21st April 2010
Sapa was established as a hill station by the French. The overnight train took us as far as the border town of Lao Cai, right on the Chinese border.
We arrived into Lao Cai at 5am. Luckily we had our minibus already booked and were able to push our way through the throngs of drivers offering us rides to Sapa. Once we were on the minibus we had to wait for the next train to arrive and in the meantime fend off the ladies selling Sapa maps and sexy “boom boom” torches amongst other things.
About half an hour later we were on our way out of Lao Cai and heading up into the mountains on narrow, winding roads. By this time it was light and the early morning scenery with the mist hanging low in the valley among the evergreen, vertical peaks was just spectacular.
When we arrived in Sapa the minibus was immediately besieged by a group of very fast moving and talking H’mong women, anxious to sell their handicrafts. Fortunately this wasn’t our stop and when we reached our hotel it was quiet on the “walking shop” front.
We were able to check into our room straight away which was great since by now all we wanted to do was crash. We also learnt that there was a power cut (a common occurence we later learned) but weren’t too worried.
The power cut did become a problem later on though when we wanted a shower. The young girl at the hotel wasn’t strong enough to start the generator, so she enrolled the help of another guest, who it turned out was Israeli. We got chatting to him and his wife and arranged to do a trekking tour with them the following day.
Following our shower we headed out to get our bearings. This time we were followed by several H’mong women - “buy from me”. When this fails they try to get chatting, asking your name and where you’re from. A frequent Sapa sight is a frenzy of Black H’mong women clamouring around hapless tourists. The surprising thing is how much English they speak, especially the young kids, who can also manage French and Spanish, amongst others. One as young as six was talking to us with a 15 month old baby strapped to her back.
On reading about Sapa in our Lonely Planet we had found what we thought would be our second Welsh pub on our trip. Called the Red Dragon, the Lonely Planet describes it as “something transplanted from the Pembrokeshire coast” resembling a Welsh tea room, but selling beer. However, on further investigation we were in for a major disappointment and indeed indignation (at least on my part). A pub called the Red Dragon described as an English Pub. Rubbish! Needless to say we didn’t cross the threshold of this abomination!
We returned to the hotel for a short siesta, then we headed up Jam Rong Mountain via the steep stone steps past our hotel. There is a sort of park at the top of the hill with wonderful views over the valley and Sapa town. The first stop was the Fansipan observation point. Fansipan is the tallest mountain in Vietnam at 3143m high. Today the top was shrouded in cloud, but we still had excellent views of the surrounding mountains.
We walked on through a European Garden with many flowers we recognised from back home. It was very quiet and peaceful up here with not many people and far away from the noisy streets.
Eventually we reached ‘Cloud Yard’, a viewing platform perched on a rocky outcrop overlooking Sapa and the surrounding countryside. Fabulous views all around and a good bird’s eye view of Sapa and its lake.
Before our evening meal, we took a walk around the lake. Unfortunately, like many of the lakes in Vietnam it was full of rubbish, but it was nice to see a different side of the town. It was much more open and spread out than the old town with lots of colonial style buildings and some pleasant gardens around the lake.
After tea we returned to our hotel, which had had power for most of the afternoon. We were just settling down to upload some photos in the hotel reception, which was the only place we could get internet when the weather changed and the wind got quite cold. The internet connection was also quite poor so we decided to give it up as a bad job and returned to our room. We’d been sat down for about five minutes when a storm started up. Huge lightening flashes, right over the mountains gradually followed by rumbling thunder. Then of course a power cut and torrential rain to boot. The hotel receptionist came up with some candles for us, which were also used to light the stairwell. She must have thought us a bit mad for running downstairs and standing outside watching the storm. The electricity did come back a bit later on, but by that time we were pretty bushed and headed off to bed.
