Leaving Sapa and the night bus

 I left Sapa after a very happy month and a bit there on Wednesday evening. When the time came to say goodbye it was really quite sad, I have become quite attached to people and the place in a short time. Tuesday night was my 'leaving do' we had a keg at the cafe and some snacks before heading off for drunken food and more drinks at the Hmong Sisters Bar at the bottom of town. It was a brilliant night and I laughed a lot, bizarrely (or not) it made me not want to be leaving the next day, I think that's probably always the way when you do these things though.

 The actual journey from Sapa to Hanoi was an experience in itself. I arrived in Sapa on the Night train and this time I thought I would try the sleeper bus. I'd seen a few in town and they looked OK the seats are more or less actual beds and it's about half the price of the train. You have try these things when you're travelling right? Well the first bit of the journey was grand. The bus was virtually empty I had two seats to myself and went straight to sleep (very tired from drunken antics the night before). Then we arrived at Lao Cai on the border with China and had a 90 minute stop and change of bus. This bus was very full and I ended up right at the back of the bus. It was much less fun on the second 10 hour leg of the journey but I did get some sleep and made the most of the stops to get off the bus and stretch my legs. I think at one place they were watching the champions league at half three in the morning and there was a GIANT snake in a GIANT jar. I may or may not have imagined that. Anyway I arrived safely in Hanoi and after dumping my bags and having a shower at my hostel for that night I was on another bus to Halong Bay! I'll save that for another blog post though.

The seats on the night bus