Day 57 (20th July) Hanoi to Sapa
On the previous evening, the hotel screwed up in not telling the taxi driver that his company had been paid for him to take us back to the hotel, which resulted in an embarrassing argument with the taxi driver. So the gave us a free “foot massage”, and we took advantage of it in the morning. It consisted of putting our feet in a bowl of warm water, then a spell in the sauna which ended when boiling water came pouring out scalding our feet, then the massage girl telling us she was going for something to eat and the “treatment was ended”. No massage. The hotel receptionist then looked up details of how to get to Sapa on the internet (bollox alert) and sent us on a wild goose chase to Long Bien Bus Station. A man on a scooter said he knew how to get to Sapa and carried us for 100 metres to a travel agency who said they could arrange a bus at 10 pm. So we walked back to the bus station and a young girl asked us to follow her onto a bus which took us to the Hoang Quoc Viet bus station where we got one leaving at 5.30. It was a sleeper bus with upper and lower bunks. We both got into a lower bunk, stretched out and had an excellent night’s sleep. We were woken when the tannoy announced that we had arrived at Lao Cai, a town adjacent to Sapa, which is located on much higher ground and the bus made a long series of sharp bends as we drove to the top, arriving at midnight. The bus company supplied a free taxi service and the driver eventually found a hotel which was still open, the very pleasant “Homey”, which cost £12 but didn’t do breakfast.
Jennifer’s “foot massage”
