Sensational Sapa

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We weren't sure about Sapa when we have looked at Sapa in the past there has been a lot of conflicting opinions and warning as there is often many hill slides (they are working hard to counter act the hill slides with retaining where they can this is a large area and they can't do it everywhere) however on the discovery that we must wait for seven days to get our Chinese Visa's from Hanoi we had to decide what to do...they recommended on arrival to Hanoi that the weather will be better in a couple of weeks for Sapa and Halong Bay....now that we have to wait for visa's they say we should go do both 2 days in Sapa...the train to Sapa is overnight and we can't see the sense in coming up for just one day so we decided four days and three nights as Sapa started to sound interesting and speaking with different people its a highlight of there time in Vietnam!

We boarded the train in the evening and found our beds soft sleepers that are like a lot of beds here in asia rock hard! There is a youngish Vietnamese couple in the room with us and on inspection we discover he works in a restaurant in Sapa and she is a receptionist they are from Hanoi but work up here...his english is very good and he started to tell us about them and that he is 11 years older than her they have been together one year and he is 34 which is crazy and ironic as we were the same ages when we had been together one year! Unfortunately and strangely expected the discussion soon took a turn towards the inevitable what are you doing in Sapa? I show you there is five tribes and this is a map....and you can trek here....and you can do this....and I can rake you and what do you think???? Well we do the easiest thing and take his details and hope that this is the end of it...by total accident (earlier in the conversation) and I am greatful I said the wrong name of the place we are staying so he can't find us....hehe

Anyway soon we decide to watch a movie on our new dvd reader through the computer and then head off to bed...about 5am I am woken by the attendant banging on all the doors to wake everyone before arrival at the station and we soon get off the train and head over to the exit of the station...first being approached by every person asking if we want a minibus to Sapa...we have actually booked a bus so we head off to find our man with the clip board then over to the minibus and all the bags are strategically placed under and around seats to fit everyone in we are soon underway wondering what this place will bring us.

Over the hills and around windy gorges and we get to Sapa town....you know you have arrived when you see the ladies from the red zou tribe and black hmong tribes all up and down the streets waiting to pounce on the first person to get out of the car hehe (they are here all the time however its different ladies they come and go from there village all the time. So they may come to the town for one day or a couple of nights it depends on how far away they live they are not begging but selling there hand made goods.) you understand they are there to make a living and you have to respect they are trying to live but it can get a little frustrating when you are walking around and there is five of them following you and instead of all listening to the questions they all ask the same question individually....what's your nammme? where are you froooom? How old are you? Have you got Baby? You want to buy from me miss? (the last question keeps getting asked no matter how much you say no}

So we eventually get to our hotel up the hill and around the corner and up the hill a little further and to our surprise no ladies here waiting it appears for the early morning arrivals they hangout down the main street where there is many hotels! We head up to our room 304 surprise its on the third floor (its a trend always 3 or 30 something on this trip!) the room is clean a good size and we are happy we freshen up and Mike has a sleep he isn't feeling to well today and didn't sleep on the train so I go out and get us some lunch and bring it back so we have a baguette with ham, cheese, tomato and cucumber on it there is a lot of bakeries here in Sapa....I also get some coconut bread for Mike and I think he enjoyed this more than the baguette! In the afternoon Mike is hungry and feeling a little better so we head out first heading to the tourism office and we end up booking a trek to Taffin the following day went down the road and got something else to eat then back to the hotel I think maybe 60-80 stairs to the hotel and this is the second time today I have climbed back up them alone and I have decided I want to go to the top of the hill for sunset so on go the runners and off we go...its a big walk and we only went about 3/4 of the way in the end....we went to the view point of the city then on up to the stone forest and the cloud view and the sun was just setting its amazing here the hills and scenery is unbelievable its very much like N.Z but the mist is mad! Its pretty clear tonight and the its hot..we met a young lady from Brisbane and talked with her all the way back down the hill and in the end organised dinner at a place she recommended called Sapa Emotion the food was out of this world....its soooo fresh and yummy we had goose with orange sauce and sapa herbs, a chicken dish that came with rice cooked in the bamboo and a pork dish we shared them all between us Wonderful! We head back to the hotel and off to bed we have our trek tomorrow!

