Home » Vietnam » LZ - Sapa - April 13th 2005

These are entries from my travel journal from www.travelbog.org.
They are descriptions/stories of my trip from Hanoi, Vietnam to Phi Phi Island, Thailand from April 2005 to May 2005.

LZ - Sapa - April 13th 2005

Lt.col.lewin
2006-01-02 03:40:44

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Operation Flying Hmong

A short afternoon in Hanoi was all that I had before I was off to experience my first Vietnamese train ride. This ride would be on the overnighter that would dump me just short of the Chinese border in a border town called Lao Cai, which lay 60km downhill from Sapa. The funny thing is, the distance from Hanoi to Lau Cai is almost 300km, which is just a few kilometers more than the distance from San Diego to Los Angeles. However, Amtrak gets me there in 3 hours while the Soviet Express, as I’ve termed this decrepit hunk of steel and iron, got me there in just under 13 hours! Fast is not an adjective one would ever attempt to use when describing this monstrosity.
At the train station in Hanoi, a mass of humanity moved along like a herd of cattle through a narrow little gate where ladies in uniform punched holes in your ticket and gave you evil stares. From there, it was a quick hike through what seemed like a parking lot of worn down monstrosity’s in desperate need for retirement. Again, the herd mentality was the only reason anyone, viet or tourist, knew where to go. I thought to myself, "just follow and don’t ask any questions...you wouldn’t even know what to say anyway because you left your dictionary in your other bag back at the hotel, dumbass."
Ok, the number “2” is written on the paper ticket and the train cars are going down in number...this must be right. 5, 4, 3, 2...Car #2, this must be it! Phew! Ok, now what? Luckily there was a girl on the train who seemed to know what she was doing and directed me to a room down the cramped hallway. Inside the room sat two vietnamese men who were seemingly stunned into a paralyzed silence as I entered. You see, over here, I’m quite the imposing figure. Standing at a gigantic 5’9”, 175 lbs, I’m a mammoth in comparison to these stick figures. A wooly mammoth I might add as my full beard often caused a wild commotion. So into the ...