Advertisement
Published: November 23rd 2012
Edit Blog Post
Room View
Le Gecko, Sapa It was something of an inauspicious start to our time in Vietnam. The border itself was an easy stroll across the Red River between checkpoints. However we were not even through Vietnamese customs before we were nearly chased back into China by touts.
Vietnam is renowned for its touts. They don't call it Vietscam for nothing. Here, the ordinary rules do not apply. You're no longer a fascination to the locals, as in China. There's certainly no fear of impersonating an authority figure, or just plain lying. While we have grown to appreciate the Vietnamese industriousness, it is no surprise that that industriousness has long been known as deviance to South East Asian rivals.
In the strictest sense, we weren't even in Vietnam when the Lao Cai mafia started to try and liberate us from our dongs. No doubt relying upon the fact that many border crossers are confused by exchange rates and the relative value of services, some guys were charging unbelievable sums (50x the correct price) to take us to Sapa. Fortunately we were well read, and somewhat ready to play the game. But I can see how many an unsuspecting tourist would get caught
out. I laughed my way past various chancers, telling them I'd crossed the border many times (gotta fight fire with fire!) and that we'd be wanting a cheap lift to the station - and it would be there that we would find a lift to Sapa.
A motorcyclist and his mate stepped forward, and we agreed on 2000 dong a piece for the short ride. Predictably, on arrival, this then turned into 20,000. The looks of incredulity on their faces when telling them we had agreed 2000 were priceless. Annoyingly, the smallest denomination we had was a 10,000 dong (30p) note, and being as change was out of the question, we told them to split it and do one. Which, after realising they weren't getting any more out of us, they did.
A similar 45 minute game was played in arranging a mini-van up the mountain to Sapa. After comically asking several bemused street vendors the direction to the train station that we were already standing outside of, we caught our bearings and started to negotiated our ride. This involved a bloke wanting 250,000d, us flat out refusing, him coming
My View
This was written in Cambodia's very exotic Koh Rong. Typically, three weeks after we were actually in Sapa. back 10 minutes later with a lower price, us flat out refusing, and so on, like a game of chicken as day was fast replaced by night. With the skies finally dark, we settled on a price of 60,000d (£1.90). 40,000d represents the ideal price, but following an epic day's travel from the Chinese rice terraces, and with most journeys made in daylight, 60,000 felt ok. Some people have been ripped off for millions in similar circumstances.
A day of little food, passive smoking, rickety buses and battles with touts had left us both with headaches as the fifth leg of the day's transport ascended through the darkness of the north Vietnamese hills. So it was great relief that we finally arrived and...
I stepped straight into an open sewer.
Thankfully, the rest of our time in Sapa, and Vietnam as a whole, has proven a lot more fun than that opening couple of hours. We found a nice place to stay, Le Gecko, almost immediately. After a bit of negotiation, they were happy to let us have a nice double room for $8 a night. This despite me and my soggy, right leg squelching in unannounced. Then after changing, we found a great place and ate Pho, and realised that the Vietnamese culinary experience was going to be head and shoulders above that of China. Knackered from our 14+ hours on the road, we called it a night, postponing any exploration for the following morning.
That exploration revealed that Sapa is a genuinely nice place. The hills and surrounding land is positively Middle-Earth esque. Many other travellers would describe the scenery as stunning, which it is. However, having seen some of the landscapes we had in China, not least the rice terraces of just days before, we were probably a bit spoiled. It wasn't quite 'as' stunning.
It was interesting to see how approaching Sapa from the opposite direction (the north), also altered our perspective of the place in relation to the other tourists. For most, Sapa is as far as they will venture in their South East Asian adventure. They've got to Hanoi, and then they've gone wild, and gone a step further. Up into the mysterious hills. Talk of being 'so close to the Chinese border' is ubiquitous. To this effect, it was highly amusing to see countless groups, both organised and independent, trekking the simple pathways to the tourist-ified Hmong villages as if they were approaching Everest base camp. Walking sticks, Lycra, pen knives and most of all, tonnes of North Face gear was abound. Then, Sophie and I come traipsing past in our shorts and our flip-flops. 'Nothing to see here folks.'
In fact, where many perhaps enjoyed the pretence of being up and remote, Sophie and I, after experiencing the true sticks in China, enjoyed the civility of it all. While the 'Gap Yearers' and tour groups saw the phenomenal amount of knock-off North Face gear available as indicative of how adventurous they were, Sophie and I saw cafes and restaurants and bars that we could only have dreamed of in even China's most urbane areas. Finally, good food, good coffee.
So that was Sapa: adventure-lite. Like Snowdon with sun. And coffee. And Pho. Time to board a night bus, going where no GI could go before - Hanoi.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.1s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 10; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0727s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb