We left Hoi An just as the rains really set in and it was probably lucky that we did as the road leading to the town was already under some serious standing water and I felt really bad for the cyclists that our driver mercilessly sprayed as we went past.
Hanoi is a much smaller city than Saigon, only 3.7 million to Saigon’s 7 million and I immediately liked it more, especially because it didn’t have nearly as many 4 lane roads to navigate while scooters buzzed you like angry bees. We based ourselves in the old quarter where the streets are narrow and bustling with street vendors and places serving bia hoi (draught beer) for pennies. This was far more the Asian city that I’d imagined and even had the added bonus of a number of lakes where you can walk uninterrupted by traffic.
One of the big attractions in Hanoi is the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, where you can visit the embalmed corpse of the man himself – fun! Sadly for us though we’d arrived just after he’d gone to Russia for his annual “maintenance” – bummer.
Our main reason for heading to Hanoi was that it is the gateway to Ha Long Bay and Sapa so our focus was on finding trips to these places that would fit into the few days that we had before our trip to Thailand to hopefully hunt down some sun.
We had a recommendation from our friends Gareth and Leora in Canada for a Sapa trip that they did through the Hanoi Backpackers hostel so we dutifully headed off to investigate. I have to admit that I was a little reticent to book a trip through a hostel especially when their Ha Long Bay trip promised to “rock long, rock hard” and included drinking games and nude midnight swims. Yes, the thought of spending 3 days on a boat with a bunch of drunk 20 year olds fills me with horror – if that makes me old, I can live with it. However, we reasoned that a walking trip to Sapa that included a homestay with a local family probably wouldn’t interest the beer pong and shooters brigade so we signed up.
We turned up at the hostel at 7.30pm as directed and were escorted to the train station where we were to catch the night train. We had already been looking at cabins on the night train before we opted for the all-inclusive trip and had seen some really nice ones, so the bunks were a bit of a disappointment, very basic and a squat loo (something I most certainly will NOT miss when we leave Asia) but seeing as we were literally just sleeping on the train, I managed to avoid being a princess about it and just suck it up.
We arrived in Lao Cai at about 5am and the first issue was the fact that there was nobody holding a sign with our names on it as there was supposed to be. You know that feeling as everyone else is being ushered into their transport, the crowd is thinning and still you’re standing there without a clue as to what is going to happen next? Yes? That was us at 5am. Bleugh. Fortunately a guy who seemed to be in charge saw our Hanoi Backpackers envelope and got us into a bus that delivered us to Sapa where finally we saw Joaneruge written on a sign – imagine the relief!
As we drove the 35km on winding mountain roads the dawn was just breaking and gradually the mountains and their rice terraces were revealed to us. I hadn’t realised until that moment just how much I’d missed being in the mountains and was looking forward to the trek.
After a shower and breakfast we met the rest of our group, 2 Aussies, 2 Danish, 2 Norwegians, a German and our guide, a tiny little 17 year old local girl and headed off. We hadn’t got more than 10m before we were accosted by a group of local women in traditional costume carrying wicker baskets on their backs who became our chaperones for the morning. Basically they walk with you for a couple of hours and help you if you need it and then try to sell you things that they have made when you get to your destination. This cycle repeats itself in the afternoon with a new group of women and again the next morning, so it does become a bit tiresome.
The trek itself wasn’t exactly difficult and was more like a gentle stroll in the countryside. Once I’d realised this and changed my expectations of the trip (I’d been expecting it to be more like a proper hike as we’d done for the Gibbons) I could enjoy the spectacular scenery and the fact that we were finally out in the fresh air.
The town of Sapa lies at an altitude of 1600m and is part of the Hoang Lien Son range of mountains that forms the eastern extremity of the Himalayas. The range includes Vietnam’s highest mountain, Fan Si Pan, at a height of 3142m above sea level. The scenery was nothing like we’ve seen so far in Asia – instead of being deep in jungle we were on the side of a mountain with vistas to go with it and wonderful fresh air to breathe. The terracing on the sides of the mountains is spectacular, even after the harvest when it’s all brown instead of the lush green that you associate with rice paddies.
Our home for the night was a village in the valley that a local family live in but is set up with lots of extra beds for tour groups just like ours. I wasn’t expecting the level of comfort that we ended up with – a double bed with thick, warm blankets and a mosquito net and privacy curtain – as this is nothing like what the locals actually have themselves, as evidenced by our guides house that we visited on the way, which seemed to have only one large bed for a number of people, including the girl and her husband (yes, married at 17) and her sister and kids. Clearly set up specifically for the soft tourists.
After a delicious breakfast of pancakes the next morning we set off to cross the valley and visit a waterfall before being picked up on the other side and taken back to town. It was a short trip, but a good one and yet again we were thankful for an interesting group of people to share it with. Oh and I should of course mention that Clive managed to find some partners in crime (the Aussies of course) who willingly followed him up the waterfall and over an Indiana Jones style suspension bridge which was accessed through almost impenetrable brush (I say almost) and closed off with barbed wire. But since when has that been enough to deter him?
We returned to Hanoi for a day before heading out to Ha Long Bay for a night and sampled some more delicious Vietnamese food and also caught our first glimpse of anything Christmassy – one small block in the old quarter seems to be dedicated to Christmas decorations. Most odd when you’re still in shorts.
We also took a couple of pics of scaffold and electrical wires. Odd? Us? Check out below.
boltsintotheblue 
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