Out Of China, Into Vietnam

On October 26, I woke up for the final time in China. The group once again met for breakfast, but by this time, I was getting kind of grouped-out. We had been spending way too much time together ever since Hong Kong and I decided that some more Sheldon-time was in order. I figured I’d see enough of them on the bus to Vietnam.

Around 11 am, we hopped on a bus for Hekou, a border town between China and Vietnam. Going through immigration and customs wasn’t as difficult as I might have imagined, unless you were the tour leader, that is, who had to bribe one of the immigration officials to let her through. Evidently, this is standard practice because even though this was her first time leading a group into Vietnam, she had been told to expect it. Anyway, we got into Vietnam fairly trouble free.

At the Vietnamese border, we were picked up by a van from the hotel, which took us for a one-hour trek to where we would be staying. The trip was on a foggy mountain ledge road with narrow roads and heavy traffic. I learned pretty quickly not to look out the window because every time I did, I could see my life flashing before my eyes.

The hotel that we stayed in is in Sapa and is called the Mountain View Hotel. It is at the corner of a winding road in the middle of one of the most touristy towns that I have ever visited (even though I liked the hotel very much). Every restaurant sells a small selection of Vietnamese food along side pizza, hamburgers and all kinds of other western favorites. Every sign is in English and Vietnamese, if it has any Vietnamese at all. Every third building is a hotel and there are locals in the street constantly trying to take tourists on motorcycle rides or sell local hand-made goods. And I mean they are everywhere.

We arrived in the late afternoon and, you can probably guess this at this point, met for dinner and an orientation walk. Well, most did. Remember an entry or so ago, I mentioned that I was sort of getting grouped-out. By this time, every fiber of my being wanted me to get as far away from the group as I could. It wasn’t anything personal about anybody in the group, or even the group collectively. There’s a reason, though, that I nearly always travel alone and it’s because I like being alone. I did go with the group to the restaurant and I had a beer, but then I removed myself and went to another restaurant to eat.

The restaurant that I went to eat at was called Charlie’s Café. I figured that eating there was officially surrendering, but I’m glad I did. The food was good, the beer (Hanoi Beer) was cheap and the guy who ran the place was friendly. He asked me to help him with the English on his menu. Then we went online and started talking about how he could buy Apple products cheaply because they are twice as expensive in Vietnam as they are in the United States. Apparently, they are subject to a 100% tariff here, or something like that. Anyway, he bought me a beer for my trouble and I went back to the hotel for my first night’s sleep in Vietnam.