Hanoi (1), Sapa, Ha Giang

Last night, the flight in Siem Reap was inexplicably delayed for two and a half hours before arriving in Hanoi. I took a taxi from the airport to the youth hostel in the city center with those two smart friends. I could only call the bank quickly on the road, and after a long time of tossing, it finally thawed. There was no one on the street in the early morning, and I had to go to the ATM to withdraw local cash and give it to the taxi driver, looking around and worrying about safety. This travel bank card really has trouble with me. From Thailand to Cambodia and then to Vietnam, the exchange rate has become more and more exaggerated. From 1 to 4.75 to 1 to 581 to 1 to 3355, you have become a millionaire in one go, but you really don’t have much money. It takes several times to convert, and my brain is not working well.

A few days ago, I met a local motorcycle guide through Couchsurfing. He offered to take me to ride a motorcycle around Hanoi for three hours for free. The only condition is to write a good review for him on TripAdvisor. This morning he took me on a motorcycle, and his girlfriend Linh took another Canadian girl (a Hunan girl adopted by a Canadian couple) to ride a motorcycle around Hanoi. There are also a few places that only locals know Son, very interesting experience. We first went to St.Joseph's Cathedral, Hanoi Cathedral, Dong Xuan Dongxuan Market, which is the largest indoor market in Hanoi, which sells a variety of goods, such as fresh produce, souvenirs, accessories and clothing, as well as electronics and home appliances. Of course, like many markets in Southeast Asia, there is also a huge dining area. We ate Bún chả (barbecue rice noodles) here, which is a representative food in Hanoi. A plate of herb vegetables and a plate of rice noodles. When eating, put the herbs and vegetables into the soup, add some rice noodles and stir to start eating. The sweet and sour taste is really delicious. After lunch, we went to the Long Bien Bridge, the railway bridge. After crossing the bridge, we took a motorcycle to shuttle in the banana field, and saw the houses floating on the water by the river. After that, I went to West Lake/Ho Tay and a Buddhist temple.

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The motorcycle guy’s English is pretty good. I only found out after talking to him that he didn’t like his civil engineering major when he was a junior. He dropped out of school and planned to start his own motorcycle tour guide company. He used this sofa-surfing software to receive foreign tourists for free at home, conduct cultural exchanges and learn English to improve his oral English, because English classes in Vietnam are too expensive. Now he doesn't want to drive motorcycles for other travel companies to take tourists. He wants to plan routes for tourists according to his own ideas, establish his own company, and develop his own team. Therefore, we will occasionally provide free services in exchange for online praise to increase popularity. Finally, I drank the famous egg coffee egg coffee in a cafe next to the railway tracks. Egg coffee needs to be mixed with condensed milk, sugar, egg yolk, and milk until it is thick, then add coffee, and then use a mixer to mix all the ingredients Stir well. A layer of creamy egg cream is covered on the rich Vietnamese coffee, and the aroma is overflowing, which makes people want to stop. Egg coffee can be served hot or cold. For hot drinks, the cup is placed in a small bowl filled with hot water to keep the coffee warm. The rich taste of coffee will be transmitted to the layer of egg cream on the surface, the taste is very dense, sweet, rich, and not too greasy. Sitting next to the tracks and drinking egg coffee, the motorcycle tour is over.

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During the three hours of the motorcycle trip, I asked him various questions about the Vietnamese people, gained a lot of knowledge, and learned a lot from him. I really appreciate his warm hospitality and introduction. When you are willing to choose to believe that others are kind, instead of speculating whether they have malicious intentions, then the people you meet are kind. But if you feel from the beginning that other people are maliciously plotting to harm you, then you can only attract such people.

In the afternoon, I went to Ho Hoan Kiem, a prison museum built during the French colonial period. After reading it, I felt very heavy. Cherish the life without war killings. After a day in Hanoi, I feel that the motorcycles on the street are driving really crazy. Crossing the road is a technical job, and I need to exercise my courage. Strolling along their Hoan Kiem Lake Hồ Hoàn Kiếm at night, I feel that the life of the Vietnamese people after dinner is similar to that of the Chinese people. They run and walk along the lake to exercise their muscles, and the grandparents are similar to square dancers. There are also people playing chess on the street. of. Life is good!

