Arrival in Hanoi and trip to Sapa

---

Where to start with a non-stop week in Vietnam? I had completely forgotten how tiring it is to travel continuously in an effort to see as much of the world as possible, and we certainly didn’t waste much time sleeping whilst in Vietnam last week, seeing a lot of the country for just 6 days.

Everything that could go wrong seemed to happen in the first night getting our flight and getting to our hotel. I won’t go into too much detail, but there were complications with our visas and the flight was the most turbulent and unpleasant one I’ve ever had. To top it all off we had our first experience of how unhelpful and dishonest Vietnamese taxi drivers can be, with our first attempt to get to our hotel being ended by the police taking our driver’s license away at about 12.30 in the morning. The next five days turned out to be awesome, but by the time we arrived to the hotel we were quite tired and were quick to get to sleep as we didn’t want to waste the next morning.

The next day we were awake, finished with breakfast and checked out by about 10am and set about finding a new, cheaper, hotel somewhere in the centre of the backpacker’s area, the Old Quarter. As we were leaving we got a call from another group of CityU students also in Vietnam informing of their package tour they had booked which included travel, hotels, guides and food in Sapa, the Perfume Pagodas and Halong Bay. When hearing this I realised how ill prepared we were. What was Sapa? What was so special about the Perfume Pagodas, as opposed to the numerous others that could be found around Hanoi? Andreas and I then went about the task of finding a suitable hotel whilst the others remained in the café planning other aspects of our trip. Upon our return, we discovered that we would in fact be taking the sleeper train to Sapa that night. It seemed to be the best use of time. We managed to find a travel agent and negotiate a decent deal that included travel, accommodation, food and tour guides which took us to Sapa for two days and one night and Halong Bay for one day. That would give us a day and a half to explore Hanoi and get to know the city. We gave the perfume pagodas a miss, a good decision according to people we’ve spoken to since. By two in the afternoon we’d booked this, eaten lunch and left our bags with our agent, giving us a chance to look around Hanoi.

Hanoi is one of the most charming cities I’ve ever been to. In the middle of the busiest streets and all the hustle and bustle is a massive, quiet, tranquil lake that really appears to be at the heart of the city. It is possible to cross over a footbridge onto a beautiful Buddhist pagoda in the middle and if you look in the right direction you forget you’re in the middle of Vietnam’s capital city. However it takes a matter of seconds to leave this peaceful setting and you’re surrounded by thousands of Vietnamese doing their daily business and vast numbers of motorbikes driving around the streets with no particular order or road system. Motorbikes were being used as family saloons, heavy goods vehicles and just about anything else you can imagine. It gave the city that shambolic feel that I haven’t seen since my gap year in India, although it wasn’t quite as manic as the busy streets in cities such as Chennai and Mumbai. It was still mad enough to make crossing the road nerve-wracking business on occasions though.

Indeed the only other developing world cities to compare Hanoi with from my experiences are in India, and there were marked differences as you would expect. Firstly Vietnam is officially a communist state, although it has relaxed its policies in similar fashion to China in recent years. As a consequence I didn’t see many grand, expensive, wealthy buildings owned by individuals you’d see in major Indian cities. I saw very few signs of wealth whilst I was there, only a few smart land rovers driving about amongst the bikes, some very nice hotels and one upmarket shopping centre. At the same time, there seemed to be very little sign of slums and shanty towns stretching on for miles and miles. Whilst I saw plenty of basic, simple lifestyles, I saw very few signs of actual poverty which was good. There were a couple of exceptions but I won’t go into them. Certainly nothing came close to the view of Chennai’s river banks. Hanoi also had a very relaxed feeling for travellers, when off the roads. There were very few hawkers trying to sell off over priced rubbish to you, although I do remember one man incessantly following us with a load of fake books and travel guides. You can walk through districts loaded with hotel and restaurants without people rushing after you for your business, and you don’t get too many taxi drivers pulling up alongside you asking you if you need a lift somewhere (at least once you’re away from the airport). This relaxed feeling happens in unison with lots of locals working hard in their street shops or stalls. We spent some time walking about and found one hub of business selling loads of fake watches, wallets and numerous other hand made crafts.