We wake up and its misty and cold and you can see the ground is damp...we wonder what to do and think stuff it we will go anyway its not raining and it will be interesting either way! We head down and eat our breakfast (no tables to share with dutch couple) then our guide arrived so happy she is a local tribe member from Taffin where we are going and she speaks wonderful english her name is May Knhi she is lovely she has a 3 1/2 year old boy and we learn a lot about her and the culture as we go along.
We head off to start and she says its bad fog and hope it get better, She is 23 and she met her husband at the local love market in Sapa she is from a about 20km away but she move to her husbands village when they got married (same tribe the red zhoa) She said that there parents don't like the choice they each made for life partner which is a shame but they don't care. Due to tradition her parents tried to marry her off at the age of 13 to a young boy 11 that was from a rich family but she didn't go through with it...she refused to make the clothes like she was supposed to so that she would be married....she didn't help her Mum and basically rebelled against it! The opinions on what is common in the tribes is conflicted according to May she said that there is no expectation as such for marriage age unless they get to 30 then they are old and something wrong! The age depends on the parents and the children and how rich they are...for example the males family pays for everything and basically buys the wife so they give the parents of the wife to be money and then they have to pay for the food and the wedding the clothes everything really. It can cost a lot as well as they have to cater for everyone and a village like taffin has 2500 people living there then you have the wives family etc that come to the wedding. So for example they may need 20kg of pork and its 60000 per kg which is 120000 which is what she got paid to take us on the trek for the day (we paid 950000) shows you how much they keep at the tourism office. Anyway this is a harder/longer trek and they get paid a set amount depending on the trek they do...sometimes she is busy all the time like the last three weeks she has a trek everyday and then other months she may only have 14 treks in the whole month.(we gave her a tip she was great and we enjoyed the time we had with her we have here email and she is hoping to open a home stay if she does we will go stay if we come back) Anyway along the way we ate yellow berries a bit like little raspberries but they were bright yellow and sour by very nice, got to see the indigo plant they use to dye the demin dark blue, see mountain herbs and poison eggplant. The trek was lovely you could see how amazing it would be on a clear day but the fog was heavy and you can see it passing by you and feel it! May made us some head pieces out of ferns and we had some photos and on arrival into her village we got to have lunch at her house. I think she will be an amazing guide and home stay operator!

We came back to a very,very soggy, misty Sapa town and a fire in the hotel lobby we sat by the fire and warmed up and enjoyed the feel and smell of an open fire. Then head out for dinner I got a sapa steak cooked in garlic and ginger it was yummy...we then head back to the hotel and have a rest!
Today we woke up feeling a lot better than expected but I couldn't work out why there is no hot water so I washed my face and off we went for brekky downstairs oh yeah baguettes are huge here breakfast here at the hotel and lunch on treks but they are lovely and fresh so can't complain at that! We head down to Sapa Rooms (without even meaning to hehe) as its a little bit like yesterday and we have hot chocie and coffee then end up talking to the owner he is originally from Sydney and he says the weather is hard to predict we discuss option of getting motorbikes tomorrow and going to the waterfall and mountain and he says its no good at the moment as there is no water and has been no rain for at least two weeks which is strange at this time of the year 😞 He suggests Tavan and Lo Chai so but says wait until after 10am thats when the weather has settled a little and you can usually see what is going to happen....happy with this we head off to CatCat the closest village that you can walk to on your own...its very developed and has a heaps of stairs (be prepared) but a stunning waterfall and the place is interesting but designed for the tourist so we head for the non tourist village (no entrance fee) its a 2k walk from where you leave catcat and is called Sim Chia village and is run the traditional way with no one really speaking english and no activities to be seen other than there everyday things. The village is rustic and interesting but the thing that wrecked it for me is that the only words that the people seemed to know there was Money, Miss if I took a photo....now I didn't have change so there was no way to give them any and if they had been doing something really worth giving money fine but some said it just as I walked past even if I wasn't taking a photo! There is some amazing scenery down this way in the valley and I loved walking around where there is no bikes and people both days! We head back to the hotel and have a wee rest and on arrival we are told there is no hot water we say its ok and they apologise and explain no water into Sapa for two days (more explanation later) we tell her its ok, they are panicked and don't like having no water for guests. After our rest we head out to dinner at Sapa Rooms good food! No water here at all as there is a bowl and bucket in the toilet to flush but is was all good the food was amazing and they like everyone use bottled/ boiled water to cook anyway! We then head up the markets and Mike buys a north face jacket (been looking for days and last night and tonight he needed something a little heavier than what he had that's for sure!) Then back to the hotel out of the cold and spitel that seems to be hanging around to find there is no power....well this is the story....the hotel has a generator but they don't turn it on unless someone wants a shower as every two days there is a power cut in the evening 8-10pm this is because they buy there power from China and they have to conserve the power and then the owner of our hotel goes on the say once a month ( I think the 10th) there is a power cut all day. The reason there is no water is because the people at the villages got annoyed about not getting enough water so they broke the water pipe (this is at the village we went to today) This is serious and its lucky our hotel had a tank and they have been using that but now the pipe is fixed and they are getting a little water to Sapa. I big thing to remember is that the tribes have been here over 1000 years and they rely on nature and now that there rain is not here at the normal time this year they are struggling as they can't pant crops they need too rice, corn etc The hotel manager is concerned about the tribes and wants them to continue with there traditions and he said most of the problem is because there is so many tourist especially on the weekend there is about 800+ per weekday arrive and about 5000+ on the weekend.