When I was in Beijing this summer, I helped a foreign friend from Argentina. He had been traveling in Vietnam last month. He introduced Linh, a little Vietnamese girl who helped him arrange the travel itinerary, to me. She had been in touch with me a few weeks ago and was kind enough to help me arrange a general itinerary. I finally met with me this morning to arrange the details, and the price is very good. After talking about the business, I asked her to recommend me some local food, because Cambodia really didn't eat any food, and I couldn't bear it. After recommending a bunch of them, she offered to take me to a restaurant frequented by locals at night.

So she picked me up on a motorbike after work and took me to dinner, and took me around the city to see the night scene. During the period, she talked about her experience working at the front desk of a youth hostel. She said that she wanted to travel very much, but the wages here were very low, and she had no money to travel abroad or take English classes. But at the front desk of the youth hostel, she can meet new friends from all over the world every day, listen to their travel stories, and improve her English. She said that she should practice English well, save more money, and strive to go to Europe next year. She first took me to eat cold beef jerky salad nom bo kho and spring roll nem cuon, and then went to another dessert shop to drink sweet soup ché similar to sago dew. Sitting on a small bench by the street and eating street food, I feel very comfortable. The two Vietnamese locals I met for the first time on the first day in Vietnam were so nice, they were warm and hospitable from the bottom of their hearts. I think my life is really good, and I met all kinds of kind people along the way to accompany me. This is the first time I took the sleeping bus overnight to Sapa tonight. I didn't expect the conditions to be good at all, the seat is the bed, let me sleep all the way until dawn!

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After sleeping all night, the overnight bus arrived in Shapa City early in the morning, and when I got off the bus, I froze to death. The temperature was less than 10 degrees. I went to the temporary hotel to put down my luggage, ate Vietnamese noodles and some fruits for my own breakfast, and immediately started hiking into the mountains. I was traveling with a Norwegian brother and two friends from Toronto. The muddy path along the way was very slippery, and I walked for about four hours to Ta Van Village, which reminded me of the time when I took American high school students to climb the terraced fields in the light rain of Laozhai, Guilin last year. Along the way, the local Vietnamese Miao people took us up the mountain. Their English was also learned slowly from tourists, and the communication was quite smooth. I asked them a lot of questions about their minority language and cultural life, and felt that life in their village was really not easy. They bring a group of tourists into the village for three or four hours every day, and then they have to walk for two hours to go back to their home. The next morning, they will walk another two hours to pick us up and continue hiking. make money.

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In the afternoon, we hiked to the local homestay where we lived. Tonight, only me, my Norwegian brother and a Dutch couple lived in this home. After graduating from high school, this Norwegian brother worked as a special soldier for three years, then went to university to study economics, and then worked as a professional poker player for three years. Although he made a lot of money, he was also very risky, so he decided to change to a stable job. work, and traveled to Vietnam for three weeks before starting the new job. Another Dutch couple, who are in their early 20s but have been together for eight years, is a pharmacy student and an urban engineer. They have so many vacations, nine weeks a year. They speak many languages: Dutch, German, law and Spanish in high school.

We took a nap and we decided to play poker. A professional poker player from Norway taught us a poker game called President with simple rules, luck and skill are half and half. After exposing his identity as a professional poker player, he was extremely upset when he needed to pay tribute after losing to us a few times. This caused us to question his identity on several occasions. In the evening, I made Vietnamese spring rolls at my home, had a big table meal, and tasted their rice wine, which the locals call happy water.

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Shaba got up early the next morning and went for a run in the neighborhood. He stopped by the village and passed an elementary school. Then our small group hiked eight kilometers to the terraced fields. The scenery along the way was beautiful, passing through bamboo forests and passing by waterfalls. In the afternoon, I went back to the hotel to pick up my luggage, and said goodbye to the Shapa team reluctantly.

