Good Morning Vietnam!

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We are a bit behind on our blog as since we arrived in Vietnam 8 days ago we have been having too much fun to go online much, but here is our entry from our first few days in the Northern town of Sapa...

So, once we were stamped out of China we crossed a short bridge and entered Vietnam at last, which was a strange but exhilarating feeling. We have been so excited about coming to Vietnam for ages as it is somewhere we have been meaning to visit for the last few years but just haven't, so we have built up our expectations and hope it delivers over the next few weeks. One of the things we were a bit apprehensive about here was getting ripped off or scammed, as while we have heard a lot of positive things about the country, we didn't hear too many good things about the people so agreed to be, in hindsight, over-cautious. It was with this in mind that I had my guard up from the off, and while Scott had negotiated a price for a mini-bus to take us from the border town of Lao Cai to Sapa (about 30 km away) and loaded our bags into it, I suddenly had these thoughts that maybe the seemingly nice driver wasn't actually going to take us all the way there/would demand more money once we had set off/would kidnap us etc, so made a rash decision to grab our bags and get out. Now this really isn't like me, if anything I normally throw caution to the wind and go with most things, so 5 minutes after I had caused this scene I gave myself a talking to and realised that I had totally over-reacted and there was no substance to my silly thoughts, but all the different things I had heard from other people had made me be unaturally suspicious for no reason. It was a bit embarrassing for me when we went to a nearby hotel and asked them to get us a mini-bus to Sapa and the same driver turned up a few minutes later...of course the journey was fine and we were dropped to the exact area we had requested an hour later, after he had delivered some childrens furniture to a small school and a parcel to a local lady...kidnapper indeed.

It was almost dark by the time we arrived in Sapa, and after checking out a few rooms (including hopping on the back of a guy's bike to see one down the road!) we finally settled on a really nice one for a couple of nights in the centre of town. Although it was more than we had initially wanted to pay for a room here, it was lovely with a huge double bed, flat screen TV, private bathroom with rain shower and big window with views over the mountains, so good value at $15 a night which is similar to what we were paying in China for a dorm room with shared shower sometimes! Once we had settled in we went to meet Hannah & Leigh (English couple) who had crossed the border an hour after us and were in a hotel opposite (we had told them the name of the hotel we were in but we didn't realise there was another one with a similar name opposite and they had gone there by mistake), along with two Dutch guys (Jasper & Hidde) they had just met on the bus from China. The 6 of us went for a nice dinner where we gorged on pasta and pizza, the first we had had in weeks - god we have missed Western food - and that is how we gained a great group to travel with for the next week.

On our first full day in Sapa, we explored the small town which we got a good feel for straight away. Whilst more like a European ski resort with quite fancy restaurants (mainly Italian) and lots of hotels and shops selling North Face stuff, we enjoyed the relaxed feel to it and spent a few hours just walking through the streets, admiring the mountains and rice terraces in the distance and people watching. We knew we wouldn't really stick to a budget here as we had missed Western food more than we thought and our next few meals would be spent enjoying proper carbs (bread, chips, pasta etc) in the many Western restaurants which was fine with us! But we did feel quite bad for not trying the local food which looked delicious and we had heard lots about..plenty of time for that though. We saw more Westerners and heard more English being spoken in 3 hours than we had in the last 5 weeks in China altogether which was strange, but we didn't actually mind and it was quite nice to be in a place where we can be understood easily again. What was a bit annoying was all the local ladies and girls from nearby villages trying to sell you things - we were constantly being approached, whether when we were walking or sitting down eating and drinking with loud calls of 'Hey mister! You buy from meeee! Where you from? You want bag/scarf/jewellery/purse/fruit, good price'.

The ladies were however always smiling and dressed in very impressive outfits which we later found out were handmade and depicted which tribe they were from - the Black H'Mong tribe who we saw most were kitted out in mainly black tops, skirts and leg warmer-type cuffs with colourful embroidery on them, along with matching headwear and clusters of silver hoop earrings and other jewellery, while the Red Dzao tribe wore, you guessed it, mainly red outfits but with much larger headwear and more jewellery. It was really interesting seeing these different tribes throughout the day in the town, and we learnt that they walked from their villages every day miles away carrying heavy bags in all sorts of weather conditions to ply their trade in Sapa and try and make some money which we appreciated so were always polite to them even if we didn't want to buy anything.

We heard about a nearby village called Cat Cat which was only 2-3km away so in the afternoon decided to walk there and check it out. We started the walk but the road soon ended as it was being dug up and there was a big crane in the middle of it with all the ground churned up next to it, so we turned back as it didn't look like you could go any further but some locals indicated differently and with their help we clambered over the rubble and mud and carried on towards Cat Cat. The walk was quite easy and the scenery nice so we enjoyed it and before we knew it were in the village, which we had to pay a small fee to enter but I guess the locals should get something out of tourists gawping at them and their homes. We passed small children, chickens, pigs and dogs, saw a pretty waterfall and eventually hiked up to the top of the village before jumping on two motorbike taxi's back to Sapa which was fun, the visit to Cat Cat well worth it and a good way to spend an afternoon, although if we had gone earlier the views may have been better as the cloud gets really low in the afternoon and you can't see as much.

