Sapa, Vietnam

After having left Anna in Vientiane, we braved Laos Airlines to fly direct to Hanoi. Right before we left Anna, she helpfully informed us that Laos airlines crashes with alarmingly frequency. Our nerves weren't calmed by Laos Airlines' logo: "trying to meet international standards." However, we made it to Hanoi in one piece only suffering from elevated adrenaline levels. 

We spent a little bit of time in Hanoi, but I'll write about that later, and then we began a four night trip to Sapa. Sapa is north of Hanoi, very close to the border with China. 

Our trip started on Sunday night, when we boarded the sleeper train to Lao Cai.

This is our bunk on the train. The beds were pretty comfy, and we thought it would be smooth sailing. This is until the train started to move. It swayed dangerously back and forth along the tracks and frequently made jarring stops which threatened to send us flying out of our beds. Walking down the corridor to the bathroom (which was only accessible by going outside the car) was a terrifying experience. You pretty much crashed from side to side as the train swayed. The British couple we shared the bunker with assured us that the train was positively luxurious compared to the night bus in Cambodia. At 6:30am a not very well rested Jasmine and Katie were deposited in Lao Cai where a driver waited to take us to Sapa.

Sapa is located in a very mountainous region in the north where they grow a lot rice. The rice paddies are terraced along the side of the mountain. As it is winter in Vietnam, it is relatively cold and rainy in sapa (they had snow less than a week before we got there). Essentially staying in Sapa felt like we were living in a cloud. The fog would roll in and totally blanket the city, and then just as quickly clear in patches. The view changed constantly. 

The various stages of Sapa's fog.

Our first night we stayed at the Summit hotel in Sapa. It was pretty nice, but I'm not convinced it was even a little bit heated. The floors were icy. Jaz and I jumped from bed to bed trying to keep our feet off the floor. But there was an actual bath in the bathroom. Jazzy was super excited to finally get warm in a hot bath. Unfortunately the bath was designed for tiny Vietnamese women, so only 1/3 of jaz would fit in at any given time.  Needless to say, it was not as relaxing as she had hoped. 

We made the most of our icebox hotel and played rummy under the covers.

The following day we walked up and down the mountains around sapa slowly winding our way to the homestay. 

Below are too many photos of our two day hike. It's such a beautiful and unusual landscape that the photos do it far more justice that I ever could. 

Although we have not yet left the tourist trail, Sapa was in its own stratosphere in terms of being catered to tourists. All the shops in Sapa itself sold all the north face gear you could ever need to outfit yourself. Our guide for the trek was from the H'mong people, one of the ethnic minority groups in Vietnam. Her English (which had a slight Australian accent) was very good even though she'd never been to school. Many more women (with a few babies tied to their backs) came along with us on the hike. All the women were very chatty and it was a great chance to hear about life in the area. However, as soon as you make it to the village all the women begin to aggressively hawk their goods. It was a little bit uncomfortable being swarmed by so many women from the ages of 5 to 65. One little girl tried to sell me some bracelets. She started off with "3 for 5" and when I refused she said okay "3 for 10." I think she is still learning how to negotiate. 

Being farm country we passed lots of animals. As a city girl, was super excited to see all of them! Here are some of my favs:

We chases some waddling ducks up the trail. They were too silly! 

After one night in a homestay, we headed back to Sapa and then caught the overnight train once more to hanoi. Arrived in Hanoi successfully at about 5 in the morning.