I didn’t get blogging on our travels around Vietnam. It was too hard when we were travelling with Kath and Terry; there was a lot of socialising to be done. But when it was just the two of us in SaPa, my notebook came out again and a little bit of scribbling started.
Trekking Trip Around SaPa – Saturday 24 September 2017
A smartly uniformed man picked us up from the Blue Hanoi Hotel in his shiny black car. He dropped us off on the road outside the train station, where another man met us and walked us through the waiting room, past the ticket office, out to the platforms, across numerous train tracks, to the noisy, battered, enormously long, red, white and blue train. The 10pm departure from Hanoi to Sapa. He walked us almost to the far end and then gave Rodney some paperwork whilst chatting to a lady who was standing beside the train. She then put her hand out to Rodney and he politely shook her hand. We all laughed when she pointed out that she actually wanted the paperwork. Gawd knows why the man gave the paperwork to Rodney, when he could have just passed it straight to her! The man left us with her and she pointed us to two tiny plastic chairs and offered us a beer each. We both said “no”, then Rodney said “okay, yes”, I said “no” three times, shaking my head to make it quite clear. She brought us a beer each and disappeared. Rodney opened his and started drinking the warm beer. I tucked mine into a bag. Five minutes later she returned and asked for 50,000 Dong!
When we finally boarded the train, with the assistance of both the man and the lady, we were guided to a two-berth cabin; a single bed down each side with a tiny bedside shelf. We were then advised that the one beer, one coca cola, three waters and four waffle biscuits that were sitting on the shelf, were all complimentary and free for us! Cheeky. The white sheets were crisp and clean. The room was brightly lit. But unfortunately, the mattress was plastic, making for a rather sweaty night and the room was right next to the loo. The bathroom absolutely stank of lemon bleach, overpoweringly stank and the smell was seeping through the wall between us. I also discovered, all through the night, that when anyone went to the bathroom, the sliding door banged against the wall next to me, making my bed jump sideways and wake me up….aaaagh! The train didn’t go choofity choof with a rhythmic motion, it was more like bang, rattle, clang, scream, bang…… Our beds shook to the right and left, sometimes quite violently, and at times they would bounce up and down as if you were in a hammock rather than a solid wooden bed. More importantly, would this old train move, and would we get to Sapa? Yes we did, but it took eight hours of rattling to get there!
When we crawled off the train in Lào Cai on Sunday morning at 6:00am, we had no idea what to expect or where to go, but standing at the train station exit was a tiny lady in traditional costume, holding a sign with our names on. She introduced herself as Mrs Mai Pham and she was of the Red Dao (Xao) ethnic group; we were soon to learn how to identify her kin by their red triangular headscarves and black embroidered clothing. She insisted on carrying my bag and guided us to a very smart clean car parked over the road from the train station. She chatted to the driver for most of the one-hour journey up to SaPa, while we tried to stay awake enough to take in the scenery passing our windows.
She tried to check us in to the Chau Long Hotel, but the receptionist insisted there were no rooms available yet. So we left our luggage at reception and Pham walked us round to the Sunny Mountain Hotel, where we ate a good breakfast. The temperature in SaPa was a little cooler, but the humidity was 100% and it was rather oppressive. After breakfast, we walked with Pham through the town to the entry gate for the Ham Rong Mountain, which means the Dragon Jaw Mountain. It was a winding path of endless steps up to 1,800m. There were quite a few pretty flowers and some terrible concrete statues, including only just recognisable ones of Mickey Mouse and Scooby Doo! Near the top of the steps we had to squeeze through a very narrow gap in the rocks; quite a squeeze for even a small person, but we all got through. At the top there was a platform, full of tourists taking selfies that may, or may not have included the vast views over surrounding mountains and the town of Sapa tucked a long way down below us.
The walk back down was a little less lung busting in the increasing morning heat and we were very glad to get back to our hotel. We flopped onto a sofa and wondered why there was a motorbike and a scooter parked inside the reception area. We never found out the answer to that one. The two of us nearly fell asleep while waiting for Pham to try again to check us in. She joined us on the sofa and also nearly fell asleep! In the end she cheerfully suggested that we visit the market, rather than wait any longer.
