Sapa

We booked our train to Sapa pretty late - the day of, to be exact - and, as it was a Thursday night in preparation of the weekend markets in the region, the soft sleeper was unavailable. Luckily, the hard sleeper was still open and we were fine with that. Indeed, we had taken a hard sleeper from Saigon to Nha Trang some months before and it was way more comfortable than most trains we've been on. But in Vietnam, we have found, consistency is never something you can take for granted. The same meal at the same restaurant can look and taste wildly different depending on the day. The same shampoo at the same supermarket might clean well the first time but not the second. Thus it was with the trains. This hard sleeper was HARD. And filthy. But we slept some and arrived in Lao Cai at the advanced hour of 4AM, only to get on a cramped minibus which wound through the mountainous roads for another 2 hours, finally arriving at our hotel - the Luong Thuy Family Guesthouse - around 6. We had breakfast but, as it was about 8 hours too early for check in, we couldn't rest. So we went on a walk.

We wound through the waking town and found the Ham Rong mountain, which has been turned into a sort of tourist park. It was a bit odd, but a good way to kill a few hours for sure. The entrance to the park is at the top of a long flight of stairs which made us realize just how out of shape we really were after a year of Saigonese life. The park continued to wind us mostly uphill, but we battled through to wander it's various sculpted gardens - Japanese, European, the orchid gardens, check out the views...

we finally made it to the very top lookout, termed the Cloud Forest. Good views, but honestly, they had nothing on our guesthouse. The view off our balcony was spectacular (which you saw above). At least the first day and a half before it got progressively foggier and foggier until the last day when you couldn't even see the balcony's edge.

We did finally check in and napped for a few hours before wandering the town a bit more that evening, getting some food at the night market as well as some info on treks and trains back to Hanoi. We settled first on a group trek through the countryside and through some local villages as the area is renowned for - and swarming with - local hill tribes, most of whom constantly harass you with cries of "Buy from me! Buy from me!"

It can be a little much, actually, and quickly goes from charming and interesting to annoying and maddening. Thus we were quite skeptical when we left the Mountain View Hotel (where we'd booked our trek) to be greeted by about 7 Black Hmong women (the men work in the fields while the women sell to tourists). They swarmed our small group - just the two of us and two French women - and seemed like they might follow us for the whole of the 16 kilometer trek. That was, in fact, exactly what they were doing.

As it turns out, the women often come into Sapa one day, hawk their goods, then stay the night and return to their villages with the morning treks. This gives them an opportunity to talk to tourists in a more captive setting, develop bonds, help out, and eventually, yes, sell trinkets. As shady as it seems, it was far better than the

"Buy from me! Why you no buy from me?" cries echoing throughout town and, yes, we did buy from them in the end. They did, after all, help Kate down slippery slopes and make us horses and hearts from grasses they picked by the side of the road. And it's pretty amazing that they do that hike every day.

It was quite a scenic walk, winding down mountains and through valleys. We crossed a couple cable bridges with cracked slats like missing teeth - bridges straight out of Indiana Jones movies. We also finally saw the Hmong men working in the omnipresent rice paddies that covered the hills.

One of the men carried an enormous rifle that looked like it might once have belonged to Cortes or something. And then there were all the kids playing the rivers. Definitely pretty idyllic and a good way to spend a day.

The next day was reserved for the Bac Ha market. All the hill tribes in the region make the trek to Bac Ha every Saturday to sell their goods so we thought we should likewise make the trek. What we didn't realize was that it was 3 hours each way in a minibus and then 2 hours at a market which really wasn't anything special. They did have a couple interesting things, including a huge water buffalo corral/hilltop, but the majority of the market was either household goods - not, by the way, made by the locals or anything but I guess just bought by them and resold or something -

or handicrafts which were undoubtably made by local tribespeople, but bought and sold by Vietnamese entrepreneurs. The whole experience was a bit of a letdown, though we did come away with one kaleidoscopic blanket as a souvenir, in a style similar to the dress of the locals which, as you can see, is quite elaborate. And they really do wear these things - it's not just for market day or just for the tourists. Crazy. One last thing that was quite cool and an added bonus to the tour was a stop off at the Vietnam/China border crossing at Lao Cai. We got to stretch our legs and take some pictures of China, even if we didn't get to actually visit it.

We also met an Irish brother/sister traveling duo and arranged to meet up with them to watch some footie that night at a bar in Sapa. Alas, the Gunners were not televised as there have been some rights issues in Vietnam with this season's EPL, but we did still meet up for a drink. Our conversation was, however, dominated by a 17 year old Black Hmong girl named Peng.

She was in full traditional dress, but otherwise just like any normal 17 year old and quite eager to talk to us. Definitely learned a lot that night about the Black Hmong culture - how different and how similar it is. Peng, for example, has friends who were married at 13, though she said she doesn't have time for boys and wants to live outside of Vietnam. Another interesting thing was that she didn't speak much more Vietnamese than Kate or I, and her English was way better than most of our students. The Hmong language is tonally much closer to English than Vietnamese and therefore her accent was quite good. She also told us about her music tastes and talked a bit about life in her village versus life in Sapa. But we were getting tired and we had another early morning - the 4th in a row with a wakeup time before 8AM - so we bid her adieu and retired.

Then it was back on the 2 hour minibus to Lao Cai followed by a 10 hour day train back to Hanoi as all the sleepers were booked and we had to be back the next morning for yet another early morning start. The train ride was pretty rough, actually, at least the first 7 hours or so. We were for some reason booked into seats in the middle of the train - in the four seater section where you face two other people and have no leg room. This was compounded by the fact that the people opposite our seats were bringing back huge bales of something which took up any and all leg room. We didn't even bother with those seats but sat behind. Only problem was, everyone kept making us move even though there were always other open seats on the train. So frustrating!

We ended up moving about 6 times with the last time finally being in a good spot. Everyone in Saigon had warned us that the folk up north weren't as friendly but the guys sitting behind us were ridiculously so. They kept offering us things to eat and drink and wouldn't take no for an answer. There was beer, peanut brittle, cookies, and steamed corn. One guy in particular was feeling pretty chatty and, though he spoke no English, we were able to communicate our ages, family status, jobs, and he told us about his children. Speaking of children, there was also a little girl sitting in front of us here who was extremely interested in us. She was really cute and just wanted to play, so we obliged and she kept us busy for the last couple hours of the trip. Then, finally, we got to Hanoi, which you already read about in Hanoi Part Deux.