Blog 9 Sapa, Vietnam

Our first impressions of Sapa were through somewhat jaded eyes. We had spent the night on the sleeper train from Hanoi and after an hour on a mini bus climbing 1200m we had arrived at Sapa about 7am to be greeted by incredibly persistent touts, most in tradational ethnic costumes and trying to flog local handicraft items at inflated prices.

However we found a nice hotel with great view across the valley to the 3100m Mt Fansipan (also spelt Phang Xi Pang nd Phang Si Pan) and chiled out for a while before hiring a motorbike and heading out to explore the surrounding area. The Ta Phin caves were worth while and supposedly extend through the limestone for 36 kms. We explored the first 800m or so with dying torches and were eventually quite pleased that a Hmong woman had followed us into the cave as she was a useful guide. We even bought some of her handicrafts once we were back in the sunlight..

The local museum has an interesting exhibit of photos and conversations with Hmong youth and it is quickly apparent that they wear their traditional black clothing out of genuine preference and not just as tourist attractants.

Later in the afternoon we rode the motorbike out to some local waterfalls. In the morning we rode in tee shirts, but the wind had come up quite strongly and as the sun sank we donned coats and warmer layers. The waterfalls were a bit "same same" (a very popular local expression), but the ride along the road to the start of the walk to Mt Fansipan was interesting as it was being rehewn out of the rock faces. At the main work sites, locals had set up numerous small fast food stalls selling half hatched eggs (eggs with partly developed embryos), rice and barbequed meat.

After an early night and a great sleep we woke with considerably more energy and enthusiam and decided to tackle a trek away from the crowds and without a guide. The biggest challenge was lack of a good map, we had a 1-200,000 contour map and a hand drawn tourist map with no scale or contours. There are lots of tracks in the hills for collecting wood and otherwise harvesting the forest, most of which are not marked on the map. There are also no signposts on any trail junctions. So we had an interesting time exploring. At the head of a small stream we came across a saw pit that was still being used. At the top of a hill we found a charcoal pit. The charcoal is used by the numerous street food vendors in Sapa in small braziers and cookers.

The villagers we met on this trek were quite different from the street hawkers, being mostly quite shy. They were also involved in hard physical labour, particulary the sawyers who were dragging and carrying heavy beams back to their villages.

It was almost 5pm by the time we climbed back to the road, so we hailed some passing motorbikes and rode the last 5kms into town for a well earned beer.
Time to head out for dinner. Having had Phu (rice noodle soup) for breakfast and french pastries for lunch its time for something different. Might find out what the steamboat is like.