Beautiful Sapa

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When we returned from Halong Bay the only thing we had to do before leaving for Sapa was to change our clothes and get a shower. About 4 hours after we climbed out of the small bus that took us from the Bay we boarded the night train at Hanoi.

That itself was an interesting part of the adventure that we were about to begin. The scenery of the train station reminded me of movies that were set in old Chicago: bits of water dripping from the dark sky of the early evening, human beings crouching into their greyish coats stumbling from out of no where into different directions- disappearing within seconds and only mumbled voices and hushed sounds reaching the ear- whilst steam was rising from the massive locomotives and the ticket man (dressed in a uniform that reminded everyone of the police) shouts that the train would leave in 5 minutes…

Well parts of that might be out of my wicked imagination but others were same- same- no different. But I will not make the effort to tell you which.

Since everybody told us it’s going to be very cold and rainy up north we were packed with all the warmest clothes we had- our backpacks were close to bursting. With all our gear we made our way into the 4 person sleeper we were booked onto. Seeing the “massive” dimensions of the cave that would house us for about 9 hours we were really impressed- NOT!

But we made the best out of our situation and jumped into the beds and to our surprise we had a fairly good nights sleep. After racing the 300km from Hanoi to Sapa within an astonishing 9 hours we got off the train at Lao Cai train station. For a long time this will probably be the closest I will get to China which was only another 500m away. Lao Cai greeted us with a beautiful grey-drizzly morning. Spirits were high…

When the mini bus drove us the next 30km to Sapa everything changed- altitude rose from 500m to 1600- weather got clear even the sun popped out. We arrived at the hotel and had the chance to get a good and healthy breakfast as well as a shower which was very welcome after the ride over night.
We met our guide and to our surprise he told us that we would be the only two people that he would be leading the next 2 days.

The tour started at 1030 and I had bought some fancy rubber boots at the local market which were supposed to get me thru all the mud that people had talked about when they returned from Sapa. Together with 3 water bottles and all the clothes this made a pretty good weight that I was about to carry thru the mountains-no complains anyway.

We were delighted to find Sapa at its best! The sun was shining big time, the air was fresh and cool and all the trails we were trekking were a solid surface- buying the boots was the best idea I ever had…

We walked uphill and downhill and uphill and down into the valley. On our way we walked past many locals and their houses. Sapa and all the north western highlands of Vietnam are mainly inhabited by minorities from different small groups coming from almost all over Southeast Asia. Different colours of their clothes and a wide variety of other gear they where carrying showed to which specific group they belonged. We went into some of the houses of them to see how they are living- and to be honest I wouldn’t like to share with them. I mean I know I am spoiled but I also have seen a bit before visiting them- but this really wasn’t my deal.

Anyway- we kept on walking and asked the guide all the questions that we could think of and he answered most of them. We saw how people where working in the mountains- since they hardly have any even surface they had build lots of terraces along the mountain.
It was really an impressive view to look at and we tried to imagine what it would be like to work under these conditions- ploughing the terraces with the buffalo, getting the rice seeds into the soil, organizing a working system of water channels that would keep the rice terraces full of water and after about 6 month the rice was ready to be harvested- and we were not angry about the fact that we wouldn’t have to help them.

When we were in Hanoi we had the choice to book a 5star hotel, a 3 star hotel or stay overnight in a house of one of the families living in the valley. Mom kind of liked the idea of the home stay and I really wasn’t keen to see what would await us- having seen all the houses of the different minorities as we toured the mountains.
But as we made our way to the house of the family we would stay with for that night I thankfully found out that it won’t be too bad.

They had running water (!), they had electricity and a dry and warm place to sleep at. The meal was prepared by our guide and was really good. And thanks to the electricity the fridge was working- you may ask way I was so glad to see this… BEER! Yes- as a matter of fact they had beer in the fridge for all the tourists that would stay over night. That meant that supplies where not to run out too soon.

Enjoying the scenery from our table outside of the house we saw the sun going down and the stars starting to sparkle in the night. It only got a little cooler and since the family would go to bed early we thought we might do the same since we didn’t want to wake ‘em up again and again. During the night we heard frogs and dogs. There must have been about 2 jillion frogs- amazing sound!!! And it makes you go asleep really fast- NOT!!!

After a good nights sleep we had a good breakfast and were ready to start the second day of the tour. Again we walked uphill and downhill and around the hill and we past rivers and waterfalls and my personal favourite was the walk thru the bamboo forest. The sound of the leaves rustling in the tree is really nice- at least that’s what I think.

On the second day we decided to give away the boots to some locals since the weather didn’t look anything but sunshine. Both mom and me had a sunburn…

After lunch we soon headed back towards the main road where an old Russian army jeep awaited us to take us back to the hotel.
What a ride!

All in all we had covered approx 25km and I must say it was definitely one of the best experiences I had in Vietnam! Beautiful scenery, orsm weather, friendly people, a knowledgeable guide and descent food!!! In the hotel we had a shower and prepared for the ride back to Lao Cai and the next over night train experience back to Hanoi.



It’s time to move on- have a good one!

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