Sapa Hotels
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I made it to Vietnam! : Sapa
Entry 19 of 32 | show all | print this entry |
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I made it to Vietnam, and it wasn't too difficult!
The usual story with the overnight sleeper bus; little leg room, little sleep, but some English speakers! So far most of the buses have been full of Chinese people, but on this rare occasion (apart from the trip to Lijiang) there were Aussie people!
It felt good to be leaving China, not because I didn't enjoy it as I had a great time, but I just wanted to move on to a fresh place. China was a chaotic place at the best of times; the traffic was immense, the places were usually grotty, everybody was spitting and few people spoke English - These facts alone would normally put a lot of people off visiting China. However if you can learn to deal with the traffic, ignore the filth, turn a blind-eye to the spitting and learn a few words of Mandarin, it will reveal a country that is bursting with culture, breathtaking scenery, and a mouthwatering cuisine, not to mention the 1.3 billion people that live there. I read somewhere that at any moment, there are 10 million Chinese riding the train network! And until you visit China, it's difficult to comprehend the size and diverse nature of the place.
We arrived in the Chinese border town of Hekou around 7ish Vietnam time, meaning the border was open and I could make my way through. First stop, Chinese passport control; they seemed very curious about my passport, examining it very very closely, several times, feeling the texture of the pages, checking all my previous visas, meticulously checking my details and repeatedly looking at me, but after a few minutes or so I was through. A bridge separates Vietnam and China at this point, so I had a short walk across no-mans land before entering the Vietnam passport control. Yet again it was a laborious process; first completing the entry form, getting it approved by the first guy, then the health official, and finally the customs official. The whole process was way more stringent that what I have previously experienced, perhaps due to the border crossing reportedly being a door for drugs passing into China. But as I had all things present and correct I passed through without hindrance.
I jumped on a bus to nearby Sapa town up in the highlands of Northern Vietnam, with an Aussie couple I met on the bus. When we arrived we were immediately harassed by touts offering their hotels, but after my experience in Yangshou I just ignored them all, even one of them was a Westerner. We headed for a place in the Lonely Planet Guide, Mountain View Hotel, which turned out to be fantastic. For $5/night I had a double room with mountain view, en suite and satellite TV, and probably the best place I had stayed so far. I caught up on some much needed sleep before having a wander around the town, which took about 10 minutes as it's so small. I went in search of some street food, but to my disappointment there were very few vendors. In China I could walk 50 yards in any direction an usual find some street vendor selling something, but it was not the case in Sapa. I gave in and headed back to my hotel to enjoy a meal in the restaurant terrace overlooking the valley below. Most people come to Sapa to do a tour, either to the local villages to experience the 'real Vietnam' (but after mass tourism hits a village it no longer stays authentic, so what's the point?), or 2/3 treks into the countryside. I decided to challenge myself to Climb the tallest mountain in Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos), Fansipan standing proud at 3143m. It was usually a 3 day trek, camping on the mountain, but after speaking to a few tour agents I found that it could be done in 2 days, saving an extra day. I shopped around and booked onto the tour for $45 all in; food, guide, ported, equipment, entrance fee to national park, insurance?????!!!
I got an early night that evening, ready for the grueling trek up the mountain. I packed my day sack with a few extra clothes, some food, water, and headed for the tour office for 8am. I was joined by an Israeli couple (Hey Nir and Ruth!), and a French girl (Marion); after a short wait we were taken to the park entrance to start the journey.
