Sapa 02/11 – 02/14

Sapa woman and fresh meat on a stick.

After Hanoi the plan was to either move on to the mountain town of Sapa or the coastal paradise of Halong Bay where “incredible islands rise from the emerald waters” as Lonely Planet put it. But, from the photos in the hundreds of travel agencies around Hanoi Halong Bay looked a lot like Krabi and Ko Phi Phi. So, since the weather was so great in Hanoi we opted to first go to Sapa and see if we still wanted to get to Halong Bay upon our return. Weather is usually cold, rainy and there is low visibility due to fog during the months of February to April in Vietnam. But the weather forecast looked good so we took a chance. Also, we have been lugging around hiking boots for the entire trip which we were supposed to use in Nepal, so I was determined to get some serious hiking in and put those boots to good use.

We booked an overnight tourist train to Lao Cai, arriving exhausted at 5am and were taken on to Sapa in a tightly packed minibus. We drove peacefully through beautiful misty hills carved with rice paddies in the early morning light only to be overrun by minority hilltribe women awaiting the tourist minivans in Sapa town. Apparently, women from the local tribes come to Sapa to sell souvenirs that they make. Because it is low season, there are actually very few tourists but many, many hilltribe women. They tried to sell us pillowcases, bags, earrings, and other trinkets before we even got off the bus. They would knock on the window saying “You buy from me?” It must be quite a harsh living they have to scrape out during the winter months.

We got to our hotel and were very happy to learn that we could already check in even though it was only 7am and took a much needed nap. The rest of the day we spent exploring Sapa and planning the next two days which were to include motorbiking through the mountains, visiting all sorts of hilltribes, hiking up Mt. Fansipan and just overall having a wonderfully exhausting time exploring the beautiful landscape. Yes, it was a bit foggy. You couldn't see for miles around. But, it was sunny and overall clear, the temperature was warm in the sunshine and refreshingly crisp and cool in the shade. We even had a very nice view from our hotel.

The following morning we awoke to an impenetrable fog. You could barely see two feet ahead and it was cold and wet. There was no way we could hike or ride a motorbike in this weather. Saddened by this turn of events we consoled ourselves by eating bbq meat on a stick and conversing with locals and hilltribe women in town. We also met a group of young engineers from Hanoi. Seems that Sapa is a popular place for Hanoi tourists. They come to hang out and drink rice wine which they shared with us. It was pretty harsh. Kind of tasted like moonshine. Thankfully, our hotel was nice enough to provide us with a room heater and an electric blanket (there is no heating in most Vietnamese hotels) and even gave us a bottle of wine as an apology for the ruckus that the Hanoians were making from their party in the room next to ours (we hadn't even complained). The following day there was more fog. It wasn't quite as dense so we attempted a hike to the closest village - Cat Cat Village, home to the Black Hmong Tribe. The fog did clear for parts of the hike so we did see some rice terraces, glimpses of the beautiful landscape, got some exercise and finally muddied our boots properly.

View from hotel on arrival.

View changed quite a bit the next day.

Sapa town engulfed in fog.

The "food court" at Sapa market.

Views from our trek to Cat Cat Village.

Rice paddies up close.

Village architecture.

Hmong tribe children.

A cock fighter we met in town.

We decided to cut our stay a day short and return to Hanoi the following day on the day train in lieu of the night train. The trip took 11 hours as the day train is much slower and stops at every station along the way. Fortunately we booked ourselves the soft seats. They were tiny, seemed to be designed for children and even the smallest Vietnamese looked a bit uncomfortable, but at least they weren't the hard seats. We got a glimpse of those on our way to our coach and by “hard seat” they really mean a wooden bench. So we sat squished into our luxury seats and I stared out the window for about 7 hours while Peter played games on his phone and computer. I even managed to fall asleep for a while in a contorted position. I was exhausted from constantly being on the road, from the cold, and the frustration involved that goes along with booking travel arrangements, not being able to communicate properly, being constantly harassed to buy something that I don't want while at the same time feeling terrible about it, and the mistakes we have made in the last few days. We ate boiled bamboo, boiled peanuts, and strange tiny fruit resembling a cross between an apple and a plum. Just like the local travelers. And although the ride was long, the scenery outside was a treat. Rural Vietnam really looks just like it does in the movies – tiny thatch roof huts, rice paddies, water buffalo, and yellowish-red dirt roads enveloped in lush tropical greenery. The rice paddies are amazing. They seem to go on forever and the cultivating methods have not changed for hundreds of years. People still use water buffalo to plow, wear conical hats and sow by hand. Every once in a while there were small cemeteries or just single graves interspersed within paddies.

We arrived back in Hanoi late in the evening and still had time to get in a delicious meal – a hot pot soup with clams, fish, and vegetables. Since the weather is so cold and dreary, we decided to skip Halong Bay and the coastal towns that we were to go to next. No point in traveling to more places that you can't fully enjoy or sitting around waiting for good weather. We are leaving behind Vietnam in search of a tiny bit more sun and paradise before its time to return to the cold and gloom of Chicago. Hopefully we will find it.

Last meal in Hanoi.