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In the lofty mountains and flowing waters, no one recognizes me,
At the corners of the earth, where should I seek?
//
高山流水无人识，
海角天涯何处寻？
Gāoshānliúshuǐ wú rén shí,
Hǎi jiǎo tiānyá hé chù xún?
//
Cao sơn lưu thuỷ vô nhân thức,
Hải giác thiên nhai hà xứ tầm?
//
Non cao nước chảy không người hiểu,
Chân trời góc bể nơi nào tìm?
P.s.: Picture taken in Danba, Sichuan, China in 2009.
So the trip was almost over. We had the last meal at a rice place near the bus station. First time I tried sour soup with a strange fruit. I had to ask for its name. Turned out it was called plum mango or mango plum in English which is a species of flowering plant native to Southeast Asia.
Then at noon, I took a xe om to the Cat Bi Airport. The electric board let me see a lot of flights cancelled due to the weather. The airport was as small as the bus station which made me surprised. I thought it would be larger as Hai Phong was considered the 3rd largest city of Vietnam. But I was wrong.
Luckily, I got on the plane just a lil bit later than expected.
I got home around 5 PM and waited for my sis news. At midnight, she told me she was home safe and sound.
The sleeper bus reached Hai Phong City 15 hours later. The day before must have been the longest day of my life. I thought it was no better when a “xe om” rider showed us a place which I thought was worse than a toilet. Luckily, we decided to get out of it and checked in into a hotel which was also near the Nem Nghia bus station.
It was cold outside but we still decided to take a taxi to the Hai Phong’s Opera House. From then we walked and found a place called “Bánh đa cua Bà Cụ” (famous for Hai Phong type of noodles).
After lunching, we went around to visit some temples and pagodas at Le Chan District.
In the evening, we had some snails for dinner, and enjoyed the hot dessert “sủi dìn” (a type of “chè trôi nước”, similar to the Chinese’s tangyuan).
Unluckily, my sis’ plane from Hai Phong back to HCMC was cancelled due to the weather. She was told to depart from Noi Bai Airport in Hanoi. Hope she would be fine on the bus back there.
This must have been the worst day of our trip. In the morning, we had a terrible bread breakfast at a cafe nearby.
Just when we got on the sleeper bus to depart Dien Bien for Hai Phong, everything went from bad to worse. The coach reached the passes right away, and we had to endure a severe motion sickness. For my sis, it didn’t stop until she vomited twice. I had a severe headache.
The worst thing was that, at the first stop on the go, the coach left us behind. I had to phone the bus for them to come back. Dammit!
I swore to myself I would never get on a sleeper bus for such a long journey. My advice for people who would choose to travel by a sleeper bus is that never take the upper level where your vision is limited and motion sickness is enhanced.
As we saw almost everything that was worth seeing in Dien Bien, we decided to go back to the A1 Hill to visit the Museum of Dien Bien Phu Victory.
When we were back, we enjoyed “chè bưởi” (grapefruit sweet soup) on Nguyen Chi Thanh Street.
At lunch break, we saw that the Him Lam Hill was under restoration on Dien Bien TV. So we forced the taxi driver to take us there even though he (just like the 2 riders the day before) insisted that there was nothing to see. In fact, we saw some fixes on the make, and trekked up to some historic sites of the hill. We found no way to reach the memorial stones on top of the hills, but at least we could reach a place where Phan Dinh Giot covered a loophole with his body.
60 years ago today, Vietnamese troops fought the first battle here at the Him Lam Hill. I felt so proud to be here at this historic moment.
In the evening, we had another rice dinner at the place we ate yesterday. Another delicious meal.
Then we went back to the hostel to enjoy watching the “Ban Flower Festival” on TV.