by Reunification Express
Early start again! Cold shower again! Bread and processed cheese again! What a morning
Quite a swell, in local terms, is running, making boarding from the main CatBa wharf impossible. We all take motorbike rides with full packs over to CatBa’s other wharf where we embarked on a speedy boat (top speed 3 kn) the return trip was uneventful except for a short pirate boarding by ladies trying to fleece us of Dong.
A similar lunch to the lunch of two days ago was served followed by a short stroll to buy fruit and the compulsory half to 1-hour wait before jumping onto the bus for the ride back to Hanoi.
On the way we stopped off at the embroidery shop and purchased the scene of the fishermen on the perfume river in the late afternoon for US$50. Majella and Sean also purchased a similar picture. Susanne and Nigel offered to take our picture back to England for us as they depart tomorrow for home (England). Nigel only lives a short way from Nicholas at 24 Bell for Road Wimbledon London SW191JV home I 1815434528, work I 1932263337.
Arriving back in Hanoi-free beer and dinner at the red River Cafe. We tipped ‘Hung’ our guide for this and Sapa/BacHa tours $2US.
A quick 25-minute stroll to the train the long way and we boarded our first class soft sleeper for the night-no first class??
Several issues arose
A) Magella‘s ticket was stolen or just plain disappeared…
B) Vietnamese in Sean & Majella‘s compartment did not speak English and German is in ours did not want to move
C) train bloody dirty and noisy
D) Vietnamese paid less than one-seventh of what we paid and were fitting at least 2 to a bed
Answers
A) after arguing Magella was forced to pay 300,000 dong cash to the ticket attendant (no receipt) and she would get Majella off at the train station at Hue. All back door stuff. Setting up for sleeping after a few games of cards the ticket miraculously appeared… caught in the back of the top bunk. Early the next morning much to the surprise Of everyone-the money was refunded with many smiles
B) we moved the Vietnamese who were very pleasant about it.
C) nothing to do about it
D) ditto
After playing cards for a few hours we blissfully fell asleep to the very noisy sounds of the train
