Sapa, Vietnam

31st May – 3rd June 2018

After being collected from the hostel in Hanoi, we walked towards our bus. We got on it, only to learn that it wasn’t the sleeper bus we were expecting (and we were meant to be on it all night). However, we luckily soon learned that this was just getting us out of town to the bus stop, as the sleeper bus was too big to fit down the narrow streets.

We arrived at the bus stop, with so many other people and had to be waited to have our name called before we could board. Annoyingly, we weren’t called, because they mustn’t have been able to pronounce Joe’s name so we were last to get on, meaning that we were on the back row, where five ‘beds’ were squished together. At first, we thought we were okay, as there were two free beds when we set off, but the driver just collected more people and we were soon full. With no where for our bags to go, and not enough room to sit up on the back row, we could tell it wasn’t going to be a great journey.

Once we set off, the lights stayed on for a while, which wasn’t great, as we knew we would be woken up when we arrived in Sapa at 5.30am, so I wanted to make the most of the sleep time. Lots of people were chatting too, but this eventually settled down.

The lights went off and I managed to get a tiny bit of sleep, before we were stopping for a break! It seemed like we had only been going for an hour or so before the break, but the lights went on and people were invited off the bus. We didn’t get off though, I just tried to get some more sleep.

After we were back on the road, I think we went the rest of the way to Sapa, with no break, even though we should have had one. This didn’t bother me though. We arrived in Sapa at 4.30 but were allowed an extra hour on the bus before being woken up. We got up and got our things together and were left on the pavement to fend for ourselves basically.

While we were stood, trying to figure out what to do, we were approached by many locals, asking us if we wanted various things. After not much sleep, and at 5.30am, this is not what we wanted or needed at all. We eventually got Joe’s phone back on, after the battery had died, and found out where we were meant to be.

After about twenty minutes of walking, in the cool, fresh air (I love the mountains!), we made it to our hostel. No one was there to help us when we got there, despite it being a 24 hour reception, so we sat and waited in the reception area. Eventually someone arrived but said we couldn’t check in until 12.30, which was understandable.

I did some research online, before we set out for a wander to the information centre just after 7. As we had been up so long, it was a lot earlier than it felt, so when we got to the information centre, it was still shut, even though it should have just opened. We hung around for five minutes or so, before walking to the market instead.

It was a bit of a distance away, but we got there in the end. When we arrived, we were mainly on the hunt for a patch, so we wandered up and down the aisles but not much was open, and those that were open, all sold the same things. Next to the information centre. I noticed there was another little market setting up, as we left, so we went there instead.

At the second market, it was still all pretty much the same things, but I found a little something that I knew I could make work, and it only cost me 16p! From the market, we popped into the information centre, but it was the least informative information centre I have ever seen. We enquired about some guided treks, but they all seemed so expensive and I started to doubt if we had made the right decision to not do the tour.

Feeling a little annoyed with ourselves, we started to make our way back to the hostel. We noticed a few tour shops along the way, so popped in, to see what they could offer. To my relief, their tours were much cheaper (half the price of the one in the information centre), as the lady in the information centre was only offering private tours, which we didn’t necessarily need, and as the tour with the hostel would have been a group tour, I felt like we had done the right thing after all.

After getting advice from different tour shops, we went back to the hostel to organise ourselves before we booked anything. We had a little snack and discussed our options, before deciding that we would do a short trek in the afternoon, unguided, and then book a day tour for the following day. Luckily, while we were sat in the lobby, discussing this, we were told that our room was almost ready, so if we waited for twenty more minutes, we could check in, which made it easier for us.

Once we were checked in, and had got changed, we went out for the day. As our belvita biscuits hadn’t filled us for breakfast, and we needed some sugar to keep us going for the day, we stopped in a bakery before starting our trek. I got a donut and Joe got a croissant, and they were both huge!

We set off towards the village of Cat Cat just after 11 and took our time going down. The roads down were quite steep, as it is a village in the valley of the mountains. The views on the way down were beautiful: we were surrounded by mountains and rice terraces and it was just beautiful. Along the way, we stopped to look at a café menu, to price up some things for dinner that evening. Two tribes ladies started chatting to us and once we walked off, they scuttled after us to try and sell us things. It was such a funny image to see them shuffle off their bench and chase after us, but we didn’t want to buy anything, and they soon left us alone, making sure we promised to come and see them on the way back up. As we had to go back up that way anyway, we promised we would.

