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A room with a view
"I don't care how lovely it is Bev, I'm not looking down" We had a great journey up to Lao Cai on the overnight sleeper train, we booked the tickets through an agent in Hanoi, it cost a bit more but the bunks were really nice. Shared our compartment with a couple of lads from Melbourne who were on their way to China - Lao Cai is the border crossing point from Vietnam to China. After the long journey we were glad to find plenty of mini buses and touts waiting for us to take us the 1 hr (38KM) drive to Sapa. We hadn't booked a room but had decided on a couple of "possibles", luckily for us the tout that picked us up worked for one of the "possible" hotels so we paid the 50,000 dong (1 pound 60p) and promised to look around his hotel. As soon as we saw the view we were hooked.......absolutely spectacular!! The rooms were chalet style nestling up on the hills of Sapa overlooking the valley and Mount Fansipan (Vietnams highest peak) in the distance. At only 5 pounds it was a bargain, we had an open fire in the room, 2 massive double beds and a great hot shower - just what we
Fresh !!
Vegetarians may want to look away NOW !! needed after the long journey. It was a bit of a climb though (156 steps to be precise) but with my bartering powers I managed to have the back packs brought up from the taxi by a very peeved driver!!!
The local market in Sapa isn't for the faint hearted - especially if you're a vegetarian. We saw all kinds of "Fresh Meat", and it was literally being skinned and chopped in front of us. We saw buffalo legs with hooves still attached draped across tables, a cows head sat on an upturned bucket with it's tail lying close by on the table above, pigs heads and trotters and the best (or worst) of the lot........pedigree chum........not the canned variety, this was the real deal........a lovely pooch, beheaded, de-tailed and displayed for all to see on a platter in the market, Hence the title of this Blog. After such a grisly encounter we headed off for some fresh air to the lakeside and to have a general nose about town. On the way we were "befriended" by one of the local H'Mong tribe girls - she was called Chan and was 15 years old, she spoke quite good English
YES.... They really DO!!
There's no way he's winning any prizes at Crufts !! but when we got the guide book out and tried to speak to her in H'Mong she didn't understand a word......obviously wearing the H'Mong Tribe dress but wasn't actually a Tribeswoman. The lake in Sapa is manmade, or appears that way, it looks like something out of Alton Towers complete with plastic swan pedalos!!! The rest of the village was quite surreal too, it reminded us of Port Merion in Wales where they filmed the prisoner and to top it all off there was a guy in the town square with an electronic weighing machine that whistled Auld Lang Syne, Jingle Bells and all the usual classics - this is the machine whistling by the way, not the guy!!! By this time the long journey and the excitement of Sapa had worn us out so we retreated back to the Hotel where we sat enjoying the view and the gorgeous sunshine before having a quick nap. Dinner that night was good and cheap, from there we went on to a Bar where we met a few other travellers and had a bit of a laugh with the staff - one of them took a liking to Barry's watch, asked to
Bev & Chan
She gave us the hard sell, but it just didn't work !! even when she stood on the top step and stared us out !! try it on then disappeared for an hour. He came back eventually - very appologetic!! We fell into bed - all that fresh mountain air lulled us into a lovely long sleep and we didn't wake up 'til 10am the following morning.
Today we had a leisurely breakfast of scrambled eggs and bread (the bread in Vietnam is lovely), once again the weather was sunny and very hot - hot enough to give us both bright red noses!! After breakfast we headed for Cat Cat the H'mong Tribe Village situated 3KM south of Sapa in the valley below. The views were stunning down there and we met quite a few of the Tribes people going about their daily business of tending the fields, looking after the herds and raising the kids. At the centre of the trek we came to a waterfall where the local people had set up shops selling minority clothing and drinks. We bought a couple of cans of juice, Barry had Coke and I had a can of Winter Melon Tea which tasted exactly like digestive biscuits. We climbed the hill at the opposite side of the village and were greeted by Moto Bike Taxi's
who offered to take us back to Sapa for $5 each.....obviously that was way too much so after some excellent bartering (Indian Style) we paid $1 each and were transported up the steep hills and back to the Hotel.
After such a strenuous day (for us non athletic types) we dined early on Deer and Veg Noodles (poor little Bambi)!! had a walk around town and retired early to bed for another great sleep.
Anothe early start, this time to buy train tickets for our return to Hanoi, after this we hired a Motor Bike and headed off towards Fansipan and the Tram Ton Pass (the highest mountain pass in Vietnam). We asked the guy who hired us the bike if the road was good - his reply "Under Construction" proved later to be very true. At one point in the journey we had to stop at a road block for the construction workers to do some blasting on the mountain edge. The "Under Construction" road made Baga Road look like the M6!! As we climbed the scenery got better and better, we stopped off at Fansipan base camp and met a guy from Singapore who was just
Lou & Andy in Vietnam
" I want that one as well!!" about to set off on a 4 day ascent with 2 guides and 2 porters, the latter wore flimsy plastic shoes that actually looked like ladies sandals, the amount of stuff that they were carrying looked extremely heavy, we felt really sorry for them but I suppose they do this every day of their lives!! We made the Pass in 1 and a 1/2 hours and were a bit worried at this point as to whether we had enough fuel in the bike so Barry decided to Free Wheel it whenever he could and we made it back to Sapa with only fumes feeding the engine, (that YTS mechanics course came in handy at last)!!!
After lunch we caught the minibus back to Lao Cai where the train would again take us overnight back to Hanoi. We left the hoardes of package tourists at the "Agency Restaurant" and made our way to a local bar where we sat for two hours with the owner whilst waiting for the train.
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June
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It's a dog's life - or not
This blog should have come with a health warning! Yuck. I'm glad I wasn't eating when I opened it. Poor doggy. I definitely won't be showing this to Bronte! Fascinating place though by the looks of it. Very envious of your wonderful travels. Take care. LOL June x