Sapa, Vietnam

 

             There were enough of us that we were able to charter a private boat for not significantly more money than the local one but instead of being crammed in and sitting on hard wooden benches for four hours we got a boat with awesomely reclining car seats that had been mounted there and so spent the time comfortably, watching the scenery and water buffalo pass by. Spent the night in a seedy town near the border and then proceeded to spend the next 24 or so hours traveling in variously uncomfortable buses. The last leg was the longest and most uncomfortable, driving at night on a shitty, curvy road where as you tried to sleep were constantly being awakened by the turns threatening to pull you out of your seat and into the bus aisle which was being occupied by a bunch of locals. Yeah, not great and for some reason the bus left at a time where it arrived in Sapa at about 4:30 in the morning so we wandered around in the dark, exhausted, freezing and looking for a place to sleep. Awoke to a much changed from the night Sapa and discovered I was in a beautiful mountain town perched on the slopes overlooking a valley of terraced bamboo fields. Very interesting vibe, with pine trees side by side with giant bamboo and jungle and a feeling at times of being in some small town in the French Alps or somewhere. Took a bit to get used to actually being a bit cold in the mornings and evenings but quite a pleasant change. It even snows here in the winter amazingly enough. Vietnam’s highest mountain, Fansipan, is nearby and the town is full of “North Face” shops selling winter clothes, hiking gear and trekking poles to the older couples that seem at least as numerous as the backpacker crowd. Lots of local villages and ethnic minority tribes such as the H’Mong abound and all of them seem to want to sell you something. The being mobbed by locals took some getting used to after laid-back Laos, but I suppose that just comes with the territory. “Hello? Where you from? What your name? Shopping? You buy from me?” was a pretty much endless litany walking around, not to mention the “Motorbike? You come to my bar? Buy weed?” Split a room with a cool Belgian guy an equally nice, though young, Dutch mate that I’d traveled with from Laos

  We went on a hike down the valley without a guide and were just mobbed by local H’Mong trying to sell us stuff. If it hadn’t been so annoying after a while I would have been impressed with their sheer optimism and persistence. These three women followed us for literally 5km before finally giving up even after being repeatedly told by an increasingly angry Dutchman to stop following us and leave us alone. The only effect this seemed to have was that they’d follow from a bit further distance for a couple minutes. The scenery was great though and we probably walked somethink like 20 km in total. Kind of amusing, we decided finally to cross the river and start heading back on the other side and made our way down to a small bamboo bridge we’d spotted. Arriving there we found it was guarded by a small and slightly evil looking Vietnamese girl blocking the way with arms crossed (we were at this point still being tailed by a different group of women) who apparently wanted money from us for the privilege of crossing. So in an attempt to avoid paying as well as lose our pursuers we walked some yards upriver took off our shoes and socks and just forded it. Ha. Spent some time checking out the very restrained and mostly quiet nightlife; kind of eerie walking through the town at night as it gets extremely misty and foggy and low visibility. Also rode motorbikes to a local cave where we were again mobbed by locals but enjoyed ourselves nevertheless. Thought the Dutch guy was going to blow his top at these kids who insisted on escorting us through the cave but it worked out okay in the end. The Laos group all headed to Hanoi/Halong Bay but I stuck around for a few more days and met some cool Brits and a Scottish girl and we again rented motorbikes and did another really great hike on the other side of the valley. One scary moment as I came within inches of running over a kitten that darted across the trail but luckily missed. Would have felt quite guilty I think. Had a nice massage and some good local pumpkin soup and have been enjoying the cool weather and lack of mosquitos. One of the Brits was obsessed one night with finding a meal of snake, cooked in traditional Vietnamese style of killed in front of you, eating the still beating heart and bile duct and drinking the blood. (Unf)ortunately the place was closed, but apparently it’s on offer in Hanoi along with a nice dinner of dog or horse. Yum. Off to madhouse and hectic Hanoi tonight for a few days of city life and then I think on to Halong bay and maybe a boat tour of some of the islands and then make my way down the coast headed in the general direction of Cambodia.