 

After about forty-five minutes of walking, we made it to Cat Cat. We had to pay entry to see the village, but it wasn’t very expensive (70,000 dong each – just over £2 each). I had read online that as soon as you enter, you are hounded by sellers and locals trying to get you to visit their shop, so I was a bit sceptical about entering at first. However, once we walked down the steps, it was so quiet: there weren’t any other tourists, and the locals were all sat in their own little stalls, mostly sleeping! I guess that’s the advantage of visiting places in low season.

We walked through the village, where the narrow streets were lined with stalls on either side. It was a really beautiful sight from the top of the street, with the bright colours and the mountainous backdrop. We walked down lots of steps, until we reached a flower garden which overlooked the valley and more rice terraces. We sat there for a while and enjoyed the views. Our white skin attracted more photos with random people – we’re still not sure why.

After sitting for a while, we carried on, further into the valley to the waterfall. When we arrived down at the bottom, there was a little bridge and bamboo walkway and some water wheels, it was a really pretty area. We spent quite a bit of time down there, walking along the walkways, sitting in the hammocks, and listening to the water run.

At 2 o’clock, there was a free show in the performing arts centre, so we went along to have a look. It was a group of local Hmong people doing traditional dances and playing music. It was really nice to sit and listen to for a while even if we didn’t really know what was going on. Hmong people are very strict about passing their traditions down onto future generations: they make sure that all girls learn how to weave and the boys learn how to shoot bows. It is really important to them that they do this, as it keeps their tribe strong.

We also learned that when a boy likes a girl, he gets his friends together to ‘steal’ the girl for a few days. He keeps her for this time and after the three days if she agrees to marry him, then a ceremony is conducted, and if not, they drink alcohol and go back to being friends, forgetting it ever happened. I’m not sure this would work long term, but it’s another Hmong tradition they keep going.

After watching a couple of performances, we carried on, on our way. We started to climb up the steps, back out of the valley. It was a tough climb but at least there wasn’t any humidity and there was no sun, so this made it much easier.

Eventually, we made it back to the hostel, where we decided to do some laundry before going out. As we were staying in the same place for two nights we thought it would be the perfect chance to hand wash and hang it up to dry. I rinsed all of the clothes through first, before we washed them and hung them up. It took a lot longer than we thought, but we got there in the end.

By the time we were ready to head out for dinner, it was pouring down! We had our rain coats on, but we were still extremely soggy when we arrived at the restaurant. We had chosen a place that we had spotted earlier, and then when we researched it, it had high ratings. We both ordered a set menu, which came with soup, bread, a main dish with rice, a dessert and a drink. I ordered tofu to be different and regretted that after one bite, but Joe’s beef was nice. The bill came to 180,000 dong (less than £6) which was a great deal.

Fortunately, it had stopped raining after dinner, so we were able to walk back in the dry, it was cold though, and as we were wet, it didn’t help. When we made it back, we dried off and checked the clothes which were still dripping wet. As we still had plenty of time, I wasn’t worried. We chilled out and did some writing, before falling asleep just after 10, ready for our tour the next day.

The next morning, we had a little lie in, despite the fact we were going on a tour. We got up when the alarm went off on 8, and got ourselves ready, before going down for breakfast. We had breakfast included in the room: I had an omelette and Joe had fried eggs, and we both ordered an orange juice.

By the time breakfast arrived, we were in a little bit of a rush to get to the trek on time, as we had to be up at the office for 9.30 and it was already past 9. Once we had eaten, we rushed up stairs to finish getting ready, before walking up the street to the office.

As we know what it’s like for time keeping over here, we weren’t in too much of a rush, as we guessed it wouldn’t start on time, which it didn’t. We were met by the tour guide and the rest of the group at about 10am, which is when we began our trek.

The first part of the trek was really pleasant. There were beautiful views and the walk was nice and steady going downhill. We had a group of tribe women follow us along the way, as well as having our official guide, who we later found out were only with us to try and sell us things at the end.

The trek was going through three different villages, throughout the day. We didn’t stop in them all to have a look at them, but we did learn a little bit about them. Each village was small in area size, but large in population, due to each house having approximately 11-13 family members, living in four rooms! The jobs of all of the people in most of the villages we visited, was to work in the rice terraces. In Y Lin Hao – the village we visited first – all of the rice that they grow is for their own consumption, and they don’t sell any of it on.

