The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Muzak

• Butterfills's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Sapa

Trip Start Jan 02, 2009 Previous
Entry Trip End Dec 07, 2009 Next
Entry

  Sapa, Vietnam
Wednesday, May 13, 2009

The flight to Hanoi from Luang Prabang in Laos took only 45 minutes.  We had booked a hotel in advance for once and had asked them to arrange for us to be collected from the airport.  From leaving our hotel room in Luang Prabang to arriving at our hotel in Hanoi took only 4 hours - luxury after countless long and uncomfortable bus journeys.
 
Hanoi was cloudy and rainy when we arrived and at 27 degrees, much cooler than the unrelenting heat and humidity we had experienced in Laos.  We stayed in the Old Quarter with its web of narrow tree-lined streets and faded old French colonial buildings.  Although a noisy and chaotic city with a mass of motorbikes and the constant sound of beeping horns, Hanoi is full of character and we much preferred it to Saigon.  Once again, we took our lives in our hands whenever we tried to cross the road, with motorbikes coming at us from all angles.  It is also impossible to walk on the pavements as they are strewn with parked-up motorbikes, produce spilling out from shops and people sitting on stools whilst they cook, eat, drink and socialise.  We found some great restaurants and cafes and much preferred the food to that in the South.  We didn't too much in the way of sightseeing (Dean has seen enough temples, wats and pagodas to last him a lifetime), but we did visit Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum and also the Temple of Literature which was built in 1070 and was established as a university for the education of Mandarins.
 
After 3 days in Hanoi, we organised a tour to Halong Bay which has around 2000 limestone islands that sit in the emerald waters of the Gulf of Tonkin, now a Unesco World Heritage Site.  The majority of the islands are tiny and uninhabited, some covered in vegetation and some with caves running through them.  We spent the first day sailing around the islands on a traditional junk and kayaking through the caves into beautiful lagoons.  There were 10 other people on the tour with us from various countries around the world.  Luckily for us, most of them spoke very good English and we ended up exchanging travel tips and contact details with some of them.  That evening, we had a fantastic 6 course seafood dinner and slept on the boat. The following day, we visited the Amazing Cave which is a vast limestone cave full of stalagmites and stalactites that you can walk through and which certainly lives up to its name.  Unfortunately, when we were there it was a public holiday (the anniversary of the day the North "liberated" the South), so the cave was full of noisy Vietnamese tourists.  We spent the following 2 nights staying in a beach hut on the tiny private island of Cat Ong.  It was a beautiful spot, although the view was somewhat marred by the high rise hotel blocks on Cat Ba Island directly opposite.  We had booked a mountain biking trip over there, but Tracey conveniently had a dodgy tummy that day so needed to stay within close proximity of a toilet. Dean made the trip to Cat Ba alone and had a couple of hours of biking the interior of the island.  After a dose of antibiotics and plenty of Immodium, Tracey was just about able to face the 4 hour boat journey and 3 hour minibus journey back to Hanoi the following day.  The bus journey was made worse by the young German children on the seats behind us who whined the whole way and the French couple directly in front of us who gazed into each others eyes and slobbered over each other for the duration of the entire journey.  It wasn't just Tracey who was feeling queasy by the time we arrived back in Hanoi.    
 
After spending a further 2 days in Hanoi, we organised another tour, this time to Sapa in the mountains, close to the border with China.  The journey took 9 hours on a sleeper train and this was by far the best train journey we have experienced so far.  There were only four berths to a spotlessly clean private cabin, clean bedding and even decent toilets!  We arrived at 6am and after some breakfast and a shower, we were met by our trekking guide, Mao, a tiny woman from one of the nearby villages who looked about 12 years old, but who we later found out was married with two children.  She spoke really good English but told us that she had never been to school so couldn't read or write and that she had picked up her knowledge of English from the tourists.  At around 9:30am, we headed off for the first day of trek. The trek involved walking downhill for around 14km, down very slippery muddy paths, through rice paddies shrouded in mist, past beautiful waterfalls and with the mountains as a backdrop, the scenery was absolutely breathtaking.  We had arranged to stay at the traditional home of a Dzay Hill Tribe family in the village of Ta Van for our first night.  When we arrived, we discovered that rather than spending the evening alone with the family, we would be sharing one room with 10 other travellers!  The room consisted of 12 mattresses on the floor with mosquito nets covering each one.  Luckily, when the rest of the travellers arrived with their guides, we soon discovered that they were a lively bunch who were all great fun and everyone hit it off immediately.  Everyone started drinking beer and after a fantastic meal, the lady of the house produced some very strong rice wine and demanded that everyone drink a shot of it.  We had previously decided to detox during the month of May and stay off the booze until we get to Hong Kong, so we each had a shot of rice wine for good luck, but other than that managed to abstain from drinking for the rest of the evening despite constant pressure from the rest of the group.  We were very grateful for this excuse as rice wine tastes absolutely disgusting and we also had 6 hours of trekking the following day to contend with.  The rest of the group proceeded to get absolutely hammered and at around 10pm left the house to go in search of the local "nightlife".  Within 5 minutes they were back as all they had found was a small village in total darkness! 
 