The market was moved two years ago from the centre of town to the outer edge and with the sun now pushing through the clouds, it was a hot and noisy walk through town. Sadly, most of the products for sale were “Chinese plastic stuff” along with a few, rather dark, local handicrafts. But outside there was a fascinating array of local produce; many fruits and vegetables, some of which we’ve never come across before. In buckets and bowls, there were live fish and frogs (or were they toads?), shellfish and crabs for sale. One fish jumped out of a shallow bowl and into another, just as we walked past, and Pham got the giggles when it splashed her.
On the way back into town we stopped at the SaPa Lotus Hotel where we were presented with a six-course lunch. Two of the courses were almost identical being a plate of sliced tomato and cucumber, though the second one did have the addition of sliced black olives and a few lettuce leaves. On the return to the Chau Long Hotel for the third time at 2:30pm we were finally handed a key to Room 209 and we said our farewells to Pham for the rest of the day. The hotel reception is on the road level, on the fifth floor, but because it is built into the side of the hill, our room was downstairs on the second floor. “Sorry, there is no lift at the moment, our boy will bring your bags down”. There certainly wasn’t a lift, just a great gaping hole through the centre of the hotel. The room was nice enough, although we never could get the TV or the air conditioning working, despite numerous calls to reception on all of the days we were there. The drilling, banging and shouting of the builders went on all afternoon; there was no chance of a snooze, so after finally having a much-desired shower and pulling on some fresh clothes, we went out for another stroll when the temperatures had cooled a bit. We only managed a drink and a cake for dinner, before falling in to bed at 9pm. The builders had finished for the day and it was lovely to be in a big comfy bed, after a night on that rattling train….but….the cocks creating a cacophony at 3:18am right outside our window, was definitely not so pleasant. Thank gawd we had some earplugs!
On Monday, we actually got to eat breakfast in our hotel. Unlike yesterday, our hotel was now almost empty of guests. Pham was sitting on the sofa in reception, ready to go at 9am. She walked us through the crowds, up the road to the junction by the amphitheatre and when our car arrived, we needed to cross the road. I thought I was following close on Pham’s heels in a one-way street, but suddenly a motorbike shot around the corner, in the wrong direction, missed Rodney, skidded to a stop and only lightly hit me. I think I squealed rather loudly when his handle-bar hit my back. Then I started shaking. Pham looked very concerned, but I was fine, the errant driver apologised, no-one was hurt, and the three of us jumped inside the car, before we could create another incident.
After a lot of concerned checking that was I unhurt, from Pham, Rodney and the driver, we headed out of SaPa. Pham apologised for being a little under the weather, she was annoyed with her husband the previous evening, had gone out for a chat with some girlfriends and ended up having two alcoholic drinks which got her very drunk. She is 31 years old, has a son aged 10 and a daughter aged 5, both at school. She had to live with her mother-in-law for eight years, but she saved enough to buy their own home four years ago. Her brother-in-law will inherit her husband’s family home, being the elder son. She is the middle daughter of five children and her parents still live in the next village. She never went to school, there was only enough money to pay for the younger two siblings and neither of them have made much use of their education, much to her annoyance. She meanwhile, took up guiding so that she could learn English and hence earn extra money. She gets a few tours like ours each month, but even on days that she is guiding, she still goes home and does all of the cooking, cleaning and helps on the farm. “My husband is okay, but very lazy…..” She is only 4’10” (147cm) tall, even shorter than me and we reckon that we don’t cope well with alcohol because we are small…..! It’s a theory.