The fir trees that grow in the valley are important to the tribes. These trees take twenty five years to grow, before they cut them down and use the wood to build new buildings.

There are six tribes living in Sapa, with each one having their own language. At first, these tribes could not communicate with each other, as they did not know how to speak the other language. Now, if they want to communicate, they must speak Vietnamese to each other, as that is their common language.

After we had walked through Y Lin Hao, it started to rain. It didn’t just rain a little bit, it poured and poured and neither of us had brought our raincoats, as they were still wet from the night before (we think we had damp in our room which is why nothing was drying). The walk from here started to get steeper and muddier, and all of the extra ladies started to come in handy, as they helped us down the mountainside. We packed up the electronics in the dry bag and carried on. Luckily I had my new Vietnamese hat on, which I bought for sun protection, but it worked great as an umbrella too, meaning my hair and face stayed dry!

A little bit further down the line, we were asked if we wanted to buy some ponchos. As tempting as this would have been at the beginning of the rain, it wasn’t worth it by this point as we were already dripping wet. The rain got heavier and heavier, and while I was dragged off at a quick pace by one of the ladies, Joe was left to fend for himself. It wasn’t surprising when I heard he had fallen in the mud, I would have definitely done that if I didn’t have my tribe lady helping me.

After walking a bit further, the rain eased a bit, which was better. The next village we arrived in, was Lao Cai, where we stopped for lunch. This was where our tribe helpers lived, so were leaving us behind. They tried to sell some of their things to us, and I felt bad saying no, but I can’t buy things from everyone I feel bad for. If I’d have known at the time that they were leaving us there, then I would have given a tip, but I didn’t realise until afterwards.

Although we weren’t looking forward to lunch because the guide made out that it would be just rice and cabbage, like the locals eat, we were pleasantly surprised when it arrived. We were served rice and spring rolls and veggies, and meat (although I’m not entirely sure what meat it was). We had time to sit and enjoy lunch, while the rain started to pour again.

Once we had all finished, we continued our trek to Ta Van. Although the street signs said it was 2.5km away, we seemed to make it there in about twenty minutes, which didn’t seem accurate. The walk was much easier, and a lot less slippery and the rain eventually stopped, meaning that I could get my camera back out again, and I didn’t have to rely on the very unreliable GoPro. On the way, I saw a dog being roasted which was sad and a bit of a culture shock, but it’s very normal in Vietnam – it made me think it’s what we ate at lunch!

When we made it to Ta Van, our tour was over! We had a driver there waiting to collect us to take us back to Sapa. At the end of the tour, I didn’t feel like we had had a great workout, and I wasn’t quite ready to finish, but we had no option.

We got back to Sapa and were dropped off in the centre. We had a little walk around to take some photos and dry off some more, before heading back to the hostel. On the way back, we enquired about another tour for the following day, but sadly it wouldn’t get back to Sapa until 5pm and we had a bus to catch at 4pm, so we couldn’t do that.

Back at the hostel, our clothes were still so wet, so we put them on the communal balcony at the front of the hostel to try and dry them a bit. The sun was directly on them, so it worked quite well, but it wasn’t long before sunset. While the clothes were out drying, I did some writing and Joe helped me out by sewing some patches on my bag. He was a bit worried at first but I showed him how to do it, and he did a great job!

Before we knew it, it was nearly 7 o’clock and we hadn’t eaten. We both got to a good place to stop our tasks, before getting ready to head out. We didn’t have a plan for dinner, but thought we would look at a few of the barbeque places along the way. As these were all quite pricy – even the street food ones were 50,000 dong for one skewer – we ended up back at Sapa 24 Restaurant, where we ate the night before. I went for the set menu again, meaning I got a three course meal and drink for cheaper than two skewers on the street barbeques. Joe opted for a burger this time, and both meals were really good.

Once we had finished eating, we made our way back to the hostel. When we reached the main road, there was a big street market going on – it must have been because it was a Saturday night. It was sad to walk down and see children of all ages sat on the road trying to sell things. Some of them didn’t even have parents with them. They looked sad and dirty and it was clear that they were there to try and entice people in based on sympathy – it’s sad that they are taught this way of life.

We got back to the hostel at about 8.30, where we continued with our little tasks. They took much longer than we expected, and by the time Joe had finished the patches, we were too tired to watch an episode, like we had planned, so we went to bed.