Once we’d done enough general wandering about, we decided to do some sight seeing and started off by learning more about what put Vietnam on the map to the outside world. We visited the war museum. It was the most blatant propaganda I’ve ever seen. There were photos of Ho Chi Minh meeting soldiers and civilians, under the title of “Uncle Ho”. There were photos of French soldiers surrendering in the initial fight against France for independence back in the 1950s, and torture implements used by the American Army out on display. No mention of similar treatment handed out by the Vietnamese, so I’m sure they never resorted to those sorts of dirty tactics themselves. All around there were captured U.S. tanks and aircraft, not to mention the monument built up of French and U.S. aircraft that had been shot down. Below it we were proudly told that 33,068 U.S. aircraft had been shot down, captured or destroyed from 1969 to 1973. There were also several references to the “liberation” of Saigon and South Vietnam around, with pictures of the Northern army being met by hoards of civilians celebrating their victory. I’m sure the Vietnamese refugees now living in the U.S. would agree with the term “liberation”. At the same time I can’t be too cynical here as there doesn’t appear to have been any sort of unrest against the regime; probably because this particular regime has never been the oppressive, brutal, ruthless regime you normally associate with communism.

After this we had a little sit around at the square opposite the museum, with the Status of Lenin its centre piece. It was a typical city centre square, some people skating, playing keepy up with football and one local Vietnamese sports that looked really difficult. It was a team game involving a badminton net and a shuttle cock, and was effectively volleyball using your feet. It looked very skilful and it obviously took a lot of practice, you saw people practicing nearby with hacky sacks and shuttle cocks. It was a good place to sit and watch the city go by, another peaceful, relaxed area surrounded by manic streets. It seemed to be a theme quite often repeated in Hanoi.

After that we headed back to the Old Quarter for some food and we also had a quick look at Hanoi’s only Catholic cathedral. It wasn’t that impressive truth be told but just about worth a look at. After that it was a case of getting back to our travel agent and getting starting our journey to Sapa. We had been fortunate booking the package that they had fully booked standard sleeping class on the train, so for an extra US$5 each we were in first class. We got a compartment to ourselves, free water, largely ineffective air conditioning and more space than the standard class would have, with only 4 beds squeezed in as opposed to six. I still could never associate the word luxury with our travel, but it was more comfortable than any sleeper train I’ve had before. The beds were still pretty small or not designed for westerners at least, and they were very hard. We were equipped with snacks, plenty of water and the essential pack of cards before setting off. Night travel is the most efficient way and necessary but it was a bit of a shame not to get to watch any of Vietnam going past my window. I managed get four or five hours sleep before we arrived Lao Cai at around 6.30am. From there we had a bus to take us to Sapa which was about an hour long, a short journey offering some awesome views as we drove up into the clouds.

Sapa is a hill station, at an altitude of about 1600m that was built by the French whilst they were still in control of Vietnam. I was never really taken by what I saw of the town itself, but there were some breathtaking surroundings. There are rice terraces all around giving the hills extra colour. All around Sapa there are small hill tribes making a living and existence out of farming, but who have had the opportunity to add significantly to their income and wealth due to Sapa finding its way onto the tourist trail in recent years. Between 1995 and 2003 tourist arrival grew from 4,860 to 138,622 which is an unbelievable growth. One of the highlights about Sapa for me was that the town’s people and the villagers hadn’t taken up the attitude of “Lets try and rip these stupid foreigners off left, right and centre because they know nothing about Vietnam and make an easy target” attitude. There were plenty of touristy shops and travel agents, and plenty of women and children trying to sell you bags and other things they’ve made. However they only ever come across as polite and pleased to speak to you. It felt like they were actually interested in getting to know you and not just your money and throughout the trip we were happy enough to give what they were trying to sell a chance as a result. If there are any tour guides from Halong Bay reading this, take note.

However this was all to be discovered in time, my first impression to Sapa upon arrival was that it was very wet and the views were clouded. After breakfast and checking into our hotel room, we were able to rent some boots and buy waterproofs very cheaply before setting off down the hill for our first walk. It was effectively the warm up for the trek we were going to do the next day. The weather did not ruin things at all; it made it feel more like a vintage holiday in the mountains. We were taken down through the town and past lots of cafes, guesthouses and touristy shops whilst also going past fruit stall and other similar stands. With planning it might have been better to turn up and stay at one these places more amongst the action but we weren’t prepared enough, and I’m sure our hotel at summit would have been more worthwhile had there been clear weather. Once through the town we walked down through a farming village, with everyday life seemingly made accessible to guests to look at their lifestyle, although there were almost certainly large parts of the village offering more privacy for its residents, understandably so. Our destination was a lovely waterfall at the bottom with a suspended bridge going across it (I should add that very view of the bridges over mountain rivers I crossed ever felt that safe and secure), with the mountains and rice terraces rising up around us. There was a little shelter with a BBQ grill serving pork and sticky rice before we headed back up the hill for a couple of hours, which was pretty hard work. The rain had subdued by the way back up which made the walk more enjoying. Our tour guide, Long, was a decent guy with a good sense of humour which made it better. He was fit enough to walk around the mountains forever despite spending his entire life smoking. I barely saw him take a break and when I put it to him that he had too much; his response was “It’s only 40 a day”.