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From afternoon to night, I experienced the most uncomfortable and helpless moment since I traveled for nearly 20 days. After walking for four hours during the day, I had lunch in the mountains. When I was playing cards and waiting for the bus, the wind was very strong, and I probably caught a cold. In the afternoon, I started to feel cold all over, and my hands and feet were cold. I took a car to the hotel in Shaba Town, took a hot bath, and slept for two hours. After waking up, my whole body was hot and my head hurt, and I was weak. I thought it must be a fever, and I planned to borrow a thermometer from the front desk, and then ask where there is a pharmacy. After struggling for almost an hour, I got out of bed, put on all my thick clothes and went downstairs to the front desk.

The boss at the front desk couldn't understand a little English. The lady boss was nicer, but I was talking and gesticulating to borrow a thermometer. I was really weak at the time. When the lady boss handed me the thermometer, I accidentally broke it. I kept apologizing, and then the proprietress pointed me in the direction of the pharmacy and asked me to buy some medicine.

At this time, an uncle sitting in the lobby (later I found out that he was 70 years old, but he thought he was fifty or sixty) asked me if I could speak Chinese. Going to a pharmacy to buy medicine is better than going to a clinic to see a doctor. Seeing a doctor in Vietnam is very cheap. He is Taiwanese, but he has lived in Vietnam for more than 30 years and can speak Vietnamese. He said that he could take me to the clinic to see a doctor. In this case, I would not be slaughtered if he helped translate. Otherwise, the doctor might charge me a lot of money because of the language barrier.

So the boss called a car for us and took us to a local clinic. The Taiwanese uncle comforted me along the way, saying don't worry, I'll be fine after seeing a doctor. I was in a very weak state at the time, and my breathing was abnormally short. I couldn't walk straight, and my uncle kept walking with me. When I arrived at the clinic, the doctor used an advanced instrument to look at my tongue, nose, and ears, and said that there was nothing abnormal. During this process, this Taiwanese uncle had been talking to him. I didn’t understand their conversation at all. The doctor prescribed some medicine and we left.

After returning to the hotel, the uncle asked me if I had dinner. I had no appetite, and I really didn't want to eat anything. He said you have to eat some, so I bought two baked sweet potatoes at the door, probably the worst baked sweet potatoes I've ever eaten in my life. The uncle helped me write down how to take the medicine prescribed by the doctor, bought three big bottles of water for me, and prepared the medicine for me to take. For the first half hour when I got back to the hotel, I seemed to be unconscious and confused. I remembered that the uncle had been talking to me, but I couldn’t remember what he said or how I answered. After taking the medicine for more than half an hour, I gradually felt better. Until now, I don’t know whether the medicine given to me by the uncle or the doctor gave me an effect and let me reduce the fever so quickly. I just know that if I hadn't met this uncle, I might still be burning right now.

After waking up, I chatted with the uncle for a while. The youngest of his four daughters was about my age. Unfortunately, his wife passed away in a car accident recently. He said that they used to go to Japan to see cherry blossoms and maple leaves, and now he can only travel alone to relax, but it is still hard to be without someone to share with. When I said this, I couldn't help but started crying, and immediately became an uncle again and began to comfort me and talk to me about life. At around 8 o'clock in the evening, the uncle had to take the night train to Hanoi and then transfer to Nha Trang. Seeing that I was almost fine, he went to take the bus with peace of mind.

The next morning, I received another message from my uncle asking if I was recovering. Uncle is a Buddhist, he believes that our meeting is the fate of the Buddhist family, and he helped me tide over the difficulties because of the good deeds of my predecessors. He took care of me like his daughter last night, because if his daughter encounters a similar situation in a foreign country, he also hopes that some kind people can help his daughter like he helped me. He also sent many words of encouragement, which were very heartwarming. When I saw the uncle's message, I couldn't help but burst into tears, and I was especially grateful for the help from my compatriots when I was in trouble in a foreign country. Meeting is fate, hope to see you again.

