Advertisement
Published: March 13th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Well, its time for you all to laugh at us. We are in the Hoang Lien Mountains in North West Vietnam, only 30km from China, and thanks to the world wide web and some bbc weather reports it is colder here than back home. To make things worse.......at least you are all currently reading this in the warmth. Not for us...brass monkeys do not even come close. To add insult to injury...are we prepared with cold clothes?...nope. As I type I am wearing gloves (recently purchased), 2 hats (recently purchased) and a ski mask (see below), and I can still see my breath and not feel my fingers. Unfortunately the budget does not stretch to somewhere with heating so thank god for the several duvets each, and a wood burning stove in the dining room. This is one place where we would argue the more people in a dorm the better. There is definitely warmth in numbers. 3 would not be the magic number here, more like 33. Aaaah well its still better than being at work..
Sapa is 2000m above sea level, and we could be in Switzerland. Built into the mountain side it is stunning.This village has the
feel of any small village in the Alps complete with a bell tower. It has a definite ski lodge feel with exposed beams and brickwork and chalet style hotels. It even has the chocolate box church. The churches in Vietnam are very pretty. As a result of the French colonialism there are lots of really well preserved beautiful Catholic churches. It is really nice to see Buddhist Vietnemese living alongside the surprisingly high number of Vietnemese Catholics. In fact, the Black H'mong hill tribes who live in Sapa attend mass daily and it was an experience to sit and watch mass being taken by women and children in tribal dress. A far cry from back home!
A stroll of 5 minutes will see you from end to end of the town but is a necessary requirement before partaking in any activities in Sapa. There are essentials you need to buy. Not Oreos (which are a heavy addiction of mine at the moment), but warm clothing. As you walk around Sapa you walk in the clouds, surrounded by fog. At times as the mist rolls in you cannot see further than 3 feet in front of you, so to say
the place had gorgeous views would be to pretend that we have seen them. Fortunately for us, a motorbike ride down the mountains gave us a better view of the world famous rice terraces this area is famous for.
Despite the icicles actually forming on my eyelashes as we rode, we bagged ourselves a driver and a local guide for the day and headed down through the hills. It was amazing. It is by far the best scenery we have ever seen in our lives and was the most exhilrating journey we have taken yet. Plus the guide was a real cutie and Andrew had to forcibly tell Lara to stop staring at points. She claims she just wanted to 'cuddle him up and take him home'. You really cannot beat travelling down the side of a mountain on a Russian Minsk 125cc fearing for your life as you round every corner...yup...the driving is no better on a bike.
Sapa is home to many minority villages, the largest of which is the Black H'mong Group. They live the closest to Sapa and consequently are the most affected by tourism in a way reminiscent of Chang Mai. Every
Photo requires an argument over payment and the flickering lights can be seen from the televisions (and DVD players!) inside the huts. Thank goodnes we gave them a wide berth and our guide took us to some villages further down in the mountains.
These villages receive few tourists, are almost entirely self sufficient and are more than willing to let you into their homes to see how they live. In fact they love having pictures taken, so much so that in one village it was almost impossible to leave. They donned their best outfits (which was oddly a white shirt and trousers) and their best accessories (plastic flowers) to have their pictures taken. Its funny. The tourists want to see them dressed in their everyday wear of beautiful handmade clothes in vibrant colours and they want to wear their Sunday best....an outfit that would not look misplaced on a barman at a Harvester! The woman are all tiny due to stunted growth from carrying anything from bamboo to bricks on their back and have black teeth which is considered a sign of beauty. I am not sure it will ever catch in back home though......maybe a letter to Vogue...black
could be the new white.
Riding through the villages was incredible. It gave us a chance to see and expereince Vietnemese life, not to mention the breathtaking scenery. The villages are tiny and remote. The children play on sledges pulled by ox's, that is those who are not at work in the rice paddies or digging fields on mountainsides. School is something alien to them. Toddlers carry babies on their backs in home made slings and weird markets adorn the road frequented by villagewomen in all manner of colourful clothing. It was a journey we will never forget and is a highlight of our trip so far. Doing things like this gives you an insight into life that organised "tours" cant touch. The freedom to stop when you want, be with someone that speaks the dialect and just learn about people's lives was fantastic. Lunch was eaten in a local village, thank god we have mentioned the art of chopsticks, where inevitably the talk tuned to football and the price of cars. The Asians certainly love the permiership. Thank God Lara can hold a decent football conversation!
Sapa is must see stop on any tour of Vietnam and
a definite highlight if this trip. If only it wasn't so cold...will I ever feel my extremities again?
Advertisement
Tot: 0.309s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 27; qc: 137; dbt: 0.2618s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.4mb
LeighSwenson
Leigh Swenson
I'm with you on the cold thing.
Just arrived yesterday in apa and I think I must be sitting in the same internet joint you were - it's freezing. We want to avoid the tour thing and commercialised villages. Do you remember the name of any of the more remote villages you visited? They sound right up my alley.