Overnight train / sapa

The overnight train was an ... interesting experience .... it was A Vietnamese granny , grandpa , 3 year old grandchild , Aishling and myself all crammed into a tiny room meant for max 4 people . We started our journey winding through the streets of Hanoi , squeezing past cars and even shops and restaurants.
It was so bumpy I was worried Aishling would fly off the top bunk and join me on the bottom bunk at some points !!. We managed a bit of sleep though and woke up about 4 am ready to get off the train at 5.
Instead of taking the comfortable , air conditioned but way overpriced tourist buses we decided to take the local bus to Sapa . This involved a little old lady selling some sort of food - in the two hour journey we still didn’t work out what she was selling - someone getting sick , and a man holding a tiny kitten inside a water bottle !! - again no idea why .
When we arrived in Sapa we headed straight to the hostel got into bed and had an actual proper sleep !!
When we woke up we took a stroll around the town , it’s a completely different pace to Hanoi it felt almost like being in a different country .
We went for dinner in this amazing restaurant that sat high up on a balcony looking down over the rice paddies , I think the food could have been horrible but we still would have enjoyed it because of the view !!
Then it was back to the hostel for a movie night and an early sleepRead more