The next morning, I was awake at 7, as there was an alarm going off on my phone, which I cant turn off because my phone is disabled, but it still has battery! Since I was up, I made the most of the time. I put the washing back on the balcony, as it was getting more damp in the room, along with all of the other things we hadn’t washed. I then did some more writing, while Joe slept in until about 8ish.

Once Joe was up, he checked on the washing again, before we got ready to go down for breakfast, where we both ordered banana pancakes. When one plate came out, there were two pancakes folded in half on the same plate. As I had ordered both for us, we assumed that we were sharing the plate, so tucked in. Just as we were finishing them off, a second plate came out with two more pancakes on! It was a good surprise and just enough for breakfast time.

After breakfast, we went back up to our room to try and pack. As most of our clothes were still wet, this was a difficult task, so we ended up asking the hostel if they could put them in the dryer for us. It was 15,000 per kilogram and we only had two kilograms, so it seemed worth it, to not have smelly, damp clothes. Once they were dry, we packed up, including our day bags for our next excursion, after we had arrived back in Hanoi.

Just after 11, we went down to check out. When we checked our bill, we had been charged for 4kg of laundry and 90,000 for the two drinks we had with breakfast! Both of these were not expected, and I questioned both. It was lucky that we weighed the drying before sending it down, as they clearly hadn’t. When I told her there were only 2 kg she was a bit shocked and sheepishly changed the price. When I questioned the drinks, she told me that we were told drinks were additional, which they weren’t, and the menu didn’t say that there would be a charge either, but she refused to let us off.

This was a disappointing show from the hostel, and after both of these, plus the damp, and the fact we found a used, dirty plate in our room on check-in, we weren’t happy at all, as it was a lot of money by Vietnamese standards, so we very reluctantly paid.

Once we had checked out, we went for a walk into the town, as we had four hours until we needed to be at the bus station. We looked for lunch places, but didn’t want to get too far, and then have to go back for our bags, as the walk to the bus was all uphill.

Instead of eating lunch first, we decided to go and collect our bags and research some cheap cafes before we left. We did this but couldn’t really find much for a cheap price, so in the end, we took our bags and began the walk, hoping to find somewhere on the way. It was a tough walk up the hills with our heavy bags, but it needed to be done at some point.

As I needed a rest, we stopped in the square at the top of the hill and had a break. There were lots of tribe children out in the square, begging for money and looking sad – it was sad to see but also a little daunting. After the rest, we carried on walking towards the bus stop, still looking for reasonably priced cafes for lunch.

Almost at the bus stop, we finally found a café! It was only a little place but we both ordered a sandwich with chips, which was average but cheap. It was still very early for the bus, so we took our time with eating and paying up, leaving the café at about 2.

From the café, we walked towards the lake, where Joe found a bench and sat with the bags. While Joe waited, I went for a walk to some nearby supermarkets to look for some snacks to buy for tea, as we knew we were going to be on the bus. The supermarkets had a poor range of options, so after discussing with Joe, I ended up walking to the bakery we had eaten in two days earlier, to get us both a donut. It wasn’t the healthiest, but tea was sorted.

By the time I got back and had had a little sit, it was time to go to the bus. It was almost 3.30, and although the bus wasn’t leaving until 4, we had to be there early. We checked in and had to wait in the office area, even though the bus was there already.

Eventually, they began to board the bus just before 4. We weren’t priority for some reason. Despite being at the front, all of the Vietnamese got to get on first and find their seats. When we were finally allowed on the bus, we got seats next to each other, not on the back row, even though the back row on this bus wasn’t as squashed. We settled down, before one of the workers got on and approached only the tourists asking if they would sit on the floor for the journey, as they had overbooked a seat. No one wanted to, obviously, as it was a six hour journey, and they were only offering about a third of the ticket price back. It was a strange situation and I’m not sure how they resolved it, but we were on our way back to Hanoi just after 4.15.

Sapa is quite a different place to Hanoi. The mountains are beautiful, and although we arrived at the beginning of rainy season, so didn’t get to see the peaks, the views of the terraces were stunning. I feel a little disappointed that we wasted our final day waiting for laundry to dry and then wandering around with our heavy bags, because it could have been used trekking to a local village, or exploring Hanoi if we could have got an earlier bus back, but by the time we had realised that, it was too late, so I guess we will put it down to another learning curve!

To travel is to live, Katie x