Pham asked us if would be okay to reverse today’s itinerary; we weren’t sure why, but later discovered it was because of the weather and it turned out to be a good plan. Under clear skies we headed north to see the views at Tram Ton Pass (Heaven’s Gate), which stands at 1,900m and is a route through to China. On the way back, we stopped at the Thac Bac Waterfall (Silver Falls). She explained that the name isn’t describing the silvery appearance of the water, it is because some local villagers, many years ago, put their silver in pots and hid the pots under rocks beside the river ‘for safe-keeping’. Sadly for them, one day a big storm and a lot of water swept all the rocks and also their pots down to another village further down the river. Those villagers were very pleased and hence named the waterfall ‘Silver Falls’.
Our driver then took us to Ma Tra where a tiny lady greeted us as soon as we stepped out of the car. Her name was Lo Mai and she was also a Red Xao, though her outfit was different from Pham’s. She seemed quite old, but probably wasn’t as old as us, so we were respectful and chatted with her. Rodney like the ‘pillow’ on her head and admired the French silver coins, dated 1947, that were stitched to the red fabric of her head gear. She told us she would be walking with us to Ta Phinn. While Rodney talked to her on the walk, I asked Pham why we now had two guides on this walk and she rather sheepishly said that the villagers tend to do this in the hope that when we get to their village we will be kind and buy something from them. She insisted that we didn’t have to, as they wouldn’t hold it against her and we would probably never see her again…fair enough. When we got to Ta Phinn Lo Mai, of course, opened up her rucksack and insisted we buy some of her handiwork. Her stitching wasn’t as good as Pham’s (they all do their own embroidery on their clothing and bags, which they’re taught to do from a very young age) and we couldn’t get her to drop her price…..”lots of sewing, take a long, long time for me”. Rodney, the big softy, bought one of her bags and a piece of indigo printed fabric for 225,000 dong. She was very grateful and tied a piece of ribbon around our wrists…..caught them, hah!
Along the village walk, Pham proudly pointed out her children’s school and we walked to the far end of the village to find our car waiting for us. Back in SaPa, we had a late lunch, not at our hotel, but at the Sunny Mountain Hotel again. We were starting to think that Pham, or her travel company, had something against the Chau Long Hotel…..
It was 2:30pm by the time we finished eating, and Pham walked us back to our hotel, before heading home to work. We decided to go for a slower wander around SaPa and the market, though we didn’t buy anything apart from a delicious passionfruit mojito in a bar on the way back to the hotel. Only one, I didn’t want to get a hangover like Pham! The rain came down before we got back to our hotel and the builders were still banging away at the hole in the middle. The TV and air conditioning were still not working, so at 7:30pm we walked over the road for a pizza; we really weren’t hungry after the sizzling duck, four-course lunch.
On Tuesday morning, there was still no air conditioning, or TV and to add to the list, there was now no cold water. The hot water was scalding, so we couldn’t have a shower, wash our hands, or flush the loo, so we complained to reception yet again and were told the usual “30 minutes please” excuse. Rodney had a eureka moment and filled the bath with hot water and we headed upstairs to have breakfast. The hotel’s interior was now running with water, all down the walls and the stairs, it had rained most of the night and the place was a mess, even the builders seemed to have given up on the place. We rather warily had breakfast, choosing carefully from the cakes, yoghurt and fruit which we not in a chilled area, or even on ice, with flies hovering above….. scary.
We met Pham at 9am and she stood with us at the reception desk to help with our complaints. We told the manager we were VERY unhappy, and his reply was “Thank you very much”. This was so unexpected that the three of us burst into laughter. He gave us a key to a room on level three, even though we were supposed to be checking out, but at least this meant we could have a shower before heading back to the train station in the evening.
