The bus reached Lao Cai at at about 7.30 pm. So we had about an hour to walk around (or more appropriate: waste) in Lao Cai. And the bus driver was smart too. Instead of train station, he stopped the minibus right in front of a cafe. We went to another coffee shop instead, and met with this nice Vietnamese lady Ha. Her husband Culi Cage owns Wide Eyed Tours, now mainly handling tourists from Australia. She shared with us lots of information about how tour agencies in Hanoi work, and helped me to order a rice wine too. The Vietnamese rice wine was pretty too strong for me.