Sapa 2013

    This was the official start to the tour I booked to celebrate my Diamond Birthday, the choice: a big party or travelling was ano brainer. The tour company booked me on the red eye flight from Bangkok to Hà Nội, which meant getting up earlier than when I usually go to bed to be in plenty of time to cool my heels in the vastness of Suvarnabhumi Airport before being called to board the bus to travel miles- or so it seemed- around the tarmac to the plane.

Before leaving Australia I’d arranged permission for a Visa on arrival in Việt Nam, pity I didn’t also get the Concierge service as well- where a representative from the Visa company would facilitate all the paperwork processing; instead I had to join the end of a long slow snaking line before fronting up to one of the two windows to hand over my passport, approval letter, completed form, photos and visa fee. From the time the plane landed and  negotiating through the formalities  it was at least two hours before I was reunited with my lonely suitcase, still doing the rounds of the luggage carousel, and then out to the anxious tour company reps who were starting to think I’d never made it onto the plane.

I was dropped off at the hotel where I was to join the rest of the people on that leg of the tour at 18:00, so had a few hours to kill but didn’t really feel like venturing too far away. 18:00 rolled around and we all met up, given a quick briefing and then headed out to have dinner before heading to the Long Biên station to board the overnight train north to Lào Cai, departing at 22:00 and arriving at 06:17. The train’s air-conditioning wheezed throughout the night, occasionally emitting faint puffs of cool air- sufficient to tantilise only, fortunately the wipes I had proved useful in the morning.

After disembarking we still had 35 km by bus from Lào Cai to Sa Pa to go, due to winding up the mountains (around 1,267 metres) and the state of the narrow two lane road it took about 1.5 hours with a viewing and bladder stop on the way. We went directly to our hotel for breakfast on the terrace overlooking the east face of Mount Phan Xi Păng (SE Asia’s highest mountain), now- but not then- accessible by cable car. The mountains are part of the Hoàng Liên Son range, which is the eastern extremity of the Himalayas. Sadly the hotel has since been rebuilt and the pleasant old hotel has been replaced by a tall marble and glass structure that has gone through charm bypass surgery and the breakfast terrace gone.

After room assignment and finally a shower, we went on walkabout through the main part of the town- including an Escher like maze old market (now gone). Along the way we were assailed by numerous hill tribe women hawking their handicrafts and discovered that despite their fluency in English the meaning of "no" escaped understanding. After lunch we bussed to Ta Phin Village, about 12.2 km and 32 minutes! north from town, as the bus pulled in we were surrounded by a hoard of screaming local women- a bit like rock stars being greeted by a bunch of groupies. As we emerged through the throng were were each “adopted” by several of the women who insisted on accompanying us as we walked through while trying to convince us to buy their offerings of beautifully embroidered shoulder bags. Despite this distraction the setting was amazing.

Next day we were free until mid afternoon when we boarded the bus to slowly traverse our way to Lào Cai via the Mường Hoa Valley, just south below Sa Pa, mainly skirting the valley along mountain roads and stopping at several spots along the way- including a right up the nose pungent visit to a shaman’s house (the pig sty was immediately adjacent).

On arrival in Lào Cai we first went to have a look at the border crossing into China, which was one of the invasion crossing points during the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War, before making our way to a restaurant near the railway station before catching the 21:00 train for the return journey to Hà Nội. Fortunately the aircon was functioning much better than on the journey up.