return from sappa and resting...

18/4/11

The last day sees us rise a little later and setoff to sapa for lunch after the obligatory and yummy pancakes for breakfast. Arriving at sappa we have lunch in the restaurant that marked the start of our adventure… funny how it feels more like an adventure now its over! After lunch we ask if there is somewhere we can sleep for a few hours and indeed there is so we head off for a nap.

Once we wake up we still have 5 hours before the overnight train so I head off for a massage and James uses the free internet at the hotel. After an uneventful but good massage I return and also engage in some internet surfing.

As its nearly dark we decide to reward ourselves with a nice glass of wine. Here we encounter more black mong ladies selling trinkets and friendship bracelets and James recalls how he used to buy these for himself… bless no one to buy him one. I of course find this hilarious but jams not so much.

Later that evening we board the overnight train back to Hanoi. After some negotiation with the Vietnamese ladies in our carriage it transpires they want us to sleep on the top bunks. We duly oblige and the minute the train pulls out of the station we turn off the lights and go to sleep.

19/4/11

We arrive in Hanoi at 5am and decide that negotiation with a taxi drive at the station is far hard than walking the 1km to the hotel so we set off. This does not deter the taxi drivers who all seem to want us to get in there taxi and think the best way to persuade us is to wave, shout or grab our arms. This of course gets tedious rather quickly and hardens our resolve to walk.

We arrive that the hostel to find the entry gate locked. We ring the bell but fear the worst… no one will let us in. After a period of time we are admitted but it transpires that all the rooms are full and the night staff go back to sleep on their mattresses on the floor. Feeling tired dirty and smelly and distinctly traveler like we join in using the chair cushions for support. Around 7am a set off girls check out of their room. Sensing the moment I enquire if we can lie down in that room for a few hours. We are in luck and my pestering has worked as I am handed the key. We traipse up the stairs and fall into two still warm beds… I think we are now officially travelers.
At 9am we head down to the reception and enquire about when our room will be ready. Chin the owner spins us a line about there being two options one of which is moving to a 3 star hotel down the road or waiting till12noon to access our room. We opt to wait till 12noon but Chin is not deterred by this and continues to extol the virtues of this other hotel but again we are content not to move as we are tired. Chin finally comes clean and tells us the hostel is overbooked and that moving would really help him out. I agree to go and check the room and find the hotel to be very nice and quiet so we agree to move.

After another few hours sleep and some time playing scrabble on the Ipod its time for dinner. Feeling like we want something other then noodles or rice we head off to a tapas bar where we eat yummy yummy Spanish food, play cards and then retire to our rooms for more scrabble and sleep.

20/4/11

I wake at 6am feeling tied but not able to go back to sleep. The walking has condoned me to rise early. So after some more Ipod scrabble head to the restaurant for breakfast. Being a buffet affair mean that I can indulge in my favorite traveling habit of “taking a plate of food back to jams who is sleeping.” James always appears to have a huge apatite as the plate is often full which in my world mean a free lunch. Now the restaurant manager has obviously seen smelly travelers who have had an upgrade try to pull this trick before so as I am about to depart he asks me to pay for the food if I want to take it away. Not being deterred I explain its for my friend who is sleeping. The manager is unmoved. Thinking on my feet I give him the plat asking him to keep it in the fridge until 11 am when James will wake up and come for breakfast. Sensing that I am not fussy where the free lunch eating takes place and that I am definitely too tight to pay for the food the manager capitulates and lets me take the food away…. Success!

Once jams awakes we realize that we are far too tired to actually go anywhere. This combined with the fact that the hotel offers free internet seals the deal… we will stay in the hotel all day. James finishes off the travel planning for Hilary’s trip to New Zealand (please respond by 23./4/11 as we need to book things upon our return to Hanoi-more free internet you see!) I felt like I needed a challenge so began to assess our Rackman potential of one buying a new hours for us in York and two buying another student property. This of course lead onto 6 hours of inputting data into spreadsheets setting out Loan to value ratios, mortgage options and interest rates variables. I actually surprised both myself and jams with my Excel skills and the output gave us both lots to talk about. The synopsis is things look favorable so hopefully the empire can expand from 2012 onwards but there is just a small matter of enjoying the rest of the trip first!