Breath-taking Sapa, Vietnam

It has taken me so long since my return from Vietnam to blog about it due to

1. the excitement from our historic 12th general election (I’ve never felt more Malaysian before)
2. recent work load eating into my personal time (won’t get started on this here. Had a fulfilling ‘bitching’ session last week. Thanks girls for sharing and listening)
3. wedding preparation taking a lead when I do have time (usually emailing vendors for quotations after midnight or arranging appointments that take up my weekends)
4. me refusing to acknowledge that I’m back facing reality

Anyway, back to Vietnam. Sapa is by far my favorite destination from the trip. This little town in the sky lies in the north west of Vietnam at the border of China and home to many ethnic minority tribes. We nearly scrape Sapa off our itinerary as we only have one day to spare and it was time-consuming and troublesome (read : overnight train ride in consecutive 2 days = no available shower) to get there. But I’m glad we made it.

The adventure started from Hanoi Railway Station. The girl at the hotel told us we could get a cab to the station or walk, showing us Hanoi map. It took us a good one hour walk to arrive at the station. Only to find out that we were at Station A and the train to Lao Cai (nearest station to Sapa) leaves from Station B. A man approached us to give him the tickets and asked us to follow him. What did mom says about strangers giving out candies? We ignored him and walked another half an hour via the main streets to Station B. The same guy was waiting for us at the entrance and insisted we follow him which we did warily and found out that we were right behind Station A if we had followed him through the train tracks. (End up he's from the travel agent we bought the tickets from - he should have explained instead of trying to snatch our tickets away!) What a hilarious episode.


We boarded the Tulico Express that departed at 9.15pm. Slept through the night and arrived 8 hours later at Lao Cai Station.


Jumped off from bed when the train stopped abruptly and a lady shouting at us to get down.

It was 5.30 in the morning and the station was pitch dark. We cleaned up at the washroom at the station and negotiated the fare for the minibus ride to Sapa. We seemed to be the last group to leave the station. When we got on the minibus, we realized the whole bus was filled with tourists and with us filling up the remaining seats, we were set to go. No wonder the minibus operator sounded desperate in getting us to go with them. I asked the passengers if they have waited long, the answer was “about half an hour, were you girls lost?” As if that’s even possible at the station! We were simply not told there was a busload of people waiting for us.

The drive to Sapa up the windy roads was a bit foggy. The chill hit us the moment we stepped down from the minibus. It was probably about 10C but it felt colder. We signed up for a day tour of mountain trekking at Cat Cat View Hotel and were offered a room to freshen up before the guide pick us up at 9am. To keep warm, we’ve turned to wearing just about every layer of clothing we brought along in our bags.



Having time to kill, we walked to nearby Sapa market, where hill tribes sell handmade souvenirs besides daily produce. It is fascinating to see the hill tribes dressed in their traditional clothing, somewhat preserved in this little town. Each tribe, largest being H’mong and Dzao people, can be distinguished by their dressing although I’m no expert on them.


Sapa Market

A H’mong lady at the market


Woven basket to transport food to and fro Sapa market

Most of the tribe people do not live in Sapa town. They live in villages around the area, up in the mountains and our local H’mong guide, Gi, brought us to 3 villages – Lao Cai, Ta Vanh and I can’t remember the last name of the village.


Such spectacular view


Terraced rice paddies

Gi, aged 17, told us she’s not going to get married. She’s staying alone in Sapa town, her 'business hub' for bringing tourists to the villages. We equaled her to a modern day career woman. Hill tribe women marry young at the age of 15 and give birth the year after. She’s simply not interested in that. Asked if she would like to move to the city, she said yes. Not sure where. Halong Bay maybe. But she has never been out from Sapa town before.


Children at the villages

We stopped by a local school and ‘interrupted’ the class.. haha. It was empty when we arrived but by the time we were leaving after finished taking photos, lesson has started in the next classroom.


Gi’s father was drowned in the river. According to her, every year, one villager dies in the mountains.


Looking upset - Gi was getting impatient with us as we slowed down to take pictures. Little did we know we had a long way to walk!

We finally stopped at a homestay house for a picnic lunch. Were starving by then.


The homestay owner cooked us lunch


Simple but satisfying meal looking out to amazing view


7-year-old Za, Gi’s cousin, is so sweet. Tying mmkk’s hair and she made us the fernleaf crowns. She’s a real cheeky young lady who claimed she doesn’t want to get married like Gi too..

After lunch, we continued trekking. Gi warned us it was going to be a little uphill from then on. And no kidding, it was an uphill task all the way! After walking up windy roads, we began to curse and swear the hotel for conning us with the brochure of “undemanding walks” when we signed up the package.

We have an entourage hiking with us as they were hoping we would purchase some souvenirs from them end of the trek (of which we gladly did so after all the help rendered).


See that lady carrying her baby behind? Made us looked so incompetent, which I must admit, we are!


“Come, this way”


“OMG!”

“Help! I can’t do this!”
“Come on!”
“NO!!”


Our mud-covered shoes – we tried to avoid getting them dirty but Za shouted at us “It’s only dirt! You can wash”

We should be ashamed of ourselves. While we tramped around in sports shoes, the ladies made do with plastic sandals.

After an overall 8 or 9 kilometres of walking, our journey ended when we reached the point where the jeep was waiting for us. Back to Sapa, we explored the town further and lingered around Cat Cat View Hotel for a cup of hot drink while waiting for the minibus to take us back to Lao Cai Station for the night train.


The view from the hotel

We left Sapa that evening bringing with us this amazing experience. Sapa is such a peaceful little town, a nice change of pace to Hanoi. Very surreal to say the least.


Snapshot of a traveller – My dream holiday; to put up my legs and read a book overlooking spectacular view.. such bliss

Credits : Thanks Cellie – stole some of your pics :P