Day 12 – Friday 13 May
I finally arrived in Lao Cai, busting to go since before getting off the train. I walked out and easily found my name on my new guides sign, she lead me to the minibus that would take me and a group of others to Sapa. The drive up to Sapa was so interesting! THIS is the Vietnam I had been thinking of. The road up was so dangerous there were pot holes (more like broken bits of road that were now non-existent), rocks that had fallen like a landslide from the mountain scattered across the road and the roads were wet. I saw people riding cows (or some sort of cattle) up the mountain, girls walking up the mountain with big backpack barrels on their backs. Lots of small sheds and shacks built on the side of the road, quite surreal. How can people live here? We reached central Sapa and the driver stopped in the middle of an intersection and another scooter stopped in front of us also. The driver signaled me to get out, but could not speak English. I didn’t realise what was going on at first but then it clicked, I must be going to my home stay now. Shit! Shit! Shit!
I was so nervous about the home stay, the images I had in my mind of sleeping on the floor in a mud shack with bugs and a pig licking my face in the night…I was scared! But it was not time for the home stay yet; the scooter dropped me to a hotel/ tourist centre for breakfast…phew! As soon as I walked inside I asked if there was a bathroom I could please use (still busting from the train and the drive up was about an hour!). The man pointed upstairs so I went, the toilet was filled with everything you could imagine, it was gross, I thought “that must be how they roll out here”… but no, it was just a clogged toilet like we have back home. Now I am one of “those” people who just go on top anyway, I tried to flush and was sooooo scared it would overflow!!
After the toilet experience I went down stairs back to the dining room where I enjoyed some Vietnamese coffee and an omelet.
After dining with Dat the other night I have opened my mind to food. I do not know why it seemed closed in the first place?
After breakfast I was lead to the motorbikes out the front. “Do you know how to ride, or do you want to go on the back with me” said my guide. “I kind of know, I will go by myself” I replied. I have not been on a motorbike since I was maybe 13 or 14 and it was a quad bike. I was happy it was just me and the one guide that were going on this motorbike tour because I knew I would have slowed the group down if there were more. The instructions the guide gave me were very brief. Here is the ignition, here are the gears (didn’t explain when or how to use them), here are the brakes; here is your helmet, ready?
Ahhh…yes?
Off we go, slow, slow, slowly and unsteady up the street and on the first corner I almost crash into a “parked” van! But all good, I didn’t and we were on our way. We left the city centre and headed down the mountain. Riding down the mountain was soooo much fun. He tried to take me down a rocky path to see another village on the way to “Ban Ho Village” (where we were going to have lunch) but not too far down I stacked it and smashed the mirror on the bike. Just a small graze on my knee and hand, and I sort of hurt my ankle (but I didn’t tell him that because I didn’t want to stop). He helped me get my bike back up this rocky path to the road and he bandaged up my pathetic 0.5cm cut knee with a tissue and some sticky tape. He gave me two options, 1 – I go on the back of his bike and leave mine there, or 2 – I continue down by myself. Why would I want to sit on the back of his bike I thought, what a stupid question! "All good to go, I will go on my own" I said and we continued down the mountain. The smell of bonfires, animal droppings, mud, plants, trees and fresh water as I rode down was amazing, I was so happy and my thoughts were so clear. This will be a fantastic memory I thought, but I can’t stop thinking about how this memory will look in the future and I feel like I have to keep reminding myself to be here and in the moment, and also to concentrate on my driving!
It is so hard to believe people live here. Why? How? My guide, I forgot his name - lets call him Quan, told me a little about the history as we rode down, Sapa was populated about 300 years ago by some black Chinese or something (I couldn’t understand what he said) and they man made/built all the rice fields in the mountains.
I love all the colourful clothes the girls wear but it is just for the tourists, and they are constantly trying to make you buy something. A bit sad I think that Sapa has been so taken over (destroyed) by tourism, even though I am just another one of those tourists adding to the destruction.
I am so very impressed with Sapa so far, so interesting. We rode down some more wet and slippery paths down to Ban Ho Village. We drove over a bridge and just after that I stalled going up a small rocky slope and fell off…again! I feel after this ride I will be a pro! Ban Ho Village looks to me a bit like one of the tree house villages out of Peter Pan. There are little bridges and walk ways to the small shed-like houses.
I am now downstairs underneath the home I believe I am staying in tonight. It looks plush for this area, I am very happy. My guide was in this kitchen making our lunch and they served me green tea and pear. They were happy to let me be while I was writing in my journal. For lunch we had an omelet and salad sandwich, it was yummy. Quan told me he had bought the cucumber that morning from a local street stall for 10,000d/kg (50c/kg) and it was beautiful cucumber. The toilet I used there was fantastic, flushed and everything!
Four of the colourful tribe ladies came to the house as soon as they saw me ride in, obviously to sell me some things. They started conversation and asked how old I was, I told them I was 18 and then I asked them as I was curious. The two young girls were 13, the eldest lady was 45 and they looked about that, but the other girl who was 28 looked like she was 38 and had a gold tooth.
The weather is perfect, cloudy and light rain but not boiling hot like it has been constantly in Hanoi, I am happy! After lunch we headed back up the mountain to the hotel/tourist centre. I stalled my bike going up a little hill again but not bad, I managed to hold the bike up. He saw that I had the bike in 4th gear and then explained to me that when going up hills I should be in 2nd or 3rd gear. The bike made sense to me now and I was off! I was tearing it up the mountain, the wet rocky parts in gear 2 were so much easier with the extra “go” power. Doing 30-40km up this windy, broken, wet and muddy road in the rain… It was SOOOOO much fun!!! I loved it! I felt confident on the bike and I probably shoudn’t as I have only been riding for one day.
We arrived back and the man who was in charge of the bikes.
Some of the paths on the mountain seemed impossible to drive through. One part of the road there was a stream/waterfall running across the road, the road was smashed up completely except for a tiny strip that would have been the width of about 20-25cm. I kept telling myself, if he can do it, I can do it. That and I tried to follow his exact path. I have to stay positive or I will not make it back alive! This is such an amazing experience, something I could not see or do anywhere else. I am so glad I did this on a motorbike and not a trek. The trek would have been too slow and boring. Also I saw the groups walking down the mountain and they would have been constantly asked to buy things from every person they walked past. Every time I have stopped, even just for 2 seconds to take a picture, there has been at least one person asking me to buy something. I feel terrible and a bit awkward saying no all the time, especially when they are so persistent.
My thoughts raced as I drove down the mountain, I thought about everything under the sun, but I was amazed at how clear my head felt at the same time.
My shoes are wet and muddy, I have blood and mud stains on my knees and possibly some mud splattered on my face. My ankle hurts a little more now but it will have to do because I still have to get back. I feel like I am having the experience I was looking for.
A few cuts and bruises with a few stories. A few bracelets which also have a story and I find great comfort in them. I have 3. The first – my “safe travelling” bracelet from Barb and everyone at work (National Foods). Second – My thin, light brown leather band that wraps around twice and has a leaf on it (the leaf represents my travel attitude “go where the wind blows”), the back of the leaf is engraved and it says “with the courage to be myself I am beautiful” (That all sounds so so so corny but it is all so true to me at this point in time). It was also a gift from my sister Millie for my 18th birthday (originally a ring, except my fingers were all too small so I exchanged it). Third and last I bought a plain black bracelet with one big blue stone on it and two smaller blue stones either side, this is just a small reminder of Hanoi.
My half chipped off red manicure reminds me of being in Hong Kong in civilization; I am so close, but so far away.
