America spent untold Billions trying to stop Vietnam becoming what it is today - a communist country. Why ? We see (apart from the occasional flag) only two signs of the old communist terror we feared so much. One is early morning exercise. Citizens still do their 4BX or whatever at 5:30 am religiously, just as Ho taught them. The other is more serious. Rules MUST be obeyed. No exceptions. But you can get around them provided you follow the letter of the rule. When we got off the overnight train from Sa Pa to Hanoi at 5:00 am they would not let us off the station until we showed our ticket. Kitty had left them as rubbish on the train. I went back to the train but it was locked. They would not let me on. Stalemate. Kitty tried to leave the station but was stopped. And our money was low. I envisioned myself as Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks) in the film "The Terminal". I found one boy who said he could solve our problem - for 50,000 dong ($4). Meanwhile Kitty brazenly took tickets that had already been collected and put on the table. The official knew what she was doing but turned a blind eye. We handed over the tickets and were let through. The rule that every passenger must hand over a ticket had been obeyed - so all was well !
Similarly at Sapa we had meal tickets. No ticket no meal ! But no problem you go to the front desk and they write you another one ! But don't try to get bacon with your eggs if you are on the set menu. They have bacon but paying extra for bacon is "not possible". You could of course order an extra meal of eggs and bacon from the a la carte menu. True Basil Fawly country.
Anyway the weather at Sa Pa was great (which is unusual) - did lots of treks to the hill-tribes and spent LOTS of time trying to get rid of the pesky hills-tribe woman ("You buy from me ! No, you buy from me" ad nauseum). Hopefully our next three days at Halong Bay and the following three at Hoi An will be less hassle free. Then back to Kevin Country.
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