The trek began with a walk through thick vegetation, and with the rain over the last few days, the pads were just mud. We continued for a few hours, not climbing too much, trudging through densely wooded areas, tropical plants, climbing above the cloud level, even a snake (deadly apparently) crossed our path. We stopped for lunch next to a stream where the guide and porter prepared some tasty baguettes and fresh fruit, but we were soon on our way again. It started to get much steeper, so much so that we had to use bamboo as rope to pull ourselves up. Some places were very wet and proved tricky to negotiate, with a fall meaning a certain end to the trip. After another couple of hours climbing we reached the first camp, at 2100m, where our guide wanted us to sleep. It wasn't too hot as it was quite cloudy, and it was only 13.30 so we decided between ourselves that we wanted to push on to the next camp at 2700m. Conveniently our guide hadn't brought any tents as he wanted us to camp in the purpose built hut in the first camp. We refused, and I suggested using a plastic sheet that was hanging up, as a canape for us to sleep under (we had been provided with sleeping bags). He reluctantly agreed and we headed on up the mountain again to tackle another 600m of tropical terrain, with me carrying the plastic sheet on the back of my rucksack. The tour description said "do not underestimate the challenge of the climb"; it was very appropriate! That 600m to the next camp was some of the most grueling, difficult and physically exhausting exercise I have ever done. Some paths weaved there away the ridge of the mountain, with bamboo forests either side, but luckily there was a handrail at that point to help as it was pretty dangerous.At other points we had to climb up huge sections of rocks using the bamboo again. At this point my whole body was aching; my legs, arms, back, everything, but we continued to climb. Me and Marion headed on ahead as Ruth was suffering a cold and was therefore taking it easy. After 4 hours of pretty much nonstop climbing we finally reached the 2700m camp and were greeted by another climber and his guide. Exhausted, aching, sweaty, plastered in mud, hungry, the relief was euphoric. It was a further 40 minutes before Nir, Ruth and our guide made it to the camp, the fire was already alight so the guide and porter began to prepare dinner. What a feast it turned out to be; stir fried beef and pork, rice, eggplant, amongst other things. It tasted so good you wouldn't have thought it was cooked on an open fired fueled by bamboo, then again, there were a few bags of MSG floating about.....
After dinner our guide cracked open a bottle of very potent rice whiskey, and proceeded to swig away, and soon enough he was drunk and giggling like a little kid, it was hilarious. We all had a bit to drink, before getting an early night, 8ish, probably the earliest I've made it to bed in the last 15 years! It was freezing cold though, 10 degrees C, and since we made it tot he camp I had slowly been putting on extra layers, but even with ALL my clothes on, and inside my sleeping bag I was still bloody cold; I was wearing 3 t-shirts, a long sleeve shirt, a fleece, two pairs of socks.
That night I managed to grab a few hours sleep, and was woken by our guide around 6ish. The sun had not yet risen and the horizon looked like it was on fire. The sunrise was spectacular; there were no clouds and we could see for miles around as the sun climbed up over a distant mountain.
We had a quick breakfast and started the final ascent to the summit. The previous day was clear during the morning, but as we climbed, clouds started rolling in obscuring the views. That was the main reason for getting up so early, to avoid the clouds. I was on a mission to reach the summit before any clouds could spoil the spectacular views, so I marched on up the mountain, soon catching up to the other guy and his guide. I past them and headed up the path, again climbing up lots of rocks using bamboo, and after climbing practically non-stop for one hour, stopping only to drink water, I made it to the summit. At 8.18 on September 29th 2006 I was officially the highest person in all of Indochina, standing at the summit of 3143m. The sky was clear, the sun was streaming down and I could see for miles in every direction; it was an awe inspiring feeling which I enjoyed on my own for 20 minutes or so before some of the others made it up. Yet again, I struggle to find the words to describe what it was like up there, maybe one day when I return home, I'll crack open the dictionary and try to elucidate.
I spent around an hour at the summit, before we all headed back down to camp to collect our kit. Again, me and Marion headed on down ahead with our porter; we had to catch a train that evening and didn't want to risk missing it. It was still challenging heading down, but slightly less exhausting, and we reached the 2100m camp after about 2 hours. We hung around for a while waiting for our guide to arrive with food for lunch, but after 45 minutes they still didn't arrive. We managed to blag some food from some of the other people at the camp, and headed on down again with our porter. After another 3 hours of climbing down we made it to a village where we jumped on the back of a motorbike back to Sapa. Quick shower, food and then bus to the train station for the train to Hanoi. What an exhausting day, I cant imagine how far we walked or how much we ascended then descended, but my body was telling me it was a great deal!
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| 19. | I made it to Vietnam! : Sapa - Sapa, Vietnam Sep 27, 2006 (  27 ) (  2 ) |
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