Today the driver took us out to Y Linh Ho and before getting out of the car, Pham told us that perhaps we could try not to have extra companions on our walk to the next village. So we told the gaggle of ladies that “we’re not buying today, thank you”, and they all slowly faded away. It was nice just walking with Pham and hearing more stories from her. SaPa was still in cloud when we left, but we were now walking down in to a valley and the mist gradually lifted revealing beautiful views over the surrounding hills and rice fields. We strolled down to a large, new bridge that crossed the river, we took photos and stared down at a dam below us. I commented that the water in it looked like pumpkin soup, which set Pham off with the giggles again; I think she might be using that line on future tourists as she found it hilarious! We didn’t cross to the other side but walked further on beside the river as it headed downhill. Suddenly we were being accompanied by a very friendly 47-year old lady from the Black Hmong tribe and despite our protestations of not buying anything today, she stayed with us all the way to her village, Lao Chai. We stopped to use a loo and to buy some drinks…. cue for her to open her basket and present us with all of her handicrafts!! Rodney, the sucker, bought two small purses and gained two more bits of ribbon, tied on his wrists. At 100,000 dong, we probably paid too much again and I couldn’t get Pham to tell me whether the ribbons signalled to other prospective sellers that we had already been had, or that we were decent folk that you might be able to sell to….
My ginger tea was extremely strong, I think there was a whole ginger scraped in to it, but it was nice. Rodney meanwhile had the strangest coffee ever. It dripped, it didn’t drip, it dripped a bit more. With him and Pham both prodding and poking it, plus the addition of some thick condensed milk and some more hot water; by now the coffee was cold, but he drank it!
We walked, now just the three of us again, to Ta Van, where we all ate plates of fried rice with chicken in a café overlooking buffalo wallowing in the muddy rice fields. Chickens, chicks and ducks wandered past. Goats were tied to a post nearby and pigs rolled around in the mud below us. One of our conversations involved us telling Pham about the noisy Koel birds that wake us just before sunrise in Sydney. Pham couldn’t understand why we didn’t shoot it with a catapult and eat it! Apparently, that’s what they do, they’re taught to from a very young age. We had to admit, that in our western society, it’s not something we would do, we’re too well fed. And that led us to feeling a bit guilty.
Due to the heavy rain the previous night, we had to paddle through a few flooded sections on our stroll to Gang Ta Chai, which wasn’t too much fun. But when we arrived at our last lookout for final photos of the valley, Rodney farted. Pham and I looked at each other, both wondering if we had just heard what we thought we had heard, and we both got the giggles. She then told us that we had been much nicer tourists than her last group who were German. One of them was a very big fat man and she described how he would often fart when he was walking. He apparently didn’t find it at all funny when she laughed. How silly, because when Pham laughs, her whole face lights up and surely laughing is good for all of us.
The driver took us back to our hotel for 3pm and the TV, air conditioning and water were working perfectly in this new room, ah well. We made good use of all three and at 5pm Pham and the driver drove us the one-hour journey from SaPa back down to Lao Cai. We shared a nice plate of sizzling chicken and rice in the Viet E Motion restaurant for 2 hours; me writing, Rodney checking the news on the free internet and Pham chatting to one of the other tour guides. Finally, at 8:30pm she walked us over to the train station and walked us to our bedroom on the train. We hugged goodbye and promised to stay with her and her family if there happened to be a next time. We both felt rather sad to be leaving her as she really did make our SaPa tour interesting and meeting her was the best bit of the tour. At 9:10pm, on the dot, the rattly old train chugged out of the station and we were on our way back to Hanoi.
Sadly we were in the same sleeping compartment, with the smelly loo and the banging door next to us. I felt terribly ill in the night, but couldn’t face spending any time in that room next door. On arrival in Hanoi, at 5:30am, we managed to get a taxi back to the Blue Hanoi Hotel, but Rodney refused to pay his rip-off fee; threatening to call the police if he didn’t accept what we knew to be the correct fare. Luckily for me the hotel door was open, but the receptionist was asleep on a sofa. We crept in and I lay down on a sofa in a room behind reception, while Rodney sat and watched over both of us. We weren’t going to stay at the hotel again, we just needed to meet Kath and Terry there, as we were all flying to Hoi An in the afternoon. But when the manager arrived, he took one look at me and very kindly offered us a free room, just so that we could use a bathroom; which I proceeded to use in the most horrible way. I was vomiting on and off all morning and when we finally flew to Hoi An that afternoon, I clutched the sick bag all the way. Not a good way to end our trip up north, or to start the next leg of our Vietnam tour.
Published 27 September 2017