The trip back to Hanoi was even longer than the trip there . . . a mere thirteen and a half hours door to door.
The bus driver from Sapa to the train station in Lao Cai was considerably better than the one there, as he only tried to kill us three times. Twice by nearly plowing into herds of water buffalo that had wondered into the road, and once by repeatedly trying to overtake a truck through a series of blind hairpin bends! Even the locals looked relived when we made it to the train station in one piece! And of course, because this time the route was all down hill the journey was taken at a considerably higher speed than previously. That combined with the twistyness of the roads led to one poor local women heaving her breakfast back up. It's a good job she was sat by the window because the driver didn't offer to stop or even slow down.
This time we caught the morning train at half past nine which allowed us to see some of the beautiful scenery we had missed on the way there on the sleeper. The scenery was great, rugged mountains in the background with rice paddies and the Red River in the foreground. It's always really interesting traveling by train abroad and seeing how different it is to back home. Doing a bit of people watching and trying to work out whats going on. It always seems more buzzy what with the vendors working their way up and down the train. Selling all sorts of stuff from crisps and chocolate to a go on a pipe! I can't remember the last time you could buy a new watch or a four inch hunting knife on a British Rail train.
The people here always seem far more friendly than the average train traveler back home. If you find yourself sat opposite a local it wont be long before they strike up a conversation to find out about who you are, where you are from and what you do. When the conversation turns to football, which it often does, they really know their stuff. Although rather strangely none of them are Wolves fans!
One poor guy from Sweden on the seat behind us was sat next to a couple of Vietnamese businessmen who had brought two bottles of vodka onto the train and were having a drinking competition. Their hospitality meant that he had to join in and was only able to escape a couple of hours later when they both passed out! I like a drink as much as the next man but a neat vodka marathon at half nine in the morning is even a bit much for me.
We made it back into Hanoi for nine in the evening and checked back into our quiet fifth floor room at North Hotel No2 where we had stayed last time. Then we headed of out for dinner at a rather unusual restaurant called Cyclo, where all the chairs are made from the passenger seats of Vietnamese cyclo bikes. It was fun but unfortunately it looked a little like we were dining from wheelchairs
Showing posts with label Sapa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sapa. Show all posts
27 November 2008
Shivering in Sapa
We've had a great couple of days in Sapa, but it's been bloomin' cold! Due to it's elevation (over 1600 meters above sea level) and location in the Hoang Lien mountain range it is often shrouded in mist and fog. Unfortunately for us we were visiting during off-season when the weather is at it's coldest.
Being as everywhere else we're going to (apart from Nepal and Tibet at the end) should be hot we have only really packed warm weather clothes. This has resulted in us wearing most of the contents of our backpacks at the same time. Liz has even had to go out to buy a fleece. Even worse though is the ultimate fashion no-no that she has committed . . . wearing socks with her traveler sandals!
The town of Sapa is a bit of an odd place and I didn't really like it to start with. I think I was expecting it to be more in the French colonial style, when really the style is a bit of an ugly mish-mash. That coupled with the cloud, fog and cold weather put me in the wrong frame of mind about the place. However, once I had acclimatised after the first day it was all good and I began to enjoy the place.
The views from the edge of town to the mountains and valley below are really spectacular. Towering above Sapa and the valley is Fansipan the highest mountain in Vietnam. Apart from the views the other thing that gives the town something a little different is the people from the H'mong and Dzao hill tribes who come into town to run the market and sell (hawk!) their traditional wares to the tourists.
Whilst we have been here we've had a couple of trips out. The first was what Liz would like to describe as a "trek" to the H'mong village of Cat Cat, which is 3km away down the valley. I personally wouldn't call a half hour walk a "trek". Looks I might have a little trouble talking her into the 14 day trek to Everest base camp that Jeroen and Judith did in Nepal.
Life for the villagers of the hill tribes looks really tough. In Cat Cat everyone was living in little huts, either farming the land, without the use of any agricultural machinery, or making items to sell to tourists. Neither of these activities generates much money and on the whole they are incredibly poor. Down in the village the only brick building is an old disused French power station which has been converted into a cultural center where they put on traditional shows.
Whilst on the walk, as well as soaking up the scenery and seeing life in the village we also got to see some of the local animals and wildlife.
The other trip we made was a ride out in an old Russian army jeep to Thac Bac (Silver Waterfall) and the Tram Ton Pass. The Pass, at 1900 meters, is the highest road in Vietnam and the trip along it was certainly something of an experience. Thank god that our driver was more sane than the bus driver from Lao Cai. The road in places is so bad that it was smoother going off road!
Despite the coldness of Sapa there is only one hotel in town with central heating, the four star Victoria. As you may have guessed our backpacker budget would not strech to such luxuries. Although we did spend a couple of afternoons making the most of their very nice centrally heated bar, free board games and pool table!
Back at the Cat Cat View the heating in our room was provided by an open fire, which gave me plenty of opportunity to earn man points and prove my Ray Mears survival skills!
Being as everywhere else we're going to (apart from Nepal and Tibet at the end) should be hot we have only really packed warm weather clothes. This has resulted in us wearing most of the contents of our backpacks at the same time. Liz has even had to go out to buy a fleece. Even worse though is the ultimate fashion no-no that she has committed . . . wearing socks with her traveler sandals!
The town of Sapa is a bit of an odd place and I didn't really like it to start with. I think I was expecting it to be more in the French colonial style, when really the style is a bit of an ugly mish-mash. That coupled with the cloud, fog and cold weather put me in the wrong frame of mind about the place. However, once I had acclimatised after the first day it was all good and I began to enjoy the place.
