for the bus to get a lower seat, but the man with the list insisted we weren’t on it, until another guy insisted we were.

I have a huge bruise at the top of my leg from falling on a rock, I only banged that and my head once clambering up.
I dozed off just before we pulled in for a second stop and no chance of going back to sleep after a coffee.

I caught up on The Apprentice, no one stands out, they’re all pretty hopeless.
I also watched House, an old series, Hugh Laurie as a genius Dr. I’ve got about 50 million episodes of those. Thank you to my sister Jackie for recommending, absolutely love it.
We arrived back at Keypad Hotel in Hanoi half an hour early, at 7.30pm.
They had upgraded us to a beautiful room. They’re so sweet.

After a shower and change of clothes we felt human again.
Was so bored of the same tracky bottoms hoody and fleece.

We went in search of food after checking that there’s a train at 10pm, we are determined to see one come through Train Street.

I was feeling a bit noodled out and we found a place doing a selection of nibbly bits.
We had sweet potato fried balls, cheese croquettes, spring rolls, fernented pork rolls and chicken in breadcrumbs that looked a bit like small fish cakes.
It was really good.

They had no cola zero so swapped a can at a nearby hotel, A lot of their ways remind us of Turkey.
We arrived at Train Street and were ushered to one of the many cafes.
The track has been opened and closed a few times to the public recently and now the onus is on the cafe owners to keep tourists away from the tracks.
Because it’s their livelihood they are very strict about it.
As the bells rang and the train was approaching there was lots of shouting.
They wouldn’t let us stand to take photos without one of them sitting in front of us.
It was fabulous to see not just one very very long train, with passengers waving to us but a freight train as well about 20 minutes later.

I had my first egg coffee there.
Omg. It won’t be my last.

We chatted with an Indian guy sitting next to us, he lives in Hong Kong. It’s so nice hearing other people’s travel stories and experiences and getting ideas.

Keypad Hotel certainly excell in big comfy beds. Lovely.
Alarms set for 8am.
We’re being picked up to go to Ninh Binh tomorrow.

Some perspective on our journey so far. Hanoi-Sapa and back again.