Viet Tri to Sapa

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So for cyclists:

Viet Tri>Yen Binh 88.5km 15.4km/hr 5:44:38 generally rough road mostly flat. hotels avail.

Yen Binh>Pho Rang 101km 13.5km/hr 7:29:57 road improving
gradual climbing hotels avail.

Pho Rang>Lao Cai 90km 14km/hr
6:30:00 we took alternate route which was very nice-good road up and down. Lots of hotels. Sent our Vietnam map home so will update later with more info. on this route

Lao Cai-Sapa 37km 7.1 km/hr 5:16:30 good road flattish for the first 7km or so (from train station) then it's ALL uphill: elevation gain of 1000m (600>1600m)


We had a great time heading up towards Sapa which is a mountain town near the Chinese border. The area is noted for the various hill tribe people in the area : among them the Black H'mong, Red Dzao, and Flower H'mong as well as the outstanding terracing for cultivation and hiking opportunities etc. On the day from Yen Binh to Pho Rang we stopped in a little town for a drink/snack and noticed a bunch of colourfully dressed hill tribe people heading up this hard packed dirt path and wondered whether there may be a little village that way so we decided to bike up it and have a look! It was awesome! It wound through this little sort of valley and there wasn't one particular village per se-just stilt houses on either side of a meandering creek and rice paddies and other crops growing. It was such a peaceful change fron the honks of the cars and trucks-it was a nice temperature and birds were singing-almost made us want to stay even though we were ww early into our day! People were very surprised to see us and were very friendly-lots of shy waves and giggles from the ladies and little kids and hearty greetings from the men. We also had a small entourage of kids who were following us on foot and bike. We eventually decided that we should turn back when we got an invite from a family to visit their home! The husband showed us around proudly and then brought us into his sort of salon where we had tea and sweets with him followed buy shots of rice alcohol! We had a surprisingly coherent simple 'sign language' conversation with him looking at our passports and us looking at his id card etc and telling him where we heading etc. After exchanging coins with him(Cdn for Viet.) and thanking him and his wife for their hospitality we headed back to our bikes to find a crowd of kids waiting! Plenty of waves and toots of the bike horn later we were on our way again-great times! Another highlight was on the road between Pho Rang and Lao Cai when G stopped to take a picture and two little boys came over with an offering of a sort of sticky porridge wrapped in banana leaf. Their father also came out and we all started hacky sackying-a couple more locals also stopped in for a bit of hacking too! G was invited into the house with the women and they were showing her their native clothes etc. It was a really good time! We often recriprocate with gifts of really nice stamps from home that G was clever enough to buy before leaving. The boys were also happy to receive a hacky sack(I brought a bunch from home).

On the day up the long climb to Sapa from Lao Cai we had a chance to see some of the beautiful views although it only lasted for about half the climb at best after which it was fogged in solid. The 32km climb sure made the Gatineau park bike loop back home seem relatively flat! Sapa is a great place with really friendly people which really saved it for us as it was completely socked in with fog and wet and cold for the four days we spent there! It's very popular for it's Saturday market which is very colourful with the various hill tribes dressed in their native garb. Most traveller's were huddled around fires in their restaurant or pub of choice. The best anyone had were sub-standard plug-in heaters or small fireplaces in their rooms. The temps were from 2 or 3°C at night and maybe 6-10°C during the day. We stayed at the Queen hotel in a cool little upper floor room with wood floors which apparently if it had been clear had a great view-lol! We had a small fireplace and a small alottment of wood per day. Even if you had the fire roaring it wasn't enough to warm up the room much-it was just enough that you could sit in front of it to warm up and then make a dash for the heavily covered bed(which was very hard btw to get out of in the a.m!). The hiking in the area was very muddy and you could rent rubber boots but there were no views to be had so we decided against it. We instead ended up hanging out with Sa and Mai and Sa's daughter almost the whole time. They are Black H'mong people from a nearby village who come into town to sell their handicrafts when they're not working the rice paddies or attending to other stuff at home. There weren't many tourists in town so they had time to hang out with us and show us around etc. Mai has a simple room in town where she stays so we hung out there eating and chatting with them and playing a game called 'Dee' that is a little like hacky sack except you play it by hand instead of foot. Mai whips them up in no time-she takes a thick piece of cardboard and wraps it up neatly in dried corn husks and then stick feathers in the top! It's really fun-we laughed a lot playing and was a great way warming up! These people have such a great sense of humour-they're real jokers and always have a smile at the ready! It's also astounding how good their english is-and it's all learned from tourists(and then passed between each other)! It's hilarious-you might be joking around with a little 5yr old trying to sell you a bracelet and say maybe later and she'll say 'Liar, liar pants on fire'! We also hung around with Som,Gi (who kept joking around with G telling her that she stole her name and that she was my second girlfriend), Zi and Khu(Sa's eldest daughter). Khu is a real jokester and works as a trekking guide. It was really interesting talking to a friend of hers too who was around the same age(19) and also working as a guide. She was telling us how her parents and other elders were a little ticked because she doesn't know how to work the rice paddies or make some of the traditional crafts and skills etc and how they didn't understand that she still works very hard and wants to learn more about other parts of the world and travel etc. The girls taught us a bunch words from their language and had a good laugh calling us 'lanki' (lazy) if we slept in. We also went with them to an internet cafe to help them with their emails as they enjoy corresponding with tourists they meet but can't read or write english. It was nice reading them their emails and seeing their reactions and then writing back for them! At Sunday market we hung out with Mai at her little stall for a while which was fun too. We also met a nice young Vietnamese couple who were on Tet holiday named Tien and Jeune who we ate a nice meal with and Tien and I polished off the better part of a nice bottle of french brandy-needless to say I slept very well and was a tad 'lanki' the next a.m! We really just had such a fantastic experience in Sapa that we really had heavy hearts leaving these amazing people-there was of course, lots of waving and tooting of our bike horn!

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Photos

G,Sa, & Mai
We really miss these ladies.....

Flower H'mong
The lady on the left is from the Black H'mong hill tribe(the same as Sa and Mai) and the colourful ones on the right are Flower H'mong

Jokesters
We had a great time with these little jokesters while we were in Sapa!

Sad to leave
Me with Som,Mai, & Sa before leaving....

Climb to Sapa
This was a 32km climb with 1000m elevation gain....we took our time!!

Red Dzao
This lady is from the Red Dzao hill tribe--she was really sweet....