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Published: July 27th 2006
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All I can say is thank goodness the Sapa area is beautiful because getting there sure wasn't fun. We were taking the overnight train for the 9 hour trip and after having good experiences on the Chinese overnight trains we were looking forward to it. Unfortunately our Chinese trains were in significantly better condition. Our compartment was seriously dirty (thank goodness for the sleep sacks, mom!), we couldn't figure out how to turn the lights off and the ride was noisy, bumpy and hot! Upon arrival at the town where we had to wait over an hour for a minibus to Sapa, both Mike & I were trying to figure out how to get home where we could get some good sleep again!
But once we were on our way up the mountain to Sapa, the temperate air and beautiful surroundings help put us in a better mood. And our room was ready at the hotel so we went straight to bed for a few hours. (And while our hotel room had a great view of the mountain and valley, it was 152 steps up from the reception/street - you sure don't want to forget something in the room and
have to go back up!) Refreshed we went to meet our guide for a trek to a neighboring village and waterfall. Pi was our 17-year-old guide. She grew up in a village about 6k from Sapa and is from the Black Hmong tribe. Her english was great and it was fun to talk with her about the area, the US, etc. The scenery was great as we climbed down into the valley surrounded by terraced rice paddies. It was amazingly green. After the hour walk down we reached the point where we would either have to climb back up or pay $1 to get a motorscooter ride. Not wanting to overexert myself I convinced Mike we should ride! Our first moto ride of the trip - it was fine except when the two drivers who carried mike & i decided to race each other for a bit on the winding road. I think my tight grip on my driver convinced him to forgo the race.
Sapa isn't that large of a town so we just wandered around for a bit in the evening, played cards, looked at the stars, and went to bed early. We had a longer hike
Laura & the girls
Constant companions during our stay in Sapa - and tough saleswomen too! planned for the next day. Unfortunately when we woke up, Mike who had started feeling a bit sick the night before had developed a bit of a fever. Some tylenol seemed to take care of it and we thought we'd tell Pi that we'd go on a shorter hike rather than doing the whole thing. Again the walk was beautiful although we had to deal with a lot of tribe women and children selling things ("Buy from me, buy from me") along the way. Pi showed us the village where she grew up and we visited her sister's house. We learned that each town has a school where kids go for four hours a day from age 6-7 to 14-15, although Pi stopped at 13 and I wonder if many other kids stop early too. Pi also talked about how people were starting to marry younger, instead of 18-19 now it often is 14-15...quite the opposite of the trend in the States! Sometimes the women or girls would walk with us for a bit. One woman named Lily got a big kick out of the fact that I was 30 years old. She was 35 and pointed out how much
View of the mountains from our hotel room
When you climb 152 steps, you should get a good view! older she looked (I couldn't disagree with the statement). She also had 4 children! Mike managed the hike well - he & Pi engaged in quite a rock skipping contest when we stopped at calm spot in the river (Pi stomped him though) - and when we finished and hopped in a jeep to drive back to Sapa we were happy with the timing as it started to rain.
When we arrived back at the hotel we were greeted by the gang of girls that we had met when we first arrived. School is out for the summer so the local children seem to have a lot of time on their hands to hang around the tourists. The girls, ranging from 7-12, were very cute in their traditional outfits and inquisitive - asking our name, age, nationality, marital status (and remembering the info too!), but also hard sellers, imploring us to buy bracelets or pillow covers. We stalled the first few times we saw them, but decided buying one thing a piece wouldn't hurt. They were excited, we received 5 bracelets, and then we chatted for a bit after the sale before they descended on the next tourists!
Another quiet night - only interrupted by the discovery of two large cockroaches lurking around. Our last day in Sapa has been pretty chill too - we woke up to the clouds sitting right down around us so didn't feel the need to do much besides wander town, check email, etc. We weren't super-excited about the train ride back to Hanoi but what could we do. Thankfully that turned into a pleasant surprise when we boarded the train and discovered it was the nicest train compartment we'd been in: thick mattresses, very clean, nice lighting. We thought we'd get a great night's sleep although unfortunately that didn't materialize. We arrived bleary-eyed in Hanoi at 5:30 a.m. with several hours to kill before our flight to Danang and the town of Hoi An.
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