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April 20, 2005
Vietnam | Sapa – Day 1 | 8-11 March 2005
I wrote out on paper a couple of pages of notes for reproduction in this electronic format about my trip to Sa Pa (that’s the way it was written originally, and how it’s pronounced), but most of it is in a pretty negative tone, so it’ll stay private.
Ever since doing the hilltribe trek in Laos, I had wanted to go to Sapa (North West Vietnam) to do some more. The Laos days were quite challenging and I was hoping for more of it.
Feeling pushed for time, I decided to organise a trek from Hanoi. I figured there wouldn’t be any delays with time in Sapa finding treks, as well as the likelihood that I’d meet people on an organised trek. I took the Lonely Planet’s advice and avoided the fast-food treks, going for one place that was more independent and recommended. Unfortunately, the trek was very expensive (I think they somehow got an extra $20 out of me with all the breaking of notes and changing the Dong deposit to dollar payment – still uncertain about that; plus, I’d already paid for my hotel room when we left that evening – doh!), there were only three of us (the other two a couple – they were quite nice people) and there was enough ‘spare time’ in Sapa that I WOULD have been much better off doing it on my own and organising any treks from there. Live and Learn!
We caught the evening overnight train from Hanoi, which was decent and comfortable enough, (they gave us some free water and horribly sweet buns – left untouched), which arrived at Lao Cai at some unearthly hour in the morning. We were bundled into a minibus which drove us the next hour to Sapa. It was ABSOLUTELY FREEZING! This I was NOT expecting from Vietnam (however, I was told to expect cold before I left for the trek). I mean, we were standing around when we got dropped off, and every breath was a huge puff of cloud. We were given the opportunity of a shower before a set-menu breakfast.
As you can see in the pic, once we got walking, we noticed that we couldn’t see anything due to the mist – we were all hoping it wouldn’t be this way for the entire trek.
Most of the initial leg of the journey was pretty touristy as we were still close to the town, so there were plenty of Black Hmongs trying to sell us their wares along the way and in the villages. “Hello, where are you from?”, “Australia”, “KangarooKoalaTwentyMillionPeople!” Our guide, Mr Dien, showed us through various Hmong homes, explained their traditions and even played one of their bamboo-pipe instruments!
As you can see in the following picture, this village is quite close to the main road being carved out of the other side of the valley, so it’s very accessible and therefore has all kinds of tourists wandering around.
To be honest, this wasn’t a very long or difficult day (supposed to be 7 hours). We left Sapa at 10, had long breaks, including a large lunch, arriving at our homestay at 3:30. So really only about 4 hours of walking. Perhaps one of the reasons for it was that we went some different routes because the ‘normal’ village we would have stayed at was having a ceremony and no foreigners were allowed anywhere near it.
The homestay village was also only a couple of hundred metres from the aforementioned road, which probably explained why it was the most developed homestay I’ve had! Large well-built houses, a reasonably sized loft for each of us with mattresses, heavy doonas, pillows and mosquito nets (mine even had a TV!). Not a typical picture of a homestay, but it WAS nice.
Perhaps I’ve been living in Cambodia, with far poorer people (knowledge, not just finance) for too long, but the Vietnamese are amazing! The infrastructure they create and the resourcefulness of the locals is quite astounding… From waterways made from bamboo, guiding water from the hills into water-driven rice mills to reasonably constructed concrete paths in some of the more prosperous villages, they make the most of what they have. They have thriving gardens and pigsties as well as drying vegetables (a lot of corn) so that when the rice runs out, they can still eat. This in direct contrast to many provincial Cambodians who still don’t know how to effectively manage a home-garden! These guys know how to farm and how to survive.
Our first evening was spent chatting with the locals (or rather, them looking at us, trying to sell us things, while we sat around talking and taking photos), then sitting in the kitchen watching Mr Dien and our host preparing dinner. We snacked on hand-made wedges, before 90 minutes of feast preparation. Being his birthday, and a generous soul, our host cooked up half a leg of smoked pork, beef, pork mince, tofu, tomatoes, lettuce, rice and various other veggies. EVERYTHING was fried or grilled, including the lettuce! It seemed like they were cooking for the entire village, but it was just US!
We really struggled to even get through half of it – there was just SO MUCH! The introduction, mastery and onslaught of local rice wine helped gain more appetite. Being the hosts birthday, we were obligated to finish the half-empty 2L bottle of the stuff, before he brought out another half-bottle, which also got demolished, before he brought out a large round tray of candy!
He also showed us how to use the tobacco pipe, which is basically a large bamboo bong. It’s the most efficient way of smoking the local tobacco, which a 1000 dong (6c) handful-sized bag can be consumed by a fair smoker in a week.
We all went to bed pretty early (thanks to the rice wine), although it seemed so much later than it was.
Posted by Dan at April 20, 2005 05:58 AM
Comments
Fascinating Dan! Sounds like your expectations were NOT met! but you did have an interesting home stay from what I read.
Posted by: lozza at April 20, 2005 09:11 AM
kOOL!
Posted by: elizabeth at February 21, 2007 08:40 PM