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In fact, the fever subsided last night. In the morning, I went to a small restaurant nearby to eat Vietnamese noodles. The whole restaurant was full, and all the locals were eating Vietnamese noodles for breakfast. After breakfast, we arrived at Ha Giang by car for six or seven hours. The driver who booked a three-day tour of Hejiang by motorcycle picked me up to a small hotel where I put my luggage. I put on a small backpack with enough things for three days on my back, sat on the back seat of a motorcycle, and stayed at a B&B in a local village at night. The fever subsided, but diarrhea started again during the day. I wondered why I had such a big reaction when I ate a farmhouse on Shaba Mountain.

Early this morning, the villagers who lived in my house heard that I had diarrhea all day, and after running out for a minute, they came back to pick herbs for me. Google Translate, which has been disdainful, despised, and warned my Chinese students to stay away, has come in handy today. The villagers here do not speak English, and the only way to communicate is with Google Translate. The uncle said that it was a guava leaf, which was too bitter to swallow, so he chewed it with sea salt and swallowed it. During his five years in the army, he learned a lot about how to find food and medicinal materials from the jungle. Many Vietnamese people also grow herbs in their gardens, because they are more effective than medicines in pharmacies. Later, he found another kind of leaves, and told me that it is very good for sore throat when it is ground and soaked in water. The uncle showed me with Google Translate, which made me laugh for a long time. He warned me: "You Chinese have to trust our Vietnamese local recipes." Needless to say, within an hour of eating this pile of unpalatable herbs, my stomach really felt much better. At noon, I asked the boss to make some light noodle soup or something because my stomach was uncomfortable. A young girl who could speak English sat down at the table next to me, told me that she was a doctor, and asked me what was wrong. She looked at the diarrhea medicine I had been taking in the pharmacy for the past few days, and pointed to one who said that it didn’t work. , so she told me the name of another drug that she found effective. I asked her if she heard about herbal medicine? She said she studied western medicine, not sure, haha.

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These two days were basically spent on the motorcycle during the day, unable to communicate with the driver in words, Google Translate became the only communication tool. In fact, it is good to not be able to communicate, that is, I will not always ask him questions, so he can drive with peace of mind. This road feels like the Sichuan-Tibet Expressway, with eighteen bends on various mountain roads, and the scenery is also beautiful. If you take the initiative to say hello to the local children along the way, they will respond to you with special enthusiasm. A bunch of little boys chased our motorcycle for a long time, just saying goodbye, but they are so simple.

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In the afternoon, I passed several Sino-Vietnamese borders, and I was so close to the motherland. These are the names of the places that Ha Giang passed in a large circle these days: Quan ba, Ye Minh, Dong Van, Sung La, Meo Vac, Lung Khuy Cave.

In the evening, my motorbike driver brought apricot leaf again, and asked the proprietress of the hotel to make scrambled eggs with apricot leaf for me. In the past two days, I ate various leaves and herbs, and the third morning I really recovered! The hotel where I stayed at night also had dinner with other tourists. I met a big brother from Colorado, the United States, who is a professional gambler. After chatting for a while, I can confirm that he is a digital genius with a super high IQ. Besides that, he also made a lot of money buying and selling bitcoins. Because there are no geographical restrictions on work, he also makes money online while traveling. After that, I experienced the life of the Vietnamese people after dinner: singing karaoke and smoking opium with mobile phones. Many of their songs are covers of Chinese songs, and they insisted that these are their Vietnamese songs, haha!

Traveling by motorcycle is a completely different experience. Without the window in the car, everything can be seen more clearly, and you can also enter some places that cars cannot drive, and you can stop whenever you want . The disadvantage is that it is too bumpy, the buttocks and legs hurt after sitting for a long time, and you can't fall asleep when you are tired. On the last day in Ha Giang, I had dinner and took the overnight bus back to Hanoi for 8 hours. When I arrived at 5:00 in the morning, I went to the youth hostel to put my luggage and wash my clothes.

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