It got really misty and quite cold that evening so we wrapped up and went for a bite to eat then met up with the others and spent the night in a small bar, the boys playing pool while the girls were chatting. It wasn't supposed to be a late night as they had all booked a 2 day trek starting tomorrow and had to be up early, but we didn't get to bed until gone 1am! Needless to say the next day was quite unproductive and we didn't envy them on their hike, but we loved just relaxing in our nice room, watching films, popping out to eat then getting back into bed - we so needed a day like this after the last few weeks! Plus the weather wasn't great anyway with mist and rain so we were quite happy staying inside and doing nothing all day. Scott finally shaved off most of the beard he had been growing since we got to China weeks ago thankfully, as it was way too long, even though he left a dodgy moustache for an extra day until he saw photo's and didn't like the German porn star look it was giving off so that soon went as well! And we did book a one day trek for the next day at a place we had visited twice for good food with a lovely owner and we also booked on a night bus to take us to Hanoi afterwards through her, so sorted out our bags and even after doing nothing all day we were tired so got an early night!

Up early on our last day in Sapa we checked out of our hotel and went to meet up with our guide for our trek that day, who to our delight was a local H'Mong tribal lady. There were 5 of us doing the trek that day, so we were a bit baffled when 6 other H'Mong women came along with our guide for the trek, but we would soon find out why there were there. We started walking along the road and before long it started raining which was a shame, but we soon came to a path veering off the main road which is where the real trekking began - our guide said this was the way to the villages we would be visiting and to be careful as the wet weather would cause the path to be slippery. After about 10 minutes of walking slowly and carefully downhill it became apparant what the extra ladies were there for - each of us had grabbed onto one for support as it was really difficult to stay on your feet - the rain had got heavier and turned the paths into dangerous mud slides but the ladies, who were at least 50 years old had a firm grip on us and were helping us not to slip. Scott of course was too macho for a small lady twice his age to assist him but it was not long until he had missed a step and slipped over on his backside in the mud, ruining his freshly washed clothes and denting his pride! It was so funny though, even the ladies were laughing, and he soon accepted the help from one of them to ensure no more accidents. We walked like this for a good hour, and while it was funny it did hamper the experience of the walk a bit as we were looking down and going slow so as not to fall rather than taking in the scenery all around us, which couldn't be seen anyway because of the fog and rain. We made one stop where the guide showed us the indigo flowers which make the dye for the clothing that the tibes wear which was cool to see, but she wasn't much more informative after that. After a couple more hours we made it to the first village and felt obliged to buy something off the ladies who had helped us along the way - I got a small handmade purse and Scott bought a head scarf for about £4, a bargain when they had helped us get there safely, even though my trousers and shoes were soaked and covered in mud, while they were still dry even though they were wearing sandals. We had a bit of lunch which wasn't great as it was in an open type restaurant where obviously all the tours go so full of tourists, rather than in a locals home as we had thought, plus we were surrounding by people trying to sell us things so it wasn't very 'real' and felt quite staged which was a shame.

When we left the rain had got even heavier, the guide wasn't really talking anymore and the other village we were due to visit was cut out as the tribes were all inside due to the bad weather, so we got on a mini-bus back to Sapa a bit earlier than planned. The trek was quite good but just not a very authentic experience, and the weather didn't help, but for $10 it was ok and something different. We went back to the place we had booked through as our bags were there and met up with the others, who had also said their 2 day trek was just ok, got out of our wet muddy clothes and had a bit of dinner. Jasper and Hidde were staying in Sapa one more day so the four of us made our way to the bus station for our first overnight bus in Vietnam.

We really enjoyed our time in Sapa and it made for a great first few days in Vietnam, but we are looking forward to seeing what the rest of the country is like as the people have all been lovely so far and we haven't seen any evidence of the scams or the unfriendliness which we heard about before coming here...next stop, the capital city of Hanoi and a much needed bit of warm weather...



S&V's Travel Info & Tips:

General Info: Approx 33,000 VND to £1. Get your haggle on as most prices (ex restaurants) are not fixed, even in shops.

Transportation: From the border town of Lao Cai you can take a mini-bus to Sapa for 50,000 VND per person if you haggle, it takes about an hour. Sapa is small and easy to get around on foot, but its hilly so while bikes can be rented it can be hard to drive here.

Food: So many restaurants! We were naughty and had pasta and pizza several times and it was always good, but the best pasta (and the cheapest at 80,000 VND) we had was at Sapa Fire, where we also booked the trek and bus to Hanoi through as their prices were the most reasonable.

Accomodation: We stayed at the White Lotus hotel for 300,000 VND a night for a really nice room overlooking the mountains, but rooms can be had for 160,000 VND for more basic rooms - the Lotus hotel opposite where our friends stayed was decent as were the rooms in Sapa Fire, but road noise could be annoying as these faced the main street.

Other observations:

x) There were so many shops selling North Face trekking and travel clothes and bags we thought they must be fake, but when we checked our own North Face jackets which we bought in the UK we were surprised to see they said 'made in Vietnam' in them - so the stuff they sell in Sapa probably comes from the same factories for a fraction of the price

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Comments

[deleted_46288]

Nice Pics :)
I must make my way up there some time in the near future. The north does have a worse reputation for scams than the south. In some areas, ripping tourists off does seem to be a Vietnamese national past time, so be careful. The most common scam comes at the petrol station when refuelling your bike. Always make sure they zero the pump and watch the numbers carefully. Stick to the well known taxi services such as Vinasun and Mai Linh as some of the lesser known companies can be a little suspect. Some shops and traders will generally try to make a few bucks out of you, sometimes charging you double what the locals pay. Generally, once you have agreed a price, people very rarely go back on it. The Vietnamese people are still quite honourable but if you do get into any difficult situations then threaten to call the police. The word for police is 'Canh Sat'. Realistically, most of the police officers here don't speak English and won't come to your aid if the amounts are small, however, your hotel should be able to help you if you encounter any serious problems. Otherwise, don't become too paranoid. Vietnam is a wonderful country, the people are wonderful and thankfully, scams are still few and far between.