Becpowell's travel blogs:
|
|
  | |  |
Is this Sapa, or Hanoi? I can't tell
Entry 4 of 13 | show all | print this entry |
Day 65 - The train arrived at Lao Cai at 5:30am and there was certainly no shortage of buses going to Sapa. I shared a minibus with a few tourists that were mostly on organised tours from Hanoi and was lucky to get a fair price of 30,000 Dong (I later heard of many tourists paying over 150,000 Dong for the same trip!). The journey takes about an hour to get to Sapa and I enjoyed the scared reaction of some of the tourists on the bus who clearly were not used to SE Asian driving!
The bus driver dropped me off at the Royal Hotel (which was recommended to me by Tuan) and got a very big room with three beds and a window (woop!) looking out on the great view of the valley for $5. I had a lovely nap as I was keen to shake off this bloody illness and went into town for lunch at midday. Sapa is extremely busy. This may be due to Labour day - a Vietnamese National Holiday being two days away, but more to do with its notoriety with tourists. The town is teeming with villagers dressed in traditional dress and talking incredibly good english. In a small restaurant I met an Israeli called Liran (and true to Israeli form he was very entertaining and sarcastic, which suits me well). We decided to take a motorbike tour tommorrow with his roomate who he met earlier in the day and in the afternoon we sat on his hotel balcony drinking tea.
We went for a walk to the fresh foods market and saw lots of cows legs complete with hoof, as well as a chopped up, skinned dog - ironically a cute, fluffy, poodle-like specimen was curled up asleep just next to it! I also tried to buy a mango but a lot of the sellers were very aggressive and some physically pushed me away when we couldn't agree on a price! Back at Liran's hotel we shared the mango and a pineapple until his roomate, Laurie from Nottingham returned. The three of us negotiated with a motorbike diver with good english and a cheeky smile but feeling (once again), ripped off, decided to leave it until tommorrow. I had a supper of rice crispies and sweetened UHT soya milk (it'll have to do) in my mug and utilized all three beds one way or another - well I was paying for them!
Day 66 - Got going slowly today - by midday, Liran,Laurie and I had agreed to pay $5 each for two motorbikes and a driver - Liran driving with Laurie as a passenger and myself on the back with the driver with the cheeky smile! We set off to Tram Tom Pass which is a very high pass between Sapa and Lai Chau provinces, which would normally provide a view of Fansipan (the highest mountain in Indo-China) but thanks to Sapa's trademark fog, we could see more than 10 metres! All the same, the road to the pass was very rough in places, passing Silver Falls and beautiful scenery of rice terraces in the valleys amongst green mountains reaching high into the clouds. There were a fair few villagers dressed in their traditional clothes hard at work en route which was ascinating to watch as the minority groups in Laos tended not to wear their traditional dress much. At the pass, we debated going back to villages nearer Sapa, but out guide urged us to continue into Lai Chau province as there are less tourists and with Sapa being the coldest province in Vietnam, and Lai Chau the hottest, the weather would be much nicer over the other side. It was definitely the right choice as we were rewarded by breathtaking scenery of rivers, mountains and farmland and a really enjoyable drive along the mountain road.
Not far from the pass and at the highest point, furthest away from any settlement, our motorbike got a puncture on the front tyre! With no phone signal, the only solution was for the guide to ride his bike slowly towards Lai Chau, sitting as far back on the seat as possible... leaving the three of us and only 1 bike! So with Liran driving, Laurie in the middle and myself perched on the back dangling my feet either side and trying not to let me feet scrape the floor as we went round corners we set off down the mountain! It was actually surprisingly comfortable and a lot of fun. We travelled a fair way in this manner until the tyre got replaced at a little roadside 'petrol station', which was a wooden shack with a portable fuel pump. A little further we reached the town of Binh Lu, which had Lao and Thai ethnic groups which can be distinguished by their black teeth they get from chewing bettel. We ate some pho in a local restaurant and drove in between some paddy fields to a little village.
We drove back towards Sapa, stopping at Silver Falls on the way. In the evening I met Laurie and Liran for some cheapVietnamese food and then went to a bar which was full of Hmong girls playng pool and drinking - it was very odd to see! I lost a game of chess (but to be fair I can't remember the last time I played) and retired to bed.
