We are starting to learn that in Vietnam if a bus is due to leave at 5pm, they mean 9.30pm. If they say you will be picked up and taken directly to your destination, they actually mean you will have 3 transfers, and one bus will dump you on the side of a main hwy in the middle of the night with all your luggage until the next bus picks you up. This was our experience catching the overnight bus from Hanoi to Sapa. All this confusion was heightened by the fact that every person we dealt with spoke little to no English and once again we were the only westerners on the trip again. By 9.30 we were on our final transfer to Sapa, passengers were yelling at us pointing at our shoes (apparently shoes are a big ‘no no’ on overnight buses) & as people spread out, limbs everywhere, it became apparent to us that this was indeed a very good idea. Me next to the window and reclined back, I had just started dozing off when a dirty man’s hand reached forward (10cm from my face) to slide open the small window next to me, to throw out what I thought was rubbish. This was tolerable until the 5th time he did it waking me up every time. I told him to stop but to no avail. This continued intermitted until we got to Sapa - I could smell his hand reaching for the window before the sound actually woke me up. Gross. Meanwhile Angus was sleeping soundly in the isle seat. We later worked out that he was actually throwing fake money out the window – which is done in Vietnam as an act of good luck and good fortune.
We arrived in Sapa at 9am and were greeted with representative from nearly every hostel from Sapa. We walked down to our pre-booked hotel which was a long way from the main strip so opted for a closer guesthouse which turned out to be cheaper and have the most spectacular views of the adjacent mount Fansipan and the valley below. Unlike some of our friends who had visited the town a few days earlier with freezing and wet conditions we were blessed with 23 degree heat and nearly 100% visibility of the surrounding ranges.
That day we hired motorbikes and rode up into the mountains to the silver waterfalls. Untrusting of Angus’ motor bike riding abilities I jumped on the back of a locals bike and he lead us up there with Angus following behind. To be honest the scenery was more spectacular than the falls and after seeing that Angus was more than capable of holding his own on a bike we told Mr local we would make it back to town ourselves & he left us to our own devices. On the way back we stopped at a completely deserted pagoda on the top of a hill which we climbed to see the most incredible views yet.
We headed off on our 2 day trek at 9.30am the next morning. We were in a group with a French couple, Hungarian couple & an American author who’s literary accomplishments were on the themes of sex and rock and roll – at 44 she was pretty damn cool. The day was spent visiting different tribal villages and navigating steep slopes and river crossings with stealth co-ordination and balance. Where there was no breeze the pockets of stagnant heat were overwhelming, yet once we stopped for breaks deep in the valley, layers had to be added once again. It was a rollercoaster of temperature. More challenging than the trekking was constant presence of the H’mong people. Although lovely and very beautiful is their customary dress, answering the same questions; “What is your name?”, “Where do you come from” then to be followed by “You buy something from meeeee????”, got extremely tiresome. But they did add to our journey, the trek felt that much more ‘cultural’, if you will, having them there with us.
That night we slept at a home-stay in one of the villages and a Czech couple also joined our group. We were fed to the eye ball & then sampled some of the local rice wine, which our guides called ‘happy water’, followed by many a drinking game including one called ‘chopsticks’ in which I ‘accidentally’ got one in Angus’ eye. Good night.
The next day was like walking in a cloud. Visibility was no more than 20 meters in front and everything was ridiculously slippery. The most frustrating and really quiet humorous part of the trek was whilst our group labored up and down steep muddy inclines in our hard core trekking boots, the small statured H’mong people wearing flimsy rubber sandals flew effortlessly up and down hills putting us to shame. The trek was a lot more challenging than the first day also and by 2pm we had had enough. Our guide kept us amused however, commenting to Angus one time “All you have is the fog… and your darling” (looking at me and smiling) & that he got very lonely and sad trekking sometimes and wanted a girlfriend to accompany him and possibly carry him whilst walking. We advised him that he would need an exceptionally big and strong woman to do this task. He laughed like this was the funniest thing he had ever heard. Being the only single in the group, he also tried to swoon Jen (the 44 year old Californian writer). Jen advised our 19 year old tour guide that she was old enough to be his mother and cancelled her already booked 3rd day of trekking – after finding out that it would only be the two of them in the mountains together on this final day. LOL.
On our return to Sapa that night afternoon we decided to depart Sapa that night as with the unfavorable weather limited the activities were would be able to do the next day. The scenery was the spectacle in Sapa and with 30metres visibility we were literally walking in a cloud, hence there was no point staying. Bus back to Hanoi was much better than journey there with no men depositing money out the window.
Utterly exhausted and aching, all day yesterday was spent in our hotel room watching movies on HBO – renamed by us ‘Hanoi Backpackers Overly-exhausted” channel. We can’t seem to shake Hanoi as it is the centre point through which you have to pass through to reach all other northern destinations – including Laos, which we leave for by sleeper bus tonight. Vietnam has been good but the city is so full on & we’re ready to seek warmer and greener pastures in Laos.
