After an horrendous journey on yet another sleeper bus, we’ve arrived in Sapa. I can only describe this place as being like a skiing town like Niederau in Austria, just with a distinct lack of snow. It’s about 1300 elevation, so it’s damn cold. The nearest peak is Fansipan, which is about 3000 elevation, and we’d be able to see it if it wasn’t for the thick layer of cold fog everywhere.
Regardless, Sapa is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen, and it’s given me a really good excuse to test my new wide-angle lens (pics up soon).
We’ve done a couple of treks, one was down to Lao Cai, where there are several villages where the tribal minorities live-the Black H’Mong and the Red D’Zai, easily distinguishable by their distinctive hats that they wear. This would all be really awesome if it actually felt real. It’s not just a case that these tribes women (you don’t encounter the men, they’re busy farming the mountain or working on carving the landscape giving Sapa it’s distinctive shape) just play up to their culture, but most of them don’t even live in the minority village. It felt like Disneyland. I’m sure that it’s not like this with everyone, just the women selling you their crap at extortionate prices. Further more, hiking in Converse 1 size too small for you is not advised. Sprained my ankle twice, and my little toe on both feet are blistered to hell.
Back to Hanoi tomorrow via a (non smelly) sleeper train, arriving at 4am. We’ll stay here one night and then hopefully grab flights from Hanoi to Bangkok. We’ve met some really awesome people here in Hanoi and Sapa; the best of the lot always happen to be canadian. I can’t wait to go to Vancouver in 3 months :)
It’ll be a shame to leave Vietnam, but I have to be honest, the last 3 weeks have been emotionally and mentally challenging, what with all the travelling we’ve done, covering 2000km + in 3 weeks. I think I’ve physically aged about a hundred years.
I will come back one day though.