The views from the edge of town to the mountains and valley below are really spectacular. Towering above Sapa and the valley is Fansipan the highest mountain in Vietnam. Apart from the views the other thing that gives the town something a little different is the people from the H'mong and Dzao hill tribes who come into town to run the market and sell (hawk!) their traditional wares to the tourists.
Whilst we have been here we've had a couple of trips out. The first was what Liz would like to describe as a "trek" to the H'mong village of Cat Cat, which is 3km away down the valley. I personally wouldn't call a half hour walk a "trek". Looks I might have a little trouble talking her into the 14 day trek to Everest base camp that Jeroen and Judith did in Nepal.
Life for the villagers of the hill tribes looks really tough. In Cat Cat everyone was living in little huts, either farming the land, without the use of any agricultural machinery, or making items to sell to tourists. Neither of these activities generates much money and on the whole they are incredibly poor. Down in the village the only brick building is an old disused French power station which has been converted into a cultural center where they put on traditional shows.
Whilst on the walk, as well as soaking up the scenery and seeing life in the village we also got to see some of the local animals and wildlife.
The other trip we made was a ride out in an old Russian army jeep to Thac Bac (Silver Waterfall) and the Tram Ton Pass. The Pass, at 1900 meters, is the highest road in Vietnam and the trip along it was certainly something of an experience. Thank god that our driver was more sane than the bus driver from Lao Cai. The road in places is so bad that it was smoother going off road!
Despite the coldness of Sapa there is only one hotel in town with central heating, the four star Victoria. As you may have guessed our backpacker budget would not strech to such luxuries. Although we did spend a couple of afternoons making the most of their very nice centrally heated bar, free board games and pool table!
Back at the Cat Cat View the heating in our room was provided by an open fire, which gave me plenty of opportunity to earn man points and prove my Ray Mears survival skills!
24 November 2008
Hanoi to Sapa
Sapa is an old hill station close to the Chinese border up in the mountains of Northwest Vietnam. It is renown for spectacular scenery, treking and the local hill tribes. Getting to Sapa is an adventure in itself. Although its only about 380km from Hanoi the journey took us about eleven hours.
The first stage was a nine and a half hour overnight sleeper train for the town of Lao Cai, which left Hanoi at 10:05 on Saturday evening. We took what is known as a hard sleeper carriage. The carriages are arranged like you see in the old films, with a narrow corridor down one side with rooms on the other. The rooms on the hard sleeper hold six beds, in two banks three. Liz had great difficulty getting into her mid level bunk, much to the amusement of the four locals who were sharing our room.
Most Westerners take one of the earlier trains which have the more luxurious soft sleeper carriage, so there were a few raised eyebrows to see us there. The train was really comfortable and we slept virtually all of the way there.
Apart from Liz not being able to get into her bed the only other difficult bit was the toilet, which was a Asian squat style one rather than a Western throne. Using it was incredibly difficult on a train that rocked like a galloping horse!
Being as we were the only Westerners on the train every hawker, taxi driver and tout made a bee line for us as soon as we had pulled into Lao Cai on Sunday morning. The first couple had even made it to us before we had chance to get off the train! Thankfully we had booked a ride through the Cat Cat View Hotel where we were staying in Sapa.
The drive from Lao Cai to Sapa is 38km which is all up really steep hair pin bend hill roads. As is the way in these parts, if you can travel marginally faster than the vehicle in front then you must overtake it. Irrespective of how much road this takes and many blind hair pin corners are ahead of you. This is either . . .
a) really exciting, or
b) buttock clenchingly scary.
Sapa bus drivers and anyone else answering a) should seek the help of a psychologist.
There were several occasions when motorbikes coming the other way had to take evasive action and swerve onto the grass bank that seperated the road from the rice terraces below. We were both concerned about what would happen if something larger than a motorbike came the other way whilst we were doing some insane overtaking manover. Thankfully we didn't get the opportunity to find out and made it to Sapa in one piece
The first stage was a nine and a half hour overnight sleeper train for the town of Lao Cai, which left Hanoi at 10:05 on Saturday evening. We took what is known as a hard sleeper carriage. The carriages are arranged like you see in the old films, with a narrow corridor down one side with rooms on the other. The rooms on the hard sleeper hold six beds, in two banks three. Liz had great difficulty getting into her mid level bunk, much to the amusement of the four locals who were sharing our room.
Most Westerners take one of the earlier trains which have the more luxurious soft sleeper carriage, so there were a few raised eyebrows to see us there. The train was really comfortable and we slept virtually all of the way there.
Apart from Liz not being able to get into her bed the only other difficult bit was the toilet, which was a Asian squat style one rather than a Western throne. Using it was incredibly difficult on a train that rocked like a galloping horse!
Being as we were the only Westerners on the train every hawker, taxi driver and tout made a bee line for us as soon as we had pulled into Lao Cai on Sunday morning. The first couple had even made it to us before we had chance to get off the train! Thankfully we had booked a ride through the Cat Cat View Hotel where we were staying in Sapa.
The drive from Lao Cai to Sapa is 38km which is all up really steep hair pin bend hill roads. As is the way in these parts, if you can travel marginally faster than the vehicle in front then you must overtake it. Irrespective of how much road this takes and many blind hair pin corners are ahead of you. This is either . . .
a) really exciting, or
b) buttock clenchingly scary.
Sapa bus drivers and anyone else answering a) should seek the help of a psychologist.
There were several occasions when motorbikes coming the other way had to take evasive action and swerve onto the grass bank that seperated the road from the rice terraces below. We were both concerned about what would happen if something larger than a motorbike came the other way whilst we were doing some insane overtaking manover. Thankfully we didn't get the opportunity to find out and made it to Sapa in one piece
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