Sapa was one of the best places I have visited during the trip where I really enjoyed the environment and the people. I was there for almost 5 days and on the morning after coming back from Fansipan Mountain I was ready to head back to Hanoi. There were a few unpleasant confrontations in the morning. What happened was that the bus was supposed to pick me up at 8.30am and I went for breakfast at 7am and was back by 7.30am but the bus was already there and I was expected to board the bus immediately. To say that I was annoyed was an understatement. It got worse when the driver started spewing Vietnamese vulgarities and start making universal sign language because I was not ready to go. I was very irritated about the change in timings and confronted the guesthouse staff who has made my booking. She was nonchalant about the whole situation and said it was normal for such changes to occur. Holding back my irritation and annoyance about the entire situation I packed my bags and boarded the bus. The driver looked angry the entire journey and to prevent making a fuss in a foreign country, I kept silent.
I had to transit to another bus at Lao Cai where this bus would take me back to Hanoi. The trip back to Hanoi was much more comfortable than the train ride to Lao Cai. It was a sleeper bus and I was able to sleep for some portions of the journey. You have the usual impatient horning throughout the journey and along the way I met a Japanese guy and a Canadian lady who were traveling together in the bus. They were both traveling on their own but have met in Thailand and eventually went to Laos together and from that point onwards have been traveling together and would be continuing to travel for a year. It was evening when we finally arrived in Hanoi. We shared a cab together to go the the central part of Hanoi and I went back to my Vietnamese's friend's house to wash up and stay the night.
Tucking into his bed that night was a surreal feeling as it was so comfortable after my "nights of horror" in Sapa. I was so tired and slept soundly the whole night. The next day I booked a bus ticket to Laos and would be setting off at night into Vientiane. It was going to be another 17 hours bus ride. I was looking forward traveling into Laos.
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