Day 67 - Today I am commencing a 2 day trek and homestay to the villages in Sapa valley. I had originally wanted to trek to Fansipan summit, but since I was still recovering from whatever illness I had previously, as well as needing 12 hours sleep a night, I thought climbing a mountain was a bit ambitious! At 9:30 I met my guide; Xao, a Hmong girl from a nearby village and therefore knows a lot about the lifestyle in the area, and also6 other people in the group: A Canadian couple Phil & Janice, Patricia, a British lady who lives in Saigon, a Dane called Alex and a Turkish man & his Vietnamese wife.
We walked along the road for a bit and it soon became apparent that every guesthouse in town does the same 2 day trek at the same time everyday as there were loads of groups walking along the road with us. Also, we were joined by very chatty Hmong women and children. Even off the road, through the rice paddies, you could not move without bumping into someone - it was worse than Hanoi! The trek was pretty easy - mostly downhill, the the scenery is quite impressive. Instead of natural, untamed mountains and forest of Laos, and karst mountains and rice fields of lowland Vietnam, Sapa is simply mountains completely transformed by terraces. Although it is not natural scenery, it is beautiful all the same, and something I have not yet seen on my travels.
As soon as we reached the place for lunch - a room full of tourists separated from the rest of the world by a wire fence(!) - the Hmong ladies suddenly changed their tune and persistantly hassled for us to buy something from them! I expected this to happen at some point, but most of the crafts they were selling were not even handmade, and were mostly duplicates! The lunch was baguettes, cheese and fruit - so far the experience has been disappointing, lacking any authenticity and being far too crowded.
After only one hour more trekking, we arrived at Ta Van village and found our homestay. Things started to improve from here on, as the homestay was very nice and was actually where a family lived - despite the building being purposefuly built for the job. A group of Canadians were at the homestay when we arrived (bizarrely from the same town as Phil & Janice!), on their way to Sapa, and were very nice to chat to for a little bit. After an hour of arriving, the Turkish man and his wife took one look at the sleeping conditions, realised they would not have a private room, and demanded to be taken back to Sapa in a jeep where they would rather stay in a restaurant (as there were no free hotel rooms due to the Vietnamese holiday) than share a room with us!
With the group reduced to five, we had a fantastic homecooked meal of spring rolls, water buffallo and pork, washed down with soem rice whiskey (which they call wine here - and that misunderstanding has caught me out a few times so far!). After one shot to be polite, I adamently resisted being poured any more as I am desparate to get better and any form of alcohol does not appeal at all to me following my time in Laos! In the evening we played cards and enjoyed music videos of the Vietnamese variety before going to bed in our communal room which even provided mosquito nets (better than most hotels). I slept brilliantly and bite free - horrah!
Day 68 - For breakfast we had some really good homemade pancakes, with bananas and chocolate sauce. The trekking today was a little harder than yesterday as had a fair bit of uphill, plus the weather was hot. The tour groups were more spread out today which was much better and we passed rice fields full of water which looked really dramatic. We reached a waterfall where we relaxed for a bit before moving on to Giang Ta Chai village, which has a Red Dzao minority living there - however, most of the inhabitants were in the Lao Chai village trying to sell their handicrafts there! We had some noodle soup for lunch and afterwards walked to to road where a bus took us back to Sapa town. I had a few hours free to shower and eat before getting a bus to Lao Cai and before leaving bumped into the motorbike driver from Tuesday - he wanted to take me to Ninh Binh himself, but as I had already booked my train ticket and decided it would take too long by bike anyway, I said goodbye and saw his little smile drop! On the bus there was an english couple arguing behind me, which irritated me - some tourists are so embarassing!
The bus driver dumped us outside a restaurant near the train station and luckily I found the rest of my trekking group as I had no idea what to do as I knew we needed to get our proper tickets (the ones the hotel give us are only duplicates!) but didn't know how. Thus presenting the most rediculous Vietnamese ticket system I have ever seen - there are a number of people (dressed just like civilians and only distinguishable by their clipboards) sat around outside the train station and you have the find the right man for the company your ticket is with - although there is no way of knowing, and they wont help you if it's not with them! Our man arrived not long before the train departed, but luckily I made it on and struggled to sleep.
|
|
If you like this entry, search for other entries by becpowell, from Vietnam or try a new search. |
| |
| Table of Contents |
| 4. | Is this Sapa, or Hanoi? I can't tell - Sapa, Vietnam May 08, 2008 |
|
|
|
|
Back to Entry - Back to Home
|