After relaxing for the rest of the afternoon we went out to find a quick drink in the evening where we had some awful cocktails. However after our night train and short walk we were pretty tired and go a decent nights sleep in preparation for the next day.

The next day was definitely one of the best from the Vietnam trip. Whilst we woke up to cloudy views once again, it wasn’t tipping down with rain and whilst we got the odd bit of drizzle during the day, the heavens never opened like the day before. We had an early breakfast before setting off on our trek at about 9am. After walking down through the town for the first 5km or so we had a brief rest, before the real descent began. The rain the day before and the frequent use of the path meant that it had become all too muddy and slippery. Having never been blessed with immense levels of balance I was certain I’d hit the floor multiple times. I’d only been going for a few minutes when one of the local villagers grabbed my hand and took me down through the first section without too much trouble. We went down past countless rice fields - almost every square metre is used for rice. None of it is sent elsewhere or sold, every grain of rice is necessary in feeding the people who live there. I had no idea how much of an effort it was to produce rice but it’s clearly quite a struggle for farmers. There were views of valleys and mountain streams opening around most corners and we were constantly surrounded by mountains towering above us. It’s a shame the path was such a nightmare because I spent most of the time staring into the mud and concentrating on where I was putting my feet as opposed to savouring where I was. We had enough opportunities to stop and look around though; no view ever quite seemed the same.

You frequently walked past small farms and homes before we eventually made it to the village at the bottom and crossed the river for lunch for lunch. It was a great place to eat lunch, a wooden hut with the river running past it. We ate some very good food, with various vegetables, pork, duck and I think some chicken. Long tried to convince us that some of it was dog and cat. This was more believable than his previous claim that they were putting human meat on the BBQ. Definitely wasn’t true though.

After lunch we walked through all the villages at the bottom of the valley. We went past a well equipped school and lots of houses and farms. Life was simple but very comfortable at the same time. Similar to most people I saw in Hanoi, poverty isn’t a grave threat to the village tribes living around Sapa. There’s no doubt that the influx of tourism has made a major difference. In one of the villages we stopped off at a very touristy shop selling small boxes, statues and other similar things carved out of stone. You could see the workers carving at the side as you walked around, you could see the skill that was necessary. Teddy and Vash both bought some brilliant travel chess sets made out of stone for US$20 each, excellent value. I bought a tiny small little box, to keep I don’t know what in. I just felt like I had to get some sort of souvenir but didn’t want to part with too much money. The brilliant attitude of the people around Sapa was summed up when Andreas knocked a small carving on the floor and saw it shatter. It was obviously not one of the more expensive items, but it still says a lot that we weren’t charged for it. Every other place I’ve been to that attracts a lot of tourists would have made you pay two or three times the value of the object in a similar incidence, but we were charged nothing. Maybe the fact that we collectively spent close to $80 anyhow helped our cause. Their character helped them out anyhow; a sour episode and we’d have only been more likely to walk out without buying anything.

After walking through the villages we had a short uphill session before getting the minibus back to the hotel, showering, changing and eating. It was then time for us to leave Sapa with a heavy heart. We had another sleeper train back to Hanoi except a couple of hours earlier than the previous journey. Same as the last time really. Our own compartment, snacks, cards and uncomfortable beds. Next up was Halong Bay. Farewell Sapa, thanks for two awesome days……

---

Photos

Roads in Hanoi
Manic

Hoan Kiem Lake
The centre of Hanoi, apparently

Outside the Pagoda
Relaxing place alongside madness on the streets

Tower at the war museum
But we weren't allowed to the top!

Tank
They didn't stop us from climbing

Dead planes structure
What you can make if you shoot down around 33,000 planes with the help of Blue Peter.

Lenin
Statue on the square oppostie

Sapa's centre
Lovely weather

View from Sapa
Hopefully the cloud doesn't spoil it too much

Another view from Sapa
Awesome whatever the weather

View from Sapa 3
Hopefully you're getting the picture now

By the waterfall day one
Looking just a tad like tourists.

With the locals
Friendly people

View from Sapa day 2
Weather more clear on the second day

Another from day 2
Walking amongst these scenes for hours.

Group picture
Us with Long

Crossing the river
Last challenge before lunch.

Suspension bridge
They were as sturdy and secure as this picture suggests.