We arrived at the train station at 6:00am.  What’s my name?  A sweet lady shows up with sticky rice.  So I bought some thinking it would be like Thai sticky rice.  Oh no, it wasn’t.  It was tasteless patties of white goo that I was supposed to buy sausage to go with.  You make a rice goo sausage sandwich.  I ate one and decided I never needed to eat that again.  We waited out front of the train station for our shuttle.  It was a zoo of taxi drivers hassling us and backpackers everywhere.  Later it turns out one of the taxi drivers that was bugging us actually was our shuttle.  If he had a sign with our name or the hostel’s name on it, we would have gone with him sooner.  He finally showed us a confirmation email.  The ride to Sapa was at least an hour from the train station, maybe more.  It’s wet and foggy and everything is damp.  Omg, the streets of Sapa are so narrow and steep.  There were buses, motorbikes and hikers everywhere barely missing each other by inches.  I’m not sure how you even get a motorbike up the steepness of these roads.  It’s very cold and everything is wet and muddy.

We got to the hostel and didn’t have the private room we were promised.  Annalise took the last bottom bunk and the shower was cold.  There were no lockers or any way to lock up our valuables.  I felt very flustered and unhappy.  So, I decided I could just feel unhappy or I could change my situation so I asked if there was a private room I could upgrade to.  There was so I did that.

We set out in the cold foggy weather to see Sapa.  They sold “North Face” jackets, hiking boots, backpacks and other gear in every other store.  I didn’t want to buy more clothes, but I was freezing so I got leggings, a hat and gloves.  The North Face jackets were $15-$25.  I ended up buying one of those, not because I needed one, but because I have a jacket problem.

We went to the pharmacy because both Erin and I are sick.  In Thailand, you often skip the doctor and go straight to the pharmacy and the pharmacists speak English so we figured it might be the same in Vietnam.  She didn’t speak English and I doubt she was a pharmacist, but after a short game of guess this illness charades, we both had a pile of drugs.  Mine were sinus drainage drugs and an antibiotic.  So, if I have a sinus infection, that should work.  Fingers crossed.

We holed up most of the afternoon in a restaurant that had a fireplace and fabulous ginger tea.  We wandered around town a little, but it wasn’t really pleasant.  We signed up for a tour that included a waterfall and trekking through the tribal villages and rice fields for tomorrow.  Hopefully the fog clears enough to see something.  After dinner, I had a massage.  It was in a cold room and the massage was mediocre at best.  I miss Thai massage already.  She did do a lot of work on my face and head which felt great on my sinuses and hopefully helped!  The fog is creepy, but in a fabulous way at night.  I enjoyed walking back to the hostel in it.

I got back to my private hostel room and was met by the smell of mildew.  In the dark, it’s creepy.  There are cobwebs everywhere and it just feels gross, cold and wet.  It’s too late to do anything now, but first thing tomorrow, I’m going to book a room at the hotel next door which got good reviews.  It’s more expensive, but at this point I don’t care.  It’s official, I’m too old for hostels.

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore