A Walk In The Clouds

PHOTO ALBUM - Sapa

Sapa Town

We ended our week on Cat Ba island on a high note – a beautiful and challenging trek across the national park, followed by another cruise through Halong Bay on our way up to Hanoi.  Brian and I have not heard great things about Hanoi – the general consensus of people we’ve talked to who have been there is that you don’t need to spend much time there, the people aren’t very friendly to western tourists, nobody smiles, etc.  If our only experience was buying tickets to Sapa at the train station the morning after we got there, I might have concurred.  For purchasing tickets, they have a DMV-type take a number system.  We quickly learned it doesn’t work that way…everyone just heads up to the ticket counter and jockeys for position, regardless of their number (which they probably didn’t bother to get).  So I soon found myself in a standoff with a tiny, but fierce, elderly lady at one of the ticket counters.  We were both trying to elbow our way in front of the ticket window (for the record, I was there first). Although I am not comfortable jostling for position with the elderly, my experience in public restrooms has taught me that this is likely the only way I’m ever going to get a train ticket. The public bathroom is chaos – there is a semblance of a line which is completely ignored by the old ladies who shove their way past you and establish themselves in front of a stall. If you’re not aggressive, you’re going to pee your pants.  So I took the same approach at the train ticket counter…and it did work, there was a sympathetic young woman working behind the counter who completely ignored the woman and took my ticket order when it was my turn (or what appeared to be my turn). Upon asking about ticket availability, we learned that unless we left that same day for Sapa, we were going to be hanging out a long time in Hanoi before we could get a train out. It turns out we were heading to Sapa around Liberation Day (ie, the Fall of Saigon), in which the Vietnamese get a long holiday weekend, which many of them spend in Sapa.  So we bought the ticket for the same day train, and planned to spend more time in Hanoi after Sapa.

As I said, we may have had a bad impression of Hanoi if the train station was our only experience. Fortunately, the one day we spent in Hanoi was actually quite pleasant (and people even smiled at us!).  We went to the Temple of Literature in the morning to learn about Confucius, and then to the Hoa Lo prison museum (ie, the Hanoi Hilton) in the afternoon.  The prison was originally built by the French during their occupation of Vietnam, and then during the Vietnam War was used by the Vietnamese as a POW camp for the downed American pilots.  All the Vietnamese museums we’ve been to that concern the war have been very one-sided, but this one really took the cake. According to them, the Americans nicknamed the POW camp the “Hanoi Hilton” because, literally, it was just like the Hilton hotel chain.  They show pictures of the soldiers celebrating Christmas, playing basketball and chess, and eating huge mounds of food (the best was a video showing an American soldier with a tray full of food grabbing a whole pineapple to add to his load).  Given it's been 40 years since the war, the propaganda that's still going on is pretty interesting.  

Our best experience in our short stint in Hanoi came while we were just taking a little break by the lake in the Old Quarter. As we were just sitting and talking, we were joined by a couple college students who just wanted to hang out and talk. The one student was a devout Catholic who was finishing up his studies in English before heading to Seminary to become a priest. The other was an electrical engineering student about to graduate and enter the workforce…we helped him proof his  resume and cover letter.  They were both fun to talk with, and we’ve already gotten an e-mail from the future priest telling us of his prayers that we will be blessed with many children. We’ve noticed a pattern over the last few months…our childless status is much pitied (or at least not really understood) in this part of the world.  

That night we took a train into Lau Cai, on the Chinese border, and then took a mini-bus from there to Sapa.  Procuring the mini-bus ride was another exercise in patience (we have a lot of these in Vietnam). As we walked off the train at 4 am, there were a ton of mini-bus drivers ready to intercept us and make sure we choose their mini-bus for the trip to Sapa. We negotiated one guy down by 50%, got into his van, and then he took our money and left. Just walked off back toward the train station without saying anything. We were hoping he was just going to pick up more passengers, but  were a little disconcerted and kicking ourselves for not paying him until after he started driving. Fifteen minutes later he returned with one more passenger and then left again. 45 minutes after that he’s got two more.  Then another 30 minutes after that, he comes in with a couple more, and then we finally left after all of the other vans left already.  It turns out everything was ok – we just had to wait patiently until the van was full.  We just picked the one minibus driver who couldn’t fill his van very quickly. 