The next day, we trekked up and down the mountains through fields and rice terraces.  We passed through various villages with hill tribes dressed in traditional costume, half-dressed, barefoot village children and people ploughing rice paddies with water buffalo.  We really felt as if we had taken a step back in time.  That evening, we stayed at the home of a Tay Hill Tribe family in the village of Ban Ho.  Again, the accommodation was very basic with just a mattress on the floor with a mosquito net over it, but at least this time we had managed to bag a small private room to ourselves.  There were only 3 other travellers staying at the homestay with us and that evening was a much more sedate affair.  Our guide Mao told us all about life as a hill tribe woman.  We had already noticed that the women seem to do most of work - making handicrafts, chopping wood, carrying heavy loads, often with one or two children strapped to their backs, whilst the men seem to sit around drinking tea!   It seems that the women have very few rights.  The men can take a second wife (whether the first wife agrees to it or not) and a woman can only leave her husband if he agrees to it.  Once again, it brought home to us how fortunate we are in the West to have the freedom we have and how easy our lives are, although Dean quite fancies life as a hill tribe man!        
 
The following day, we had a hard trek (uphill all the way) which luckily only lasted for an hour and an half.  We were then collected by a van/ambulance and taken back to the town of Sapa, where we immediately checked into a lovely boutique hotel overlooking the hills.  After a much needed hot shower, Tracey fell straight into bed and slept soundly for the entire afternoon!  Well, she's not as young as she used to be. 
 
The family dog at our second homestay was extremely friendly and playful and we spent quite a bit of time feeding her from the dinner table, playing with her and stroking her.  Unfortunately, after our return to Sapa, we discovered that we were covered in very itchy flea bites, particularly Tracey who had been wearing shorts that evening and had around 120 bites on her legs and feet.   
 
The next day was a Saturday which is market day in Sapa. The women from the various hill tribes come down into the town to sell their wares - bracelets, handwoven bedspreads, clothing and bags.  Groups of women sit outside each hotel and attach themselves to any tourists that venture out.  You find yourself picking up more followers as you go until feel like a modern pied piper with an entourage of tiny women escorting you around town. You are hassled everywhere you go, but the women are very good natured and we couldn't blame them for trying to make a living.  Sapa is a small mountain town frequently shrouded in mist.  Subsequently, everything feels slightly damp and many of the buildings are covered in mould.  The town is full of tourist restaurants and shops all playing terrible "elevator muzak".  It was impossible to get away from the awful instrumental versions of terrible hits from the Seventies, even in our own hotel where it played constantly in the lobby and which we could hear from our room.  After 2 days, we headed to China for the sake of our sanity.        
 

Post your own travel photos for friends and family Pictures

Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum, Hanoi	Chaotic traffic in Hanoi	Halong Bay	The Amazing Cave, Halong Bay
Selling fish in Halong Bay	Our junk in Halong Bay	On the junk in Halong Bay	On the junk in Halong Bay
Our beach hut on Cat Ong Island	Our first day of trekking in Sapa	Our first day of trekking in Sapa	Hill tribe woman in Sapa
Trekking in Sapa	A hill tribe woman in Sapa	Rice fields in Sapa	Dinner at the homestay in Ta Van Village
The homestay in Ta Van Village	The village of Ta Van	The second day of trekking in Sapa	Our lovely trekking guide, Mao
On the trek in Sapa	The second day of trekking in Sapa	The rice fields of Sapa	Pantless village kid in Sapa
The second day of the trek	Dean's followers in Ban Ho village	Mao's tiny trekking sandals!	At the waterfall in Ban Ho village
At the homestay in Ban Ho village	Hill tribe kids in Sapa	Market day in Sapa	Market day in Sapa
Sapa	A hill tribe woman in Sapa	Hassling tourists in Sapa!	Making handicrafts in Sapa
Hassling tourists is tiring work!	Market day in Sapa

Slideshow Print this entry Share Sapa hotels

Previous Entry Next Entry