The next morning we awake to more fog and think is it worth going out we have a lazy morning and go down and have breakfast have a hot shower and pack up our things as we leave today....sad to be leaving on a foggy day but its still early and who knows what might happen....around midday the fog is moving through very quickly and we think that it might be changing...there has been rays of sunshine coming through the fog so we head down to get some lunch and consult sapa rooms staff about if its a good day to go see Tavan....they say any day is good but they are not in control of the weather so can't say yes or no...so we go outside and get a couple of bikes $12 each with drivers and jump on....as we go down the hill from Sapa town we realise that the weather is pretty good here and as we go through the valley the sun is shining and the clouds are moving through the valley its lovely just a shame the rice has not been planted yet....three or four weeks and it would be perfect for new rice. So we get dropped off and walk down through Lao Chai and Tavan village with people following us along the way there was one little lady that was my shadow I stopped to get a photo she stopped I moved three steps she did too....I ran to catch up to Mike she ran too....I tried to say I wouldn't be buying anything but she just followed anyway! There is men working (I know what a shock hehe) with the water buffalo and picks getting the rice terraces ready for cultivating...it looks like there was some rain last night and there ground is a little damper than what we have seen in the last few days. We eventually made it to the other end of the village and there were our boys waiting to take us back to Sapa the journey back was as stunning if not more so than the way there I think this walk was about 4k we have done a fair bit of walking in the last few days about 18-22k I would guess its been so nice to get out into nature and walk. We return back to the hotel grab our bags and hope on the bus to the train station packed in with bags and people around us we head off to Lao Cai we arrive and grab some tea and then head over to the train station while waiting there is a guy that is desperate to have our tickets in exchange for his tickets which are for the train leaving at 8.15 ours is at 9pm he says his clients have not made it in time for the train....much changing around we eventually get a berth together and he has our tickets we have his. Then two vietnamese ladies turn up and want there friend to stay in here....well that's what I think they want....we refuse then they want me to sleep on the top bunk and they can have my bottom one....I don't think so...this is all communicated through point to tickets, waving of arms and pointing of fingers...they eventually settle on sleeping on a single bunk together on the bottom lucky they are small there is no way that I could share this bunk even with a ten year old they are long enough just the width is about 2inches wider than my hips/bottom hehe these bunks are comfy compared to the last ones they are softer and I can sit on them even without my pillow...hehe

See you later Sapa you are a treasure and I will one day be back to explore some more and next time I think I will hire someone to drive me around on a bike that knows all the good spots!

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Comments

[Heather]

I really enjoyed your post about Sapa. Your description of the food made me hungry! My blog is looking for travel photos, reviews, food finds, etc, to share. If you have the time, check it out at dirty-hippies.blogspot.com, or email us at [e-mail]. Continued fun on you travels! Heather :)