There must be an extension of murphys law somewhere that reads: "for every trip that lasts over 10 days, there will be at least one day where everything will go wrong."
today was that day.
I got on the sapa summit bus back to the lao cai train station at 5:30, and it left on schedule. that was the only thing that worked.
the girl in front of me got carsick, and was, well, projectiling all over the bus. It was so bad that it rolled around on the bus floor and got on luggage and shoes.
the bus got a flat tire. we all had to sit in the stinky bus while the tire was being changed. this made us late for our train checkin time.
being late for the train checkin, i was moved from the first class pumpkin express, to a no-class quad sleeper that rolled around all night like a drunken sailor. the other three people in the cabin with me were chinese teenage girls with fully-charged cell phones.
i arrived in Ha Noi at 4:30am local time. A man stopped me on the platform and asked if i needed a cab... Sure... we got out to the cabs and i'll be darned if it wasn't a motorcycle, just like cambodia! OK, well, here we go a moto in downtown ha noi in the middle of the night.
turns out the hotel is about two blocks from the station... i could have walked.
Oh, wait... I forgot one part. While I was in SaPa, my HaNoi agent Mr Luis Phong decided that it would be in my best interest to change my hotel. You see, Mr Luis is looking for investors, and nothing is too good for his latest target. When I first met Mr Luis, I was expecting a sage viet of about 62 that could pluck a fly from mid-air with a pair of chopsticks. what I got was a plucky 26 year old with a marketing degree, that eats his spaghetti and meatballs with a fork and spoon. So he moved my remaining bag to the new hotel and told me to checkin at the Astoria instead of the Symphony. OK. On with the story.
The moto-cum-cab driver pulled up in front of the astoria. it was pitch black with the roll-up door, rolled-down. Cabbie says "look, here, Astoria, this it". I agree and jump off the moto. He pulls off into the pending sunrise and I'm standing in the middle of downtown Ha Noi in the middle of the night with a backpack and a camera tripod.
Oh, I forgot another part.The Sapa summit hotel was having electrical problems yesterday, and try as I might, I never got my cell phone completely charged. On the way to Ha Noi, the phone went dead. So, Add "with a dead cell phone" to the paragraph above.
then the streetlights went out.
at about 6:30, after two hours of being stared at by every Viet grandmother carrying her wares on a stick to the marketplace, i heard the clang of the lock on the rollup door. The door slowly opened, revealing a pair of jet-black eyes, into which i stared and smiled and said, Hello, as if 51 year-old white boys normally sit all night on the sidewalk.
the door opened revealing the lobby of the hotel astoria hanoi. inside the lobby were 5 motorcycles. there was a makeshift wooden ramp used to wheel the bikes out onto the sidewalk. behind the bikes there was a pile of white comforters on the floor.
the young man invited me in and showed me a stool where i could sit. "we have internet for you to use", he said, as if that was why i was here. after about 5 minutes, they actually asked me, "so, why you here?", and i said, "I'm mr paul, i'm supposed to check in early today."
the pile of white comforters sprung to life, and the white blanket slid down reveaing the person who apparently was supposed to be up to let me in. He jumped to his feet and began to check me in, fully clothed and ready to work. within seconds, the comforter stirred again, revealing another body... two boys fully clothed sleeping under the same pile of comforters in the middle of a hotel room lobby.
well, things settled down after that for a bit, but now the travelers bug has caught me, too many red chilies in my pho bo i think. white punk on imodium.
have you ever seen that jack lemmon/Sandy dennis movie "the out-of-towners"? Im telling you, I cant make this stuff up...
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