Highway to hell.....

We were woken up at 4.30am by heavy rain and hoped it would stop before we left. By the time we got up ay 7am it had eased off a bit but we were still feeling sorry for Zoe who still has to ride the bike back through all that mud to meet us on the boat. We had breaky and then on the mini bus to get on the little boat. We had acquired about 10 more people at this stage which made it a bit more crowded. We picked Zoe up & then headed out on the bay to get on our bigger boat. As we cruised back towards the mainland we had lunch and again they certainly didn't want us to starve. We docked in the harbour and that was the end of our Halong Bay adventure. We are really glad we splashed out & did this tour as it really is a beautiful place. Back on our bus for the 4 hour ride back to Hanoi & dropped at the place we were catching our bus to Sapa. Our ticket said we leave at 6pm but they told us to be back at 6.30pm, so we headed off for a walk but as it was still raining we bought ourselves a couple of very cool raincoats & as everyone wears them we didn't look too ridiculous. We found a cute little cafe/art gallery and had a coffee before wandering the streets for a bit longer. We got back to the bus place at about 6pm for them to then say the bus would be going at 7pm and then we heard them tell someone else 7.20pm.....lol....time management is not one of their strong points here. So here we are huddled in a small office with about 15 backpackers waiting.....little did we know that this would be the fun part of the trip. WARNING: This part of the blog may contain strong language and be very negative........ So we run on to the bus to not get soaked and there is a Vietnamese couple having a barney with the bus guy....we slink past and the driver grunts at us to which aisle to go up. The bus was packed and I could only see one seat on the bottom....I have horror flashes of having to sleep in the aisle. A girl on the top row said she would move up the back with her friends so luckily we have a seat each although we can't see each other. This sleeper bus is not as good as all the rest and we are beginning to wonder if we should have caught the train. They turn all the lights out and the girls either side of me put their reading lights on which do not point down but straight into my face.....great. So between this and all the foreign languages being spoken....really bloody loudly, I am thinking sleep will not be easy. I am also hoping we don't have an accident as my seatbelt is tied together with a knot. So for the first 3 hours I have lights in my face, my head is close to the roof so I can hear the rain pelting down plus the noisy bloody Germans (& mind you I have ear plugs in too....thank you Annie xo) and as it is dark and I can't see out the front window I am absolutely sure we are driving on a fucking goat track....I kid you not, this road is soooooo bad I think our top speed was about 30kms an hour. In Australia there would be a sign at the beginning of this road saying "ROAD CLOSED". And to top all this off I am busting for the toilet. Finally we stop at another one of the dodgy brothers road stops where we pee in a hole in the ground and BYO loo paper. The place is filthy & as we are not in the most jovial of moods, watching people pick their noses and spit big gollies on the floor really makes us not like Vietnamese people at all. Plus they all seem to be ultra rude. We are now wondering how the hell we will last another 9 hours & definitely wishing we had caught the train. The next 7 hours were not quite as rough but really really winding so it was nearly impossible to sleep on your side as you felt like you were going to roll off the bed. We finally stopped at 5.30am so we could go to the toilet but we were in a town dropping people off so we had to ask a hotel could we use theirs, which after being told no by the first one, the next one was a bit nicer. So back on the bus again & as people had got off, I moved down the bottom which was much better, & the next 2 hours was heaven....smooth road & we even got to sleep. As it is now morning you will have to wait for todays goings on tomorrow. Alvoxo