An hour and half later we arrive in the beautiful mountain town of Sapa, which is not quite as beautiful when it is in a big cloud.  It rained our entire first two days there…which wasn’t really all that bad.  We had a cute little room with a great view from our window during the brief stretches of cloud breaks…we spent a lot of time reading, watching movies, and warming up in the tea and coffee houses all around the town.  We learned quickly that the Black H’mong women who walk around the village trying to sell you their handicrafts and trinkets are persistent. They stand outside the windows of the hotels and restaurants trying to catch your eye, and then they attach themselves to you as soon as you walk out. They’re very friendly, and can carry on a conversation in English for a really long time. But they don’t really take “no thank you” for an answer...they’ll walk around with you for a long time in hopes you’ll eventually wear down and buy something. We actually had a hill-tribe woman try to get us to ‘pinky swear’ to buy something from her the next day. I actually feel bad saying no…but I’m not too interested in mouth guitars, and don’t have room for blankets….we may still try to buy some postcards from one of the ladies.

On day three, we took our chances on the weather and headed out on a two- day trek through the surrounding villages in the mountains. Turned out to be a good bet – the weather was gorgeous, and we were afforded expansive views of the mountains and farming villages that rivaled parts of Nepal that we saw on the Annapurna Circuit. We ended our 1^st day of trekking in a homestay in  Ta Phin village with a Red Dzao family, where we joined by two other French couples travelling together.  It ended up being a great night…we indulged in the special Red Dzao herbal bath, which consisted of a couple barrels hidden behind a half closed curtain in the corner of the room, which they filled with hot water and medicinal leaves.  It was like our own little mini-sauna – we came out smelling much better and feeling pretty relaxed. 

Our bath was followed by an amazing home-cooked dinner –you name it, they cooked it for us - chicken, beef, pork, tofu, soup, vegetables, spring rolls, rice, and even some garlic French fries for an appetizer.  After we had eaten more than our fill and enjoyed some beers, our hosts broke out the “Happy Water” (ie, home-brew rice wine).  That’s when it started getting crazy.  The French group’s guide was this spunky little 19 year-old girl who had plenty of stories about all the "hook-ups" that went on in the past trekking groups she’s guided “for sure!"  She started teaching us some Vietnamese card games (not an easy feat after a few rounds of happy water)…and someone literally fell out of the house on the way to the bathroom.  Good times. We slept until around 8 the next morning, and were fed pancakes and coffee before  we were on our way for another beautiful day in the mountains. This is such a gorgeous area of Vietnam – our only regret is that we didn’t sign up for a 2^nd night of trekking. 

Elise with a bottle of local-brewed apple wine.

Our original plan had been to take a day off after our trek, then do a 2-day climb of Mt. Fansipan, the highest point in Vietnam (3143 m). However, we’d been noticing that since we’d been to Sapa, we hadn’t seen the peak once (it’s been in the clouds ever since we got here, even on the nice days)…we talked to some trekking agencies, and they were pretty up front that there was no way we’d have a view from the top in the next few days. That was enough for us to decide it wasn’t worth the money to do the climb…we can go climb peaks and be in the clouds back in Washington for free.  Turned out to not be a bad decision – the day after we got back from our trek was pretty nice, and we took a hike into the Cat Cat valley, which was just more gorgeousness.  However, ever since it’s been raining…so we’re back to biding our time under shelter with hot drinks (or with the local homebrewed apple wine, which I discovered is much more potent than it tastes) and eating the tasty local-style cooking. There have been enough sun-breaks to remind us of what a beautiful place we’re in, and this is by far the best place we know of to kill time while it is raining.  Sapa has been our favorite place in Vietnam…it’s hard to not be happy when you’re surrounded by mountains layered with rice paddies. 

Tonight we head back on a night train to Hanoi, where we hope to learn more about Ho Chi Minh (Uncle Ho!), and maybe catch a water puppet show…then it’s down to central Vietnam to wrap up our last couple weeks in Vietnam.