Sapa and Kunming

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Many strange and wonderful things can occur when you send your wife in search of hot water on a sleeper train. In this instance Steph ended up talking to a member of the Samaritans Purse, whilst in the hunt for boiling water. It was as a result of this chance encounter that she bounded back into our sleeper carriage and announced that she had secured a free lift from Lao Cai to Sapa with the Samaritans Purse in the morning.

It was because of this that, at 6:00am the next morning we were able to walk straight past all of the waiting taxi and minibus drivers and pile straight into the Samaritans Purse jeep along with the American family that were working for the Samaritans Purse and hence had arranged the vehicle. We then proceeded straight down the street and stopped for breakfast of Beef Noodles, which they insisted on paying for, before heading off to Sapa and dropping us off at the heart of the hostel area.

After checking into just about the first hostel we saw we headed out for a stroll around Sapa. This ultimately does not take long, what with Sapa being little more than a base for hiking and we were soon heading up to the radio tower for what is described as the best view of the mountains from the town. Whilst this isn't the biggest claim ever it is also not really true as the best views, in my opinion, were found on the hill opposite the radio tower. That said it was still a lovely walk around the park area and a nice slow introduction to Sapa.

After our jaunt around the mountain we headed over to Baguette and Chocolate, which served pretty good cakes, by South East Asia standards, and also helped local children get a start in life and was actually set up by Samaritans Purse.

Unfortunately at this stage the day effectively ended as we tried, yet again unsuccessfully, to change the Vietnamese Dong into another currency, this time the Chinese Yuan. Eventually giving up in despair we headed back to the room to plan the next day and the rest of our Chinese leg of the trip.

Th next day we got up early and headed out to Cat Cat village. Billed as an opportunity to see local life it is anything but, as, after paying to get into the village, you descend down a long street lined with tourist shops. After eventually reaching the bottom of the hill we decided that we would actually head off and try and experience an authentic village. What followed this momentous decision was a three hour trek along muddy paths, around paddy fields and along rocky paths with a sheer drop, only occasionally making way for a water buffalo to pass. However, after more than a few photos, the odd panic that we were lost and only one incident of nearly losing my shoe in a muddy bog, we eventually arrived at Y Linh Ho. Our hike would probably have been worth it if, after just arriving, we had not set straight off for the climb out of the valley as we were worried about not making it back in the light. That said after a short, very steep climb up to the road we eventually made it back to Sapa with plenty of time to spare.

After a well earned shower we headed out for a deserved meal. Steph needed about 4 courses in order to refuel after the day. I needed but one in the shape of the biggest burger I have ever eaten containing just about every edible animal under the sun. All that remained was for the bags yet again to be packed up in preparation for entering China and to reflect on what was a great day in hindsight.

After all the scams we have had to worry about at other border crossings, crossing into China at the Hekou crossing was easy. The only annoyance was that after having gone to a lot of effort to hide our guide book, which sometimes gets taken by over zealous crossing guards, they never even bothered to search my rolled up trousers to admire the false cover on the book!

The only problem with crossing into Hekou is getting out. After getting there as soon as possible in the morning we still arrived late enough to find that the only bus running was to Kumming rather than anywhere we wanted to go. With no other option but to stay in Hekou we were soon heading off on a bus to Kunming, the capital of the Yunnan province, with four other travelers who all wanted to be heading somewhere other than Kunming as well.

It was during this delightful trip that we discovered the one real problem with the Yunnan province – toilets. Little more than a not so glorified ditch, doors are a luxury and soap clearly unheard off. It is toilets like these that make dehydration seem amazingly appealing.

Waking up in Kunming, and finding that our hotel had a buffet breakfast included in the price, we pored over the guidebook in order to find something to do in Kunming. The fact that the best they could come up with was three Pagodas, all of which come with entrance fees but only one you can actually enter, made us realise that there might not be much to do.

That said we quickly headed out to do very little, as we sauntered around the park. There was little to raise the pulse in Kunming apart from Steph's horror when she was nearly charged to use a bathroom that again was a ditch with no doors, and my horror at the 88 pound cup of tea. What was worse is that the cafe charged by the hour for you to sit at the table and enjoy this stupidly priced drink. That said it was nice to have a relaxing day, especially in the one temple you could actually enter, after paying, and watching the terrapins and fish swim in the lake.

The next day unfortunately was not so good as, after refusing to believe that there was nothing to do near Kunming, we headed out to the “Premier Attraction” of Yunnan province, The Stone Forest. This big claim does little to enhance the park and more to insult the province. To say that the attraction does not merit the whopping entrance fee is easy, to argue that it does not even merit the cost of the bus trip, is still probably justified.

That is not to say that there is anything wrong with the Stone Forest. It is an impressive formation of limestone rocks that have made some interesting and peculiar shapes. It is just that it is massively over priced and all the main parts of it are over crowded with Chinese tourists making it impossible to admire the majority of them. That said the park did improve slightly when we headed off the main circuit. However, this failed to counteract the fact that, after paying £17.50 each to get in, they still had an inability to provide doors on the toilets, soap in the bathrooms or make any effort to actually clean them. This did have the advantage that you could always smell when a toilet was near. Alas this was also slightly distracting.

Should you ever consider heading to the Stone Forest first slap yourself in the face, you'll enjoy it more.. If you absolutely have to see some limestone formations it would probably be better to take the time to investigate a little more and head off to some of the other stone forests nearby that do not have an entrance fee and avoid this tourist trap. It would have been much better if we had spent the day doing what we did the following day, abandoning Kunming and heading up to Dali, to admire and investigate the old town to the north west of Kunming.

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