Sapa

We’ve been in Vietnam for nearly 3 weeks at this point and it’s been nothing but hot. Maybe a little sprinkle here or there, but no real rain, which would be more than welcome to cool everything down a bit. Steph, self-proclaimed lover of the heat, was over it. So you can imagine our delight when we looked up the weather forecast in Sapa, in the northeast of Vietnam, and found that the daily highs were under 90°F. We couldn't wait, so we hopped on a morning bus (no overnight train or bus for us) and got up to the highlands asap. Most people go to Sapa for the scenery, as it’s located right at the top of the beautiful Muong Hoa Valley, or for trekking to remote mountain villages of the “ethnic minorities,” but we were mostly there for the weather. The other stuff sounded okay, too.

Sapa as a town reminded me very much of Cuzco in Peru. Mountain scenery, lots of local people walking around in their colorful clothing, and LOTS of tourists. Actually the number of tourists has apparently skyrocketed with the opening of a new highway from Hanoi – what used to be a 12+ hour bus or train ride is now under 5 hours, and the locals are coming in droves. I can’t say we really liked the town of Sapa. The local ladies are very pushy trying to sell their handicrafts, plus they outnumber the tourists, so it can get a bit overwhelming at times. The town is certainly not ready for the new influx of visitors – streets are narrow and traffic gridlocks are common, with the symphony of blaring horns that follows. All the tour operators in town were pushing the same packaged 1- or 2-night trekking trips to some of the ethinic minority villages. For whatever reason that didn't really interest us, at least the packaged tour part. We did visit an ethnic village of the Black H’mong people right near Sapa, which was basically just a bunch of shops selling the same handicrafts the ladies are peddling on the street, but at much better prices. Actually the stuff is pretty cool, we just couldn't think of a need for any of it. I did buy a traditional hat that the men sometimes wear – some of the fabric is hand-dyed using locally-grown indigo leaves, and most of the stitching is done by hand. One lady we talked to later said it takes them a week to make one of these hats. I find that a bit of a stretch, but no doubt it would take a long time. 5 bucks. That’s all it was. I didn't even have to negotiate. Makes you feel almost guilty, but the lady seemed very happy to get my business and even gave Steph a free bracelet as a thank you. Now I just gotta figure out something to do with this hat.

Heading down to Cat Cat village

Lots of textiles for sale

A boy on his water buffalo. The water buffalo seem amazingly passive to allow these kids to jump, climb and play on them

We stayed one night in Sapa town, then got out of there for the quieter areas surrounding it, choosing to stay at a homestay about 6 miles down the road in the town of Ta Van. The homestay was great – set right in the middle of the terraced rice paddies, it was a wonderful place to relax and enjoy the view and cool mountain air.

Maybe the best part of our homestay was the food. Free breakfast in the morning – Vietnamese coffee with your choice of banana pancake, eggs and toast, or noodle soup – pretty standard so far in Vietnam. That was fine, but dinner was a different story. For $6 each we all sat around a table with the family and were served a huge meal of chicken, pork, beef and vegetarian dishes, plus all the apple wine we could drink. It was more like whiskey, so we weren't exactly asking for seconds of that. But when your host pours you a small drink, you all drink it and then shake each other’s hands, as is local custom. Actually it was just nice to get a break from the typical Vietnamese dishes and try something new.

Of course we spend all this time in Vietnam with no rain and we finally get to somewhere cool…and it rains. Actually we didn't mind it much, as it gave us an excuse to just sit under a gazebo and read our books. Steph’s been carrying a book this whole time without even opening it, then read it all in one afternoon. It never rained for more than a couple hours at a time, and there were always long breaks in between, so we could get out and do some little hikes when we wanted. The best thing we did was hire one of their motorbikes for the morning to go explore the valley a bit. I had chatted a bit with one of those pushy local ladies in Sapa that I mentioned, and she told me she was from a town called Thahn Kim. With nothing else that we really wanted to see, we made that our destination and set off. A word to the wise – if you ever visit Sapa, do NOT stay in Sapa itself – get as far down the valley as you can. Ta Van was nice, but it only got more and more beautiful as we travelled further away from Sapa.

Steph and I have the opposite problem with one-size-fits-all helmets. They're too small on me...

...and too big on her

No, not a drink stop, but it is a gas station. This is how you buy petrol here!

It turns out Thahn Kim was a bit of a dump, but as they say, “the adventure is in the journey, not the destination,” or something like that. Sapa was great, or at least Ta Van and the Muong Hoa Valley was, but our time in Vietnam was coming to a close. For independent travellers like us, the best way to get to neighbouring Laos consists of about 30-hours on a rickety old bus snaking through the mountains. Unfortunately Steph gets motion sickness, so we used that as a good excuse to fly instead. We hopped another bus back to Hanoi and took a short hop to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. Goodbye Vietnam, hello Laos!