Vietnam Pages -- Day 6 (part 2) and 7

We headed back to Tamarind Cafe and had a good meal to our heart's content. We had a train to catch in the evening but we had nearly 6 hours to kill, so we decided to do some shopping. We are after all GIRLS!

After some silk shopping we indulged in soothing foot massages...absolutely heavenly!They felt so taken care of when we started off again. I stayed back to get manicure and pedicures while the rest left for handbag shopping. We planned to meet at the shop in half hour. Knowing my friends' "half hour" and impatient that I am, I decided to walk around and come back. So I did a little exploring myself and found a small boutique with some lovely silk tops. I placed order for a top and another audai before leaving to hunt my friends down. I went back to the massage place to hear that I jus missed them. After some back and forth running around, I bumped into thm in another store. We went to the little boutique to place more orders before finally returning to Tamarind cafe.

Soon it was time to leave. We were really excited about going on a train. The train reminded me of the Indian "toy train" that goes to hill stations like Simla. Every four 'beds' had a door like in first class compartments and the interior decor was really good. Ours was the "Pumpkin" carriage, decorated in light brown and orange shades. We had a cosy bed with mattress and pillow provided. I love travelling by train so I knocked off pretty fast. But I heard in the morning that not everyone could do that.

At 6am, half an hour before we were scheduled to arrive in Laocai station, a lady came by selling tea and coffee. We managed to find our ride to the town. The four Spanish ladies we were in HaLong Bay were also on our train and we had a reunion in the travel agent's town office. We wandered off to get some breakfast and found a place nearby. It had a very colonial look to it. Infact the town itself looked very cute with its narrow roads overlooking mountains. We met two guys inside there who were also going to stay in the same place as us.

Well breakfast was followed by a very bumpy drive up a dangerously narrow road to reach the top of the mountain. We arrived at Ecolodge, our home for the day.

Vietnam Pages -- Day 6

It was a beautiful feeling to wake up to slight swaying, like someone was rocking a cradle. I was so excited about seeing the sunrise that I was up at 4am. I kept looking out the window of our room to see if the sun had come up. Finally I gave up and decided I was just going to go lie down on the deck above. My friend with whom I was sharing the room, thanks to me constantly getting on and off the bed, also woke up. The two of us went upstairs and were sitting there on the sun bathing mattresses just staring into the black surroundings. A little later the sun's rays became visible from behind the mountains. We went and woke the other two also. We all sat there taking fotos for sometime and the rest headed back inside. I sat there for a while longer. I loved the scene in front of me so much I just din want to go. There were a million thoughts in my head, yet I knew I wasnt thinking...I was jus staring and trying to take it all in.

We went to explore some caves after a good hearty breakfast (or was it before...I cant remember..but hey..does it really matteR??). I wasnt so impressed by the caves as they were not very big and we only covered the external chambers. I felt that Gua Tempurang was way better. Moreover, that had put fancy lights and pathways and kinda spoilt the "natural" feel. It was alright.

When we headed back to the boat, we quickly showered, packed and got ready to leave. We were heading back to shore by lunch.