Reporting from Ha Giang

It has been quite an adventure the last couple of days.
The bus terminal that I went to in Hanoi had only one bus a day to Ha Giang, and it leaves at 3 am. (I later found out there was another terminal with more buses to Ha Giang). So I took a cab to the station at 2, and everything was locked up. There was only me, standing with my bags, and a dozen or so rats cavourting around. I didn't make any friends.
At 2:45 there appeared a man, who opened one of the buses. It was a 20 seat minibus. I noticed the back seat was taken up by 2 huge truck tires. As we drove to Ha Giang we picked up more and more passengers, and their packages. One man came aboard with a large wheelbarrow. Not something you would see in good old Canada. By the time we neared Ha Giang we had THIRTY (I counted) passengers, bags all over the place, people sitting on the bags. It was quite a sight.

We arrived in Ha Giang at 10:30 am. Ha Giang City is the capital of Ha Hiang province. There is absolutely no tourist information there. No office, no maps, no-one to that speaks English. I went to 3 hotels to ask for travel information. No luck. The Lonely Planet had mentioned a Tourist Office. I found the street, but no office. I went into one of many cell phone places, and by pointing asked the man to call the number in the guide book. It was out of service. One of the many motorcycle taxi guys tried to help me, and actually took me to a Travel Agency. A very nice lady told me that the only way I could travel further north to see the sights I wanted to see was to rent a motorcycle. There was no way I was going to drive a motorcycle on these roads, with this traffic, with no maps. The other option was to hire a motorcycle and driver, me on the back. It would be a 2 day trip.

I really started to have doubts about this whole Northern Experience, but I really didn't want to chicken out, so I made the arrangements. Her younger brother who spoke some English was to be my driver.
The other thing about Ha Giang. There are no restaurants. NONE. There are a lot of hole-in-the-wall places. I tried one, but had no luck communicating, and I left.
Dinner was a can of tuna and a baguette. But it was the most expensive can of tuna they had.
My hotel room was like the one in Hanoi, without the safe, telephone, mini fridge, computer in the room, air conditioning, and free fruit. Otherwise the only diffeence was one of the hardest mattresses I ever slept on. But I did have a great sleep, and the room was 9 dollars.
Another funny thing I have noticed is that the rooms in the hotels all have very high ceilings, over 10 feet. What is curious is that the average Vietnamese is less than 5 foot 6.
To continue..The next morning I stored my bag at the travel agency, and we were off at 7 am, Son, the driver and I. After about 2 hours we stopped at a town which had a Sunday market. It was great. The local hill tribes all come, and it is as much a social gathering as a market. The costumes are fabulous. Very bright colours, and great head wears. I hope the photos turn out. I actually sat down at one of the stalls, and had a bowl of Pho, the Vietnamese staple. It was great.
The roads are basically one lane, which makes it interesting when you meet, or pass, a truck. I just closed my eyes and had faith in Son.
We stopped for lunch and I had some of the toughest chicken I have ever eaten. I think it was left over from the War. I ate the rice, it's good with some Soya sauce. As we were leaving it started to rain. We put on our ponchos, and off we went. Luckily the rain stopped after half and hour or so.
I have to say the scenery was fantastic.

Everything is quite hazy. I think it's smog. Most of the locals still cook with wood, they burn their garbage, and they still use "burn and slash" agriculture. They use every imaginable piece of land for growing rice, corn, and greens. Step hills are terraced, and flooded to grow rice. And everything has to be done by hand. No electricity in the back country.
Another cute sight..a teenage girl tending 3 water buffalos at the side of the road, talking on her cell phone.
I am off to bed, another slab of marble.

Hope you are all enjoying these tales. Leave comments if you so wish. There is room at the bottom of each of the blogs for this.
By the way I sure missed my Friday Williams coffee.